As many of you know, steelhead fishing has been very good this season. Last week, Bill from Chicago booked me for two days. The first day we did well on the traditional steelhead routine, netting several nice fish. Toward the end of the day Bill says, “Had a great day, but what about tomorrow, can we do something different?”
I tell him that we can try for drop backs and trout in the holes, maybe throw some streamers, we could head to the lower river or we could even try another river.
He asks me, “What about dry flies?”
“No.”
“Can you catch steelhead on the surface?”
I say, “Very rarely and not here,” but I do tell him that a few are caught in the summer and even mention Matt’s fish from last summer.
Bill asks if I’ve ever tried these fish (spring spawners) on the surface. And again I say, “No,” and add, “Bill, these fish often spook when they see an indicator.”
He follows up with, ”Well if you were going to try, what would you use?”
“Bill, it just won’t happen but to answer your question, it would be low light and I’d probably swing a big mouse, but again, surface fishing would be a waste of time.”
Then Bill asks the final question, “Can we try a mouse in the morning?” and I can only say “Yep”.
This post is from April 1st, 2012 and you can view the entire post by clicking here.
