~StreamSide Tales~: Ohio Steelheading

Ohio Steelheading

3/30/2021

Let’s face it, big steelhead don’t use theatrics or super quick moves like fresh smaller steelhead do such as sky jumping. Big steelhead use their body weight, size and force to get the advantage. If you don’t have patience you may not land them.

I got my $14.00 out-of-state fishing license on line and was ready to go after some Ohio steelhead. Donny had called me a few days earlier and told me that the steelhead have been stacked up. I picked up Kevin at Barkeyville and we headed North by North by North West to Conneaut Ohio to Donny’s house.

I haven’t fished with Donny for a couple of years or so. We’ve fished many a trout streams and plenty Steelhead fishing in the past. Being how far we live from each other our paths just don’t cross out of the blue. He has chartered and guided Lake Erie and it’s tributaries for years so he knows his way around and quality fishing opportunities. When he called me up I knew we were going to have a lot of fun.

After giving us a warm welcome at 6:00 am he started rolling smokes while Kevin was registering for an out-of-state license on line. After that we got our gear on and headed to the crick.

It was a chilly morning. Almost glove weather but knowing it was to warm up I didn’t take my knitted mittens. We followed Donny through a short wooded section to the crick. There were already a couple of guys on the bank getting their rods ready to fish. We headed a piece downstream, crossed the crick and stopped on the bank looking out into a long run that started at fast riffling current over a rocky stone crick bed. From there the run widened and flowed deeper to another shallow section. Donny said the steelhead are right there in the run from the head of the pool to the tail out. It was too dark to see any fish just yet but I wasn’t doubting Donny’s words. There was a fellow on the other side at the head of the run so Kevin and I fished from the same side of the crick.

Kevin hooked up first and played the steelhead successfully out of the run down crick where Donny could net it easier. When I finally hooked up the steelhead didn’t waste anytime showing off and snapping my leader. After the hook up I would say the first 7 seconds are crucial. It would be like trying to shake a bee off your cheek while holding a full glass of beer in one hand and a hoagie in the other. Well, maybe 5 times worse with a hook stuck in your mouth. The steelhead usually start out with ferocious head shakes that might last a few seconds or more. Then they’ll take off with reckless abandon in any direction they choose. Sometimes I think, after the head shaking, they don’t even know what direction they are going to go. Like stepping off a merry-go-round after being spun at high speed for a few minutes or so. When they do take off it’s in an instant. Your drag better not be too tight and you better be holding on to the rod as tight as you can.

When my first hooked steelhead took off, after the head shaking, it sped downstream like a top horsepower dragster on a ¼ mile drag strip. It took flight, shook it’s head in the air and my leader came flying back without a sucker spawn attached. After the second hook up and practically the same missing offerings at the end of my bare tippet I replaced the 6 lb fluorocarbon with 8 lb. Donny told us originally the steelhead we would be fishing for would mostly be drop backs. Well, these fish were pretty fresh and wild and the fresher the steelhead the wilder and more energy they have. They would jump out of the water and fight ferociously like wild dogs trying to tear pieces of meat from a fresh kill, grabbing a hunk of meat and running away trying to keep it to himself. This went on for some time until the bite slowed down.

Kevin and I broke for lunch while Donny went home to roll some more cigs and grab more beer. He told us where to go after lunch and he’ll meet us there.

When Donny showed up he motioned to us to come down to where he was fishing. There were steelhead strung out everywhere like a gathering of people along a country road waiting for a firework display. From the shallow water to the deeper runs. They were a bit harder to hook up being the water was so clear. Seeing the steelhead in the riffles was like looking through wrinkled plastic wrap and I’m sure they noticed us also. Of course Donny didn’t have any trouble hooking one when he did decide to fish on occasion. He’s a guide so he knows how to coax them. He made it look easy at times.

Every once in a while Kevin or I would hook up. The steelhead were big and bold and fought like the devil. It was good Donny had a net big enough to net the long steelhead for us.

I was standing on a high bank drifting an egg pattern and sparkle spawn in a deeper run. I wasn’t using an indicator being I was well above the water. I was high sticking my offering following my fly line, with the rod tip, as my egg patterns drifted through. I saw my fly line dip down and I yanked upward for a hook set. The line tightened and the top rod section bowed like a freshly strung recurve. I felt the torque of the bending rod in my grip and grabbed the cork handle tightly with both hands as he took off. He was spitting line out the reel and I thought I hooked a friggen whale. The rod felt like a 9’ 3” limb trying to hold it at an angle. Every arm muscle was being used trying to control the fighting steelhead which seemed I had no initial control over. It was like trying to tame a wild mustang while standing in a small corral gripping a rope that’s lassoed around its neck. He bucked, jolted and tugged. He swam up and down creek and I had no way of slowing him down. What seemed like a half hour of fighting him probably only took a few minutes until he settled down some. There I was standing on the bank with the rod sections arced with a tight line aiming into the midsection of the wavy current with the rod butt in my gut holding the rod steady. It looked as if I had a snagged bottom. The steelhead was facing into the current and wasn’t moving. I had no control trying to move him. Even Donny jokingly asked me if I had a snag? I told him the steelhead was still on but I just couldn’t move him.

I knew to keep side pressure on fish even when they are not moving. The force I had on him, from the side pressure, was forcing him to use his energy not to come my way. It took time and patience on my part not to be in a hurry or too aggressive. When I felt him moving my way I swung the rod downstream at an angle to get him to swim towards the calmer shallower water where he could be netted. It worked, with one last hard tug he turned and swam downstream. I wasn’t sure what Donny was waiting for but he had the net and there wasn’t much of a way I thought I could grab the steelhead and get it out of the water. I gave Donny a heads up. He grabbed the net and headed my way. Meanwhile ‘old tugboat’ was facing up crick jiggling the line like a trout hanging from a stringer jiggling the chain that’s hooked through its gill still attached to a fisherman’s belt. Mind you, the rod was still arced towards the steelhead and I was still keeping my wrists locked not easing the tension on him. When Donny stepped into the water the steelhead swam further away. I started to back up on the bank and upstream without taking in line. He drew closer to Donny but jolted and forced himself away. It took a couple of times and much effort but finally Donny got the best opportunity to net the big steelhead and successfully did just that.