Steelhead fishing on the John Day: Beginner’s Luck

This weekend, my brother Nate, Ethan Nickel and I fished the lower John Day river, above Tumwater Falls for late running summer steelhead. None of us had experience fishing the John Day, but the promise of big, wild steelhead made it worth a try.

The John Day is a small river, when compared to its Central Oregon counterpart the Deschutes. The John Day was running at 450 CFS over the weekend and the Descutes was about ten times that. The John Day is also slow — maddeningly slow.

This slowness tripped us up. Day one we were fishing what we considered prime steelhead water: Good current in a chute or drop-off. We swung traditional steelhead flies, tried leeches and even nymphed these likely spots for about 8 hours straight, while a few bait guys dropped the hammer on steelhead around us.

Day two we broke the code — switched to full-time nymphing in the slow, froggy, deep pools. Big wild steelhead stacked up in this slow moving water, and we worked each spot with nymph rigs and indicators. The hot fly of the trip was a size 12 prince nymph. Ethan (a full-time steelhead guide) put me and Nate to shame. I won’t talk numbers, but you can probably tell from the photos who had the most hookups.

Nate and Ethan are staying on in Central Oregon this week, fishing the Deschutes. We should have a report from that trip later this week.
-MS