Anglers love nothing better than to fight a winter steelhead on Michigan's Muskegon River in Newaygo. These powerful fish are known as hot chrome torpedoes and can weigh as much as 20 pounds. Just having one on your line is the thrill of a lifetime and most of Michigan's steelheads are wild steels.
The steelhead migration season begins at the end of October, after the Chinook are finished spawning. Peak months for fishing steelhead are November and December when the fish being their spawning migration. These beauties end the migration near the end of February and into early March.
The best place to fish for chrome torpedoes, the Muskegon River in Newaygo is perfect for fly fishing in early spring and late fall.
Steelhead fishing in winter is never easy, not even during the good times. But when the mid-season doldrums set in around February, things can get downright tough. The big runs of hatchery steelhead that provided such good fishing in December and January have tapered off to a trickle in most rivers. And the large wild fish that will cause so much excitement at the end of the season haven't yet arrived. On a coast-wide average, there simply aren't nearly as many steelhead in our rivers and creeks during February as during the rest of the season.
The fish may be fewer and farther between, but not the fishermen. A steady stream of boat anglers casts to every inch of likely looking holding water, and the shores of popular rivers are crisscrossed by the muddy trails of bank anglers. The fish available in most streams get pounded hard on a daily basis. And it doesn't help when prolonged cold weather results in cool, clear water and spooky, sluggish steelhead.
When winter comes and the temperature drops and white stuff covers the ground, many animals have become inactive and are hiding out until spring. But trout are not one of those animals! Water cools slower than air, so the water may still be warm enough for trout to be active - and since trout are cold-water fish, they just might be active all winter!
Your first consideration for winter fishing is whether the season is open. For the state of Pennsylvania, open season for trout ends on September 3 - except in "approved trout waters," so Pennsylvania residents need to refer to the list of approved trout waters on the Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission's web site.
Modern day trout fishermen have a wealth of fishing tackle to choose from, and much of it thoroughly adaptable to any situation in trout fishing. Spinning and fly fishing equipment seem to be the most popular. Everyone has a different idea as to which bait or method is the best for catching trout. Anything that works is good, I will assume you would like a basic outfit to get started. An acceptable starter trout fishing outfit would include:
Bait fishing for trout can be effective, using worms, eggs, artificial paste baits, or combinations. Bait can be dangled downward from a floating bobber or can float upward from a slip-sinker, both of which provide weight to cast the bait outward from shore. Worms are probably the best all-around trout bait and work especially well in spring and fall, particularly after rainfall.
Bait fishing should only be done when you plan to keep the fish you catch, since the fish tend to swallow the bait and hook, making injury-free release much harder. This is why fish caught while using bait count as part of your daily limit, whether or not you keep them. Also check to make sure bait is legal where you're planning to fish; some lakes have selective fishery regulations or other quality rules designed to improve survival and growth of fish.
A very popular winter time activity is ice fishing for trout rainbow trout and in this article I will outline a few tips so that you can experience more success on your next excursion out onto a frozen lake in search of these beautiful and tasty fish. Rainbow trout are active during all seasons, so fishing for them through the ice can be very productive. The biggest key to ice fishing for rainbow trout is the type of bait that is used.
I have been fishing for the three major species of freshwater trout (rainbow, brook, and brown) for more than twenty years and in that time have found that one season stands out above all the others when it comes to catching the multi colored beauties known as trout. That season is the fall and in this article I will outline the best bait to use for trout in the fall so that you can experience more success the next time that you head out onto the water.
If you have read much of what I have written about Trout fishing, you know that I like to troll the lowland lakes for trout. Many fishermen are content sitting on the bank waiting for the Trout to swim by, but trolling the lowland lakes has always been more productive for me. If you are going to get out on the water and try and bring home some trout, here are my Top 5 Trout Lures when trolling lowland lakes.
Favorite Trout Lure #5 - Fat Spoons
Most of the lowland lakes are pretty stained, so fish have to rely on smell or vibration to find your lure. Wide spoons create more 'thump' in the water and can pull fish from a longer distance, and can be trolled extra slow.
Over 12 years ago my fishing mentor passed onto the next plane of existence, but during the time that he was alive he was the greatest trout fisherman I've personally ever known. The man caught trophy trout in fishing streams that got a ton of fishing pressure. Streams in which other anglers simply didn't have the success that he was able to achieve. Sure other people caught trout, but my mentor caught trout that would have been trophies in Arkansas or Montana but he fished in central Pennsylvania. During the time we fished together, he taught me some of his trout fishing secrets and I want to pass some of them on to you.
Anyone who wants to know how to trout fish needs to know how to catch stocked trout, mainly because in most areas, stocked trout are the prevalent type of trout that can be targeted. So, what exactly is a stocked trout and what makes it different from any other type of trout? A stocked trout is a trout that has been raised in an artificial environment (normally by a fish or conservation agency) for the express purpose of being released and caught by anglers. Sometimes these trout are released as "fingerlings" (two-four inches in length) and sometimes they are legal size (normally from seven to ten inches in length) and they are released into a waterway to be caught by anglers.
