Sometime
in the last few weeks it started, as it does every year. Winds from
the South bring warm air, heavy with moisture, over Wisconsin --
unleashing the first spring rain. When it falls on the frozen land,
runoff swells rivulet, road ditch and river, washing winter's sins
down to Lake Michigan and triggering the silver bullets whose upstream
surge puts an end to our discontent.
Of course, there have been steelhead
in the rivers for weeks. They're the target of those willing to
suffer numb fingers and brave shelf ice, dark fish that came upstream
last fall or earlier this winter and have spent several months sulking
in the deeper holes. Now and again, you can coax one into taking
a fly or drifted spawn sac. If it is not too lethargic, it will
make a couple good runs before it gives up.
But hook a fresh-run fish, wild-eyed
and bright as a newly minted coin, and it will tear through a pool,
walk the surface on its tail and pop your line like sewing thread,
leaving you breathless and eager for the next encounter.
Biologists tell us the dark fish
are Skamania and Chambers Creek strains, the former making a late-summer
run and the latter entering the streams in fall and winter. Most
spring-run steelies are Ganaraskas, they say. Don't worry if you
can't remember their names. Even the biologists have to look at
fin clips to tell one from the other. The point is that we are blessed
with three runs of steelhead during three different seasons and
the most intense of the three is about to begin.
Since
rainfall and runoff amounts vary up and down the Lake Michigan shoreline,
the run may be in full swing on one river before it starts on another.
Typically, the southernmost riversthe Pike, the Root, the Milwaukee
and the Menomineesee the first new fish in early March, and
the run progresses up the shore to end in Door and Marinette counties
sometime in May.
Once the run starts, water conditions
vary greatly from river to river, even from day to day. High, discolored
water makes it tough to find fish and present a lure properly. Low,
clear water makes fish spooky and hard to approach. Water with just
enough color so you can see bottom in the shallow runs but not in
deep holes is perfect.
Local bait and fly shops are
the best sources for information on a given river, as the word gets
out fast once the run starts. The plugged-in angler can access The
Steelhead Site online at www.steelheadsite.com for all sorts of
information from tackle and techniques to stream flow data and current
fishing reports on streams throughout the Great Lakes. The Steelhead
Site also has a bookstore and a guide database, although so far
only two of the 49 guides listed are in Wisconsin. Names of other
guides are available at bait and fly shops.
Both spinning and fly tackle
will take steelhead, so go with what is familiar. Steelhead can
frustrate a beginning fly fisher, but for the seasoned fly rodder
with the proper gear, there is no quarry more worthy.
To fish spawn, choose a long
(nine- to 14-foot) spinning rod, a reel with a smooth drag and six-
or eight-pound monofilament. The longer the rod, the lighter the
line you can get away with. Some Michigan "noodle rodders" use two-pound
test, but you'll have too many break-offs with this on our smaller,
snag-infested streams. Tie on a single egg hook, clamp on a couple
split shot and set a balsa float so the bait rides a few inches
off bottom. Use this rig to drift spawn sacs through deep runs to
take holding fish. A long rod lets you keep more line off the water
and extend a drag-free drift for many more yards.
To fish spinners, use a seven-foot
rod and the same reel spooled with eight-pound test line. To work
a spinner "blind" in holding water, cast quartering upstream and
retrieve at a speed that will keep the blade moving and just ticking
bottom. Cast a spinner well above fish you spot in riffles and on
redds and let it swing downstream in front of them.
To fly fish for steelhead, use
a seven- or eight-weight rod and floating line. To get flies down
without adding split shot, loop a short "lead link" between the
line and leader. Make your own by splicing a loop at either end
of a section of lead-core fly line, or buy them ready made at fly
shops. Carry lead links in a range of lengths for different depths
and current speeds.
Steelhead will take a variety
of fly patterns, from gaudy salmon flies to plain black or brown
nymphs. Bright-colored egg imitations, either commercially tied
or simple yarn strips tucked into a hand-tied snell, are deadly
for spawning fish, while darker, "buggy" flies work well on holding
or stubborn fish. Carry a selection and be ready to experiment.
Presentation is the key to getting
steelhead to take a fly. Fishing blind is less productive with flies
than with hardware or bait, but when you can't see fish, there isn't
another option. Concentrate on deeper runs, pockets behind boulders,
undercut banks and other spots where fish rest. Get the fly down
near bottom, work it slowly across the current and strike when you
feel it stop.
If you can see fish spawning
or holding near cover, cast far enough upstream so the fly is at
the fish's level a foot or so before it reaches the fish. When steelhead
spawn, often two or more bucks (males) hover downstream a yard or
so while a ripe hen (female) digs out a redd with her tail. Leave
the hen alone and work on the males. Catch one male, and another
will often move up from downstream to take its place. If you're
careful not to spook the hen, you can sometimes catch and release
several males off the same redd.
Fighting a fresh steelie will
test you and your tackle. Can you keep your footing while lurching
downstream after a fish? Can you reel fast enough to take up slack
line if a fish turns and runs back upstream? Can you apply enough
pressure to turn a fish without breaking your leader?
Don't feel bad if you lose a
bunch of fish. Even the pros do it. Every steelie reacts differently
to being hooked, although most fresh fish go ballistic.
Practice will improve your fish-landed-to-fish-hooked
average. One of the joys of the spring steelhead run is that it
offers plenty of practice, as there's almost always another silver
bullet ready to shoot a hole in your winter mood.
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