This series of steelhead flies has been developed over the past 30 years. It is based on my own fishing experience here in the Skeena drainage and knowledge that I acquired over my years of guiding on the Bulkley River. Many of the patterns have been refined over the years, and tested over many seasons. As a guide I like to see my clients catch fish, and this depends, to some degree, on the flies they fish. For arguments sake two opinions can be recognized when it comes to the importance of fly choice; there is the group of fishermen that feel that fly choice does not matter much, as long as it moves and is in the water, any fly will catch fish. The other group contributes great importance to the choice of fly, and will go through many fly changes on a day in order to find that one fly that is the magical one. I am somewhat in between with my opinion on the importance of fly choice. Most definitely I do believe that at times, subtle changes will make a difference, and many years of experimenting have clearly shown me that some patterns will out-fish others. Let me recount some experiences as examples.
One year I was fishing by myself on the Bulkley. I was fishing the dry, and in those days my go-to search pattern was a Green-butt Bomber. I rose a fish on the Green-butt Bomber, I gave the fish a minute to settle back down and repeated the exact same cast. I rose the fish again. Typical for the rises on this big Bomber, the fish rose rather splashy, and did not really commit to the fly. I gave the fish a couple of minutes to settle down again and repeated the cast. The fish rose again, but never touched the fly. I repeated this for a couple more times, the fish continued to rise, but never took the fly. So, as an intelligent and far superior creature, I figured I would outwit this lowly organism; I put on my special closing pattern; that would fool him! My closing pattern was a Lady Caroline, rather small. I made the same cast, nothing…. Hmmm. Try it again. Nothing….. Hmmm. Stupid fish! What to do now? Maybe switch back to the Green-butt Bomber. Sure enough, on the first cast the fish rose again on the Green-butt Bomber, but it did not come back for it on repeated casts. Well, not to despair, I always had my ace up my sleeve: an Egg-sucking Leech! Ha! He was doomed now! With great anticipation I tied on the Egg-sucking Leech and made my cast. Nothing! Impossible. Cast again. Nothing…. Hmmm. Now it was time to take off my hat, scratch my head and think. What to do next? Maybe back to the Green-butt Bomber, after all it had shown interest in that. I tied the Green-butt Bomber back on, made the same cast, and sure enough, the fish rose again! I repeated the cast, but it did not come back. Well…what to do next? This fish was giving me a hard time! Maybe something that looked like the Green-butt Bomber but not quite the same would do the trick. My next choice was a Purple Bomber. Nothing…. Maybe an Orange-butt Bomber? Nothing…. Back to the Green-butt Bomber. Splash! By now it was time to frantically go through the half dozen of fly boxes that I had in the boat and try them all! Surely this fish had to grab something that was not a Green-butt Bomber! Nope. No takes on any of my offerings, except the Green-butt Bomber. After everything was said and done I probably spent an hour and a half trying to outwit that fish. And I never caught it! It rose 12 times on the Green-butt Bomber before it stopped altogether. I believe it lay on the bottom rolling around laughing at this stupid, lowly, unintelligent creature that was trying to outwit him! Although quit humbling, this was a very interesting learning experience. The fish clearly was very specifically interested in the Green-butt Bomber, and even differentiated it from exactly the same pattern with an orange butt. Remarkable.
On another occasion I had a client fish a drop-off on the Bulkley. He happened to have some sort of leech pattern on and he fished the spot well, but failed to produce any fish. I was convinced that there were fish holding just behind the drop-off so I asked him to go back where he started and put a single egg on. Half an hour later he had three fish. Interesting.
Late in the fall I was fishing the Babine. I was waded out in mid-river on the edge of a ledge. In front of me the river dropped straight down to about 7 feet. I new that the fish in that location like to hold out of the current against the ledge rock. Usually I fish this with a single egg, that I “high stick nymph” along the ledge; normally a very effective method. So this time I also fished it this way. I fished the complete run and had 3 fish gently “pluck” the single egg. When the fish get this way late in the season, with dropping water temperatures, you know that the fishing is not hot. During this time however, I was in an experimental stage with my Franc ‘n Snaelda variations. I wanted to see if they would trigger a strike. Long story short, I landed 7 fish in the run and they all hammered the fly… Fascinating.
These are just a few examples of the many times that I have seen that fly choice can make a significant difference, and I always tell my clients that the difference between a good fisherman and a great fisherman lies in the details.
So, over the years, I have fine-tuned a series of flies that have very specific characteristics for certain situations. Below I will describe for each pattern how, where, and when I fish it.
“Formula 1”
This is my “early season/fresh fish fly”. I use it for fresh fish on the Skeena, lower Skeena tributaries, and early season upper tributaries. The fly is a variation of the classic “Popsickle” pattern. The Popsicle is a proven fly, and particularly good in early season for fresh fish. I basically copied the colour scheme but diverted significantly from it with the tying technique and materials. I switched from the classic salmon hook to a tube; much better hook ups, improved landing percentage, and stronger. I added some weight, by means of a brass bead for the wing support and a cone head. The marabou wing is supported by Nutria, tied up against the brass bead, which gives the fly volume, and makes it come alive.
I usually fish it relatively fast, in the upper water column. I like to use a dry line or a light tip. The extra weight on the fly will keep it down a bit while the lighter line will keep the speed up. You will seldom have a subtle bite with this fly and method.
“Seeker”(Low Light/Bright Light)
This is a fly that I have worked on and refined for many years. When I came to Canada I was familiar with the double handed rods and tube flies that we used in Europe. To my surprise these were not used for steelhead. Since I lived a stones throw from the Bulkley River (arguably the best steelhead dry fly river in the world), I soon started fishing dries for steelhead extensively, and started experimenting with dries tied on plastic tubes. To me it made sense that a dry fly tied on a plastic tube would float better then a dry fly that was tied on a metal hook. The second aspect that I wanted to incorporate in my dry fly was that it would create a nice V-shaped ripple in the water. The steelhead seemed to key in on that. Thirdly I wanted it to always ride up, and push itself up on top of the surface when under tension. Lastly I wanted it to be easily visible. So I created a pattern with wings that were strongly angled off the tube, on a slight downward angle, in order to make it ride high on the surface film. It also has a foam back/head which makes it push up on top of the surface when under tension. The tube is left bare on purpose. It is semi-translucent, sticks below the surface film due to the angle that the fly rides, and thereby forms a great trigger point for the steelhead. I settled on two variations; one for low light conditions and one for bright light conditions. The white calf tail wing has good visibility in most situations. I fish this tube fly in combination with an up-eye hook that I stick up-side-down in the tube. This will make the point of the hook ride in line with the tube, the bend of the hook will end up slightly below the tube, thus acting as a keel. The hook sits a bit back from the fly which is ideal for steelhead which tend to take the fly from behind. The hook-up percentage with this fly is significantly better then any other pattern I have tried. It “searches” well but at the same time is natural enough to solicit positive takes. It has been about 20 years since I started experimenting with this pattern and for the last 5 years or so I have not made any changes to it. I am extremely happy with it and have absolute confidence in it. I seldom change to anything else when I fish a dry.
“Destroyer” (Low Light/Bright Light)
This is my follow up pattern, or closer. It is the same pattern, only about half the size. I have found that steelhead tend to rise more likely to the same pattern than a different pattern. So if I get a fish that repeatedly rises to my Seeker and does not commit to it, I will just change to the smaller Destroyer. It works 9 out of 10 times. These days the “Seek and Destroy” combo in two colour variations is all I carry with me for a day of dry fly fishing.
“Egg-sucking Rhea Stinger”
I used to guide Paul Miller in the days that he popularized Rhea as a fly tying material. He liked to fish big patterns and swing them in the upper water column. The method works well for aggressive fish. The movement of the Rhea increases the effectiveness of this method. I was impressed with the Rhea flies; they were very durable and had more movement then any other material I had seen. I have started tying flies with Rhea ever since. The Egg-sucking Rhea Stinger is my “go-to fly”. It has all the aspects of an effective fly for our waters; the lively movement of the Rhea, the blue/black body colour, just the right amount of weight so that it tracks well, and a head that simulates an egg. It is a very reliable pattern and if I had to fish with only one fly for the rest of my life, the Egg-sucking Rhea Stinger would be it. I tried many materials for the stinger loop over the years; spider wire braid, nylon, nylon coated wire, Rio slick-shooter. I did not like any of them. They all had issues. Braids droop to much and become troublesome when used for a while with hook replacement. Nylon is too bulky for it’s strength and tends to kink when put under a lot of strain. Coated wire wears at the hook junction and starts to rust and breaks. Rio slick-shooter kinks too much. So I kept on looking for a better alternative. I am very happy with the loop material that I use now, it is strong, stays in line, does not kink and lasts.
“Pink Rhea Stinger”
Some guys swear by pink flies and will fish nothing else, and for a good reason. Pink is a very effective colour for our Skeena drainage steelhead. In particular there are two situations when I prefer a pink fly over a darker fly; during the very early season when there are many fresh fish, particularly on the lower Skeena, and secondly, during the late season for territorial bucks. Just a few weeks ago I had a nice experience that illustrates this well. I was fishing the Bulkley. The water temps had been dropping, there was shore ice and the river was almost starting to ice up. The day was clear and the temperature well below zero. Not the best fishing conditions. But I had no choice; I had to go fishing! Obsessive, according to my wife. I had a soft “pluck” on my Egg-sucking Rhea. I tried the same fly a couple more times but no further reaction from the fish. I was fishing the best part of a small, slow piece of water; ideal for a big buck. So I decided to try for this fish some more. When the fish are lethargic in conditions like this, they sometimes still grab a single egg. So I switched to a single egg. I gave it a few tries, but no reaction. I was hoping that this was a big buck, holding in the best part of the pool, and it would likely be territorial. In that situation the Pink Rhea Stinger is hard to beat. I tied it on and swung it into the lie; bang! That 40″ buck did not want something that annoying anywhere close to his spot!
“Steelhead Single Egg”
The steelhead of the upper Skeena drainage have “trouty” behaviour. The feed on dry flies and eggs, probably to help them sustain through the long winter before they spawn in the spring. Eggs are a prolific food source for them, so naturally an egg imitation is an effective pattern. The steelhead focus on the eggs particularly after the salmon have spawned. So usually I use egg patterns later in the season. There are a variety of ways to fish the eggs. I like to swing them. I fish them on a floating line or a light tip, with the egg slightly weighted. Usually the eggs are fished in fairly slow water. The combination of a weighted egg and long leader gives us depth. The use of a floating line keeps the fly swinging through slow water. I have tinkered with different egg patterns over the years. You name it, I’ve tried it. But after all of that I am back to a very simple pattern, with some key features. It’s a single egg made from egg yarn. The two things that I think are crucial are a bit of lead weight wrapped under the egg to make it sink close to the bottom, and secondly the eggs are tied big, on big hooks. I have had too many fish bend out standard size 2 hooks. I fish size 1 or 1/0 for my eggs. I have noticed no difference between the bigger egg or smaller sizes, as far as attracting steelhead. The bigger size does help reduce the amount of trout by-catch, which at times can get in the way of catching steelhead.
“Tube Leeches”
Leeches are popular. In all kinds of variations. So a leech pattern is always good to have in your box. After trying any conceivable leech pattern I have settled on these Tube Leeches. I prefer tubes over standard hooks or stingers. I think they have a better landing percentage. I also like the bit of weight from the cone head, to keep it tracking close to the bottom. Other then that there is nothing special about these leeches, just a simple good pattern on a tube. I fish them in three colours; black, blue and pink. As the saying goes: “any colour is good as long as it is black”. A black leech is a very effective fly. Legendary guide Bob Hull fishes a blue bunny leech almost exclusively; better have one of those in your box. The pink version is very good for aggressive bucks late in the season.
“Bulkley Bandit”
I designed this pattern with a very specific technique in mind. When the fish move into their winter lies and the water temperature drops fishing techniques for steelhead have to change dramatically. If you don’t change the way you fish, you’ll catch a lot less fish. Typically we fish slower water. The bites become more subtle and you need to down size your fly. Egg patterns are a good choice during these conditions. However, I wanted something that had bit of action and was heavier than an egg. The Bulkley Bandit has a big tungsten bead head to give it as much weight as possible for a small fly. I have added a short rabbit strip, leech style, but the over-all size of the fly is very small. I fish this on a floating line or very light sink-tip with a long leader. This keeps the fly moving through the slow water, which is needed to trigger strikes. The tungsten bead keeps it close to the bottom, where the fish are. It has been an extremely effective fly for me. It has proven itself well also in other situations and in bigger sizes. Definitely one of my best producing flies.
That rounds up my series of flies for this area. The series is a great basis to start from and, on it’s own, all you need to be prepared to fish any of the Skeena tributaries. Of course you still want to do some experimenting yourself! I would be very interested to hear from any of you about special patterns that are favourites of yours.
