Pacific Northwest Steelhead Fishing Guide

A quieter, more exclusive winter fishery.

From late December through about March 20, I run winter steelhead on the Clackamas out of a sled, which very few good winter guides around here still do. This one’s different from the rest of my season. There are only a handful of us who fish this water, and out of respect for them and to keep this fishery healthy for the next fifteen years, I keep it low-key.

So you won’t see me posting daily photos of where and how. This is a more private, word-of-mouth fishery, and that’s the whole point. I’ve fished it consistently for years, I know what’s working today, and if you’d like to get out on it, the best thing to do is just reach out and talk to me.

If I take you out here, you’re being let into something not many people get to see.

The broodstock program. On many of these trips we run a live well aboard for the wild winter steelhead broodstock program. When we catch a wild fish, it can go to the hatchery program rather than the cooler. This is a limited program (only 49 fish a year), and it’s a real, working part of keeping these runs sustainable.

On a typical day, you might keep one steelhead to take home and eat and contribute one to the broodstock. Clients tell me it’s one of the things they’re proudest of from the trip.

NOTE: Summer steelhead is sometimes available, too. Check the seasons with me for the current forecast. The Columbia summer run below Bonneville also brings an incidental catch of steelhead while salmon fishing.