Curtis, you are one special kid if you think that you have to use 8 lb leader in the winter, or the fish will bypass your offerings!! =) Granted it is more sporting, but just think about it, in my opinion you could have fished 20# leader, hooked 4 fish instead of 5 on a bad day, and went home with your limit of "12-14#" fish... 12# I would say you would greatly benefit from, or at least your freezer would!
Bump it up a notch!

Curtis,
If you are fishing summer runs in low clear water with a #2 or #4 hook and a little dab of eggs or a little piece of shrimp, going with light line and leader might produce a few more hits. But Steelhead aren't normally leader shy.

A good rule of thumb is to go light when conditions are such that you need to go with a very small bait.

Keep after them! You are doing great!

Looks like 7 pounds, but it also looks like you took the picture after it was gutted. I've caught big fish and took pictures after they were gutted and I was always disappointed. It takes about 20% of the "bulk" off a fish. That would make an 11 pound fish look about 8. And the longer they've been dead the smaller they start looking on the pics. Notice the pic on the bottom looks 2 pounds heavier then the top pics.
Buy a scale. I keep mine in my tackle box.

Congrats on your fish, anything over 3 pounds right now is worth cheering about. Sooooo dang slooow.

Curtis,
Just a little more about leader strength. Like I said above, Steelhead aren't normally leader shy. But even if they did pay attention to the leader, the visibility of the leader varies with its diameter,and its' strength varies with the square of its' radius.

8# Maxima is .010 inch in diameter.
12# Maxima is .013 inch in dameter.

So the diameter of 8# Maxima is 77% of the diameter of 12# Maxima.

The theoretical visibility of 8# Maxima is only 23% less than 12# Maxima. But by going from 8# Maxima leader to 12# Maxima leader you gain 50% in strength.

Curtis go with your 8# when the water is gin clear and kick it up when the water clowds up you can't go rong on light line as we are suposed to be in it for the sport and 5 hookups vrs 2-3 with heavy leader, I will take the greater number of hookups.

You're going to wish you had a 12# leader when one of those 16+lb nates grab your [Bleeeeep!]... I almost always fish stright 12 in the winter and hook the same amount of fish as straight 8.. The only steelhead that are line shy are those that are being beat on by other anglers.

If you are fishing higher or slightly colored water stick to the 12#.

Keith

nice catch and good report. Rivers up north apparently are doing much better than down this aways.

If that fish is 12 pounds, then by that ratio I'd be a 300lb offensive lineman (I'm actually 180, get the point)

Got a steelhead to take a medium sized corky today in 8" of water gin clear with a 16" 25# leader with double #1 gammies.. You'll never convince me now that switching to 12 will impact that much =) landed two others and lost one in the same water conditions, only a little deeper water...

Nice work curtis, If it makes you feel any better Im out there tossing 8lb too.

T-Bird-Did you allready accept you're going to hell? that pic. is horrible.....yet I cant help but laugh

Between hitting a fawn this year with my truck, just 15 minutes after my buddy decided to shoot a rabbit, that ended up being a baby bunny (missed it but scared the hell out of it), the 16 1/2" steelhead that was bleeding when I landed it the other day, and that pic, I not only realize I am going to hell, but I already have my things packed! =) Tank top and flip flops! ha.. I know it's horrible tho.. But from the same point of view you expressed, ya can't help but laugh.. =) Maybe not out loud, but rolling on the inside!

Nice going Curtis! At least somebody out there is knockin'em!
At my old job we held winter Steelhead derby's every year for HATCHERY fish only. During that time I have weighed well over a couple hundered fish from all around western Washington. 99.9 percent of the time a fish that wasn't spawned out (yes dudes brought those in too) weighed within a half a pound of the the length.
By that I mean 29 inches was nine pound,30 inches was 10 poounds, 32 inches was 12 pounds ect....
We had to turn in this info to the state for all fish entered, we never measured girth.
Keep up the good work! All hatchery fish should die!

That's the rule we have always followed Reiter, thanks for confirming it.,

RM

Nice fish, Curtis.

My personal "big fish" alarm doesn't go off until the steelie is at least 36". Even than, a 36" fish will be in the low to mid teens, depending on girth.

Anything getting close to the 40" fires off the "20 Pounder" alarm.

My 27 pound steelhead was 42".

40" seems to be the good magical number for me. I'm always trying to get a fish bigger than 40".

Again, nice fish though. I'd rather catch *anything* than have to stat at home and not fish. I'm jealous.

I like the 8lb too. Curt, that fish looks like the one you told me would not be a keeper at Kanasket. Looks pretty dark, just my opinion, at least you are catching some.

So I am curious, I am pretty new to steelheading and have only caught a few. My question is was this fish bigger at some point? The size of the Tail makes me think it either had some serious growing to do or it lost some weight.

All and all I am very jealous, you seem to do a great job getting into fish.

It's real hard to estimate the size of a fish in a pic. A fish will look bigger with a little guy holding it and smaller with a big guy holding it.

And the inch per pound rule only holds true for "middle size" fish. A 32 inch fish weighs around 11 to 12 pounds. A 31 inch fish goes 10 to 11 pounds. Get to the "big hog" size and an extra inch weighs more than one pound. Get down to the 24 inch size and an inch difference won't make a pound difference.

slamin,

you have never hooked a steelhead before, that fish is over 8lbs. Also the fish we saw at kanasket was spawn out with mold on the head, none of the fish I caught this season are spawners yet(no loose eggs or milt). The fish looked alot better when it was hooked 10 hours before the picture.