Degrees Of Fishing Analyzed

A thermometer sometimes can tell a fisherman where to fish for steelhead.

Like all animals, steelhead appreciate a little comfort when they can get it. They move into water where they feel comfortable. Their ideal comfort zone is from 50 to about 62 degrees. But like all creatures, they accept what Nature gives them.

When they first start moving up the Columbia and Snake rivers, water temperatures sometimes are higher than 70 degrees. They don’t like water that warm but instinct forces them to start migrating toward their home waters to spawn.

As veteran steelheaders know, they’re difficult to catch when the water is warm. Creel surveys indicate that catch rates are low when water temperatures are in the high 60s and low 70s.

When the temperatures drop below 62 degrees, however, steelhead become more aggressive and inquisitive. They’ll more readily take lures and flies.

Whenever I fish, whether I’m fishing for kokanee at a lake or trout at a stream, I take water temperatures. I have temperature records taken during steelhead fishing for more than 35 years. My diaries show that I’ve seldom caught steelhead when the water temperature was much above 62 degrees.

A few days ago, while eating lunch at the mouth of the Grande Ronde, a friend and I watched shore and boat fishermen. Usually, the drift just below the Ronde’s mouth is lined with spin and bait fishermen, many of them sitting on lawn chairs waiting for a bite. Only three were fishing as we watched, an indication that fishing was slow.

None of the shore fishermen nor the boaters who were fishing in water that mixed with Snake River water caught a steelhead. Above the Ronde’s mouth, however, boat fishermen were hooking one steelhead after another.

I wasn’t surprised. Steelhead were in the Snake above the Ronde’s mouth because the temperature was ideal for them.

The Ronde usually is several degrees cooler than the Snake this time of year. Most of the steelhead in the Snake just above the Ronde’s mouth now are Grande Ronde fish; eventually, they’ll drop back and migrate up the Ronde.

It happens every year. When the Ronde’s temperature drops below 45 degrees, steelhead movement slows down dramatically. Most fish destined to spawn in the river stay in the warmer water of the Snake.

Periodically, of course, the Ronde’s temperature will rise and steelhead will dash up the river and fishing will be good.

Some anglers, knowing that steelhead seek water where they’ll be comfortable, fish the Snake across from the Ronde’s mouth or above the mouth. I’ve fished the Snake on the Idaho side numerous times in late October and in November. And I’ve done well when fly fishers have had trouble hooking steelhead in the Ronde.

The Ronde ware nearly deserted when my friend and I drove up the river after eating our lunch. We saw only five anglers, all fly fishers. A week earlier, when the water temperature had been a few degrees higher, the lower Ronde was lined with anglers, mostly fly fishers. The fishing had been excellent.

Another area where temperatures make a big difference in steelhead habits late each fall is the mouth of the Salmon River. The Salmon, like the Ronde, is several degrees cooler than the Snake in November and December. Steelhead, seeking comfort, move up the Snake a short distance and winter there. They drop back and move into the Salmon the following spring and head for their spawning grounds.

Some guides know that many Salmon River steelhead swim up the Snake above the Salmon’s mouth. Their clients often catch limits.

Most steelheaders are aware that steelhead that climb the fish ladders at Lower Granite Dam in August and September, when the Snake’s temperatures are high, move up the Clearwater River a few miles and wait until the Snake’s temperature is more to their liking.

It’s then that fishermen hook numerous fish in the lower Clearwater. When the Snake’s temperature drops, the steelhead resume their migration up the river.

When the temperatures drop below 39 degrees, nearly all steelhead stop moving and settle down in deep holes. That’s when anglers stop back-trolling their Hot Shots and Hot N’Tots and start probing the holes with shrimp and other bait.

Most of today’s sonars units take water temperatures; consequently, boaters who have sonars know the temperatures where they are fishing. Nearly all fly fishers carry thermometers in their vests.

Knowing water temperatures and steelhead preferences is one reason why relatively few anglers catch most of the steelhead.

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The following fields overflowed: CREDIT = Fenton Roskelley The Spokesman-Review