Steelhead..how eay are they to catch and how do you? What about egg patterns dead drifted along the bottom? And I would like to catch fish kind of often and not stand there for hours and catch at most one..what should I expect?
Steelhead, how easy and how
Steelhead..how eay are they to catch and how do you? What about egg patterns dead drifted along the bottom? And I would like to catch fish kind of often and not stand there for hours and catch at most one..what should I expect?
DeaDrift,
Flyfishing for steelhead is fishing for single or solitary fish and not a school of fish. What you want to do is learn how to flyfish catching trout, bluegill, crappie and some people even fish for carp.
If someone could teach you how to catch steelhead, that would be great!
The worst fishing day of my whole life was a guide trip I took yrs ago to learn how to fish for steelhead. We fished all day in hot weather and came up with a big ZERO!!! What did I learn?? How to MEND my line and get heat stroke at the same time!!!! Wow! what fun!!!
You know your in trouble when your experienced guide doesn't catch any fish. It was interesting to listen to his 200 Merc jet run as we went upriver. It sounded like a washing machine. I'm probably wrong but whoever decided to take the prop of the outboard and attach a jet pump, must not have liked mechanical things very much.
Dream about catching steelhead in your spare time and learn how to catch smaller fish first.
Doug
Enjoying the joys of others and suffering with them- these are the best guides for man. A.E.
Doug..Can I call you doug? If not im sorry..I can catch other fish, and I understand what your talking about with the single fish thing..But from what I heard is that when steelhead come up the creeks to spawn they do not take food as much..that they are very finicky(sp)..can you hook them really quick with dead drifting eggs and cast and retrieve streamers.
DeaDrift,
You can call me Doug. There has always been arguments about wether steelhead eat when they enter streams.
I have witnessed on two fishing trips, steelhead actually eating.
One fish rose to the surface and ate my dry fly and on another trip I watched my brother hook a steelhead on the Nestucca river when the fish ate his crawfish meat offering. That steelhead went crazy and jumped 3 times and threw the hook.
If you want to bait fish for steelhead then I would use eggs, sand shrimp or crawfish meat.
There is someone on this BB that I think could help you and that is Chris Chin. I think Chris is busy fishing but you might be able to e-mail him and see what he thinks about flyfishing for steelhead. He lives in Canada and I think he fishes for Atlantic Salmon. Look for one of his posts and look at his profile. Chris is one of the best posters on this board.
Also do a web search about steelhead fishing and you will see some amazing photos of British Columbia Steelhead.
Good Luck!
Doug
Enjoying the joys of others and suffering with them- these are the best guides for man. A.E.
You have picked a hard nut to crack for your first fish if it is that?
I fished for Steelhead for a lot of years back when we use to make our own shooting heads with leadcore line. You can have 20 fish in a pool or run and see them and never get them to take anything you offer. Or you may take a fish or two. That is up to the god's that be and to your ability to cast and fish your flies the way they should be fished.
I guess what I am saying is don't expect to catch fish your first few times out. If you do you will be very lucky if fishing on your own. Best take a guide and make sure it is in the best time to be on the stream you pick.
We use to have a guy that would call us when the fish were in. In so doing we would not drive for 15 hour's for nothing.
It would be best to have the right equipment before you hit the rivers for Steelhead to. Without it you will lose a lot of fish. You can find that information on web-site for the area you are going to fish. Different areas like different equipment and have different way's to set it up. I would suggest having a reel that will handle at least 150 yards of 30 test backing plus the line. If you don't have that and hook up with the wrong fish you will for sure lose your line and probably your backing to. Trout equipment does not work well for steelheading Period. Yes there are those that use it but it is not the best equipment for the job and will cost you a lot of fish in the end.
If you are expecting to catch fish when Steelheading and being new to fishing for them good luck. You will be a lot better off fishing for other types of fish.
Like you have been told read all you can and try to learn from what you read. There is a ton of information on the net for you to go over before you hit any streams. If you were in the west you would fish much differently than you will for Great Lakes fish. I have done both and they "Are" very much differnt styles of fishing. I think the Great Lakes style of Steelheading is much easier. But that is just my opinion.
Just to show how it can go. We were standing on a small bridge over a small stream in Northeastern Wisconsin, Just shooting the bull. One of the guy's kicked some small gravel into the pool under the bridge and I will be danged if a Buck of about 8 pounds didn't move so we could see it. I grabbed my rod and went down and flipped the fly over that fish and he took on the first cast. That was the only fish we saw all day and the only one caught in two day's of hard fishing. I have a picture of that fish over my tying area. I hope this gives you the idea. It Ain't easy my friend. Be prepaired for that. If you don't you are bound to be disappointed. Good luck. Ron
You can have good and bad days fishing for Steel or any fish for that matter - no matter how experienced you are. Fly fishing requires patience. I think you need to be prepared to spend time learning the process rather than looking for what might be considered instant results or gratification. Enjoy the mystery, learning and accomplishment of the sport.
Re: Steelhead, how easy and how
I can sort of answer this question with a resounding; maybe, if your really lucky. I started Steelheading about 4 years ago on the great Lakes tributaries (Wis. mostly) and for the first 2 years all I did was a lot of casting and mending practice. Yup, that?s right a grand total of zero fish in two years of trying. Granted the season is rather short (in comparison to other species) for that fish, but still. What I did that greatly improved my catching vs. just fishing was to pick a river system and learn it and learn it well. I picked up a couple books that helped me to figure out likely holding spots, habits and just a general idea of how Steelhead are born, migrate and things like that.Originally Posted by DeaDrift
If I had it to do over, I would do it just the same as I have learned many significant things, and I did it on my own which to me is far more satisfying then going with a guide. But if you don?t have the time and you have the money, then by all means get a guide, as they will sort of ?fast track? you to all the things that I learned by flogging water.
One thing that I had to learn and accept is that having a 1 or 2 fish day is really a good and satisfying day, any more then that would just be more then I could ask for. They just aren?t like resident stream trout where one could have a 20+ fish day.
As far as what flies to use, really depends on the conditions. For our (my) Steelhead waters, low and clear usually means small nymphs and egg patterns, and this usually occurs in the early part of the run. High and stained waters will find me swinging streamers and leech type patterns. Spring time when they are dropping back is really a good time as they become hungry and will smack a streamer pattern swung. The only thing about spring Steelheading for me is I don?t care much for trudging through thigh deep snow to get to good waters, but that?s just me.
Bottom line; learning to read the water is key to success.
Just my experience,
Mike
Interesting post...I don't believe I have ever seen the words "steelhead" and "easy" in the same sentence.....
Dead drifting egg patterns or nymphs with split shot and an indicator is, IMO the worst way to catch steelhead. Not because it isn't effective - you'll hook your share of fish - but because this method targets the most lethargic fish in the run. That is, the ones who are resting from just having moved into a holding lie or (more likely, given the obscene amount of fishing pressure on WNY steelhead creeks) has just been caught and released and is in need of rest.
Fishing a streamer-type fly (wooly bugger, egg-sucking leech, etc) either weighted or on a sink-tip targets the most aggressive fish, the one that's well rested and full of p*$$ and vinegar. He's the one that will show you what steelheading's all about and more than likely test your backing knot. An egg or nymph usually won't get this aggressive fish angry enough to strike, but a #4 bunny leech in his face will. Virtually every time, the wet-fly hooked steelhead will outfight the egg-hooked one.
The best reference books on steelheading I know of used to be available from (FAOL sponser) Amato Publishing (they may be currently out of print) - Greased Line Fishing for Salmon (Jock Scott) and Dry Line Steelhead by Bill McMillan. Pay special attention to the chapter on "Deep-Sunk Fly" in the Scott book, and while McMillan writes about West Coast fishing, his advice applies to Great Lakes fish as well.
If all you want is numbers, fish eggs. If you want to call yourself a proper steelheader, use proper flies. I'll get off my soapbox now.
If you're fishing Great Lakes tribs, the fishing is relatively easy. The creeks are usually not large raging rivers and, due to stocking, some get enourmous runs of fish. Fishing a nymphing rig with small egg patterns or nymphs will hook plenty of fish. Streamers will also be effective. Keep in mind typical Great Lakes fly rod steelheading is very disimilar to western steelheading. In most cases you're not seeking out a couple of solitary fish in big water. More likely, you'll be fishing over pods of 10 or more (often much more) fish that are holding in a well defined lie.
In short, Great Lakes Steelhead are numerous, easily accesable, and easy to hook. If you can catch trout on streamers and nymphs, you can catch steelhead in the east.
Western Steelhead are not so easy.
Kev
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