Steelhead stoneflys

[msmith14]

I was talking to a fly fisherman about stoneflys well steelhead fishing at one of my local great lake tribs the other day. He brought up the pattern he uses and said the steelhead eat it like candy. His pattern was a size 14 nymph hook, black dubbing, blue ribbing and wing case and black goose biots. He said they love the black and blue combination. I modified his pattern and added a gold bead, rubber legs and a peacock herl thorax. What do you guys think? Will it work? I will post a pic of the fly later if you want to see it.

Thanks, and good luck on the water

 

[Trout Guy]

I was talking to a fly fisherman about stoneflys well steelhead fishing at one of my local great lake tribs the other day. He brought up the pattern he uses and said the steelhead eat it like candy. His pattern was a size 14 nymph hook, black dubbing, blue ribbing and wing case and black goose biots. He said they love the black and blue combination. I modified his pattern and added a gold bead, rubber legs and a peacock herl thorax. What do you guys think? Will it work? I will post a pic of the fly later if you want to see it.

Thanks, and good luck on the water

Size 14?? Seems kinda small in my opinion.

 

[flyI4]

My first winter steelheading I started going that small thinking that would be the solution to all the tough, over pressured steelhead laying in the upper river. Strangely, the fly popping out wasnt the problem, but rather I had a high number of foul hooked fish. Not sure if they dont move out of the way bc its such a small fly, or what but it definitely was a higher percentage of foul hookups, and not that much weight either. I still go that small occasionally, but only as a last resort. Love the stonefly patterns though in larger 6-10 sizes

 

[LyNcH]

Small steelhead stoneflies are typically used by chuck and duck fishers and they go so small so the fish doesn't see it as they are being flossed. I am not being sarcastic here, if you want to foul hook and line fish, then it's the fly of choice. Stand along the banks of the LFZ and watch the lead lobbers and you will see that is what they are using, but don't fool yourself, the steelhead are not grabbing their flies.

I agree with FlyI4 here in that size 6-10 stones are the ticket for steelhead if you are using nymphs, but will add in mid-late winter conditions. Whenever there is a warm spell where the air temps get above freezing, there will be stone hatches and you'll see them on the snow near the banks, and that is when they can be productive. I carry a small amount of stoneflies with me during the winter, but find when indicator fishing, 9 out of 10 times an egg pattern will outproduce. The most productive stonefly imitation for my is the psycho prince with purple thorax and chartreuse wingcase.

For this time of year, if you want to catch feeding steelhead either go with size 10 egg patterns or swing streamers.

 

[Broadheadscreek]

Big stone fly patterns , egg patterns and streamers are the way to go this time of year . They will chase an egg pattern right now,I have video of a nice steel coming right to my feet to take an egg pretty cool stuff. I am addicted to the huge tug you get using streamers and spey flies when the water is warm so that is what I like to do..Once the water cools down its back to stone flies eggs and sucker spawn.When spring rolls around it's time to get the big stuff out again as the are starving after the spawn and are looking for a good meal.

 

[msmith14]

Hmm, I guess that pattern is out of the picture. I never got to try it anyways haha. I was fishing the salmon creek in Pultneyville today, the fishing was slow I did caught a few on egg patterns, I tryed a olive wollybugger, but with no luck. I cant seem to get them on streamers. O well, sooo what are you guys's recommendations for when it comes to stoneflys and streamers for streams around my area like Pultneyville and Maxwell?? I cant seem get get the right patterns down...

Thanks, and good luck on the water

 

[CTobias]

I was always against using small stonefly patterns because of the ability to easily snag fish. Sooo, I fished one under a float to get a perfect drift. Yes I caught a steelhead. It was a cookie cutter caught on about a size 12 olive nymph. Do they work, sure, but I would stick to 10's and 8's. anything smaller than 10's and you're just looking to snag fish. Tie up some wiggle stones. Those things are sexy.

 

[msmith14]

Alright thanks, im gonna tie up a few of those wiggle stones tonight. anyone else have any luck using them??

 

[CTobias]

Tie up some purple stones too.

 

[jcstikfish]

My favorite is when you talk to fisherman up river during salmon season and they tell you the fish are "slamming" size 16 black stones. The funny/sad part is they really believe these fish are striking. They usually follow up with... "Fish must be moving to the fly so aggressively, they are missing thier mouth and hooking themselves in the back!"

Small stones 14 and down, definitely fall into the "stealth flies" category. Has a steelhead or salmon EVER struck a small stonefly, yes without question, especially steelhead. However, they would prefer to eat a bigger insec, or an egg.

Blue is a great trigger color for rainbows/steelhead in general. I especially like to fish blue when there are a lot of leaves in the water and the fish get a little turned off with all the non-foods in the drift. Blue is one color a leaf is NOT, and fish will respond to that. So....go with a sive 8 black stone with a blue wingcase. Now THAT'S a steelhead fly.

~James

 

[msmith14]

Thanks a lot jcstikfish, yeah I think this was my problum. I have been catching them on size 14 hairs ears and im hearing people say there taking even smaller flys. I know the fish have really been taking them sometimes but I dont know for sure if they were taking them every time. I really did think they were biting every time.

Thanks again