We had dinner with a bunch of fishing friends last night and they all had some time in Steelhead camp recently. While fishing wasn’t hot for steelies, steelies were caught.
One of our guides actually got 3 fish swinging in the last couple of weeks. So, there are fish to be had if you fish. You can’t stay home and watch football and catch steelhead. It’s true.
That said, I floated the WS to TC stretch a few days ago and 2 of my buddies tried some swinging in a few spots and got zero grabs. I stuck with Euro Nymphing all day and caught a fair number of small resides and whitefish. Ron and Tim did as well when they nymphed. Ron taught me to believe in the Loon Soft Weight as he picked a pocket right in front of me with his 2 nymph system on a Euro leader, but with a little torpedo of soft weight between the flies. I’ll never be without soft weight in my pack again.
Perdigons, Jigs, Midges, BWO Nymphs and Batman’s are all great nymphs for now.

The last few years December ended up being a good month to catch Steelhead, so if the weather holds to decent you may want to make some plans for a Lower D trip still.