Bait/eggs for steelhead

[Mike123]

I pretty much quit using eggs for steelhead. There are so many imitation products to use that work better than eggs to me. I remember last year on the NF Alsea I was casting freshly caught and boraxed eggs for steelhead. I thought I had got a bite on them, but got tired of rebaiting so I took them off and just had on a peach corkie. Very next cast BAM fish on! So I'm done using eggs for steelhead. Shrimp I will still use cause they are cheap and easy to come by! I like using the cheap cooked shrimp from Wal-Mart, either plain or dyed, also prawn meat has caught a couple. I know the trout LOVE that cooked shrimp meat on a micro jig!!
From now on eggs are for salmon only. Steelhead are too easy to catch on plastic, yarn, and metal.

 

[Thuggin4Life]

I like bait but I also like to use scent and yarn. Remember though i have only got 1 fish drifting and its not for lack of trying. Just lack of knowing spots/time/river levels.

 

[metalmania]

I used to run eggs but it's a lot easier to just use the artificial stuff. From now on the only bait i'll run for steelhead is shrimp.

 

[youngbuck307]

...... dont know if im going to say i wont run them at all but for sure would rather save them if im running low for salmon of some kind..... like i was on the wilson the other day and was fishing eggs in hope of getting a nook or ho to play with.... ended up picking up a late summer... do one had fished something artificial so dont know if he would of picked that up or not (bet he would of though)

 

[OneMore]

Well I go both ways (I know that sounds bad:naughty. Ive caught steelhead both ways. I like shrimp/sand shrimp and eggs, but at the same time got a lot of fish with no bait at all. A couple examples; One day early spring I was fishing the sandy walked right up with corkie and yarn hooked two fish in five minutes while another guy was fishing sand shrimp with nothing. He took off the shrimp and fished only corkie FISH ON! While on another trip fishing the sandy I was again fishing yarn and corkies. This guy and his girlfriend walked up and hooked 3 fish on eggs one of them was about a 15 pound broodstock!:think: So I voted all kinds of bait but I will also fish artificial a lot.

 

[JeannaJigs]

I still occasionally fish for winters with eggs. Very occasionally. You won't see me running around with eggs during the summer though. I pretty much just run egg patterns and jigs these days, and I catch fish, so, if it ain't broke, don't fix it. Not to mention I don't like gettin' the egg nastyness on my hands, that stuff reaks. Hate having fish hands when you haven't actually handled a fish :| I do use shrimp, but I wish there was a magical shrimp that would stay rigged for more than 3 casts.

 

[cchinook]

spinners - they work -

 

[Mike123]

I still occasionally fish for winters with eggs. Very occasionally. You won't see me running around with eggs during the summer though. I pretty much just run egg patterns and jigs these days, and I catch fish, so, if it ain't broke, don't fix it. Not to mention I don't like gettin' the egg nastyness on my hands, that stuff reaks. Hate having fish hands when you haven't actually handled a fish :| I do use shrimp, but I wish there was a magical shrimp that would stay rigged for more than 3 casts.

I have that magical shrimp. :lol:

It's in a brine of rock salt, pink dye, and anise right now.

 

[steelhead_stalkers]

I love the smell of the roe we cure up! When I smell it thoughts of chrome fish hanging from the trees comes to mind. If you have a good cure, you can really kill some fish. Some days a lot of fish can come on good roe and some days a lot of fish can come on jigs as well as many other things. I like to have all of my basses covered as I want to catch as many steelhead as humanly possible throughout the day! My biggest summer steelhead hooked this year was on roe in a hightly pressured hole when nothing else would produce. :dance:

 

[OneMore]

Not to mention I don't like gettin' the egg nastyness on my hands, that stuff reaks. Hate having fish hands when you haven't actually handled a fish :|

Egg goo stinky?:shock:

 

[Mike123]

Egg goo stinky?:shock:

I know WTF.. haha... I wish they made an egg goo scented Axe spray cologne!

 

[Mike123]

If I was posting this on an East Coast forum I'm sure I'd get a lot of replies like "where the heck are the wax worms and leeches!?" Funny how VERY few people on the west coast use the same types of bait as the east coast. Not a lot of people use spawn sacs either.

 

[JeannaJigs]

lol the smell of egg goo makes me cringe everytime. i dont know what makees the smell linger forever but bleaach doesn't even gett rid of it. maybe i just have a sensitive nose. and as far as spawn sacs go...if i do use eggs i prefer them in spawn sac form (less goo lol)

 

[steelhead_stalkers]

Borax mixed with your cure can help make the eggs less gooey, wont help the small though.

 

[BlackBass]

I fish all methods for steelhead, i tell you a properly cured egg will outfish most other methods, most of the time. It realy depends on the type of water, if your not getting a smooth steady drift through a hole, then its not a bait hole, its a corky and yarn hole , or spinner hole. Some of the best days i have had steelhead fishing was with bait, but other methods have worked well to. I wont leave the house without bait, doesn't mean thats what im gonna catch them on though.

 

[JeannaJigs]

Borax mixed with your cure can help make the eggs less gooey, wont help the small though.

Oh yeah I have my own cure that isn't very gooey, but you can't avoid getting the stuff on your hands if you forget gloves.

 

[plumb2fish]

Bait for steelhead in the winter? I don't go to feed the fish:lol: I use sand shrimp or night crawlers for summers but that is about it as far as steelies go for me. Salmon is an entirely different story, I use bait almost exclusively. As long as at least one of the rods on board is trolling a spinner or quicky. Now if you consider a pink worm bait then I guess I do use bait in the winter. The nates will really slam a pinky on many of the river I fish. I however have not caught very many brats on them.

 

[metalmania]

The nates will really slam a pinky on many of the river I fish. I however have not caught very many brats on them.

I've had similar expiriences with pink worms, and i've had others tell me that they mostly catch nates on pink worms. I don't really use them much, but I think the few steelhead that I have gotten on pink worms were nates.