fly fishing steelhead

[AkDan]

Hey Gang,

I am headed back "home" to Minnesota to visit some family for a few weeks and I'd like to head up to superior MN or WI side for some steelhead fishing however have no clue where to go. I'll be there from April 15th through may 2nd so I have tons of time, have transportation and enough gear to supply a small army of fishing addicts (so good company would be great!).

I need pointed in the right direction. Could use some tips on any local fly knowledge if there is any.

Any help would be greatly appreciated and I can in return help you out on an Alaskan fishing trip in the future!!!

Dan

ALaska

[email protected]

[Surface Tension]

Dan, you have a fairly good chance at finding Steelhead (and Loopers in some)rivers at that time. Lester, Sucker, Knife, Stewart, Split Rock, Baptism, and Temperance will get you started on the North Shore and of coarse the Brule in WI. While I don't fly fish for Steelhead I do use yarn flies(egg patterns) exclusively. Your rivers are a bit more conducive to fly fishing just because of their size. Most drifts on the North Shore are close and short. Often times you won't be retrieving line on most runs. Most important thing is getting your presentation down to the river bottom. Depending on the run and flow, your going to need enough weight to get down fast before your offering has blown by. When the Steelhead are in the rivers do get crowded but you should still be able to find enough room to do your own thing.

[I'llTakeWhatiCanGet]

Yeah, if you're willing to do a bit of driving you should be able to find a little water to yourself. Although I imagine you've done a little combat fishing up there in AK. I'll be out quite a bit once the run starts, you can shoot me an email if you like and I'll keep you posted ([email protected])

[Quickstrike]

I also do a ton of steelhead fishing each spring. Many people use different techniques but they all seem to catch fish. I personally like to use fly line on both the north shore and the brule. I know a lot of poeple like Illtakewhaticanget use a fly rod and reel and spool it up with mono. I have also tried this method and it works good on the smaller rockier north shore streams. I use yarn 95% of the time when I fish the north shore. I know some guys fish nymphs and stoneflies and catch fish, I just go with what I have confidence in. However, when fishing the brule I use almost all flies such as wooly buggers, stoneflies, x legs, and a few other things i've whipped up. Like these guys said, if you do a little hiking and plan your trip for the middle of the week, you can get some water to yourself and the fishing can be very good.

[AkDan]

Sorry about the double post, I thought this thread was gone, couldn't find it, DOH!

Thanks guys. I'm not against driving into canada or Mi if I have to find fish. I don't mind some crowds but really dont like combat fishing at all either. My turkey hunt doesnt start till the 27th of April, I arrive the 15th. Figure my family will want a few days with me before I go hide (I mean fish).

Thanks on the tips of rivers and gear to use, this is what I'm needing.

I have to ask, just what in sam heck is a looper? I reckon its a Kloop rainbows? Sorry for being ignorant lol.

Now about colors for these yarn flies, or buggers and stones etc? I can crank out what I need here, figure the typical browns, olives, blacks on the buggers and stones, and peach, chartuese, white, and the rest of the typical egg colors?

A lot of our rivers are also small and fast. We usually end up going to longer leaders on these which is basically the same set up as running straight running line. We've found the nice thing about keeping the fly line in these situations is more for comfort. After 15 hour days or longer (lots of daylight up here that time of year!) the fly line tends to wear less on wet fingers then does a smaller diameter mono/super line.

[Surface Tension]

Dan, good luck on your turkey hunt.

Yes your guessed right, Looper=Kamloop Rainbow.

I'm thinking between the North Shore and Brule, you'd have plenty of opportunity to get into Steelhead. Golden Nugget with a dot of bright orange is one of my favorite patterns.

[AkDan]

ok, out of all the globugs I've tied over the years, that is one I've never heard of! LOL. What IS golden nugget color wise?

[AkDan]

well I figured the golden nugget deal out. Ask and you shall get your answer

Is pegging a bead legal for steel/loopers?

[Surface Tension]

Dan, sorry I'm late on the reply. Yep its a color and its still available. Pegging a bead what is it?

[AkDan]

Basically it's a style of fishing using a bead instead of a globug. Slide the bead down your leader, tie on a bare egg hook. Peg the bead with a tooth pick 2"es above the hook and game on.

[I'llTakeWhatiCanGet]

That sounds interesting, but if you know how to snell a hook, yarn flies are probably the easiest method to immitate an egg. Retying doesn't take long, and you can switch colors very easily too. Looks like there should be some fish in the rivers by the time you get here, its been real warm the last few days and north shore ice won't last long.

[AkDan]

Sounds good to me! Thanks for all the help! Been out chasing lakers and some big char through the ice. Don't have any current pictures up but do have some from two weeks ago now before I left for a class. I managed to ice 6 fish today, my partner landed two. We hit two doubles.

Here's a link to the old pics, the new ones will be posted there also hopefully tomorrow. My bud has them on his digital.

http://community.webshots.com/user/lilhunter007

[Surface Tension]

Dan, I'm curious as to what you use for Lake Trout and on what lakes up there. I spent sometime(3 seasons)in AK on the Nenana river with Mckinley Raft.

Back to the yarn. I use a Pips leader hold and tie all mine up ahead of time and use a swivel to attach those leaders to my main line. Works slick and cuts out a lot of downtime.

[AkDan]

SF,

Are you ice fishing them or summer fishing? This is my first year really going after them, though we are doing quite well, it's the typical gotta findem and to catchem deal. I've never tried in the summer, spend all of my summer fly fishin for salmon, or taking other people out.

[Surface Tension]

Dan, I fish for Lake Trout all season in MN. I was just wondering how you guys in AK go about it in the winter as in types of lures and techniques.

[AkDan]

we are running the typical spoons, tube jigs, airplane jigs, and just about everything else that you can think of. So far spoons and tubes are what's doing well for me. No bait, though I do carry some whitefish and herring along on most days I rarely use it and have only had one laker take a tube tipped with herring.

As far as techniques. It's pretty crude to say the least. Without a flasher I am sure I'd have only hooked 1/4 of the fish I have thus far. The flasher is the cats meow. This is a heavy fished lake and we are doing things out of the oridnary. Getting fish to chase works extremely well. When fish are in a non chase or negative mode but still intrested. Keep your rod a foot or so above your lowest point. When the fish comes up to check it out, drop it below him immdediatly. A foot or two is prefect (I've put my hold rod and part of my arm down the hole to do this and it works great though it can get cold LOL). They'll usually whack it with a solid thump, not the agressive grab and go like a scalded wet cat..... until ya stickem. If you get a chaser. Reel up to just under the ice, keeping the spoon just ahead of the fish and slowly getting faster but not to fast or you'll pull it away and they'll loose interest. Then stop cold turkey 10' or so down. We've pulled fish up out of 130' of water doing this successfully including some BIG lakers. Our biggest iced this winter is a 28 pounder. I hooked into a 20+ doing this very method. If they show interest and will chase but wont hit. They'll usually come in on it and go out a few times before loosing interest. Give it a few very suttle jigs, maybe MAYBE 3"es. Just enough to flutter a little is perfect. If that doesnt work, pull it out and drop a tube down FAST give it some small jigs and wamo. If they wont hit that, find some other fish . That's what we do, again it's pretty crude

Jigging techniques. Jig big and steadly "quick" (not jerky mach 5) Then give it total slack as it flutters down. OR........ Jig very stuttle with a slow but big jig thrown in for attraction from time to time.

Hardware

For spoons, anything that has a solid thud thud thud on the lift and a nice quick flutter but slow non erratic fall has worked best (a canadian wobbler or williams whitefish though falling slow is extremely erratic a with a wide flutter). Krock's in the ligher 1/2 to 3/4 oz work well. There are literally tons of spoons that'll work. If it doesnt thud on the lift and have a relatively consitent flutter it seems the fish either wont come or loose interest. Case in point is the williams whitefish spoons. So far I've yet to get a fish to come even check it out. Throw on a Krok or KO WObbler and wamo here they come (IF they are around!). The thud throws off vibrations they can pick up from a LOOOONG ways. All lures do the same however this seems to bring in fish from quite a ways where otherwise you'd have to be close to or ontop of them to bring in the gold and green It's just a theory and it's proving itself daily. Guys using none thudding spoons or spoons with an erratic fall they seem for whatever reason choose a different snack bar other then yours.

I'm by far no expert and still learning on a daily outing. Our average rod time for ONE laker seems to be somewhere around 12 to 15 hours per person per laker. (believe me it sure feels like more!!!). The big char in this lake keep us company enough to bend a rod and put up one helluva fight to boot so all is not lost if it's not a laker. Again this is a HEAVILY fished lake. Getting outside the box seems to be working the best. Simple things as tipping a spoon with a skirt can make the difference between lookers and takers, or one fish days versus 6 or 8 fish days. Being different, atleast for us, seems to be the key!

Hope it helps ya.

[AkDan]

any steelie updates??? One week and I board the plane!

[!wall-i-king]

The fish have really not started to go yet very well but I think that you will be getting here right about the perfect time to hit it. Just be getting excited and I am sure the fish will cooperate when you get here.