April 11, 2023, Lots of steelhead and fishermen crowded in at Tippy Dam, Water only had 2 feet visibility was flowing fast at 2700 cubic feet per second and slowly falling. Water temp was 45 F.
Bigger, brighter offerings seemed a good choice. I got a steelhead quickly on a 10mm White Glow Bead painted Half Hat UV Pink.
Other guys were getting more on Jigs tipped with wax worms, Olive Marabou-Rubber Legs in particular . This style of jig in various colors has become popular at Tippy Dam. I hooked and broke off a steelhead on a similar unbaited jig and another fish pulled off a jig or the bead or rigged behind it.
Further upstream in faster deeper water, using a 10mm Glow Chartreuse bead, I got a 21 inch silver rocket to keep for dinner. Also lost a good fish and caught a 14 inch skipper.
At dusk I moved to the slower shallower water down stream and got this last and biggest fish on a 1/32 oz #6 White Mop Worm Jig. That evening pattern has worked before. As I was leaving I checked in with the guy who started by me just after I caught my mornings first fish. He had landed 9 on the Olive Marabou-Rubber Legs Jig tipped with wax worms.
Most steelhead jig fishermen tip their jigs with a wax worm or two. I occurs to me that a jig tied to look good without a wax worm loses its lifelike shape with a wax worm trailing back from the hook. To make jigs to look good with the wax worm, I could trim the tail shorter and sparser to transition to the wax worm which makes the actual tail of the jig. But some times they do prefer my better looking jigs without the wax worm.
The Big Bead Head Nukes might be good with a wax worm or 2