Backtrolling plugs has become somewhat of a lost art with the recent explosion of side drifting, but if you want to put trophy steelhead in the boat plugs are still the way to go. Plugs accounted for the majority of the truly humongous metalhawgs I put my customers into over the years because they are invasive and they stay in the steelies view long enough to piss them off.
After fourteen years of guiding for winter steelhead you'd think I'd have dozens of color combos for all the different situations that we face on the river, but that's hardly the case. Over that span of time and thousands of days on the water I honed my plug selection down to just six colors. Perhaps I'd use a different plug design in different situations, but in the end these six colors found their way to the top of my plug box and they stayed there.
Jim Visbeek caught this high 20's Skagit System buck on a pink Tadpolly
Orange
Bright colors really seem to piss off fresh-from-the-salt territorial winter steelhead. Winter steelhead hit the river sexually mature and there’s just something about bright colors, like orange, that drive them into hammering a plug. Orange works great in off colored water, low light conditions, and in combination with both silver and gold in medium flows.
Pink
Like orange, pink works great in off colored water or low light situations and really strokes wild winter steelhead when water temperatures get over 42 degrees. Pink is a great all around color for winter steelhead in both off colored water and on bright sunny days when water temperatures start creeping up.
Silver
On bright sunny days it’s tough to beat the flash of a silver plug in clear water. Used in combination with other colors, silver gives off enough flash to attract a lethargic steelheads attention during the frigid days of winter.
Gold
Gold and its cousin, Copper, work especially well in low and clear water fishing over pressured fish that have been in the river for a while. While gold still gives off plenty of flash, it’s subtle enough to keep from spooking steelhead wise to the plastic wiggler. Gold plugs can also be dressed up to look like other space invading fish that steelhead don’t want in the kitchen.
Green
Green is a subtle color that works great in low and clear water or on pressured steelhead. It works especially well on overcast days or in combination with silver on sunny days.
Blue
Like green, blue is another subtle color that fools pressured steelhead in low and clear water. Used in combination with silver it works great in medium to low flows and it really strokes steelhead during the summer months.
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