Trinity Steelhead pic

Peter Charles wrote

If you believe the PNW snobs, our "ersatz" steelhead don't have the
balls of an ocean run fish. That said, I don't fish for GL steelhead
with a six weight anymore after the last butt spanking I took from a
hatchery fish. Maitland, Saugeen, and Grand steelhead are all
streamborn and much tougher than a hatchery fish. Just talking to two
American guys today who came up this way to fish for one or two wild
fish rather than catch bucket loads of hatchery footballs back home.
So there's something to be said for the difference.

I believe on average wild steelhead are significantly stronger and tougher
than the hatchery model, but I've had enough surprises (wild fish that
fought like boots and hatchery jobs that battled like tigers) that I don't
think one can reliably predict which a fish is during the fight. I've
never fished for your potadromous GL version, so I can't compare them to
the anadromous PNW fish. I think, though, I'd rather hunt any wild fish
over any hatchery fish.

The bigger of the two fish in the photos I posted, was taken on 6 lb.
Maxima, the other on 10 lb. When the water clears, we have to drop
down in size or we don't catch fish. That fish was landed in maximum
three minutes and most of that time was me wading over to shore. I'm
fishing with a 13'6" 9 wt. two-hander so that may have something to do
with quickly subduing a fish.

From what I've heard, our steelhead here tend to be much less leader shy
(especially to swung flies) than yours can be. This is true even in clear
water. Are PNW fish more aggressive? dumber? who knows.....

JR

" Ralph Heidecke" wrote in
news:HvPrd.399073$Pl.282308@pd7tw1no:

a 6 weight is adequate for any steelhead up to the 10 or 12 lb mark
provided the river isn't the Thompson (which by thew photo this isn't)
or you have to use large flies and/or heavy heads to reach the fish.



"Adequate" and "correct" are two different things.

Scott

"Willi & Sue" wrote in message news:41ae4eca$0$206
You guys are pretty rough on Tom!

I think it's an outstanding fish especially first time and from such
small water.
Very cool, Tom.

Willi



Thanks,
I take the criticism as constructive criticism and can handle it well,
(Physicist are worst, no big ego's, but they can be brutal too)...I still
feel this is a great newsgroup for info.

To answer some of the questions:

The 6w rod and reel/line is all I had and 4x leader and tippet was what I
rigged at the time, I did have 3x leader but was hooking 2 pounders until
the surprise 8.5 pounder hit.

I recently purchased an 8w set-up and will bring that with me to the Trinity
next Oct, but it was a blast with the 6w.

I cleaned and iced the fish and took it home, first time I tasted
steelhead, it was delicious.and our family enjoyed it very much.

I really had a great time on the Trinity, the weather was perfect, the food
was excellent (La Grange), learned about the local people there, a very
fish-rich environment. And best of all the fish were biting.
I take it fly-fishing isn't always like this, so I'm savoring the moment.
-tom

Peter Charles wrote

(Jonathan Cook) wrote:

JR wrote:

our steelhead here tend to be much less leader shy
(especially to swung flies) than yours can be. This is true even in
clear
water. Are PNW fish more aggressive? dumber? who knows.....

Warmer water.

I'd say you hit the nail on the head . . . .

I don't think so. Standard tippet size for summer steelhead fishing in
Oregon is 8 to 12 lb (generally 0X to 3X, depending on the brand), but the
traditional leader for winter fishing, with sink tips, is a short (4-5 ft)
Maxima leader, ending in 12 lb (.013") or 15 lb (.015") tippet. Folks
rarely go thinner in winter.

JR

Peter Charles wrote

(Jonathan Cook) wrote:

JR wrote:

our steelhead here tend to be much less leader shy
(especially to swung flies) than yours can be. This is true even in
clear
water. Are PNW fish more aggressive? dumber? who knows.....

Warmer water.

I'd say you hit the nail on the head . . . .

I don't think so. Standard tippet size for summer steelhead fishing in
Oregon is 8 to 12 lb (generally 0X to 3X, depending on the brand), but the
traditional leader for winter fishing, with sink tips, is a short (4-5 ft)
Maxima leader, ending in 12 lb (.013") or 15 lb (.015") tippet. Folks
rarely go thinner in winter.

JR

On Fri, 3 Dec 2004 14:09:35 -0800, "JR" wrote:

Peter Charles wrote

(Jonathan Cook) wrote:

JR wrote:

our steelhead here tend to be much less leader shy
(especially to swung flies) than yours can be. This is true even in
clear
water. Are PNW fish more aggressive? dumber? who knows.....

Warmer water.

I'd say you hit the nail on the head . . . .

I don't think so. Standard tippet size for summer steelhead fishing in
Oregon is 8 to 12 lb (generally 0X to 3X, depending on the brand), but the
traditional leader for winter fishing, with sink tips, is a short (4-5 ft)
Maxima leader, ending in 12 lb (.013") or 15 lb (.015") tippet. Folks
rarely go thinner in winter.

JR


What I think Jon was referring to is that GL waters are on the average
colder than PNW waters and that the cold affects fish behaviour.

Our float rodders go as low as 2 lb. on their tippets but they're
using long, noodle rods that absorb the shocks. Typically, they're
using 4 lb. or 6 lb.

I only drop to 6 lb. when conditions are pretty clear otherwise I'm
using 10 lb.

We don't have a summer run so really all of our steelhead fishing gets
compressed into a few good months.

Peter

turn mailhot into hotmail to reply

Visit The Streamer Page at http://www.mountaincable.net/~pcharl...ers/index.html

On Fri, 3 Dec 2004 14:09:35 -0800, "JR" wrote:

Peter Charles wrote

(Jonathan Cook) wrote:

JR wrote:

our steelhead here tend to be much less leader shy
(especially to swung flies) than yours can be. This is true even in
clear
water. Are PNW fish more aggressive? dumber? who knows.....

Warmer water.

I'd say you hit the nail on the head . . . .

I don't think so. Standard tippet size for summer steelhead fishing in
Oregon is 8 to 12 lb (generally 0X to 3X, depending on the brand), but the
traditional leader for winter fishing, with sink tips, is a short (4-5 ft)
Maxima leader, ending in 12 lb (.013") or 15 lb (.015") tippet. Folks
rarely go thinner in winter.

JR


What I think Jon was referring to is that GL waters are on the average
colder than PNW waters and that the cold affects fish behaviour.

Our float rodders go as low as 2 lb. on their tippets but they're
using long, noodle rods that absorb the shocks. Typically, they're
using 4 lb. or 6 lb.

I only drop to 6 lb. when conditions are pretty clear otherwise I'm
using 10 lb.

We don't have a summer run so really all of our steelhead fishing gets
compressed into a few good months.

Peter

turn mailhot into hotmail to reply

Visit The Streamer Page at http://www.mountaincable.net/~pcharl...ers/index.html

On Fri, 3 Dec 2004 14:09:35 -0800, "JR" wrote:

Peter Charles wrote

(Jonathan Cook) wrote:

JR wrote:

our steelhead here tend to be much less leader shy
(especially to swung flies) than yours can be. This is true even in
clear
water. Are PNW fish more aggressive? dumber? who knows.....

Warmer water.

I'd say you hit the nail on the head . . . .

I don't think so. Standard tippet size for summer steelhead fishing in
Oregon is 8 to 12 lb (generally 0X to 3X, depending on the brand), but the
traditional leader for winter fishing, with sink tips, is a short (4-5 ft)
Maxima leader, ending in 12 lb (.013") or 15 lb (.015") tippet. Folks
rarely go thinner in winter.

JR


What I think Jon was referring to is that GL waters are on the average
colder than PNW waters and that the cold affects fish behaviour.

Our float rodders go as low as 2 lb. on their tippets but they're
using long, noodle rods that absorb the shocks. Typically, they're
using 4 lb. or 6 lb.

I only drop to 6 lb. when conditions are pretty clear otherwise I'm
using 10 lb.

We don't have a summer run so really all of our steelhead fishing gets
compressed into a few good months.

Peter

turn mailhot into hotmail to reply

Visit The Streamer Page at http://www.mountaincable.net/~pcharl...ers/index.html

Tom wrote:snipI recently purchased an 8w set-up and will bring that with me to
the Trinity
next Oct, but it was a blast with the 6w.


We use the 8 weughts a lot down here in Texas and find them very versitle. I
have enjoyed fishing them for most of my life.

Big Dale

It's one steelie per day, so we released the others unharmed.
The fish in the picture weighed 8.6 lbs., the others were smaller.
I was surprised on the pull from the fish on the 6w, and had the drag
set light cause I was using 4x tippet. Took about 13 min. to bring
in. I wouldn't know about the thin tail, not an expert on steelies,
had nothing to compare to.
Also my first time eating steelhead, they taste great.
A 6 wt is undergunning for steelhead, and you probably want to move up
to a tippet in the 0X-2X range
On that piece of water, there are times when small nymphs are about the
only productive fly to use. With little rain, they have very low, and
clear water conditions. Not many new fish are in the systems, and the
ones that are, are getting pounded. 4X and small flies can be the only
game in town at times. 0X might not even go through the eye of the hook.

BINGO! Even on the upper parts of the Klamath I've often fished with a
6 or 7 wt and 4x tippet, but no doubt, that's appropriate for the
Trinity and the Scott, too. Flies are anywhere betwen sz 12 and 4, and
seldom do you go as large as a 4 unless the water is cloudy/muddy.

When we fish the Stanislaus, we're ususally using 5-6wts and 6x tippet,
and flies as small as 16s are pretty common... this is generally a
half-pounder run, but we get fish as large as 12 pounds.

Larry