I know a lot of anglers, many of whom would rather fish than eat, sleep or whatever, and rarely go more than a week or two between fishing trips.

John Breedlove, however, is in a class by himself. Fishing to Breedlove is one of life’s necessities. It helps sustain him. It’s like the air in his lungs and the food in his belly.

He is perhaps the gold standard for the man who lives to fish. And when it comes to fishing, he immerses himself in the phenomenal steelhead trout of Lake Erie.

Breedlove is knowledgeable and skilled at catching a variety of fish species close to home in Girard. His focus has included walleyes and bass. But over the past 10 years, steelhead have clearly won his heart and soul.

I asked him, “Why steelhead?”

“When I was growing up, we watched a TV show about Bill Saiff salmon fishing up in Ontario and I remember how impressed I was with how hard they fought,” Breedlove said. “I can look back on the very first steelhead I ever caught. It was years ago in the ‘bubble’ at the end of Route 11 in Ashtabula in the middle of February.

“Every year, I start looking forward in the summer to the fall when the steelhead start moving back into the rivers out of Lake Erie.”

The allure of the steelhead, long known as the fat and sassy rainbow trout that returned to the rivers of America’s Pacific Northwest, from northern California to Alaska, is that steelhead were exotic, almost untouchable fish for anglers who grew up in northeastern Ohio’s steel towns.

“We knew they ran hard, jumped high and were in waters far from home,” said Breedlove, who grew up in Girard. Now one of the authorities of trolling for steelhead, Breedlove still thrills at the hard-fighting rainbows that feast all summer on the great schools of baitfish in the depths of Lake Erie.

“They are the most acrobatic fish I know. My passion for steelhead is directly proportional to the reel’s screaming drag.”

He also enjoys the complexities of steelhead fishing.

“We always have different variables in the lake and harbor. Some days the water is clear, some days it’s cloudy. You have to figure it out and pick the right lures and colors. When you do that, you have accomplished something and that’s the reward for me.

“I compare a lot with my friend John LaCava. He’ll tell me he’s been thinking about something during the week and then tries it on the weekend and it works. That’s really a lot of the fun.”

Breedlove owns two boats. One is his spring and summer rig, a Skeeter bass boat with a big Yamaha power plant. The other-you guessed it-is his fall and winter steelhead boat, an aluminum 17-foot Sea Nymph with a 40-hp mercury troll-control tiller handle.

You’ll see Breedlove in the warm weather mostly on Mosquito Lake, where he enjoys great fishing for largemouth bass. He’s pretty good with topwaters, spinnerbaits and Senkos. Bass fishing winds his clock May through August.

But after Labor Day, just when the bass fishing is coming alive again after weeks in the summer doldrums, Breedlove puts the Skeeter away and drags out his Sea Nymph.

His destinations of choice once fall is in the air are the river mouths and break waters at Lake Erie harbor towns Ashtabula and Conneaut.

Breedlove is the specialists’ specialist. Anglers target steelhead with a variety of tactics, including fly fishing, drifting jigs, live bait and spawn sacks, casting spinners and spoons, and trolling plugs and spoons.

He’s a troller. But not just any troller. He has perfected his trolling into an art form that produces more steelhead than any reasonable angler might expect to catch. I’ve seen him in action. He’s the complete package when it comes to trolling for Erie trout.

Why trolling?

“As steelhead became more popular in Ohio, more people were wading in the rivers. Every now and then we get into conflicts in the crowded areas. I figured there’s gotta be a way of getting away from the crowds. Trolling is it for me. When I am at work (at Liberty Steel) I’m standing all day, so it’s nice to sit down and relax when I’m fishing. I’m constantly looking at the water and the sonar and trying the whole array of colors and styles.”

The spectacular strikes make the work worthwhile.

“Their speed and how they jump and how hard they pull. It’s all just incredible.

Breedlove also loves talking about fishing. He’s found the perfect opportunity to share his know-how through his part-time job at Bass Pro Shops in Niles.

“I tell people I get paid to talk about fishing.”

Jack Wollitz is the author of “The Common Angler,” a book about the “why” that drives anglers. He likes readers’ emails. jackbbaass@gmail.com.