Summer steelhead? I know what you’re thinking, he’s crazy the only place to get summer steelhead is either the lake or places like the Salmon river or on the West coast. Well, let me put it to you this way, today was not the day to wear my thick fleece pants under my waders. I now have a good man stink working, and after getting back into the car for the ride home I know why. Can you say SEVENTY Degrees in early April! This explains the summer reference. Who in there right mind would wear fleece pants under there waders in summer. Nobody! (except for me of course) Well, enough about the weather. The fishing was pretty good. I started at the bridge and worked my way down fishing an egg pattern under a strike indicator. The water was perfect, with just a little stain to it. Clear enough to see the bottom in the riffle and run sections but not in the deeper pools. After I caught a creek chub on the egg I switched to a #8 bead chain white woolly bugger under the indicator. Just as I lost sight of the bridge going down stream around the bend, my indicator dipped and I set up on a nice steelhead. After some vigorous head shakes and a small run the fish came off. Before I headed back up to the run to check it for more fish, I saw a glimpse of red on the side of a large steelhead making its way into the run from the tail out of the pool. I quickly made a cast, then another, and then finally the right drift produced a take. There is nothing like seeing a big male steelhead turn to take you’re fly! Fish on! About a minute later, after a few head shakes and runs, he threw the fly. Upon examining the fly I noticed it must have embedded into a couple of nice sized rock fish. After retying and not seeing anymore fish I headed downstream. After a nice long walk, and no fish to show for my efforts I headed back upstream in hopes of finding a few more steelhead in that riffle section. Do I need to tell you what happened next? I saw three fish holding in different spots in the riffle section and made a cast to a nice big steelhead that was nearest to me. I saw the steelhead move and take my woolly bugger, FISH ON! How cool is this! After 7 or 8 minutes battling back and forth complete with head shakes and quick runs, I beached a beautiful and fat 29″ male steelhead. I guessed the weight of the fish to be around 12 lbs. After that battle I now realized I was drenched and not with water, but my own sweat (see first paragraph about summer steelhead.) What a way to end an exciting morning. All the fish I saw and hooked were good sized. I must have gone to the right spot! Can’t wait for my next outing! – Brian
Hey bfly – welcome to fliesandfins.com .. I am sure you will feel right at home, as there are plenty of Great Lakes steelhead addicts here .. Anyway, great fishtale and nice fish … Pretty killer being able to see the steel take the fly .. White wooly bugger under and indie .. hmm? will have to try that. do you susepend the fly and fish it like a pin fisherman or do you have a long leader with shot that ticks bottom? just curious as to how you fish the indie .. In the creeks, I sometimes fish the fly suspended with a pin fisherman type setup; works good. Oh ya, you know what would have happened though if you wore a t-shirt and shorts under your waders right? You would have got way down river, and a cloud would have come overhead a cold front from the noth would have swooped in and the temp would have dropped and lake effect snow would have kicked in and you would have been freezzing … well, that’s probably what would have happened to me .. every time I take of layers and leave them in the car … I get way down stream and things change for the colder … good luck next time out.
Welcome to fliesandfins! Great looking steelhead and great read.
Bfly-
Thats a fatty. Sounds like a fun day on the water. I always say you can take a layer off but you can’t put one on. Good read.
Jeremy,
Thanks for the official welcome!
I fish the fly under an indicator just like i would for inland trout streams. I either fish a heavily weighted fly with no additional weight or add a few small split shot about eight inches above my unweighted fly. In the case of fishing the beadchain eyed woolly bugger under an indicator….i add two small split shot about 8 to 10 inches above the fly just and the weight of those beadchain eyes keep the woolly right where it needs to be…in front of the fish. I then set my indicator to match the depth of the water from the split shot, allowing the beadchain woolly to work the small ups and downs of the stream bed. This method has worked exceptionally well for steelhead out here in western NY. In fact…there are times when black works really well(winter mostly) The white woolly has been outstanding this spring!! I hope this answers you’re question.
Brian Bradfield