Why I fish for Steelhead

The fish pictured below is a muskie, not a steelhead. Catching other fish species gives me a greater appreciation for steelhead. I have spent a fair amount of time in pursuit of esox and have become fairly good at catching them. I would say that per angler hour chasing muskies, I can catch as many as the top pro's out there can. I have not fished for muskies for many years, but it only took me a few minutes to get back into the swing of things. I think most musky anglers go overboard with heavy tackle. I my opinion lighter tackle will catch more muskies. Light tackle will also not fatigue an angler as quickly. Just like any other fish species, muskies can become very line and lure shy, when being pressured by many anglers, over the course of a summer. Muskies become educated very quickly, especially on popular muskie lakes.

I have caught most of my muskies on medium bass tackle. My reels are generally spooled with 8 pound test monofiliment. I normally do not use any kind of steel leader to my lures, but if I am fishing a short bodied lure, like a spoon, I prefer lighter 30 pound test titanium leaders. On my last trip over Labor day weekend to Minocqua Wisconsin, I made a 15 pound test fluorocarbon leader for a bit more protection from bite offs. I have personally never had a muskie bite me off while using longer twitch baits. My favorite is the 7 inch floating Rapala that is hanging out of the pictured fishes mouth. That lure is about 15 years old and has the battle scares from many encounters with esox.


I have caught my fair share of muskies over the 40 inch mark. While catching a muskie is exciting, the fight is a bit anti-climatic. The most exciting facet of musky fising is that most of them strike near the boat on the first change of direction of the lure on a figure 8 maneuver. After the initial strike muskies fight poorly, even on light tackle. I have brought the Villon of the north to hand quickly on 4 pound test momofiliment. Ultra light tackle makes fighting muskie more challenging, but in the end the bruisers are still bested easily.

Pound for pound the streamlined steelhead out fights the mighty muskie every time. If I were to tie a 10 pound steelhead and a 10 pound muskie tail to tail, the steelhead would drag the musky all over the lake. Steelhead have explosive speed and powerful jumps. Steelhead continue to fight hard until the bitter end. It is true that steelhead do not grow to the enormous proportions that muskies do, but their shear fighting power more than makes up for it.

Fishing for other species is a nice change of pace and muskies are a great challenge, but I prefer to spend most of my fishing time hunting steelies. Steelhead will smash a spinner at the bank, just as a muskie will engulph a bucktail right at the boat. A muskie will jump on occaision, but a Skamania steelhead will put on an arial display that can only be bested by a stunt pilot in an air show. A steelheads speed, power, and stamina, are hard to beat.