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hey....time to tie up some steelhead flies. what's everyones' favourite? mine's a simple one but it has been effective. it's a black popsicle with a red tail. i use popsicles for steelies almost all the time but this coming season i'd like to try different patterns. suggestions please.
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The Eggsucking leech..
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Jigga-Buggers on good hooks in: pink, purple, red, orange, black, green, and combos of these. See Stetzer's "Flies, best 1000" for dressings. I double the length of the tails, to hook shank length.
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OK Ken, at the risk of sounding like racist, what's a "Jigga-Bugger"? Please explain further--I don't want to have to buy the book.;-) I used to tie a steelhead pattern, kinda like a pink skunk, that I naively named "Coke Rock Special." I named it after a house-sized nugget in the Thompson that prevented following hot steelhead. However, a number of people soon showed me the error of my ways. "A coke rock the size of a house you say? snort!" Talk about potential crowding! Cook's Showgirl has been a hot fly for me. Anything mariboo. TA
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Articulated leech and string leech for me. Black and Purple, Black and Red, Black and Chartruese. Anything 4" or longer and harder than hell to cast is my choice. Still relishing in the 40" buck I caught during my afternoon walk. Sorry to brag, but I couldn't resist. Did I forget to mention that I landed two others a little smaller. Hehe When this is done lets try a strangest fly/pattern thread. Q-tip is mine.
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Hio, Thompson Angler.... No worries..... the Jigga-Bugger is pretty simple.... I'm 55, and wear coke bottle glasses, and can tie 20 per hour at speed, and 14-16 per hour on cruise. Only 3 things: tail, body, bead eyes. Easily tied, works very well, and easy to lose because of minimal investment. TAIL: loooong marabou....blood plume, or fronds torn off a bigger spike. Plume to lay along entire hook shank, building it up and covering hook. BODY: "Cactus" Chenille, in colours above...usually 5 wraps to get from tail to head. "Ice" chenille sometimes too skinny, unless body built up with tail feather. EYES: 5-to-the-inch Chromed bead chain.... the kind you use for the bathtub, drapes, etc. HEAD: Fave colour of thread, that will accent the wraps of chenille. If you are rich, then you can use more chenille. I average between 39 and 43 flies per 9 ft/3 yard hank of chenille. HEAD CEMENT: I use Super Glue that goes on sale at London Drugs.. 2 tubes for under 2.00. Wrap em up, have a blast..... As I said above, mix and match body/tail colours...Enjoy !!!! Cheers.... ;-)
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Sounds interesting Ken, thanks. The fly you describe, tyed with ice chenille in smaller sizes, is called a dazzle leach and used in the Interior for stillwater trout. 20 per hour on high eh? Sounds like you do a lot of steelhead fly fishing! TA
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Too funny, Scott !!! LOL....I can't maintain that pace for very long...but with only three components, a rotary vise, and a good cup of coffee, zoom zoom. TA.... I do a niche flytying gig for the local sport shop to support my habit...I have learned many many shortcuts that increase speed without sacrificing quality...I use about a meter of thread per fly...200 meters of unithread 6/0 = about 200 flies. PS.. I fish too. ;-)
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I tie a fly that doen't resemble anything in the water and I have great success with it. Over the years I have stopped with all the fancy flies. Main reason I don't think a fish really studies a fly. I have fly fished for over 30 years. I use either black yarn or a sage green yarn and on the top of the fly I tie get, ready for this now a peace of opal tinsel from the xmas tree. It works like a dam. The tinsel in the water is all different colors and I think that is what attracts them. I use this fly for ALL salmon and trout. I mostly fly fish in the Kitimat river.
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sounds interesting, Marianne...If I have it right, you use only two things
in the fly... some yarn and some pearl/opal tinsel...are you meaning that
stuff that's about 1/8 wide, like icicles? And how many strands? Or....?
When I was first learning to tie, a guy I know who already knew how to tie
said: Ken any fly with three things has one too many !!!! ....From your
describe here... sounds like you know that too !!!!! ***s***
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Yes Ken; The tinsel is opal and in the water it is many colors and I really think that is what the fish are attracted to. Think about all the fancy things people put on there fly to try and imitate a creature in the water. The one that gets to me are when people put eyes on. I gave up doing all that stuff and I now have a very simple fly that catches lots of fish. Once in Kamploops I used a hook and some yellow embroidery yarn and caught fish. Fish bite lures, spin-glos, and what ever, so they will go after anything when they are in the mood.
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Marianne: People put eyes on their flys for more than just catching anglers at the local tackle shop. Eyes can add alot of life to your fly, add that little extra weight and allow easier manipulation i.e. jigging action (slow rise, flutter and fall). Where most fly fishers fish the Kitimat you need little more that a bare hook, why would you waist your time tying (observation). I guess it isn't until you experiment with catching fish in other locals that you realize how important some things are (i.e coho and chinook in the big blue). Catching fish when they are in the mood is pretty easy isn't it, the trick is catching them when they are not. Something that sets catchers apart from fishers I guess.
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I'm thinking Marianne was referring to actual doll's type eyes, or painted ones and not the bead chain/leaded/paired ones you describe...but your observations are exactly right... if the bead chain is tied on top of the hook, then the hook will want to ride point up...gravity and all...plus the bob-bob-bob type action pin point weight will permit......
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Ken: Popsicles with bead chain/lead eyes work great. Marabou + eyes = 1 1/2 materials. No? My articulated leech is two popsicles tied together. Works great on every river throughout BC even the ones around Kitimat (note. around Kitimat). In the olden days when you could keep both hooks attached you'd have one pointing upwards and the other pointing down (deadly).
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I've been using the "magnum" rabbit strips for the leeches.... a number 2 hook (36890/1197 etc) only needs 3 wraps of this style rabbit to do the shank...goes quick ~~s~~
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Billy's articulated leeches are great, I had the pleasure of fishing with one on my fly rod while up north which his buddy old pal centerpin lent me to try out on the first day. What a Deadly looking pattern and so far from my knowledge it kicks arse on the cohos and I dont know how it fairs for the Steelies, but I'm sure its performing great as we speak. I personally have a name for Billys flies because of the kink like action between the sections of marabou, I call it the "Limp Wrist Leech," named after the action, and well, its the creators nickname! Ha ha! J/k. |
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