Tips and Tidbits
Steelhead Trout Fishing: How to Hook the Monster Rainbow
For many anglers, the steelhead trout is the holy grail of fishes. Steelhead trout are among the most beautiful—and most difficult—trout species to catch anywhere in the United States, especially when fly fishing.
A steelhead is different from other, usually smaller rainbow trout because it's an anadromous fish—it runs from the rivers or lakes where it is born out into the open ocean, then returns upriver as a much larger adult ready to spawn. The native range of the steelhead is the Pacific Northwest, yet today it can also be found in the Great Lakes, where the massive rainbows continue to follow instinctive reproductive patterns by returning to freshwater rivers and small tributaries to begin anew.
Interestingly, while Great Lakes steelhead fishing and traditional Northwest steelhead fishing are related, the environments, as you can imagine, are dramatically different. Great Lakes tributaries where steelhead run are often small streams, strewn with deadfall and other natural obstacles. In the Northwest, on the other hand, steelhead often rush through wide-open, brawling rivers.
While the settings are different, the technique is similar. The classic Northwest fly fishing method to catching a steelie is to "swing" a streamer fly (like an egg-sucking leech, a Muddler Minnow, or a Green-Butt Skunk) through a run. Cast across the current, mend your line so the fly sinks, and hold tight as the leech swings through the current. This fly fishing technique also works on the larger rivers of the Midwest, where anglers use egg flies and wigglers on nymph rigs with strike indicators. With the wigglers, the bite happens quickly though subtly as the flies drift through deep pools.
Steelhead run based on the season. In the Northwest, summer and winter runs (which usually have larger fish) are the norm. Summer steelhead are best caught with floating lines and streamer flies. In the Midwest, the steelhead run starts in the fall, lasts through the winter, and peaks in the spring. Again, streamer flies such as black woolly buggers and leeches often work best. But wigglers and other heavy-weighted nymph flies also yield good results.
In either setting, the angler can also hook steelhead by running artificial egg imitations, like corkies, leeches and even live baits (where permitted) through deep runs.
As someone raised on the Great Lakes, I've always taken offense when anyone says that brand of steelhead fishing isn't "the real deal." Spend a day in a March snowstorm in Michigan casting around the stumps in the river for wild rainbow trout, and you'll get an appreciation for just how challenging and authentic this game can be.
I've also spent many days challenging these tough fish in Northwest rivers from Oregon to Alaska, and there's definitely something uniquely alluring about the pure pursuit of native fish on the rivers they've owned for eons.
In the end, steelhead fishing tends to bring out the best in any angler—fly fisher or gear fisher, Northwest or Midwest. It's something that must be experienced to be fully understood and appreciated. So if you haven't chased steelhead on the fly yet, put it on your "must-do" list. You won't be disappointed.
