I had a client several years ago who asked me, after not catching a steelhead for his third year in row, “How many (Expletive) times do I have to hire you guys before I actually catch a fish?”  With my back to him, I thought that his tongue was firmly implanted in his cheek but […]

There is a lot that can be said about something so simple and seemingly insignificant as fishing knots.  I’ve heard discussions on knots get as heated as speaking about politics and like politics, there is seldom a right or wrong as it often comes down to individual philosophies or needs. I have tried and used […]

Tailwaters are notoriously small fly rivers but many anglers have a difficult time wrapping their heads around using patterns that represent this forage.  If you consider that tailwaters typically generate an enormous amount of midge activity due to the reservoir that feeds the river, it is presumable that a good portion of a trout’s diet would […]

Steelhead are the glamour fish of the Great Lakes and while they are not indigenous, they have been around long enough that they have been raised to the elite level of game fish.  Although they take second fiddle to other species in terms of their popularity, (it would be hard to argue that walleye and […]

Most of us that hunt for steelhead through their entire season (Sept to late May) will tell you that there is an opportunity to strip streamers with some success.  Post spawn fish, upon vacating redds will quickly return to eating voraciously after feeding very little for several months and can therefore, become extremely aggressive.  Traditional trout […]