Hey Dan
Ive' been tying flies for steelhead with material that moves as much as possible ...soft feathered shclappen ,guinea fowl , marabou tied in a spey type fashion all move with the subtle changes in current as the fly swings.I choose lightly dressed flies for deeper swings and heavily dressed for shallow.I have learned that tyers often include a sharply contrasting color somewhere on the fly as a "hit target" and have found this to be work.For smaller streams spider patterns provide the same movement.The often repeated phrase bright day bright color...dull day dull color may create more bite.
I am starting to tie up some dry patterns for resident fish and would be interested in exchanging ideas with anyone out there.
Hey Dan,
It's a good time to be swinging flies.. There are lots of flies out there that you can try but it depends on your tying ability and/or your budget. What will work best for you is proably more important then what works best for the fish.. To go out and buy a whole bunch of materials may not be in your budget and may not be necessary anyways. I have found Marabou, dub or chenille and Hackle sometimes is all you need to get you started with some good swinging flies.
Sometimes Woolly Buggers in multiple sizes and colors will often work just fine in most conditions. Recently we were swinging all kinds of big flies, different patterns and colors and the one they wanted the most was a 3" wooly bugger in olive brown with gold tinsel down the side and into the tail. They pretty much ignored everything else.. This is a fly I normally nymph with, but at the end of the drift while nymphing and as the fly started to swing they would hammer it, so we started swinging it and did really well. There is a picture of this fly at this link, there are 3 flies I swing at the bottom of the page. There's an all Marabou one that I tie on a tube or just on a straight hook and i tie multiple sizes and in the multiple colors listed below.
Ontario Steelhead Flies
I would suggest a decent assortment of colors and sizes but keep it simple and then progress from there.
Colors to Consider,
Olive with brown or black or tan combinations
Purple with Black, pink combinations
Black, with any of the above colors or just black on it's own
White - on it's own or it can be combined with other colors
Pink, you can add black or purple or white to.
Good luck,
Good luck,
