Pacific Steelhead - Summer Run

General Info: Summer-run steelhead can be found up and down the west coast of the US, but their fortress is the mighty Columbia river and it's tributaries. Rivers like the Klickitat, Deschutes, Grande Ronde and Clearwater are home to the majority of the west's summer steelhead. These fish differ from their winter brethren in the type of flies that they hit. Summer fish are far more likely to move up near the surface to hit a small fly. Winter fish are unlikely to move that far; they usually require a sink tip and a big fly.

Traditionally, summer steelhead are caught by swinging a small fly on a floating line. These are our best traditional summer steelhead patterns, tried and true, tested on the waters of the Columbia River tributaries by employees and customers alike.

Steelhead nymphs can be found on the Great Lakes steelhead page, and bigger swinging patterns can be found on the Winter Steelhead or Chinook Salmon page.

Preferred Rods: 6-7wt switch/spey rods as long as needed for river. Deschutes river, up to 13'6" rods are common. Most anglers would be fine in the Pacific Northwest with a 7wt switch rod between 11'-12'.

FLIES:  These are mostly traditional flies that are used for summer steelhead.  Typically, these are fished on a dry/floating line, swung slowly across the river.  "Hairwing" patterns like the Green Butt Skunk, Freight Train and Polar Shrimp are very popular and work best fished just under the surface on that floating line.

Flies like the Egg Sucking Leech are usually fished with a sink-tip during mid-day if the sun is high and the fish are not coming up.   Slightly bigger flies with longer tails, marabou or rabbit strips are best fished deeper.