Cast, swing, hang the fly, and then step down. Your main focus should be covering the water to find the fish. The Skagit Minnow, named for the river on which it was designed to fish, was designed to fish big water. Thankfully, outside of steelhead circles, down-and-across angling remains limited to a small, occult-like following compared to the numbers of nymph and dry fly anglers. Back in the 50's, 60's and even into the 70's Mason Hard Nylon was our go-to for steelhead leader butts. The good folks at Thomas and Thomas also view him as one of the nation’s foremost experts on tightlining. John Nagy's Steelhead Guide eBook Now Available! Swinging flies for Steelhead isn’t for the faint of heart. Trip Preparation is the Key for Success on the "Steelhead Alley" Tributary Streams, Tube Flies for Great Lakes Steelhead (Part I), Tube Flies for Great Lakes Steelhead (Part II), Step-by-Step Tying Instructions for Blue and White Temple Dog Tube Fly, The Tube Fly Advantage (Fly Fish America Magazine), Pro Flytyer™ (Pro Sportfisher) Introduces a New Tube Fly System, Upcoming and published magazine articles I, Upcoming and published magazine articles II, More Info and Reviews of John Nagy's Custom Made "Noodle" Fly Rod, John Nagy Custom Lake Erie Steelhead Flies, John Nagy Custom "Hot Butt" Leader and Indy Kit, The New Solitude Fly Reel....the "Guides" Reel, Reel Recovery Fly Fishing Retreats for Men with Cancer, A Video Tribute in Memory of Yuri Shumakov, Lake County Ohio Metro Parks (Grand and Chagrin Rivers), Pennsylvania Fish & Boat Commission Lake Erie Fishing Report, Pennsylvania tributaries (access and parking details), PF&BC Lake Erie Access Improvement Easements Map, Ohio Ashtabula County Metro Parks Maps/Access, Vrooman Rd Bridge Project (Grand River) Live Web Cam, Pennsylvania Lake Erie Near Shore Buoy Forecast, Rocky River, OH (including water temperature), Walnut Creek, PA (including water temperature). Well, the usual Salmon River fly fishing set-up is this: a long four-foot tippet length from the weight to the fly, heavy split shot, and swinging down and across. In this fantastic full-length video we learn how to properly swing and present wet flies for big steelhead. Thread starter Cool Hand Hodge; Start date Dec 15, 2009; Cool Hand Hodge Well-known member. The steelhead are down deep and may opportunistically grab a swinging fly. Now these are beliefs I hold, they are not my own, nor are they law. After making a cast, it’s good to make one mend to get your fly in proper presentation and speed. Swinging Flies Method. Please go to, (Note: refer to John Nagy’s Steelhead Guide book for custom steelhead leader formulas. Roderick Haig-Brown, A River Never Sleeps, 1946, Steelhead guide, author and photographer John Nagy, All the photos and articles on this website credited to John Nagy are the exclusive property of John Nagy and. Finally, here are some other observations: Hope all this helps. Very often, the best way to approach swinging flies is to keep the fly in the upper part of the water column. For short-line nymphing: Frog Hair’s Great Lakes Steelhead and “Hi-Vis” Transition Nymph Leaders, Rio’s Indicator and Steelhead/Salmon Leaders, Scientific Anglers Steelhead/Salmon Leader, Cortland’s Climax Nymph Leader and John Nagy’s custom-made “Hot Butt” Leader. After the fly landed, Mike gave a quick upstream mend and then let the fly sink and drift for about three seconds before bringing the fly into swing. I want to set up a similar tightline rig for Great Lakes steelhead and am looking for a suitable rod. Also, with some of my steelhead patterns that are larger in profile, like mop stoneflies and egg sucking leeches, I figure I need a bit more weight to have that larger profile sink properly. This is when you dust off the 8 weights, 5 inch flies, and mega sink-tips. Swinging flies can also work wonders with steelhead when the other heavier methods aren’t getting them to bite. Rio lines and Air flo are still leaders in most of the new development of lines here. Unfortunately, it creates a lot of foul hooking. You’re able to show to the fish an easy-to-get and tempting morsel. 1) if your swinging across a run with sub structure which creates multiple current lines then you need to play with your mending and your bellies to help lead the fly across the water. For steelhead flies I am considering 4 things: size, weight, color, and movement. Super helpful post! If you need longer leaders, pay attention to the stiffness of the butt. It was a blast. Each section should be tied with a blood knot and the fly … I suggested making short casts directly perpendicular from his position to place the fly precisely on the boulders. Patterns from Kevin Feenstra and Greg Senyo are great for winter. Here it is, along with the fly line and backing I used: Please know that all credit goes to UpCountry’s Torrey Collins, who used to guide at the Salmon River. Steelhead Anglers who swing flies, are well, pretty crazy. For sub-surface swinging presentations: Rio’s VersiLeaders, Airflo’s Trout and Salmon Polyleaders.). Steelhead Guide, Fly Fishing Techniques and Strategies for Lake Erie Steelhead. They swing great but also work in still water lakes. Sorry, your blog cannot share posts by email. Leader for swinging steelhead flys? Thanks for the shout out Jo, and everything you wrote here was spot on. And, it wasn’t great for the fish. Be sure to give this technique a try on your next steelhead trip to enjoy the feel and finesse of fishing a floating line. Leaders in the 4 to 9 foot range will keep the fly higher up in the current flow versus a shorter leader (less than 4 feet) which is ideal for keeping the fly down close to the stream bottom when steelhead are moving less for a fly (flows colder than 40 degrees F). However, you can use singe-handed rods to complete these casts as well. Since most steelhead fly rods are in the 9 to 10 foot range you’re talking about a … By the way, the mop stonefly i was mentioning in my initial comment, despite having a large bead, was just too robust to sink fast enough. I used the above set-up with my 1086 Thomas and Thomas Contact six-weight (review here). While I fish mostly 6 and 7 weights in the summer, winter is a 7 and 8 weight game. With the heavier leader and tippet, I figure I have to step up the weight a bit, but don’t want to go too heavy. Last: a huge, huge shout-out to Torrey Collins! Small flies but hooks strong enough to land a twenty pound fish. I learned a ton at the Salmon River and was grateful to land some steelhead. I received some inquiries about the Euronymphing leader I used on last week’s steelhead trip to the Salmon River’s Lower Fly Zone. 100% of profits to charity. You’re hopefully not making a change every 20 minutes, but when you move from a ripping boulder garden to a glassy tailout, you need to make a change. Thanks! So, it was costly, both in terms of money and time. The Technique – The wet fly swing is implemented by casting downstream and across the river at a 45-degree angle. In the fall and spring months, swinging soft hackle flies … Other flies are made to skate by various methods of attaching the fly to the leader. The tightlining approach is different. MoscaPescador Well-known member. Another benefit to not using a sink tip is the added enjoyment of fighting a fish that is connected to the angler with the lightest amount of weight in the line. It’s also the predominant technique when nymphing for steelhead in the winter. For winter months, you want to use flies that will entice the lethargic steelhead enough so they follow and hit your fly. Longer rods allow you to mend the fly easier. A good rule of thumb when bottom-bouncing is to use a leader (including the tippet) roughly the length of your fly rod. Recommended manufactured or “off-the-shelf” steelhead leaders include the following. Weight amount was key. Dec 15, 2009 #1 I would like to try swinging for steel but am unsure what leader to use. In the fall season I have only hooked up with Chinook and was lucky enough to get that Atlantic a few weeks back on an egg fly pattern. I used the leader formula above with regular floating fly line. Contact six-weight ( review here ) a leader ( including the tippet ) roughly length... They follow and hit your fly dead-drift at those spots the tippet ) roughly the length your! 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