Steelhead

[Stagger_Lee]

Personally not going there yet but I was cruising the interwebz last night and I read an article on the orvis blog site. Stated searching youtube and it looks kinda cool. Correct me if I'm wrong but casting and rods look a lil different, why?

How many of you guys fish for steelhead and what do you think of it compared to trout and WW fishing?

 

[beeber2]

I like to fish for steel but need to get out more. They put up a great fight. I wish there were more steel fishing close by.

 

[David]

Not sure what you mean by " casting and rods seem different" as I didn't see the videos you have.

Rods are typical fly rods at 6-8 wt for pa steelhead. Some prefer a 10' rod, by a 9 footer works perfectly well. Casting in pa tribs is usually a short range game. The fish hold close to the bottom, so sufficient weight is required to get the presentation down (this may be what you are referring to if you saw a flip cast as opposed to a nice backcast with tight loop.). There certainly will be times, though, when a long cast with fine (weightless) presentation is required.

Much of PA fishing is sight fishing. The fish are big, strong, and can put on an aerial show. It isn't typical trout fishing with the crowds of people and the size of the rods... But they are trout and will take your typical trout flies... Nymphs, eggs, streamers.

 

[Fishidiot]

Stagger_Lee wrote:
Personally not going there yet but I was cruising the interwebz last night and I read an article on the orvis blog site. Stated searching youtube and it looks kinda cool. Correct me if I'm wrong but casting and rods look a lil different, why?

Stagger,
Based on what you describe, I'm guessing you saw pics and video from the western US. This is where steelhead are native. They have been introduced to the Great Lakes in recent decades. Out in the Pacific northwest, folks fish big rivers for these fish - a "steelhead" is just a rainbow trout that has lived in the ocean and runs into a river to spawn like salmon. Because of the size of these western rivers, anglers use a special type of fly rod called a "spey rod" which looks different and is cast differently.
Here in PA, steelhead fishing is confined to streams that are often not much bigger than Valley Creek so the spey rods aren't necessary. Steelhead in PA are confined to the few streams that drain into Lake Erie. Folks here in PA often refer to these streams around Erie simply as the "tribs." On the Erie tribs, you will see a few fishermen using a strange looking rod called a "center-pin." There's a big debate over whether center pins are really fly fishing but they sort of resemble fly rods and are becoming popular on the tribs. Maybe that's what you saw if the video you watched was actual Great Lakes fishing.

 

[Heritage-Angler]

Stagger - Here's a video made by Skybay from last year's PAFF Steelhead Jam in Erie.

 

[DJBerg]

Yesterday I went up to Chautauqua creek here in western ny, and of the few guys I saw fishing, there were two with standard spinning poles, one guy with a float rig( 13' soft spinning pole), and a few fly guys with fly rods.

As far as I have gathered, if you have an 7wt or heavier, and a 9' or longer fly pole, your gonna do just fine. Of course a longer pole will keep more line off the water to give you more options for a drag free drift.

As for my self, I started with an 8wt pole so I'm covered... And evn better than that, broke two 8wt poles in my first few months of fishing! So the other day I put together a frankinstien rod, three pieces of my scientific anglers and the tip section from a 2 piece st croix avid. All said and done I have a 9'9" drift fly rod now, and no you don't absolutely need a longer pole but holy cow you can keep 3' more of line off be water for fishing the other side of a riffle so much easier!

And as for what to throw at them, fly wise I have learned this, early runs like say now streamers and boogers. But once it really gets cold, thier stomaches shrink, they slow down movement wise(exert less energy), and live off of body fat. While eating small "standard" trout stream food ie; fish eggs, nymphs, and what ever else is in the tribs, that is the standard biological food chain.

So pretty much to sum up my personal gathered info on steeleheading...

8wt pole 9-10', big fish food early, then standard stream food once they get into full swing running. Find a trib, go early, get away from the easy access areas(unless you like cuddling while fishing), and fish your heart out. Right now it's the very first part of fall Steele runs and it will only get better from here.

Stick to your research learn as much as you can, if your like me, practice your nymph drifting, the better you are he better your odds. And if your only going to do one weekend trip to fish Steele, be patient and wait a month... Believe me it's killing me waiting and costing me a lot of fuel running up there every morning after we get any rain...

Though as I keep going up early I always meet someone new, and gather a bit more advise...

Good luck my friend!

DJ

 

[Stagger_Lee]

@ Fishidiot .. yes tons of videos from Oregon where they cast with two hands (one on the bottom of the rod, and some harry poter like twirl prior to the cast. That is why it seemed so intimidating to me as I'm trying to 'perfect' all the cast that go along with trout and WW fishing.

Totally different from the video Ed posted. I'll post one when I'm home and off my phone

 

[streamerguy]

Yep, those are two-handed or spey rods used for "swinging" streamers on bigger rivers. Like Fishindiot said, there's really no use for them on the PA tribs, but they're getting popular on the OH tribs. The reason for the fancy casts is mainly because there's not enough room behind you to cast that much line using an overhead cast. Spey casts are pretty much glorified roll casts in a way, and there's special fly lines you use.