Patience Is The Soul Of Winter Steel

For fish that have progressed well upstream since fall, perfect habitat during the coldest winters become pools in areas where the land has no grade. Where the land is level, the stream slows. The perfect wintering pool for steelhead is wider than the average pool; it exists in a straight section of river (no bends); and it is only moderately deep (maximum of 4 feet). When the temperature hovers around 10°F for a time, steelhead want to feel the sun on their backs, so overhead cover and broken water become a lot less important than at other points during the run.

In a wide, pan-shaped pool, the current spreads out and slows even further. The key area tends to be dead center, in the middle of the pool. Unfortunately, these are the first pools to freeze around the edges or to freeze over completely. The ice slows the current even more, so steelhead won’t leave this perfect habitat during severe cold snaps.

During mild winters, or in the southernmost rivers of the Great Lakes system, steelhead may never need a perfect wintering pool and may seem to locate pretty much the same way as in fall and spring. However, during the coldest weather, expect many steelhead to drop back and join staging fish in the slower, deeper areas near the mouth of the river—areas you might normally avoid. Some call it “frog water,” or “catfish water.” It may not look like classic trout habitat, but the first mile or so above the mouth of a river can concentrate hundreds if not thousands of steelhead during winter.

Presentation

Many believe steelhead won’t feed at all after entering a river, and this belief extends even to fall-run fish that might be in the river more than four months. This is an erroneous assumption as, even in 33°F water, steelhead do feed. Predominantly, in extremely cold water, they feed opportunistically on small items that drift right into their wheelhouse, which is a small strike zone condensed by conditions to a relatively tiny area right in front of their faces. This becomes the overriding factor determining methodology and presentation.

Spinners work in winter, but steelhead do not, as a rule, chase spinners then. Spinners work by stirring up a response with flash and thump, but the lure still has to enter the wheelhouse in winter. Please don’t send anecdotes about the steelhead you’ve watched chase a spinner 20 feet in January, because I’ve witnessed it, but only often enough to prove it’s the exception and not the rule, especially in water reading 34°F or less. Once upon a time I hated to see spinner fishermen or fly fishermen beat me to a pool I targeted during winter. These days, I feel it’s the best thing that could happen.

A gaudy fly or bright spinner can make a steelhead move in winter, but not always toward the lure. Usually they simply get out of the way, which is just enough activity to make them more vulnerable to something they really want to eat. My catch-rate during the half hour after a spinner fisherman leaves the pool doubles the average during winter. I sometimes make three or four casts with a spinner or small spoon before settling down to the business of actually fishing the pool, illustrating how much the “wheelhouse theory” rules my thinking during the coldest spells.