Starting to fill up my Steelhead flybox

[McIntyre]

Still many month until the salmon season starts, and a couple of more months before my first steelhead trip. But it's better to get started tying early, so here is my first flies that will take place in my steelhead flybox.

The first flies had to be spey and dee type flies. Maybe that egg sucking leach is more effective, but if I'm gonna catch steelhead, I'm gonna do it with a nice looking fly. When looking on fly patterns from PNW flytiers purple is a color that oftens is used in the flies. Based on that I guess purple is a color which the steelhead favorize. So the first two flies had to be with purple as the main color. The first one is an experimental Dee fly with argus wings, the next is a spey type pattern. Both of them with purple marabou as hackle. The third fly is a chartreuse spey pattern. I know for salmon that this color is good in bright weather, and I guess that the steelhead also know this as well as the salmon :D

[Jamey McLeod]

Very nice. If I were a steelhead, I would be proud to be hooked on one of those.

[sinktip]

Anything but the ESL! Steelhead deserve better.

Some nice looking patterns Oddbjorn! Purple is a good color and one of my favorites but black is probably fished more than any other. Combinations of orange and red also work well. As do blues, greens and oh yes, pinks. Steelhead are not too picky when it comes to color.

[MJC]

Nice ties! Those flies would be great were you coming to the Clearwater. Leave those ESLs and sinktips at home. :smokin:

[Philster]

Nice ties! Those flies would be great were you coming to the Clearwater. Leave those ESLs and sinktips at home. :smokin:

I wouldn't travel halfway around the globe without sinktips... Or ESLs for that matter. Gotta have bullets for the gun! :D

[MJC]

I wouldn't travel halfway around the world without sinktips either but if McIntyre should decide to come to the Clearwater during the time frame of his trip I can't foresee him needing them.
I personally wouldn't waste space in my flybox for ESLs but to each his own.
Yes, I do sell them. :smokin:

[Philster]

I wouldn't travel halfway around the world without sinktips either but if McIntyre should decide to come to the Clearwater during the time frame of his trip I can't foresee him needing them.
I personally wouldn't waste space in my flybox for ESLs but to each his own.
Yes, I do sell them. :smokin:

I guess the open-mindedness in your sig line only applies to fly delivery, not what fly is delivered :D

Intruder= 10 minutes and 8 ingredients some of which are expensive or require pre-processing

Lead eye ESL= under 3 minutes and 5 "you always have them on hand cheap a**" ingredients counting the lead eyes.

Going on a month long or longer trip... I always have room for some ESLs.

[Jamey McLeod]

Is that Amherst for the tail, can't see the black tips if it is?

[MJC]

I am very open minded. As I said, "to each his own". I have absolutely no problem if "you" want to pack around 500 of those ESLs. Be my guest. I only stated my preference. I can find no conflict in my personal preference for not caring about ESLs and my tag line. My mantra is "whatever works for you".

Lead eye ESL= under 3 minutes and 5 "you always have them on hand cheap a**" ingredients counting the lead eyes.

Speyroo says "BIG purple wooly worms only take a minute and a half". Two materials and one hook:whoa:

[McIntyre]

Is that Amherst for the tail, can't see the black tips if it is?

The white tail is tips from turkey marabou. I used feathers with little "fluff" on the tips.

[Philster]

Hello McIntyre

One thing that may be fun is to tie up the patterns that either had their historical beginnings, or have come to be associated over time with the rivers you will be fishing. For instance the red ant on the Rogue, the original skunk or the black prince on the Umpqua, the Skykomish Sunrise on the Sunrise... I mean Skykomish river :razz: The members here can surely provide a list for every river from Alaska to California.

The only downside to this is that in almost all cases they are very simple hairwings, and judging by the first flies you posted, will not challenge your skill. But hooking a fish on a river on a fly that is historically associated with that river can make for one heck of an amazing shadowbox display when you return home.

[McIntyre]

Hello McIntyre

One thing that may be fun is to tie up the patterns that either had their historical beginnings, or have come to be associated over time with the rivers you will be fishing. For instance the red ant on the Rogue, the original skunk or the black prince on the Umpqua, the Skykomish Sunrise on the Sunrise... I mean Skykomish river :razz: The members here can surely provide a list for every river from Alaska to California.


Good idea Philster.

I have the book "Flies for Steelhead" by Dick Stewart. This books mentions origins of many of the flies. Noticed that the Bulkley havea few surface flies with it's name. Guess at least I have to have some of those in my box. Veverka in "Spey Flies and How to Tie Them" also list history of many of the PNW spey type patterns, so I might tie up some of those as well. I guess the book by Trey Combs also list a few flies specific for each river. The book is ordered, but I haven't received it yet. Maybe the members here have aditional patterns that are not listed in these books.

[Hammer]

i did tie some chartreuse featherwings with died mallard as the wing/hackle,matching dubbing for the body,worked great under low light conditions,i would not look hard at the `style' of the tie but utilse the colors and then tie your own versions ;) ,one CAN tie a green butt skunk or a golden demon many ways,concerning trey combs book(s),the patterns of the `Rogue' flies in steelhead flyfishing and flies were tied by Harry Lemire truly a legendary man and an accomplished tyer beyond what i will ever be able to acheive ,but ( i feel) he tied them for Trey Combs to meet a deadline for his book,,if you compare the multitude of patterns he tied `for the book' versus his own creations,you can easily see a lack of passion in some of the flies,,the `golden rogue' for instance,a proven pattern (almost forgotten by the masses,but proven by me to be a producer ;) ),looks like nothing worth the time to tie,unless tied with passion,,the steelhead are not picky about patterns necesarily but sizes sometimes need to be small or shall we say,will optimise your chances,they will feed like trout on occaision,rising 4-5 ft from below to nip an emerger out of the film,down to a size 12 `wee-double' can be utilized then ;) so tie some small patterns,10-8-6 and send them to me for testing ;) :D

[Michael Koch]

Very nice flies, almost too nice to use !!!

Anyway noted that, the violet colours like blue and purple works incredibly well in low lights as Scandinavian summer nights and autumn afternoons. As you all know the violet colours are the last colour to disappear in dark, whereas Red is the first to go !!
Perhaps thats why your Steelheads dont care for much - but violet or black !!! I have yet to come catching an Atlantic Salmon or Sea Run Brownie on a red fly - after 27 years attempts, whereas yellow, black, brown, green and blue works fine.
In Scandinavia we have an old sayin´ (dont know from where it adheres) ;
Any fly is a good fly, as long as it is black !!!! - Works well in most cases.

By the way - dont see you Steelheaders use much of long winged tubes - why not !
The Steelheads here will take slim long winged tubes, gladly !

Michael

[McIntyre]

Very nice flies, almost too nice to use !!!

Thanks for your nice words, Michael :o


Anyway noted that, the violet colours like blue and purple works incredibly well in low lights as Scandinavian summer nights and autumn afternoons. As you all know the violet colours are the last colour to disappear in dark, whereas Red is the first to go !!
Perhaps thats why your Steelheads dont care for much - but violet or black !!! I have yet to come catching an Atlantic Salmon or Sea Run Brownie on a red fly - after 27 years attempts, whereas yellow, black, brown, green and blue works fine.
In Scandinavia we have an old sayin´ (dont know from where it adheres) ;
Any fly is a good fly, as long as it is black !!!! - Works well in most cases.
How many times those years have you fished with a red fly? I've caught quite a few salmons on a red fly, but I have to admit it had a black wing. I'm pretty sure you are right about the colours though. I often put blue or purple in my salmon patterns for night fishing, cant prove that they do work any better than a pure black fly, but at least it give me some variations.
Usually the fly you caught most salmon on are the one that are most often on the leader :rolleyes:


By the way - dont see you Steelheaders use much of long winged tubes - why not !
The Steelheads here will take slim long winged tubes, gladly !

Michael

I'm sure the steelhead will take tubeflies too. If you have a look at flyfishingforum.com/flytalk you will see there a growing number of tiers in the pnw that have started experimenting with tube flies.

However you can't compare Steelhead to our seatrout more than you can compare seatrout to atlantic salmon.

Oddbjørn

[sinktip]

While not widely used in steelhead flies, I know that red is a good color. Myself and a number of friends utilize red in a number of patterns. Mine tend to be as the non-dominant color such as red wings on my purple bodied Hotep spey and a red wing on the orange and yellow Volcano spey.

[Michael Koch]

Well Mac.

Obviously you are absolutely right that, the fish will "eventually" take the fly you fish ! - And that, no matter the colour.
I have for many years used red/orange coloured flies and in the early eighties the GP types were very popular. I did´nt though see a particular strike pattern towards the red colour, whereas today I clearly see a larger interests for the black/blue and yellow/black variations. I have fished the exact same beat and week number for more than twenty years, wherefore a reliable comparance is likely.
My theory is that, all red flies become grey and that is what the Salmon take it for - being nartural gray, as are the most natural shrimps at sea.
Fishing Sea Trout a grey shrimp fly with an attraction like yellow, white or bluish works great too.

My favorite Salmon flues today mostly have a black or brown base and then with either blue, green or yellow as contrast, but NEVER red, and my catches just increases. But wheather that comes with more knowledge to lies and runs, I cant say.
But as you all know - on a good day with a good run of fresh Atlantics, you will get them on anything !!!

Ref. Steelheads, I know that Steelies have a different eating attitude, and often will take a lot smaller bites than forinstance Sea Trout and Salmon.
But in Denmark, we have great success with very slim tubes up to 4-5 inches for Sea Trout and Steelheads.

Michael

[McIntyre]

Well Mac.

Obviously you are absolutely right that, the fish will "eventually" take the fly you fish ! - And that, no matter the colour.
I have for many years used red/orange coloured flies and in the early eighties the GP types were very popular. I did´nt though see a particular strike pattern towards the red colour, whereas today I clearly see a larger interests for the black/blue and yellow/black variations. I have fished the exact same beat and week number for more than twenty years, wherefore a reliable comparance is likely.
My theory is that, all red flies become grey and that is what the Salmon take it for - being nartural gray, as are the most natural shrimps at sea.
Fishing Sea Trout a grey shrimp fly with an attraction like yellow, white or bluish works great too.

My favorite Salmon flues today mostly have a black or brown base and then with either blue, green or yellow as contrast, but NEVER red, and my catches just increases. But wheather that comes with more knowledge to lies and runs, I cant say.
But as you all know - on a good day with a good run of fresh Atlantics, you will get them on anything !!!

Ref. Steelheads, I know that Steelies have a different eating attitude, and often will take a lot smaller bites than forinstance Sea Trout and Salmon.
But in Denmark, we have great success with very slim tubes up to 4-5 inches for Sea Trout and Steelheads.

Michael

Hello Michael

I guess it all depends on the river you fish. In Orkla flies with orange and black seems to be the best allround fly during daytime and blue/black at the evening, night and early morning. Ally Shrimp both in orange and red is quite effective in the day. I do think the salmon sees this colors during daytime, but I guess your right they will fade into gray in low light conditions.

Are there Steelhead in Denmark? This must be fish that have escaped from fishfarms? In Norway there are sometimes escaped rainbows that go up in the rivers, they are not much of a sportsfish as the fins are allmost not existance and they don't give much of a fight. They usually take on anything, pellets being the best :p

Thight lines,
Oddbjørn

[McIntyre]

Whether the salmon and steelhead sees orange and red or not, I do think my box need to include an orange Dee fly. The actual fly has been fished a lot with and caught a salmon before the photo was taken, so it's proves that Dee flies could be pretty durable. Hope it will work for steelhead as it works for atlantics.

[MJC]

That would be a great fly on the Clearwater in Idaho.

[flytyer]

That orange dee of yours would work well on steelhead.

But don't forget the more sombre flies like the Lady Caroline or the Ghost (I especially like the Ghost tied as a spey fly). Also, many of the flies in Jone's work well on steelhead.

[McIntyre]

i did tie some chartreuse featherwings with died mallard as the wing/hackle,matching dubbing for the body,worked great under low light conditions,i would not look hard at the `style' of the tie but utilse the colors and then tie your own versions ;) ,one CAN tie a green butt skunk or a golden demon many ways,concerning trey combs book(s),the patterns of the `Rogue' flies in steelhead flyfishing and flies were tied by Harry Lemire truly a legendary man and an accomplished tyer beyond what i will ever be able to acheive ,but ( i feel) he tied them for Trey Combs to meet a deadline for his book,,if you compare the multitude of patterns he tied `for the book' versus his own creations,you can easily see a lack of passion in some of the flies,,the `golden rogue' for instance,a proven pattern (almost forgotten by the masses,but proven by me to be a producer ;) ),looks like nothing worth the time to tie,unless tied with passion,,the steelhead are not picky about patterns necesarily but sizes sometimes need to be small or shall we say,will optimise your chances,they will feed like trout on occaision,rising 4-5 ft from below to nip an emerger out of the film,down to a size 12 `wee-double' can be utilized then ;) so tie some small patterns,10-8-6 and send them to me for testing ;) :D

How is the Rogue anyway for swinging flies? Have read some about the Rogue, and it looks like the majority of the flyfishers are nymphers?

I will try to tie some small spey and dee flies, but I guess in that sizes a regular hairwing will work good as well. What do you think about a small marabou dee fly fished with the greased line tecnique alá Arthur Wood on Rogue?

[Michael Koch]

Hi Oddbjorn and others.

Naturally you will catch a fish on a red fly, or any fly with red and orange. But the same will go for any colour fished long enough. I agree that colours are visible i daylight, more than in shade and dark.
I too fished both the Orkla and Gaula for pretty many years, and now never, or rarely using red, I still catch as much as anybody, or even more.
I admit that, a lot of flies are looking really dangerous with red and orange, I just never felt a superior effeciency compared to forinstance yellow and blue.
(By the way, in a reasonly made colour test in daylight on various depth, the results were following:
First colour to disappear/change Red turned grey, yellow turned white, green turned yellow, greyish or bluish (depending on tone of green), and all violet colours stayed on for long). It does say a little of which colours to use - though still not proving much.
Even black will change in various lights, either change size or form depending on light angles and LUX.

The fact is, we still know very little of why Steelhead or Salmon takes this or that fly !

Re. Steelheads, yes we do have Steelheads, but as you say most of them are escaped Steelies, though quite a few escape as smolt and grow up at sea becoming semi-wild, beautiful fish with full fins and all. Some claim that they can reproduce in a few rivers, but I can´t confirm this. I see them every winter spawing in my river, but have never seen parr or Smolt yet.
But I love catching them and quite often we see fish around 8-10 lbs.

Have a nice weekend.
Michael

[Philster]

How is the Rogue anyway for swinging flies? Have read some about the Rogue, and it looks like the majority of the flyfishers are nymphers?

Don't worry McIntyre, all techniques work on the rogue, provided you are fishing the right water for that technique. The most wondeful thing about the rogue is that the people who have fished over time have always been "different" in their approaches.

They have over the years specialized in fishing from boats with flies (not that common for steelhead elsewhere) dangling flies with built in action in the current, much like a plug fisherman, although I haven't seen much of that the last times I fished it which were awhile ago, embraced the double hook (not sure about current regs), and always felt the need to come up with their own style of flies.

Nymphing is always going to be effective when steelhead are "trout-ish" in nature, as they can be on the rogue and the trinity in the california, but swinging a fly works as well.

As has been mentioned over and over in the discussion on the color red, if everyone is fishing nymphs, all the fish will be caught on nymphs :D

[McIntyre]

Thanks for all the ideas and suggestions so far.

Tied some marabou spider looking things. Would be too much job to fill all my boxes with only Dee and spey flies so I need something simplier as well. (huh, I guess in a few weeks I'm posting pictures of that ESL's here :roll: )

[sinktip]

Oddbjørn,

For god's sake, stop before you get to the ESL stage :D

Those patterns are sweet and will take steelhead anywhere they swim. Make sure you pinch those barbs though. The B.C. Conservation Officers will check them carefully.

'tip

[Jamey McLeod]

I know a few steelies here in MI that would chow those down. Olive with a touch of orange is a great color combo here also. My boxes are mostly Olive and orange, black and purlple, white pink and blue, all black or all purple.

[MJC]

For god's sake, stop before you get to the ESL stage

Well said Mr. Tip.

More great looking flies McIntyre!

[McIntyre]

Those patterns are sweet and will take steelhead anywhere they swim. Make sure you pinch those barbs though. The B.C. Conservation Officers will check them carefully.

'tip

That raise another question.

Have you noticed any differences on which hooks that hooks best after being crimped? Are there any single hooks that hooks well with barbs and poor without that I should not use?

[McIntyre]

Well said Mr. Tip.

More great looking flies McIntyre!

Thank you.

I have made the decision that if I haven't caught any steelhead before coming to the Clearwater I will buy some ESL's and egg patterns from you.

See you have a good selection: http://www.redshedflyshop.com/FLIES.html
:hihi: :hihi: :hihi:

[MJC]

Yes I do have some in stock (even some "baby" Intruders) as there are a few people around that just can't seem to be persuaded that the Clearwater is a wonderful river for flies like you have tied and the floating line. If you come to the Clearwater and you haven't caught a fish on your wonderful flies I'll give you some of those ESL's.

[sinktip]

Hooks that hold ---

Herein lies an age old problem. In many cases, the hooks that look the best, hold the worst. If you search on hooks you might find some threads devoted to this. For me, if I'm really concerned about the hold, I would fish a tube fly. If you can live with a higher lost ratio, then with your skills at the vice, I would go with a traditional style hook. In my opinion, patterns just look better on them. The bottom line is fish what you have confidence in, keep it sticky sharp and pray it holds.

For my flies in size 4,5,6,7,8, I fish traditional spey style hooks (Alec Jackson's, the new Tiemco or Partridge 10/1. For larger patterns, I switch back and forth between AJs and Partridges and tubes. I have not hooked enough fish on tubes to say for sure it helps but I know enough good fisherman that swear it does to believe it.

[sinktip]

Mike,

That you have ESLs in stock I will chock up to simply doing business but glo-bugs too! :eek: Please tell me there are no egg patterns anywhere near those jailbaits and hotpants. Has that new crop of Clearwater anglers no pride?

sinktip - CW expatriot

[MJC]

I can assure you that the Hotpants and Jailbait are kept in the back room locked away for the pleasure of a select few.:whoa:

I have less then 8 sq inches devoted to egg flies. One color in 2 sizes for the bobber crowd on the North/South Fork. Even at that I probably don't sell 2 dozen a year. I know it may be sacrilege to some but at least there still are no fur trimmed bikinis with a monogrammed fly on the front or none of those eagles with a fly rod in it's talons that our dear friend OC is so fond of.:eek:

[sinktip]

Ok Mike, I apologize as I can see I was too hard on you. But don't let your guard down, our buddy OC would be quite the terror with 8 sq. inches, trimmed fur or not. :D

[t_richerzhagen]

OK guys let me know what an ESL is???:Eyecrazy: :hihi:

[sean]

Ted it is the ubiquitous egg sucking leech.

-sean

[MJC]

It's not that I hate ESL's. For years I steelhead fished with 4X long #4 purple wooly worms which is kind of a headless ESL. Also I know of some trees overhanging the water on the south end of Lake Havasu in AZ. where tossing an ESL or string leech in March will reward you with some nice bass.

Fishing should be about pleasure and if yours is slinging an ESL more power to you. My pleasure comes from fishing my floating line and a hair wing or spey fly to the exclusion of everything else.

I'm getting old and lazy and my fly box is small, why waste space with flies whose head looks like a ball. lildevl:

[McIntyre]

Guess I will bring some of my tubes too. But I leave that treble back at home.

[MJC]

Very nice fly!

[Benjamin]

Hallo McIntyre,
very nice Fly!
What did you use for tae uper black wing section sheep?
The hairs are looking realy fine.
Thanks
Benjamin

[McIntyre]

Hallo McIntyre,
very nice Fly!
What did you use for tae uper black wing section sheep?
The hairs are looking realy fine.
Thanks
Benjamin

Thank you Benjamin

On this one I used tempeldog hair. Arctic Runner hair (icelandic horse) or Finn Raccoon (also called Tanuki) is also very nice for this use.

A little tip with this kind of hair. If they don't look too pretty when you buy them you can often do much with washing them, some balsam, a brush and maybe give it a go with a hot iron to straighten it out if you wish that.

Oddbjørn

[swingndeep]

This may be off the topic a little but, I was wondering what the wing material is on that tube fly above?
Thanks
Mike

[McIntyre]

This may be off the topic a little but, I was wondering what the wing material is on that tube fly above?
Thanks
Mike

The underwing is yellow and green bodyhair from arctic fox. The main wing is black "tempeldog".

[swingndeep]

Thanks, I reallly like how these flies look in the water. I think they will make really good winter steelhead flies here in oregon.
mike

[McIntyre]

Mike, I have to agree, they do loke nice in the water, especially if you tie them with a long thin upper wing.

Here's a few others that I use a lot for the norwegian salmon. Guess some of them would work for steelhead too.

[swingndeep]

Thanks for the pictures. Those colors should work nicely!
Mike

[McIntyre]

Time to add another Dee style fly. Have to admit that pink is not the most common color I use in my flies.

[HenningL]

Hi Oddbjørn,
I sit here reading about your upcoming trip, and just have to add and emphasise that I am NOT the LEAST BIT envious - not at all, and the green colour in my face probably is sea sickness or something! :roll: :D

Beautiful flies, BTW, but that is the standard we are getting used to from your vice!

[McIntyre]

Henning, just quit your job and join me on the trip. 2 months steelheading must be a lot better than working...


I guess I can't travel to steelhead country without some intruders (sorry MJC, I'll hide them well when coming to the Clearwater).

The lowest one is tied with a light conehead instead of that heavy dumbell eyes, and will fish just belowe the surface if not fished with a sinking line. I guess even MJC would allowed that one :hihi:

Actually the conehead intruder tied in orange caught a couple of nice salmons for me here in Norway during summertime this year. Thanks Ed for a very interesting way of tying flies.

http://sportsfiske.nu/foto/arkiv/595/1227.jpg

They are actually so ugly, that they kind of looks nice :lildevl:
Maybe I tie some in red to hang on the Christmas tree.

[White Mouse]

[QUOTE=McIntyre]Henning, just quit your job and join me on the trip. 2 months steelheading must be a lot better than working...


I guess I can't travel to steelhead country without some intruders (sorry MJC, I'll hide them well when coming to the Clearwater).

Hei Mc, PM me if you'll be around Vancouver Island...I'd love to meet you and have my Intruders and yours spawn:eek: a new breed of monster...they're gonna be so cute:lildevl:

[MJC]

Nice looking flies! Please don't be shy about showing those to me if you get to the Clearwater. I like to look at ALL types of flies, even those ESLs, however if I go fishing I'll be taking a "jailbait".:whoa:

[McIntyre]

Nice looking flies! Please don't be shy about showing those to me if you get to the Clearwater. I like to look at ALL types of flies, even those ESLs, however if I go fishing I'll be taking a "jailbait".:whoa:

Thanks Mike!

Actually, except from the bigger fish than the other rivers in the Coumbia system, the thing that made me interested in including Clearwater on my trip is yours and other words for the reputation of the Clearwater steelies tendency to take a fly fished on or near the surface. But I guess it could be wise to have some heavier monster flies for that monster Steely I'm gonna catch on the Kispiox :lildevl:

[HenningL]

Henning, just quit your job and join me on the trip. 2 months steelheading must be a lot better than working...




Good idea :chuckle: If I could convince my principal that it is necessary to give me two months leave with payment, I would even avoid starvation! Oh well, I guess I will have to do with a report from you this time. Perhaps we'll talk in Orkla next summer, I believe I will be fishing a bit up river from you in week 30.

[Michael Koch]

Mac.

Do yourself a favor when going for those steelies, take a couple of the KOCH-GHOST with you, it has proven very good in cold "tea-coloured" water and clear skies. It is my autunm-winter favorite for Sea trout and Winter Steelheads
5004

Pattern.
Body gold tinsel with gold rib
Hackle Flourecent Orange cock long
Under wing Yellow Polar fox
Upper wing White Polar fox or Tanuki

Merry X-mas.
Mike

[McIntyre]

Mac.

Do yourself a favor when going for those steelies, take a couple of the KOCH-GHOST with you, it has proven very good in cold "tea-coloured" water and clear skies. It is my autunm-winter favorite for Sea trout and Winter Steelheads

Pattern.
Body gold tinsel with gold rib
Hackle Flourecent Orange cock long
Under wing Yellow Polar fox
Upper wing White Polar fox or Tanuki

Merry X-mas.
Mike

Thank you!

Nice pattern. I definitely gonna tie some of them. I guess they also could fish well on my february trip to River Dee. I'll give you a report if they do.

Merry Christmas to you too and all other flyfishers out there!