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[CoastRider]

Great info on this thread, guys! I have never fished for Steelhead but am looking forward to picking up a baitcasting reel this weekend and heading out soon to do some pre-season scouting of locations over the next few weeks. As SpawnSac said "another stumbling block for me is there are a lot of choices of what to fish with. Jigs, blades, spoons, roe, roe sacks, prawns, rubber eggs, rubber worms, spin-n-glows, corkies, wool, combos of these, etc." x2 on that one. While I'm sure it makes me look a little green, I usually pack a small tackle box with me as I explore new rivers as I don't know exactly what to throw on until I get there. Spend less time on the computer and more on the river, right!
I'll check the regs and the rest of this site to confirm, but off hand, does anyone know if the Vedder is the only river that Steelhead can be retained in the Lower Mainland? I know Capilano Steelhead are C&R only, but wondering where else they run in local systems. I'm not a strict meat fisherman, but love coming home with an edible trophy whenever I can.

There are a few others for sure, but if you want a hatch, vedder is best bet. Most of the other rivers you will be seeing many many wild for every hatchery.
There is retention of hatchery steelhead in every lower mainland river unless stated otherwise... so it comes down to if the river supports hatchery fish or if they just get a few strays

"REGIONAL DAILy CATCh QUOTAS
(See tables for exceptions)
Trout/char: 4, but not more than
• 1over50cm(2hatcherysteelheadover
50 cm allowed)"

[typhoon]

I'm not a strict meat fisherman, but love coming home with an edible trophy whenever I can.

Ya, you might want to reset your expectations. I'm still looking for my first hatch on the Vedder after 5 seasons (wilds like me).

[Ambassador]

Ya, you might want to reset your expectations. I'm still looking for my first hatch on the Vedder after 5 seasons (wilds like me).

Ha! Totally. I'm one of those overly optimistic types that rarely catches anything, but always after an adventure and a delicious meal. I doubt I'll be catching anything when I do go, but I'll be there trying!
Coastrider - I'm a fan of the Squamish river and am going to look into what steelhead opportunities may be there. Thinking what you said likely applies to that river about many wilds per hatch ratio.

[CoastRider]

Coastrider - I'm a fan of the Squamish river and am going to look into what steelhead opportunities may be there. Thinking what you said likely applies to that river about many wilds per hatch ratio.

Yeah, Squamish isnt a river that you will be keeping fish out of!
Squamish river and all of its tributaries "Bait ban; release all steelhead"

As i said, there are maybe 4 or so rivers in the lower mainland where it is plausible to repeatedly catch/retain hatchery fish. Steelhead are certainly one of the fish that people target for the hunt and the chase rather than the meat!

I've caught hundreds of steelhead, and can count on two hands the amount of them that i could have retained. That being said, I tend to target more wild rivers

[liketofish]

Liketofish: Wow man thanks a LOT a ton of good info there. I'll be re-reading that again and making a few notes for sure. Really impressed with that posting - good on ya!

Just two quick questions I can think of. 1- What is a "top down" presentation? Of course I'm famaliar with short floating, etc., but not this one. 2- For fishing the tide, am I correct that one looks up high-tide in NWM, and then add 3hrs? Or is it 4? And does it matter where one fishes as far as timing goes? The spots/runs I'm famaliar with are between the Old Train Bridge and the KW bridge. I know a few spots below the Hwy1 bridge but rarely go that far down river as I have had better luck elsewhere.

Thanks. Top down presentation is a way to slow down your presentation. Most fishermen already doing it without knowing the name. Normally, in slower water, I try to be 90 degree with the float where it dead drifts over the most likely holding spot of the steely. This gives you the best angle for the hook to penetrate the jaw. With faster water, if you do this, the float will blow by the fishy spot very fast. So to slow it down, you stand higher up and drift the float down with a slanting angle pointing back to you, and you control the speed of line release to slow it down. You will have to set a deeper float to compensate this slanting angle. Sometimes, you can let the lead hit the bottom to slow down the fast drift. You can do this with or without the float. If you do this, I suggest you use a small spin & glo so it floats up above the lead at a level the steely can mouth it. This is also very effective to go after spring holding in fast runs, as they are lazy fish and you need to slow it down for them.

I won't name the exact location(s) for tide fishing, but safe to say anything in the canal is good to go. If you stand there and fish and you see the water rising (use some point of reference such as a log, or gravel beach etc), then you are fishing the rising tide. You will need to fish it enough to know the rhythm of this fishing. There are lots of hit and miss on this as not every tide brings in school of fish and you need to be lucky sometimes to be there at the right place and right time. Sometimes, at a certain spot there, you can actually see the water wave moving up the shallows and each wave is a travelling steelhead. Exciting to see them indeed whether you can hook them or not. Good luck.

[liketofish]

Ya, you might want to reset your expectations. I'm still looking for my first hatch on the Vedder after 5 seasons (wilds like me).

This is what steelhead can do to aspiring newer s/h rods. Even some of the authors of steelhead fishing books say they were skunked in the first few seasons, not to say getting wild ones. Of course if a new rod finds an experienced rod to fish together, that generally shorten the time to get their first steely. Once I even helped two friends who were new to s/h and had not been successful to get their first steely, by giving them detailed instruction to go to a super hot location in March for first nighter steelhead. But they would have to be there at first light. I told them I would join them later as I am a late bird. By the time I got there, they each had a fish before I arrived. Saying that, you still have to be lucky with steelheading. Even the best rods can get skunked repeatedly. This is just the nature of the beast of steelheading. You need to persist in chilly wind and rain of winter to pursue an illusive grey ghost which may not even grace your line in a season or even more for some (longest I heard is 7 years), and that is why most successful steelheaders are considered the toughest breed of hard-nose fishermen out there. So keep our noses hard guys. The frigid temperature will help to keep the nose hard (and red), LOL.

[Spawn Sack]

Liketofish: Thanks for the clairification on the "top down" presentation. I get most of that and yes you're right I do fish this way at times I just didn't know it was called that. I find this method a bit tricky as I'm not quite sure if my offering is swinging up too high in the current or not. Wth a bit of trial and error I seem to be decent at it and do catch fish this way. My preferred method is dead drifting as I have a better sense of how deep I am. However I realize this method is often not suited to faster water.

Umm...also, I don't really get what you mean by "...you stand higher up and drift the float down with a slanting angle pointing back to you." Perhaps I'm over thinking it? What I think you mean is you are casting more downsteam that normal, as it's pretty hard to slow your float down if it is across from you. Hmmm...but I don't really get the "slanting angle" part. Sorry Could you please clairify? The rest makes total sense.

[tburns]

Liketofish: Thanks for the clairification on the "top down" presentation. I get most of that and yes you're right I do fish this way at times I just didn't know it was called that. I find this method a bit tricky as I'm not quite sure if my offering is swinging up too high in the current or not. Wth a bit of trial and error I seem to be decent at it and do catch fish this way. My preferred method is dead drifting as I have a better sense of how deep I am. However I realize this method is often not suited to faster water.

Umm...also, I don't really get what you mean by "...you stand higher up and drift the float down with a slanting angle pointing back to you." Perhaps I'm over thinking it? What I think you mean is you are casting more downsteam that normal, as it's pretty hard to slow your float down if it is across from you. Hmmm...but I don't really get the "slanting angle" part. Sorry Could you please clairify? The rest makes total sense.

If you have tension on your line while drifting then your presentation underwater will drift faster than your float abovewater.  Instead of being directly underneath your float, it will be slightly downstream resulting in a "slanting angle" of your leader from your presentation to the float.

Or at least that's what i'm understanding.

Just wanted to say thank you to everyone as well for the invaluable information.  This will be my first steelhead season (on the fly) and I'm looking forward to hooking into one!

[liketofish]

Thank you for helping to explain it better for me, tburn. That is basically what I mean. And Spawn Sack, that is correct about the drifting the float downstream of you. So when you find a fishy lie in fast water, instead of standing right across from it, you move upstream, say 10 to 20 ft above the spot, then you cast downstream towards the spot, and as the float is drifting, you hold it a bit to slow down the drift which will cause the float to point back at you and the leader and float will be at a slanting angle instead of straight up. By controlling the release of the line on your spool, your presentation will slow down and may arch across the current slowly. You can do this repeatedly to make sure your presentation has covered the whole target area of your drift so that any steelhead holding in these fast water spots can have a chance to bite your slowed down bait or lure.

[milo]

Great advice on this thread.
I'd like to point out that luck plays a big part in the steelheading game - as in being in the right place at the right time.

If you didn't get a fish after a couple of terminal tackle changes (e.g. roe, followed by a colorado blade, followed by a plastic worm), chances are the fish is simply NOT THERE. Move on!

Edited to add: of course, the above assumes that you know what you are doing in terms of depth adjustment and adapting to speed of current. Basically, you want your hook with whatever goodies you are offering to be as close to the bottom as possible so it almost "hits the fish in the face" to elicit a strike. Through observing them in holding water in a few rivers with good visibility, I learned that winter steelhead are not too keen on chasing stuff around, but they will take just about anything that passes by closely enough.

[Spawn Sack]

Thank you for helping to explain it better for me, tburn. That is basically what I mean. And Spawn Sack, that is correct about the drifting the float downstream of you. So when you find a fishy lie in fast water, instead of standing right across from it, you move upstream, say 10 to 20 ft above the spot, then you cast downstream towards the spot, and as the float is drifting, you hold it a bit to slow down the drift which will cause the float to point back at you and the leader and float will be at a slanting angle instead of straight up. By controlling the release of the line on your spool, your presentation will slow down and may arch across the current slowly. You can do this repeatedly to make sure your presentation has covered the whole target area of your drift so that any steelhead holding in these fast water spots can have a chance to bite your slowed down bait or lure.

Ok I got it now: Stand above the lie/spot. Cast out and let your float swing into where you want, hold back on spool to slow down presentation and hopefully put it in the face of an unsuspecting steehhead! This is one area I could improve on as i find it tricky to get the variables right of float depth, amount of lead, etc. I normally pass up this type of water when salmon fishing in favor of water I can get more of a dead drift. However I realize that to up my odds of getting into s/h I need to be skilled at fishing all types of water.

I thought of a couple other tips I have been givien on the water that may be of use to others:

1- Unless you MUST wade out -don't! S/H will often hold close to shore esp in murky water. If you wade out unnecessarily you will potentially scare away a fish close to shore that you could have caught. Plus the water is fricken cold so you are just going to get cold feet that much faster.

2- Along these lines try to keep stealthy when walking along shore. Don't be lumbering over rocks like a drunk rhino. Apparently such noises can be heard by nearby steelhead and spook them.

Not my tips just a couple things that were passed on to me by guys on the river.

[c-pin]

1- Unless you MUST wade out -don't! S/H will often hold close to shore esp in murky water. If you wade out unnecessarily you will potentially scare away a fish close to shore that you could have caught. Plus the water is fricken cold so you are just going to get cold feet that much faster.

2- Along these lines try to keep stealthy when walking along shore. Don't be lumbering over rocks like a drunk rhino. Apparently such noises can be heard by nearby steelhead and spook them.

Not my tips just a couple things that were passed on to me by guys on the river.

Good Call. I was at a popular spot last year. It was my first trip. When we arrived at the spot, there were 3 or 4 guys just wading out of the water. There was a fire that someone started on the bank, and they were coming out to warm up.

I head down to where they were fishing. In years past I have caught fish right where they were standing, so I waited a few minutes and baited up. Third cast - float down - fish on. I looked back to see some stunned faces who could not believe I caught a fish. Many veteran Steelheaders have told me to stand back a bit and cast no more than a rods length from the waters edge on your first cast.

[HOOK]

who the hell wades out when using gear while fishing for steelhead ??

stupidest thing you can do.

Even when I'm swinging flies I barely wade out unless its an area where you must wade out a bit to reach the sweet water but I will only do that after I fish some of the closer in water first. If you stand deeper than your ankles your out to deep because the fish can and possibly will just go behind you. In spots where its knee deep right near shore, don't wade out at all because they are probably right at your feet.

Some of the things I see people do out there just makes me shake my head. My younger brother while fishing the Vedder with me one year pulled not 1 but 2 large coho out from BEHIND everyone who had waded out, it was awesome !  (and they came within 10-15mins of each other)

[Spawn Sack]

who the hell wades out when using gear while fishing for steelhead ??

stupidest thing you can do.

Even when I'm swinging flies I barely wade out unless its an area where you must wade out a bit to reach the sweet water but I will only do that after I fish some of the closer in water first. If you stand deeper than your ankles your out to deep because the fish can and possibly will just go behind you. In spots where its knee deep right near shore, don't wade out at all because they are probably right at your feet.

Some of the things I see people do out there just makes me shake my head. My younger brother while fishing the Vedder with me one year pulled not 1 but 2 large coho out from BEHIND everyone who had waded out, it was awesome !  (and they came within 10-15mins of each other)

Yeah...now I know it's stupid and counterproductive to catching s/h, but honestly I probably did that when I first started out steelheading becuase I didn't know any better. I think a lot of guys, myself included, start out steelheading alone and think one just fishes like you do for salmon, except with a few different offerings that we are told steelhead like (rubber worms, etc) For example, "I caught a lot of springs on that seam in the middle of this run...I better wade out a bit so I can cast that far and still be able to keep my line off the water." Not until someone told me or I read it in a one of the several books I bought on steelheading did I realize why I was getting funny looks in years past. I also notice some guys (ahem..ok me too in the start) will "fence post" on a single spot ALL day. Probably because they saw someone catch a s/h there or maybe caught one there themselves, so they figure best to stay right here as one is BOUND to end up there sooner or later. However most would agree this is not the best strategy for spending a day on the river.

I know it's tough to give other angler's unsolicited advice, but I know I really appreciated it when an experienced angler would stop for a minute, chat me up, and give me a few tips if they noticed I was doing something wrong. I was fishing a run in the canal this fall and catching a chum or coho almost every cast on an assortment of jigs. The guy above who wasn't catching a darn thing on whatever he was fishing walked down to see what I was using. I showed him my jig, he said "yup I have a couple like that" and he left and rigged up with a jig. After about 25 casts he hadn't hooked one and I could tell he was getting pissed as I was into fish after fish. I noticed he was fishing his jig all wrong, so I walked walked up and politely told him what to do to get the fish to take an interest in mr.jiggy. Next cast, chum. Cast after that, coho, and so on it went. Morale of the story is it really SUCKS to see people around you hammering fish, you're catching zip, and have no idea what you're doing wrong. It's a good feeling to get a tip from someone and it works and you start getting into fish, or you give a tip to someone having a crap day fishing and they get into fish

[Suther]

If you have tension on your line while drifting then your presentation underwater will drift faster than your float abovewater.  Instead of being directly underneath your float, it will be slightly downstream resulting in a "slanting angle" of your leader from your presentation to the float.

Or at least that's what i'm understanding.

Just wanted to say thank you to everyone as well for the invaluable information.  This will be my first steelhead season (on the fly) and I'm looking forward to hooking into one!

Good advise, but a little misleading. Your bait is almost always downstream from your float, because the top of the water does not move as fast as below the surface due to wind resistance. The only way your bait will be right under the float is if you happen to have your bait in the section of the water column that matches the speed of the top, which is only a small area that varies with a few factors such as depth, wind, and structure... So chances of this actually happening is pretty low, especially over any distance(even 10 or 20 feet).



With a float depth too long, you run the risk of putting your weight right near the bottom where it will be in water slower than the top, giving you an angle going the wrong way.

 Applying the brakes to your float will cause a greater angle though, that part is bang-on.