Author Dave Graybill is all smiles after catching this hatchery-run steelhead in the Pateros area. Because of increased hatchery clipping, even more steelhead are expected in the area this season. Photo by Rick Graybill

Those who have traveled through Central Washington and have passed through the tiny town of Pateros in December must have surely wondered, "What the heck is going on here?" December usually heralds the end of just about everything outdoors, but in Pateros it's the height of steelhead season. Anglers line the shores of the Columbia River, and boats are seen virtually everywhere in pursuit of one of the world's most highly prized sportfish.

Pateros is a destination that has been known by many devoted steelhead anglers for decades. The little burg sits right at the mouth of the Methow River. Back in the mid-1980s, the Methow became famous when huge numbers of steelhead returned to the stream and Pateros became Steelhead Central in Eastern Washington. The town continued to draw anglers from far and wide until the steelhead numbers declined to a discouraging few, and then the fishery was even closed when Endangered Species Act provisions were used to protect the fish.

Recent years have seen the steelhead counts climb. Near-record returns are back, and Pateros is once again a boomtown when many small Eastern Washington villages roll up the sidewalks for the winter. The month of December can be the peak of steelhead fishing, and the action can even continue through March.

This season should be the most outstanding in years. The number of hatchery steelhead is anticipated to be much -- and I mean much -- higher than the past two seasons. An increase in the number of clipped fish at the hatchery will mean a lot more anglers will be taking home fish this season.

I had the chance to fish at Pateros in the heydays of the mid-1980s, and what impressed me about the steelhead fishing the most wasn't the number of anglers present or the number of fish that were being caught. What impressed me the most was the way anglers were going about the business of fishing for steelhead. They used a technique that caught me by surprise and that I hadn't seen employed anywhere else. It was bobber fishing.

I didn't notice just a few anglers using this technique. Everybody was doing it! Bank anglers, boaters, even people in the RV park along the river would mount rod holders on picnic tables and toss out bobbers while they ate breakfast. I had never seen anything like it.

I did a little research about bobber fishing, but it wasn't easy. The Internet wasn't in existence back then, but I found some written reports of how the technique got started. From what I was able to learn, the idea came about in British Columbia. Anglers were frustrated trying to fish for steelhead in fast-moving streams. Drifting for fish resulted in constant hang-ups and lost gear. The idea of suspending baits just above the rocks and in the strike zone of holding steelhead evolved from fixed bobber drifting to slip-bobber fishing. Using a slip-bobber easily allows anglers to change the depth of their jig or bait as needed. How the technique migrated south of the border and to Pateros is a mystery to me, but it took hold and remains the favored way to fish for metalheads along this stretch of the Columbia.

I never really understood the basics of bobber fishing or why it was applied to the fishery here on the Columbia at Pateros until I met and fished with local guide Vern Westerdahl. He took me out one afternoon and demonstrated how deadly bobber fishing can be and introduced me to the rigging of the slip-bobber, the presentation of the jig and some of the water steelhead prefer here.