CATCH Winter Steelhead Flies Prove to be Effective

Bjorn Ostby gets involved with  a strong native hen on Washington’s Grande Ronde River.

Recently CATCH Fly designers Kevin Eneroth, Britten Jay, Mark Poirier, and Bjorn Ostby spent the day swinging for steel on the Grande Ronde and Snake River along the Washington-Idaho border.  Although the fish numbers across the dams have been down this year compared to the past couple of years, the size of the fish seem to have increased on average. With a bit of perseverance and the advantage of using CATCH flies, we were able to jack some line and get into some nice steelhead!

Angler’s have been reporting anywhere from 8-16 hours angling time per fish in the area, but we have had good luck with Bjorn’s Re-truder pattern in black and blue. The fly is fairly sparse in comparison to many intruder patterns, yet maintains a huge profile with lots of movement in the water. We’ve been able to bring some beautiful fish to hand and catch fish where others were unable to get them to move.