Monthly Archives: December 2016

Southern Ontario Steelhead Iced Into Winter Pattern

By: Bojan Zivkovic Our fall steelhead season flew by quickly in Southwestern Ontario. A reflection of low water conditions, many rivers saw poor returns. Low water has affected our winter steelhead, too. When we have high water our rivers normally fish in mid winter. Meanwhile, with the low water we have now many of our […]

Chrome Showing in NY’s Salmon River

By: Troy Creasy We struggled in November to catch steelhead on New York’s Salmon River, but things have turned the corner in recent weeks. After a frustrating November fishing is much better now. Keep in mind, our salmon were late and I think our steelhead were just late, too. I don’t think it’s a banner […]

Chattooga River Stuffed with Rainbow Trout

By: Chris Shaffer Extreme drought has hit the Southeast this fall and while some precipitation has fallen between Thanksgiving and now streams and rivers remain much lower than historical averages. Meanwhile, that hasn’t affected trout fishing along the South Carolina and Georgia border. In fact, it could be better than normal as trout are corralled […]

Live Fire Dye Minnows & Worms Catching Big Trout

By: Chris Shaffer While first creating Fire Dye to use on West Coast cut baits the evolution of it has stretched further than we could have imagined in the last year. To date, the hottest application is applying Blue and Chartreuse Fire Dye to live minnows and worms. After more than a year retooling the […]

Northern Michigan Steelhead About To Bear Down in Winter Pattern

By: Kyle McClelland If there’s one theme that’s marked steelhead fishing in Northern Michigan this fall it’s been low water. We had low water from mid October through Mid November, but we still had decent numbers of fish. Fortunately, when the rains came in mid and late November fresh fish came in. So far, this […]

South Carolina’s Chauga River Loaded with Trout

By: Chris Shaffer With as good as the Clemson Tigers have been this fall some South Carolina anglers have spent their weekends tailgating rather than fishing in the Upstate. Meanwhile, those who have ventured up into the Sumter National Forest are stumbling upon epic trout fishing. Several waters are fishing well. However, action on the […]

Spring Creek Trout Finicky With Heavy Pressure

By: Tom Armstrong Following a Northern Ontario to Pennsylvania for a fishing/sports weekend this FireBlog has a different twist. I flew south late last week and teamed up with Chris Shaffer of Pautzke to catch golden rainbows and steelhead while also hitting a slough of sporting events (Penguins, WVU football & Penn State hockey). I’ve […]

Steelhead Alley Creeks Producing Chromers

By: Tom Armstrong For nearly two decades I’ve fished steelhead on the Canadian side of the Great Lakes. Meanwhile, yesterday was my first time casting to steelhead in Pennsylvania’s Steelhead Alley on Lake Erie’s south shore. I was with Chris Shaffer of Pautzke, on the fourth of a five-day sports/fishing expedition. After catching a college […]