We stopped at Joe Howell's BLUE HERON FLY SHOP in Glide so Dave could borrow a rain jacket. We got a few tips of places to fish, and headed out. The river was in beautiful condition, about ten feet visibility, and slightly higher than summer level. There was ice along the shoreline, and unmelted frost on the banks. The river felt about 35 degrees. We used sink tip lines, unweighted flies. At the second pool fishing ahead of me Dave hooked and landed a bright silver hatchery fish about 8 pounds. We killed and punched it, congratulating ourselves for a what would, on the basis of one fish, be a spectacular day. We stopped at Frank Moore's house to mooch lunch from Frank and his wife, talked steelhead, fishing, and mutual friends non-stop for an hour, then back to the river. We drove up above Steamboat to the Horseshoe Park turnout. Dave gave me the obvious pool and disappeared downriver. I hooked up right in the heart of the pool and landed an 8 pound fin-clipped fish, obviously a summer fish but still in beautiful condition. I kept that fish as well. After a couple of short "hunch" stops that didn't pay out, Dave took me to "the best winter pool on the river". I am sworn to secrecy. The pool is long, with about 150 feet of good holding water. Dave let me precede him through the pool. Ten feet into it I hooked up on a larger fish that thrashed and showed on the surface, but the hook pulled loose. I got myself together and four casts later hooked my third fish of the day out in deeper water. This one, 7 pounds, was also a hatchery summer fish but in good condition, so we killed it as well. Four fish hooked, three landed and killed (hatchery fish), on January 31st! The rest of the day was anti-climactic, to say the least. I can summarize the notable differences in fishing the N. Umpqua in the winter rather than summer in that, according to Dave, time of day is unimportant. Use a sink-tip or full sinking line. The holding water is just a tad deeper and SLOWER than summer water. Don't let freezing temperatures and ice floes in the water bother you, the fish will still move. The fighting quality of the fish in the colder water is also a bit off, but an Umpqua steelhead is still an Umpqua steelhead. There was a warm front moving in that day, the higher altitude temperatures above Steamboat were 20 degrees warmer than it was lower down, and a slight rise in water temperature may have started the fish moving. Use a bigger fly, a 1/0 Skunk worked for three. Only fish the best pools. I noticed the names Dave referred to the pools by when he talked to Joe Howell at the end of the day was not exactly the same as he had referred to them by to me. Get lucky. Helluvaday. Oh, one more thing. We did not see another fisherman on the whole river all day.
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