JCB, the simulated rubber egg clusters work really well; particularly when used with both egg and shrimp scent applied. The 2 places they work best are in faster steelhead water where the fish don't have much time to inspect the eggs, and also on jigheads. Yup, jigheads. Cerise, white, or brass/chrome heads with the rubber cluster is a 'go to'. ... My friend Mark Anderson and I have been experimenting with a lot of different rubber on jigheads for steelhead. We started with the pink worm; pinching off a half inch of the 4" Powerbait pink worms and threading them onto 1/4 oz. jigheads with an inch overhang or so, to floatfish just up off bottom a bit. In many cases it works better than driftfishing them. I then started doing the same with the rubber eggs. Did OK on the Powerbaits and Smelly Jelly egg scented pinkish ones. But the one that has done the best is the Seducer brand - they do look better with a steelhead orange egg color, including the right amount of transparency, maybe smell better to the fish too. They are made on the north Oregon coast somewhere, so may not be as available in Washington? These 2 things are sure great egg savers, thus also more incentive to release native steelhead where harvestable. As for fishing slow deep water the real eggs will work better as the fish have more time to inspect them - feel and smell the real thing. I think they will not work as well on river kings for this reason, but I haven't tried them enough yet to know. And there are a variety of real fishy looking rubber things in the bass departments that are going to be taking steelies on the end of my line from now on. Pink worms are NOT the only thing that works well. Experiment out there - it will pay off!

[ 04-24-2001: Message edited by: RT ]