Hooks
Winter steelhead are large, tough fish weighing up to 10 pounds. Sharp hooks are required to successfully reel them in. They come by the name steelhead honestly: theirs is a tough skin to penetrate. It is easy to get complacent and ignore the end of the hook that you use regularly enough to dull it. Keep a file on hand and make sure the point is razor sharp to get the steelhead firmly hooked on the end of your line. If the hook doesn't get all the way through, the steelhead will still be able to spit it out and get away.
Location
Follow experienced winter steelhead angler Brian MacArthur's advice and take the time to really get to know a local steelhead river. You might get lucky on a single first trip and land a full limit of fish, but your best bet for continued, regular success is to know every nook and cranny of the water and where the steelhead are likely to be lurking.
Conditions
Pay careful attention to the weather. Winter steelhead differ from summer run of steelhead in that the weather you find them is extremely cold so the water is icy cold as well. On days where weather remains stable, even from overnight to day, and water temperatures do not fluctuate more than a degree or two, steelhead will have less desire to move about or eat. However, after a winter storm as the weather warms just enough to make a few degrees of change in the water you will see more activity. Further, even on days with no drastic change between night and day temperatures you may still find a solid bite at the warmest part of the afternoon around 1 or 2 p.m.
No comments:
Post a Comment