Is it all but over?

[Purebred Redneck]

Labor day has past and temperatures are going to start to get cooler. Small game seasons and archery pick up. We have a handfull of sports options on tv now to occupy the weekend.

I think I'm done fishing till about April.
Do we have any holdouts?

[jmarriott]

Yeap, the steelhead are coming into the northern Indiana waters at trail creek right now, I often have to decide if I am fishing of hunting in the early fall.

[jimiowa]

You know Red your probably missing some of the best fishing!
Fish are thinking the same as you,"it's over.
So they go on a feeding frenzt to put on weight to carry them through winter.

[Purebred Redneck]

I've caught a lot of bass all the way through october and it is good fishing. I've done pretty good with crappie in jan and feb too.

Hell the power plant lake 2 hours away has great fishing year round and most of it doesn't freeze.


Call it priorities though

[jabba]

Sept 4, 2008 17:50:03 GMT -5 jmarriott said:

Yeap, the steelhead are coming into the northern Indiana waters at trail creek right now, I often have to decide if I am fishing of hunting in the early fall.

How do you catch them bastids? I have been up there several times... and have done SQUAT!

I need some pointers!

Jabba

[Jack]

We have a steelhead run around here, too- and they're not easy to catch!
Jabba, they are quite line shy, so you have to use some light lines. The general idea is to drift an egg sac or fly that imitates a clump of eggs right by their nose, with minimal weight on the line for a natural drift.
In my area, the steelies are focused on eating salmon eggs from spawning salmon, and imitating the normal flies and lures you might think of for stream trout isn't likely to work.

[Purebred Redneck]

What would light line be considered --- 4 or 6 pound ?

I know line is an issue in our trout waters. Sometimes 2 pound seems to be too heavy.
Salmon are a bit bigger than our 15" fish though.

[Jack]

4 to 6 is a commonly used weight-depends on water clarity, and how deep you're fishing. Sometimes, if you're using spinning gear, people will spool 10 or 12 and use a 4 to 6 pound leader. Like 3-4 feet long.
It's kind of hard to grasp, since steelies can go up to 10 pounds or more, that you have to use such light tackle. You'll say to yourself "I'll never land one" with such light line. The thing is, if you use 20 pound test, you'll never hook one.
Many folks use a spinning rod, others use fly tackle. In both cases, you want a rod that's kinda long and springy, to cushion that light line. Say, a 7-7 1/2 foot spinning rod, and 8-9 for a fly rod.
And, BTW, the % of fish you land, compared to what you hook, isn't gonna be good. A 10 pound steelie in a narrow, brush lined creek........ if he doesn't break you off on some obstacle right away, he's very likely to head for the lake- and you better hope you have enough line, because you won't be able to stop him. Like, 200 yards of line or more. No joke, a big steelie can take that much line.
Steelies tend to gently mouth a bait, so you aren't going to get a big, solid, strike. Use Polaroids, as you often are sight fishing, and watch your line. A little tap is all you'll get. Strike as soon as you feel anything- they'll spit it back out as fast as they hit it.

[dovehunter]

I am actually looking forward to doing some fishing when the weather starts to cool down a bit. Since we can't hunt here on Sundays that's always a good fishing day.

[bullseye]

I am still a holdout. We spent Labor Day weekend on the Willow Flowage catching a ton of northerns and smallmouth with a couple of largemouth and walleyes thrown in.

This coming weekend we will be prefishing for two bass club tournaments. One on the Waupaca Chain and the other on the Wolf River. I am squeezing in grouse hunting between these two events. The final trip of the year will be to fish the Madison Chain for the state president's challenge tournament.

It was a busy summer. Outside of 2 weekends since mid April, we were fishing somewhere in the state. While we didn't make the NE or SW corners of the state this year, we did get to Red Wing and LaCrosse and a lot of places in between.

I think that after the Madison tournament it will be the end for us. It will then be time to winterize the boat, build the teepe for it, and put all the fishing gear in the basement for the winter.

I am hoping to squeeze in some additional grouse hunting in before deer hunting starts in late November.