Steelhead Flies

[Pink Nighty]

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.

I was lucky enough to fish with Andy several years ago. Far and away the fishiest person I've ever been around. Spooky good.

 

[Tom Butler]

I was lucky enough to fish with Andy several years ago. Far and away the fishiest person I've ever been around. Spooky good.

I would have liked to have met him when he lived here. After a bit of experience, then reading stuff by guys like him (and @Tim Lockhart on the lakes), and a lot of people here really, it helps put random pieces/experiences/observations together into an effective strategy.

 

[Pink Nighty]

I would have liked to have met him when he lived here. After a bit of experience, then reading stuff by guys like him (and @Tim Lockhart on the lakes), and a lot of people here really, it helps put random pieces/experiences/observations together into an effective strategy.

He was a friend of my wife's in high school, and my former sous chef knew him as well. I spent years hearing about how Andy had taken my sous chef out for his first time fishing (let alone fly fishing) and he had hooked 3 steelhead. I spent a long time hating my sous chef.

Andy took my wife and I down the klick for the single best day of catching I've ever experienced. Here they are with her first steelhead ever. She actually got it on a stone fly nymph, not the bead, which is a distinction she takes pride in.

 

[SurfnFish]

As a purist, have low tolerence for steelhead fisherman who do not spend time scrutinizing acquatic activity to properly match the hatch

 

[Tom Butler]

He was a friend of my wife's in high school, and my former sous chef knew him as well. I spent years hearing about how Andy had taken my sous chef out for his first time fishing (let alone fly fishing) and he had hooked 3 steelhead. I spent a long time hating my sous chef.

Andy took my wife and I down the klick for the single best day of catching I've ever experienced. Here they are with her first steelhead ever. She actually got it on a stone fly nymph, not the bead, which is a distinction she takes pride in.

View attachment 64430

Thanks for some background. Sorry for the thread drift.
I guess to get back on topic, the swung march brown did work on day that it would have been appropriate for the fish to recognize the fly. All the old standards are such because they usually work, but knowing something about where you are and time of year other fly choices may be just the ticket.

 

[Grayone]

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 think Mills was speaking about flys that catch steelhead fishermen.

 

[Millsfly]

I think Mills was speaking about flys that catch steelhead fishermen.

ding ding.....it's fly tyingabation....self aggrandizement at it's finest!

 

[speedbird]

I think Mills was speaking about flys that catch steelhead fishermen.

Like 90% of my Steelhead fly box is flies I bought because they looked cool or had interesting history

 

[Millsfly]

Like 90% of my Steelhead fly box is flies I bought because they looked cool or had interesting history

I think a big reason why i tie so many steelhead flies revolves around the history of our sport, what the OG guys and gals did and my interpretation of where to go from there. The form and function is pure art, what it does in the water, so on and so forth. Staring at flies from the HL, Glasso, Combs, McMillen, etc and I love the subtle twists and turns of what they do...and so much translating from the Atlantic Salmon history.

That's my why, and when a fish jumps on for a ride, I mentally tip my cap to our collective history

 

[notaspeyguy]

This is a post I did on another forum with almost the same question...thought some of it may apply

Remember, winter steelhead are typically not hungry, they are territorial because they just came into this cramped river after swimming around in the wide open ocean AND they're full of love hormones AND they are competing for space...these big flowy flies we use are invaders (that's why they're called Intruders) in their space and they lash out to protect their little personal bubble....
Summer steelhead are different, they come into the river in spring/summer sexually immature and actively hunt and eat all summer before joining the winter crowd to spawn

PATTERNS
If I fished intruders, that's ALL I would fish in every color/shape variation possible. They're too hard to cast on my 7 wt switch. One of my buddies is a rabid INTRUDER ONLY fisherman and banks several fish every year. He has multiple large boxes full of flies! And, he fishes/ties/loses flies more than we even think about it.
Another buddy is a wooly bugger freak...winter, summer and salmon season...tie a bright dubbing ball on the front of a black or purple sz 2 bugger...good one

Try spraying your flies with a UV enhancer or marking them with a permanent blacklight pen
*I may have let the cat out on this one...

Secret of success? Intruders are big, colorful, and have lots if boogie!!! Upsize for low visibility, downsize for high visibility...Bright day, bright fly/dark day, dark fly...basic but important

That said, I've found success with bright/dark bunny leeches (sz 2, 7/64" beadhead, cactus chenille body, zonker strip wing), Early/late season, thread on a soft 6mm bead in front of a black bunny leech and hang on!

Clouser Minnows...pink/white, red/white, purple/white (sz 2-1/0, 3" long, longish shank hook or shank/trailer with heavy eyes)

Large (sz 2-1/0) Matuka style flies in bright and dark colors tied with feathers and/or zonker strips...

All with plenty of color contrast and movement.

Classics (in sz 2-1/0, heavy irons) like Winter's Hope, Green Butt Skunk, Purple Peril, Street Walker, etc. have and do produce. One trouble with the classic flies is that they perform best when unweighted and are hard to get them down to the fish. I have weighted them with beadheads and wire where legal with some success but sink tips/poly leaders are king.

COLORS
Think about adding some flash, hot pink or cerise, chartreuse and kingfisher blue into your bright day rotation and do some black/purple, black/blue, solid black patterns for our typical PNW winter days ... for your hackle prop use a hot spot (bright bead, dubbing ball, cactus chenille, etc.) for added contrast. Color contrast within your pattern is key. Also, colors like red and orange disappear at the shallowist depths...blues, purples and hot pinks continue to reflect light up to 12 feet deep in our steelhead green water even on cloudy days.

MATERIALS
Movement, flowiness and sparseness are key!!
If you keep it cheap like I do (I lose lots of flies) use materials like marabou, schlappen, rabbit zonker strips (1/8" move best), sili legs and whole, thin dry fly hackle feathers (I've used decorative hair feathers too, decent replacements for rhea fibers), cactus chenille, arctic fox tail, finn racoon, bucktail, flashabou, dubbing, hard and soft beads, dumbell eyes, weight wire, etc.

Winter steelheading can be compared to gambling...don't take any flies to the river that you're not willing to lose. By that, I mean you should be fishing within a foot of the bottom and snagging logs, rocks, grass, etc. is often the result. That means lost gear...There are multiple ways to accomplish depth... weighting your fly, using sink tips/ploy leaders or tying flies on heavy wire hooks and fishing on long mono leaders.

Sorry for the long post...Hope you find some of it useful!!

PM me and I can offer more info or I can mine my buddies for info

Cheers!!!