Steelhead Weather

I was back out Steelhead fishing for the past 4 days in New York State when I heard that the weather would be too cold to fish for smallmouth bass. The first couple of days I fished with Keith and the last two days I fished with Serge & his father, Raymond. The air temperatures were well below freezing most every day with 25 to 28 being about the warmest. Water temps were around 35 degrees and it snowed practically every day as well. The fishing was a little slower than I had hoped for, but we still averaged 4 fish per day. Egg sacs accounted for the bulk of the steelhead but flies caught a few also. Egg sacs drifted below floats were definitely the best choice as over 75% of the fish were caught with this method of presentation. Most of the fish were smaller than I expected but we had a few between 5 & 7 pounds that put up quite a battle. As an added bonus, several brown trout were also mixed in with the steelhead that we caught. They also averaged 5 to 7 pounds and supplied me with some well-needed eggs for tying! The largest Steelhead may have gone around 10 pounds or so, but as usual the biggest one got away! All in all, a pretty good trip with all that Mother Nature had to offer!