how do I target steelies

[sjk984]

I am heading to manistee this weekend and would like to target some chrome with at least 2 rods. What am I looking at using. I have a 150 copper will be my shallowest line. Do I need to add some short cores.

Any suggestion is greatly appreciated

Steve

[1mainiac]

Steelhead primarily will be in the top 40 ft or so sometimes deeper but usually a 5 color or less bite and go fast if you can run divers you are not going fast enough. My Steelhead program start middle of next month usually. I will run my riggers down 60 and 50 and the rest is all cores wide and fast depending on how many rods I can run but will pound the top 30ft and up with bright spoons Yellows Oranges and Reds are primary colors. When you are on the bite it can be insane as you can have 5 or more on at a time and often you will see fish jumping behind the boat before you see a rod go. When all them guys are banging into each other and cussing on the radio I at peace in deeper water pounding Steel. Last year on Labor day weekend we were sorting fish in 250ft of water by 9 am every day while the war was on out front was a great weekend.

[Priority1]

Look for some scum lines.

[mattmishler]

when we fish steelhead which is quite often. We run two high divers back 60-80ft with orange spoons. Then on boards depending on where the fish are in the water colum we will have flats,2,3,5,6,8,10 colors on boards. I like a BIG spread when were fishing out there cuz your in hunting mode when your lookin for fish. And you can get away with a bigger spread cuz theres not to many boats out there. Oh and another thing look for surface temp breaks. Good steelhead colors are yellow,orange,red,copper, green.

[Twill23]

Speed it up and run some orange. It's not uncommon for steelhead to consistantly hit at over 3.0mph. We have a few speed trollers in the area who will run 3.5-4.0mph when targeting the steelhead.

[Adam Bomb]

High riggers, a couple high divers cranked out to 3 1/2 and lots of cores from 1-5 color. Pinks, oranges, chartreuces mixed with silvers are great bets. As mentioned, crank the speed up and keep an eye out for temp breaks/scum lines as they will likely hold fish. Otherwise theyre spread out and your gonna have to cover some water to find them. Thus the large wide board driven spreads that are so popular for steel. At the same time though, i wouldnt be affraid to put a couple riggers down low with some paddles and mag spoons and maybe even a couple low divers for kings.

[DarkBlue]

Dynamite!

[Twill23]

Also during this time of year you'll tend to find a lot of um over much deeper water than where your finding your salmon, even though your still fishing the highest part of the water column.

[Paulywood]

If you just want to add a couple of rods to your spread you can throw out a couple of flat lines with 2,3 or 4 oz dive bombs. Spoons in the colors mentioned above would be a good choice. My uncle likes to flat line an orange spoon out 500' down the chute. He swears it cathces fish but I haven't let him try it yet. If you want to specifically target steelies you can troll really fast, like 5-6 mph. Talk to Captain Don (tangled mess) he is a steelhead master.