Why steelhead roe?

[camillj]

I prefer brown roe

[solopaddler]

Artificials work incredibly well...I use them all the time, but nothing beats properly presented fresh roe(most of the time).

To me the question isn't rainbow, brown or salmon roe vs artificials, it's fresh skein vs loose eggs.

Properly preserved fresh skeined eggs will usually outfish loose eggs especially in the colder waters of late fall, winter and early spring.

They're much softer and "milk" out more scent than loose eggs.

Whether it's salmon scrape in early September, brown skein in October, or rainbow skein in Feb/Mar, it's all good and very deadly.

Sometimes you need to use the messy, yucky jam .

Obviously you need to harvest a fish to aquire skein, but personally I NEVER do it from a stream that has wild fish.

I catch enough clippers in other places to supply my roe needs.