So, what baits and lures are doin it out there for ya this season? Let me make some guesses:

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with eggs ?

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or

? Nah. Not for steel,ay? Hmmm - maybe not; maybe. But get them into tidewater and the lower river holes when the springers arrive; especially if they go off the egg bite.

- btw, do ya think he'll even notice them missing from his gif tackle box? hehe - if ya do, thanks Marty; and please don't change them to something weird ;-)

Or the Hot N Tot diver with pink worm trailing and wigglin?

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Or perhaps you like the shrimp/spin-glo combo behind the diver better?

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If not, then show us what ya got.

Please excuse my green horns but where'd you get the cool icons??

Steelheader.net Look in the bulletin board.
Tyler

Hey RT: Good question,now we can get back to talking fishing not heaving garbage.
I like all of the above depending on the water and the fish .What they like I like.
Fished either bottom bounced or float fished.
I solved one of my major problems in finding a quick off on method for attaching a float.Dont know why it took me so long.
Take one 4" thill slider,stick a couple of plastic tubes from eye swabs one in each end of the center tube of the float, leaving about one inch outside the float. Cut two 1/2"lengths of fine rubber tube which firs tightly over the plastic tubes. Slide the rubber tubes up your line and stick the plasitc tubes on the float into the rubber tubes.Your line runns down the side of the tube. Now all you have to do to switch from float to bottom bounce is to slide the rubber tubes off the float and now your bottom bouncing ;same lead same swivel same leader same lure.

Hi Coot. Haven't seen ya on the board for a bit. How's fishing been up your way lately? ... As for the "garbage", no doubt that Fishing Cyberworld thread didn't turn out at all as intended. But when names and questions get brought up it's tough to not answer them. But like I said - I'm pretty much thru trying to better the overall demeanor on BBs. "Ka sa rah sa rah - what ever will be will be", as the song says.

Hey, I like your 'clip on' float idea. Thill does make the 'Steelheader' clip on float, but the biggest one is not big enough for a lot of fall chinook and winter steelheading applications, because it can't hold up the higher weights often needed. It also isn't as effective at nibble strike detection. But they are good for lighter duty, such as jig fishing or straight baits when the water is lower. That float has the built in stems on both ends, on a pear shaped body - the upper is flame red for viewing and the lower black one has a notch in it for putting your line into and then a black rubber tube that you push over it to hold it there. So your idea is a little like this version, but yours will hold the higher weights; and is more similar to the Thill Turbomaster (good reading and control factors). It's a good thing to have quick change flexibility to go back and forth from drift fishing to float fishing with one rig, no doubt! ... Bring us some posted pics of your tackle ideas if you can. They are good. Thanks Coot.

Great idea coot. That would allow me to leave my secondary rod at home (or in the rig). I usually have 1 set up for float/jig/bait and 1 set up for drift/spinner/spoons/plugs.

So far this season I've have more luck on plugs and spoons.

Summer steelies--



Winter steelies-- or just yarn

or just yarn

Eddie L

That jig looks familiar. It's my first choice for winter steelhead. I like the look of your summer steelie fly.

Mark

I have found a cheap source of styrofoam floats with stems at K-Marche which sells for around $2.00 for five. Used with the cheap tubing method that Coot described makes drifting and floating real simple. When I come to a particularly trashy section of river, change up is no problem and in the event of losing the float the price is not such a set back if I were using a Thill float.

The float pictured in Eddie L's post is the red and black Thill "Steelheader" float I was referring to. And I second Mark's opinion about the good 'go to' jig pattern for steelhead. As for that 'fly' for summer steelhead, it looks like the winged version of the Teeny Nymph (to be fished with lead crimped a few feet up the leader for flossing fish with - as many have noticed over the years).

Yeah that's a Teeny nymph fly which I like to tie myself cause their so dang easy to tie and work really good on summer runs,but I've never flossed steelies with them though(maybe Jim);even had summer runs hit it like a bass hitting a topwater plug on the end of the swing in the fast current.

Didn't mean you Eddie. Reliable word has it that he flossed mostly salmon with the nymph and lead rigs, drift fishing them with fly rods and polaroid glasses in low water. I would think some of the fish bit though. I like those winged versions for summers - but I like steelhead muddler minnows even better.

Hi RT: I`ve heard this term "flossing" a lot recently.From the context I gather that it ,while not illegal is somehow unsportmanlike. I`d like to know just what it means and why its unsportsmanlike.
I have seen fishermen who target the sense of feel of the fish by expert manipulation of a fly.Fish in effect hear by sensing elemens which I believe are located along the midline of the fishes body. If something ,a small fish or a fly is drawn forward quickly along the side of a fish ,it will often cause the fish to turn and grab for the offending item.
If this is what is meant by flossing I see no lack of sportmanship in it at all. It requires a great deal of skill to make a fly perform in this fashion ,a skill well beyond the capabilities of a lot of fishermen. I simply capitalizes on the fishes behaviour of sound sensing rather than visual identification of the prey. so tell me what is flossing and why do you think its unsportsmanlike.

Coot, the now common term of 'flossing' is applied to NW guys that drift fish with extra long leaders from 4' to 8' long thru schools of kegged up salmon or steelhead. This usually occurs when the fish are off the bite, so the idea is to increase the chance that the leader will float into the fishes mouth as it pumps water over it's gills; then when the intentional flosser sees or feels the line rub they throw big sweeeping hookset. This most often hooks the fish just outside the jaw, often near the corner maxilary. It's difficult for others over a few feet away to see the fish was floss hooked on the outside of it's mouth. The regulations south of the BC border states that fishers must fish in a manner that attempts to get fish to voluntarily take bait or lure in the mouth, and the fish must be hooked inside the mouth to legally harvest it. But this syndrome, which has gotten more popular the last couple of years during the big fish runs that keg up in areas of rivers, has become a bit of a gray area issue. It's partly because the fish occasionally take a bait ot the end of a super long leader. It's also because some law enforcement wardens afield look the other way; and reportedly because of the confusion brought forth by some in the WDFW that have said the old rules of 'anything hooked forward of the gillplate, including outside the mouth, can be kept. This is actually counter to both the letter and intent of the current laws. And more and more game wardens are now increasingly giving out expensive citations to those who keep fish hooked on the outside of the mouth. ...

The ironic part is that some fish hooked right in the mouth was by luck, with the fish not voluntarily going for the bait or lure - while others that were hooked outside the mouth were actually taking a good strike at the presentation. It's difficult to impossible to tell the difference. ... The solution: simple - release fish hooked outside the mouth, get over it, and get your stuff back into the water. And give the "brow" and some words to those that are obviously trying to floss snag fish. My 0.02 opinion.

RT

HI RT: Many thans for the run down on flossing Now I know I

Hi RT: I got prempted. I like those soft plastic baitscented eggs fished as a cluster of 4 or5 medium eggs on a 2/0. The only way I have found to get a good cluster which hangs with the hookshank horizontal and the point up is to string the eggs on a leader and then tie an imptoved cinch knot to the hook eye with the running end .When you pull the loops up tight it gathers the strung eggs into a cluster.
I would be interested in the method anyone else uses for forming clusters without a spawn sack and what kind of knot they use

Not sure if you are referring to bunching real eggs that are loose or a string of imitation eggs into a cluster, Coot. For loose real eggs I usually overlap the loose skeins and then double loop them in the leader's egg loop before gently snugging them to the hookshank. With the imitation eggs you can do a number of things with them to form a cluster; including the same as above. But I prefer the ones that are already shaped into a soft cluster and push them over the hookpoint and up the shank. They usually stay there pretty well, but you can add a thread bobber-stop below them on the shank to keep them in place. Or put them above the hookeye. - I will put up a new thread topic on imitation eggs (an excerp from my manuscript).

RT