Been to long since I have gone after steel and wanted to see just how low the water actually was. I went into this not quite sure what to expect to be honest. My plan was to scout and hike the river a ways to see what lies at the bottom of the sky that you never see on normal flows or even general low flows; boulders, depressions, possible travel lanes, holding spots etc. The river flow was at 427 CFS compared to the average of 4000 CFS this time of year according to USGS which is a joke. Anyways here it goes...

Got to proctor creek at 5am with no one there. It was sprinkling a little while I made my way down to the river and took a water temperature reading which read 64 degrees at 5am. Water temp was probably the same as the air temp at this point. I decided not to bring my float set up as I wanted to run and gun with spinners to cover as much water as possible and hike up far above the hatchery before the water temperature hit 70. Started with #3 copper vibrax casting while walking and never casting more than 5 times in the same spot. The smolt were everywhere and were the theme of the day and have grown quite a bit as I worked my way up to cable hole which was a joke. I was able to stand above it in the middle of the river (see pic) and someone living in one of the cabins had there little row boat anchored on the side of the river which was pretty funny. Fished my way up to Reiter and got there just after 6 am to see one guy fishing near the outlet creek. The water was so clear and low if there were any fish there you would see them as the little smolt were obvious to spot so I didn't even bother fishing.

Worked my way up running and gunning but downsized to a size #2 copper vibrax as the water temperature hit 66 degrees. Caught smolt after smolt but these were much larger averaging about 10-12" in one section which was fun so kept my spirits up. They were surfacing a lot eating the little knats that fell on the water but no steelhead to this point. I eventually worked my way up to the railroad bridge about a mile above the hatchery and saw my first steelhead swimming directly towards me in a tailout. Wanted nothing to do with my spinner and swam with in about 10 feet of me as I tried to hide in the rocks but it was to late. I guess it was around 5 lbs and saw no adipose. She swam down into the rapids behind a big rock and disappeared. At this point I switched spinners to a #3 black vibrax to dull it down and crossed the river to fish my way down on the opposite side I started. There was a nice creek flowing into a slot that looked fishy and as I crossed this little creek I noticed the water temp was much colder. Busted out the thermometer and it measured 54 degrees and knew there had to be something sitting where this cold water was dumping in. Stayed back about 10 yds from the river behind some boulders and sure enough there were probably a dozen or so steelhead sitting right where I thought they would. First cast in and my spinner got slammed by this feisty hen. Went completely nuts but got her under control and brought her in and bonked her. Let the hole settle for about 15 min while I cleaned her and punched the card and next cast hooked another fish but it was a whitefish of all things. Tried a few more casts but with all the commotion they probably scattered and I wanted to keep moving. The main river at this point right below the cold creek was just at 60 degrees in the small area where the fish were and when I moved down 20 yards it shot up to 70 degrees. This all happened at 9:30 and I decided I would make the long walk back to proctor creek fishing occasionally. Never saw anything else after that except for smolt and last thermometer reading hit 72 degrees which is ridiculous.

Saw a total of 4 people all fishing at reiter hatchery side. Was a great adventure and learned a lot about the river never being up that far before. Lots of real nice water and solitude. Find cold water, find the fish. Good Luck

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