Hunting whitetail deer has been my a;;-consuming passion for 50 years, and I've been fortunate to have taken many nice bucks over those years. As time passes, and our hunting skills increase, veteran bow hunters soak up hunting knowledge like a kitchen sponge sucks up water.

The deer hunting season is still going on for most people as we approach the firearm opener, unless they travel south for some Dixie deer action, but hunters begin learning  learning more about hunting from the many deer stands.

Once a person has racked up 40-50 years of deer hunting, they are filled with knowledge. The one thing I constantly keep telling myself is that younger hunters, with far less knowledge, are just starting to bow hunt for whitetail deer they use.

Hunters are starving for tips that will help them produce nice deeer. Some of the tricks that I will reveal are trose that were learned the hard way — by making serious mistakes at a younger age.

Here is one to try on for size. Many hunters have ground or elevated coops, and often they put in shooting windows on all four sides. This can be a major mistake. A hunter only needs one, and it should be on the proper side

A deer's three defenses — ears, eyes and nose — must be defeated before a hunter can shoot a nice buck.

If you have four windows, all should be covered with camo netting or black felt. The netting or felt can be lifted aside, but once a hunter gets used to looking through it, deer can be easily spotted without revealing your presence.

One common mistake is when hunters spot a deer, and prepare for a shot. but fail to consider what is behind them. If an uncovered window is behind you, it provides a light background. Any hunter movement, even drawing the bow, can result in breaking-up or blotting out the light source, and the deer will spot the movement instantly.

Many hunters wear a face mask and brown Jersey gloves to cover up their skin. That works fine, but any light shining through a window behind you will produce a moving silhouette that can and will spook deer.

Deer spooked from a ground or treestand coop may not return. It's possible to fool doe fawns and button-bucks, but not a wise old deer. If he spots any motion, even from 100 yards, he will spook.

Beware of any light that silhouettes you to a deer.

It makes sense to paint all walls of a ground or elevated coop black. Do it long before the season opens and leave the windows open so the coop airs out all paint fumes. You may have to remove hornet or wasp nests, but that is a small price to pay for having a dark background behind you at all times.

Never use metal chairs in a coop. In the cold you'll freeze your butt, and the chairs will squeak whenever you move.

Treestand hunters have much the same problem. It's easy to allow yourself to become silhouetted against the sky.

Whenever possible, place your stand in a cedar or pine tree. There is some natural aroma to both needles, and the green cover stays green all winter. Shy away from tamarack trees because the needles turn yellow and and then fall off, leaving the hunter exposed to a sharp-eyed deer.

Always sit in front of the tree, and position a stand so the deer approach from behind. Do it early, and once you know where deer travel, put up a stand and install some pine boughs strategically around both sides and overhead.

It's not important to shoot at 360 degrees from a treestand. Do your homework, and learn where the deer travel. A deer that moves down a trail from behind will offer an ideal quartering-away shot as it passes.

Cedar and pine boughs can break up the human outline.

Put pine boughs to each side of your treestand, and leave one choice spot to shoot through. Pine boughs tied horizontally three feet over your head will put you in deep shadow. It's important to have the tree trunk behind you, pine boughs on both sides and overhead. It does hurt to tie pine boughts to the legs of a ladder stand as well.

A hunter who can sit still with this type of arrangement, and who positions his stand downwind of where deer travel, will have it made. Learn to optimize your camouflage, don't put stands too high in the air, and you'll be in business.

Careful attention to detail will keep deer from spotting you regardless of whether you are in a ground blind, elevated coop or a treestand. Think out all of the possibilities, and remove any that would spook deer, and next season could be much better. You may soon find yourself always in the right spot. The trick then is to learn when to drawn and how to shoot accurately, and that will be the topic of a future blog.

Scout bucks like this during the summer.

Study deer habits, learn what deer can see, find out how to remain motionless, know when to draw and shoot, and shooting a buck becomes much easier. Take it from me. This may not be the answer you hoped to get, but if a hunter learns what works and what doesn't, most of the time will be spent getting ready for a close shot.

That's when you really begin to believe you've arrived as a serious whitetail deer hunter.

Posted via email from Dave Richey Outdoors

Many hunters lose their deer-hunting focus during the winter months. It's easy enough to do with ice fishing, getting past the holidays, and getting ready for Income Tax Day. That day is not fun to look forward to, but I refuse to worry about it this early in the year.

So, what can sportsmen do during the winter months that will keep them somewhat wired for the upcoming deer season next October? There are countless things to occupy your time, and I'll add some, and I'm sure you can think of many others. There's no need to flop down in the easy for the entire winter.

Most hunters are just getting all of our gear stowed away from last hunting season. This is one of the best times to check over our equipment and make certain it will be in fine condition next fall.Now me, whether I hunt with a bow or firearm, I always strive for one-shot kills. This thought always figures into my mid-winter plans.

A friend who know of my penchant for one-shot kills and sent me this cartoon.

The first thing I do is to check if the bow string shows any fraying on the serving or around the ends where they attach to the bow. A frayed string or serving should be replaced. If the string and serving looks fine, a coating of bow string wax will help keep it in good shape.

It pays to check for anything loose on the bow. Unless a bow is dropped or the bottom limb hits something when a shot is taken, it should be fine. If you have a red-dot sight, check now to see if it is turned off. You can remove the battery if you wish, wrap it in Saran Wrap, and tape it to the bow.

Some people let off the poundage on their bow before it is stored, but not me. I shoot my bow almost every day, and it would be a hassle cranking the poundage up and down. I leave it set at my hunting weight, and it keeps me in tune through constant shooting.

A release requires very little care. Just store it in your bow case or in a drawer where it can easily be found whenever you shoot.

Take care of your gear, and when the right time comes, your gear will take care of you.

Boots and clothing need to be replaced when necessary. I like to get my clothing washed and put away, and I've been wearing the same set of coveralls for several years. Pulling them on is something that just feels right. People ask when I'm going to get new coveralls, and I tell them that my present clothing is good for another 10 years.

Many people carry a backpack with little odds and ends inside that may come in handy. Check it now, and replace whatever is missing, and it will be ready to go hunting when you are. I sometimes take a good flashlight with me on a hunt, and it is usually set aside for use during the off-season.

I seldom carry much with me into the field. My binoculars, bow, quiver, arrows and a flashlight is about it. In December, if the temperature is cold, I will carry a little heater that runs off a small bottle of propane. It gives off just enough heat to take the chill off my hands before a shot.

I often take a walk here and there. I check tracks in the snow in midwinter, and I make it my business to know what is happening on my land. I like to know what trails are being used most often during the winter, and I do the same thing during the spring and summer.

Glassing the open fields and woods often reveal where deer are bedding down if the weather is decent. If the weather turns bad, I know they will be in heavier cover but I want to know which patch of heavy cover holds the most deer.  Binoculars or a spotting scope are handy for checking areas without having to walk around too much near the bedding or feeding areas.

I spend some time looking for coyotes, and often have my .264 Winchester Magnum rifle with me at the time. I've taken plenty of winter coyotes, and it helps keep the predation of young deer to a minimum. I also use the abundance of snow to check for new and old trails to check where whitetails move in and out of my land. Sometimes I have to move stands to a new area.

Time spent this winter can lead to a nice buck next fall.

If I see crows or occasionally an eagle, I go to check the situation. A young deer may have died or been pulled down by coyotes, or a big buck may have been gored and died after a fight with another big buck. All demand my investigation.

Winter is just a temporary inconvenience. It gives me time to pursue things that were impossible to do during hunting season. But … I'm always thinking about the upcoming deer season.

It's those thoughts of next fall that give me great pleasure. Shooting a deer isn't nearly as important as studying and learning from the animals.

Posted via email from Dave Richey Outdoors

Guess what? Fishing isn't the same as it was 10 years ago, and it won't be the same in the future as it is now.

Fishing and hunting have become fragmented. How so? There are many ways to look at our natural resource problems, such as:

How have things changed?

Years ago, a bear hunter bought a license and went hunting. Now, we supposedly have sound, scientific wildlife management, and that means more bears are being killed each year under a quota system than were ever killed under the old rules when anyone could hunt bruins.

And that's OK because we have more bears than ever before, and the animals are moving into new territories, and management means determining the social carrying capacity of bruins. How many bears will people tolerate near their homes before they start squawking?

We have elk hunts now with some rather new rules. The rules only affect those who draw an elk tag from now on. I've applied for an elk tag ever since they had their first hunt in 1964. I've never been drawn, but instead of drawing names from those who have applied and missed out, the DNR are enforcing the newer rules.

And frankly, I'm not the only one who has applied and been denied. It means that hunters who drew an elk tag years ago can still draw another one. Does this make sense? Is it sour grapes on my part? No, it just means that me and many people are dissatisfied with the new system that makes no sense. No one should ever draw a second elk tag if they've already drawn one but that's not how it works now.

When will Region II turkey hunters get private-land tags?

The DNR has had ample opporunities to allow Region II turkey hunters to obtain some private-land turkey tags that would guarantee them a first- or second-season hunt for those applicants who own property up here, but pressure from other groups is louder than the mumbles of regional landowners. So, private-land turkey tags can be obtained in the Upper Peninsula in those counties where birds are hunted, and throughout southern Lower Peninsula counties, but again Region II landowners get the short and dirty end of the turkey-permit stick.

It appears the DNR is caving in to special interest groups. In case you haven't noticed, the special interest groups are in the face of the DNR biologists to get what they want, not what is fair to everyone else.

Do you remember when Michigan had their statewide trout season opener on the last Saturday in April? And then, in hopes of streamlining our fishing seasons, the DNR allowed Lower Peninsula muskie, pike and walleye fishing to open at the same time as the trout season. There are many sport shops in the Lower Peninsula, and this ruling a decade or so ago, denied sportsmen two opening days — trout and walleye, etc., and simply lumped them all together.

Guess which one most people prefer, and in resounding fashion? It wasn't trout, which are harder to catch. Those people who opened the trout season, and then on May 15, opened the walleye season years ago, jumped for joy. They got over two more weeks of walleye fishing, and the sporting goods stores lost a wonderful chance to make money on the second opener.

Deer kill and deer numbers are way down in Region II.

The DNR, currently backed into a corner by angry deer hunters, have been taking it on the chin. The DNR's little dog-and-pony show went on the road to discuss issues with deer hunters four or five years ago, and they were confronted by many angry people who are tired of not seeing deer and even more tired of horrible deer management policies.

Trust me, in many parts of the state, the chances of seeing and killing a deer is as high as drawing one of the aforementioned elk tags. Southern Michigan counties still have lots of deer, but such is not the case in the Upper Peninsula and northern Lower peninsulas.

These hunters were and still are clamoring for change, and rightfully so. I've backed the DNR for more years than I can remember, but things are changing … and frankly folks, it's not for the better. Deer are plumb hard to find in the U.P., and things aren't much better in the northern half of the Lower Peninsula. But guess where the deer are: on private land in the southern Lower Peninsula counties. They aren't Up North.

Mandatory deer registration is important.

This deal over deer and deer hunting is far from over. The DNR needs to begin mandatory deer registration, and do away with the two-license deal. If they want to make more money, make it mandatory that hunters register their first deer before they can buy a second license. Hunters no longer believe the estimated Oct. 1 deer numbers, and they don't believe the  final totals that show deer kills higher than what anyone believes, especially those sportsmen who do not see a whitetail during the hunting seasons.

Now, in an effort to raise more money and to protentially alienate more people, the DNR will be selling some of permits for some of the species that are difficult to draw — like the bull elk tags. If you've got enough money, you too can bypass the lottery system, and bid lots of money. This further tips the scales away from the ordinary hunter, and will become the most direct cause of higher license fees.

And, while we are at it, it means the rich get what they want while the average sportsman get little or nothing. Go over to Germany and try to hunt. It will cost an arm and a leg, and a lengthy training session before you'll take your firearm into the woods.

Now, because of one case of a Chronic Wasting Disease scare in Kent County a couple of years ago, baiting has been eliminated in the entire Lower Peninsula. In the meantime, baiting continues in the Upper Peninsula. Many people started cheating last fall in the Lower Peninsula where they continue to bait. Does it make sense to have legal baiting in one part of the state but none in the rest? Not to me it doesn't.

And all because of one CWD disease in a private enclosure. Everyone had to pay the price for that solitary animal. Did people resent this, and is it sound scientific management? It makes one wonder. The DNR and Department of Agriculture should get their collective acts together.

We lost deer hunter numbers when baiting was outlawed.

Has deer and turkeys suffered in the northern Lower Peninsula. You bet. Folks, where I live we had more than 180 inches of snow last winter and about 110 inches so far this season. I've seen very few gobblers, and only a few hen turkeys this winter. If the DNR's weird sense of having turkey feeding sites weren't so laughable, I'd cry.

If we have fewer turkeys this spring than in the past, we can look to a lack of a winter feeding program. Turkeys are big birds and they burn a lot of energy launching into flight from the ground, but to expect birds to burn up even more fat reserves during winter months by having to fly to an elevated position for corn, is a bit silly. Besides, the birds scatter the feed from above, and the deer come to it on the ground,

But never mind me. I get a bit peckish after snowblowing for three months, getting the blower stuck once in deep snow two weeks ago, and watching the road plow fill in my driveway. Some things, like silly management policies, get me going.

Am I in a bit of a nasty mood? You bet! Michigan hunters once stood tall and proud of their DNR, our deer management policies, and the fact that we had more combined deer hunters and man-days of deer hunting than any other state in the nation.

We don't have much to be proud of now except in areas where there is a Quality Deer Management program. Hunters in such areas are now seeing more bucks and larger animals in some of those counties than ever before.

Folks, it goes against the grain of Mother Nature to try to maintain a status quo, year after year. It's an impossible to accomplish, and management of our deer herd is sorely lacking in focus.

Where are the DNR wildlife deer biologists? Not out in the field.

I never see a wildlife biologist in the field, and in the words of a fine wildlife biologist who retired a few years ago, "the new wildlife biologists don't have any dirt on their boots."

One might wonder if they ever own a pair of boots. They spend little, if any time, in the field. They manage by building computer models, and I for one, know that it isn't working.

And sadly, the biologists seldom want to talk with landowners, especially in northern counties. They know they'll get an ear full, and most of the anger generated their way these days, is justified.
Perhaps we need a shake-up in state government.

One doesn't have to look hard or far to see that state government has wrecked the economy, our jobs and our livlihood, and politicians have left taxpayers holding the bag … again.

This is the adult version of the old snipe hunt trick we played on other kids when we were young. It was funny back then, but nobody is laughing anymore because many of us are left holding an empty bag, and we're now playing the snipe game.

Posted via email from Dave Richey Outdoors

Are you a giver or a taker? It's a simple question that goes far beyond a one-word yes or no answer.

The bottom line here, in the event that this question may come as a big surprise to some of my faithful readers, is very simple. Do you take more from your fishing or hunting trips  and your living area, than you put back?

The purchase of a fishing or hunting license grants us nothing more than an opportunity to legally fish or hunt. It is a privilege but not a guaranteed right. It promises opportunities, not limit catch or a heavy game bag.

$portsmen must learn to ask politicians the hard-hitting questions.

In days of old, when knights were bold, the landowner owned the fish and game. They also owned the river water that flowed through their property, and Heaven help those pesky peasants who poached one of the king's red stags, a brown trout or Atlantic salmon.

The human population was far less 300 or more years ago than now, and peasants were kept in their places and ruled with an iron fist. People caught poaching were severely punished, and any fish or game they may have taken was confiscated.

Things are much different now. We have flowing springs, but bottled-water plants are tapping into the underground aquifers. They are taking water but putting nothing back. There are developers ready to quickly fill wetlands, and they operate on the premise that it's easier to say "I'm sorry" later, if caught, than to ask for and be granted permission first.

These are trying times, and everyone wants and needs some outdoor recreation. We need to smell the roses, but what will happen when the roses stop growing?

What will happen when former trout streams become a mere trickle before drying up because a bottling plant has shipped our water out of state for corporate profit, and the trout have disappeared because bottlers have drained and sold our water? What about the ducks that once inhabited the wetlands or the bullfrogs that croaked all night

How many people are speaking out to Gov. Jennifer Granholm? Are you standing up to face big business, and asking the hard questions: Is sale of our water right?

What happens to Great Lakes water when Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico and Texas want our water? What will be done then? Hopefully, compacts already in place limit such withdrawals but those who do not care are greedily trying to circumvent those laws.

Who among us is speaking out about urban sprawl in the Traverse City area? Or near Charlevoix? Or in the Petoskey-Harbor Springs area? Cadillac is another area primed for a push from those who wish to move north to what they perceive as paradise in northern Michigan.

How many people are willing to take a few minutes from their busy lives to ask why? Why is state government allowing this to happen? Why are cities like Detroit becoming an empty maze of cluttered and unsafe streets, boarded up crack houses, and why has 1.2 million people fled Detroit over the past 20 years? Why is the same thing happening in Flint and other cities around this state?

People must learn to give something instead of always taking.

When will we get rid of all the crooks in government. Books have been written about Kwame Kilpatrick, who followed the lead of former Detroit mayor Coleman Young. The city was just something to be looted for personal game. They caught Kilpatrick, tossed him in the clink, but whatever they do to crooked politicians isn't enough to satisfy those who lost their savings.

One needs to look no furthern than some politicians. Consider Kwame Kilpatrick and his sordid text messages and political hijinks. He got some time in the can, but not nearly long enough for someone who profited while the city he was paid to protect teeters on the edge of death and total collapse, a city where crime is rampant.

I ask: What will become of our open fields, marshlands, hardwoods and conifers that now provide cover for game and non-game animals and birds here in northern Michigan? Has anyone paid attention to the downsizing of Michigan's deer herd? The marked decrease in snowshoe hares and some game birds?

How about those rivers where salmon and trout were once plentiful? Those rivers don't support the same number of salmonids as they once did, and  they may never regain their great popularity as world-class steelhead waters.

What about our Department of Natural Resources, a state agency nearly as financially bankrupt as the entire state government. When people lose their jobs in downstate factories, they often move north. Acre by acre, day after day, our land is being gobbled up, paved over and otherwise descecrated. Pheasants like these roosters are no longer common anywhere in the state.

A nice brace of ringneck pheasants taken during a snowstorm.

The answers are not nice but they are easy. We're talking about an excessive loss of habitat. We're talking greedy businessmen. How, I wonder, can Exxon and other gas companies declare such huge profits for shareholders while the average person was breaking his back trying to stay afloat when gasoline was over $4 per gallon just over a year ago. We have Medicare programs that no one understands, and skyrocketing prescription drug prices. It's bureaucracy at its worst.

Granted, what has happened in the past several years to our deer herd is not easy to cope with. But take a hard look at some of the problems.

Urban sprawl is eating away at land necessary for deer to live. People move north, buy their five or 10 acres of paradise, and disrupt deer travel routes. Homes are built where deer crossed roads. As more people move in, buy land, the terrain becomes even more fragmented. The deer soon disappear to another area that has yet to be exploited.

People see bears where they've never been seen before. The animals need a place to live, but humans have taken over. We own 20 acres we bought 30 years ago, and admit that we may have contributed to the problem. However, we did it long before the big push to move north came about.

Deer numbers in our area are way down so we hunt elsewhere when we can. Does this solve the problem? Of course not, it just puts a bit more hunting pressure on an area that hasn't felt the full force of land development like what has taken place around Traverse City. Where are the brook that once lived here?

Try to find brook trout like this now.

Thirty years ago when we moved here, Traverse City was a quaint northern Michigan town with about 8,000 people. Look at it today. It has the same types of problems as southern cities now faced. Drugs, embezzlement, rape, robbery, murder. We've got that whole bag of nastiness up here now, and paradise has lost most of its glitter and luster, but it still looks nicer than downstate so people keep coming back for another sample of the north.

Twenty or 30 years from now, when Traverse City has expanded southeast past Kingsley, southwest to Thompsonville, northwest to fill the entire Leelanau Peninsula, and northeast to meet Charlevoix that is expanding southward, we'll have the same problems that people fled when they moved north from the downstate big cities.

The difference is those who moved north brought much of their excess baggage with them, and now they want this area to be like their home area once was. Folks, it doesn't happen that way.

When will people look around, see the slow but inevitable destruction of this area, and wonder how and why we let it happen? Of course, the answer is easy: we are too busy raising a family, pinching pennies because half our pay is a view of the bay, and if we live long enough, we'll learn that if we aren't part of the solution, then we must be part of the ever-growing problem.

Meanwhile, paradise has been turned into another drug storechain, gas station, bank or a cement-carpeted parking lot. And one must look hard to find a rose to smell, a deer to see, or that wonderful silence at night when the northern lights sparkled in the heavens. Sorry folks, but the aurora borealis is hard to see through the glare of city lights.

The problem is people have taken what we deemed as ours and given nothing in return. How sad is that? How greedy are we? Many people should be ashamed of themselves. They've paved over paradise and turned it into a parking lot.

It's time for state residents to start giving something back.

Posted via email from Dave Richey Outdoors

It's a well known fact. Just ask any beginning steelhead fisherman, and they will tell you just how difficult spring steelhead are to catch.

Books have been written about these game fish. I've written three books on the topic myself, and even though when pushed hard, I will admit they can be hard to catch when they are not running.

My three books — Steelheading For Everybody, Steelhead In North America and Great Lakes Steelhead Flies — and the mystique that surrounds these fish trouble some anglers.  The mystery of this lake-run rainbow trout is usually part of the smoke-and-mirrors show that advanced anglers talk about. Click on Scoop's Books on the page that  comes up when you click on my site, and then look up my name and the books for sale. I also have hundreds of old outdoor magazines with great artwork on the covers

Steelhead action can be improved by knowing how to fish.

But I digress. The stories one hears about the steelhead mystique are meant to discourage fishermen, and in many cases, the falsehoods and lies work. It’s nothing more than one angler shining on another to discourage them before they even begin fishing. It’s nothing but a lie to keep anglers away.

These freaky falsehoods are basically tactics to drive neophyte anglers  from a favorite fishing area, but if an angler does not  know the river, they can't catch fish with any degree of regularity. Locate some fish, as guide Mark Rinckey of Honor and I do with a great deal of regularity, and some anglers may think this highly-touted game fish is easy to catch.

Some days they are easy. Other days they are not. Go figure. Learn to accept both good and bad days, and seek to become familiar with various rivers on certain sections of severl rivers. NeverAny screwy suspicions spoken about steelhead fishing is nothing but reverse propaganda in the minds of good fishermen. This sport is easier than it needs to be, and it’s certainly easier than others would have you believe.

Catching steelhead can be easy … sometimes.

Catching steelhead can be downright simple … at times. It can be extremely difficult at other times. Savvy fishermen soon learn to take the good with the bad.

Be there, at the right time, fish the water properly and steelhead are not much more difficult to catch on flies than bluegills or sunfish are in the spring. One principle applies to all game fish species: Anglers must find the fish, and cast well, before they can taste the sweetness of angling success.

There are as many ways to catch steelhead and this is true with most game fish. All methods produce during certain periods, but they may work best at other times of the year. For me, stalking visible steelhead on shallow rivers and casting flies to them is as good as it gets, and I made a living for 10 years guiding fly fishermen to good catches using some of the following methods.

Fish as often as possible.

One thing to remember is  that experience on the water is necessary. I’ve taken beginning anglers, and under my tutelage, had them catching steelhead the first day. They thought the fish were  easy to catch.

The problem with fly fishing is that too many people are in a big rush. They want fish now, and they jump off the river bank, splash into the clear river and spook fish off spawning beds. They then wonder why they can't catch the fish. A certain amount of stealth is necessary to get within casting range of spring fish/

Forget about wading up or down the river, and spend more time on the river bank looking for fish. Walk slowly along the bank, stop often and study the water. It's a method much like still-hunting deer, and if anglers try to rush the process, the fish spook. The deer run away and the steelhead swim into the log jams.

Slow down, and take your time. My toughest problem when guiding steelhead fishermen was curbing their enthusiastic impatience. This old method worked back in the 1960s and it still works now providing people follow some easily understood rules.

Steelhead fishing requires patience.

Stay out of the water unless casting to visible fish. Don’t become another stupid fisherman that wades downstream pr upstream, and spooks every steelhead around. Barring a quick warm-up, snowmelt and run-off, anglers have at least four weeks and more likely between six and eight weeks before steelhead numbers begin moving upstream. Use this time period to study these tactics, memorize them and put them to good use them this spring.

Instead of wading downstream, walk the bank, stop, start and look for fish. Use any available cover and a successful stalk may take 15-30 minutes to move close enough for a short and accurate cast/

Wear a billed cap, pull it low over Polarized sunglasses, and pause frequently to study the water. A fresh-run mint-silver female is most difficult to spot in the water, and sometimes all that can be seen is a shadow. Males are dark colored, and their gaudy gill covers and cheeks are easily seen. Don't look for the whole fish; often all you'll see is a tail, a white mouth or a shadow apparently moving across the bottom.

Watch the fish and study them. If they are going on and off the bed, it means they are spooky. Relax, take your time, and wait until the hen starts rolling up on her side and the male fertilizes the eggs with a jet of white milt. Remember, if nothing else: never fish for the female; try only for male fish in the spring. Why? Catch or hook the female, and she is gone and the male fish go with her. Hook a male, and land it downstream, and the female and other males will stay on the bed.

Tips on choosing steelhead flies.

Which fly to use? The old philosophy is always a good bet. Use bright attractor patterns on bright days, and dark patterns on overcast days. Use a tippet or leader testing six pounds, and perfect your accuracy somewhere  other than on the river. Plop a fly down on top of a fish and it will spook. Carry several bright and dark patterns in sizes No. 4, 6 and 8.

Ease slowly into the water and move softly without splashing the water or crunching gravel underfoot. If the fish start moving back and forth, stop, remain motionless, and wait for them to resume spawning. Take your time, and ease gently into casting position. It may take a long time, and I've spent hours trying to catch a gaudy buck steelhead. This method requires constant attention to detail, great patience and accurate casts. Don’t try to hurry things.

Study the water current and depth. The fly must be cast far enough upstream to be scratching gravel when it comes to the male. If the female hits the fly. do nothing. Hook and fight the female, and all the males will disappear. Hook a male, and it's not uncommon to catch two or three fish without unduly spooking the hen or harming the resource.

The fly must ease past his nose. Set up a rhythmic casting pace; cast upstream past the male, strip in line as the fly drifts downstream, and once it passes the male, lift the fly out and cast again. Cast, strip line, ease the fly past his nose, lift it out and cast again. Use a hook hone to sharpen hook points. They soon get dull when bouncing over gravel.

The male will often move out of the way of a fly. Repetitive casting angers the fish, and they will often hit. Watch the fish's head, and when it moves two or three inches when the fly is near, it usually has the fly and is moving it out of the bed. Set the hook. If you wait for a hard strike, you'll never hook a spawning spring steelhead.

Courtesy on rivers is vitally important.

Common courtesy has its place on a steelhead stream. If you spot an angler up ahead casting to bedded fish, walk wide around the area on the bank. Don't wade down the river and spook his fish. If you are fishing to bedded fish, and see an angler coming, holler and politely ask them to make a wide pass around you and the fish. People with common sense will do so. The slobs will not.

Those who never had any brains or upbringing will ignore your request. A steelhead isn't worth getting into a fight over, but I've seen days when I wish I'd taken those Charles Atlas courses offered when I was a kid.

This is just one of many steelhead techniques but it happens to be my favorite, and in the future, we'll share other methods that produce. But one thing to remember is to learn something new every day.

It's hard to do, but trust me. Unspooked steelhead are much easier to catch than those that have been dodging snag hooks, clumsy wading, and people who care nothing about the rights of other people. Too many folks want a steelhead at any cost, and as quickly as possible, but they have no clue about how to go about catching them.

Patience, superb fly presentation and good timing are three keys to success.

Posted via email from Dave Richey Outdoors