Is there anything better than watching a steelhead cartwheel through the air as it violently shakes its head, attempting to toss our flies? It’s scenes like these that ruin other fish for anglers and leave them with an insatiable appetite for the chrome beasts that emerge each fall from the depths...
Steelhead season is fully upon us, and with each new rain and the shortening of days, the action is just going to get better! Steelhead in the Great Lakes are fairly simple fish, a stark contrast compared to their Pacific cousins. Most of the fish spawn in spring but come into...
Few moments in fly fishing rival the hard thud of a steelhead striking a streamer and the ensuing chaos that ranges from cartwheeling runs to violent shakes of the head. Streamers require some dedication from anglers because they typically won’t be quite as productive as nymph rigs, but there are certainly...
Winter on the steelhead streams of the Great Lakes can be a spectacular experience with some truly brutal weather conditions. There’s something romantic about the idea of standing knee-deep in a rushing Lake Erie tributary stream as snow and wind rips across the water. It might not be everyone’s idea of...
Steelhead can’t resist a well-placed nymph rig, and that’s why most fly anglers start each trip targeting fish in this manner! When fly fishing for steelhead in the Great Lakes tributaries, it’s easy to become mesmerized by these giant fish in such small water. High-sticking nymph rigs are the perfect way...
That first cool breeze that signifies fall is fast approaching stirs something in all steelhead anglers. While it has only been a few short months since the fish left the tributaries of the Great Lakes, summer feels like an eternity while everyone waits for a new run of steelhead and the...
Most anglers associate steelhead fishing with the colors of autumn and snows of winter, but there’s great fishing to be had in spring as well! Fall rains swell tributaries of Lake Erie and bring in thousands of steelhead from the depths, and with it, hordes of anglers in search of these...
That’s always the million-dollar question, isn’t it? It’s something I’m often asked by curious anglers and prospective clients as everyone tries to time up the run perfectly. Some swear by studying Lake Erie water temperatures, photoperiod shortening, rainfall counts, and a variety of other scientific means to pinpoint when the fish...
When the leaves start to tint with orange and yellow and the breeze turns crisp, anglers become obsessed with the pursuit of steelhead. In Pennsylvania, the steelhead run peaks around Thanksgiving, and in Ohio it’s even later, coming after the New Year’s holiday. The first signs of these fish come much...
Many associate gaudy, articulated streamers with big trout, but it’s often eggs that yield the true giants of the deep. Pound for pound, nothing has more protein in a trout's diet than an egg. If there is a chance that fish (of any species) are spawning in a given waterway, odds...
