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[Spawn Sack]

I've seen it done on TV (Sportfishing BC, West Coast Sporting Journal, etc). They'll put away their float rods, and bring out the spinning rods and coffee grinders! Their lure of choice is normally a #4 or #5 blue fox. The method is simple, cast straight out or slightly down stream, and let it swing through the current like a fly. They were hammering the buggers!

I tried this method last steelhead season on the Vedder and got a few funny looks. Admittedly, no one seems to use spinning rods for steelhead, or use spoons/spinners unless they are small+light enough to be fished under a float.

Why is this?! Is it ineffective for this river? Just not cool? I've had a crappy steelhead season (not one to shore) and am looking for something else to give a shot. I'm going out on Sunday for the whole day and am thinking about packing along my spinning rod in addition to my float rod. I have a nice selection of Blue Foxes and similarly weighted spoons (crocs, ironhead, etc). I would not use my float rod/reel to toss these as the length/power/action of the rod would not cast such lures very far or with any accuracy. With my nice 9" spinning rod and reel - no problem.

If I can be convinced that this method of fishing for steelhead on the Vedder is a waste of my time then I'll likely just leave it at home as it'll be a fair hassle to lug around 2 rods. It seems like an effective way to fish and a good way to cover a lot of water.

[bigrig]

The technique you are refering is also very common back in Ontario and we use big Mepps 3, 4, 5 etc.
I have brought them out many times here on the Vedder and have had some success on the Chehalis and Stave as well but they have always got more fish on sunny warm days or a rise in water temperature . Don't give up and bring all the weapons to
battle!

[Spawn Sack]

Thanks bigrig, good to hear. So it sounds like this method is better utilized later in the season/spring time? Lately the weather has been sunny and warm and I would assume the water temperature is up a bit.

Is there any reason not to try this earlier in the season when it's freezing cold? Most days I could not be bothered to haul 2 rods to the river, I move around a fair bit and it would just be a big pain in the rump. However at this point I am willing to try anything!

[Fish Assassin]

Everyday should chip in with his reports.

[Dennis.t]

Thanks bigrig, good to hear. So it sounds like this method is better utilized later in the season/spring time? Lately the weather has been sunny and warm and I would assume the water temperature is up a bit.

Is there any reason not to try this earlier in the season when it's freezing cold? Most days I could not be bothered to haul 2 rods to the river, I move around a fair bit and it would just be a big pain in the rump. However at this point I am willing to try anything!

I think there is not alot of fish around this yr hence your lack of success. I got out 8 times this winter(work gets in the way) and only hooked 4 fish,beaching 1 out of the 4,that being a nice 13 pd 4 oz hatch doe. Most yrs i can average one hookup per outing. I met a american fellow a few yrs back who only fished spinners and he was catching his fair share. he told me the big slower pool tailouts were his favorite water to fish.

[Every Day]

I started tossing spoons for steel last year. To be honest, it was just for a change of pace and to learn something new. Set down the gear rod for the whole season and only stuck to hardware.

I found out a few things:
1) A properly fished spoon is hard to beat
2) The myth about steelhead not liking metal in December/Jan is quite the opposite of the truth
3) You can cover a tonne of water in a day, effectively, if doing it properly
4) The hit from a steelhead on a swung spoon is unbeatable, in fact, I haven't looked back

This year I have been fooling around with the pin a bit as well as chucking metal, and still most days the metal out fishes the roe/prawns/jigs by a wide margin.

A few times sight fishing this year we spent over an hour tossing everything at a pod of fish from roe, prawns, crayfish, worms, pink worms, wool, jigs, literally everything. We even downsized to 6 pnd flouro leaders up to 3 ft long and still not a hit. Threw the spoons through and picked off 7 fish in 8 or so casts, and this was in December and January.

As for your question about it being ineffective on the Vedder. Last year I hit 6 fish in December in 5 trips... and pretty much managed a fish a trip on them. So, yes they work well, just not many people seem to toss them. You also get a lot of looks/comments when you walk into a run with your spinning set up. The one thing I have found on the Vedder, is the fish seem to like the spoon down deep. I even very rarely hit them on the swing (like everywhere else) as opposed to rolling it along the bottom or jigging it.

It can be a tough road to learn. It took my a while to get use to what a proper swing felt like, and how to keep from losing spoons, how to hook up fish, etc. It's a lot different than float fishing as far as hooksets and covering water properly. Also be prepared to loose a bunch of spoons. Most days if I'm hitting fish I'm going to lose at least a spoon or two to the bottom. I'v heard lots of the better metal chuckers say if you're not losing at least 1 spoon a day, you're doing something wrong.

Another quick thing.. I'd stick with spoons until you get good with them. Feeling a swing on a spinner is much more difficult than a spoon, and to be honest I still have yet to hit a steelhead with a spinner even when they go nuts for the spoons. I would recommend R&B spoons in 2/5 size to pretty much cover everything.

I could go on and on really... so I'll stop there. Any other questions you can feel free to post em on this thread and I'll respond, or shoot me a PM.

Cheers,
Dan

[firebird]

I've fished spoons (and blades) for 35+ years using my pins. As long as there is enough room for a big sweep, I can cast a 1/4oz spoon on my beat up old pins but usually use 3/8 or 1/2 oz. I'll also fire out a 55 Kit-a-mat or similar if the conditions are right. In tighter quarters I'll strip-cast. The swinging method works well but I've got fish casting almost directly upstream and tumbling or jigging the spoon as it comes downstream as alluded to by Every Day. That method is best learned with cheaper lures  . I normally fish spinners (blades) on a float rig but will take the float off for deep holes. The normal method is to swing them but if I can't get upstream of a holding area, I find it effective to cast upstream above the fish and drag the float and blade downstream through the holding area just a little quicker than the current and hang on tight 

[Banny]

Last season all I fished for steelhead were spoons and occasionally the spey rod on the vedder.  In my 6 trips swinging spoons I landed 9 steelhead, including 4 in one day on March 23.  Was only skunked one day, but the water conditions were horrible.

I found it way more enjoyable than float fishing. 

[Noahs Arc]

S-Sack, from what I'm hearing from these guys, is that it takes a little trial and error with a learning curve to catch fish consistently with spoons.
In your post you said you werent catching fish and were willing to try anything to get them.
In my experience when you aren't catching fish it's time to buckle down and fish water you know holds fish with lures you know that work for you. This is the only way to have confidence in yourself. The big numbers of fish just aren't there this year, but there's still fish around.

[Banny]

S-Sack, from what I'm hearing from these guys, is that it takes a little trial and error with a learning curve to catch fish consistently with spoons.
In your post you said you werent catching fish and were willing to try anything to get them.
In my experience when you aren't catching fish it's time to buckle down and fish water you know holds fish with lures you know that work for you. This is the only way to have confidence in yourself. The big numbers of fish just aren't there this year, but there's still fish around.

Well said, I figured out the spoon game fishing for coho on a few different flows before trying spoons for steel

[RalphH]

fishing spinners and spoons under a float is very common and old style for the Vedder- Chilliwack. Some parts of the river aren't well suited to the traditional spin cast method but I have been using it in the fall for salmon and it's effective. Coho and even springs love spinners.

[Spawn Sack]

Thanks a lot guys! I just read through all the responses and learned a fair bit. Well, it's settled when I go out on Sunday for the whole day I'll bring the spinning rod along and toss some spoons and spinners in water where I think I can get a nice swing (eg. big slower pool tailouts as pointed out by DennisT).

I just rememebred a book I bought years ago called "Spoon fishing for steelhead." I'll paste a link to it below. I read it half awake on a graveyard shift, but I recall it had some really good info on the different types of spoons, what type of water they each fish best in, best colors for different water, etc. I'm going to re-read it when I have a chance.

http://www.amazon.ca/Spoon-Fishing-Steelhead-Bill-Herzog/dp/1878175300/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1364597713&sr=8-2

Another thought: Wondering which spinning rod and reel I should bring. I have a stiffer 9 foot rod that would toss heavier spoons well, but anything less that 1/2oz is a chore to get any distance out of. Reel on this rod is spooled up with 12LB mono. Other 9 foot rod is much noodlier and the reel on it has 20LB braid (6LB diameter). This combo will launch the small salmon spoons no problem, but would be underpowered to get a decent hook set on a bigger spoon/hook (say 1/2oz or heavier).

I like the braid as you get a really good feel for the action of the spoon/spinner. However, I wonder if it would spook the fish in the clear-ish water? Perhaps I'll attach 3-5 feet of mono with a uni-to-uni knot and a little dab of Loon knot glue and fish it that way.

Any reccomendations on mono mailnline vs braid and running a mono leader if using the braided reel? I could probably put the braided reel on the stronger spinning rod and still get decent distance...just another option.

[Every Day]

I worked at FFSBC fraser valley trout hatchery this past year... and made some interesting observations.

Me and a couple other people ran a mock test on the trout fishing ponds to see if line really made a difference.
We tested braided line (8 pnd braid), 8 pound mono, and 8 pound flouro.

Fished each of the lines for about an hour.
Braid - 0 hook-ups, and not even a look really. Mono did a bit better and got a few fish, and flouro out-fished hands down.

Another interesting thing was that it didn't matter what size flouro we used, but with mono and braid it did seem to matter lots.

On my spinning rods I run braid. Rod size for my rods are normally rated 6-10 pnds (light and noodly). Normally I run 10 pound braid on all my reels for a good feel and better hook sets. For a leader I run around 10 feet of 14 pound flouro leader. I use a loop to loop connection system to attach the leader to the braid as I'v found this is the only way to keep the braid from cutting through the leader (also an easy knot to tie and slides through the guides well).

As for only fishing the tailouts, those are a great option. I tend to look for nice long runs with lots of boulders and a walking pace around 4 ft deep for swinging. As said before though, don't hesitate to jig (or roll) a spoon through a nice looking pocket or deep trench in a run, and hold on tight!

[c-pin]

Since getting into spoon fishing about 12 years ago, I have not looked back.

I carry 2 rods with me when I go fishing; one float set up, and one spoon / spinner set up.

I have not fished a lot for Steelhead with spoons, although I have caught a few on spoons. It seems that Coho love spoons when fished properly. I have gone in to a run where other anglers have said "No way. They have lockjaw", and I have caught Coho using a spoon. There is nothing more exciting than feeling the "thump" of a spoon fluttering in the water, then a savage take down.

I think spoon fishing is a bit of a lost art. My faves are the Pen-Tac spoons followed closely by the Gibbs Koho in sizes 35 and 45.

[Spawn Sack]

Thanks a lot guys! I'm heading out in about 15min for what should be a beautiful day's fishing. I tied up a leader board of clear water rigs for the gear rod (jensen eggs, small worms, colorados, etc) and went through my spoon stash and picked out the smaller ones (1/4-1/2) that I think would cast and fish well on the spinning rod/reel I'm bringing.

That spoon fishing book I mentioned in an earlier post is AWESOME. I've been re-reading it (last read several years ago) and it has a lot of good content. I'd highly reccomend it. Cheap too.

I'll be tossing the gear into the tight spots where swinging a spoon/spinning would be impractical, and swinging the spoon/spinner through those deeper water and tailouts.