Steel River

The Steel is one of the north shore rivers that steelhead anglers drive Highway 17 for. Below Santoy Lake it runs a short, steep course through bedrock and boulder runs to Lake Superior, about 15 km east of Terrace Bay as the crow flies. Lake-run rainbows push in from the lake in late April, peak in mid-May and keep coming into June, and they can climb as far as the Golden Staircase at Santoy Lake's outflow. Drop-back fish that have spawned feed hard on their way out in late May and June. Coaster brook trout work the shoreline off the mouth from mid-May into summer.

It is a wading river, with pools strung between rapids. Steelhead rest in the soft water between long rapids and in the seams behind boulders, so read the water and fish the slots, not the white water. A bead-head nymph with an egg pattern behind it, drifted near the bottom, is the standard north shore rig on an 8 weight. Swing streamers for drop-backs. The water stays ice cold well into June, so wear insulated waders, and expect slick bedrock and fast water. The gauge below Santoy Lake reads the river's flow. A spring freshet that runs high and coloured is hard to fish, and the river comes into shape as it drops and clears.

The pools at the Highway 17 bridge are the community holes, and when the run is on a dozen anglers can line one pool. Walk upstream or down on the angler trails and you will usually find room. Rainbows are one a day on a sport licence and none on a conservation licence, and a brook trout must be over 56 cm to keep, so most fish here go back. Above Santoy Lake the Steel is a canoe route in a provincial waterway park with no facilities. Terrace Bay and Marathon have motels and gas, and there is little else between them.