Flip the calendar, scratch the steelhead itch! 4

You know the feeling…
Hunting seasons are a memory, the leaves are all but gone from the trees and then comes that unmistakable chill in the air that renders our breath visible.

You start looking for the “Annual Steelhead Edition” of your favorite magazine and start tying leaders for no apparent reason.

While most people are heading Christmas shopping at the mall, you are heading for the crick.  

Question: What’s the direct cultural opposite of the perfume counter at Nordstrom’s?
Answer: Any hatchery steelhead hole on the West Coast.

It usually starts around Thanksgiving… That feeling, that urge, the irresistible attraction that pulls you to the river like a magnet to steel.
Winter steelhead remain more of an enigma to northwest anglers than any other species.

Maybe it’s because after months of rapidly darkening salmon, steelhead represent the first bright fish in our river systems; a promise of spring in the dead of winter.

Maybe it’s the fact that steelhead start to arrive around the holiday season and some of our favorite memories have something to do with that first fish of the season on Thanksgiving weekend or that new rod under the Christmas tree.

Or, maybe just maybe it’s because they’re one of the most challenging fish to consistently catch. 

To turn the steelhead odds in your favor there’s a bunch of things you can do without even leaving your computer. I never thought I would say this, but the fact of the matter is that the internet kills steelhead! 

How you ask? The ‘net, particularly sites like this, provide you with information that was just not available as recently as ten years ago. Hatchery plant numbers are available on line and will point you to the most likely river systems. Message boards and websites like Piscatorial Pursuits  and Gamefishin.com offer technique info and the chance to exchange information with other anglers. The USGS river level website and the River Forecast Center  are invaluable tools that provide you with river height and flow in real time for every significant drainage in the Pacific Northwest.

NOAA,  the National Oceanic & Atmospheric Administration offers weather forecasts that in many ways is the most valuable information of all. An understanding of weather patterns provides insight into precipitation totals, air temperature trends and snow levels that drive river heights & temperatures. Steelhead migrations and distributions are influenced more by river conditions than any other factor and the importance of an understanding of these influences cannot be overstated.
   
However and wherever you choose to chase the elusive ironhead, keep in mind how fortunate we are to have the opportunity to pursue this grey ghost of the misty Northwest. The steelhead forces you to enter his riverine environment which just happens to be some of the most breathtaking scenery on the planet.

Compare that to the perfume counter at the mall…?

The steelies are doing you a big favor!