Danjae
Posts: 1821
Joined: 10/28/2001
From: Inverness,FL
Status: offline
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Hello from sunny Florida. Retirement is going great and yes I am still alive. Will be heading home a couple times this season to chase some steel.
The Basics:
Have been fishing steelhead / salmon in Erie for 27 years and in my opinion 90% of the trouble people have in catching steelhead is bad or wrong terminal tackle. The difference between getting hits or standing there wondering "what the heck am I doing wrong" is ALL in the minor details. If the water is high moving fast and a little off color everyone will catch fish regardless. These tips are for the days when the fishing gets tougher. The people that hammer these fish day in and day out no matter what conditions would like you to believe it is their great skill. Don't get me wrong there is a lot of skill and experience involved. Experience helps in detecting the strikes, knowing the difference in how a float acts when it ticks a rock or a steelie has it, knowing where the likely places and seams are and how to drift just right through them and knowing when to strike and to strike fast and to strike whether your sure it is a hit or not and probably 100 other things that we do without even thinking about it. Still in my opinion 90% is your terminal tackle. So I would strongly suggest you get the items listed below for your use.
Line I would go with 61b test clear or green if your using stren or Trilene. My favorite is Yo-Zuri 4lb (is stronger then most brands of 6Ib). I would STRONGLY suggest buying 4X Seaguar grand Max fluro tippet for the final 2-3 feet. Not sure if you have used it before but is awesome stuff. Fluro tipett is mandatory if you want to get the most strikes possible. Reason I suggest 6 Ib test if it isn't Yo-zuri 4lb is that seaguar grand max 4x is rated at 7lb test even though it is smaller diameter then 4lb test. If you use 4lb stren for example it will probably break before the seaguar and will cost you gear. If you use the 4lb yo-zuri the seaguar will break first. Try not to use a swivel to connect the lines, just use a knot to knot connection. Seaguar is like $12.99 for 25 meters but since you only use 2 feet or so at a time it lasts a long time and is worth every cent.
Shiny split shots are horrid and scare fish. Go with micro shot made by black bird, sure shot or english shot…see sizes below, Like $2 a pack. If you feel there is a need to have bigger shot buy a bunch a couple months ahead of time and put them in a open container outside so they oxidize and turn dark losing that "shine".
Hooks go with Daiichi and just buy size 16,s and 18's. Yeah your going to think they are way too small...trust me. No matter what bait you use (except large pieces of skein) they will work perfectly. Main reason for using such a tiny hook is so you can hide it completely. If you use eggs or waxies make sure NO part of that hook is visible ever. If your waxie bunches up so part of the hook is visible thread a new waxie on. Reason I recommend Daiichi is they are very strong and it takes a very high quality hook to not straighten out when you are fighting a steelhead. On the really tough days I will sometimes use a size 22 hook and just thread on a single maggot...bear in mind if you try this fight the fish gently because a size 22 daiichi will straighten out. $3.99 for 25 hooks.
Live type baits. only 4 you need to consider.
Shiners/fatheads/minnows hardly ever use them because I think they are a pain in the rump to carry around but they are an excellent bait.
Skein works great but fresh it is messy lol and I won't use it. I keep 3 hen steelhead a year or so and any female coho I may catch. I cure the skein which makes it easier to handle and that lasts me the season. I use skein mostly two ways. Either with a size 18 hook and a piece of skein the size of a pencil eraser or a tad bigger. Other time skein is good is high very dirty water. In that case I will use a larger hook and a piece 2-4 times marble size. If you can get brown trout skein it is superior to steelhead or salmon skein.
Single local eggs (like at poor Richards) work very well and are my second favorite bait.
My best bait and what I catch 90%+ of my steel head on is wax worms. I go through 1000's of them in a season. I don't know why they work so well but I think it is a combination of color and scent. I know sucker spawn in the same color as wax worms works well.
Flies...I use sucker spawn and egg flies the egg flies I tip with real eggs if the water is stained and has a decent flow. Cream (color of wax worms) orange and pink. Goes without saying but low clear water small to tiny flies high and dirty big and bright. Wolly buggers are always good, Small nymphs work great also. Large flies can be used to annoy the fish into striking in clear water but that is a whole long topic in and of itself. Small jigs are also a great bait either in normal or glow in the dark for night fishing. I especially like the glow in the dark jigs in 1/100 oz at night...real killer in clear water. Use a camera or flashlight to get them glowing...camera flash works much better.
Floats / strike indicators smaller the better. What I use are the second to smallest ones Poor Richards sells.
Orange on top with a natural white styrofoam bottom and a black pin. If the water is high though you will need bigger floats so you can add more weight to get your offering to the bottom in that faster current.
Stealth... Once these fish are in the creeks awhile with low clear water they get educated fast. They are not really spooked most times just disinterested / careful / timid / reluctant?? They have all been hooked numerous times so you have to be clever. The more perfect your terminal tackle, bait, drift and stealth are the more hits you will get...is as simple as that. Take those floats I suggested, natural styrofoam color on the bottom and bright orange on top. They aren't exactly stealthy. If you sand 80% of that orange off down to the white underneath and just leave a small circle of orange around the pin to make them easier to see your better off. I sand all the orange off but my eyes are still pretty sharp. Now take a light blue sharpie (they only make two shades of blue sharpies light and dark you want light) and make the float blue except for the tiny bit of orange you left. Why? Picture yourself as the fish and look up what do you see? a nice sky blue sky. Some say steelhead just see shades of color and not true colors and I have no idea. I don't know if it is that the bobber blends into the sky or if it is just that they have never seen a blue float so they aren't spooked by it. What I do know is it works. I have never seen anyone but me use blue floats lol. You can also use clear plastic floats for the same basic effect. Have tried coloring the floats brown as well and it works equally well, my bet is you could make that float any dull color that is not a normal float color and it would work. Fluro tipett, black bird shot, dull colored floats and tiny sz 18 hooks….catching fish in low clear water is all about stealth.
So if you use the equipment and bait I just suggested all that is left is that 10% technique. Really is only 3 basic things. First vary your leader / float / shot placement length and try it from shallow till the bait is dragging bottom till you find what works. Make sure you don't put the shot to close to the bait or fly, 12 inches minimum and I like 18 inches better. If though your fishing in high dirty water you will need to move the shot closer to the hook even 6 inches or so. The steelhead tend to hold at different depths. Some will be quite close to the surface others in the middle and some on the bottom so by changing depth often you can target all the zones. Second is drift mending your line is crucial. If you just cast out and let your float drift down stream your line will be ahead of the float. It will get a lil bow in it and that will pull your float down the stream faster then the current speed, you can't let it do this. You need to keep flicking your slack upstream during the drift so your slack line is even with or behind your float. Third, Steelhead are big but big does not always translate into hitting hard. Sometimes the strikes can be very light. If your float is rigged for 2 feet deep and your in 3 feet of water all your float may do to indicate a strike is just stop or it may just "wiggle". If it just wiggles once for a second it could be your line bumping into a fish, if it wiggles more then a second or 2 set the hook. When in doubt set the hook. You want as little split as possible on your line between your float and the hook, exact amount will vary with the speed of the current and depth of the water. With that small shot I suggest your bait will sink slower then you think it should but that is what you want. You do need to add shot directly under the float to balance the float so a light take will be enough to make it submerge or at least be noticeable. If you don't add shot under the float when the fish strikes and feels that floats resistance it will either not be noticeable or the fish may just let go. If you make the float barely able to float you have a better chance the fish will hold on that extra second or 2 or will keep taking the float down and that pays off in many more hooked fish.
Night Fishing:
Some people think the steelies won't hit at night and that is their loss. You can only fish Walnut and Elk after
1 0:00pm and only north of route 5. What I would do if I was you is first go to Walmart and buy a pack of glow sticks (sporting goods dept). They are 1.5 inch cyclamine sticks that you bend and shake and they glow...if you didn't know that lol. Adapt a small bobber to hold them. I use the smallest styrofoam cigar shaped floats walmart sells...red top white bottom with a red plastic pin in the top. I drill the foam floats out so the glow stick acts as the pin. You will be able to see your float on the water very easily with the so detecting strikes is easy. Far as bait/lure glow jigs kick butt, they are just tiny 1/64th or 1/100 or 1/200oz jigs that glow in the dark just light them up with a flashlight or camera flash which is what I use and works much better. Is no need to use a tipett at night with these jigs. The smaller the jig is the better they work. If you have to go down to 1/200 jigs fight the fish gently because the hooks are quite weak. I don't believe you can buy the 1/100 or 1/200 glow jigs already tied anywhere so hopefully you know how to tie them (if not i'm sure we could work something out if you wanted some but very easy to tie). You can buy the 1/100 oz jig heads and the glow in the dark flashabou at Poor Richards, the smaller size jigheads are mail order only. Poor Richards sells the glow in the dark flashabou in white orange and green...white works best. You can tip the jigs with wax worms if desired which sometimes helps. You can also catch them at night on bait as well. Once it gets daylight go with the suggestions in the Basics text.
So list is:
Tipett: Seaguar Grand max fluro carbon in 4X lib test 25 meters $12.99 back wall of Poor Richards.
Split shot: black bird, Sure Shot or english splits $1.99 right in front of the bobbers by the door on the front face ofthe shelf. You will know them when you see them...very small, black and non removable. Size you want is #6 .11gram or #4.20gram the #4.20gram is probably best.
Floats: orange top white bottom black pin smallest of that type they have and get a larger size if the water is high. Across from cash register. Like 45 cents each.
Hooks: Daiichi size 18 right behind floats on the wall $3.99 for 25 hooks.
Bait: You can either buy the wax worms in a Iil container with 25 in them (buy a few) or a tub of waxies for $8 and is like 250...best bet if you have a few guys or you will be fishing more then a day. You can ask them for some film cans if you buy a tub so you can break them up between your group.
Single local eggs are right by the register. Pick the size container you want, small or large.
They also sell minnows and skein if you want to use them. Remember minnows are a great bait especially if your new to this. Even if you make a lot of mistakes with technique they will still smack that wiggling minnow.
Should say I have nothing to do with Poor Richards it is just my shop of choice and Gary and Dot are very good people and I know they carry everything I suggested you purchase. You of course can purchase the items I mention anywhere, your not required to purchase it from Poor Richards
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