Steelheader’s Fly Box
Mysis Shrimp
Great Lakes steelhead have a varied diet before entering the tributaries in the fall, including feeding on freshwater shrimp like Mysis relicta (opossum shrimp). These crustaceans are prevalent in lakes Michigan and Ontario. Great Lakes guide Don Mathews’s Fool’s Shrimp works well in the fall for fresh run steelhead, especially in the lower part of a steelhead river. The hot colors are white, orange, and pink in #8-16.
Streamers
Imitating the prevalent baitfish triggers the feeding response of migrating Great Lakes steelhead, especially early in the run when the fish are fresh from the lake and have recently been actively feeding on lake gizzard shad, alewives, smelt, and shiners. These patterns also work when drop-down steelhead become ravenous after the rigors of spawning. Steelhead are more active and aggressively chase baitfish patterns in the warm flows (above 40 degrees F.) of early fall and early spring.
Jim Guida of Buffalo Outfitters in Williamsville, New York, has developed a simple baitfish pattern for steelhead in Cattaraugus Creek that he calls the Mirrored Minnow. Jim likes to fish it on the swing or strip it, and he ties it to his tippet with a nonslip mono loop to give it more action.
Many tributaries also have good baitfish populations like sculpins, small chubs, and darters, as well as crayfish and leeches that can be imitated with different sizes and colors of Woolly Bugger, sculpin, and leech patterns. Muskegon River steelhead guide Kevin Feenstra’s top-producing sculpin pattern is the Emulator Sculpin, swung deep and slow. Feenstra says that the takes with this big sculpin are vicious, often with a steelhead bumping the fly midway through the drift only to come around and hammer it at the end of the swing. He finds Emulator Sculpins especially effective in the spring, but they even work in the dead of winter.
Adhering to the old adage of “using dark flies on dark days and light-colored flies on bright days” helps steelhead see a fly better. In stained water, try using a large, dark fly like a black or purple leech or Woolly Bugger to get a steelhead’s attention. The large blocky profile of the fly is hard for fish to miss at short distances in murky water. Large, dark flies get the fish’s attention at even farther distances in clear water during the low light of early morning or late afternoon or overcast days. On sunny days, lighter colored flies like a blonde or white Zonker show up well due to their ability to reflect available light, but this effect is reduced on overcast days and in deeper or stained water.
Under the right conditions, swinging soft hackles, streamers, Woolly Buggers, traditional steelhead wets, and Spey flies is both an effective and exciting way to hook a Great Lakes steelhead. Active steelhead (usually in water temperatures above 40 degrees F.) will “grab” a swung fly hard, typically at the end of the downstream swing.
Bigger tributaries such as Cattauragus Creek have wide, long runs and pools with consistent depth and are ideal for this presentation. Weight-forward floating fly lines with interchangeable 15-foot sinking tips of various sink rates are effective for swinging in this big, heavy water, especially in medium to high river flows. Shorter sinking tungsten leaders of various sink rates like Rio’s Powerflex Core or Airflo’s Polyleader work well for medium to lower flows.
You can also swing flies in smaller tributaries with small slots and shallow, short runs and pools by downsizing your sinking system. I make my own tips for smaller water by cutting fast-sinking Rio T-14 tungsten shooting-head material (8-9 ips) into lengths from 1 to 8 feet. By attaching small braided loops at the ends of each section, I can switch to the right tip depending on the water flow and depth.
My mini-tip rig consists of a 4-foot-long section of .015-inch-diameter hard nylon (15-pound Maxima Chameleon) connected to a weight-forward floating fly line with a nail knot or loop-to-loop connection. I attach this section to the looped end of the mini-tip with a clinch knot or loop-to-loop connection. From the remaining mini-tip loop attach with a clinch knot or loop-to-loop connection a straight piece of tippet in the appropriate size and length for the water conditions (2 to 4 feet long, 8- to 12-pound-test fluorocarbon) or a simple tapered leader.
I build a simple 3-foot leader for medium flows in smaller tributaries (using 3-, 4-, and 5-foot tips) from 12-inch sections of .015- and .013-inch diameter Maxima Chameleon and roughly a 12-inch section of 10-pound Frog Hair fluorocarbon connected with blood knots. For higher, faster flows, shorten the tippet to keep the fly riding closer to the bottom; lengthen the tippet in slower flows to help prevent the fly from hanging up on the bottom.
Certain fly patterns are ideal for swinging. Thin-profile Spey flies are not only beautiful, but they are dressed with long, soft hackle materials that move as they swing down and across the current flow. Intricate Spey flies with hard-to-obtain materials are not necessary. You can use rabbit-fur strips, Icelandic sheep hair, arctic fox tail, marabou, schlappen, guinea feathers, and some of the new long fibered, soft synthetic materials to tie Spey flies with tremendous movement.
Joe Penich of Hamilton, Ontario, designed a simple and durable fly he calls the Buggsy Spey that uses a dubbing-loop collar of rabbit fur instead of hackle. Joe finds the lifelike action of this fly extremely effective on clear, heavily fished steelhead rivers. Guide Jerry Darkes of Strongsville, Ohio, ties a rabbit-fur-strip Spey fly with a collar of schlappen or guinea feathers that incorporates a rabbit-fur-strip overwing and tail. The wing is tied Zonker-style but with only the front of the rabbit-fur strip secured to the hook shank (behind the hook eye). This allows the fly to have better swimming action on the downstream swing.
Dry-Fly Strategies
Though not often used, dry flies have a place on some tributaries under the right conditions. The wild steelhead running into Ontario’s Grand River and its tributary Whitmans Creek (Lake Erie system), have a history as juveniles of feeding on mayflies and caddis. Swinging adult caddis imitations, like the October Caddis or Great Orange Sedge, and dead-drifting mayfly duns on the surface are effective ways to catch these wild steelhead. On the Grand River the caddis action occurs from mid-September to the end of October and the mayfly activity starts in April.
Even tributaries that have runs based on steelhead stocking programs have potential for dry-fly action. Hatchery steelhead still have predator tendencies (if it is moving they are going to chase it and eat it!) and the late Ohio steelhead guide Michael Bennet proved this by fishing dry flies early in the fall on many Ohio and Pennsylvania tributaries.
He found the best conditions for dry-fly fishing were water temperatures in the 50s, medium to low run-off flows that had decent clarity, and steelhead that were fresh from the lake and aggressive. His technique was to cast up-and-across at a 45-degree angle and skate or wake the fly cross-current as it swung. After the fly straightened out below, he applied a short and quick strip retrieve. Ideal dry-fly patterns for skating and waking include #8-12 Adams, Mosquito, Elk-hair Caddis, Bivisible, and Bombers.
Steelhead anglers have a variety of fly patterns to choose from during the course of the season, but by becoming more versatile and basing fly selections on water conditions, the technique, and the type or design of the fly patterns, they can become more successful at hooking up with Great Lakes steelhead.
John Nagy is a guide and author of Steelhead Guide: Fly Fishing Techniques and Strategies for Lake Erie Steelhead (Great Lakes Publishing, 2003). He lives in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
Copyright © 2012 Intermedia Outdoors
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