Why do we fish for winter steelhead? Most think salmon taste better. The weather usually sucks this time of year. Rod, reel and gear costs mucho dinero. On average an angler catches .043 steelhead per trip. Computed in hours; it takes 117 hours to land one steelhead. Note: my "scientific" figures are exaggerated, but in a season like the present they probably wouldn't be too far off. Why endure the interminable pursuit, when in the end most of us will release it anyway? This is a serious question. And one I often ponder. I was just wondering how other fanatics felt?

I have a wife, 4 kids,from age 22 through 2, 3 of them still at home, ask me that question again...*L*

[This message has been edited by rainycity (edited 01-12-2001).]

Winter is the traditional time to go steelhead fishing. Usually the flows in winter are higher and its easier to drift boat or sled and better for plunking. However I prefer to fish for the summer runs because there is more daylight, its warmer, I have more success, and they taste great. Salmon tends to turn mushy when they get ready to spawn before or after they enter the river. Spring chinook is good tasting, firm, and oily.

Hey Ho. Don't think you'll ever find the all inclusive answer. Kind of like being a duck hunter.

The guys that stick with steelheading (10 years or more) are generally hooked for life. No pun intended. Most of the others quit. I remember the first year I started in 1977, and was fishing on the North Shore of Lake Superior. I hooked a fish on my second outing, and promptly lost it. My knees shook, and I trembled for a few minutes. I spent the next three months fishing every morning at 4:00 a.m. before school trying to catch another one, but it didn't happen. Most mornings, the weather was in the 20's, spitting snow and sleet. Would start a fire in the woods to warm up my hands, so I could keep fishing. At 7:15 a.m., my Mom would pull up in the car, and I would go home and go to school. Right after school, I would be right back at it again.

The neat thing is, that 24 years later, my knees still get wobbly when I hook a fish, and I can't wait to get on the river. I still feel like a little kid, when I hook a steelie. I still love learning new tricks and tactics to increase my arsenal of fish catching toys. I enjoy all kinds of other fishing, but none of them do it for me like a steelhead. Maybe it all goes back to that first year of working my a** off to catch a single fish. I have been appreciating each and every one of them since then. It's a illness, and I hope all of my kids (3 girls and 1 boy) become infected with it.

Hey Hawk, Great post you hit the nail on the head with the bit about working your ass off to catch a fish end result being a life long addiction. I always figured the guys who got spoon fed by there old man or an uncle never seem to, on average , take to the addictive side of angling like the unsponsered kid that struggled and learned on his own. After putting in a stuggling aprentiship and old timer took me under his wing and of all the advice he gave me the one thing that is still relevant and applicable is that "you get out of fishing what you put in to it".

I do prefer the taste of Spring Salmon over the Steelhead, but at the same time I prefer to be Knee deep up and down that favorite river over sitting in one of the TOOOOOOOO many boats on the Wind river to get that tastty Springer.

It's definately an addiction.It took seven years to get my first on the cedar river as a kid.Was and have been hooked ever since.
Good luck,
STRIKE ZONE

I'll tell ya, I thought that a crackhead was bad, wheeew! Let's review, Hawk you were talking about your knee's shaking and the heart pounding effect these fish put upon yourselve, crack is the same way! You try it once ( not that I know ) and your addicted. You can't live without the drug your pretty much done until you O/D somewhere. Look at Steelheading the same way! You hook one at a young age but here you are 25 years later with no girlfiend still becaue she can't stand how much time you spend on the river and still don't bring home a fish. First thing that jumps into her mind is " your cheating on me aren't you "!! Screwed! After dealing with that she leaves, so you can have more time on the river ( total guilt trip but you get over it ). Your fishing gear cost more than your ride, your living off top roman so you can afford next weekends fishing excursion and even if you don't really have the money to fish that weekend then you find away to do so, period! I would say that everyone on this board is a crackhead!!! *LOL* Fish on, Brian

"The curious thing about fishing is, you never want to go home.If you catch something, you can't stop. If you don't catch anything, you hate to leave, in case something might bite." -Glades Taber

Great question. And one I sadly ask myself more and more often during winter. I'm self-taught and have done it 20+ years....seen the good and the bad. I'm about as addicted as the next guy but I find it harder and harder to get the hell away from everyone and have multi-hookup days in winter. It IS noticable and seems to be worse every year. Coupled with more people learning my "favorite spots" and fishing buddies getting discouraged by the people and lack of fish, I've only gone a fraction of what I normally do this time of year.

Increasingly, summer and fall is where it's at for me.....more options that scatter people out and a chance for good fishing in solitude.

Why do people climb mountains or any of the 100's of other silly, crazy, dangerous things we do? It's not the kill it's the thrill of the hunt.
I fish all year long, salmon, trout, steelhead whichever seems right. It's Steelhead in the Winter, so you gotta deal with the short days, freezing temperatures, and whatever other adversity that comes along.



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I Wish I were standing in a River,
In the Rain,
Catching Steelhead.

Once when walking a local river I found a styrofoam worm container with "Get hooked on fishing--not on drugs" printed on the lid. I remember staring at it for quite some time, wondering which was really worse...

I stil remember my first steelhead like it was yesterday. This winter ive only had three hookups for all the time ive spent, and i wouldnt trade that time for anything. There is nothing better than that heart stopping, knee shaking first run of a steelie on a wild untammed river.

Your damn right its an addiction...

Yeah, I just can't figure out why people would want to go out and fish in the winter. Why don't people just give it up and go skiing?

Justin
CEO, Sauk River Steelhead Ranch

Photo courtesy of Olsen's Guide Service

[This message has been edited by SAUKit2em (edited 01-12-2001).]

You know, there's a few different reasons I love to fish WinterRun Steelhead. First off, it was the first experience I had with Steelies. Caught my first one on Xmas day back in late 70's on the Puyallup. Had the addiction ever since. Secondly, being a born and raised Washingtonian, the weather is what I call "perfect". I love the overcast days with drizzel to downpours, standing waste deep in a perfect green river. I love to see the rain hit the river and watch the circles spread across the current. That feel of the chill trying to overcome you, but having that slight adrenaline rush on every cast hoping for that elusive strike. Wishing for that monster 20+ lb'er to hit (I've caught all my over 20's in the winter). I'm not sure what else to say. I love to be able to fish summerruns in my shorts and t shirt, but there's something special to me about the winter season. I guess it's also when I get to see who's the real fishermen, and who's the "sunny day" ones. It takes someone commited (or should be commited) to withstand these conditions. Well, that's my take on things....

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you haven't lived til you've rowed a cataraft. Friends don't let friends run Outcasts.

A couple of years ago during a particularly cold December stretch, my urge to get on the river overruled my wife's concerns that conditions were neither suitable nor safe for fishing. Naturally, no one wanted to go along, and I had to browbeat my wife (actually I probably begged)into shuttling me. The water-temperature gauge dangling over the side of the drift boat registered 33 degrees; the thermometer mounted on the bow said 5. After a comparatively short float -- five hours was about all I could take -- I pulled the boat to shore at the takeout, breaking ice as I stomped through the shallows near the bank.

While I struggled with numb fingers to put eggs in a ziplock bag after haphazardly cleaning the one fish that wasn't too lethargic to go after a rag and shrimp, an old-timer from town drove up. He parked his rig but didn't shut it off, shot me an incredulous glance then grabbed a pair binoculars and began glassing the hillside for deer. A few moments later, as I scurried past him to where my truck and trailer were parked, he rolled down his window maybe two inches and growled, “You’ve got to be one tough sonofa*****, or just goddamn stupid.”

When it comes to steelheading, I often wonder which is really the case.

My first hooked steelhead, came from behind some submerged boulders to grab a spinner. All I saw was a flash of silver, and that pull, the sreaming of the reel.....You know what I did, I just stood there, in disbelief...I couldn't believe that something could fight like that, My heart pounded.....But I just stood there! It came off the spinner, and I have been hooked ever since. Winter, summer, always in pursuit.

What we're talking about is "Steelhead". I think if you asked 100 people who fished, I'd bet that 95% or better would consider the steelhead the "Holy Grail" of fish. Many men seek out this legendary fish, few catch one, and the ones that do catch one know deep in their heart that there's a bigger, brighter, and stronger steelhead out there and they will not rest until they catch it. We could call it the "Captain Ahab" syndrome of Moby Dick fame.

But then again, maybe it's just me.