Steelhead Spinning

How do you catch steelhead without a fly rod?

I’m going to school in Buffalo New York and I hear the lower Niagara River is great for steelhead. I would really love to catch some but I’m new to steelhead fishing as well as the area. I found what seems to me to be a great spot for them. Its a very large area of fast moving water below the falls about half way down the river. I’ve got an 8ft pole with a spinning reel. I catch a lot of trout with it using 6lb test, small hooks, a little weight, and corn for bait.

Steelhead are about at the end of their migration cycle. You’ll want to do a little digging to see what type of runs you have in that river (eg. spring run, summer run, winter run).

As for setup, well, there are many ways I approach steelhead in the river system. I run between a 6-10lb line. I use spoons, spinners, nightcrawlers, salmon eggs, exude eggs…primarily. There are other tactics, but I wouldn’t recommend bothering until you have taken the time to learn the more simple ones.

Float Fishing – I will run a float (either fixed for shallower water, or sliding for deeper) on my mainline, tieing on a small swivel below the float, afix a weight to either the mainline or the swivel. It should be enough to get your float to not sink, and ride in the water properly. Most floats have a tutone color scheme. Where the two colors meet is about where the water line should be when the rig is floating in the water. Then tie on the leader (usually flourocarbon) to a smaller hook (sizes 8-12). On the hook will be either a single egg (smaller hook – 10,12), a night crawler (size 8), or some manufactured product like exude eggs (size 8,10).

Drifting – This is a relatively easy method to use. There are primarily two ways to rig this: a sliding weight or a fixed weight. It’s basically the float rig, but no float, just weight. You can either afix a weight to the swivel like before, usually something like pencil lead or slinky weights to keep snags to a minimum. Or you can use a sliding system where the weight slides up and down the mainline freely. You can thread your mainline through a snap swivel and use the snap end to attach the weight. Leaders are typically 18in to 5ft. I prefer 2-4ft.

Spinners and spoons – Mainline should be about 8-12lb for this application. Mainline to a small swivel, leader to swivel. Leader should be something less visable than mainline; however this is not the only purpose of a leader this time. It is much better at keeping your line from becoming twisted and coily. So, leader to duolock, duolock to….spoon (anywhere from 1/8oz-3/4oz depending on the size and depth of the area you’re covering). Even small steelhead will hit larger lures. Spinners work well too, and can just be swaped out on the duolock. I prefer sizes 2-4, not 5′s. There are SOOO many varieties of spinners and spoons out there, it’s hard to make sense of it all. I think that Lil’ Cleo’s are a pretty good spoon, although there are others that outperform it, it’s still a great go-to spoon.

This is only three ways to target steelhead, and it’s just the tip of the iceberg. Take a look at www.steelheader.net, it’s a good little resource.

ADDED 4:36p PST: (Here in central CA, our steelhead run in the 1/2lb’er to 12lb range, with occassional fish in the 12-20lb range being much less common. Heavier line can definitely be useful as mentioned below, esspecially with those larger fish. I am a light line guy who fishes ultralights with 6lb test line for steelhead, and 8lb for king salmon. For me it’s all about the fight and thrill on light line. So, the “normal” line choice is somewhere between 8 – 20lb…adjust accordingly.) TIGHT LINES and GOOD LUCK!!

The Ultimate Light Steelhead Spinning Rod…Loomis GLX 10wt

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