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PLUGFISHING FLY FISHING FOR STEELHEAD

STEELHEAD ON A FLY? Here's How

By Ken McLeod

Steelhead on a fly part 1 This article was originally published as a flyer by Scientific Anglers in the early 60's. The author, Ken McLeod, was one of the Club's founding members, and an early pioneer of fly fishing for steelhead. His son George, referenced in the flyer, is still an active member of the Club and manages to out-fish most of us on an embarrassingly regular basis - George just turned 90.
In the unparalleled sport of fly fishing for steelheads, Ken McLeod has long been recognized as a pioneering master. Many of the skills and techniques commonly used by steelhead fly fishermen are the results of his discoveries and developments. Scientific Anglers, inc. owe Ken McLeod and his son George McLeod a debt of gratitude for their suggestions and for testing the hundreds of sinking lines that lead to the development of today’s Wet Cel® sinking fly line. Beyond question, this father and son team are two of the greatest steelhead fly fishermen in the world today. The string of Field & Stream fly casting winners caught by Ken, and the 29 pound 2 ounce world record-breaker taken in 1955 by George, are a testimonial to their knowledge. We hope that this article will improve your sport with the fly rod for steelhead and other big fish.
“When I go steelhead fly fishing now, I have just as much confidence that I'll hook a fish as I ever had when I used only lures." That was the voluntary and rather startling remark a young fishing guide of Northern British Columbia made to me in the fall of 1962. He had always been a lure fisherman as far as I knew and a good one, although I had never actually fished with him. It was all the more surprising when such a positive remark came from a relative novice with a fly outfit. He proved he wasn’t talking idly when he tied into three good fish with a fly the next day in the hour just before dark. It was gratifying to have this young chap prove on his own what I’ve been trying to instill in other fishermen for 40 years. Determination to stay with a fly and an unwavering confidence that the feathered counterfeits, when fished properly, can be just as deadly as any metal or plastic lure, go hand-in-hand in making a successful steelhead fly fisherman. Even an expert fly caster won’t succeed if he lacks confidence and continually changes to some other lure because he thinks “maybe they aren’t hitting flies today”. The truth is that some steelheads will hit a fly at any time under reasonable water conditions in any month of the year the fish are in the rivers.

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Steelhead on a fly part 2 The phrase “when fished properly” is really the crux to successful steelhead fly fishing. It implies three important things: the right kind of equipment, where to locate fish, and effective presentation of the fly. It’s not uncommon for good trout fly fishermen to come to me with the plaint that they just simply cannot catch steelheads on a fly no matter how hard they try and wind up with the plea, "“What am I doing wrong?" ” If they show the slightest indication of having fished a few hours with a fly and then switched to something else, I refuse to have any sympathy for them and suggest if they really want to catch a steelhead on a fly to leave all other gear at home. On the other hand, if they have stuck with a fly patiently and persistently I'll try to probe into their difficulties and offer what advice I can. Generally the fellow who earnestly stays with a fly and still can’'t make the grade is, unknown to himself, doing something radically wrong, or his equipment is wholly inadequate. Let me interject here that there are two ways to catch steelheads on a fly -— by wet fly and by dry fly. Obviously, to any knowledgeable fly fisherman, the two methods require different tackle and techniques. 95 percent or more of the fly caught fish will be taken on a wet fly, but there are short summer and fall periods on selected water when a dry fly is vastly superior. In one favorable summer a few years back, of 20 steelheads I took, 16 were on a dry fly. And again in a single day on a popular stretch of water, I witnessed 14 taken on dry flies when they utterly disdained anything that sank. Still, area-wide and year-around, it’s the wet fly that is the heavier producer so I’ll direct my remarks largely to the latter. Under the heading of equipment, everything the fisherman uses can be listed: clothing, wading gear, rods, reels, lines, leaders, flies, or any other item considered necessary. I’ll devote more space to lines and how to use them than to the other items because I believe this phase to be vital, and possibly the least understood. Clothing should be warm enough to permit prolonged wading with either hip boots or chest waders. Felt or other non-skid material on the soles is an absolute necessity to prevent unnecessary dunkings and leg strain from slippery wading. Standard fly rods in split bamboo or glass (of the angler’s choice,) preferably between 4½ to 6 ounces, but sufficiently stiff for rugged use, are satisfactory. Single action fly reels with adjustable tension and capable of holding the fly line plus an absolute minimum of 150 yards of 15-pound backing are essential. Fly patterns are largely a matter of personal preference. Some fishermen like the gaudy, yellow, red and white combinations with gantron yarn bodies, others the dark neutral colors. I don’t think the average steelhead is too particular as a rule, although on occasion he may be highly choosy. It’s best to have along half-dozen or so patterns of bucktail flies in both categories in sizes ranging from No. 4’s to 1/0 or even 2/0 in standard double strength fly hooks. Don’t stint on the quantity because it’s not uncommon to lose 6 or 8 flies in a day. In dry fly pattern I lean to the neutral or dark colors in hook sizes from No. 10 up to 4’s with a No. 6 being perhaps the best all-around size. A good but by no means infallible rule is to use a dark fly on overcast days and bright flies on sunny days. In the use of leaders, I am not too much concerned with a fine balance of sections as one would be for example in tournament casting where accuracy is all important. Steelhead rivers are usually wide, mostly open streams and one seldom has to lay a fly on a dime to get action. It is important though to keep the leader shorter than the rod unless you have a smoothly wrapped splice of the butt end to the line. Four sizes of leader material of virtually the same lengths commencing with about a 20-lb., dropping then to 17, 14 and 11½ for the tippet gives a satisfactory taper. Or go to whatever tippet size you prefer so long as you get good tight knots that won’t slip under continued strain from a heavy fish. Any hook larger than a 4 should not be used on a tippet under 11½ pounds unless constantly retied, because continued flexing from false casts will weaken the leader at the eye of the hook and a sharp strike will break it there with surprising ease. For dry flies a 6-lb. test tippet is a much better size, stepping up and increasing the intermediate sections to 9½, 11½, 14 and 17 lb. for the base or even stay with the 20, commensurate with your ability to keep the fly floating throughout the length of its drift. If the weight of the leader drags it under, go to smaller size strands. A steelhead often piles onto a dry fly when it hangs suspended on the surface against the current after it has completed its drift. So if drag pulls the fly under before the pick-up you are getting less than a hundred percent efficiency out of your cast. When it comes to fly lines, I am so completely sold on the respective merits of the Wet Cel® and Air Cel® for my particular methods of fishing and their workability for splicing onto shooting or running lines, or specially spliced “shooting heads’, that I am convinced they have no equal. It is quite obvious that with the introduction of the Wet Cel which will sink under any condition and the Air Cel you can sink only with an anchor, the frustrations of the old time steelhead fly fisherman with his single all-purpose line, are headaches of the past. Stated briefly, those frustrations arose largely from trying to make a silk line sink when it persisted in floating and vice-versa.
In using the wet fly it is important that the fly be fished as close to the bottom as possible. Hang-ups therefore can be frequent unless you know the water intimately and just how to fish it. The first requisite of a line is that it balance with your rod so that it casts properly. The next is that you be able to fish it deep enough in the water being covered. It should be apparent that the specific line that balances your rod correctly may not always fish all types of water ideally under identical casting procedure. You must therefore vary your method of presentation in respect to flow of the current with almost every run or pool that is fished in order to get the best possible drift of the fly. Usually three or four probing casts in each stretch of water will reveal the technique required to get the feel of the right drift. Steelhead holding water is usually the straight flowing deep runs between two long, shallow riffles. They generally have a bank on the deep side and a shallow bar on the other. The productive area is mostly from 5 to 6 feet deep with a flow of 2 to 5 feet per second. These pools, runs or holes as they are variously dubbed may have from 50 to 200 yards of good fishable water from the foot of the upper riffle to the narrowing channel at the lower end where the accelerating currents chute into the next rapid. If it’s good lie-water it will probably have a bottom of heavy gravel or boulders from the size of a baseball to a bushel basket or larger. So properly equipped with chest waders, a stripping basket, a GBF Weight Forward Wet Gel line that fits my rod, I approach a typical stretch of steelhead water on a typical 100-ft. wide river that can be forded only at selected places. If no one else is fishing the pool I’ll start at the top from the shallow side, working 40 to 50 feet of line off the reel. From a knee-deep position and far enough upstream in the fast water to permit the fly to swing into or through the uppermost holding water, I’ll make the first cast slightly downstream from straight across. If the fly fails to drift deep enough to suit my fancy, succeeding casts will be a little more upstream until I can feel the fly nudge bottom in about 3 feet of water near the end of its drift. If it hangs up before completing the drift, I shorten line or make the cast more downstream. Several casts will be made covering the same water, as steelheads don’t always strike the first time through, if at all. The fly and line is permitted to drift naturally without imparting any action to it whatever except near the end of its course when the retrieve is commenced by the conventional method of working the line in with the fingers of the left hand preparatory to picking it up for the next cast. Or it may be stripped in slowly. In both cases the retrieved line is directed into the stripping basket in coils ready for the next cast. The fly also may be permitted to hang at the end of the drift for as much as 30 seconds before the retrieve if it hangs in fruitful water. Incidentally, the stripping basket is a shallow, half round canvas container that is strapped around the waist or hung by a thong from around the neck into which excess shooting line is drawn. This keeps it out of the current or from fouling in debris at one’s feet. It is a method I pioneered in 1926 as an adaptation from the solid platform used by tournament casters in the distance fly event. In effect, the basket becomes a practical, portable platform and is now widely used by Washington steelhead fly fishermen. I am convinced that steelheads prefer a drifting dead fly rather than one with jerky action. Others may argue this point. Thus any action I impart is mostly for the purpose of lessening the chance of the fly fouling in the rocks, and to begin the retrieve. However, in specially fishy looking water if the dead-drift fly does not attract a fish in a few casts, I may try crawling the fly across the bottom. It may goad a fish into a savage strike. Satisfied that no fish lies within the range of my first length of line I strip off 5 or 6 feet more and extend the cast, fishing water further out and farther downstream until I reach the limit of my ability to cover the water without excessive hang-ups. Individual casting ability can be augmented tremendously with the stripping basket by as much as 50 feet or more by permitting the river current to draw the excess line from the basket. On the retrieve of this excess line, a right handed caster places the butt section of the rod under his - upper right arm pressing it tightly to his body with the upper butt resting across his right forearm and holding the rod virtually parallel to the water surface. He then draws about a foot of line into the basket with his left band, repeats with his right and so on with a motion exactly like coiling a stretched out length of rope with both hands. He retrieves all but the amount of line he is able to pick up for the next cast. The length of the cast is controlled by permitting the line to run through the left hand stopping it when desired, and similarly the drift of the excess line from the basket. After covering the water from the one position to the best of my ability I move downstream a step at a time fishing methodically and carefully, probing very little channel and, gut with the utmost patience. Deeper wading is generally required where the river widens as one progresses downstream. It is not uncommon to spend two hours fishing out a 200-yard run. The best lie-water may be in relatively different locations in different runs, but never pass up the slick troughs or chutes at the tail end of pools that develop from increased water velocities. Most migrating fish will move though such channels. And steelheads frequently tarry there. Be prepared though if you hook a fish in such a location to follow downstream through white water in a wild, stumbling race you’ll often lose. Or perhaps you can check the downstream flight by quickly feeding line so the drag will appear to come from below and make the fish reverse its direction. It does not always work, but sometimes pays off. Assuming that you have mastered the technique of casting and drifting the fly, there are two common mistakes one should guard against - holding the rod too high and looping line around one’s hand. The former prevents a good set of the hook, while the latter invites disaster when the strike comes, You won’t lose anything but the fish and the fly and perhaps your dignity, but it’s awfully disconcerting when you can’t let go fast enough. There is another method of wet fly fishing that is becoming increasingly popular among steelheaders. It is the “shooting head” procedure developed independently but about the same time by Washington and California fishermen some 20 years ago. But because properly balanced heads were difficult to come by, and splicing them to nylon running line created problems, it was a little slow catching hold except among the do-it-yourself experts. The advantages to this method of fishing a wet fly are that it is far less tiring to the casting arm because not more than one false cast is ever needed to reach out from 80 to 100 feet or more; it permits a drift of the fly parallel to the current and as much as 200 feet where conditions are favorable; it relieves the reel for the addition of an extra 100 yards or more of backing, and it is more economical. While my experience of more than 20 years with this method of fishing has been confined largely to steelheads, it works equally well for any kind of river fishing where long casts are necessary and extreme accuracy is unimportant.

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