To build a bit on Salmo_g's excellent post today steelheading is as much a hunting as fishing game. As such there now is a premium on reading the water and further parsing that water down to what can be effectively fished with your chosen method. I tend to fish rapidly covering a lot of water looking for that single or small pod of fish slowing down only when the fish tell me it is time to do so. A river like the Sauk that changes to some degree with every single major flood event so that know good fly water often is based on dated information. I do feel sorry for most of today's anglers where because the sparse numbers of fish it is difficult for them to encounter enough fish to effectively learn to read that water. One could be doing everything correctly but if there are no fish in the run the result is no fish. However, it almost always the more observant angler that pays attention to what others are doing helps with that tough learning curve. The best of our steelheaders can fish a river new to them and still largely be effectively fishing the "best water".
As an aside of the four major factors in steelheading success I would rank the ability to properly read the water as number one, understanding how your fly is swimming and how your line control effects how the presenting itself as second, the casting ability as a distant thrid and the fly choice by far the least important.
curt
As an aside of the four major factors in steelheading success I would rank the ability to properly read the water as number one, understanding how your fly is swimming and how your line control effects how the presenting itself as second, the casting ability as a distant thrid and the fly choice by far the least important.
curt