The tailout of the large pool f lowed smoothly, resembling a sheet of glass, then cascaded into a rollercoaster of white water and rocks. It looked like a perfect place for a summer steelhead to hold after negotiating the faster torrent immediately downstream. My fly landed about seventy-five feet across the river and at a slight downstream angle, about ten feet above the break. I was fishing a two-handed rod, 13 feet long with a 350-grain floating shooting head backed with 20-pound monofilament running line. Fortunately, the long leader turned over nicely, and the fly and line came tight to the reel. As they began to track across the current, I lifted the long rod and made a slight upstream mend. The small, buggy fly drifted only a couple more feet before the surface of the water exploded. There was no need to set the hook, because the steelhead took the fly and started for the top of the pool. The rest was typical summer steelhead action, several jumps and a few runs up and down the pool. As I recovered line and the fish tired, I grabbed the leader and brought the bright summer steelhead alongside. A quick release of the fly, and the fish glided back into the pool.
Bob Arnold, in Steelhead and the Floating Line: A Meditation (1995), wrote that at a certain time of the year, a river is said to “go over” to the floating line. He indicated the saying is attributed to A.
H. E. Wood in the Hardy’s Angler Guide for 1923. The late British Columbia writer and fly angler Roderick Haig-Brown said this happens when the water temperature reaches 55 degrees Fahrenheit. While Wood’s saying might be true during the seasonal transition from winter to summer steelhead in some areas, the California winter steelhead season is long past when anglers begin fishing for late summer–early fall summer steelhead. In California, fishing for summer steelhead usually means fishing the Klamath or Trinity Rivers for half-pounders and larger adult fish. There are a few small populations of true spring-run summer steelhead in the Klamath and other California rivers, but all migrate to small, hard-to-access headwater refuges, areas that typically are closed to all angling.
Early newspaper reports indicate that anglers fished the Klamath River for trout and likely for steelhead as early as the late 1800s. The late summer–early fall Klamath steelhead first begin to enter the river as early as July, although the peak of the run is in late August or early September. By this time, river water temperatures are well above the 55 degrees mark. In fact, lower river water temperatures are often at or even slightly above 72 degrees. Upstream, when the first fish start to show in September and October, water temperatures are well above 60 degrees. Obviously, the Klamath River has long “gone over” to the floating line when Californians are fishing for summer steelhead.
Fishing for steelhead on a floating line has a long history in California, a history that also is part of the development of modern fly-fishing lines and techniques. In the early years of fly fishing, it was not easy to keep a fly line floating. The first fly lines were constructed of woven horsehair, but eventually evolved into woven silk fiber lines. Silk lines absorbed water and needed to be dressed to keep them floating. After several hours of fishing, it became necessary to dry the line and regrease it to restore its floating qualities. In addition, early fly lines were generally constructed as a level line. Later, manufacturing techniques that reduced the number of threads in the center braid or core allowed for the development of tapered fly lines.
In addition to tapered lines, shooting heads were an early development. The first shooting heads were used in the 1930s during tournament casting competitions. Construction of the first shooting head is credited to Marvin Hedge from Portland, Oregon. Hedge set a world record distance cast of 146 feet in 1934 with a 50-foot-long shooting head.
Later, Jim Green, a member of the Golden Gate Angling and Casting Club, attached a small-diameter monofilament line to the rear of a shooting head. The finer running line greatly helped increase casting distances. Steelhead fly anglers soon recognized the benefits of a shooting head backed with a monofilament running line. The Sunset Line and Twine Company of Petaluma, California, marketed the first commercially produced shooting head in August 1950. The company also introduced Amnesia, a monofilament line that lost its coiled memory when stretched and worked great as a running line.
Early competition among fly line manufacturers for market share was fierce. In 1952, Scientific Anglers introduced the first plastic-coated fly lines, followed by the Cortland Line Company, which introduced the Cortland 333 “Non-Sinkable” fly line the following year. The new lines were made with a braided nylon center core and featured a tough nonporous surface coating that would not absorb water. Modern fly lines are still constructed the same way, with an inside flexible core, often Dacron or nylon, that determines the line’s strength and flexibility. The outside of the line is made of PVC, vinyl, polyurethane or other plastic and polymeric materials. The outside layer determines the line slickness, buoyancy, taper, weight, and some of the flexibility.
In 1960, Scientific Anglers introduced the Wet Cel, the first modern sinking fly line. Many California steelhead anglers took advantage of the new sinking lines and started fishing them for steelhead. In the following decades, there was a binge of new and specialty fly lines. As these specialty lines became available, many Northern California steelhead anglers, including the author, discarded sinking shooting heads in favor of floating lines with sinking tips or heads. We found these lines easier to mend and realized late summer–early fall steelhead are more than willing to take a fly fished on or near the surface. All of these early lines were manufactured for single-handed rods, since two-handed rods had yet to make their appearance on the West Coast.
In the late 1980s and early 1990s, however, a big change in steelhead fly rods came to the West Coast. A couple of decades earlier, faced with little or no room to make a back cast, Scandinavian anglers invented a system constructed around progressive-action two-handed rods, shooting heads, and a style of casting known as the Scandinavian technique. A Swedish angler, Göran Andersson, is regarded as the father of Scandinavian casting. He first began to develop this style in 1950 while working at his father’s fly rod and line shop in Sweden. In contrast to traditional Spey casting, the Scandinavian technique emphasizes the uppermost or top hand as a fulcrum, and the lower or under hand on the rod for power. This is sometimes referred to as “underhand casting,” due to the emphasis on the lower hand. Rods usually have a progressive action and are typically stiffer and faster and store power in the tip of the rod. The Scandinavian technique integrates a floating shooting head that ranges from 24 to 36 feet in length, followed by a small-diameter running line, with a long leader, often up to 18 feet in length. Most Scandinavian shooting heads float, although recently, fly line manufacturers have introduced multidensity sinking shooting heads.
As two-handed rods became more popular on Pacific Northwest rivers, steelhead anglers developed another casting method that incorporates a floating shooting head, known as the Skagit style or Skagit casting. The method was developed in the early 1990s and named after the Skagit River, located in northwestern Washington. The river is noted for its winter and spring runs of steelhead and has been featured in many books and articles. The new style was developed for fishing heavier sinking tips and for presenting larger, bulky f lies to winter steelhead. The origin of Skagit casting is not credited to any single person, but a number of steelhead anglers, including Jim Green, Mike Kinney, Bob Strobel, and Ed Ward, have made contributions.
Skagit lines are composed of a floating shooting head with a tip attached to the forward end and a running line at the rear. The heavier Skagit shooting head concentrates weight in a shorter length of fly line as compared with Scandinavian shooting heads. Early commercial Skagit heads were 27 feet long and combined with a 10-to-15-foot tip put the total line length in accord with the recommended rule of thumb of three times the rod length. Another general rule is that the tip should not weigh more than approximately one-third the total weight of the head, although some anglers have suggested tip weights up to half the weight of the line. This is only a guide, and the actual length of either the head or tip can vary depending upon individual casting styles and the application. Recently, shorter “compact” Skagit heads from 17 to 23 feet, not including the attached tip, have become available for casting in close quarters. In addition, lighter Skagit shooting heads for 5-weight and 6-weight two-handed rods have become available and are perfectly suitable for Northern California summer steelhead.
Due to their concentrated weight, Skagit shooting heads have the ability to cast heavier sinking tips and larger, heavily weighted flies. Skagit heads with an integrated running line and sinking section are available, but are more expensive. Tips generally sink, although floating and intermediate tips are also available, and these are perfect for California summer steelhead. The tip length typically ranges from 8 to 15 feet, with the choice of sinking density and length dependent on the fishing conditions, how deep the angler wants to present the fly, and the angler’s casting ability. The power of the rod also helps determine the appropriate setup. Some manufactured and custom-made tips incorporate both floating and sinking sections. These tips are often a consistent length, although the lengths of the floating and sinking sections vary. The consistent length eliminates the need to change the casting stroke occasioned by different tip lengths.
Both Scandinavian and Skagit shooting heads are backed with some type of running line. Today, popular running lines include nonkinking, floating monofilament and special, fine-diameter coated floating lines. The size of running lines varies, but a line diameter from .020 to .036 inches rated from 20-pound to 36-pound test is adequate for summer steelhead fishing. A slightly larger diameter and stronger running line is desirable for winter steelhead fishing, making it easier to hold the line in cold weather.
Scandinavian and Skagit shooting heads are best fished with a two-handed rod. A rod length from 12 to 13 feet and rated for 5 or 6 weight lines is great for summer steelhead. (Keep in mind that for fishing purposes, the weight designation for two-handed rods is typically two sizes smaller than a comparable single-handed rod. For example, a two-handed rod with a 5-weight designation is comparable to a 7-weight single-handed rod.) Heavier rods are not needed since most of the flies are small. Scandinavian shooting heads for these rods weigh from 320 to 400 grains and the recommended head weight in grains is usually marked on the fly rod. Many anglers use the same rod for Skagit lines; however, the shooting head weight increases by about 50 to 60 grains for the same rod.
Some steelhead anglers still continue to fish single-handed rods. However, fishing floating shooting heads, with or without a tip, with a two-handed rod using either the Scandinavian technique or the Skagit method is extremely effective for California steelhead. Fishing buggy steelhead flies on a floating shooting head using the traditional wet fly or swinging presentation with a two-handed rod has several advantages. The long rod and floating head allow for easier line mending, and the fly can be more effectively slowed down or speeded up as necessary. Mending the floating line often causes the fly to jump, followed by a short dead drift before the f ly comes under tension again. Surprisingly, California summer steelhead readily respond to the movement, and it often brings an aggressive take. The Scandinavian technique remains effective until water temperatures drop in the late fall and summer steelhead become less responsive. Generally, this is about 40 degrees, and it might be said the river “goes under” at this time. At colder water temperatures, steelhead become lethargic and less willing to move to a fly. This is when fishing Skagit shooting heads with a sinking tip becomes the method of choice. The Skagit method allows the angler to present a fly deeper, compared with the Scandinavian technique. In the late summer and early fall, flies fished just under the surface with a floating line are an effective fish-catching method. Dry and waking steelhead f ly patterns are fun to fish and often bring splashy rises, but if the fish is not hooked, a small, buggy wet fly presented to the fish will often result in a take and a positive hookup. Later, as water temperatures drop and the river goes under, it is advisable to switch to a heavier sinking tip to fish the fly deeper and with a slower presentation.
Casting using a two-handed rod and either the Scandinavian technique or the Skagit method make steelhead fishing fun and more enjoyable. The take of a steelhead to a swinging fly is exhilarating, no matter which technique or method used. And as many steelhead anglers say, “the tug is the drug.”
