Dry Fly Techniques and Tactics for Great Lakes Steelhead
The first steelhead I ever saw eat a dry fly was in a Lanni Waller video shot during 1986 in the wilds of British Columbia. It wasn’t the gentle sipping rise most often associated with dry fly fishing for trout. It was more like a bomb going off in the bottom of the river. I was shocked and awed and played the scenes over again and again, watching the explosion’s of giant steelhead taking surface waking dry flies. I could only dream of west coast rain forest’s and the emerald arteries that fed the Pacific Ocean. Never did I think that I would ever get the thrill of watching a steelhead eat a dry fly that was tied to the end of my leader.
22 years pass and I’m a fly fishing guide working the tributary laced shoreline of “Steelhead Alley”. Sure, I’d heard of steelhead being caught here and there with dry flies and gave it a half hearted effort every now and then, but I still thought it was nearly impossible to take Great Lakes steelhead on dry flies and surface presentations. During the spring of the 2008, more than one of my fishing buddies reported taking steelies with the dry fly and not wanting to be left out of that circle of success, I gave the dry fly an honest effort the following fall. It became a new and exciting learning experience for me. I eventually found out that fishing dry flies or dry flies with a dropper set up, could actually help me land more steelhead under some of the most adverse conditions a tributary angler could face. Large, migratory fish in a low and clear water stream or river.
Scouting around one mid September day before the first scheduled trips of the season, I finally started putting it all together when I purposefully set out to hook my first steelhead on a dry while fishing Conneaut Creek , a Lake Erie tributary located in Ohio. The water was low and clear. Without any forecast of rain, I thought that maybe I should cancel my upcoming trips. In a deep, fast run, I was able to hook my first steelhead of the day by swinging a white streamer, but this wasn’t the water type I was looking for to try dry fly techniques for the first time. That fish was hugging the bottom. I was looking for suspended fish in slower moving currents.
Hiking downstream to a football field sized pool whose bottom was composed mostly of flat shale ledges, I spotted a pod of steelhead holding in the only deep water available, the bottom end of a tail out that made a right hand turn into a downstream riffle. A depression had been formed here in the creeks bottom where heavy current during high water scoured the bottom and pushed broken shale chunks into a hump at the lip of the tail. Dark, wavering shapes hovered in front of the hump underneath the surface glare, suspended steelhead taking holding positions. It was exactly what I was looking for. After clipping off the streamer and adding 4 feet of 3x tippet material, I tied on a size #12 Yellow Stimulator, crouched into an up and across stream position on the west bank, and stripped off enough line for a long cast. The rest of the creek was dead water without any fish holding cover, structure, or depth. There had to be twenty of them.
I shot the line down and across and checked the cast, making sure to drop the fly upstream from the far side of the group of fish that held in the middle of the 20 foot wide trough. The fly fluttered down softly without any surface disturbance. The fish held in place, but there wasn’t enough current to push a belly in the line and wake the fly, so I instinctively drew the rod back toward me to give the fly movement which produced a noticeable V wake on the waters surface.
The fly swung in front of the pack and a steelhead broke rank, chasing the fly and the wake it produced. The fish followed the fly for more than 30 feet until I could no longer lean back and bring the tip of the rod past my right shoulder, which was by was almost to the three o’clock position by this time. The fly stopped on the waters surface and the fish turned tail and went back to the pack, taking a holding position closer to my side of the stream and less than a foot below the waters surface. I targeted this individual fish with the next cast and it immediately bolted from the group for the fly and took it in a surge of water. It might not have been the underwater explosion I was hoping for, but I was still grinning from ear to ear. I’d finally gotten over the hump.
Now the tables have completely turned and I believe that dry fly and dry fly dropper techniques can be one of the most important tricks you have up your sleeve during the tough conditions that sometimes persist for long periods of time during the fall and spring steelhead seasons. If I cant produce fish during these periods, the rent doesn’t get paid, so you could also say that I’ve had to learn out of nessecity, an important factor in determining one’s learning curve. These techniques have saved the day many times when faced with the toughest water conditions you could possibly want to encounter on any Great Lakes tributary.
Low, clear, warm water containing cold water fish species. Steelhead under these conditions can be deemed virtually impossible to catch with fly tackle. I usually adjust to these conditions by moving to the largest tributaries available or hitting the surf, but I now have much more confidence in my ability to catch steelhead when faced with these conditions. The fun factor and challenge involved is hard to resist. Sight fishing to steelies with dry flies.
During the fall and spring seasons, precipitation events occur which raise water levels and bring in runs of steelhead, but optimal fishing conditions may only be available for a short length of time. As tributary levels drop, the fish find their environment shrinking, becoming vulnerable and exposed. They now find themselves out of their element and in a confined space after living for several years in the wide open expanses of the Great Lakes. They become extremely skittish, spooky and alarmed by any movement and now take holding positions in the deepest pools and runs that contain the only available depth where the fish will feel comfortable. A dry fly or a dry fly fished with a dropper is the least obtrusive presentation you can make to steelhead in these conditions.
Cast an indicator or split shot near them, even in small sizes, and the splash or surface disturbance made can send them scurrying around in circles. Even the splash of a streamer can spook the fish. A streamer is certainly a good choice for early run fall and spring drop back steelhead and you might be able to get a couple of chasers and even a hookup or two on the first couple of casts, but after that the fish will usually shut down and become wise to any more presentations.. Even the fly line itself, whether from movement through the air while casting, or landing on the water, can ruin your chances, but as long as you don’t line the fish, you should be able to make repeated presentations over steelhead with various dry fly patterns and dropper setups without spooking them. Think of it as big game hunting with a fly rod. Stealth is imperative. Wear muted colors, slow down your casting strokes, movement, and wade slowly into position when needed. Sometimes staying out of the water and kneeling on a gravel bar is the best approach.
Steelhead in these low water conditions often will suspend in the water column, sometimes directly beneath the surface of the water. This is the primary behavior that I look for. I’ve even seen them with their dorsal fins and tails exposed when hovering over water 4 feet deep. My theory as to why they do this is for oxygen intake. Because there very little current found near the bottom of these deeper pools and tail outs where they are now found, it makes it difficult for steelhead to breathe. By rising through the water column and into the current, steelhead seem to have a much easier time intaking oxygen, especially during the warmer weather and water temperatures that occur in early fall and late spring. Here, current brings flowing water to the fish, through the mouth and out the gills. A fish laying on the bottom in the deepest water available is going to have a harder time intaking oxygen. This behavior normally occurs in early fall and late spring but could also last for months at a time during the course of a season.
The period of time that I’ve found when dry fly options can be the most successful are during the first half of the fall season and the second half of the spring season, mid September through October and again from mid April through early May. This past fall we took a fish on a Stimulator on November 22, so dry flies may even work when you think they wont, and in colder water temperatures. These time periods may change depending upon which region of the Great Lakes you are fishing. You have to let the fish and their stream positioning tell you when they can be taken on the dry. When I see suspended fish anywhere from half way down in the water column on up to the surface, I rarely waste my time with other techniques. I now know that a dry fly or a dry fly fished with a dropper will take them.
Spring hatches of mayflies species such as Blue Wing Olives, Hendricksons, and early black stoneflies can also get fish looking up. The easiest way to find out which species hatch on your area streams is to lift up the rocks in the stream bed and look. The south shore of Lake Erie produces prolific hexagenia mayfly hatches on the big lake itself, and several tributaries have good enough habitat to produce golden stones, one of the reasons I think a yellow stimulator works in my neck of the woods.
Steelhead Behaviors
I’ve spent many years watching steelhead behavior in a tributary environment during their periods of migration and certain steelhead behaviors can give you clues as to when the dry fly will be effective, most notably when fish are suspended as previously mentioned. Another is when fish come up and eat your indicator. Yes, that’s right, when they eat your indicator, sometimes becoming briefly “hooked” on the plastic peg or toothpick. Anyone who has spent any amount of time on Great Lakes tributaries fishing with indicators has probably had steelhead come up to the surface and gulp one. Some fisherman think this is an imprinted response from hatchery raised steelhead that are fed pellets when they were younger. I’ve even had steelhead come up for an indicator during the month of February.
If a steelhead eats your indicator, it’s a good indication (no pun intended) that they will come to the top, and they will even eat a dry fly that looks like an indicator. This behavior spawned the birth of the Erie-Sistable series of dry flies, tied to imitate an indicator and to use as an indicator itself when using weighted or heavy bead head nymph droppers, or when adding tiny shot between the dry and dropper. The bouancy of these flies tied with a spun and clipped deer hair body allow you to effectively fish various sizes of weighted nymphs and soft hackle as droppers, while still giving fish the opportunity to take the dry.
Another way to tell if the dry fly is going to work on the day that you are fishing is an immediate positive response from the fish, a chaser.that follows the wake of the fly within the first couple of casts. That exact fish should be targeted right away because it has already showed interest, but it also means that if that one does, other fish throughout the day may also. The conditions are right for it to happen. It’s a warm early fall or late spring day and the water is low. I’ve even watched steelhead bull rush over the backs of other fish to get at a dry and eat it. This behavior tells me that within a group of fish, only a small number of them will react positively to a dry. Your job is to search the water and find a fish that will commit.
You probably already have the tackle needed to catch steelhead on dries. Any softer tipped 6 or 7 weight that can offer enough shock absorbtion when using a 4x or 5x tippet will do and I’ll even go down to a 9' 5 weight on the tiniest tributaries. I use weight forward and double taper floating lines in drab colors like olive or buckskin
Techniques
There are three basic techniques with dry flies that will work on large and small Great Lakes tributaries. These have worked for me on tributaries as large as the Grand River in Ohio and the Cattaraugus in New York and on small tributaries like Walnut Creek in Pennsylvania, only 30 feet wide in some places. A down and across waking or moving dry fly, a dead drifting dry fly, or a dead drifting dry fly with a dropper. I use a long 12' to 14' nylon (mono) leader tapered to 3x on the medium to large tribs and varying lengths of fluorocarbon because it sinks, for dropper fly attachment. You can get by with a 9' ½ to 10' leader on small tribs where casts are relatively short.
Down and Across Waking Dry
This is the traditional technique used on west coast rivers and a steelheads reaction to a moving, waking dry fly is one of the most exciting steelheading experiences you can have. Some times they will push a wake from the other side of the pool like Jaw’s rushing the Orca and take the fly in a surge of water. Some times they will repetitively do this over and over with out actually taking the fly, leaving your nerves frazzled as the hump of water pushed by the fish bobs the fly up and down and you yank it out, putting it up in a tree behind you. Sometimes the fly will land and you start your wake which doesn’t even last a foot long as the fly is engulfed like a bass blowing up on a popper. Sometimes you just gotta let the fish tell you how to catch them. This is the first presentation I’ll use in an attempt to get a steelhead to eat the dry when fished by itself, before resorting to other techniques like dead drifting and dropper attachments
The technique is much the same as a swinging a wet fly or streamer, your still casting down and across at an approximate 45 degree angle where the current is fast enough to create a downstream curve or belly in the fly line, only your doing it with a floating line and a dry fly. In slower moving water, a cast across stream or slightly upstream may be needed to create a wake and belly in the line. On larger tributaries you could even cast up and across and fish a dry dead drift and then wake it as it comes down and across.
Current speed and velocity will form a belly in the fly line and leader which makes the dry fly create a V shaped wake across the surface as it swings. The line may need to be mended upstream to slow the wake or downstream to speed or create a wake in slow water. The rod is then lifted vertically to keep line off the water as it follows the waking fly. West coast steelheaders say the fly should move and wake at about one half of the current speed you are fishing and slower is better than faster for keeping the fly in front of the fish longer, just like swinging a wet fly or streamer.
Tail outs and the gut of a pool where the flow from the head of the pool slows down and creates a large surface window in which steelhead can see and take your fly is provided. These area’s contain the deepest water and most comfortable fish. A down and across presentation will still work but because of the slow, sometimes completely still current found here, downstream mending might be needed to make your fly wake. In area’s where the current has completely dissipate, you might have to make the fly move through rod and line hand manipulations. After the fly lands, get it moving right away to attract fish as it swings into the zone by lifting and drawing the rod towards you, creating a V wake on the surface that trails off the back of the dry.
If you get a chaser, make sure to keep the fly moving with a slow steady wake. If it stop’s they will often turn away from the fly. You can also lengthen the wake and continue the movement of the dry by sweeping the rod to the side and retrieving fly line with your line hand in even strips that keep the fly moving steadily. I’ve had steelhead charge the fly three times before taking on the sweep.
When moving, waking, or swinging, a dry fly across the surface to entice steelhead, remember that the fish are more than likely moving away from a previous stationary position, not just lifting their heads and gulping the fly, they are purposefully chasing it. Therefore you should wait until they eat it and turn back to their holding position before setting the hook. Very hard to do when you can watch fish chasing the fly.
Dead Drifting Dry Flies
After I’ve fished a pool down with a dry, I’ll often turn around and fish the dry fly back up dead drift. Dead drifting dry flies, the classic trout fisherman’s up and across stream cast with a floating line and fly while taking up slack with the line hand as the fly drifts down the current towards you, is seldom used on west coast summer and fall run rivers, but can be deadly on highly pressured Great Lakes fish. When dead drifting dry flies over steelhead from a downstream position, I’ve found that a mid air reach cast that places the fly line to the side of the fish while the leader and fly float over the fish, to be the best presentation.
After the downward stroke of the rod on the forward cast, move the rod either left or right (the reach) horizontally while the line shoots through the guides. It’s a mid air mend meant to place the thick fly line to the sides of spotted fish while the fly and leader land over them. First, it’s a presentation and a fly the fish have probably never seen before, and secondly, your much less likely to spook any fish when you choose to approach them from downstream. Thirdly, it allows you to effectively fish droppers drag free to fish where an indicator would spook them, plus give you a chance to get one on top.
Dead drifting dry flies for steelhead has also worked for me in deeper riffles and runs that contain depressions of slightly deeper water or ledges that provide current breaks for the fish to rest behind. Larger numbers of steelhead will be found in riffles during higher water conditions that allow fish to migrate and again in the springtime when fish are spawning. These don’t seem like the times and places for a dry to be effective, but it has surprised me enough times to try it before resorting to another technique. High stick nymphing.in riffles with dry flies and a small egg dropper is one of the deadliest tactics you can use in spring, until I once again start seeing drop back fish suspending in pool tailouts as water levels drop.
Dry Fly Droppers
Even though dry flies can work where other presentations fail to produce, there are days when steelhead will show absolutely no interest in surface patterns even after repeated presentations from different positions. This is the time to add a dropper to the dry where legal to do so. Dry flies and droppers are deadly on steelhead in low, clear water. I use 4x fluorocarbon tippet material for my droppers most of the time, but occasionally will drop down to 5x on super spooky fish in super clear water.
The length of the dropper should be determined by where you see the fish in the water column. I’ve caught a lot of steelhead with the dropper fly set only 6 to 12 inches beneath the dry, even though the fish have shown no interest in the surface fly itself. Deeper sets for suspended fish found 2 to 4 ft. down from the surface, or area’s where there is more current, may require a heavier or larger beaded nymph or tiny shot placed in the middle between the dry and dropper fly.
When using this method, the dry fly does double duty as your indicator, although it may not always dunk the way an indicator should, some times there is just a hesitation in the dry flies drift when a fish takes the dropper. I’ve watched a lot of steelhead swoop underneath the dry, open that white mouth, and eat the dropper causing the dry fly to hesitate briefly. The quick rejection of the fly continues the dry flies drift. You have to set the hook much quicker when fishing dead drift. You don’t have to wait for the fish to turn and go back to where he came from.
I almost always use weighted or bead head nymphs as a dropper, mostly #14's, # 16's, and #18's, to keep a tight line from the dry to the dropper and transmit the take to the dry. I really like a tiny bead head pheasant tail or soft hackle for most of my fishing in slower currents, but there are times when a larger bead head prince or stonefly is needed to get down in deeper, faster water at the head of the pool or run you are fishing. Tailor your terminal tackle to each spot you are fishing. Experiment with different styles and types of dries to suit your needs. For example, a dry containing deer or Elk hair in it’s construction is likely to hold up more weight and a larger nymph than one that is sparsely dressed.
Sometimes you can create an induced rise from steelhead in the down and across, dead drift position by making the dry fly land heavily on the waters surface in front of them, kind of a light splat, also called drumming them up by some dry fly trout fishers. A tuck cast that makes the fly land first on the waters surface before leader and line creates a small surface disturbance in front of the fish which immediately gets them looking up and sometimes results in an “impulse rise”, where the fish rises slightly, opens it’s mouth and slurps in the dry, the same thing they do to an indicator. Dapping and then dead drifting.with more line out is another way to put it.. This works best in the glassy smooth surface of slow moving tail outs with fish hovering close to the surface, working the back of the pod first so as not to line fish.
Small egg fly droppers seem to work best as fall progresses and in the spring when fish are spawning and are good flies to try when nymphs and soft hackles are not working. The beadless egg flies like sucker spawn and glo bugs that most of us carry will need micro shot placed between the dry and dropper to get it down.. Even when thoroughly wet the sink rate of egg patterns is much slower than that of a bead head nymph and upstream mending may be needed to get the egg underneath the dry so it doesn’t drag.
Patterns
Dry fly patterns that imitate local hatches like fall Caddis and spring Hendricksons have been proven to work, but I think that if steelhead are at all interested in coming up top, just about any dry fly has a chance of working. A Bomber looks like nothing found in nature and they’ll eat an indicator that looks nothing like a bug.Your mostly going to find me fishing a Yellow Stimulator in a size #8, #10, or #12 because they are so versatile and make good imitations of the large populations of hexagenia mayflies that hatch on Lake Erie, and the smaller populations of golden stones found in several of our tributaries. In slightly stained or moving water, the larger patterns will be easier to see by you and the fish.
Orange Stimulator work good too. So do Bombers. These patterns produce a nice wake and have a lot of hackle and hollow hair for holding up weighted and bead headed flies when using droppers. Friends of mine have taken fish on Bivisables and foam bodied stoneflies. I’ve yet to use exclusive west coast patterns because the ones I’m currently using are working, nor have I incorporated the use of foam into tying, things I look forward to trying.
To catch a Great Lakes steelhead on a dry fly, you have to make sacrifices. You have to sacrifice the numbers of fish you would like to catch on any given day and fish the dry exclusively, or incorporate the dry into more of your daily fishing techniques. Like anything else in life, you have to put your time in if you want to get good at it. You have to fish it at the right times, when a certain set of conditions and the fish themselves tell you when it will work. You can always add a dropper after you’ve fished the dry without results and still be successful. Most of all, you have to have confidence in it. Hopefully this article can help erase the years and years that I went without the pleasure of taking a steelhead on top.