Hold the presses. Almost forgot about steelhead—one of the most unique ice-fishing opportunities in the world. Big, warp-capable powerhouses that turn your fishing line into a reciprocating saw that cuts into the bottom of the hole. It’s sayonara steelie if you pinch pennies with fishing line. They can see heavy line and the effect it has on your presentation, so don’t go that route, either.
I use 6- to 8-pound Seaguar AbrazX Flourocarbon, a line meant to be spooled on a spinning reel. I wouldn’t mention it if the line broke after a silver bullet wedged it into the ice. It’s STT. Almost any line you read about in this blog, in fact, is “steelhead-tested tough.” Salmon may be stronger, but speed increases the weight of an object. Given that salmon may be tougher, nothing else in fresh water, pound-for-pound, can damage line like a steelhead. Sudden acceleration to 25 feet per second after complete one-eighties around wood cover are, like, yeah. Unique forms of stress. If I can consistently land steelhead with a mono or fluorocarbon line, I know it can handle other fish. Works for me, anyway. But I rarely spool up with fluorocarbon when fishing steelhead. Ice creates an almost unique situation.
Unique is the optimum word, here.
It’s done on the ice surrounding river mouths around the Great Lakes and that’s about it, geographically speaking, the world ’round. Talk about iffy ice. This year will be the worst for those other lakes, but Superior will be just fine, thanks.
The pic shows Mary Savage with a nice one—especially from Lake Superior. She’s harsh on steelhead and they average a pound or two smaller than they do on Michigan, Erie, Huron, or Ontario. But at least she’s got ice.
The main line is tied directly to a size #8 to size #6 Owner Mosquito Hook or Gamakatsu Baitholder. We use fresh-frozen spawn preserved in mineral oil. The “satchels” (spawn bags) are tied with Red Wing Tackle netting in various shades. Around the estuaries of stained rivers, we often catch fish with white, bright orange, pink, and chartreuse netting. Around clear rivers, we have better luck with light orange, yellow, white, or black netting. (The float by Mary’s elbow is a Redwing Blackbird, and a great strike indicator when placing rods in holders.)
Steelhead gather and stage around the river mouths all winter in most cases, but on Superior we don’t see much of a concentration before late February, early March. A lot of things about Superior steelhead are unique. They don’t gather mid lake during summer, like they do in the other Great Lakes. They aren’t afraid to leave a pool and go crashing headlong down a cascade in rivers much, either. They live on the edge, as cold as Mother Nature allows anywhere on earth.
Fresh photos in March. The trail leads east for steelhead before that, wading for a few before we exit the ice season with a bang way up north. Might post a few smallmouth pix on the ice of Chequamegon Bay with my friend Chris Beeksma. (Are you reading this, Beeks? Where’s my progress report?) Then back to rivers south. It’s particularly awesome to be alive in this part of the world from now through April, if you know a few things about steel and cold water.
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Mary Savage
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