Many folks assume you
can’t catch late summer steelhead on floating lines once the weather turn nasty
in the fall and the water temperatures begin to plummet. The key is to know the current water
temperature as well as the water temp history for the week prior to you going
fishing.
With water temperatures at
45 degrees and up, getting a steelhead to come to the surface is not asking too
much. However, as the water
temperatures fall into the low 40’s and high 30’s, it pays to know what the
temperatures were the previous seven days or so. We’ve seen a summer steelhead landed on a dry fly in
39-degree water, but the water was cooling slowly during that time period. The fish had weeks to acclimate to the
cooler temperature. Plus, the
water temp had risen from 37 degrees that morning. Always remember rising temps will activate steelhead in the
late fall, even if those temps aren’t above 40 degrees. That said, falling water temps, even if
the mean temperature is in the low 40’s, could work against you when try to
coax a steelhead to the surface.
Bottom line; when the
water temperatures fall into the low forties or below in the late fall, don’t
be afraid to fish a floating line as long as the river temp hasn’t spiked down
in the previous week. If is has,
you’ll have more success fishing a sink-tip and a sunk fly.
-SB
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