i am an avid steelheader on vancouver island. fish mostly bottom bouncing gear and a little bit of float fishing when i'm in my drift boat. i know that the steelheaders south of the border are into pulling plugs or back trolling plugs. just wondering if anyone has some info on techniques. i own a 16ft meckenzie river drift boat and would be fishing medium sized rivers. how far do you run them from the boat? what colors work for winter steelies? is it a productive way to fish? i do allright with the other techniques but there's always something else to learn.

thanks in advance, tight lines!

Hi: I've fished the Stamp and the Gold; have pulled some Hot shots time and again.
I've found that gold # 35 hot shots work quite well....try painting the lip black, cover with smeely jelly and run them about 35-40 feet in front of the boat. Keep the two plugs the same distance out from the boat and use a 8.5 mediun action road.
Hot shots have to tuned to make sure their running straight. When pulling them beside the boat, make sure that they are running straight...if the water is 3 ft of vis try a metallic pink or metallic red,with the bill's painted black.th this is a very effective way of covering the tailouts of pools.
tight lines
steve

Take a look under Bob's "Tips and Techniques" section for a look at pulling plugs...

IT DEPENDS ALOT ON THE WATER CONDITIONS ON WHAT TYPE OF PLUG AND WHAT COLOR OF PLUG TO USE TADPOLLY PLUGS RUN IN SHALLOWER CONDITIONS THAN OTHER PLUGS SUCH AS WIGGLEWARTS AND # 35 HOTSHOTS AND THE COLORS DEPEND ON THE VISABILITY OF THE WATER YOU ARE FISHING i TRY TO RUN MY PLUGS AT THE SAME DISTANCE AT ABOUT 50 FT BUT MAY RUN THEM FARTHER OUT IN LOW WATER CONDITIONS.HOPE THIS HELPS A LITTLE> )))">

Try 'Plug Fishing for Steelhead' by Mike Laverty published by Frank Amato Publications. You can buy this through the web at Amazon.com or www.amatobooks.com (which plugs into Amazon as well), or order it directly through Salmon, Trout Steelheader.

The list price of the book is $12.95, and I found it very worthwhile.

[This message has been edited by Snagly (edited 11-22-1999).]

Plug Fishing for Steelhead ~ Usually ships in 2-3 days
Mike Laverty / Paperback / Published 1994
Our Price: $7.16 ~ You Save: $1.79 (20%)

You can get it at www.steelheader.net just search with key words "plug fishing"