Never fished for steelhead
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Forum Post Guidelines: This Forum is rated “Family Friendly”. Civil discussions are encouraged and welcomed. Name calling, negative, harassing, or threatening comments will be removed and may result in suspension or IP Ban without notice. Please refer to the Terms of Service and Forum Guidelines post for more information. Thank you
Never fished for steelhead
I need some advice as to the best places and the best gear...please help fellow Washintonians
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littleriver
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RE:Never fished for steelhead
This is a highly, highly subjective topic.....
I don't fish for steelhead that often anymore (too many lakes, too many different kinds of fish, not enough time) but keep up with reports and rumors and all the chit chat.. that kind of thing.......
If you don't mind crowds probably the best place right now is blue creek on the Cowlitz.. they just moved the hatchery outlet so it's bringing the fish in right next to the boat ramp..... there's a 100 foot no fish zone around this outlet but this change has totally changed the dynamics of fishing the cowlitz for steelhead.... right now the bank fishermen are doing better than the boat fishermen and one of the bank techniques is using plug behind side planers....
but it seems like every river has it's own personality in regards to where and how to fish......
as a general rule it's tough to beat a sand shrimp on a slow drift below a slip bobber... you will definitly want to get rigged up that way...
if you have a boat you will want one rig set up for "boondoggling"... (long rod, spinning reel, and then a #2 gami tied on the end of a long leader behind a slip sinker arrangement.. don't need that much weight.... just keep the boat moving slowing against the current and cast upstream.... adjust boat speed and sinker weight until you are always feeling a slight tap tap of the sinker bouncing along the bottomm..
some guys swear by pink plastic worms... i've tried them but never done very well, but probably didn't have them rigged correctly...
another popular and effective method is to simply plunk spin/glows with sand shrimp impaled on the hooks....
I don't fish for steelhead that often anymore (too many lakes, too many different kinds of fish, not enough time) but keep up with reports and rumors and all the chit chat.. that kind of thing.......
If you don't mind crowds probably the best place right now is blue creek on the Cowlitz.. they just moved the hatchery outlet so it's bringing the fish in right next to the boat ramp..... there's a 100 foot no fish zone around this outlet but this change has totally changed the dynamics of fishing the cowlitz for steelhead.... right now the bank fishermen are doing better than the boat fishermen and one of the bank techniques is using plug behind side planers....
but it seems like every river has it's own personality in regards to where and how to fish......
as a general rule it's tough to beat a sand shrimp on a slow drift below a slip bobber... you will definitly want to get rigged up that way...
if you have a boat you will want one rig set up for "boondoggling"... (long rod, spinning reel, and then a #2 gami tied on the end of a long leader behind a slip sinker arrangement.. don't need that much weight.... just keep the boat moving slowing against the current and cast upstream.... adjust boat speed and sinker weight until you are always feeling a slight tap tap of the sinker bouncing along the bottomm..
some guys swear by pink plastic worms... i've tried them but never done very well, but probably didn't have them rigged correctly...
another popular and effective method is to simply plunk spin/glows with sand shrimp impaled on the hooks....
Fish doesn't smell "fishy" because it's fish. Fish smells "fishy" when it's rotten.
RE:Never fished for steelhead
My suggestion to you:
http://www.piscatorialpursuits.com/forum/ubbthreads.php?
Sign up for that forum and go to the Northwest Fishing Board section...Those guys will help you out...That crowd is almost exclusively rivers/saltwater and hence salmon/steelhead, and they are a great group of guys...I'm a member over there as well, and am up to like 1400 posts...
Before washingtonlakes.com had the whole remodel, the wl.com forum was connected with the Piscatorial Pursuits forum...
http://www.piscatorialpursuits.com/forum/ubbthreads.php?
Sign up for that forum and go to the Northwest Fishing Board section...Those guys will help you out...That crowd is almost exclusively rivers/saltwater and hence salmon/steelhead, and they are a great group of guys...I'm a member over there as well, and am up to like 1400 posts...
Before washingtonlakes.com had the whole remodel, the wl.com forum was connected with the Piscatorial Pursuits forum...
Don't chase reports...Be the report others chase....