Managing Your Swing Speed to Increase your Encounters with Pacific Northwest Steelhead

I wish that when I had started down the rabbit hole of Spey and swing fishing for steelhead, that someone would have mapped out the basic principles and strategies for me. Instead, I learned the hard way, which was also the slow way, the low-catch-rate way, and often the frustrating way. Over the decades I have pissed away more opportunities than I care to admit, because I didn’t always understand my objectives, how to best accomplish them, or the key principles that govern basic steelhead behavior.

Had I known then what I know now, my guess is that my life total of these remarkable fish would easily be double what it is today. So, while some of the following is not new to anglers who are highly experienced at swinging flies for anadromous fish, it should prove helpful for those earlier on in their journey, and anyone struggling to connect.

My goal is to be brief and simple and not overcomplicate the concepts that play into being a successful steelhead angler. From a high elevation, steelhead success hinges on the following factors, in the following order of importance:

1. Fish abundance: Nothing matters more than the number of fish that return to the rivers from the ocean. Fish that don’t exist, or are found in very low numbers, are very hard to catch.
2. Water conditions: The water levels, clarity, and temperature you encounter during your precious days on the river matter a great deal. In scenarios when returns are low or moderate (not super low) water conditions often matter more than abundance.
3. Proven/productive runs: While steelhead can use a wide range of water types, traditional swing anglers must critically edit their options to hook fish consistently. Proper depth, speed, and structure matter, and focusing your time on runs that have produced in the past is a key to success. One grade A piece of swing water is worth more than three pieces of grade B water. Focus your time on the A waters, and develop a keen eye for what makes them work. Also, keep in mind that the structure of runs can change over time, and pieces of water that were once great might imperceptibly shift and go barren, mandating that you give up on them if they repeatedly let you down.
4. Fishing well: Once you have edited your water, it is your job to fish that water as well as possible. What that looks like depends on the conditions at hand. Your approach when the water is low and clear may vary greatly from when it is high, cold, or colored. This is an area where most anglers can improve their overall game. Your key areas of focus should include mastering your cast, water-reading skills, presentation techniques, and overall situational awareness.
5. Fly selection: This is the least important factor, because finding the right fish holding in the right spot, and presenting your fly to that fish in an effective manner, is way more important than what pattern you swing in front of it. Far too many anglers obsess over fly selection as opposed to fundamental skills. But after you address all the other critical factors, your fly can make a difference.

Covering Water—The True Challenge

 Generally speaking, steelhead are not hard to catch—they are hard to find. As a result, fly fishers need to concentrate on effectively covering lots of water instead of overfishing one piece of water in hopes of enticing a strike. The most challenging part of steelhead fishing is finding a willing fish in water that works for a swung-fly presentation.

To cover water effectively, be systematic and make sure that with each cast, the fly swims in new water, while at the same time not leaving any gaps. When you wade into a new piece of water, start with a short line and strip precisely the same amount of line off your reel with each successive cast until you have reached what is either the line length you can effectively turn over cast after cast, or the line length that is appropriate for the run you are fishing. Trying to throw a line longer than you can handle consistently undermines the efficacy of covering water in a grid-like fashion and wastes valuable time.

Spey anglers who are on the strong side of the casting spectrum often “overfish” the water by casting too far. Lani Waller once told me that he liked to fish the shortest length of line needed to get the job done. By doing so he could really control the swing and his connectivity to the fly.

Once you reach the proper line length, you must focus on taking steps between casts. Failing to step between casts, or not stepping far enough between casts, is a curse and drives guides and more experienced fishing companions crazy. Never be that angler—it slows progress and means that you and your companions will fish fewer runs and have fewer opportunities.

How many steps should you take between casts? That depends on several factors, including water clarity, depth, and temperature. But to keep it simple, think about moving three to five feet downriver every cast. You can move a greater distance in the lower-percentage portions of a run, and a lesser distance when you are in the best part of a run. I always move at least three feet between casts, and often six feet in subpar water. If you encounter signs of life, it is okay to slow down and fish the very best parts of runs in greater detail.

Active steelhead are typically present in only some of the runs you cover, so you need to move fast to find the runs that are actually holding fish. If you don’t use a wading staff and have the coordination to strip in your running line as you step downstream, you increase your speed and efficiency. This principle of fishing quickly is the true key to the kingdom, and a skill all highly effective anglers need to cultivate.

Presentation Speed and Angle

When I watch other people fish, I often find myself critical of their presentation angles. There are lots of times when I think their flies are moving too fast or too slow, depending on the situation, and I’ve been watching these things for 30+ years.

A prime example occurred one winter in Oregon when a friend invited me to join him for a day of guided winter steelhead fishing. He is an excellent angler and has a solid track record of outfishing me on numerous occasions. We were fishing with a great guide, and knowing I was getting a free ride, the guide rightly started my buddy in the highest-percentage water.

Around midday, neither of us had a pull. As we arrived at a key run, the guide told my partner to start just above the bucket. In this case we were fishing a fast tongue of water that slowed quickly on the deep far side, creating a seam. In that far seam was a big, submerged boulder that softened the current’s force and created a really attractive holding spot.

It was a rather obvious spot but, in many ways, it was not an easy place to swing properly, as there was lots of fast water on our side. I marched upstream and began fishing casually, essentially burning time until I got my chance to go through the goods.

While I fished, I concentrated more on watching how my buddy was fishing than on how my own fly was fishing. The more I watched him, the more excited I got about following him through the run. My opinion was that he was fishing the best part of the run too squarely. While he was covering the holding water, his fly was landing in the soft water, and despite getting a small mend, it was quickly getting pulled by the closer fast water and racing out the bucket. In the summer his presentation speed and angle might have worked, but in the cold winter water, I felt it left me an opportunity.

When I got to the good spot, I decided to fish a considerably longer line and cast with a much steeper downstream angle. So, while our flies were still landing in the same spot, his was landing more squarely at a 75-degree angle, and my fly was landing at more like a 40- or 45-degree angle. Once it landed, I held my fly line really high, so the quick water nearer us couldn’t interfere with it, enabling the sink tip to dig into the slow water and ever so slowly pull across the seam before getting grabbed by the fast water. Right where we all thought the steelhead would be, my line grew heavy, I waited for three seconds, and then lifted into a solid fish. 

As I set the hook, I couldn’t help but holler out, “There he is!” My fishing partner spun around and immediately took stock of where I was standing. “You didn’t hook that fish in back of me, did you?”

“You bet your ass I did!” I replied with a big grin. 

The point of the story is that relatively small adjustments in line angle and how they affect fly speed really matter. As a general rule of thumb, strive to swing your fly at a speed equal to or slower than the water speed. The colder the water, the slower the fly should swing, but feel free to play with a faster swing in warmer water.

Steelhead can respond well to a square or broadside presentation, but this works best in relatively slow, uniformly flowing water and is not very effective in fast water, as the fly swims too quickly. When the water is swift, use a downstream casting angle or mend aggressively upstream to slow the fly. This results in a slow, tail-first presentation.

One thing to avoid is a downstream belly in the fly line, which results in the fly swimming headfirst quickly downstream. Many anglers unknowingly fish the fly this way because they cast across faster current into slower current, or their cast lands with an upstream hook, and they fail to execute an adequate upstream mend that corrects the angle. People often make a corrective mend with the belly of their line, but to truly remove a downstream belly—especially when the fly has landed in slower than midstream current—an effective mend must reach all the way to the fly. 

One final note is to let the fly swing as close in toward the bank or the water directly beneath you as possible. This is referred to as fishing the hang-down. Steelhead often follow flies for a great distance, and sometimes they commit as the fly escapes into shallow water or as it comes to a dead stop beneath the angler. This requires patience, as well as awareness of the bottom structure, so you don’t get hung up when fishing tips or weighted flies. These hang-down takers are the most challenging fish to hook properly, so don’t be too hard on yourself if they come unbuttoned.

Water Temperature and Depth

When should you fish a dry fly, and when should you fish slow and deep? Well, this depends on both conditions and preferences. Some anglers choose to fish only with floating lines, and under a wide range of “normal” conditions they are not sacrificing much, if anything, in terms of catch rates. Under some more extreme conditions, like cold water or high and dirty water, they are going to catch fewer fish. But they are playing the game in a way that makes them happy.

The basic rule of thumb for maximizing encounters is based on how far we think a fish will move to engage with a fly. In warmer, clearer water conditions, we know that a summer steelhead might occasionally bolt out of remarkable depths to attack a fly, and we also know that this type of behavior is rare in the winter or when water temperatures are exceedingly low.

With that said, fly fishers who are interested in catching fish on dry flies and floating lines should keep in mind that fluctuations in water temperature often matter more than the actual temperature at that moment. For example, if the water temperature drops from 48 degrees to 42 degrees F. overnight, fishing a dry fly first thing in the morning may not be a good choice, because the fish will be cold and lethargic.

Conversely, you could be fishing a river where the water temps have consistently been in the high 30s, and then the sun comes out and warms the flows up from 39 degrees to 42 degrees. Suddenly the fish are willing to rise to drys—the rise in temperature has energized them. In both cases the water temperature is 42 degrees, but the situational implications in each scenario are vastly different and will affect the fish and your strategies accordingly. The basic concept is that when the water is cold, go low and slow, and when temps are warmer you can go high or dry—but pay attention to the direction the temperature is moving in.

Fly Selection

I love steelhead flies. They are a pleasure to tie and fish, and I am continually amazed by all the great patterns that tiers from all regions and walks of life create. But ultimately, flies are the least important parts of the effective steelhead fishing equation. However, specific rules of thumb do matter. It’s unwise to fish a tiny, sparse fly in high, dirty water or a super heavy fly in slow, shallow water. Almost all the other rules about flies can be easily broken. Dark flies can work on bright days, and bright flies can work on dark days. Big flies work, little flies work, dead-drifted flies work, as do pulsed flies. Dry flies can work in 36-degree water, and so on.

The hot fly is often the one that the best angler is fishing with. To allocate success to fly selection is a big mistake in my book. It’s like asking a great photographer what kind of camera they use or asking a great painter what brush they use. The art is in the angler and also in the luck of the draw, based on who steps into which piece of water  . .  and when.

However, having confidence in a fly matters a great deal. Great anglers outperform great flies day in and day out. If the blue one is your jam and you feel like you are going to get one when you tie it on, that makes it a great choice.

If I could secretly replace a great angler’s favorite fly with a two-inch strip of black bunny tied to a hook, and if the angler unknowingly fished it with the same confidence as their special fly, I believe their success would be comparable. Find a few styles of flies that you like and use them as you see fit. If you are questioning any of them, move back to the one you believe in. Like many of my theories, few of which can be proved, I think steelhead can sense self-doubt!

The Moment of Truth

As steelhead anglers, we spend a lot of time getting our gear and flies together, improving our casting, and following returns and river conditions. There is one additional element that I feel we should also mentally prepare for, that being what to do (or, more importantly, what not to do) when a steelhead finally takes your swinging fly. The hard part is that the best reaction is typically no reaction, which is easier said than done—especially in a low-encounter sport where some of your grabs come as a surprise.

If I had $20 for every time I felt a steelhead gently tugging on the end of my line and I prematurely lifted to set the hook, I would be retired—as opposed to writing magazine articles. One of my fishing buddies calls this common occurrence “gacking.” In its simplest form, it means not giving the fish enough time or slack to turn with the fly and hook itself. Gacking is a natural response. You feel something tugging, so you attempt to set the hook, which typically equates to a missed opportunity. My advice is that as you close in on the best part of each run you fish, tell yourself to relax, hold the rod softly, and prepare yourself not to react to tension on the line, thus avoiding the dreaded premature extraction. 

Steelhead often follow flies for some distance, sometimes nibbling and pecking at them the entire way. When they do actually grab a swinging fly, they tend to turn back toward their holding spot, and if you are too tight to the fly or lift the rod, you’ll pop it out of their mouth as opposed to letting them draw the fly into the corner of their mouth, where you want it. The key is to give them enough line and time to hook themselves. As Ted Williams once said about swing fishing, “We don’t hook fish; fish hook themselves.”

How do you do this? Some anglers let the fly swing with a high rod tip so there is a sagging belly of line for the fish to draw tight. Some fly fishers carry a 20- to 30-inch loop of line under their forefinger. When they feel an encounter or soft pull, they let the fish gently pull that slack loop from under their finger. I gently pinch the line against the cork or between my middle and forefinger and let the fish pull line directly from the reel with a low drag setting.

Setting a loose drag and not trapping the line under your fingers is very effective, because the less you feel, the less you are likely to react. Whichever method you employ, as you approach the hotspot on any given run, try and relax and think about giving the fish enough line and time to hook itself. Once your reel is spinning or you feel the fish’s full weight, you can lift up and set the hook. The key here is that it is easy to set too quickly. It’s hard to be too slow.

So, if you are heading down the rabbit hole of swing fishing for steelhead, keep some of the above in mind and try and keep your cool when the fish finally comes to your fly. First and foremost, steelheading is supposed to be fun and fluid, and there is no universally proper or best approach, unless it is the one you have personally adopted and believe will best suit you for the run ahead.

Ken Morrish is the co-founder and director of travel sales for Fly Water Travel (flywatertravel.com). He is a fly designer for RIO Products and an ambassador for the Portland-based Wild Salmon Center. He lives in Ashland, Oregon with his wife Mia and kids, Lilli and Max.