After having attended the Fly Fishing Show in Bellevue yesterday, I made a trip early this morning to try my luck for steelhead on the Kalama river. It was my first time fishing this river in the winter, but the flows seemed to be perfect for this time of year and visibility was excellent as well. A guy I spoke to at Pritchard's on the phone yesterday made the comment the river is in the best shape in has been in a long, long time (for this time of year). Consequently, he said there were lots of people fishing the river and today was no exception. There were lots of bait fisherman (very few fly fisherman-only saw 2 besides myself) and a considerable number of drift boats on the river today. The number of people on the river made it difficult to be the first through a good stretch of water, at least if you wanted to fish below the second hatchery on down to the mouth. Everyone was fishing in this section and I saw no people fishing above the second hatchery today. Anybody have any thoughts on why this might be?
For what its worth, I did talk to a guy who works at the hatchery and he said they trapped 166 native steelhead on Friday. He said it was a bit early yet for the run of natives which was just starting so I took that to mean there was likely a smaller population of fish in the river above the second hatchery than below it. As such, I worked to find good spots to fish among the bait guys. Fortunately, I got there early this morning and was able to be the first one to fish what I believe is known as the "Red Barn" hole. I was fishing the slower riffle water (3-4 ft depth) above where it slows and deepens considerably with a purple egg sucking leech as my lead fly and a size 10 orange egg pattern as the dropper. After about 10-15 minutes I hooked and eventually landed my one and only fish of the day (it took the egg pattern). It was approximately 28", but a wild buck with bright silver color and only a hint of red on its gill plates. As luck (or skill) would have it, I did not touch a fish for the rest of the day. I fished from about 7:30 am until 1:30 before calling it quits. I think with fewer people on the water I might have had a better chance at another fish, so I would recommend going during the week if possible as you might encounter fewer people. I hope this helps and good luck.
For what its worth, I did talk to a guy who works at the hatchery and he said they trapped 166 native steelhead on Friday. He said it was a bit early yet for the run of natives which was just starting so I took that to mean there was likely a smaller population of fish in the river above the second hatchery than below it. As such, I worked to find good spots to fish among the bait guys. Fortunately, I got there early this morning and was able to be the first one to fish what I believe is known as the "Red Barn" hole. I was fishing the slower riffle water (3-4 ft depth) above where it slows and deepens considerably with a purple egg sucking leech as my lead fly and a size 10 orange egg pattern as the dropper. After about 10-15 minutes I hooked and eventually landed my one and only fish of the day (it took the egg pattern). It was approximately 28", but a wild buck with bright silver color and only a hint of red on its gill plates. As luck (or skill) would have it, I did not touch a fish for the rest of the day. I fished from about 7:30 am until 1:30 before calling it quits. I think with fewer people on the water I might have had a better chance at another fish, so I would recommend going during the week if possible as you might encounter fewer people. I hope this helps and good luck.