Gear on the Wilson

So I got a call from my friend Neil, who is a retired Doc that used to have my job, asking if I wanted to go float the Wilson for Steelies with a guide that he uses a lot. We met at 6:30 AM on the stretch of the river that runs through the dairy cow country on the flats outside of Tillamook. The winds were up in the canyon running down out of the coast range so we avoided that part of the river. We were in a drift boat and started off side drifting egg patterns with a heavy weight to get it down to the bottom in the fast current. It's essentially like nymphing without an indicator. We didn't get any takes so we switched to plugs. You hold in the current with the oars and trail plugs that dive deep into the current and slowly work the boat back and forth and down through the holes. We caught 5 steelies - 3 were wild and had to be released, but two were hatchery fish and came home with us - Sweet Meat !! Neil also hooked into a chinook. The season ended January 1st so we had to let it go, but what a blast that was. We were fishing with pretty substantial steelhead rods with casting reels and braided line. This chinook just toyed with us, there was no way to hold on if it decided to run with the line. After about 15 minutes Neil handed the rod to me, and I finally got it into the net. The estimated weight was 30+, I am totally ready to go back and hit the fall chinook run out there.

It was amazing to me that we could go out and catch 5 steelies in a day, whereas when swinging flies it's a great day to get one hook-up. I am thinking there may be a way to adapt hybrid methods that would allow you to get your fly down into the deep water where they were holding, essentially using the sink tip and some weight to get the rig deep and then slowly swinging back and forth as you slowly work your way downstream - we'll see. At any rate it was a great time, and fortunately it was warm and sunny over at the coast. Here's a shot of the one that ended up on my dinner menu.