MADISON, Ohio - Drifting spawn-bags for steelhead trout, to the uninitiated, may seem no more complicated than bobber-fishing for bluegills. Kids' stuff.

True, a whippy steelhead “noodle rod,” at 101/2 feet, is as long as a cane pole. But please don't call the slip-float - actually a sophisticated, well-engineered design - a mere “bobber,” like the familiar red/white ball used in youth fishing derbies.

“I'm a hard-core steelheader,” states Bruce Dickerson, a guide and tackle-shop owner from Fairport Harbor. “I like to catch fish.”

And he has the catching down to a science, right to using fluorocarbon line on his leaders. The stuff, though expensive, is “unbelievably invisible,” the guide notes. He uses eight-pound test, low-visibility line on his spinning reels.

In the first minutes on the stream, Dickerson also will remind you to mend the line - leave no belly lying on the water - and to crank in any slack. “Stay in touch with the float.” If a steelie takes the bait, you have to be immediately ready to set the hook smartly to accommodate the limberness of the noodle rod.

The guide's statements are his way of explaining, during a day in Lake County steelhead haunts, his preference for drifting spawn-bags - tiny sacks of steelhead or salmon eggs - and other baits (maggots, even nightcrawlers, on occasion). Bait-drifting, day in and day out, simply catches more steelhead under a wider range of conditions than drifting artificial flies for them on fly-fishing tackle.

Not that Dickerson is averse to flyrodding, either. “When the fish get up in the skinny water (smaller tributaries), then I use a flyrod.”

In “crystal-crystal” water, he uses flies as small as No. 14 and No. 16 in such popular patterns as sucker spawn, egg, lead-headed Tellico, zug bug, gold-ribbed hare's ear, and pheasant-tail and prince nymphs. Most of the flies are tied with weighted bead-style heads.

But back to Dickerson's favored technique, drifting spawn. On a day on the rivers of northeast Ohio last week, during Lake County's annual Steelhead Classic Week, the guide hooked up on a five-pound, winter-red steelhead male on his very first cast of the morning.

After beaching the fish and admiring it, we released it, figuring on many more fish during the day. As it turned out, we landed our next fish at 3 p.m. after hours of casting and drifting, untangling snarls (noodle rods take some getting used to), hiking and wading long stretches of stream, and “rolling” fish (a take but no hookup) and losing hooked fish.

Nobody ever said steelheading is a snap. On the other hand, sometimes it can be so. Witness some other angling friends, same day, who fished with flies in upper tributary streams such as Mill Creek. They landed about 20 fish the same day we worked hard to land two. Sometimes you decide to zig and the steelhead decide to zag.

Lake County is the heart of stream steelheading in Ohio, with two of the four major steelhead streams, the Chagrin and Grand rivers, flowing through it. The other major streams are Conneaut Creek in neighboring Ashtabula County, and Rocky River, west of Cleveland, in Cuyahoga County.

The Grand River, in fact, is listed as one of the top 10 steelhead fishing destinations in the country in the In-Fisherman's “Angling Adventures 2000” special edition.

Ohio steelhead average 20 to 25 inches and weigh 3 to 6 pounds, although some fish may push 30 inches and 9 to 10 pounds. An occasional trophy in the 15-pound-plus class also may turn up.

The Ohio Division of Wildlife stocks around 400,000 steelhead a year in the four streams, and the fish run all the way up into their lesser tributary creeks as well until they virtually run out of water. All of northeast's Lake Erie tributaries, however, have runs of steelhead - some of the first do not imprint well on their home stream and they wander. In fact, steelhead many be found occasionally in any Lake Erie tributary, including those in northwest Ohio.

Stream conditions - flow, water clarity, and so on - are critical to steelhead angling success. Stream visibility of 21/2 to 3 feet is excellent for bait-drifting,” Dickerson noted. “Emerald green (water) is ideal.”

So he notes that it is important to call ahead to area bait shops and other sources for current conditions, especially if you do not live next door. Fish already in the river for spawning may move upstream or downstream, depending on flow, temperature, and clarity.

“You can waste a lot of time fishing unproductive water because you don't know it,” Dickerson noted. Some stretches of stream, for example, look ideal with runs and riffles, but their flat shale bottoms will hold no fish. “You have to know where the holes are.”

Too, he added, “you can shorten your steelhead training period by a year by hiring a guide.” Most guides in the region charge about $125 a day for one or two anglers. They can be contacted through tackle shops.

Dickerson advises fishing with a partner or two, this for safety sake in the cold, fast streams if not for the camaraderie. “You should never fish alone, especially wading, unless you plan on standing on the bank.”

For more information about steelheading in Lake County and other northeast Ohio venues, contact the Lake County Visitors Bureau, 1-800-368-LAKE.

A Lake County Metroparks map, which outlines fishing access sites and details on renting two well-equipped, scenic cabins, are available from the parks at 440-639-7275.

To check on stream conditions and steelhead activity on the Grand and Chagrin rivers, or Conneaut Creek and other streams east of Cleveland, call Grand River Tackle in Fairport Harbor, 440-352-7222, or D&W Bait in Painesville, 440-354-8473.

For conditions on Rocky River west of Cleveland, call L&D Bait and Tackle in Lakewood, 216-226-FISH, or the Rodmakers Shoppe in Strongsville, 440-572-0400.

Steve Pollick is The Blade's outdoor writer. E-mail him at spollick@theblade.com.

First Published March 25, 2001, 11:42 a.m.