Rich:

I know you are a good fisherman Rich, but I do agree with that being more driftfishing than real flyfishing. Still no small accomplishment; especially with the other guys not hooking up. But that is what many of us veteran fishermen call "Jim Teeny" fly fishing - in other words, drift fishing with a flyrod.

Read Bill McMillan's book on steelhead flyfishing to find out how to best catch truely fly caught winter steelhead. He does it with a floating flyline and heavy wire size 2 hooks with brite multi colored feathers; no added lead in the flyline, leader, or in the fly itself. He casts upstream and works perfect mends to get the fly down, and knows how to recognize a none swing bite. It's really tough. I've only hooked one true fly fished winter steelhead. The others were drift fishing with a fly rod. Not that there is anything wrong with that at all; except it's easier to use a conventional rod to drift fish and land them too. That's why I long ago put the steelhead flyrod down for the winter and use it on summer steelies.

RT