Steelhead Fishing Tips & Tactics

Spin Rods

Steelhead are powerful fish, and cheap equipment can bring your fishing trip to a quick end. Use a quality 8- to 13-foot, medium-action to fast-action spinning rod, preferably graphite. Use 10- to 20-lbs test line, depending on the size of fish you are expecting to find your line. Float fishing is typically done with a 10- to 13-foot rod, while regular cast fishing can be done with rods 8 to 9 feet long.

Reading the Water

Knowing where steelhead hold will help you target casts successfully. Steelhead often hold in slower waters below a large boulder or a downed tree. Often steelhead are in the shallows right along the bank, especially in murky waters, so be mindful of your presence as you enter and move around in the water. Look to present baits in places they would typically be found in the water.

Natural Baits

Steelhead are attracted to a wide variety of row or spawn from salmon, brown trout or rainbow trout, as well as egg sucking leeches and wooly buggars. Fish eggs are versatile baits because you can use them individually or tie multiple together in colorful mesh netting.

Free Floating

In slower waters, cast your line with float, weight, leader and spinner slightly up stream and feel for the lure touching bottom. As your floater drifts back down stream in-line with your body, free your spool and allow the current to take your line farther down stream. You should feel your lure touching ground intermittently.

Lead Head Jigs

Because steelhead are usually right on the bottom of the river bed, traditional lures rely on some type of weight on the line above the lure to bring them down to the strike zone. These lures, however, can take awhile to sink, and if you see an opportunity developing, you don't want to miss it. Lead headed jigs will take you to the strike zone immediately.

Spinners

When using a spinning lure to fish steelhead, you want to make sure that your blade isn't spinning overly or unnaturally fast. Remember the blade is meant to mimic something the fish would like to eat as it swims or floats through the water. Use smaller blades in slower waters (2 and 3), medium-sized blades (4s and 5s) in medium-flowing water and larger spinners in faster water (5 to 7).

Dead Floating

This technique involves setting the line below your floater deeper than the water you are fishing in order to snag bottom intentionally. As you intermittently work the line free of different snags, your spinner will be moving erratically, and this can attract steelhead.

Reel Counterbalance

Typically steelhead put up a fight, and they can really run in the water. Running fish can pull the line off your reel incredibly fast, even when fishing in such confined spaces as rivers and streams. Make sure your reel has a counterbalance on it.

Fish Attractants

Fish attractants can be effective to mask human scent and other odors that steelhead find offensive. Oil-based attractants may prove tasty to steelhead and may increase attention to your lure. When shopping for attractants, keep in mind that most are designed for warm waters and may have little to no effect in the cooler steelhead habitats. Many common chemical based attractants can also repel steelhead.