salmon & steelhead fly tying

im going to take a stab at a little fly tying post for my viewers, This post is about the fly i caught my steelhead on last saturday,  It is a huge part of my success in my first season fly fishing for winter steelhead.  I came across this pattern while browsing the fly pattern library at the Oregon fly fishing blog, i was looking for an alternative fly to use because it seemed alot of the water i was fishing needed a larger presentation that had movement rather then two egg patterns.  i picked a body and head color and started tying away, after switching over to The fly i had a few more hookups and alot more takes then before.  eventually i was able to get one to stick and landed that 20lb monster.
so here it is, a little bit different then the original (i used different eyes ).  it is called the shortly dubbed egg sucking leech




                                               Shortly dubbed egg sucking leech
 This fly deserves a place in every salmon and steelhead fly fishermans box  because you can tie it in dozens of different colors and sizes to best match the conditions you will be fishing. I caught my first winter steelhead on this particular color combo. for best results fish this fly off an indicator  for coho salmon and steelhead. tie it in darker colors for summer steelhead and brighter colors for winter steelhead and coho except when the water is low.

                               Thread: ultra thread 170 white
                             
                               Hook: mustad 3366 or daiichi x510 sizes 2-6
                             
                               Body: shrimp pink crosscut rabbit strip

                               weight : chrome plated lead eyes  large

                                head: sts trilobal  fl.flame             

coastal steelhead fly fishing

Another scenic skunking for winter steelhead in the coast range.. i failed to hook  fish today that were willing to bite, even though the water was cold and quite clear in the upper river there were one or two fish willing to bite, although we did fish dozens of very nice looking runs that did not have any takers..
it was kind of a rough day. Ive hooked 5 fish this year and had multiple missed strikes but haven't been able to land one, closest i have been (twice) i went to tail the fish and it spit the hook..inches from my hand grabbing it's tail then gone... really leaves a bad taste in my mouth very frustrated but ive been told that is good for a first winter steelhead on the fly season, this just leaves me hungry for a winter steelhead..i will be prepared next year, with more knowledge and confidence. on the other hand i saw stoneflies crawling inches from the shore, cutthroat eating mayflies off the top.. and i even had to go down to a t shirt because it got so warm. spring is around the corner and im ready for trout

                             

steelhead fishing on the coast

sunday we headed to the coast range for a bit of steelhead fishing, i ended up hooking two dead drifting egg patterns under and indicator but they both came off sadly, i taught my dad how to bobber fish because he is new to steelhead fishing and he got good at it pretty quick, at the end of the day i swung a few flies through a tailout hoping to get the fish resting in it to take my pink moal leech,the fly didn't go very deep because it didn't need to, the tailout was quite shallow and the fly was right in the fishes face but they would not commit (im new to swinging so my casts were short,sloppy and i may have mended my line a few to many times, but a few of the swings i made looked pretty darn good!  i just think the fish were spooked because we were walking around, i would have creeped down to the water if i knew they were there ahead of time, im about done with winter steelhead for the year and gearing up for trout season, redsides and cutthroat are staring to gobble flies in the mid/south valley streams, i hope to visit a smaller one that has very little pressure soon. ill have pictures/video up when i return





Brandon