| You have all the gear you need to head out on | | | | take your offering. Plunking too can be very |
| the river and start pulling in that steelhead. | | | | productive under the right circumstances. Learning |
| However, what are you going to use for bait or | | | | when and where to use this method will take |
| to hook them and just how are you going to fish | | | | some experience however. Unless some one has |
| for them? | | | | shown you, a good place and time to try this |
| You have a number of ways that you can fish | | | | method you will be better of using the float and |
| but each will require their own special gear. | | | | jig as it will produce fish through out the season. |
| Drift fishing for steelhead may be the most | | | | Using a side planner along with a hotshot lure or |
| common method used when steelhead fishing. | | | | something similar is an exciting way to catch |
| It requires the least amount of gear since all you | | | | steelhead also. Here again you need to know how |
| need is a weight/sinker and a hook. Drift fishing | | | | to read the river and have some idea of where a |
| produces steelhead for anglers on a steady basis | | | | steelhead will lay or travel through. Once you learn |
| also. However, drift fishing does require that an | | | | how to set this up and fish it correctly, it will |
| angler learn how to read the river and they will | | | | produce fish on days when nothing else will work. |
| need to realize just what a bite feels like. Although | | | | I should mention here that fly-fishing for steelhead |
| the steelhead is large and aggressive fish, their | | | | might not be the most productive method of |
| bite can be quite difficult for the beginning angler | | | | catching steelhead it for sure is the most exciting |
| to detect. Even after forty years of fishing, they | | | | and we ill be covering fly-fishing in later articles |
| still surprise me from time to time. | | | | also. For those of you that would like to give |
| For the beginning angler there are two ways that | | | | fly-fishing a try you will need to have lots of |
| I recommend for them to try when first starting | | | | patients and strong determination; however, the |
| out. Jig fishing or plunking for steelhead are easy | | | | rewards are well worth the effort once a |
| productive ways of fishing. Jig fishing with a | | | | steelhead is on your line. |
| bobber or float is the most productive way I | | | | If you have access to a boat then trolling, back |
| have found for the novice angler to start catching | | | | trolling, back drifting, are some of the other ways |
| fish. | | | | you can fish. If you do not have a boat do not |
| - The bite is easy to detect since you watch your | | | | worry as a majority of the steelhead we catch |
| float and when it goes down you set the hook. | | | | are from the bank. Even when we have had use |
| - You do not have to worry about getting | | | | of a boat, we often find ourselves beaching the |
| snagged, and spend all your time tying on new | | | | boat so we can fish a hole from shore. I would be |
| rigs. | | | | the first to say a boat is nice to have at times; |
| - You can watch your float and know exactly | | | | however, they are not a necessary item to catch |
| where you jig is at, making it easier to find the | | | | steelhead. |
| seams in the river. | | | | Learning what technique to use, and when to use |
| - It is one of the best ways an angler can fish | | | | it, comes with experience and we will be covering |
| deep slow moving pools, I use this method on a | | | | each of these in detail in the coming days. We are |
| number of hole that I would not be able to fish | | | | going to be talking about what type of gear you |
| other wise. | | | | will need for each technique, show you how to |
| Plunking is a style of fishing just as its name | | | | set it up, where to use it, and how to seek out |
| implies. You set up a rig, and plunk it out in the | | | | those holding spots where steelhead just love to |
| river and wait for a steelhead to come along and | | | | lay. |