I finished and mailed a steelhead fly order for a customer in the mid-west about a month ago and thought I’d share his order with you. I enjoy tying steelhead flies, but haven’t tied many the last few years because of the low steelhead runs of the Columbia basin. But these 16 flies were a joy to tie! And they brought back a few memories as I tied them.
Here is a close-up of the Fire Ant Spey. I really like the looks of this fly and enjoy tying it.
It reminded me of my last steelhead fly order in 2018. Perhaps you read the Back to Steelhead Flies post I wrote. I encourage you to read it as I tie different steelhead flies. There are several links to my experience with spey flies.
Next is the classic Skunk steelhead fly.
A recent Throw Back Thursday Fly featured the Skunk. I learned through my research the original fly was tied with a black wing with white over the top…just like a skunk. Both wings utilize skunk hair.
The next fly is one of my favorite steelhead flies to fish, Shewey’s Spawning Purple.
I’m a big John Shewey fan and look to the books he’s written about steelhead flies as references to tie the flies or research their history. Here are Amazon links to his books.
The Green Ant is next.
I learned to tie this fly a few years ago for a fly plate the Central Oregon Fly Tyer’s Guild made for the 2016 NW Fly Tyer & Fly Fishing Expo. The plate’s theme was flies for the major steelhead rivers in Oregon. I ended up with tying a fly for the Snake River. The original pattern didn’t use the silver body rib. I thought it needed to be dressed up a little!
Lastly, here is Roxey’s Red Squirrel Tail. It’s a streamer fly pattern I tied back in February 2020 and featured it too as a Throw Back Thursday fly.
Since I’m featuring steelhead flies this week, here is one of the last steelhead I landed back in September 2014. I wrote about it in Catch Steelhead Swinging Flies or With Nymphs. Truth be told, I caught it with a nymph after unsuccessfully swinging flies through the same run.
I miss steelhead fishing.
Enjoy…go fish, stay safe!
