Where to fish

    Hello All,
I am new to fly fishing for steelhead and was wondering where the best place to fish this time of year might be - fast water or pools.

Any help would be great.

"If your flyfishing you NEED to be in the fast riffles and runs."
 
What brings you to this conclusion?

spoonchucker
Sounds like flirod4evr wants the holes to himself.

Pgh Kid
They will be in the holes for the most part this time of year. The best advise is don't think of them as steelhead that need to be fished differently. Think of them as trout. It worked for me thinking like that.

Pgh Kid,
      Although this may sound boring:  First find a hole with fish in it. Steel are big.  Unless the water is very cloudy you will be able to see the fish you are after. For steelhead you will primarily be fishing nymphs, and buggers.  You want to weight your line above the fly with just enough weight to get the fly down to where the fish are without too much drag or the fly floating away. (I like one small shot 6" above the fly, another 2' above that and a third (heavier, at the surface just below my strike indicator) This takes experimentation. Change small split shot at differing heights above your fly till you obtain a drift that is as close to the fishes' depth as possible.  If you are just beginning, a large fly like a bugger works well as a visual aid.  Next you will want to use some type of float (strike indicator) to show you when the movement of your fly changes.  Sometimes steelhead will take softer than a stocked rainbow.  If you do fish a different fly; sucker spawn or single glow eggs seem to work best most of the time.  The key is to practice and to adjust your fishing to the conditions.  Try to observe what the other fishermen are doing, and ask questions.  There are a lot of very helpful people on the tribs.  The advice about them being just big trout is very sage.

Good point Spoon.  I caught fish today in slow, deep pools that still had a decent drift.  With a fly rod of course.

Almost forgot- http://www.midcurrent.com/articles/flies/soucie_woolly_buggers.aspx
 

When i started  i fished anywhere i could anytime i could

Pgh kid,
      In much of the water the bottom of the pool is moving slower than the surface of the pool due to drag from the bottom, depth, or obstructions (stones)  Therefore it takes less weight to keep a fly on the bottom but it takes a heavier weight (total) to buck the surface current.  So if you space out the shot (small) you will be able to get a decent drift without dragging the bottom, plus you can get the line down through the fast water on the surface.  If you look closely the fish will usually be holding at a certain depth range and you want your fly in that range.  That's why you observe and experiment.  A big weight will get the fly down but will also result in an unnatural drift.  You want the fly to float with the current or a little slower.  A fly that's anchored to the bottom has less chance of attracting a strike.
       A while back somebody else posted a diagram of the correct weighting.  It's on an old post somewhere.  Don't be afraid to change or slide the weghts around to discover what is best for any given hole.

Spoon,
      You're leading the boy over to the "Dark Side".  And I thought you were one of the good jedi's.

Pete M
Those are some great articals.

thanks 2dog