I spent my Sunday afternoon on Eagle Creek, fishing for Steelhead. The report is not as good as I would have hoped. The fishing, unlike the day before, was slow. I did happen to hook into a very large native. I would say she was around the 17 to 20 pound range, She tore me up pretty good and the button just popped out before I could not get a good picture of her. I am leaving on a Jet plane in the morning, so I know by Wednesday I will playing with all the Steelhead I can handle. The water is low and clear, making spot fishing very good right now. Use small yarn patterns with 2 to 3 different color combinations. I have found that peach and pink or orange and white are the best producers this year. I am using a number 4 Gamagatzu red hook with the yarn tied on to the hook, just like a fly.

Steelhead can easily hide in a small riffle, or under a white water hole behind a rock. I

• If you spend the time to stare into these areas, you will spot fish if they are there. Most Steelhead that I have encountered will hold in the white water, but they have a tendency to move in and out of that type of water. They will come out to the edges of the hard water and rest in the seam. If you take the time to watch these spots for more than just a minute, you may just see one of these Silver Bullets moving in and out of one of these spots.

Once you know he is there then you don't need to see him again.

• If you don't get into him an about ten casts, then change your colors and try casting just slightly to one side or the other of the hole. Steelhead can be finicky and if the fly is not presented directly in front of their face, they may just let it go on by. So you need to make sure you fish the area completely, from every angle and drift there is.

If you are looking in one of the deeper holes.

• Concentrate on the bottom of hole in the center and just above the tailouts. These fish will hold in the deep section of the hole and can be very hard to spot. By staring into a hole, your eyes will start to adjust to the riffles, and soon you will be able to see right through them. By giving your eyes time to focus on the bottom, it  will give you the chance to see stationary fish that are resting up. Stationary fish are the hardest to see because of the color of their backs, they appear to be a gray rock on the bottom. The more time you spend spotting fish, the easier it will become, and the faster you will be able to determine if there are in fact fish present in the hole you are fishing. So take the time to look over your water, and fish it to completion with many different colors and from many different angles before you move on to the next spot.

Always move from hole to hole.

• When fishing small streams or creeks, Steelhead are moving up stream. So if you want to have more of a chance at them, you need to keep moving from hole to hole. Always fish your way back out. If you have fished a stream from the top down in the morning and didn't get any fish, turn around and go back through it on the way out. You never get all the fish the first time through. Some of my best days of fishing have been when I have gone back through a section several hours later. Those fish that did not look in the morning, may be very eager to bite in the afternoon.

So good luck to you at the creek, and remember to look in a hole for more than just a second before giving up on it.

Flymstr;