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Steelhead are rainbow trout that migrate.

Because the Ontario steelhead migrate from a river to one of the great lakes, they tend to grow big and they are somewhat protected from anglers while they are miles out in the lake, they return to the river to spawn in spring fall, and over the winter, and they return as big fish and in good numbers.

Sometimes on some rivers over 20 thousand steelhead will swim up a river to spawn between September and May.

This gives anglers an good opportunity to sometimes catch many large trout, aka steelhead in a single day when they are on guided trips with us.

On average we usually see 3 to 6 steelhead a day between 3 and 10 pounds in our net for our clients.

However, we have had plenty of days days when our clients will hook and land over 20 big steelhead on a guide trip.

Because these are migratory fish, we also have days when we won’t catch any steelhead at all.

The reason why we sometimes do not catch any steelhead is that one day a large run of steelhead can move through the area that we are guiding and we can put our clients onto many fish during that day.

But overnight or throughout the day, those steelhead could move miles up or down the river and that could mean few if any fish for our clients the next day. Basically there one day, gone the next.

With steelhead fishing it can be very hit and miss but, like I said before, our guides are usually helping our clients catch an average of 3 to 6 steelhead a day during peak times. Most years, my guess is that  1 out of 10 days will be a day when we just don’t catch any steelhead.

Also, steelhead are fish like any other fish and can be affected by environmental changes and sometimes they simple do not eat no matter what we try. This happens with all fish species.

Our guides fish the best rivers at the best times and that greatly increases your chances of catching steelhead on you trip out with us.