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despatiesim

What size egg paterns do you fish for steelhead?

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Guys, just wondering what sized egg paterns you fish for great lakes steelhead? More specifically, regular yarn eggs an eztaz paterns?? 6, 8, 10? Smaller?

thanks

 

Simon

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I don't know anything about GL Steelhead, but for PNW steelhead you would be fine with sizes 6 -10.

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Are the eggs fished late season when the fish expect to see real ones or do they trigger some genetic response regardless? Keep thinking they might work on sea run browns here in UK but don't ever see or hear about it.

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Are the eggs fished late season when the fish expect to see real ones or do they trigger some genetic response regardless? Keep thinking they might work on sea run browns here in UK but don't ever see or hear about it.

i think the answer is a little bit of both. during the fall the bows are keying into salmon eggs and just want to feed and possibly find a bed to settle into for the winter. during the spring runs, it is a mix of trout and sucker eggs. these get picked off as food and to thin the herd out a bit.

 

you could be the pioneer in using spawn flies in the UK. you never know......

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Anyone using size 14 or 16 egg patterns on steelhead will be in for a big surprise. I don't think it would take 2 seconds for a steelhead to straighten out a hook of those sizes. You need a serious hook for those fish. Egg hooks for steelhead are generally 2x heavy. The pattern you tie on them can vary in size quite greatly no matter the size of the hook. Ask around what size egg pattern they are keying in on at that time. Sometime they prefer a larger size and sometimes they want a smaller size. That's fishing.

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"Anyone using size 14 or 16 egg patterns on steelhead will be in for a big surprise. I don't think it would take 2 seconds for a steelhead to straighten out a hook of those sizes. You need a serious hook for those fish. Egg hooks for steelhead are generally 2x heavy."

 

totally agree....

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Lots of hooks marketed in UK for carp down to size 20 fit the bill perfectly. Though I would have thought a cluster of small eggs on a larger hook would tempt more fish than a single tiny egg on a small hook??

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small carp hooks would be perfect.

you'd think that clusters would be the way to go, yet the 'standard' has been based around a single sphere in varying sizes and colours. out in the PNW clusters seem to be the way to go.

 

centerpin float-fishing for steelhead has been very popular in Ontario for decades now. i've seen and have drifted everything for chromers; single salmon eggs, salmon/trout eggs in mesh, egg flies, nymph flies, you name it. the latest and greatest bait being used recently are beads. i don't think it can get any simpler then having a handful of beads in your pocket, lol.

 

http://www.troutbeads.com/

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