Steelhead Flies: Fact and Fiction |
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I would venture to guess, one of my most asked questions, the most misunderstood answers in steelhead flyfishing is; "So what is the hot fly?" Steelhead has an allure as an illegitimate son. His noble cousin Salmo Salar, the Atlantic Salmon has a rich and traditional past, fished by kings and nobleman. Steelhead was almost found by accident and early flyfishers knew very little of this great fish, behavior and life history. Hence, the same fish came to be viewed so differently by the northwest anglers that fish him. Meat anglers cast everything from gill nets to sand shrimp. And the outcome is the same. If he comes to shore, he dies. By contrast, you have the dry line flyfisher that only pursues his steelhead with surface presentations. Knows that his success could be limited but there in lies the challenge. He appreciates the finer things and chooses to fish in a style that pleases him. Prides himself on the fly that took twenty hours to tie. Kind of, Atlantic Salmon gone west. Both angling types perusing steelhead, each after an entirely different experience. When we get into the topic of "Fly Effectiveness", I always think of the words of the great Steelhead flyfishing pioneer, Roderick Haig-Brown. He said " It is good to remember there will be a lot more steelhead caught on a piece of yarn, than all the fanciest flies ever fished". This is sage advice, for the angler that comes to me, is looking to catch a steelhead, which means he is looking for a fly that will be successful, and assumes that some flies like lures, are more effective than others. He was hopefully assuming that the reason for his lack success to that point was, he is fishing with the wrong fly. Let me explain something. Flies don’t catch fish...people do. You see, the steelhead has a disposition just this side of a large mouth bass. If the lure or fly is presented well, and the steelhead is in the mood, he will hit just about anything! Does such a thing as a magic fly exist? Sorry, generally no. Can he prefer types and colors? Sometimes. My point here is not to lead you farther down the path of finding a "Mystery" fly, but rather to teach you to recognize a better constructed fly, coupled with better presentation and more confidence. I am reminded of an incidence that happened to me up on the North Fork Stilly. I was standing up on a high bank watching a pair of anglers fishing their way down through a popular run at Boulder Creek. The dozen or so steelhead holding here, looked absolutely mesmerized, literally frozen in place. These poor guys apparently had thrown everything but the kitchen sink at these fish to no avail. A small alder leaf happened to fall to the surface and tumbled in the current. A very nice hen just lifted to the surface, ate the leaf and coasted back down into her holding position. Now I am not advocating fishing with Alder leaves, but rather to make the point, its not the fly. My flies tend to reflect the parameters of the waters I fish. Seasons, water temperature, sexual maturity, (the fish silly, not me), lighting, water clarity, fishing pressure and presentation are but a few parameters that may dictate the fly I choose. Now, before you become overwhelmed, trying to compute all these variables into a logical decision let me simplify. For each river I fish, in a particular water condition, I will fish maybe two or three different fly patterns. Here is a general overview, but before we go there let me reemphasize....its not the fly. Early Season Native winter steelhead. The steelhead that swim our northwest waters in late winter are the large, wild, sexually maturing steelhead (even though he may be rock hard and nickel bright). He is a big brawly, aggressive steelhead. He enters when the rivers are generally running full, and the water is cold. A larger fly will not scare him. Number 2’s and 1/0 are about right. I like to fish flies that swim well. I tell my anglers if they ever loose confidence in the fly, just bring in next to them, and watch it play in the currents. A well balanced fly will look alive in the water. Unless I am fishing really dirty water, I believe that less is more. The greatest knock that I see with the guys that meet me on the river, is the flies they have bought or tied, are so overdressed, the thing looks more like a lure than a fly. Easy on the flash. I fish subtle colors like purple, maroon, and blue when the water is clear and bright and black colors when the water is off color. Stiff patterns like the General Practitioner, Poacher, Skunks, and other hair wings are good in the streamy currents that provide lots of action and a good silhouette of the bug. Marabou, bunny leeches, and speys are excellent in the softer flows. I pay particular attention to fly construction and I will admit, some of my ties area little unorthodox. Why? Because most flies are tied to please the angler. The fly I hand to a client, better please the fish. You see, different materials react differently in river currents. Marabou plays seductively in mild currents but tends to collapse to strong flows. Hair wing patterns show very little action in soft water, but maintain a great profile and a lively action in streamy flows. Fly construction is important. I am reminded of an experience on the Skykomish River some ten years ago. I used to spend my March guiding anglers there. It was catch and release, and the Sky fish enter early. I was fishing a couple gentlemen on this bar when I happened to look down and find a fly that had fallen off someone’s vest. (I personally think these patches are a flyshop conspiracy because there is a lot more flies lost from the drying patch than from the river). I am always curious of other angler ties and I picked it up. I could tell immediately it was from a serious flyfisher. This fly was tied on a 2/0 iron, traditional upturned eye hook. (I don’t like these because the angle of attack is wrong at the eye, and the diameter of the metal is too fat) This cagey guy answered both these problems by breaking off the eye and tying in his own braided loop eye. He had also filed his hook point down to a long taper edged on three sides. This guy was good. I then began to examine the fly for color and action. I noticed it was fairly sparsely tied and instead of the long webby marabou that is so popular, he used the shorter chickabou. The number one knock in materials like spey feathers and marabou is it fouls easily around the hook in the water. This kills the action of the fly. Any time you have a feather that extends beyond the bend of the hook, you risk fouling your material. Some of the most artsy twenty-hour flies, are poor fish producers because they foul in the water. What should you do? Get to know your material. Different fly materials react differently in river flows. I mentioned a couple characteristics of marabou. Bunny fur tends to pooch out, shlappen feathers breath nicely but can foul. I have swam many a fly (to my patients wife chagrin), in the bath tub, while the water is turned on. Works really well. If it will foul, it will do it here. I like to think of the fly in two parts. Any material tied at the rear end of the hook is not going to foul. That’s why most tarpon patterns are tied in this fashion. Epoxy bait fish flies carry a good silhouette but are anti fouling because of the material - it’s hard to the bend of the hook. You should realize that any free flowing material ahead of the hook bend can and will foul if it extends past the rear of the hook. Try the bathtub test. You can see what your flies are actually doing as you nose it up to the turbulent flow. Summer-Fall Steelhead Summer fish enter sexually immature. Rivers are generally dropping and clearing, and warming, and if you can find wild fish they can be very trouty and will come to both surface and subsurface presentations. Last year I was fishing in the North Fork canyon below Deer Creek, with my good friend Bill Jam. We were chasing Sea-run Cutthroat with moderate success in this one pool. Bill had already fished ahead with the bead head nymph taking several fish, so I decided to skate my version of a Fluttering Caddis on the surface. I had made several casts when a really big fish swirled at the fly as I tight lined it across the pool. This fish came at the fly only a few feet off the end of my rod tip and it kind of shocked me. "GEEZ!" I yelled. (Guides are not supposed to get surprised) Bill looked upstream at me. " That thing must have been 25"!" I exclaimed. (Now any SRC over 20" is considered a trophy and to raise it on a dry fly?.........Please.) Bill was gracious enough not to say anything. I had no more got the words out of my mouth and I was thinking "Now that was a pretty stupid thing to say." I did have sense enough to roll the fly back onto the water in the vicinity of the boil. I twitched the fly. The large trout rose to the surface about ten feet downstream of the fly, then bolted upstream and belly flopped on top of the fly! I lifted the rod. Zing goes the line and scream goes the Hardy. Moments later a beautiful Deer Creek native steelhead does a endo out over the water. Wild summer fish can be very aggressive. (Oh, and it was more like 27" .......just not the SRC I was expecting) When I am fishing flies in or on the surface, I like buggy things. Flies that imitate bugs in nature. Wakers and Skaters are my favorite, and lightly dressed speys and hair wings for subsurface. Colors are toned down a bit in summer use. For example, instead of a bright orange body that I might fish for winter fish, I may go with a burnt or a pale orange pattern. Summer colors for subsurface flies in greens and browns are great. Dead drifting nymphs can be deadly because the steelhead have been seeing them for the last several months and you are showing them something different than Joe angler is fishing. Finally, show them something different. The popular Blue/Purple marabou that you see in the shops today, is a fly I developed on the early days of the Sauk River. There was a goodly number of gear fisherman throwing the tradition colors of orange and Flor. green in those days. Flyfishing winter fish was new. Even the most ardent flyfishers would choose their gear rods over their fly rods at this time. I happened to notice that when the water was clear a guide buddy of mine did very well with a blue Hot Shot plug. Now that was different. I simply copied the color combination in a marabou pattern. To this day, if I don’t mention what fly to start with, many of my long time clients will fish the blue/purple. Why? Shows the steelhead something different. Will steelhead show preferences in color and construction. Yup, but most times if you simply look for a fly that swims well for the waters you are fishing, with just enough color to get his attention, fish it well, and Mr. Steelhead will do the rest. Best of fishing Dennis |
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