Early Winter Steelhead “Report”/Primer

By Robbie

Heading into December winter steelheaders start itching with excitement.  Most steelhead that get caught this early will get posted on social media and people will often recycle pictures to generate excitement (like in this report). So things can seem better than they really are! This write up is meant to help people focus and temper that excitement. A lot of people have time off late November, December, and early January. That is winter steelhead time right? It can be. We have gotten quite a few phone calls asking where to go winter steelhead fishing. Uhhhh… maybe nowhere without some rain.

First a Bit of History

Pre 2010s the kickoff for numerous coastal streams was the first rain around Thanksgiving. For more history check out our article from 2008. Long story short: the same strain of hatchery fish, an early returning Alsea stock, was planted everywhere. Those fish were notoriously poor biters and returned late November – January. This created frustrated anglers, homogeneous fisheries and short seasons. The seasons were distinct: an early hatchery fishery and a late season wild one. Now those early returning fish are used sparingly and only stocked (I believe) on the Alsea and two North Coast rivers. Currently, on the Alsea early returning hatchery steelhead make up about 30% of the run. So it still can be a true early season producer. Wild steelhead and modern broodstock hatchery fish return in numbers much later: January– March across our rivers. I put more effort in winter steelheading starting December 15th and go to about March 30th, sometimes fishing into the first week of April. I fish hard early January through March.

Report

I fished the Umpqua Thanksgiving week and swung a couple diminutive smallmouth on my sublime 8126 Sage R8 Spey Rod. Nice. Its very low with summer sludge still on the rocks. I talked to a couple anglers who had the same idea and everyone turned up 0’s. I have seen some pictures and heard some murmurings from faraway North Coast streams of connections. Not to say there is not a single fish around locally but I would focus on tying, other prep or prepare for a long drive. We are fully stocked on MFC Ostrich and Aquaflies materials. We even have black ostrich! I also love Skeena River Ostrich, Angel Hair, and Lagartun Flatbraid for my winter steelhead flies.

Outlook

Everywhere south of the Siletz is too low for a serious push of fish to have come in. If you need to get out, I’d focus on the Siletz and North Coast. Oddly enough they got rain this weekend and the week before. We missed both those rain events. That puts us two freshets behind. I usually don’t bother to venture north of the Siletz. However, over the next week and half that is where your best opportunities lie. Yes, you will have to compete with the glass boat loving city folk from Portland and the Bendites by way of California that winter on the North Coast. But anyone who loves to steelhead fish is all right to me. We might get some rain (or a lot of rain) by the end of the week that will bring in the first few fish to the Siuslaw, Alsea and Umpqua. The past few years I have gotten into my first winter steelhead on: December 25th, December 18th and December 20th. So don’t feel hard done if it takes a few weeks! Wild winters will trickle in throughout December and some hatchery fish are out there to be had. The earliest winter I have landed I believe was December 8th and it was a one salt wild on the lower Alsea oddly enough.

Some Old Blogposts to Get You Stoked!

Here are some old posts to get you excited and nostalgic! January 2025 report by me with lots of advice on tactics and products. Some success on the Alsea, December 2009. Couple epic shots from February 2014, and December 2013. Our blog contains a treasure trove of articles dating back to 2008 that display the history and evolution of fly fishing throughout the Pacific Northwest with tons of regionally famous contributors. If you need a break from prep and tying flies do some exploring on our blog!

Thanks for reading – Robbie