STEELHEAD
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Oncorhynchus mykiss
a.k.a sea-run rainbow, steelhead trout, steelie |
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quiet: Spring steelies require stealth |
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TROUT
TIP:
REGULATIONS |
| This
can never be stressed enough: Carefully read over
the rules of the game for the area you will be fishing,
taking particular note of such things as season-opening
dates, creel limits, slot sizes, bait restrictions
and other special regulations and exceptions. Not
only will this help you from running afoul of the
law, it will also serve to protect the very fisheries
the regs are designed to enhance. Contact information
for obtaining regulations from all provinces and
territories in Canada can be found at our
Web site |
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To Aaron
Shirley, stealth and early-season steelhead are synonymous.
The 33-year-old guide from Burlington, Ontario, says many rivers
are running low and clear by the time steelhead season opens,
forcing anglers to make a stealthy approach and presentation
if they want to be successful. He targets fast pockets of water
and deep pools close to rivermouths.
“This is when I employ stealthy
tactics, such as the long-forgotten bottom-bouncing method,
with good success,” says Shirley, who guides anglers on
Lake Erie, Lake Ontario and the Niagara River. And when the
fishing gets tough, he uses a nine-foot rod and a spinning reel
spooled with six-pound monofilament and three-pound Maxima Ultragreen
leader.
At the business end, he fastens
a splitshot (just big enough to “tick” along the
bottom) two feet above the hook. To entice the fish, he uses
a small egg sack, fly, single Exude or U-B Fishin’ rubber
egg, or a yarn fly spiked with Dr. Juice scent. When conditions
aren’t perfect, Shirley also likes drifting a two- to
four-inch Storm or Exude pink worm. Or he’ll cast Blue
Fox and Mepps spinners.
On the West Coast, steelhead guru
Barry Thornton draws on 45 years of steelhead experience when
offering advice on early-season fishing. “Steelhead fishing
is easy, providing the steelheader hunts for his fish, never
stays too long in one location, always casts to precise locations,
fishes his terminal tackle on the bottom and remembers the power
of these trophy trout,” says Thornton, who’s written
several books on these silver beauties, including Steelhead:
The Supreme Trophy Trout.
He suggests fishing lower reaches
of rivers or streams—close to the ocean or the Great Lakes—and
focusing on pools. In each pool, efforts should be concentrated
in the tailout, followed by the main pool and head of the pool.
Although Thornton, 65, now fly-fishes
exclusively (red, pink and black flies are best), he learned
how to fish for steelhead using bait and lures; he recommends
rubber latex worms, imitation eggs and silver spoons in the
tailout.
A final word of caution: early-season
steelhead are explosive, Thornton warns, and will do everything
in their power to break off once hooked. So what do you do when
you hook into them? “Let them run." 
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