Don't they feed in the dirty floodwaters? That's one of our prime fishing times here.
Nice loud rattle lures will work good too in dirty water here.
Different fish and environment there though I guess. Some fish don't like turbid water.
It's West coast so there has to be something crazy going on there...
Steelhead will return (most of them) to the big water they came from after they run upstream and spawn.
Unlike salmon that are hard to get to grab something , though they will at times out of aggression or defense of a bed. Salmon are on a one way trip.
Clean gravel for spawning will stall out a run if conditions of location and decent water give the green flag. Natal waters for those from them , and or locations of being planted by hatcheries. The sites get imprinted. Likely through scent.
We've taken steelies on crawlers. And live bait . (My first on a shiner minnow when fishing pike.)
When steelies are bedding a chunk of fresh skein (egg sack of spawning ready steelhead hens) can be effective. So too spawn bags.
Back bouncing is popular on rivers. A wobbling plug drifted in front of the drifting downstream boat. (Two drift boats were pictured earlier by members.)
Sight fishing like with bedding salmon you want to avoid the hen when males are trying to court her. You pull her away and the party is over.
This time of year shore fishing/wading ice forms in line guides.
A day with some sun and right above freezing I used to hit the nearest river.
A slip float and a jig tipped with a single waxworm. I'd rather bounce bottom but zebra mussels pretty much ended that for me.
Instead of harassing the steelhead I would drop below suspected steelhead holding water and work the current breaks and pools for brown trout and non spawning trout that hold below spawning fish to catch drifting eggs.
Once in awhile a steelie would get involved anyways.
Summer holdover steelies (then dubbed rainbows ) were the fish to offer a crawler drifting like one should in the current to where fish were starting to get the itch to prowl again in evening.
If you've seen Tic Tac mints that's about how big the heads on steelhead jigs are that I used for slip floating.
Strong hooks required of course.
A former partner on the river at times tied a snell that allowed him to trap a wad of colored yarn with it.
( Imitation spawn/egg stuff.)
He changed yarn colors as I changed jig colors.
But it was usually a light or dark color thing mostly.
Spawn bag hooks are shaped uniquely. Clearing bag to allow hooksets.
Size varies with bag size that varies.
Dime or nickel or bigger bags.
Dime suits me.
As mentioned prior a chunk of skien can work too.
How to cure and preserve eggs gets to be a topic at times.
Pieces of foam can be added for flotation. Colors changed.
Scents added.
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