[Broad Bill]

As mentioned in my earlier post, most steel this time of year will concentrate during the day in white water and the shallow tail outs of pools. Why, water is cooler and more oxygenated. They'll run the river at night along seems and position during daylight hours in the tail outs. Lower the water flow, the more concentrated they'll be. Higher flows, they'll be more spread out but until the water temps get colder they'll still favor the tail outs and rapids.

Why did the fly guys do better than float fisherman? In order to have a proper float presentation, whether with a noodle rod, center pin or fly rod, you need depth and you don't have that depth in tail outs which means your presentation will tend to drag bottom and not look natural flowing down the river. Fly rod guys can adjust weights, adjust fly lines and sink tips or raise their flyrod to better adjust to those low water conditions and attain the proper drift. That's why the guys in the fast water using flyrods out produced the guys fishing floats. That plus the fact that's where the fish are concentrated.

Other factor, these fish at this time of year are running the river to get to the right area of the river to winter (deeper pools) and spawn in the spring (gravel bottom). They tend to stage in numbers as opposed to being spread out. To some degree almost like black fishing. You can have a guy 5 feet away slamming them and you're not getting a single hookup. Could be how they're staging, presentation, drift, could be an obstruction in the river causing a current break. Could be anything. That's why you need to move around, spray the area to get different drifts and fish different parts of the water column (float / bottom bouncing) until you find where they're staging and what they want. In a month or so all these fish will be in deep water wintering holes favoring the seams. Great time to float fish. You should also read up on split shot placement when float fishing as surface water runs faster than the current below the surface and you need to factor that into how you position split shots and sizes used when you rig to get a proper presentation. Otherwise you'll be dragging your presentation and steelhead won't touch it. When the water gets extremely cold, fish will hug the bottom and be more lethargic and more subject to and turn on to slight increases in water temperature. Smaller presentations and terrestrials close to the bottom work well that time of year but steelhead and browns will always eat an egg pattern presented properly.

Steelhead fishing is an addiction like nothing else. You had a taste; it won't be your last. Some beautiful fish your group landed. Nothing like a dime bright steelhead fresh from the lake taking you to your backing. There's really no other fish like them. They're a great sport fish and sounds like you had a good group of guys fishing around you which makes all the difference in the world.

Couple patterns I use at the SR. The glue egg cluster pattern (first pic) in the fly zone is deadly, in the water you can't tell the difference between that pattern and real skein. But as I said, each pattern as in all fisheries has its time and place.