Pink is the new Black

It is no secret to steelheaders around the west that black is the color of choice when it comes to swinging flies. Joe Howell of the Blue Heron Fly Shop on the North Umpqua once said “use any color as long as it is black”. The fly that has caught most steelhead is probably the Green Butt Skunk, which is predominantly black. The black egg-sucking leech is a close second. While steelhead are caught on a variety of colors, black seems to be the most popular and effective across the board.

I had always associated darker colors like black and purple for inland fishing and brighter colors like pink and orange for targeting fish closer to the ocean. It would stand to reason that steelhead just out of salt would key on colors and patterns resembling ocean food such as prawns and shrimp and as they moved upriver their preferences would change as they adapted to the freshwater environment. I have certainly tested that theory over the years, with mixed results, and recently found that I couldn’t be more wrong. I have been fishing the Upper Rogue since July and have caught more fish on pink than any color. For now, at least, pink is the new black.

I have had the pleasure of fishing with and meeting some of my generation’s best steelhead anglers and guides. Ten years ago Ken Morrish encouraged me to move to Southern Oregon to pursue steelhead guiding.  Ken thought it would be in my best interest to spend a day with a good steelhead guide and get up to speed. My steelhead experience had been limited to nymphing various Oregon rivers. He arranged a day of guided fishing for me and my great friend Chris Lyda. Our guide was Mike McCune. Mike guides the great winter steelhead rivers on Oregon’s north coast. Mike is known as one of the Northwest’s top spey casters and instructors. In just one day with Mike, I learned enough to last a lifetime. It is no mistake that my style of casting and teaching is similar to his. He is certainly one of my mentors and hold him in high regard. We have become friends over the years and usually run into each other at the Sandy River Spey Clave.

He invited me to camp he and his buddies on the Clackamas one year during the Sandy Clave. While everyone else camps at Oxbow Park on the Sandy, this crew prefers the blue collar essence of the Clackamas. Oxbow also frowns upon beer guzzling and dereliction. And besides, the previous year there were some spring Chinook caught on flies.  I fished with Mike and his best friend Scott O’Donnell. It was mid May and we were really trying to catch an early summer steelhead. The river was fairly low and clear. We ran around in O’Donnell’s jet boat looking for fish. You couldn’t be in the company of two better steelhead fisherman. These guys have logged more time on the water than most would ever dream of. It was a memorable day for a couple of reasons. As we were heading upriver to meet up with Ed Ward and Chris Anderson, Scott decided to explore a side channel. Scott is an excellent boat driver and I wasn’t concerned until we got to the top of the side channel where it met the main river. Scott had demonstrated earlier that day how shallow his boat would run due to the tunnel hull design. It was obvious, by the number of repaired holes in the bottom, that he tested that theory a number of times. There was enough water to make it through the channel but the huge tree protruding from the bank that made it impossible to navigate, I thought. Scott slowed down briefly, looked at Mike for assurance, than Mike gave him the nod, and told me to hold on to the rods. I was nervous. This is a bad idea, I thought. The only way through required blasting up through two inches of water over some pretty big rocks.  We did just that. Scott put the hammer down and we banged our way through the sketchiest piece of water I have ever been in a jet boat. We made it, barely. When we got to the top they acted as if that was standard procedure. I was as impressed as much as I was scared. They just laughed.

We went skunk that day. Not a scratch. We ran into Ed and Chris at the boat ramp.   They got in early and were able to fish for a couple of hours.  That was just enough time for Ed to work some magic. The “Wizard”, as they call him, was holding a hatchery fish he kept for the barbecue. We just shook our heads. They didn’t seem all too surprised. He is Ed Ward. “What fly did you get him on?” someone asked. “Pink”, responded Ed. That was all he said.

Pink. Summer steelhead aren’t supposed to like pink. That is a coastal color, a winter steelhead color, I thought. Maybe I had it all wrong. Those are the colors I fish on the coast: pink, orange, and combinations thereof. Was that a fluke or have I been missing something? I would soon find out.

Later that fall my friend Gino and I were fishing the Upper Rogue on a day off.  I remembered that day the pink leech performed for Ed and I tied one on. It was an early version of the Dirk Wiggler. It was all pink with lots of flash, about four inches long. I followed Gino through the first run. He was fishing an egg-sucking leech.  It wasn’t long before I was hooked up. I landed my first inland summer steelhead on pink. As Gino helped my tail the little wild hen, he was surprised at what he saw, a pink wiggler hanging out of it’s mouth. I picked his pocket with pink again that day. But, to his credit, he evened the score by sundown, on black.

That was three years ago. Since then, I have had mixed results, until this summer. Up until early October, I had a run of ten fish in a row on pink. One day we hooked four, all on pink. Throughout the day I would mix in other colors like black, purple, olive, and blue. On many occasions, when I switched back to pink, we hooked up. It just worked. The more it worked, the more I believed in it. Did the fish really prefer it, or did it work because that’s what we were using? If that was the case, then why didn’t the standard colors work? Success certainly breeds confidence. Is that the formula to steelhead fishing? Fish with confidence, regardless of the fly, is that the answer? Or were they actually keying on pink? 

There are more mysteries than absolutes with steelhead. That is no secret. Why one fly works better than others is unknown. I guess that is one reason we fish for steelhead. You just never know what each day is going to bring. It is easy, as a steelhead fisherman, to outsmart ourselves and try to make sense of it. What I do know is that when something works, I will keep trying it until it doesn’t work anymore. Until then, I will keep tying on that pink wiggler, and confidently say that pink is the new black.