Justin Whitlock
Steelhead
So I am beginning to get into swinging flies for steelhead.. could you guys give me any recommendations for some good go to flies? Not asking for your "secret" fly.. just some basics. Appreciate it fellas!
Steelhead Flies
- Thread starter Justin Whitlock
- Start date
Winter or summer?
Pretty sure there's no such thing as a secret fly for steelhead, I'd worry more about your technique (although no major secrets there either). You could tie on a black wooly bugger and catch a ton of summer or winter fish. I'm not saying everyone doesn't have their favorites (I'm no different)...
Rob Allen
Life of the Party
This
That's a really solid top 3 for summer.
Randy Taylor
Steelhead
Lady Caroline
Golden Demon
Rogue Red Ant
Green Butt Skunk
Burlap
Brindle Bug
Silver Hilton
Purple Peril
Sunrise/Sunset
Nymphs:
Black Stonefly
Golden Stonefly
Prince Nymph
Etc.
These will get you started.anyone of them work well here on the Rogue River,in Southern
Oregon........
Golden Demon
Rogue Red Ant
Green Butt Skunk
Burlap
Brindle Bug
Silver Hilton
Purple Peril
Sunrise/Sunset
Nymphs:
Black Stonefly
Golden Stonefly
Prince Nymph
Etc.
These will get you started.anyone of them work well here on the Rogue River,in Southern
Oregon........
Grandpa Jim
Steelhead
For winter I like unweighted articulated flies:
HoBo Spey
Foxee Dog
Suskwa Poacher - the steelhead in my picture was my 1st on a swung fly and ate this fly
You can swing all these flies in close to the bank.
HoBo Spey
Foxee Dog
Suskwa Poacher - the steelhead in my picture was my 1st on a swung fly and ate this fly
You can swing all these flies in close to the bank.
8mm bead.
Just kidding.
The Suskwa Poacher has been very good for me this winter, both on a shank and an Alec Jackson iron.
The Hohbo Spey with some variation has gotten a couple, too.
After that, it's anything marabou as long as it incorporates some black, blue, and/or purple. YMMV.
Just kidding.
The Suskwa Poacher has been very good for me this winter, both on a shank and an Alec Jackson iron.
The Hohbo Spey with some variation has gotten a couple, too.
After that, it's anything marabou as long as it incorporates some black, blue, and/or purple. YMMV.
Same type of muddler you’d use for Cutthroat?
I'm curious about what you mean by this. We are, after all, talking about flies for a fish known to rise to cigarette butts and filters. Is the difference in regards to aesthetics and eye appeal to the angler? Or functional differences, like not tying a bucktail wing longer than the bend of the hook so as to prevent it from twisting around the hook? Or that steelhead accept and reject fly offferings based on construction methods and proportions of body to tail and or wing?
When I first began fly fishing for steelhead I thought I had to tie flies using the exact same materials tied in the exact same proportions as my study flies, or the steelhead would not bite the fly I presented them. I couldn't have been more wrong. When I noticed that bait anglers were catching steelhead with a piece of red or orange yarn on a hook, I re-thought my approach to tying steelhead flies. Now you have me wondering 50 years later if I was missing something.
I agree. In my personal experience, it's usually about annoying/antagonizing them into biting.
If the water is too dirty and blown, I have had success with a Dirty Hoh. Big, bright, and moves a lot.
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brownheron
corvus ossifragus
All of the above are great and I get a ton of personal pleasure and sense of accomplishment by tying them well. And that's what's important because as Salmo above noted, the steelhead probably don't care nearly as much as I do and a strip of rabbit lashed to a hook is probably just fine in most cases.
Two-minute egg sucking leech - super easy steelhead 'guide fly' that probably works as well as anything. Tied on hook or (my preference) tube:
1) Orange bead at the top of your hook
2) Tie in thread at the top and lay in a base layer of thread to the bend (or back of tube)
3) Firmly tie in back rabbit strip at the bend of the hook (or back of tube)
4) Palmer formard and tie off at the bead (or front of tube)
Should take 2 minutes and minimal materials when one has tied a few. If tying on a tube, skip the first step and put on an orange bead at the end as normal with tube flies. Adapt per your sense of aesthetics with diff colors, collars, flash...
One of mine on a tube that I tie in bulk at the beginning of a season. Only difference is a couple strands of flash added and pinch of dubbing when tying off which turns it into a 3min tie but I'm slow.
Two-minute egg sucking leech - super easy steelhead 'guide fly' that probably works as well as anything. Tied on hook or (my preference) tube:
1) Orange bead at the top of your hook
2) Tie in thread at the top and lay in a base layer of thread to the bend (or back of tube)
3) Firmly tie in back rabbit strip at the bend of the hook (or back of tube)
4) Palmer formard and tie off at the bead (or front of tube)
Should take 2 minutes and minimal materials when one has tied a few. If tying on a tube, skip the first step and put on an orange bead at the end as normal with tube flies. Adapt per your sense of aesthetics with diff colors, collars, flash...
One of mine on a tube that I tie in bulk at the beginning of a season. Only difference is a couple strands of flash added and pinch of dubbing when tying off which turns it into a 3min tie but I'm slow.
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Why are people always so upset about this particular fly? I’ve seen a lot of hate for it online and people trashing it as not “pure” fly fishing. When I think of “pure” fly fishing, I think “match the hatch” and if that is the case then there never was any such thing as “pure” fly fishing for anadromous fish
Grandpa Jim
Steelhead
Mid-March on an upper OP river I hiked into the head of a newly created run. There was a deep, soft eddy in front of me with the main current seam 20' out. A white movement caught my eye in the pool. As I stood still I realized that it was a very big colored up male steelhead with some mold on it's back. Motionless, I watched it swim in and out of vision for several minutes. Then it came up to the surface 6' in front of me to swirl at a small piece of wood floating in the current.
I stood there amazed for a few seconds, then turned and left the pool without wetting a line.
Who knows what makes these fish tick? Why do they grab a mass of feathers that swings across the current...let alone metal flashing in the shape of a spinner or a spoon? I understand why they might grab a fish egg floating along in the current, but what about an artificial one that is 16-20 mm in diameter and looks like a cherry? When do you see a hot pink earthworm floating in the river, or a black one with a chartreuse tail? Steelhead definitely grab those...
It's all part of the mystery and fun in fishing for these creatures.
As for me, I'm happy that lightening occasionally strikes and one of these amazing fish will grab the "flavor of the day" I'm offering.
Agree it's mostly a game of finding aggressive biters vs fly selection. And yet, something in me rebels against "absolutes" in any fishing, so I fought this idea for years before finally accepting it as a more or less fact. Especially within the context of winter fishing.
With summer fish, this "fact" gets a bit fuzzier with lower, clearer, warmer water conditions. At least on the SWW rivers I fished extensively in the late 70's through the early 90's. I've seen fish spook at a #4 purple bugger. Then come back a half hour later, find the same fish in the same lie, and eat something smaller and more subtle like a #8 burlap. But again, these are exceptions to what is normally a game of searching for players.
As a counter-point for reference sake, I am convinced there is one true exception to "pattern doesn't matter" mantra. That is still water steelhead.
I spent the better part of a decade down that rabbit hole. Like any fishing there are times they're willing to play, and others not so much. Too many times though, changing pattern turned the day from casting practice to grilled summer-run fillets for dinner. There are a plenty of other factors to this fishery, but picking the right fly does matter. Small variations in size, color, profile, movement can make all the difference. Mostly sparsely tied leech-type patterns and soft hackles. All with some marabou in black, purple, various shades of red, and nothing larger than #8. I haven't done much lake fishing for trout but wouldn't be shocked if my still water steelhead box would catch fish.
With summer fish, this "fact" gets a bit fuzzier with lower, clearer, warmer water conditions. At least on the SWW rivers I fished extensively in the late 70's through the early 90's. I've seen fish spook at a #4 purple bugger. Then come back a half hour later, find the same fish in the same lie, and eat something smaller and more subtle like a #8 burlap. But again, these are exceptions to what is normally a game of searching for players.
As a counter-point for reference sake, I am convinced there is one true exception to "pattern doesn't matter" mantra. That is still water steelhead.
I spent the better part of a decade down that rabbit hole. Like any fishing there are times they're willing to play, and others not so much. Too many times though, changing pattern turned the day from casting practice to grilled summer-run fillets for dinner. There are a plenty of other factors to this fishery, but picking the right fly does matter. Small variations in size, color, profile, movement can make all the difference. Mostly sparsely tied leech-type patterns and soft hackles. All with some marabou in black, purple, various shades of red, and nothing larger than #8. I haven't done much lake fishing for trout but wouldn't be shocked if my still water steelhead box would catch fish.
I got one fish this winter on a swung sz. 5 march brown. I've swung egg sucking leeches and marabou stuff in different patterns and colors without much success for a while. It's not really my forte, and I'm pretty sure I wasn't getting/fishing deep enough. I read a piece by Zen Piscador a while back about fishing for steelhead. He talked about them reacting to flies that they would have been familiar with when they were juveniles when they get this far from the ocean. I had much better luck this year with the nymphs and eggs I was using for whitefish, even a couple of days hooking 2-3 fish an hour, which I've never done that well before.
