The Steelheading Secret Legit Fly Fishers Don’t Want You To Know

JACKspASS

Steelhead
I got buck fever one time on the S/F Stilly. Was winter gear fishing with Sand shrimp. I was reeling in my line to get in another drift and to check my bait.. I looked down stream and there were 2 fish following my set up. Of course I Choked. I jerked my line and they just peeled off. I never did that again.

The SF used to be a good winter fishery, mostly before my time. I remember it running that heavy greenish/grey color in the lower end. I did do very well for the summer variety back in the day. I also watched a fish follow my buddies setup all the way up river, i yelled at him to slow his retrieval and the 6lb summer bolted off, fun times, on a great stream
 

Dustin Chromers

Life of the Party
Forum Supporter
I dislike beads because guides can have clients roll out a 10' cast, back row, and people with zero skills can catch 8-10 fish a day and call it fly fishing.

This is why I'm an advocate for mandatory retention.

If you want to harvest, beads are a great way to do it. If you just want to catch and release, challenge yourself.

Ah, the string of an unearned fish. It's a negative emotion and negative to the core. It's one of the seven deadly, envy. I myself have felt this way a time or two. Generally I'm focused on my own paper so I'm safe from the green monster of unearned fish hate but it happens.

One time I was indeed focused. I was fishing with a buddy. He is generally a spoon guy but we fished well together. Normally he'd let me go first, not always. We've both picked each others pickets. Of him it was expected, for me it was a surprise award. We were fishing a peninsula run rather casually and I had already gone through. He asked me to let him try the spey rod. He had not once shown any indication of interest beyond curious ribbing. I obliged and coached him into the run and the first actual serviceable cast he got out there after splashing and banging down the bar resulted in a high teens steelhead of near perfection. We released the fish and he calmly handed the rod back and remarked, "it's cool but I don't get it." I was silent and at a rare moment of not even wanting to speak. I was both elated for him but envious as I was on a chrome drought. I was even more hateful of his nonchalant reaction to the affair. Here I thought I had converted someone with a watershed angling moment. But alas, he didn't get it. Neither did I for that matter.
 

cruik

Just Hatched
Can't believe I just registered to talk about beads...

I want to be angry at using beads, but that's not fair to the beads. When I think of fishing beads, I picture someone fishing 12 miles of river in the front of a raft with minimal casting and mending required. If you hoof your ass into a winter steelhead river, cast and mend your 8weight single hander til your arm falls off, and somehow manage to hook a fish in 2022, then I'm not going to begrudge you your fly-caught steelhead when I see you got a bead tooth-picked in.
 

Dustin Chromers

Life of the Party
Forum Supporter
Can't believe I just registered to talk about beads...

I want to be angry at using beads, but that's not fair to the beads. When I think of fishing beads, I picture someone fishing 12 miles of river in the front of a raft with minimal casting and mending required. If you hoof your ass into a winter steelhead river, cast and mend your 8weight single hander til your arm falls off, and somehow manage to hook a fish in 2022, then I'm not going to begrudge you your fly-caught steelhead when I see you got a bead tooth-picked in.

Being bank bound and high water is the great bead neutraliser. In such cases I feel better about the big feathery thing than the bead.
 

HauntedByWaters

Life of the Party
I fished my first bead in winter 2007 on a fly rod. It took 3 casts to hook a steelhead. I was beadhead for life after that.

As someone who gets like 6 days a year to fish for steelhead, always on an insanely crowded river, I do not feel bad at all that I am maximizing my chances. I used to get hundreds of days a year to fish and I swung a lot of flies back then…
 

clarkman

average member
Forum Supporter
If you hoof your ass into a winter steelhead river, cast and mend your 8weight single hander til your arm falls off, and somehow manage to hook a fish in 2022, then I'm not going to begrudge you your fly-caught steelhead when I see you got a bead tooth-picked in.
That sounds like ME....last week. I think I'm still sore. But I have no illusions of thinking that little feisty buck was caught on a fly. Fly rod, yes. But I've never been under the illusion that a bead is a fly.
 

brownheron

corvus ossifragus
Well, no fishing from boats where I like to fish so doing laps and all that is moot. Boring as hell anyway. It's all hiking or floating and in/out of the boat all day, usually ass in the trees trying to figure out a backcast.

Most of the time I have 3 rods with me which I choose based on the actually run I'm fishing: spey rod, centerpin w/ jig and a float rod/baitcaster with a bead. They all get used on any given day.

I catch more with the 'pin as I fish it the most. The spey rod gets the least action as good swing water is limited where I like to fish.

Tool agnostic. I just like to fish and it's more fun (for me) when I feel like I'm using the right tool for the job and not square peg round holing it.
 

O' Clarkii Stomias

Landlocked Atlantic Salmon
Forum Supporter
I wish I'd spent more time fishing beads than uselessly swinging in water that was in the low 30s on the Methow, when it was open.
 

Divad

Whitefish
I like putting beads in my flies as props for marabou/hackle. I’ll upload a picture later, they work amazingly and don’t take on water like dubbing bumps do.

Perfect for a dry fly only fisherman 🤓
 

kerrys

Ignored Member
I have salmon fished on seiners when 5000 fish were put on board in a single set. I have put over 2000 reds on the deck of my gill netter in one set. I have pulled almost a 1000 reds at one pull on my brother’s reef net gear. Of all those fish caught, by far the most enjoyable form of catching tons of salmon was the hardest, reef netting.
 

_WW_

Geriatric Skagit Swinger
Forum Supporter
I have salmon fished on seiners when 5000 fish were put on board in a single set. I have put over 2000 reds on the deck of my gill netter in one set. I have pulled almost a 1000 reds at one pull on my brother’s reef net gear. Of all those fish caught, by far the most enjoyable form of catching tons of salmon was the hardest, reef netting.
What color of beads do you run on those nets?
 

SilverFly

Life of the Party
Forum Supporter
Never fished them, but only because they came into vogue after I pretty much gave up on river steelheading. No arguing the effectiveness of anything resembling salmon eggs though.

Hooked and lost my first steelhead on a flame orange Oakie drifter. My first steelhead landed was on an egg fly I tied to look like an Oakie drifter, fished under an actual bobber. Would that be considered spin fishing blasphemy? ;)
 
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