Got any productive winter steelhead patterns you want to share? I tie mainly for summer runs; butts, trains, low-water flies; with a few marabou popsicles thrown in. Usually I would throw gear now, but a friend wants to give it a try with flies. So need to stock up the box for this adventure. Thanks

You definately cant beat egg paterns in any standard colors or multy colored eggs.

I make a easy fly that worked good in alaska and hooked a few on it down here when ive tried it. You clump some mariboo on the back of the hook shank and tie an egg on the top. Usa any color combos you whant. I like to use contrasting colors. I call it the big ugly. I gues it could be some type of leach but it also looks like a jig without weight.

Hi Gregor ... Don't know if you got a chance to see some of the flies that I was tying while I was recouping and had up on the Reports / Pix page ... but if you did, we hit a couple of fish yesterday on the black / purple bunny leech I had pictured and another on the black "Bob's Blob".

If you didn't get a chance to see them, I'll try to get a page up with some of my fave patterns in the near future as a number of people asked if I could redisplay them.

Good luck

Hi: In my experience Winter Hope,a pattern by Bill McMillan is one of the better ones. Basically it uses Orange,Yellow and Royal Blue hackles as the colour pattern. It is remeniscent of the old Hardy Prismatic Patterns.
I tie it on a 1/0 egg hook with a red underbody of spun deerhair; with spey style marabou hackles of orange,blue and yellow, two turns of each.

Rich G - the marabou and egg sounds promising.

Bob - I missed those...would like to see them when you get a chance. On the fish that were caught, how were the flies presented?

Coot - Did a search for Winter's Hope. Good looking fly with alot of variations on the original out there. I like spey flies so I'll give yours a try.

I used to tie all kinds of spey flies on expensive hooks and lot's of materials then I'd go out and lose them all on the bottom.
So now I save thoes nice elegant flies for my summer fishing. I fish 2 patterns in the winter both in various colors. pretty much all on 1/0 hooks
bunny leeches. hook, thread and rabbit strips is all you need. Tie them in colors you like but I prefer black, purple and blue and combo's of these colors

Marabou spiders
marabou palmered over antron then ribbed with silver tinsle.
black, purple, blue,pink orange and red combos ao these colors too

These are quick easy patterns to tie so I don't mind losing a bunch of them. I have even gone back to old mustad salmon hooks because they are cheaper. They hook fish just as well as tiemcos or alec jacksons. Why spend the money on hooks that you are going to lose a lot of?

If you don't get bored tying them, the old standard wooly buggers tied in black, purple, pink, orange or combinations of those colors, Different sizes for different water conditions. The fancey flies are for us tiers, not the fish.

Hi: I picked upsomething from the guys back east you might want to try. The use of coloured kitchen sponges. you get a pack of 6 in various colours for a couple of bucks. Cut them in small pieces to make heads for your flies like airoflies. Any shape will do but you`l have to experiment to get the right size to give you a slight sink .
I make up a bait scent oil I salvage the oil pack from smoked oysters sardines or any other fish product canned in oil. cook some garlick in vegetable oil and add it to a mixture of seafood oils.
Tie on your leader and use a needle to run it through the sponge. Now stick the sponge into your bait oil and sqeeze to soak up some oil. shove it down over the eye of the hook and fish it. let us know how you make out.

I also tye winter flies from dead rabbit and prefer patterns in combos of black/purple, purple/wine, and orange/red. I wrap the hook shank with something flashy such as tinsel and tie on a section of straight cut rabbit on top, attaching it at the bend and about 3/8" behind the head. This strip should extend about 1/2" or more past the bend. Taper it to a long point. Then I wrap a short section of crosscut rabbit in about 2 turns for a hackle. Whip finish the head and coat with 2 part epoxy. I still use high end hooks like 7999's, but have had great luck with el cheapo Eagle Claw 1197's -just keep them sharp.

Gregor,

I'm with Rob on winter fly selection. In crazy years gone by, I'd tie and fish full dress Syd Glasso spey style flies and even the occasional full dress Jock Scott. Crazy because a half-hour's tying effort could easily hang a rock on my first cast and be lost. I use cheap but serviceable Mustad or Eagle Claw 1197 hooks and tie simple marabou streamers and a kinda' quick and dirty General Practitioner or prawn fly - a mix of orange and red materials. These fish are not choosy. I doubt the steelhead fly has been tied that won't take a fish, although it ought to be in a suitable size. Find patterns that strike your fancy and don't take more time to tie than you're willing to throw away, as winter steelheading results in a lot of lost flies.

Sincerely,

Salmo g.

I like to use a larger fly alot of the time and have had success with string leeches.(Articulated)

I think in big water like the Skagit, a big profile helps. Unless the fish want something small. lol

I dont think color is as important as having a variety of shades from dark to light with black being my fav.
peace

Rich G, When are you going to start swingin' some flies out your way?

Here's my favorite steelhead fly. The guy who told me to tie it called it "The Meathead". It's basically an egg sucking leech but you use a purple tail, peacock body, purple hackle and a white head. Very simple pattern to tie. This is the fly I caught my first steelhead ever with. You can add a lead eye to the fly to make it better for winter steelheading. I differ from you guys with my hook preference. I used cheap mustads before and I hated them. The hooks bend really easily. I like Gamakatsu Stingers the best. Whatever you use sharpen them up really good before tying them on.

~ Dr Pepper

Im not a real fly fisherman, or not yet anyways. I only use a floater as thats all I have and I either use split shot and sort off drift fish with the fly rod or when its not legal to do that I nymph with an indicator wich is closer to real fly fishing than the prior.

In another way when it comes down to it I whant to catch fish when I fish and the split shot tech is dam affective. Even better than gear in some cases. With the split shot your always in the zone and it the water is to big to get into the zone I dont whant to be fly fishing anyways.

My favorite is the wooly-bugger in various sizes and colors. Black, brown,orange and olive with bead or cone heads.

After those I go with bunny leaches or zonkers, red,orange,pink,yellow,black and white and combinatons of those.

I really like to experiment so I've got some pretty weird stuff too, that are made with what's on hand.

As I've said before though the only ones I've actually caught fish on my fly rod with, are the wooly-buggers.

Goin' to be out there both days this weekend lookin' for hookin'

I've seen alot of action down on some smaller OR streams with the egg patterns- caught quite a few on these, even with drift and float set-ups- reds and pinks. The cabalero tie is relatively productive, especially in off-color water. Its a chartreuse butt pink body chenille with flashabou wing, with or without pink hackle. Shrimp patterns have there place, too, although personally I haven't had much success. Hope you catch some. HT