How Many Steps?

There are many different opinions on how many steps we should take down the river when fishing a run. If you ask a group of anglers what their take is on the matter, there’s a good chance you’ll get a few different answers. Some people base it off water clarity or water temps, others swear by 2-3 steps for winter fish, and I’m sure there are a few more opinions out there on what the “best” method for stepping down a run is. I’m not the most experienced angler, nor will I claim to know everything about how to swing a run, but I do have some bits of advice that I apply to my fishing tactics that have helped me connect with a few fish on a swung fly in my short time with a Skagit setup.

 

My first piece of advice is to choose a river and fish it religiously. If you’re fishing the banks, you can scout your google maps and spend time trying to find places you can access roadside or by hike-in. After a while you will build a list of places you can fish throughout your day or week and not be limited to one piece of water every time you want to get out. It will also provide you with more options for the day when you show up to your run of choice, and it’s already taken. The more water you can have to fish, the more chances you have of finding a fish.

 

Next up is reading water. We hear it a lot, but there’s more to reading water than just looking at what speed it is moving at. By watching what the water is doing, you can tell what type of substrate the bottom is likely to be. The boils and breaks in the water can translate to what structure is there and where a fish may hold. The color of the water can tell you where the deep buckets are versus the shallow gravel/sand bars. There are a lot of variables to reading water that will help you learn the system you are fishing more in depth, which will in turn, help build your confidence on the water.

 

At this point, you’re probably thinking, “Cool, but what does this have to do with stepping down the run ‘New Guy’?” Well, let’s talk about it. When I’m fishing water new to me, or I’m trying to learn a run more thoroughly, I will first read the water before fishing it. If I see anything that looks enticing or worth my time, I’ll slow down my steps and work the water with different sink tips and unweighted to weighted flies a few times over. I do this with the intent to find any extra information I can by searching the water and its structure with a fly in an attempt to get some feedback on what’s out there. There’s often a rock or depression in the river bottom that I can’t already get an idea of by what the water is showing me. If the water is featureless and doesn’t have any structure, I will still swing the water if it is at a decent flow and height, but I will spend less time switching presentations up and move a little quicker down the run or just focus my time on what looks like the “sweet spot” to me.

 

To summarize: I fish the way I feel is most productive for the water in front of me. If the water I’m swinging a fly in has more than a couple of features I believe make a steelhead happy and cozy, I will step slowly through the run and even rework the water with a new presentation. I want to thoroughly fish the water and make sure I didn’t leave any offerings on the table for the fish I believe is there. If the run is wide open, bare, and featureless, I’ll start at the head and extend my cast until I’m fishing a comfortable distance and begin to work down river. I don’t fish this water as heavily because to me it’s the water that the fish will be moving up river in, and are less likely to take a fly. I still swing it for the chance of getting my fly in front of a moving fish, but I spend more time fishing water I think holds fish that are content where they are and are ready to crush anything that comes too close.