On Wednesday we worked over the East Fork Lewis. The river was really low the day before the trip and the two guys who went really wanted to fish the East Fork Lewis. I almost had to cancel the trip. Fortunately the rains came in and the river rose from about 650 cfs to over 3,000 cfs before the middle of the day. The river was high and had a brown green color to it. We worked all of the slower side slots that would hold fish in these conditions. We got quite a few bites and the timing was just off a bit for getting hooked up.
We fished it by back drifting bait under floats. The majority of our attention was focused on fishing the tailouts of the prime slow water runs. These spots were directly against the banks at this river level. We had 5 hard takedowns and 6 light hits that I think were downstream summer runs trying to eat the bait without really taking it deep. We had one crazy fish keep whacking at the bait without taking it. One drift it hit at least 6 time flipping the float all over.
We had some rain in the morning and then the afternoon was warm and pleasant. The guys were great and we had a good time fishing. Yet another example of this winter steelhead season so far. Lots of water and off color conditions. The fish are in. We had our shots and the fish god's just weren't smiling at us. Both guys are experienced fishermen so it wasn't skill or lack of it. We will get em next time.
Clay