Fish Sniffer On Demand Digital Edition 3806 Mar 1-15 2019 | Page 21

March 1 - 15, 2019 FRESHWATER VOL.38 • ISS. 6 WHAT’S HOT However, when they are relentlessly pounded on, they will often only bite right as it gets light enough to see. Once upon a time, some friends and I made a trip up to Alaska to beat the crowds and have a dream Alaskan fishing trip for aggressive steelhead. What we found were the exact opposite conditions. The river was super low and clear, and the fish were just getting whipped like a rented mule. There was a wad of fish that were plainly visible in a deep hole near the boat ramp. The boat ramp is also located within easy walking distance of a very popular campground. The camper crowd and the local geriatrics needled those fish persistently. On the bright side, the hole was loaded with big steelhead. Overnight, the fish would sit in the hole and forget about the previous day’s torture. On the last day of our trip, we made sure to be the first guys to the hole. Just as it got light enough to see, the fish got ravenous. We landed a half dozen big steelhead in the 8-12 pound range before anyone else hit the water. About the time the bite shut down, the first campers started making their way to the hole. What they found was a pool full of fish with lockjaw. Show Them Something Different Another great trick is to zig when everybody else is zagging. Day in and day out, fish will eat roe and egg patterns. However, it’s possible to pick up an occa- sional bonus fish by throwing something outlandish at them. One of my favorites is a bright Metallic Shamrock Green 19 Continued from page 1 Mepp’s Aglia Spinner. I don’t know the exact color, but “Metallic Shamrock” is the adjective that best describes it. Most of the time this spinner will NOT get bit, but every once in a while it wakes a curious steelhead up out of its slumber. When all else fails, and I know fish are in a hole, I will break out the spinner and give it the “Here goes nothing” courtesy toss. My hopes are never high, but every once in a while it pays off. Every steelhead fisherman has heard how well pink plastic worms work. I have had a ton of success with them. I’ve seen a pink worm pull fish out of a crowded hole on the first cast when everybody else is throwing roe. By the way, roe works great in low and clear water conditions. When the fish are on edge, roe works best cured in a natural color and fished under a float. Back to the pink worms, steelhead will develop and allergy to them when they get used to seeing them. On that same trip to the Situk River in southeast Alaska, the fish would actually scurry away and hide when they saw a pink worm come drifting their way. We saw more than a few fish swimming upriver with broken leader and a pink worm in tow. There were also pink worms deco- rating many low hanging branches along the river. Clearly, pink worms were being presented to a lot of fish, and a lot of fish were having bad experiences with them. The fish’s reactions were to sulk and get lockjaw. At some point, one of my compadres sent a black plastic worm on a drift into some likely holding water. The result was an instantaneous bobber down. Black worms wound up being one of the best producing lures we had on that trip. Unfortunately, we didn’t bring enough of them and quickly ran out. Low Water Standbys As previously mentioned, if fresh natural cured roe (borax, sugar and peach gelatin) is an option, it will always catch fish. I JW took on the challenge that low water represents to the steelheader and scored this monster Eel River chromer. have watched a bobber Photo by MIKE MCNEILLY, Fish Sniffer Staff. and roe drift by fish 100 times at Sailor Bar on the American, and on the 101st cast the fish of feathers and beads. The jigs made by inexplicably bit. However, roe isn’t always Yakima Bait have performed admirably in an option. Some rivers mandate artificial my testing. lures only, or perhaps you don’t have roe. You may have also noticed that I have Alas, there are other ways to catch wary mentioned using bobbers a lot in this steelhead. article. That’s because low water is also My first choice would be a 1/8 ounce snaggy water and water with very little flow “Nightmare Jig” fished under an appro- to provide a drift. Thus, there is a necessity priate sized slip bobber rated for ½ ounce. to use a float. In order to make the bobber tip up as inten- Last, but not least, low clear water means tioned, add 3/8 ounce of additional weight that the fish can see lures from a long ways via a sinker of that weight. The float should away. Often times these fish are far from drift downstream pointing at 12 o’clock aggressive, but occasionally one will chase once you have it properly weighted. down a spoon and pummel it. A 2/5 ounce For reasons unknown to this humble Little Cleo in gold or silver is as tried and fisherman, steelhead will eat Nightmare true as it gets. 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