One thing that I think we can all agree on is that our "spot" is our spot. I don't think many fly anglers care to reveal where they hooked that large steelhead or salmon for fear of increased pressure at their favorite fishing spot. In fact, it doesn't take but one person walking through holding water to ruin it for a many hours to even a day.

My intent in this thread is to share success stories with what's working and what's not. The intent isn't to find out where it is working. That can still remain a big secret.

I am what you would call a steelhead virgin when it comes to using my fly rod. I have lots of time on the water with my fly rod angling for trout, but my salmon and steelhead fly experience is limited. I did recently get the excitement of seeing what a hooked steelhead looks like on the end of a fly line.

With that being said, I can definitely share with most of you what is "not working". So far this season, I have made three trips to a small river which I know holds steelhead. I have fished with a double and single hook setup using an egg pattern on the drop and a stonefly pattern up higher. Using this combination, I have hooked into some nice size trout. Most of the trout have hooked onto the stonefly.

My last trip was more of experimentation. I think I had the attitude of "it hasn't worked before, so let's change it". At the end of this fishing day I found that my new setup didn't work, either. I had changed to a beaded leech pattern and then a larger double egg / white marabou pattern. I had lots of nice trout sticking the leech, but no steelhead.

The holes I was fishing were around 4 - 8 feet in depth. The water was mostly clear. I fact, one of the spots I saw a steelhead get hooked, you could see the bottom of the river bed. My fly line I am currently fishing with is floating. I have been using an approximate 6' leader to the fly. Micro weights have been applied and removed depending on the flow of the water.

Soooo.. Consider this a "what's not working" post.

My last fishing adventure was on the same small river that I mentioned above. (or lack of mentioned). I changed things up a bit and decided to change my fly line to the Jim Teeny Fly line that I had in my backup stash.

Jim Teeny T series Fly lines were developed as a one piece fly line with a sinking deep water express shooting head mated with a floating running line. What does all this mean? It means that your fly will and should sink in the water. The T-series is designed with different sink rates. I was fishing with the T-200 series which has a sink rate of 5.5 ips. The t-200 is for medium to fast flow - depth 4' - 6'. If I was to purchase the line over again, I would have purchased the T-400. I say this because I will mainly be using my fly rod later in the year during runoff when the water will be a bit swifter.

So.. I headed back through some of the same holes I fished the first time. I did notice that the actual appearance of the fly to the fish appeared to be better. Although I am not a steelhead nor did I catch one.
The drift through the holes slowed down as I was able to mend the line. I also noticed that it appeared to present more of a natural drift rather than a "plunk" which is offer from micro-weights on the leader. I also should add that I shortened up my leader to around 24 inches. It is kinda senseless to attempt to get the fly down and have an 8' leader which leaves it floating on the top.

All and all, I look forward to using this method again and plan on making a trip back to the river once time permits. I am really holding out for a good hard rain which raises the river and gets the fish moving upstream.

Glock

I like to nymph for steelies with a dry line/indicator set up. I generally will run the indicator about 1.5x the depth of the water. Add split just above a tippet knot at 12" or so above the fly/flies. If I'm targeting just steelies, I like egg sucking leech patterns, pariticularly in purple. I'll trail an egg fly as well. In some of the smaller SE Washington streams, I'll go without the trailer.

If there are trout in the water, I'll make the trailer a size 14 prince or pheasant tail. The steelhead will occasionally take the small nymph as well.

I'm no expert by any means and I need more time on the water, but 4 girls under 10 makes that challenging.

Shoot me an e-mail if you get up near Wenatchee.

drtomfish,

Thanks for the information. I will try a black egg sucking leech pattern next time I go out. I did purchase some of these yarn eggs from the store as trailers.

I am sure they will work great as attention getters.

I'm hoping to throw a couple flys when I visit the folks this xmas, I'll let you all know what the skinny is.....or isnt' when I return.