The Outdoor Line Forum

Tom, great presentation at the WA Sportsman's Show last weekend! My son and I had the priviledge to attend the show and to see your presentation. Unfortunately, I missed the first half of your very informative brief. Wondering if you could recap your five (5) rules for "Reading Water."

Thanks so much Tom. Your passion for the outdoors is contageous!

Hey R/D,
Sorry about the delay in getting back to you on this, I've been at the Seattle Boat Show ever since the Puyallup Sportsman's Show...
Here's the gist of the Steelhead River drill:

1.Learn to read water Easily the single most important facet of the education of a river fisherman is learning to read water. I define reading water as: The learned ability to observe a body of water and subsequently predict where fish will be found. By learning to identify high-probability areas we eliminate large, unproductive sections of river. This enables us to concentrate our fishing efforts on the productive runs, which increases our chances of success.

2. Fish the edges. These three little words uttered to the Author many years ago by an experienced guide have had a tremendous impact upon my steelheading success. Once you’ve attained a basic understanding of reading water you will encounter edges. Edges can be areas of current break, depth change, structure influence or light contrast (shading). Simply stated, edges separate an area of steelhead holding water or cover from a section of less desirable water. Once a steelhead enters a “comfortable” holding area he’s taking a break for a while and quite often will not go much farther than inside the edge. Put yourself in his fins for a minute: Let’s say you’re hot & tired from honey-do’s in the sun and heading into the shade for a rest. There’s a large shaded area with two chairs: one is just inside the shaded area and one is in the middle. One more thing…You don’t want the wife to catch you loafing in the shade. Now, where are you gonna sit?

3. Select a section of river near your home and learn it like the back of your hand. In most of Steelhead country we are fortunate to have a variety of steelhead streams from which to choose. Pick a river close to home so that you’ll have the opportunity to visit it often. Make a point of observing your “crick” in all stream flows but in times of low water in particular. It is in the seasonal low flows of late summer and early fall that the classroom is open. This is the time to learn the location of the troughs, holes, boulders and stream bed current breaks that cannot be observed when the water is higher. Note their location and then observe the surface disturbance that results from these features. What creates a slick? What creates a riffle? What causes that standing form? The answers to these questions can all be seen at low water and the knowledge gleaned from these experiences form the basis of learning to read water.

4. Become a technique specialist It only takes a quick walk through the tackle shop to notice the dizzying array of gear available to today’s steelheader. While the ever-increasing diversity of gear and techniques is a boon to experienced anglers, to the novice it becomes difficult to see the forest through the trees. What the veteran steelheader would view as different solution to a fishing challenge, just adds another confusing piece to the novices’ puzzle. To become an expert at all the available techniques would take more time than the Good Lord gives us on this planet. Many steelheaders find it hard to specialize when they see other guys catching fish on lures that they don’t have. Then, they make a mad rush to the tackle shop to buy these rigs for their next outing. As a result, they soon have every lure in the tackle shop and they don’t know how to use any of them. So, what’s a guy (or girl) to do? Pick one or two techniques, stick with them and become a specialist. I would suggest standard drift fishing gear with eggs or shrimp and learning to backtroll plugs. These two techniques will allow you to have the flexibility to tackle most of the river conditions that you will face in the course of an average season.

5.Fish “Prime Time” Each and every stream has its own distinct peak fishing periods in terms of both fish run timing and optimum flow level. When these two conditions coincide, you guessed it: It’s “Prime Time”. These are the times to call in sick, sneak out of that family engagement, slip out the back, Jack and go catch a stee-lee.
In general terms, after any high water period, the rivers will drop and recede into that dialed-in green color. When this happens during the peak of the hatchery run (usually two weeks either side of Christmas) get out on the river at all costs. The bottom line: If your wife isn’t mad at you, you’re just not fishing enough.

6. High rivers: fish high in the system. Low rivers: low in the system. After the aforementioned high water, where does the hungry steelheader look for dinner? Up high in the system of course. This is somewhat of a no-brainer in that these areas will be the first to drop in to fishing shape but the second part of the equation needs to be discussed. High water is a green light to migrating salmonids. The low visibility of the river at these times allows the fish to feel safe and so they will travel almost non-stop night and day. During low water however, the reverse is true. The near-unlimited visibility of the clear river will cause the fish to seek cover during the daylight hours and so will not move up river as rapidly. Therefore, when the upriver areas begin to get a little stale as the water drops, look to the middle river holes for fresh fish.

7. High visibility-high speed. Low visibility-low speed. When the river is clear the visual attraction of your terminal gear is at its highest. Since the steelhead can see your gear at increased distances and will move to pick up your bait or lure, this is the time for presentations at or near current speed . Fishing at the speed of the current (drift fishing or boondogging, free drifting) allows you to cover the most water in the shortest period of time. However, during periods of reduced visibility, slower presentations such as backtrolling or floats & jigs can be more effective since the lure will stay in the strike zone for a longer period of time. Slowing down your lure allows the steelhead more opportunity to locate and intercept your offering at a time when a faster presentation might just whiz by unnoticed.

Thanks again for coming to the presentation at the Puyallup and look for a definite "Improvement" in the presentation next year!!!

The importance of being able to read the water can not be over stated. The very best of the steelheaders that I have had the pleasure of fishing with had the ability to find that high percentage water almost immediately on even water they had never seen before. The "rules" provided by Nelly are a great fundation for learning the art of reading water. The key is to couple those basic rules with sound observational skills honed by lots of time on the water.

The key to successful steelheading is being able to spend 90% of your time on the water fising that 10% of the water than holds 90% of the steelhead. That can only be done by learning read water successfully.

Tight lines
Curt