Tips for steelhead and brown trout

Steelhead and brown trout aficionados will certainly agree. These popular gamefish species present a good news/bad news scenario. The good news is both can found coast to coast here in the United States. Too, and at times, both can be relatively easy to catch.

The bad news? They’re both often fickle, refusing even the most naturally presented fly patterns or properly trolled stickbait. Frustrating? Oh, they most definitely can be; however, steelhead and browns both can be fooled, albeit perhaps not in every situation, but with enough regularity as to prove overwhelmingly worthy of pursuit. How? That’s a question with many an answer, but this handful of tried-and-true angling tips can help level the proverbial playing field.

As wild steelhead (or steelhead trout) are technically anadromous rainbow trout, meaning they spawn in freshwater and spend three or four ‘growth years’ in saltwater before returning to their native stream, this hard-fighting species is most often associated with current, i.e. rivers or larger streams. Steelhead have been stocked in many lakes across the country, including lakes Erie, Michigan, and Ontario, where annually, numbers migrate into tributary streams, providing excellent angling opportunities.

An introduced (non-native) species, brown trout eggs where brought to the U.S. from Germany in 1883. The following year, the U.S. Fish Commission released the resulting fry into Michigan’s Baldwin River. By 1900, some 38 states and two territories played home to self-sustaining populations of brown trout. Today, browns thrive from the New England states through the Midwest and on into a variety of waters in the Rocky Mountains and Pacific Northwest. Typically thought of as a species of flowing water, trophy browns also make their home in the still waters of Utah’s Flaming Gorge Reservoir and Lake Ontario.

The list of effective techniques for creeling both steelhead and brown trout is lengthy, with strategies often depending upon the time of year, water temperature, and the type of water, i.e. stream versus lake, being targeting. However, this handful of tactics have traditionally been without equal when it comes to success.

I thoroughly enjoy plunking for summer (late May/June) steelhead, perhaps moreso for the social aspect than any other variable. Plunking can be very basic; the “Lazy Man’s” way of steelhead fishing. A plunking rig begins with an 8’ medium or medium-heavy rod, e.g. Piscifun’s LumiCat II, and a 4000 series Chaos XS baitcasting reel spooled with #30 braid. The main line then goes to a three-way swivel. In our situation, i.e. the Columbia River, there’s an #8-10 monofilament “lead line” below the swivel finished with a 3- to 5-ounce bank sinker, or, more economically, an appropriate rock…yes, a rock…attached to the dropper using a couple wraps of electrical tape. The leader is #20-30 fluorocarbon, approximately 35 to 40” long, culminating in a #4 to #6 (size) Worden’s Spin-N-Glo, two or three 5mm beads, and either one or two #1/0 or #2/0 Daiichi red ‘Bleeding Bait’ hooks, barbless for us in the Columbia. Some ‘plunkers’ use no bait, while others prefer a small piece of crayfish tail, striped coon shrimp, or salad shrimp, along with a scent such as BANG! or liquid Smelly Jelly.

In high water, steelhead will travel near shore as to stay out of the harder current, meaning keep the casts and your gear close. Now, cast out, catch bottom, clip a cowbell to your rod, and settle back for the ‘alarm’ to go off.

Plunking is both enjoyable and productive; however, there are dozens of ways to pursue steelhead during the summer. Drifting so-called steelhead jigs, small rubber beads, or pink plastic ‘worms’ under lightweight slip bobbers is one method. Casting spoons and spinners, e.g. Blue Fox Classic Vibrax #4 or #5, is another excellent tactic, especially before the water warms and the fish remain aggressive. Casting or anchoring and ‘tightlining’ lipped plugs like the Mag Lips (Yakima Baits) fills another void. Experimentation is often the key to success with a fish as often fickle as summer steelhead.

My wife, Julie, and I spent quite a bit of time while we lived in eastern Iowa fishing an area of the Hawkeye State known as the “Driftless Region,” named, it’s said, for the fact that this portion of the Upper Midwest, which includes parts of Wisconsin, Minnesota, Iowa, and Illinois, is unglaciated, and therefore quite rocky and hilly. In northeast Iowa, we found several small streams to harbor excellent numbers of brown trout, many of which we were able to catch using a 2” Rapala 3/16  ^th  ounce Countdown Minnow (lipped stickbait) in, strangely enough, a brown trout pattern. Running a close second to the Rapala was a Size #1 1/32  ^nd  ounce Panther Martin spinner sporting a gold blade and the traditional teardrop body, and wearing what I call the black-and-yellow ‘bumblebee’ color pattern. Also in my trout tacklebox, you’ll find Mepps’ Aglia spinners, as well as a variety of Rooster Tail spinners.

Spoons, too, can be very effective lures for brown trout, both in streams and in deeper lakes. Hard lures such as Mepps’ Little Wolf or Bantam Syclops, Acme’s Little Cleo, The Krocodile from Luhr Jensen, or the time-honored Eppinger Daredevil can be cast, trolled, or even jigged vertically, depending on the time of year, water conditions, and the depth at which the fish are holding in the water column.

Flyfishing for all species of trout, including browns, is incredibly popular throughout much of the country, but perhaps moreso in the New England States and the Rocky Mountains. Although having a varied diet – NOTE: ‘Mousing,’ a flyfishing technique targeting larger brown trout using flies that, believe it or not, resemble big field mice! – browns are primarily insectivorous, meaning they eat a lot of bugs! Mayflies, caddisflies, hellgrammites, midges, ants, stoneflies, grasshoppers, crickets; if it’s in the water or is unlucky enough to fall into the water, it’s on the brown’s menu.

The flyfisher searching for brown trout is typically armed with a 9’ 5- or 6-weight rod, a 7’ to 9’ 4X or 5X leader, and a selection of dry and wet flies and streamers. The fly box should include choices such as the Blue Winged Olive (BWO), Elk Hair Caddis, Parachute Hopper, Pheasant Tail and Hare’s Ear nymphs, and the Wooly Bugger and Muddler Minnow streamers. Flyfishing for brown trout, especially trophy (24”+) browns, is an artform, the mastery of which requires time, practice, and patience; however, watching the dark shape rise from the streambed to s-l-o-w-l-y inhale your dry fly is worth every single second invested.