Chasing steelies on Great Lakes tributaries is one of the Midwest’s best winter bites. Look for straight, moderately deep pools with little flow. (Photo by Matt Straw)
February 25, 2025
By Matt Straw
Winter steelhead anglers trod many miles alone when in pursuit of their target. After all, who willingly accompanies the mad? Who goes wading when snow flies horizontally or when immobile fingers turn new shades of purple from freezing temperatures?
Honestly, that’s the point. There’s beauty in walking to a favorite pool—one that steelhead use every winter—and seeing only your own footprints from three weeks prior in the snow. In winter, cold water concentrates big rainbows in very specific environments. When the water registers 38 degrees or colder, your most important tool resides between your ears, not in your vest or backpack. Good anglers rely on their knowledge of where steelhead congregate in cold weather, and in doing so, they experience more battles with one of winter’s feistiest fish.
Steelhead are more aggressive in 33-degree water than almost any other species of fish. On two occasions I’ve hooked multiple steelhead in 31-degree water that would have frozen solid if not for current. Still, steelies do seek shelter from the cold. If air temperatures remain below 20 degrees for a time, chilling the water down, steelhead often drop downriver to pools more suitable for winter habitation.
Clear floats are a great call when float-fishing for steelhead in shallow winter pools where clear water causes fish to be extra wary. (Photo by Matt Straw) PICK A PRIME POOL Ideal winter habitat during the coldest weather is a pool where the land has no grade. If the bottom is level, the water slows. We humans experience wind chill, and when it’s extreme, we try to walk where the wind is blocked. River fish experience current chill, and they seek areas where the flow slows way down.
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Perfect wintering pools occur where the river widens and straightens out and depth is moderate. The best winter pools I’ve found are only 3 to 5 feet deep with dark substrates that absorb solar warmth and provide a sense of security. Even in the shallowest pools, steelhead are difficult to see over a dark bottom. And in shallow pools, steelhead likely feel the sun’s warmth better than in deep pools.
The key areas in a pan-shaped pool tend to be dead center and just above the tail out, where a current void occurs as water sweeps up into a shallower segment. Straight stream segments are key because bends promote swirling, which increases current chill. Boulders and fallen trees also lead to tumbling currents. Although steelhead do use current breaks, they often avoid these spots in the coldest weather. So, the best substrates are usually dark gravel and small rocks, which provide a relatively level floor.
Unfortunately, this kind of pool is often the first to freeze around the edges. However, ice can also slow the current even further, making steelhead highly reluctant to leave the pool in extremely cold weather. Sometimes the ice is thick enough to support your body weight; sometimes you have to break through, spooking every nearby fish in the process. In the latter case, it’s best to work another pool for a while and return. When the ice thick enough to hold you, fish can run under it and things get dicey. When it can’t hold you up, steelhead might run under and jump, breaking through. Exciting stuff.
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Such spots don’t necessarily exist in every river. Steelhead do winter in deep bends in a lot of environments, and in the southernmost rivers of the Great Lakes, or during exceptionally mild winters, steelhead may never need a perfect wintering pool. The tributaries of Lake Michigan in Wisconsin are so slow we catch them in the same pools in winter as in fall. When it really gets cold, these rivers freeze to the extent that we walk on them and ice-fish. But the tributaries of Lake Erie in Ohio have some fast water that steelhead will avoid in harsh winter weather.
Spawn bags are highly productive in winter. They can be drifted into the narrow strike zones of fish unwilling to chase baits. (Photo by Matt Straw) Most Great Lakes steelhead run in the fall, and that includes in the tributaries of Lake Superior. They remain in the river from October or November until March and sometimes April. One thing that makes these fish leave a perfect wintering pool is the urge to spawn, and fall-run fish have been observed spawning in water temperatures as cold as 36 degrees. This suggests that day length (which steelhead and many other fish have been shown to respond to) has more to do with defining the spawning window than temperature.
In March 2014, for example, when air temperatures dropped to minus-8 degrees, steelhead incredibly left perfect wintering habitat and moved to faster spawning riffles in the tributaries of Michigan’s Lower Peninsula.
However, during the coldest spells from December to February, some steelhead always drop all the way back to that first mile or two above the river’s mouth if it’s slow and deep. Some call it “frog water.” It doesn’t resemble classic trout habitat at all, but it can concentrate hundreds if not thousands of steelhead, depending on the size of the river.
Pool Haul: Where to find steelhead in a quintessential winter pool Illustration by Peter Sucheski In winter, steelhead in small- to medium-size rivers prefer flat, low-grade areas where the river widens, flow spreads out and current speeds drop. Good winter pools tend to have roughly uniform depths of 3 to 5 feet in the middle with a dark substrate—dark gravel or small rocks—that’s warmer than surrounding areas. Fish like both this spot and the area just above a tail out. They don’t like shaded areas or those with disturbed flow, like around large boulders and fallen trees or near river bends, in winter.
FLOAT IT TO THEM Many believe steelhead don’t feed at all after entering a tributary—a belief that extends even to fall-run fish that might be in the river for more than four months. This is a false assumption. Even in 33-degree water, steelhead feed, though mostly on small items like caddis larvae and mayfly nymphs that drift right into their strike zone.
In frigid water, however, steelhead generally won’t move far to intercept a bait. Their strike zone is thus condensed to a tiny area right in front of their face, which becomes the overriding factor determining presentation methods. Spinners work in winter, but steelies won’t chase much. Rather, it must hit them on the nose, which is tough with a lure that swings in an arc across the flow.
A gaudy fly can make a steelhead move in winter, but usually in the wrong direction. They might simply get out of the way. Flies imitating mayfly or stonefly nymphs are more likely to get lunched, but ice in the guides and on the fly line itself will plague any fly angler. The same thing happens when bottom-bouncing spawn with a 9-foot spinning rod. I’ve caught many steelhead this way in winter, but not since I began float-fishing in the 1980s.
My float rods are custom 12- to 13-foot-long rods made for me by master craftsman Gregg Thorne. A long rod held high when reeling in a float rig allows most or all water to drip off the line, reducing the likelihood of guide freeze-up. A float rig, unlike a spinner, spoon, bottom rig or fly-rod presentation, can incrementally cover every inch of a pool. In a straight, pan-shaped pool, you can hit every current lane in a straight line, rather than an arc, from one end of the pool to the other. Just make each cast slightly longer than the last one.
The most efficient rigs include a fixed float attached to the line with silicone sleeves that slide up or down the line for quick depth adjustments. Stealth is important in a relatively shallow pool. Clear floats like the Drennan Loafer , Redwing Tackle Blackbird Phantom or clear Eagle Claw Steelhead Float give fish less to see. So too does a fluorocarbon leader, which has almost the same coefficient of refraction as water itself and is, therefore, less visible than other line types underwater.
A small jig, like a VooDoo Tackle custom-painted plated jig with no collar, is far better than a plain hook in winter. Baits on a plain hook waft around. Baits on a jig track straight into a steelhead’s nose. This is important since trout are unlikely to move even a foot to intercept baits in cold water. A 1/64-ounce jig is right on small streams, and 1/32- to 1/16-ounce jigs usually produce better on large rivers.
With a jig, place all split-shot above a barrel swivel used to connect a 3-foot, 5- to 8-pound fluorocarbon leader. Use soft shot from Thill or Anchor to protect your main line. To avoid tangling, place the largest shot highest up and the smallest just above the swivel in a “shirt-button” pattern. Placing the shot above the swivel on the main line instead of on the leader itself helps prevent shot from damaging the leader.
I typically use 5-pound Raven or Seaguar fluorocarbon for the leader. A 12-foot rod can absorb a lot of shock. I’ve banked several steelhead weighing 18 pounds or better with 5-pound test, especially in winter when fish don’t fight quite as hard. I use 8- to 10-pound Maxima Ultragreen mono as my main line to ensure the float and sinkers won’t be lost if a steelhead wraps the leader on wood.
Having fished for these big salmonids for almost half a century, I find steelhead and salmon eggs tied in spawn bags to be the most effective winter bait. Mayfly nymphs, if you can find them, work well, too. Spawn should be collected only from steelhead and salmon that run rivers that are too warm in summer to support young-of-the-year progeny.
BEAT THE FREEZE Steelhead seem ghostly in winter. The colder the water, the more wraithlike they become. The second you’re convinced a pool is barren from end to end, they appear in solid form, muscling into your physical reality like rod-snapping dynamos. Embrace the solitude, laugh at the horizontal snow and enjoy the contest. While others are warm and cozy inside, you’ll experience some of winter’s most exciting fishing.
This article was featured in the February 2025 issue of Game & Fish magazine. Click to subscribe .
