Print  email 

Fly fishing report: Elochoman River worth the drive

By Tom Bolender | For The Olympian • Published December 10, 2008

• Comments (0)

As trout fishing keeps getting slower, steelheading keeps picking up.

If you're up for a long drive, the Elochoman River in Wahkiakum County is in excellent shape and steelhead are showing up.

A good rainfall will bring more fish and make this a worthwhile drive.

Swinging string leeches in the flat long stretches or drifting a Glo Bugs under an indicator in the channels are both good choices.

The Kalama River hasn't seen many new winter fish show up over the past week but some decent summer runs are still being caught. Fishing from the lower hatchery downstream has been the most productive.

The Cowlitz turned around a little after not getting many winter steelhead returning the previous week.

This week, the hatchery saw 198 winter runs and no summer runs return. The numbers will continue to increase over the next month or so.

If you're interested in heading to the peninsulas near Forks, make sure to stop at the Humptulips and Salmon rivers.

The mouth of Stevens Creek on the Humptulips is a great place to hook up on weekdays when the crowds are down.

Another idea is to head up Stevens Creek and work the holes with an indicator. The first time I ever saw a steelhead caught on a fly rod was on this little gem of a creek.

If you're not getting action there, then head up Highway 101 and make a second stop at the Salmon River. Over the past week, anglers have been doing excellent. Reports of multiple steelhead caught in a day make it a great choice that I may even choose for a Saturday run. The water is low and clear but a little bit of rain and it should get another push of bright fish.

The fly of choice has been a Glo Bug under an indicator. Even the conventional anglers are finding a Glo Bug to be worthwhile choice under a bobber.

The next stop on your adventure should be the upper Hoh River. Not many reports of steelhead catches have been reported but you also might find yourself fighting a nice Dolly Varden. It's not legal to target these fish but an incidental catch isn't something you can get in trouble for. If you do land one, make sure you don't take it out of the water and release it as quickly as possible.