While looking back through my Fishing Journal I happened upon an entry I had made April of 1998. A few friends & I while fishing yarn and bead egg patterns, hooked over 30 steelhead and released all but one for the smoker. While cleaning this fish, we examined its stomach contents and found it to be mostly void of aquatic insects, but full of "sucker" eggs…which led us all to assume the 30+ steelhead we had released earlier, also gorged themselves on eggs. It’s no secret that the Great Lakes steelhead is a pushover for a well-presented egg pattern. While the numbers of Steelhead on the Great Lakes tributaries has declined in recent years, the number of  fishermen has not. Let us all be concerned and responsible conservationists first and Fly fishermen second....Practice "Catch and Release".  More >>

  A Wisconsin boy on the big waters Skeena River system around Terrace BC. In the world of swinging Spey, does it get any better? It was said once…by whom I’m not sure “If you Keep your powder dry, eye on the horizon, and go slow on a surefooted animal, the worm will turn for you.” In the world of the Spey fly fisher’s I think you’ll find the worm in perpetual motion, the lure of deep, clear glacial rivers expressly those that hold Steelhead… for the Spey fisher’s are always irresistible!  Spey fishing… A very efficient, and elegant fly-fishing technique adopted from the Highlands of Scotland, a extremely useful technique with its origin dating back some 150 years. Born out of the mother of necessity this technique lends its self very nicely to big, brushy steelhead rivers along which back-cast is not an opinion. If you’re looking to expand your fly-fishing techniques… maybe just add one more trick to your bag… may I suggest the following sites to help you in the pursuit…Good luck my friend. 

• http://www.speypages.com/

•  http://www.questoutdoors.net/skills/spey/

•  http://blog.deneki.com/2009/04/why-we-like-spey-casting.html

• http://www.snakeriverbooks.com/index.php?app=ccp0&ns=prodshow&ref=FF19

Please support our Sponsors

"Some wiseguy once defined a fishing line as a piece of string with a worm on one end and a damn fool on the other. This is a silly definition, of course---for many fishermen use flies instead of worms." Ed Zern

  With Mark Brown

Spin verses Fly... Both these presentations will catch fish on a consistent basis...but in the early spring I think the Drift system out performs a Fly pattern. The early spring rains combined with snowmelt, transform Great Lakes tributaries to vehement torrents of chocolate milk. This can make fishing Steelhead difficult at times. We know the fish are there, but finding and hooking is not always an easy proposition. Drift Fishing may be the answer during these high water periods. Later in the year as the water levels begin to stabilize and the river waters clear, a fly presentation is by far the better choice. More