Winter Steelhead VideoHi Speed Only

New Fly Fishing Song:“Chasing Steelhead Around“: Joey and I both play guitar and write songs. So we wrote some music, lyrics and recorded it during this weekends steelhead trip. This music/video has the lyrics, some pictures and obviously the music. If you like Steelheading and have ever been to upstate NY you will be able to identify the subtleties within the lyrics.

Rarely is everything perfect. It’s too hot, cold, waters too high, waters too low, too cloudy, too sunny…You gotta be able to find the fish and fish for them in all kinds of conditions. So, Joey and I leave Maine and make the long drive to Upstate New York for a weekend of Stealhead fishing. The forecast was calling for 2 days of steady rain with periods of snow. The weathermen were right. We showed up to some cheap hotel, put our bags down, got some cheap food and then made a gameplan. We knew that the obvious big rivers would be raging and super high, so we ventured to some smaller waters. Even some of the creeks were high and muddy, so we headed down an estuary part of the river. The water was moving very slow and we could see Steelhead and Brown Trout cruising through the water. I tend to like fast moving water and faster drifts, but we found the fish and we had to fish for them in the slow currents. So, instead of fishing fast water with lots of weight and battling heavy currents, Joey and I tied on indicators. We did not use any weight. What length leader and tippet were we using? Well, the water was about 3 to 4 feet deep. So we tied on our orange egg pattern flies about 5 feet from the indicator (2 feet of leader and 3 feet of tippet). Joey has a great deal of patience and he fished in one section of this slow water for a while. Of course, I am a little less patient and it was not long before I was at the mouth of the estuary. The estuary dumped out into the Great Lake and this was my kind of fly fishing. Big waves crashed into the river currents as they entered the Lake. I just knew that some fish would be laying in those currents waiting for eggs and what not to spill out from the rivers and estuaries. First cast, WHAM! A big steelhead hit my indicator. Oh boy, this is gonna get wild. Then not much happened. At least not the action I was hoping for. I did hit one nice brown trout and then headed back to the slower water where Joey was. As I get closer Joey says, “Jer, I just had a nice Steelhead on. He jumped clear out of the water and then spit the hook. That wasn’t the only one. I had another one on about 10 minutes ago.” So, I was back to fly fishing the slow water. Then I hear Joey say his trademark line as he peels his fly line of the water and sets the hook. “There he is!” Joey has a nice Brown Trout on. He fights it, lands it and life is good.” I get back in my position and I hear it again. “There he is!” I run back down thinking, “You gotta be kidding me.” Joey lands a nice Steelhead. Then it was my turn. I am watching my indicator drift down the current ever so slowly and then it stops. I set the hook and I have a small Steelhead on. I landed that fish and Joey and I proceeded to hook and catch nice browns and small Steelhead for the remainder of the first day. We were on top of the world. We drove back to the hotel and played guitar for the rest of the night. We actually wrote a song about Steelheading and recorded it on my laptop. That is the song we used to accompany the video for this article. Anyway, morning comes and finds us right back where we left of. I am still rigging up and I hear it again. “There he is!” Joey hooks into a real nice Steelhead. He lands the beautifully colored Steelie and he is on top of the world. I hooked into some more browns and one 12-15 pound Steelhead. It was awesome. I saw this spot where a branch was buried in the water. I waded way out to it and made a drift on the far side of the branch. BANG! The indicator went down and a monster steelhead come up. He jumped 3 times. As Joey faught to get the camera out, the Steelie managed to wrap me around the submerged brance. Gone. Still it was awesome. So we are heading home now and we had a great weekend. One of my best Steelhead trips ever. So, here is what we learned. Don’t be afraid to fish the slow, barely moving waters. Fish love to hang out in there and if you fish it right you can get the perfect presentation. Isn’t that what its all about? I mean when we fish the fast water how long are we actually in the zone. Not too long really. When fishing the slow water, if you have the right depth and mend you can be in the zone for a long time. When your in the zone for a long time you hook a lot of fish. So, sometimes its good to keep it low and drift it slow.