It's a well known fact. Ask any beginning steelhead fisherman, and they will tell you just how hard these lake-run rainbow trout are to catch. Many spend years before accidentally hooking one.

Books have been written about them. I've written three on the topic myself, including a limited edition, and even though when pushed hard, I will admit they can be hard to catch when they are not in the river just yet.

Melting snow, will raise the water level a tiny bit, but we need more warm weather to melt more snow, warm the water slightly and raise the water level.

If the weather stays on the warm side, we could see some steelhead enter the river by this weekend. But don't go out the door with your insulated waders and rod just yet.

Don't get too excited but watch for several days of warm weather.

My three books --

•Steelheading For Everybody
•Steelhead In North America
•Great Lakes Steelhead Flies

-- and the mystique that surrounds these game 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. Contact me at this email address to get information about my steelhead books: Scoop's Books

The stories 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 away 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 are easy to catch.

Some days they are easy. Other days they are not. Go figure.

Any 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 downright simple … at times. It can be extremely difficult at 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 than bluegills or yellow perch 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.

Fly-fishing for steelheads is my favorite way to catch them.

There are many ways to catch steelhead and this holds true with most game fish species. All methods produce during certain periods, but they may work best at other times of 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.

•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 people are in a big rush. They want fish now, and bail off the river bank, go splashing into the clear river and spook fish off spawning beds. They then wonder why they can't catch anything.

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

•Slow down – way 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.

Don't get into the river until a fish is found. Avoid splashing around.

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

Fish only for male (buck) steelhead.

•Why, you ask? It's easy to figure out. There are usually more males than females, If you spook a female, it will dash away and hide. If there is no hen present, there is no reason for males to hang around.

•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, and experiment with them.

•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 still, and wait for them to resume spawning. Take your time, and ease gently into casting position. It can 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 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.

Don't wade up and down the rivers and spook fish.

Common courtesy has its place on a spring steelhead stream. If you spot an angler up ahead casting to bedded fish, walk wide around the area away from the bank. Don't wade up or down the river past him 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 detour around you and the fish. People with common sense will do so. Stupid people with no manners will not!

Those who never had any brains or too little fetching up 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, fly presentation and good timing are three keys to spring steelhead fishing success.

Pleasant dreams! Just think how special a season is to see a buck like this.

Dozens of strong reasons are experienced each year to remind me why I prefer bow hunting for whitetails rather than using a firearm. One day I may write a much larger blog about my key reasons for bow hunting than you’ll read today. Just consider this an introduction to my feelings about deer hunting.

I'll just trot out a several key reasons tonight, and go into a far deeper explanation about why they are some basic thoughts. Here are several to consider while you delve into the reasons why you prefer hunting deer with a bow.

I’d be willing to bet that many of our reasons are the same.

October is, without question, the best deer-hunting month of all. Here’s why.

•October is such a beautiful month, and most of the women I know who bow hunt favor the beauty of early October. It's just a shame the color doesn't last longer, but it would be a bigger shame if people didn’t get out into the woods during this gorgeous period.

•There is a shoot-don't shoot atmosphere about bow hunting if we really pause long enough to think about it. A person could hunt every day with a bow without turning loose an arrow at a deer, but why? A kill isn't always necessary but it must be what our hunting urge tells us to do. Instead of shooting and killing an animal, it's possible to draw down on every deer and then allow it to pass without taking a shot. I’ve passed up any number of bucks that I could have killed, but instead, granted that animal his life on that day. Drawing on a deer is great practice, and when it comes time to release an arrow, those past draw-backs will help calm your jitters. It can make us better hunters.

•There are sights, sounds and smells that nurture our days afield with bow in hand. There is the distinct and sharp aroma of a passing skunk on a foggy fall evening, and there is the odor of pungent marsh mud when walking through cattails while hunting wary deer.

Revel in the sights and sound of autumn in the deer woods.

•Countless sounds can be heard while hunting. The guttural grunt of a buck tending an estrous doe, the soft rustle of deer hooves moving through dried autumn leaves, geese honking overhead with that mournful sound, and the startling noise made when a ruffed grouse flushes heavily from bracken ferns or thick cover. They never fail to startle me even though I’ve come to expect the noise in certain areas.

•Bow hunting always makes me practice more than I normally do while moving between the many places I hunt, and I'll often shoot a dozen arrows before heading for the woods. I find something very satisfying about shooting a bow during a hunt or practice session.

•Watching and studying deer is a great personal passion of mine. I've found the more one studies deer, and the environs where they are found, the more we learn about the animals and the better we become at hunting deer.  Watching deer closely also teaches people when and when not to draw on an animal.

•My senses reach a higher level during deer season. It seems I can see and hear better. I've learned how to look deeply into heavy cover, and to spot the vague outline or movement of a nice buck. I know to look for bits or pieces of a deer, like a tail switch, than to look for the entire animal. An old friend once told me to “look as deep into heavy cover as possible, and anything that moves in-between, will be seen.” It really works.

•Hunting makes me feel good even when I’m feeling poorly. I don't need a kill to be satisfied with my hunt. Just watching deer, studying their travel patterns, and learning how they react to other movements or sounds, are now important to me. I don't move or make any sound, and the only movement comes when I draw the bow and I know when and when not to do so.

A very key reason why bow hunting is so important to me.

•Bow hunting is something very special to me. It releases any tensions I feel, and I don’t hunt so much to kill as I hunt to prevent life from killing a part of me that would otherwise die of boredom if I weren’t out in the woods with bow in hand.

•Although October is still months away, there is within me, an intense passion which is difficult to match during any other time of year. October, when it inevitably rolls around, is such a wonderful time for anyone to be afield.

•The deer move well early in the season, and late in October is when the rut kicks off, and it too is an exciting time. The leaves are down on the ground, and the bucks are actively chasing does. It is a marvelous outdoor spectacle.

•For me, just being there, watching the ebb and flow of deer past my chosen stand is something I deeply treasure. It's like a dream come true, and that dream always centers around hunting with a stick and string -- one man against a whitetail buck.

It is a priceless experience, and  one that never fails to fill me with great emotion.

A nice long-bearded gobbler moves easily over deep winter snow.

I spent some time outdoors today, as I do most days when or after it snows, and found myself wondering what to do. The weather was the pits, sharp northwest wind, and bone-chilling cold. The good news was it wasn't snowing at the time.

One of the best things to come from this spate of nasty,  anowy weather that has bombarded us for the past week was there weren't any  drifts in the driveway.  However, walking around outside means fighting through deep snow in a vain search for deer that are looking for something to eat. Most of the animals are holed up where enough thermal cover exists so they won't freeze to death.

The snow everywhere in my neighborhood is almost hip-deep with a thin crusts below the snow, and although deer seldom stray too far from thick cover, there is little food available to them. Most of the deer movement comes after dark but a few grouse are feeding on catkins.

Deep snow everywhere in the northern counties.

This weather isn't a blessing for deer although turkeys can easily walk on top without breaking through. Small deer often starve to death during the winter because they are too small to move through deep snow. They become easy pickings for coyotes.

With the weather in the low-20s during the day, the weather and lack of nutritious food doesn't offer bucks a chance to regain lost weight and stamina. Pregnant does are hoping to find food to build up their fat reserves if the winter continues to be ugly, and fawns born last spring will soon be starving to death if the weather doesn't improve.

There are very few standing corn fields this year. The fall weather allowed farmers to complete their harvest, and most of the grain left behind is gone.

Hunting pressure, for the most part, was minimal or nonexistent  through December. Some bow hunters like me hunted the last couple of days of the season, but we were treated to an almost daily diet of heavy snow for 10 days. Most deer didn't move until long after dark.

There doesn't seem to be many turkeys around, and they are widely scattered with the deep winter snow. I've seen a few in recent days, and they always seem to be on the move. Gobblers, hens and poults are trying to feed as they travel in an endless pattern trying to find food, and watching them cross a field is a lesson in watching heads bob up and down. There is a lot of pecking but little food to eat.

Song birds are coming to the feeders at the house, and there is a constant parade of various birds. What I'm not seeing this winter, which is fine by me, are the large groups of mourning doves that waste more bird seed than they eat.

Turkeys moving easily on top of the deep snow.

These birds often use the back part of my deck as a place to roost for the night, and they poop constantly. Cleaning the deck is difficult during most winters, and this year, they aren't here. Perhaps they only roost on my deck when the weather turns nice.

Fishing pressure on area rivers has about dried up, and although there still are some steelhead in some of the rivers, there doesn't seem to be much interest. Everyone is ice fishing, but catches seem to be down on many lakes.

Lakes like Big Glen, Crystal, Higgins, Houghton and others are slow to freeze. Deep snow still covers many lakes, and it acts like an insulating blanket.

ice fishing has been spotty with frequent storms.

Live bait dealers are hurting a bit because ofinconsistent conditions, but the skiing and snowmobiling industries are happy with the snow conditions. The high price of gasoline does seem to be having an impact on snowmobilers.

One thing about it, I've been riding my snowblower too much so far this winter. I'm not sure this kind of weather really appeals to me.

It makes for a long winter once the snow gets too deep for predator and rabbit hunting. But one thing always holds true with Michigan weather: if you don't like it, wait until tomorrow, it will probably change.

Magic in a box: ice flies & jigs.      This angler unhooks a nice walleye.

Color, size and a bit of bait makes all the difference in success. Just experiment.

Sometimes just making the lure “shiver” in one place is enough to make fish bite.

Use lures of the right size for the species of game fish you’re trying to catch.

Two or three snowshoe hares used to be common but no longer.

Snow always moves downhill slowly, and then builds quickly into an avalanche.

We are at between 45 and 50 inches of snow so far.

That’s why I love to hunt snowshoe hares. I let hounds circle bunnies to me.

I’ve hunted deer with a bow since 1955.

Develop a personal checklist, and do everything right, every time.

Establish that the deer is a buck, and then forget about the antlers.

Bucks often bed down in open grassland where visibility is good.

Looking for a good buck, not a 1 1/2 year old.

The problem with hunting big bucks is few shooting opportunities.

It would have been an easy shot on the little guy.

An easy shot but again I passed on this buck.

Patterning this animal was easy. His buddies were much more difficult.