[FrenchCreek]

I've spoken with the ALMIGHTY ANNOINTED PRIEST OF STEELHEAD FLIES and on his behalf, and without reservation, you are all hereby absolved for breaking the secret!
After a few glasses of Holy Peat Water, (yes I'm having a serious attack of shack nasties!) he instructed me to ask for THE absolute best, THE one and only,THE inimitable, THE greatest, THE killer fly, THE most guarded secret fly....
that woud be used in late February on the unfrozen rivers of the PNW.
So unless you want to suffer the wrath of HE/SHE (wanting to be politically correct and gender neutral) the ALMIGHTY ANNOINTED PRIEST OF STEELHEAD FLIES, and be forever doomed to searching for good steelhead lies (of any kind) speak out now, loudly and proudly and tell it all! Enough with all this bunko about rods and lines and reels and leaders and sink tips and casts of every name and nature... the only truth and ultimate salvation lies in answering this question!
THE fly to use is?

 

[Moose]

And from the heavens boomed a proclaimation!!....

Dude, use a leach. :smokin:

 

[sean]

Pete send me your address and I will send you some in the next couple weeks. Gotta get some more rhea first...

-sean

 

[Willie Gunn]

Willie Gunn
Secret weapon

 

[sean]

Nope. Not that big and they are unweighted. Will post some photos here once I get some time to tie. I do not have any at the moment and need to fill up the boxes.

-sean

 

[Bob Pauli]

Canadian Ciller Flies

Pete,
Email your address and you'll get a guaranteed giant getter.
Happy New Year! :Eyecrazy:

Bob

 

[kush]

I have been threatening to do this for years... tie a hunk of black shoe-lace to a hook and catch steelhead...

The magic bullet - that killer fly - that one that will catch 'em all is just as likely to be a shoe-lace as an Intruder or GP. The sad reality for those of us who love to tie flies is that the steelhead really don't care :saeek:

 

[doublespey]

yeah yeah

what Kush said~ :saevilw:

Seriously, pick your sexiest Pike fly tied with Rabbit strips. Remove any mono weed guards, sharpen the hook and you've probably got the next Killer Steelhead Pattern!! Big, obnoxious,and they probably haven't seen it before. :smokin:

And don't forget to post if/when you're headed out this way so we can see your creations in action!

Stay warm,

DS

 

[wrke]

Kush
I love the shoelace idea. I will try it in Sept on Atlantics in NB. I know the perfect place. For some reason, I don't have the heart to try it on the Gaspé in June.
Bill

 

[andre]

Kush, I'll try that in the morning.

 

[Big K1]

The Black shoelace tube is a fish getter. Be sure to use black belly button lint dubbing.

 

[flytyer]

Pete,

You already know the Glasso Orange Heron is one of the first flies I reach for in winter/spring. And if the water has been pounded, I will tie on the old atlantic salmon fly the Ghost. Like Kelson said, it seems to result in a strike when there has been a lot of fishing pressure.

 

[Bob Pauli]

Sure, Kush...

...but will she respect you in the morning?

 

[FrenchCreek]

Thunder & Lightning to come

Bob, Sean, I'll PM you my address, do not let the other Eastern Canuck guy, usurper as it were :tsk_tsk: get to any of these magic patterns. He first must kneel and pray to the AAPOSF and forgiveness for all his sloppy casts!

Peter SC Thunder & Lightning coming your way! :razz:

Kush, I've heard of a shoestring budget for tying but this is overboard! Thunder & Lightning coming your way as well. :razz:

 

[speydoc]

The ultimate fly is actualy nothing more than a piece of yarn, quick easy and comes in any colour combination! - however as this is frightfully boring to those of use who tie, why not try something like the attached!
speydoc

 

[speydoc]

PS. Sorry Sean - piped you to the post/photo!
speydoc

 

[Hammer]

Kush has it right!

i feel black is IT,,,although `my' killer fly uses the dark peacock feather as a tail,wing,hackle,and of course,even though i `ground 'some dubbin' to match,then i find out this summer that;you CAN buy it!=dark peacock light-brite brand,i'm certain any black components would suffice to round it out!,still though,without composing my own flies i wouldn't feel `whole',also,i started utilizing hair as a hackle,tail ,wing,all the same hair,dark olive color,matching body color,,i'm sure black would have worked as well,but in my mind,the olive was special,who knows? caught fish!,i'm finalising a white fly right now because an oldtimer used a white fly on the rogue for winter's 75 years back,,,once again=who knows?,,,,if it wasn't for winter i'd just keep fishing what i've been tossing,but,those are secret summer patterns! :hihi:

 

[Riveraddict]

...

I agree that a steelhead can be caught on a black shoelace. I disagree with the statement that steelhead don't care about the fly. I sure don't believe that I would catch as many steelhead by fishing a black shoelace as compared with fishing the fly patterns that I have come to depend on. Now before anyone misinterprets this, I am NOT saying that the fly is the most important component for catching steelhead... in my experience presentation is, but the fly does have relevance. I can't prove this definitively in a scientific way, it is a conclusion I have arrived at through many years of steelheading.

I don't believe that the small differences in intricate details between particular patterns make that much difference, for instance a Green Butt Skunk versus the Black Bear of Atlantic Salmon fame. Instead, it is the basic characteristics of a fly that can make a difference - size, color, silhouette, and motion (or lack of it). Anyone that has fished for silvers under conditions of very low and clear water, where the fish can be observed in aquarium-like conditions, can tell you that these items can in fact make a huge difference in whether or not a fish responds to a fly. It isn't too much of a stretch to deduce that steelhead probably will have at least some modicum of similar behavior.

Here are some "things" that I have perceived in my steelheading, points worth mulling over concerning fly characteristics and how they may affect steelhead. Once again, these are merely personal "observations" that I have made, subject to all the flaws that an individual human being's particular perception of the world may engender, not scientifically proven fact.
- bright pink and/or orange flies tend to appeal more to female steelhead.
- dark colors seem to attract more males.
- certain colors in my experience result in "takes" that are different than those that other colors do.
- larger flies tend to result in a more "violent" response to the fly.

 

[kush]

RA touches on one of my favourite themes: "I sure don't believe that I would catch as many steelhead by fishing a black shoelace as compared with fishing the fly patterns that I have come to depend on." I believe that the most important component of fly choice is the angler's confidence. Sure, water conditions and light levels all play significant roles - but I fish better and catch more fish if I have confidence in the pattern on my line.

I can't count the number of "new" patterns or somebody's supposed Magic Bullet I have put on - and if I failed to catch a fish relatively quickly - off it came and one of my stand-bys replaced it. Of course, sooner of later I catch one on the stand-by and I fulfill the prophesy!

I have two classic examples. The first is Dana's Thompson Stone. This is Dana's go-to fly and while I watched him catch a number of fish on I was reluctant to give up my favourite low-water Green-Butt Spratley. I tried the T-Stone - but as I said above - it didn't stay on long. I flirted with the pattern for a couple of years until one sunny October afternoon on my favourite river I got a beautiful fish in the first 1/2 hour which was followed by 2 others over the next 3 hours. Needless to say, the T-Stone regularly found its way onto my tippet and is now my fly of choice in bright sunny conditions (and the trusty Spratleys are now relegated to honoured back-ups).

The other example is basically the opposite and involves the Intruder. Like most I had heard about this shadowy fly for a number of years before I got to even see one. In fact, I wasn't even certain that Ed Ward himself was real :hihi:. So when I finally got to fish some reasonable facsimiles of the Intruder my "belief quotient" was already quite high. Therefore, I didn't find it necessary to change to my GP after a half hour of being fishless. Again, needless to say, after a while I caught fish on the Intruder and it too is now an essential part of my fly arsenal.

I am going to tie a Black Shoe-Lace Fly and I am going to catch a fish on it (eventually). However, I fear that unless I happen to chuck it directly into the mouth of a biter it will only swim on the end of my line for very short trial periods

 

[Moose]

I am going to tie a Black Shoe-Lace Fly and I am going to catch a fish on it (eventually). However, I fear that unless I happen to chuck it directly into the mouth of a biter it will only swim on the end of my line for very short trial periods

Of course you know it will only work if tied on an imported hand hammered hook with silk thread, sprinkled with peat water as a baptism to the Gods and fished on a floating double taper line and hand furled leader spooled to a classic English reel and gracefully cast on a very expensive hand made rod of at leat 15 feet. Otherwise you're just wiggling a shoe lace in the water, silly boy :tsk_tsk: