Steelhead Fly Patterns
by
Gene Macri

Steelhead fly patterns can be a fly tyers dream or a nightmare.  There is a lot of nonsense about which patterns the fish will hit and when they will hit them.  When steelhead are moving they will hit almost anything. When they are not moving then it becomes a game that is sometimes very difficult.

There are three major pattern groups that steelhead fly fishermen should use: 1) Egg patterns and relate styles 2) standard steelhead patterns and 3) secret patterns that no one knows too much about and may fly anglers don't want to talk about. There also another group of patterns will talk about briefly that a few fly anglers use but seldom mention. 

Egg fly patterns come in a variety of colors and combinations.  Depending on the water depth, turbidity and other conditions it pays to have lots of colors, sizes, and styles. Some days double egg sacs will work when single eggs will not. Different materials also make a difference and the most important thing can be the weight and proper drift.

Standard steelhead patterns will do a decent job.  There are tons of patterns on the market and you can find many books with such patterns in.  There's a problem with many of these patterns which are sometimes used on streams like those in North West Pennsylvania (Lake Erie) or the New York steelheading and that is they were basically designed for larger Western Rivers, and may not give the action and effect that they were designed for in these slow, little streams in the East.

So what's the secret?  Well there are actually two secrets that you can sometimes clean up on when fishing for these Eastern steelhead. First, here's link to some real secret patterns (Macri's Early Season Secret Wet Fly Patterns) that work in the spring for trout and also for steelhead. Notice that they are tied on smaller hooks!  They are unbelievable deadly on any given day especially when nothing else will work. 

The second secret is to use smaller wet flies and nymphs for these fish.  Yes, I know they are hard to hook on such sizes like 16 etc. but what you do is take a size 14 and tie the nymph or wet fly on the "skimpy" side in other words you are tying small pattern on a larger hook. They don't look pretty but they will often work.

And one final little note. The photo at the top of the page shows a Classic Salmon Fly.  These patterns work very well on steelhead especially tied on smaller hooks.  Too expensive you say!  Substitute the materials make sure you have the right colors.  Now you should be ready for just about anything that you need to throw at those steelhead.