The old adage about timing being everything applies especially to February steelheading. Just showing up on the banks of a stream that's a traditional February producer can't ensure success. But if you can hit it right after a mid-winter rainstorm, your odds will improve considerably. Most steelheaders know that a good rain warms the water, raises stream levels and prompts a fresh run of fish to move into the rivers. Following a rainstorm, a stream that's gotten low and clear from a prolonged February cold snap may come alive with fresh winter-runs, and you'll want to be there when it happens. What's more, a good February freshet may bring the first bunch of big, burly wild fish into the stream, providing the opportunity to beach your biggest and brightest winter-run of the season. (Be sure to know the regulations about where and when you can keep such fish -- and where and when you must release them.)

Since anglers can't always drop everything and go fishing if it happens to rain, you just might have to do all your February steelheading under "normal" water conditions for fish that have been in the river for days, weeks or even months. This makes for some of the most difficult steelhead fishing of the season, but all is not lost. Adjust your tactics a little, and you still can catch your share.

One way to get an edge on other anglers this time of year is to get sneaky. February steelhead in cool, clear streams become extremely wary. Every angler who stomps out into the river and begins flogging the water sends the already-spooky fish scurrying for cover. They won't venture back out into the open until long after the danger is gone.

That's time to take a lesson from anglers trying out small streams, who will dress in muted colors (even camouflage) and keep a low profile to avoid throwing shadows on the water. Other anglers, watching you sneak up to the water on your hands and knees and cast from a crouching position, might think you've lost it. But you'll have the last laugh if you land the very fish that they've spooked. Stay low, keep back as far as possible from the water's edge, and try to avoid wading anywhere near where you plan to cast.

February fish may be spooky, so don't confine your fishing efforts to the usual slow pools and medium-depth drifts. Visibility is high when the water is clear, and wary steelhead may move into smaller pockets and slots that offer them better cover. Be sure to try fast-water current breaks, overhanging banks, small pockets around boulders, deep slots along high cliffs, and the extreme upper and lower ends of traditional drifts, where faster current and white water may provide cover. Also pay more than usual attention to shaded areas where the visibility may be just a little lower than where sun hits the water.

This may also be a time to tone down your tackle, and fish a little lighter than you do when the water is higher and more heavily colored. There may be about as many opinions as there are steelhead anglers concerning how "smart" steelhead are about what they perceive in the water. But when water visibility is measured in yards rather than inches, there's no sense in bombarding the fish with huge baits and lures, heavy sinkers and large-diameter lines and leaders. Smaller offerings and lighter lines may fool fish that wouldn't hit anything bigger and bolder. Certainly they allow a more subtle presentation, giving you a better chance of detecting the usually softer strikes of wary fish in skinny water.

Being the first angler of the day in a particular stretch of holding water isn't always that big a deal, under typical fishing conditions. But this is one time of year when waking up early and getting a jump on other anglers can pay dividends. Fish that have been in the river for several weeks and/or those holding in low, clear water are likely to bite best for the morning's first angler, because they've had all night to calm down from whatever excitement they witnessed the day before. But after one or two people have cast over them and sloshed along the river bank a few feet away, they're likely to disappear into the heaviest cover they can find and stay there for the rest of the day.

So, your choices are really pretty simple: Either sit around and complain about slow fishing all month and wait for March rains to draw the wild fish home, or take advantage of what February has to offer by adjusting your strategy a little. I know what I'm going to do!