The Deadliest Winter Steelhead Drift Rig I've Found Yet

Small orange Spin-N-Glos slay... Mylar wings help. In dirty water try a Gooey Bob above fresh sand shrimp. Deadly presentation ...limits!


Your Deadliest Winter Steelhead Rig was a Favorite Back in the Day!

By: The Hebo Sporting Goods Fishing Blog Guy

Thanks for sharing!

I started steelhead and salmon fishing in the Hebo area during the late 60's. A pearl Corkie was the hot ticket for Winter Steelhead drift fishing. Over the years... we slowly changed to the Spin-N-Glo. I used the pearl with white wings, the half and half (half chartreuse and half orange with white wings) as well as your favorite orange.

The orange, white-winged with black tiger stripes was so popular for steelhead drift fishing you couldn't hardly buy them (no internet back then). I used this most of the time.

Sizes 8 and 6 spin-n-glos were most popular. I used the #4's drift fishing at the mouth of Three Rivers near Hebo when Three Rivers was running green and the Big Nestucca River was dirty. I talk about this in our Hebo Sports Shop Blog. Several years ago, in March, I caught the biggest Winter steelhead of my life using this technique... using the #4 orange spin-n-glo, sand shrimp and some scented yarn.

I was walking it along the bottom, slowly, right in the Three Rivers/Big Nestucca water seam fishing in really close... using 20lb test Maxima (my favorite brand) and my steelhead drift rod. I won't say how big it was but... The fellow next to me caught a hatchery 14 lb'er an hour before and my March run steelhead was much, much bigger. I just let it catch it's breath in a couple feet of water, then let it go.

Back in the 60's through the 90's... drift fishing for salmon and steelhead was pretty much it while fishing from the bank. I was all by my lonesome when fishing spinners as well (loved it!).

I believe confidence was a big factor but those drift bobbers, even long ago, were mostly all florescent. I believe in dirty water, the black stripes contrasted with the orange as well as the white wings...

...and it's believed that black is the most visible (and chartreuse) in off-color water.

I'd better stop here... I could go on and on!

Again... Thanks so much for your contribution and feel free to add anything you'd like with a comment like I did. Catch Lot's of Winter Steelhead this year :-)