Folly's End Campground, Elk Creek, 02/28/09

[ryguyfi]

Well, at the very last minute we decided to go up. Wasn't too sure about all the rain they got up there, and the temps were predicted in the teens, but we had nothing better to do. Went with a group of guys, 3 of which were fly fishing for the first time. Got to the stream around 9am and it was cold, not that we weren't expecting it. I decided to find a few spots where I could fish from shore, and preserve my warmth as best as possible. Fished a good hole for a while with no success. My rule is, if you can't find fish, then head upstream. The conditions were a bit high and colored, but still fishable. In the first 2 hours of fishing had to fight the icy guides and frozen reels, then it slowly warmed up. Had some slush on the stream, but that melted off also. I managed to find a nice deep hole above a bridge where I was hooking fish fairly consistantly, especially on the swing, on my cotton candy egg patterns (blue with a pink dot) and bead head princes. I hooked about 8 fish in that hole and landed one, which is pretty close to my largest steelie to date. There was also a small pod of fish in some very shallow water that one of my friends landed his first steelie in 4 trips up. I hooked and lost one there. Stayed until 1:30 and half of my group left. I heard that the remaining guys got into some more fish with maybe 1 or 2 more landed too. All in all it was a good day on the stream, and I might be back up once more towards the end of the month.

My camera was on the wrong setting and the picture didn't turn out, but here's the picture of the big male I brought in(29" over 9lbs). Had one of the new guys try to tail him for me (which is always fun to watch) and he swam right between his legs. The guy surprisingly didn't panic and I still kept the fish on and landed him soon after. Got some new neoprene fishing gloves that I'm not too sure if I like or not. Had holes for your finger and thumb on both hands, but those finger got very cold... my right pointer still feels a bit numb today.

 

[JackM]

That's a beautiful specimen for this time of year. Nice report.

 

[Acristickid]

Ry- burr, got cold reading that. Good for you on getting out!

Do you know if the smolts were put in yet?

Nice stringer- hehe, just kidding.

Thanks Paul

 

[ryguyfi]

acristickid wrote:
Ry- burr, got cold reading that. Good for you on getting out!

Do you know if the smolts were put in yet?

Nice stringer- hehe, just kidding.

Thanks Paul

have a real stringer, but my one buddy stole it, so that was a last minute purchase for like 97 cents at walmart. Yeah my reel froze during that fight and was smart enough to dunk it in the water to open it up temporarily or I probably would have lost him too. I gutted him yesterday in the wind and the cold, and that was a bad move. My hands were colder than when I was fishing. I'm borrowing a smoker and gonna get him smoked for the game dinner in 2 weeks. Anyone have any recipies/tips for smoking????


p.s. I didn't see any smolts. Not in the water or being caught. In my little bit of experience, if they're in there, you're catching them about 10 to 1 to adults... so my conclusion, is no, they're not in yet.

 

[Acristickid]

Good deal. I can't seem to make sense of the flows on the usgs.

Looking back 48 hours does'nt look like any preceip and the temps were in the teens for the most part. Hummm

Any other guys out?

 

[JackM]

Paul, I think the guages are frozen or broke when frozen back a week or so.

 

[Acristickid]

That might explain that.

 

[Fishidiot]

ry,
Heckuva nice fish. I enjoy smoking meat and fish and while I've never smoked a steelhead, my guess would be that they're comparable to the salmon fillets that I buy at the grocery store as they are typically about an inch thick and appear to be from fish similar in size to yours. The smoker I use is electric so the cooking time would vary if your's is a charcoal unit. You'll need to brine the fish first. Put the fillets in a large bowl of ice water with about a half cup of brine salt ( I like to add a half cup of brown sugar too) and let it chill in the fridge for at least a few hours. Take the fillets out and baste them with a batter of one part barbeque sauce and one part pancake syrup. I usually get good results with my smoker using a water bowl and cherry wood. The cooking time is about 5-6 hours but this is during summer. If it's cold out, the cooking time will be considerable longer. Test the fillets, if they flake with a fork they should be done. Enjoy!

 

[ryguyfi]

yeah I'm going to try to find time to smoke them today... went to pick up the smoker off of my buddy, and he has never used it before. So it is straight out of the box and still in pieces, so I need to find some time to put it together. Hopefully I'll have it done in time for the dinner in a week in a half lol.

 

[pcray1231]

Acristic,

Gauges might be frozen, or ice jams cause crazy stuff like that.

Rguy,

Glad to see you got into some fish. Just to throw it out there, as a suggestion (not a lecture). You shoulda went up in tippet strength. Going 1 for 8 usually means you had light tippet. Thats sometimes necessary, but it looks like there was some water and color, in which case you can get away with thicker stuff.

Anyway, thanks for the report and the picture, thats one nice fish!

 

[Acristickid]

pc- yep

I use nothing less than 8 lb flouro and most times 10 or 12 lb flouro and have not experienced as many break offs.

 

[ryguyfi]

pcray1231 wrote:
Acristic,

Gauges might be frozen, or ice jams cause crazy stuff like that.

Rguy,

Glad to see you got into some fish. Just to throw it out there, as a suggestion (not a lecture). You shoulda went up in tippet strength. Going 1 for 8 usually means you had light tippet. Thats sometimes necessary, but it looks like there was some water and color, in which case you can get away with thicker stuff.

Anyway, thanks for the report and the picture, thats one nice fish!

You're probably right... looking back I think I only snapped 2 of those fish off, every other one tossed the hook, but was only using 6lb tippet. I was very unprepared... The 3 guys that were fly fishing the first time didn't even have a leader, so I luckily had 4 left in my pack (forgot mine was a mangled mess from the last trip and just cut it off. I only had trout leaders in my pack and ended up cutting about 2 feet off my 5lb leader and putting on about 3ft of 6lb tippet, plus a 18inch dropper. I need to buy some 8lb tippet. I'll make sure I have some for my next trip... thanks guys.

 

[albatross]

I'll third what PCray and Acristic said about tippet. Go larger when you can. I'm fishing mostly 1X, 2X, or 3X flouro for steelhead these days.

One other thing to consider. Every time you either land a fish or hook and loose a fish, stop and check your tippet for nicks and abrasion. Re-rig as necessary. This could help you even without a change in tippet size.