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Steelhead |
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All of my
steelhead fishing is done on the Big Manistee River following
the salmon season. Not to be taken lightly these fish have
the will of a lion. Once you set the hook, the only thing
you’ll hear is your line screeching off the reel, with your fish
heading down stream. There aren’t many other fish that
compare to the almighty steelhead, when it comes time to take a
picture of your catch. These fish start off extremely
silver when they first move up the river in mid October.
After they stay up stream, more colors develop on the sides of
these swimming beauties. Until people in the streams refer
to them as the rainbow trout. One more thing to consider about
fishing the steelhead is the exceptionally long season, full of
peaks and lows in the bite pattern. These hard fighting fish
stay in our river system till they spawn in April. Plenty
of time to capture a memory.
Now I
have three main methods of catching steelies. The first is
the more traditional way with just a touch of my expertise,
bottom bouncing. Everyone loves the feel of gravel on
their line until you feel that arithmetic tap tap, when a
steelhead has picked up your spawn bag floating past its face.
Next is when the water temperature is a little colder and the
fish are almost dormant, and don’t want to chase their meal.
We hold the rod in our hands and walk plugs back little by
little until one decides he’s seen that shiny thing dancing in
front of him long enough and attack fiercely. Finally, the
most active and fun way of catching these colorful fish is
casting lures towards the shoreline, and retrieving them at a
moderate pace. There’s no mistaking a strike with this method,
they just about take the rod out of your hands, and race down
river, unless you can stop them.
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