The Frustrations of Steelhead Fly Fishing
Whether you are float fishing, fly fishing, or chucking lures with a spinning rod steelhead fishing can sometimes be a fruitless labour. On the scale of being a bumbling idiot fisherman to being the guy who has clovers in his pockets and a horse shoe up his ass I fall somewhere in the middle. Some times I catch fish some times I don’t.
For steelhead it seems that timing is one of the key factors. When the fish are moving into the river everybody has a more productive day. If you know when this is than you will be far more likely to hook into a nice big steelie. The fish will run depending on the temperature, the water level, water clarity, and other factors. You have to be at the right place in the right conditions to have a better chance. It can be aggravating trying to plan a fishing trip that is far from home and hoping the climate factors are in your favor.
Another major piss-off when targeting trout can be those dirty salmon. The steelhead trout enter the rivers after the salmon have mostly already been there. Usually by the time the trout start to run the salmon that are still in the river are nasty! They are on deaths door step, and are missing much of their skin. I don’t know how many times it happened this season that I hooked a salmon while I was fishing for trout. When I land the salmon I don’t even want to touch the thing. This seems to happen more when I’m fly fishing than when I’m floating or spin fishing. I have yet to catch a photo worthy steelhead on my fly rod.
It is quite common to be fishing in a nice pool with a few other fishermen around, spending a while in one good spot patiently waiting for a fish with little action. When out of the blue someone walks up and nails one right beside you on their first cast. How frustrating! Then five minutes after landing the nice shiny trout, they catch another, and another…It must feel pretty good being one of those guys, I wouldn’t know. The key to catching fish in a spot where you know they are in the hole but are being picky with what they eat, is having a variety of bait in many different sizes and colors. If you happen to find out what is working on that particular day you can be the guy that walks up to a hole and starts catching fish right away.
When it comes to fishing there really isn’t too many frustrating things, after all it is called fishing and not catching.
Justin Barrett is the host of Bingo Bango Fly Fishing, Ontario’s number 1 web based fly fishing show.
