Late September Through March, usually the primary gamefish pursued by Okanogan and Methow Valley fly anglers is chasing summer steelhead. BUT not this year, many dreams of coastal rivers, but don’t make it there much anymore, because they are to far away to drive for just a day or two, and usually either too low and clear for good fishing, or too high and blown out. The steelhead-never plentiful these days-might be in the river, or most of them might have died as smolts going through the turbines Just getting here over 9 dams and over 500 miles, only the strongest remnant have made it back, and WF&W make us keep the adipose clipped fish.
The odds are so deeply stacked against winter fly flinging Steelheaders that you have to wonder why they would leave a comfortable warm toasty home to stand in a freezing river, testing the limits of new age hi-tec long johns and human endurance in pursuit of a fish they're unlikely to catch. The easy explanation--"we're nuts"--doesn't dig deep enough into the soul of the winter fly flinger.To be sure, there are some whom hook at least one fish on most trips. And every now and then you might hit it just rite on a mild, cloudy freezing but windless day, when the river is dropping and hook three strong wild fish before noon. Those days are rare, however, so you have to dig deeper to answer the question.
"Why do people do this to themselves?"
One line of reasoning goes like this: North-central Washington is a great place to live and fish. Some people feel they can’t enjoy it unless they prove themselves worthy. Winter Steelhead fly fishers is one way to do this. It taxes your ingenuity, commitment, knowledge, courage, and faith. If you can keep fishing through a North-central Washington winter, then your mental has been tested, and you have earned the right to enjoy yourself. This attitude combines many elements with ancient "rites of passage." It fits the traditions of the Okanogan and Methow Valleys: it would have been understandable to both the Indians and the religious-minded pioneers who settled the valleys.
For some anglers, however, the winter fishing urge may have even deeper roots: nothing less than the need to demonstrate a victory of the spirit. They go forth in miserable, uncertain conditions, endure the worst that the forces of cold and darkness can fling at them, and thereby attest to the strength and resiliency of the human soul. It is not masochism that makes these Fly-flinging anglers leave a warm hearth for a cold river. They are on a noble quest, spurred by an idealistic compulsion to demonstrate a triumph of hope over despair, faith over cynicism, spiritual strength over physical weakness.
Or maybe we R just a bit nuts.
I mostly agree with you on why we find it necessary to brave the winter and throw a line into the near freezing water trying to hook a fish, especially that last line. But mostly its because of the fish we are trying to catch. The steelhead is a magnificent fish, strong, acrobatic, and very hard to fool with a fly, especially in the cold water of winter. This has been a long cold winter the rivers iced over early and stayed closed until just a day or two ago so our fishing would have been limited even if the rivers had opened. However knowing that you could not go fishing (locally) even if the river opened up made the winter longer.
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