Bass Fishing Information

Steve W Sharpe asked:


Fly fishing for steelhead fish can be a challenging and rewarding experience. These amazing fish share their heritage with the Atlantic and Pacific salmon. Although they are native to the West Coast of the United States as well as in Russia, they can also be found in the tributaries of the Great Lakes. This is because they were planted in the lakes many times in the 1800’s.

There are numerous places you can go when fly fishing for steelhead. As we’ve already said, they are most plentiful in the Western United States. You can find plenty of steelhead in the rivers of Northern California, Oregon, and Washington state.

Steelhead are cousins of the rainbow trout and have a decidedly chrome-like coloring. They are amazingly acrobatic and can provide any fly fisherman with a fulfilling challenge when trying to catch them.

Most of the fly fishing techniques used to catch steelhead are based on those historically developed to catch Atlantic salmon. Flies are cast downstream from the angler on a floating or sinking line. The take, which can sometimes be quite violent, usually occurs towards the end of the swing. You can also use nymphing methods usually used by trout anglers.

Winter steelheads are often considered the “hard core” of fly fishers, sometimes enduring hours of repeated casting in cold water and freezing conditions for that one tug that can occur when you least expect it. Many fly fishers will spend a lot of time trying to land that prized steelhead only to be frustrated near the end.

The main thing to keep in mind when fishing for steelhead is to practice a lot of patience. For people who fly fish for steelhead regularly, the success of a day consists of one good hook. You will not see big numbers of catches like you will on trout rivers. Keep a positive attitude and watch what the fish are doing.

Most steelhead pockets are found downstream, but other anglers know this as well. Steelhead are most plentiful in the cold, winter months, but you can often find several other fly fishers trying to fish the same spot in hopes of landing their fish. As you can imagine, this is not especially good for the fish or the fisherman. Practice appropriate etiquette when on the river fly fishing for steelhead.

You will probably need a 9 foot single hand rod or a 12-15 foot double handed rod for best results. Line weights should range from 7 to 9. The best flies to use when trying to land a steelhead include the Wooly Bugger, the Conehead Zuddler, and the Black Bear Green Butt.

Fly fishing for steelhead can be an amazingly gratifying experience when you are patient and wise when it comes to the natural patterns of these fish. When you are able to land one, you will be surprised at how much fun it is to reel it in!

Jon Kelly asked:


The Walker’s mayfly nymph is a weighted fly which imitates the emerging mayfly before it crawls out of the water and flies away. It therefore is not dry and sinks. These are cast upstream in front of a fish and ‘tweaked’ or gently retrieved often with great success-they are ideal on a chalk stream when the fish are not rising. This is usually the only acceptable form of wet fly fishing for trout on the major chalk streams.

Wet fly fishing for trout in general is practised in fast water when the current does the work or in still waters when the fly is cast downstream and slowly retrieved.

Wet fly fishing for trout involves lighter flies which are cast downstream into pools or lies where fish are expected to be. This method is used at night for sea-trout, or sewin as they are known in Wales.

Wet fly fishing for trout in reservoirs and still waters involve much bulkier flies which are cast out long distances and retrieved .The flies imitate various bugs and even perch fry which the big rainbow trout hoover up in vast quantities in the spring. Still waters are on the whole stocked with rainbow trout which feed on bugs and fish fry and in the big reservoirs such as Bewl Water, Chew, Blagdon, Rutland Water and Grafham Water grow to a large size and are extremely powerful-hence great to fish for. On these large waters wet fly fishing for trout is usually done from boats since the levels will fluctuate and this leads to muddy banks when the water level drops.

In the natural lakes in the Lake District, Scotland and Ireland brown trout give good sport on retrieved wet flies; often fished in groups of three. These lakes also contain the large brown ferox trout which are cannibals and feed on their smaller brethren-and are usually caught on lures and spinners-not flies.

Downstream wet fly fishing for trout on a fast moving river on a summer’s evening is indeed a pleasure, brown trout and grayling will both be there to pit your wits against. Wet fly fishing for trout and grayling in rivers and streams of the West Country and Wales is particularly good.

Wet fly fishing for trout in Ireland has its many opportunities. Most rivers and streams hold brown trout and there is lots of free fishing. The Irish lakes hold some very large trout and boats and ghillies are available on the famous lakes such as Corrib, Conn and Mask.

There are good numbers of small man made ‘put and take’ fisheries up and down the country. Some are excavated especially for trout fisheries others are chalk and gravel pits which have been stocked. In the main, these waters are stocked with Rainbow Trout which are not indigenous but hail from the Rockies in the west of the USA. Rainbows can tolerate higher water temperatures and lower oxygen content in the water than the indigenous Browns and also can grow very quickly. Some waters are stocked with fish of over 15 pounds.

The flies for these still waters imitate all sorts of bugs and fish that live in the lake and some look nothing like anything living there but still catch fish!

These fisheries offer the wet fly fisherman great opportunities to improve casting select the right fly and catch very big fish.

We plan to offer information about these fisheries which will be a free service to the fishery owners-so keep visiting us.