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#656369 - 01/21/11 02:39 PM New to Flyfishing Steelhead. ****
rawhide Offline
Juvenile at Sea

Registered: 01/17/09
Posts: 147
Loc: Dupont, WA
I am a long time gear fishermen when it comes to salmon and steelhead but have been fly fishing trout since I was a kid. I do a lot of fishing on the OP and really want to get into some wild steel with a fly rod. I have a 8 wt Lamiglas rod with okuma reel but that is the toughest rod I own. Is that enough? Being raised on dry flies I have picked up dead drifting with a nymph and strike indicator for trout and would prefer to start out using that method. Any advice on flys would be great. Thanks

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#656410 - 01/21/11 04:10 PM Re: New to Flyfishing Steelhead. [Re: rawhide]
Bob Offline

Dazed and Confused

Registered: 03/05/99
Posts: 6480
Loc: Forks, WA & Soldotna, AK
An 8 weight will get ya by, although I certainly prefer a 9 this time of year.

If you're going to nymph, you can go as simple as beads or typically any egg pattern is going to produce.

Remember that 90% of the game is getting whatever you're using in front of the fish and worry less about the specific pattern.
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#656429 - 01/21/11 05:10 PM Re: New to Flyfishing Steelhead. [Re: Bob]
Salmo g. Offline
River Nutrients

Registered: 03/08/99
Posts: 13521
8 wt is good. Other than two-handed rods, an 8 wt single hand fly rod has been my go to steelhead rod for over 30 years, before that a 9 wt fiberglass for a few years, and before that a 7 wt fiberglass - that really was a bit on the light side. From what I read here, when it comes to nymphing on the OP and BC, beads are the real deal. In OR north coast rivers, they seem to like bead head egg patterns, and really clean house with those.

And what Bob said. If you present it right, they will eat it.

Sg

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#656448 - 01/21/11 05:53 PM Re: New to Flyfishing Steelhead. [Re: Salmo g.]
Direct-Drive Offline
ExtenZe Field Tester

Registered: 11/10/09
Posts: 8060
Loc: Vancouver, WA
Hopefully I would never been drawn over to the Dark Side, but I have seen many, many fish hooked using floating lines and traditional steelhead patterns during the summer run.
The difference being is that the fish are so much more aggressive....you don't have to get in their face. They come up to attack your offering.
I admit, "the wash" is something to behold.

If I was ever to be kidnapped and spirited off to the Dark Side, it would happen during the summer run.

So, I suppose my point is, if you start now, it just gets better.


Edited by Direct-Drive (01/21/11 05:59 PM)
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#656451 - 01/21/11 05:57 PM Re: New to Flyfishing Steelhead. [Re: Direct-Drive]
SRoffe Offline
Spawner

Registered: 03/02/08
Posts: 814
Originally Posted By: Direct-Drive
Hopefully I would never been drawn over to the Dark Side, but I have seen many, many fish hooked using floating lines and traditional steelhead patterns during the summer run.
The difference being is that the fish are so much more aggressive....you don't have to get in their face. They come up to attack your offering.
I admit, "the wash" is something to behold.

If I was ever to be kidnapped and spirited off to the Dark Side, it would happen during the summer run.


Mmmm, I thought I was turned to the dark side when I picked up a gear rod.... smile

I've used egg pattern under a float using conventional rods. I haven't had much success on a fly rod yet, but, I haven't spent much time using a fly rod fishing for steel head either.
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#656457 - 01/21/11 06:08 PM Re: New to Flyfishing Steelhead. [Re: SRoffe]
Direct-Drive Offline
ExtenZe Field Tester

Registered: 11/10/09
Posts: 8060
Loc: Vancouver, WA
Originally Posted By: Sam Roffe

Mmmm, I thought I was turned to the dark side when I picked up a gear rod.... smile

rofl

As compared to trout, they're junkyard dogs. They don't care about nuances like "matching the hatch".
You are poking a stick through a chainlink fence at a badass mofo.
You just need to know where he likes to hang and then start poking around with that stick.
Better hang, though grin
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#656495 - 01/21/11 10:01 PM Re: New to Flyfishing Steelhead. [Re: Direct-Drive]
summerrun Offline
Dude, where's my boat?

Registered: 11/05/00
Posts: 2376
Loc: Seattle
IMO the key is to have your fly bouncing boulders in the winter...no good to do the classic down n across swing with light flies. Use heavy flies, cast across, stack mend and move down after cast...the quicker you get down and the longer you stay within a few feet of bottom the better success you will have. Oh ya, get a good hook file and check for sharpness constantly...

If you throw bobbers you are drift fishing...:)
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#656496 - 01/21/11 10:13 PM Re: New to Flyfishing Steelhead. [Re: summerrun]
Direct-Drive Offline
ExtenZe Field Tester

Registered: 11/10/09
Posts: 8060
Loc: Vancouver, WA
Originally Posted By: summerrun

If you throw bobbers you are float fishing...:)

Foul !
The floating portion of the line is the bobber (float) grin

Yep, in winter you need to get downstairs.


Edited by Direct-Drive (01/21/11 10:14 PM)
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#656497 - 01/21/11 10:14 PM Re: New to Flyfishing Steelhead. [Re: summerrun]
Salmo g. Offline
River Nutrients

Registered: 03/08/99
Posts: 13521
DD,

Dark side? Oh yeah, that's what we call jig and bobber (nymphing) fishing with a fly rod. But gear? That's not the dark side; that's just totally slumming with the riff raff. The path to Holiness is paved with fishing the swing, wet or dry. True 'dat.

Sg

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#656498 - 01/21/11 10:22 PM Re: New to Flyfishing Steelhead. [Re: Direct-Drive]
Magicfly Offline
River Nutrients

Registered: 01/13/07
Posts: 3444
Loc: Pasco Bulldog country
Hire a guide.

Or you could do what I did, and get the name of a respected fly fisherman from the local fly shop. Call him and invite yourself on one of his fishing trips. smile

Then after he wont take you again. frown

Watch for the guy or guy's who (consistently) put fish on the bank, and befriend them. smile

It won't be easy. But worth it.

Then listen and pay attention to what they say! And eventually you'll start getting the hang of it. Before long the occasional fish, will turn into expected fish.

Just remember, the fly's only about 25%, and presentation's 75%.

Good luck.

Mf
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"Go hard, today Can't worry the past, coz that yesterday". GO COUGS!!!



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#656499 - 01/21/11 10:25 PM Re: New to Flyfishing Steelhead. [Re: Salmo g.]
Direct-Drive Offline
ExtenZe Field Tester

Registered: 11/10/09
Posts: 8060
Loc: Vancouver, WA
I know that the swing is the thing.....I just happen to like brass flies smile
I also like to use a knuckle-buster reel that would make the average feather flicker p!ss in his waders with it hooked up to Mr Big ....
true friggin dat


grin


DD
(I almost wet myself on the first one blush )


Edited by Direct-Drive (01/21/11 10:29 PM)
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#656526 - 01/22/11 12:35 AM Re: New to Flyfishing Steelhead. [Re: ]
Doctor Rick Offline
Free Prostate Exams

Registered: 01/06/10
Posts: 1566
Loc: Sequim
Originally Posted By: salmosalar
If you want to flyfish then flyfish. Nymphng with a bobber is float fishing. It's a fine form of fishing but it is not flyfishing. Good luck.

Like all gear fishing nymhing will make your penis smaller.

Go Sox,
cds


Pretty sure that hasn't happened yet, but it might.
I think, Nymphs will never make a Willie wilt. grin
Evidence: http://www.google.com/images?hl=en&r...280&bih=625

Some folks think it is not flyfishing without all natural materials in the fly and a cane rod but we all find our comfort level with modernity. Look at the Spring Issue 2009 STS with an article by our own Twitch on using fly offerings with casting equipment. Just re read it tonight while looking for something "new" to read. It could just as well be the current issue.


Edited by Doctor Rick (01/22/11 12:37 AM)

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#656537 - 01/22/11 01:28 AM Re: New to Flyfishing Steelhead. [Re: ]
Direct-Drive Offline
ExtenZe Field Tester

Registered: 11/10/09
Posts: 8060
Loc: Vancouver, WA
Originally Posted By: salmosalar

Like all gear fishing nymhing will make your penis smaller.

This is not always true.
Blonde nymphing will in fact make the penis grow larger.

DD
Who still thinks about that blonde nymph from time to time
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#656714 - 01/22/11 10:25 PM Re: New to Flyfishing Steelhead. [Re: ]
Speyguy Offline
Returning Adult

Registered: 07/09/01
Posts: 277
Loc: Bellingham
Originally Posted By: salmosalar
If you want to flyfish then flyfish. Nymphng with a bobber is float fishing. It's a fine form of fishing but it is not flyfishing. Good luck.

Like all gear fishing nymhing will make your penis smaller.

Go Sox,
cds


What's with the anti-nymphing stuff.....If you lived in the high rockies, and never nymphed, you'd be 1/2 a flyfisherman....I wouldn't even consider fishing in the winter up high, without a beadhead dropper. I've been out numerous times when you didn't see a fish rise all day(Winter,in a stream that had 6-8000 fish per mile.....only someone with a small penis wouldn't nymph then....Haaaaaa....And outfishing my gear buddy nymphing a #2 Bitch Creek on the Deschutes made my rod even bigger.....Ha....Tom

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#656907 - 01/23/11 05:12 PM Re: New to Flyfishing Steelhead. [Re: ]
Salmo g. Offline
River Nutrients

Registered: 03/08/99
Posts: 13521
Speyguy,

I don't know for sure, but I'll give you my spin on the "why nymphing for steelhead ain't cool." Traditional fly fishing for steelhead used and still uses the wet fly swing. Even fishing dry flies, or skaters, uses the floating equivalent of the wet fly swing. In WA state, which isn't the Rockies, on fly fishing only waters, the regulations prohibited the use of weighted flies or split shot or any added weight to one's leader or fly line. (Regulations have since been modified to allow nymph fishing.) Absent any added weight, nymph fishing for steelhead simply was not practiced. Further, local fishing ettiquite used a rotation method - as in Atlantic salmon fishing - of casting and stepping downstream through the pool so that every angler gets a chance to fish the entire pool. Lead shot and upstream casting for nymphing was illegal and incompatible with the accepted fishing style.

I don't know when the regulations changed, but my guess is that WA anglers learned to nymph fish for trout from Rocky Mountain fishermen, and brought the technique home, or RM fishermen migrated to WA, take your choice, and got the technique made legal, but it's still kinda' out there on the edge of regional fly fishing morality. From what I see, nymphing seems to be Kosher for trout and not so much for steelhead. Maybe that's because 90% of a trout's diet is sub-surface. And since steelhead in freshwater are typically not feeding, we needn't bother trying to feed them nymphs.(?). Personally I don't care, and having never caught a steelhead by nymphing I fully intend to do so one day, something I've been saying for about 10 years. Since I was schooled in tradition, that's what seems most comfortable to me, and it works in most situations. But I've long thought that nymphing would allow me to fish certain types of holding water that doesn't swing.

Sg

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#656991 - 01/23/11 10:29 PM Re: New to Flyfishing Steelhead. [Re: ]
Magicfly Offline
River Nutrients

Registered: 01/13/07
Posts: 3444
Loc: Pasco Bulldog country
Watched this guy one Oct. morning put three fish on the bank nymphing (3fer5). Turned out this guy had never fished Steelhead before, this was his first trip, he was from Mont.

Pretty lethal method when fishing over hatchery's that won't come up and take a wet fly.

Mf
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"Go hard, today Can't worry the past, coz that yesterday". GO COUGS!!!



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#657013 - 01/23/11 11:38 PM Re: New to Flyfishing Steelhead. [Re: ]
Direct-Drive Offline
ExtenZe Field Tester

Registered: 11/10/09
Posts: 8060
Loc: Vancouver, WA
Originally Posted By: Chuck S.
Originally Posted By: salmosalar
Salmo,

You just got married recently right? So you don't care about the penis thing?

21 days,
cds


rofl


fishing is fishing to me..

No sense in worrying about things that you don't control

rofl
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#657023 - 01/24/11 12:23 AM Re: New to Flyfishing Steelhead. [Re: ]
Doctor Rick Offline
Free Prostate Exams

Registered: 01/06/10
Posts: 1566
Loc: Sequim
8^) When I left driftfishing in about 1980 to go to school, and then came back in about 1995, I found that the boundaries had blurred so much I did not recognize them, and they have blurred even more.

Here were hardware flingers using fly gear , and fly guys using fluorescent stuff called "articulated egg sucking leaches," or some such terms.

Oh really? Anybody seen any egg sucking leaches lately? And don't they look a lot like yarn? Pretty sure there is no hatch to match anywhere close to there. But, it is not important. IMO, if we can learn about these metal heeded wonders and how to be better fishers. So I tie up egg sucking leaches and am sorting out nymphs.

So, 2 questions: 1) How big do nymphs for steelies need to be?
and 2) Sg, is it true?
Congratulations if so.

PS: Great book: "BugWater" by Arlen Thomason More than we can absorb in 10 years about bugs.

Sg's history is good to know and I get ragged on for relating history. History is prologue.
So, I ask, how do we get better at fishing Nymphs for Steelies?
does this make me cheap? 8^)


Edited by Doctor Rick (01/24/11 12:30 AM)

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#657025 - 01/24/11 12:32 AM Re: New to Flyfishing Steelhead. [Re: Doctor Rick]
Doctor Rick Offline
Free Prostate Exams

Registered: 01/06/10
Posts: 1566
Loc: Sequim
Addendum: found this looking around but haven't read it, but some here will also find it interesting to read.

http://www.gormanflyfishing.com/stlhd_book_excerpts.htm

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#657129 - 01/24/11 01:22 PM Re: New to Flyfishing Steelhead. [Re: Doctor Rick]
Salmo g. Offline
River Nutrients

Registered: 03/08/99
Posts: 13521
S. salar,

I would care only if I believed there were a correlation. And at my age and as much as I would nymph, the loss would barely be noticeable.

Magicfly & Chuck S.,

Fly fishing is not the method of choice for people who NEED to catch a steelhead. If I needed to catch a steelhead, I would use a gillnet or blasting caps for their superior effectiveness. But I fish steelhead for sport, and fly fishing - not nymphing - yields the highest sport. Nymphing and bait fishing are crutches, better suited to anglers more in need of catching than rather than maximizing sport.

DR,

1. as small as a 6 mm bead to as large as a 6" MOAL;
2. yes, thank you.
3. ". . . So, I ask, how do we get better at fishing Nymphs for Steelies?
does this make me cheap? 8^)" No, it doesn't make you cheap. It makes you "nymph curious" (what I am) or more in need of catching a steelhead than in maximizing the sport in pursuing one. Calling steelhead "steelies" kinda' makes you cheap, IMHO tho, more derogatory than a term of endearment.
4. about that book: Blashphemy! Clearly more focused on the result than the pursuit, might as well employ a spinning rod and reel.

I reiterate, anyone who "needs" to catch a steelhead ought not fly fish for them. It simply doesn't make sense. Fly fishing for steelhead is simply about obtaining the maximum sport for the effort expended, and while catching steelhead is a priority, it's not as high a priority as catching one under one's own terms of limited effectiveness.

Sg

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