Braggin Board for Fishing!

Fished the past couple days, it was slow, but enough fish around to keep it fun, low low water for a long time, so it was certainly a sort, but I don’t really care about killing winter steelhead regardless, I just like hunting them down and getting bit. Pressure has been very low which I like

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IMG_0022.jpegMy PB from Lake Vermillion back in 2012. I caught 3 over 52” on that trip. This one was 53.75” and likely around 45#, caught on Halloween on a large tube called “Halloweenie”! Haven’t replicated that trip since! Those days I was in my fishing prime- single, no kids, and 30 years old! I could throw those big baits all day and definitely had the musky bug!!!
 
Fished the last couple days, still scratch fishing, but finding a few biters a day IMG_4291.jpeg
 

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There is something strange going on this year, winter steelhead are generally the worst quality salmon for tablefare, bland and very easy to overcook,(no fat content) this year they are loaded with fat, literally summer steelhead quality. Even the hens are very edible and enjoyable

There must have been a lot of feed where they lived in the ocean, I have never seen anything like it, and it’s not just one outlier, they all have way more fat than normalIMG_4300.jpeg
 
Couple more examples, lots of visible fat throughout the whole fillet and skeletal system, it’s wild. It’s seriously on par with summer steelhead or spring chinook with fat content… completely the opposite of typical winter steelhead, which fresh bucks are decent fresh, chrome hens are edible but not much more… this year they have been excellent eating

Not a lot of numbers around this year, but the ones around sure seem healthy. More big fish too, I have been getting 3-5 a day for a lot of effort, and have caught several over 35”, including 2 mega hens. It’s been enjoyable, but in a different way.

If the summers inhabit the same area as the winters, they are going to be Wagyu steelhead. Kind of an interesting thing for those who are familiar with winter steelhead, it’s kind of fascinating to me, I have been at it for quite awhile, and have never seen anything like it.
 

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There is something strange going on this year, winter steelhead are generally the worst quality salmon for tablefare, bland and very easy to overcook,(no fat content) this year they are loaded with fat, literally summer steelhead quality. Even the hens are very edible and enjoyable

There must have been a lot of feed where they lived in the ocean, I have never seen anything like it, and it’s not just one outlier, they all have way more fat than normalView attachment 1022013
What is a steelhead salmon???
 
What is a steelhead salmon???
Salmon is short for salmonidae, it wasn’t a typo, they are all in the same family, and all of the anadromous species are even more similar, especially when talking about edibility.

Of course steelhead are steelhead, but they are more like a salmon then a resident rainbow, both in life cycle and tablefare
 
Here’s a little known fact. All of the rainbow trout currently swimming in the lakes and rivers of New Zealand, are direct descendants from northern California’s Russian river steelhead. The steelhead eggs were brought over in 1877, but the fish that would eventually make it out to sea were lost for various unknown, although highly hypothesized, reasons, so only the landlocked trout remain.


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Got a few today, and this particular buck was a specimen, just a pretty, mean fish built more like a springer than a steelhead. Fished some of my old stomping grounds i haven’t been to in a few years, and it was cool to be back. Probably the prettiest stretch of water I know of anywhere, nothing special fishing wise, but it was a fun morning
 

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Got a few today, and this particular buck was a specimen, just a pretty, mean fish built more like a springer than a steelhead. Fished some of my old stomping grounds i haven’t been to in a few years, and it was cool to be back. Probably the prettiest stretch of water I know of anywhere, nothing special fishing wise, but it was a fun morning
I’m on the struggle bus steelheading this year. Good on you.
We normally don’t even start fishing til March. Goose season always went til March 10. Then they stopped it on Feb 15 this year. I guess I’m a February steelheader now.
Don’t like it. 2 trips. 1 fish.
 
Got a few today, and this particular buck was a specimen, just a pretty, mean fish built more like a springer than a steelhead. Fished some of my old stomping grounds i haven’t been to in a few years, and it was cool to be back. Probably the prettiest stretch of water I know of anywhere, nothing special fishing wise, but it was a fun morning
You are doing well, nice! I’m only five minutes from the Sandy and haven’t been out yet. The hatchery #’s are trickling in, but not good at all. 😔
I’ll be out strong after this rain we get in the next week.
 
I’m on the struggle bus steelheading this year. Good on you.
We normally don’t even start fishing til March. Goose season always went til March 10. Then they stopped it on Feb 15 this year. I guess I’m a February steelheader now.
Don’t like it. 2 trips. 1 fish.
It’s not abnormal to be slow prior to now, usually get an early bump of fish 3rd week of December, then the normal lull until mid Feb, then it gets better, pending conditions into April

I always expect a grind during that lull, but I kind of enjoy scratch fishing, hunting down the few around. I haven’t had any good fishing this winter yet, steadily 2-4 a day. Should pick up now, I’ve been fishing a little more this year and enjoying it again, the ever increasing crowds kind of took some of the fun out of it the past few years… a little strategy and I can still find some solitude

It’s a fun fishery, I’m actually looking forward to mid April though May, looking for early summers, nobody around, beat up enough water and can usually find one, the days when you’re stoked to catch one🤣

I have always loved steelhead fishing, and steelhead in general, they are just cool fish, and always looking for that next 35+” fish, always keeps it fun.

They are cool fish that live in cool places, and they are biters
 
It’s not abnormal to be slow prior to now, usually get an early bump of fish 3rd week of December, then the normal lull until mid Feb, then it gets better, pending conditions into April

I always expect a grind during that lull, but I kind of enjoy scratch fishing, hunting down the few around. I haven’t had any good fishing this winter yet, steadily 2-4 a day. Should pick up now, I’ve been fishing a little more this year and enjoying it again, the ever increasing crowds kind of took some of the fun out of it the past few years… a little strategy and I can still find some solitude

It’s a fun fishery, I’m actually looking forward to mid April though May, looking for early summers, nobody around, beat up enough water and can usually find one, the days when you’re stoked to catch one🤣

I have always loved steelhead fishing, and steelhead in general, they are just cool fish, and always looking for that next 35+” fish, always keeps it fun.

They are cool fish that live in cool places, and they are biters
Steelhead are my 2nd favorite fish on the planet to chase. Blue water trolling first.
Just therapy fishing. No stress, no exhaust smell, no nothing. Just steelhead.
Good on you for finding them. Pretty sure we’ll do alright in a week or 2.
 
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