I agree....these flies are not those one would typically swing for Summer Run Steelhead out West. I have boxes of smaller and sparse flies too for that. This is just one of many boxes. Thought I'd share the one that i most recently finished.
When I'm on Great Lakes tribs I bring a pretty wide variety of colors, sizes, weight besides these. Almost too many. For years it was only black, brown, grey, white and purple beaded ESLs and stonefly nymphs.
I've only ever seen one person actually use a Spey Fly in my 30 years going up to Salmon River........
To be honest........an unmolested steelhead will take almost any fly. Color, shape, size, surface, swung, drifted, stripped, hitched, popped, booby........they all work. They are not overly snooty like a resident rainbow or brown trout. It's pressure that drives them to be persnickity (along with many other variables). Then you better pack your lunch....because it could be an all day or week event to get 1 take.
I understand most of these are winter run PNW steelhead patterns. And many were developed out there to mimic a squid or prawn...thus the pink and orange hues. For the great lakes their diet through out their life histories are still pretty diverse...but more subdued colors (black, brown, tan, white, grey, olive). It's mysis shrimp, sculpins, shiners, gobys, alewife, shad, smelt, crayfish, flesh, worms, eggs and insects over here.
But sometimes a switch flips one day, their eyes get bigger and they might want something noone else is throwing at them. This can be any time....my experience says your best chance for this is on high water, when they're fresh from the lake in Sep/Oct, after a good hard storm, low light, or when they're dropping back to the lake after spawning. Heck......the best time to catch a steelhead is after a drift boat floats over the top of them. Explain that to me!
This random nature of a steelhead chasing a fly is why we cycle through our flies, this is why guys ask "what color is working?", why a blue fly will work (what in nature will a steelhead ever eat that is blue?) and why 90% of steelhead are caught by 10% of anglers.
One thing I also know from observation.....is that a deadly tactic for steelhead is back trolling plugs through a run. I used to see guides do this all the time. If they're going to hit a hot shot plug (which are not tiny)....then they will definitely hit a proper broadside swung 2/0 Pink GP or an Orange Heron ....
I also closely follow a few of the Great Lakes guys (guides and fishy dudes) out there in internet land like Greg Senyo, Matt Supinski, Frank Swarner (
Great Lakes Spey and Dee Flies), Paul Moore, Walt Geryk, Kevin Feenstra, etc...... these guys are thinking outside the box and are drawing from techniques, patterns and materials from all over the globe.
Senyo is so cool....he makes his own rules.
Like I've said before....we are in a fly tying Renaissance right now. The materials we have available to us now is mind blowing. Never hurts to try something new. And.....I'm not an expert at tying a Spey/Dee/Intruder fly by any means.
Hopefully it inspires someone else.
