Today I got the chance to take my 4 year old boy Finley to the river and give him a chance at his first steelhead. You see as well as wanting to become a super hero Fin also would like to become an accomplished fisherman like his dad and his grandpa before him and I would love just as much to help at least with the fishing part.

Fins first steel in the net

With Finley by my side I selected a hole that requires no more than a role cast to set up the drift so it would be easy for me to help Fin through the movement. After about six casts we had the drift we wanted and the indicator was down, it was a one salt buck, the perfect kind of fish for Fin to cut his teeth on.

Finley’s first steelhead

The next fish took about fifteen minutes to decide it wanted to play as well so by that time Finley was playing at catching his own fish with a stick when I told it was time to reel in another and he did like a champ.

Finley with his 2nd steelhead

Its day like this that any fisherman father lives for, the sound of being asked “dad can we go fishing?” and rewarding that little future fisher prodigy with his first steelhead. This was one of the best days ever!

A proud fisherman

To say the fishing has been good would be an understatement, don’t get me wrong there have been one or two slow days but the good by far outnumber the bad at this point and it just seems to be getting better. With temps on the rise and steady bouts of precipitation fish will be pushing through the system in good numbers.

Nelson with another nice fish

As well as catching a lot of fish the fish that are being caught are for the most part very nice bright two salt fish and we are catching them from the mouth to Twisp, with a few as far as Winthrop. Today we wadded and hooked fish in all but the very last hole; fish seemed to be hitting at every chance.

Bight Winter Steel

Still the ticket has been red Choronomids with white head both single and double patterns worked today. When temps were low fish were lower in the hole as well, now with the jump in flow and temp as well as run upstream pushing them fish seem to be at about the half way point in holes around first good break or structure

Nelson with yet another Fish On!

We still have some openings in March and not sure how long season will stay open so book your trip now because you don’t often see steelheading like this! To book a trip with Methow Fishing Adventures just click on our Guide page and shoot us an email or a call, we will get you out on the water and having FUN!

Yours truly with some bright winter steel

There are mornings I wake up and just have to try to accomplish some hair brained missions and this yesterday was one of those. It was a little after 4:30 am and I just couldn’t get over hiding from the weather for all but an hour of the day before and this day, this day I was NOT going to surrender no matter the weather. My goal on this hair brained day would be the “trifecta” of waters; Omak lake, the Okanogan river and to finish off my home water, the Methow.

Loup Loup Moose

On my way over the small 4020ft Loup Loup Pass which I live at the west foot of I saw a couple of Moose and took that as a hopeful sign. By 8:30ish I was at Omak lake and I had the place to myself on a rare windless morning. As I worked the water with my sink-tip and my Super Zug I could feel that edgy to fast coffee tremble still pushing me to move to fast and not focus, so I put out another cast and just closed my eyes. As I stood there alone I could hear only the wind then finally one bird noise then another, not many as it was and still is winter, then a couple of coyotes sounded off in the distance to my right up on the rim of the canyon surrounding the lake. It was starting to remind me of laying on the soft pine needle laden hillside up Libbey creek as a kid not a care in the world, and then I realized I had finally chilled out.

Omak Lake

When I lifted my rod and began to strip line I thought maybe I had managed to find bottom but that couldn’t be it was too deep for that, wouldn’t you know it, it was a fish and before you know it two more. By just slowing down, focusing and enjoying the solitude I was able to land a handful of fish in short order, none were the monsters that Omak is known for but I knew they would be up from the deeps soon migrating into the flats drawn by instinct to spawn. For now though I had what I came for and it was time for leg two.

Small Lahontan

When I got to my spot on the Okanogan River I could tell there was nothing doing, the water was up about three or four feet to high and a voice in my head said “just give up that hair brained idea and go home!” In retrospect the voice was right but if I listened to the voice of reason I wouldn’t do half of what I do and like they say you just gotta be you. Regardless the Okanogan was a bust and I was looking forward to lunch and home waters so it was back to the Methow.

Methow River North of Carlton

Lunch was good and even better was the break in the weather, though it was still a bit colder than I hope for at just twenty four degrease I felt good about things. I stopped off first at the couple of closest holes in the downtown Twisp area and it didn’t take long. After a handful of casts a very nice two salt wild female took my red chron and gave me quite the fight, just a few casts later another fish but it came unbuttoned after a couple of headshakes. I moved down to the next hole and in short order had another fish, this was a feisty one salt male and as I tailed it spit my Chironomid and bolted “oh well” I thought, once you grab it it’s good enough sometimes especially when the fish of the day for me had already been landed and photographed anyway.

Late Winter Steel

So all in all for one of those hair brained days this one was pretty much a success two out of three really isn’t that bad sometimes especially when that includes solitude, dinosaur trout and beautiful shining steel!

Wild Hen