A Day on the Water — Steelhead Jigs

Started at Tippy Dam at noon.  Fishing was very slow, fishermen were leaving.  Kings are all dead, few Coho jumping.  A the tail out and another easy spot I like, no bites.  When fishing is bad, I don't experiment much but stick with the few flies I think are best.  Yellow beads, and lately the Nuke Minnow Jig.   At 1:30 I moved upstream to the fast snaggy water.  Its hard to wade and hard to follow fish downstream. I was dialing in the depth to try get close to the bottom without snagging. On the 8th drift the bobber went down.  The hook set was met big violent...

March 25, I landed only 2 out of a total of 6 fish I was pretty sure were fair hooked.  A couple of others seemed they were likely foul hooked. Plagued by Leader Line and Operator issues.  Only saw one fish that I lost, that was a sleek big bight hen who fought stubbornly, then ripped off a run with a slashing leap at the end.  She hit a #6 Golden Nugget Bubble Egg fish as a trailer 3 feet behind a bead.  All the other hits were on Jigs: #8 1/64 ounce Black Stonefly Jig, #6 1/32 ounce Brown Rubber...

This time in late spring is when to expect, hope for a good bite on Little Black Stone Flies for steelhead or trout in Michigan.  March 12, I didn't see any bugs fluttering across the river but the guy bottom bouncing next to me got a big male steelhead on a #6 stonefly pattern.  I put a stonefly jig pattern under my bobber.  I had been pounding good water for hours with one steelhead hooked and lost on a dark Brown Rubber Legs Jig pattern.  The second cast with a black stone jig got the first steelhead and over an...