Fly Fishing Insider Podcast
Stop and read the run before wading in. Steelhead jockeying for holding position flash silver and give away where they are, and anglers who walk straight in often stand on top of them. Then fish down and across with an upstream mend, holding the fly 8 to 10 inches off the bottom.
Roger Hinchcliff is the Michigan angler and writer behind Steelhead Manifesto, a long-running steelhead blog and social following, and he consults on rod design for Lamiglas.
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How did Steelhead Manifesto start?
Steelhead Manifesto began with seminars, not writing. After a fishing club asked him to present on how he catches fish, two more chapters called within two weeks, and the speaking work led into a blog. That first blog lost more than 600 posts to a technical glitch with no backups in place, and the current site was rebuilt after it. What surprised him was the reach: a Michigan angler writing about his home water was fielding questions from around the world.
What made the audience grow beyond the blog?
Memes did most of the work. He has written more than 4,000 fishing memes, and the meme page grew fast enough that his lines now show up on t-shirts, bumper stickers and decals worldwide, which is effectively impossible to police for a format like a meme. A fishing forum page followed, and that is where the demand became clear: large numbers of anglers wanting to learn how to catch steelhead or improve at it. Instagram works differently again, being mostly photos and video, and anglers tagging him daily supply a stream of images he shares out.
How does a rod design project actually work?
The process starts with a target on the deflection board, and hitting that target is only the beginning. Samples then go out for testing, and he assembles focus groups around the country, sends each a sample, and asks for pros, cons, what worked and what did not. The value is in the common denominators: when several independent testers report the same thing, that is a real finding rather than one person's preference. A single project takes a year, and some run to two, depending on how many models the series covers.
What is the most common flaw in fishing rods?
Tip heaviness is the industry-wide problem, and it shows up in rods from many companies. A tip-heavy rod produces fatigue over a full day of casting, which is exactly what a steelhead angler cannot afford on a river where the day is measured in hours of repetitive casting. It was the first thing he raised across the rod projects he has been involved in, of which there have been more than 29, starting with a centerpin rod built specifically for Great Lakes anglers and extending through walleye jigging rods.
How many steelhead are in the Great Lakes?
The Great Lakes region holds the largest steelhead population on earth. The natural resources agencies of the states surrounding the Great Lakes stock roughly 5.2 million steelhead a year between them, and that figure does not include natural reproduction. A salmon ambassador program turned up considerably more natural reproduction than managers had assumed, and Michigan is now switching that program over to steelhead to get a read on how much wild production is actually occurring. Great Lakes fish run smaller than the ocean-run steelhead of British Columbia, which can exceed 20 pounds, but the numbers across Ohio and into Pennsylvania are the draw.
Why should you study a run before wading in?
Steelhead give away their position if you let them. When fish are stacked into a pool or run, they jockey for holding position and roll, and that silver flash tells you exactly where they are, which is information no amount of blind casting will produce. Anglers routinely wade in and stand directly on top of holding fish, something obvious from a drift boat and invisible from the bank. Slowing down for a minute to read the water before stepping in also lets you think through where a steelhead would hold given the water temperature and time of year, then position yourself to present down and across from above them.
How much should you mend when swinging for Great Lakes steelhead?
An upstream mend after the cast does two things: it lets the fly sink faster through the water column and it slows the presentation so the fly hunts through the run rather than racing across it. Steelhead typically hold 8 to 10 inches off the bottom regardless of the time of year, so depth is usually the goal. The exception is fish holding higher in a pool, where overmending sinks the fly past them; mend only enough to reach the level the fish are actually sitting at.
How long should you let a swung fly hang on the dangle?
There is no set time on the dangle, and impatience there costs fish. Always assume a steelhead is following the fly through the swing, because the take often comes only when the fly slows down or pauses at the end. Hanging the fly for 20 seconds, 40 seconds or a full minute has all produced grabs, so let the line straighten out completely and let the fly sit before picking up to recast.
How do river cleanups get organized?
The mechanism is as simple as a social media post naming a river, a date and a time. On the Michigan river that carries the heaviest angling pressure of any Great Lakes system, the lowest turnout year drew 58 volunteers and the biggest topped 100, with the typical year landing between 60 and 80 people who bring their families and children. The same argument extends to how anglers behave day to day: fisheries management works only when agency policy and angler self-management run in the same direction.
Key takeaways
- Stop and read a run before wading in - jockeying steelhead flash silver and reveal their holding position.
- Present down and across from above the fish, then throw an upstream mend to sink and slow the fly.
- Expect steelhead to hold 8 to 10 inches off the bottom most of the year, and mend less when fish sit higher in a pool.
- Let the fly hang on the dangle without a set time; grabs come at 20 seconds, 40 seconds or a full minute.
- Agencies around the Great Lakes stock roughly 5.2 million steelhead a year, not counting natural reproduction.
- Organize a river cleanup with a single social post naming a date and time; turnouts of 60 to 80 volunteers are typical.
- Test rod prototypes through independent focus groups and act on the feedback several testers give independently.
