The toughest part of learning steelheading.

Jennie@ifish · 12-06-2001, 05:46 PM

When you first started to get into steelhead, do you remember the things that were the hardest to learn?
For me, it was learning a casting reel.
I remember taking my reel to Coffenbury lake, and having all the trout fishermen there teach me. I was so proud of my new Christmas present from my Dad. It was SO frustrating though! You have to learn all over again!
It was kind of like learning to wear contacts. It hurts! The doctor told me "ANYONE can learn to wear contacts, if they want to badly enough!" True... so true. I wanted to really badly! I kept it up. But I remember so many times wanting to go back to my old spinning reel. So many times on the river picking out birds nests or trying to figure out what this button does, and what this button does and.... darn! There is another birds nest!

It was also tough learning to feel for bottom. My Dad finally told me, no matter what I felt, it may be a steelie, so pull up on it a bit. If it's a fish, you'll know!

Back bouncing took me a while too.
It still takes me a while sometimes! Sometimes I think I am getting my rig way out there only to find out I have a big belly in my line and my lure is right in front of the boat. GRR!

The other thing, would have to be sorting out bites, between, smolt, steelies, cutts, and SNAGS!

Jen

Snapshot · 12-06-2001, 08:36 PM

Jennie, after all that learning, It sure had been worth it. I going through the same time. just took my two son in laws to the NF Lewis over Thanksgiving and helped them all day. Felt like I was learning all over again. Sure was nice to see them with their first old silvers though. By the time I got home I had respooled on casting reel and just cut the line off the other. Kinda reminded me of taking the girls out for the first time. Was it worth it? ABSOLUTELY

David Johnson · 12-06-2001, 10:20 PM

Snapshot,

Just think, while guiding that stuff can happen every few days or so.

BlueWater · 12-06-2001, 11:26 PM

The hardest part is getting out there and just hitting the water and trying new things till you hook a fish. Like David J mentioned in a post awile back, do not hit the water too hard yet and wait for the run to get going.
I use to pound the water so much early in the season. By the time the fishing was just starting to pick up I was so depreased and discouraged form not catching fish I gave up before it got good. Steelhead for me are my most elusive catch compaired to the other fish I go for but every year I go I learn something. I guess what I am saying is, you can't learn if you don't go but go at the right time.

BlueWater.

RichH · 12-07-2001, 03:40 AM

For me it was learning to tell what was a bite while drift fishing. I can remember going over to the salmon river by Lincoln City in the days that they used to stock it and watching everyone catch fish but me. I can still see it as I would toss my corky and eggs into a likely looing slot and give it a half@ssed tug when it would "hang up."

The flash of the fish as it spit the bait was very frustrating to this rookie.
Now, with my molasses quick reflexes, I just stand there with a :shocked: look on my face and then jerk.

Captn · 12-07-2001, 05:16 AM

Ahh, Steelhead, the fish of one thousand casts!

OR Coast Range · 12-07-2001, 07:33 AM

Good topic Jennie. I got a late start to steelheading, so I am going through that early frustration right now.

I think that the hardest part is confidence. I know what to look for when I fish for trout in the smaller rivers and streams, but I don't feel comfortable reading steelhead holding water. When I spend the whole day out without even feeling a fish, I wonder if I was casting to the right spot. I basically start to second guess my instinct.

I know that this will come with practice, so I stick it out. But it is very frustrating not knowing if what I am doing is right.

mike5097 · 12-07-2001, 08:57 AM

For me, the hardest part was keeping my ten year old fishin' partner occupied and interested while (as it seemed to him)his old man endlessy cast and tried to sort things out.
Once things got going, he caught the bug, and now to the detriment of his mother, has become almost as fanatical about it as I am.
:grin: :grin:

4Salt · 12-07-2001, 11:10 PM

In my opinion, finding steelhead is probably the hardest part. Steelhead are usually pretty stupid, and are way better biters than salmon. Problem is, there are alot less of them, and they usually don't group together like salmon. I believe that if you can dial yourself in on knowing where the steelies will be, (which rivers, reading water, knowing run timing etc...) it will take considerably less than 1000 casts to get one. :smile:

[ 12-07-2001: Message edited by: 4Salt ]</p>

Pilar · 12-08-2001, 04:36 PM

Finding the fish is hard unless you have some good friends and share info.

I'll repeat the advice that I was given. Pick a river and even a particular spot and fish it until you figure it out. That way you'll be in the right spot at least some of the time. Chasing fish is good if you know what you are doing.

The other really hard thing is knowing what a bite is. If the line stops moving downriver or otherwise does something strange you are getting bit.

The other thing I was told is that losing gear to snags when drift fishing means your gear is where it should be, on the bottom. I hate losing gear but now I catch fish. Must be a connection there. I tie it all before I go so it's no big deal if I lose a few rigs.

Navigator · 12-08-2001, 09:31 PM

For me it was casting w/ bait casting outfit. I finally learned at Rooster Rock. Now, it is reading the water so I know where and what to cast. Still working one my first Oregon winter fish.

ampersat · 12-09-2001, 09:13 AM

i've gotten some good advice here and there over time. now, you'll hear me say it a lot (usually when i'm tying on another rig): if you aren't losing gear, you aren't where the fish are. thankfully, my father taught me to cast baitcast reels when i was a kid. in my opinion, they are far superior and offer much better accuracy than a spinning reel.

my biggest problem is reading the water. getting better at it though.

my second biggest problem is sticking with a stretch of water. i've got a friend who flogs the same spot practically all year long, the same fifty yards of water twelve months a year. sure, he tags fish, but is this really fishing? it's more like catching, to the exclusion of fishing, per se. to me, it's almost like using a net. if you stay in one place long enough, you're bound to have a fish come through there. i've taken him fishing elsewhere and he doesn't catch any fish; not that i'm catching any fish either, though. the point is, all the time he spends in that one spot hasn't made him a better fisherman - it just means he knows that one spot.

[ 12-09-2001: Message edited by: ampersat ]</p>

dogfishboy · 12-09-2001, 10:39 AM

I think he just picked me up...wait...no, maybe not :whazzup: .
I just got slammed...no, maybe it was a rock.
Fish-on!!... Oh, rock-on...never mind.

Seems like you can show someone how to rig, cast, and where to fish. Feeling a bite and being able to tell it from numerous other encounters requires patience and is a skill they must master for themselves.

I can't remember how many times I've been around experienced fishing folks and shortly after someone lands a fish you hear "what did the bite feel like?" or " did he hit it hard?

Always hate heading home after a no-fish-day and going over in my mind ... 'did I miss a bite on that one?' or, 'I know I was getting hit over there... what was I thinking.'

Jen, hardest thing has got to be the bite. I still question myself every time I'm wetting a line. Seems like it�s just part of steelhead fishing.

DF · 12-09-2001, 10:56 AM

The hardest part for me so far is picking some water and staying there. But im getting better. Yesterday on gnat creek I was drifting a hole for steelhead and had been there an hour or so. And thinking to myself, if I havent caught a fish here yet there must not be any. I was getting ready to leave. I was casting and drifting and looking at the nice are and not paying attention to whats going on when I feel A tug and hear splashing :shocked: Just to look down and see a steelhead dancing across the water! I pulled back and out came the hook :depressed: That was my first steelhead encounter on small water. AND I LOVE IT ! :grin:
I have been hitting the Big Creek Gnat Creek area pretty hard. And I plan to hit it harder. :grin:
BTW, Getting a hit like that in a small stream was more of a rush than any other fish I have caught anywere.

Mr. Fisherman · 12-09-2001, 02:35 PM

What's a Steelhead?

Thumper · 12-09-2001, 03:38 PM

Steelhead are dumber than rocks. If a steelhead is there and you bonk him/her on the nose with a lure or bait, just about any lure or bait, they bite it. The key is bonking them on the nose. That is why the float/jig is so effective. You cover huge amounts of water, lose essentially no gear, set the hook when the bobber goes down, and just catch fish. Simple. At least it should be........