Winter Steel, Meat Sticks, and Sink Tips

         We have been lucky to have made more trips out this winter chasing steel than any other winter before. It’s funny how it seems there are more days on the river fighting frozen guides than days with no shoes putting on sun tan lotion. Unfortunately, with steelhead, there are also more days without fish, than days leaving with a full cooler. Since our last post, I cannot tell you how many steelhead trips were made, but I can just about count on one hand the number of steelhead that we came across. However, this is the first winter that we dedicated to learning how to cast spey rods, and this greatly increased the difficulty of catching fish.

The few times we went out with our meat sticks floating from High Bridge to Sultan on the Sky we were successful and usually came across fish (any rod that is not a fly rod is considered a meat stick. Therefore gear fisherman are considered meat fishers… fishing for the purpose of gathering meats). Learning to cast a 13’ two handed seven weight was a different story. Needless to say, I now have several coats with multiple holes in the shoulder region. But learning this technique is a science that I have greatly enjoyed this winter. My only fish on the spey rod so far are a small dolly varden caught a on a red fly on the skykomish my first time out with the rod about three casts in, a rotten chum that I snagged in the back, and a lost steelhead in late October. Since then it has been learning how to cast, learning about grains, and which sink tips to use.  

A Wolfman sighting on the Skykomish

Hatchery brats for dinner

 

Katie fighting another hatchery fish on the Sky

 

             Even with my personal lack of spey fishing success, this will be the way I choose to fish for steelhead for a long time to come. It was a 12’9” Echo Solo spey rod geared with an Echo Ion 9/10 reel that I chose to learn on. I spooled it with orange Rio shooting line, a 575 grain Rio Skagit shooting head, a T-14 sink tip. I have had G-Loomis fly rods, Lamiglas, and Okuma meat sticks, and this Echo is nicest rod I have ever used. Fast action and easy to load when shooting big heavy flies across the river.  I looked at several reels and the Ion is very nice for the price. Katie purchased the Cabelas 13’ TLR 8# combo with the RLS reel and the same lines as myself. As far as spey outfits go, these are two of the more inexpensive outfits that are still quality (I did plenty of research prior to purchasing). You could easily spend $1200 on a spey outfit, but it didn’t seem reasonable for me to sell my car so I could get a new fly rod (as much as I would’ve liked to).

Spey fishing for steelhead has also afforded me the opportunity to tie some of the funnest flies I have ever made. Intruder style flies have proven successful even though they look like something Barney the purple dinosaur pulled from his left nostril and have no resemblance to anything else floating down a river.  Purples, blues, blacks, and reds and other elaborate designs that for some reason annoy a steelhead enough to make them to grab it.

 

                Swinging flies is a challenge, and something I learned to thoroughly enjoy. I’ve since tied and lost too many flies to count, spent way too much time on YouTube watching videos, purchased a switch rod (11 foot 8 weight) to add to my arsenal, and spent several sick days home from work watching Skagit master. I figure by next winter I’ll be fishing with Ed Ward up on the Sauk releasing 20 pound natives on Skagit master 6.