Steelhead, Salmon & Trout Egg Pattern Flies

Some people refer to these as steelhead egg flies. Steelhead candy. "Egg-a-liscious." This type of fly is fished from Northern California to Alaska. Great lakes too. New Zealand and Sough America? Probably. Steelhead eat these flies. Salmon eat these flies. Guess what? Trout eat these flies too. The Caddis Fly carries a wide assortment of these egg patterns for different locations, in colors and sizes that will suit both fish and fly fisher.

Variety? We have a huge variety of egg fly patterns. Here is but one example of the egg fly patterns we offer. Take the simple Glo Bug egg fly. Then check in our catalog under the color-size for the Glo Bug. This fact check reveals that we stock thirteen colors and/or sizes in this simple but effective egg fly pattern. The Glo Bug is an example of an egg pattern that is fished in an effort to imitate a single egg of various color to be attractive to, usually, a salmon or steelhead that is actively feeding on loose eggs. Consequently, the Glo Bug is offered in small sizes like #6 and #8 so that the trout, steelhead, and salmon fly angler is covered from head to egg.

The Thunder Egg fly is very different from a Glo Bug fly because it is heavily weighted and adds a tiny bit of sparkle. This egg pattern may be fished with or without added weight, but the Glow Bug requires some sort of added weight to get it down. ... view more

Micro Spawn is a nifty little orange fly that might be used to imitate trout or sucker eggs; its small #12 size makes it perfect for these egg fly pattern applications.

The Strung Out Fat Albert is a stretch, but is very popular with Alaska bound Chinook salmon fishers. This egg pattern fly has a molded lead head so it sinks like a rock, and it has a fuzzy body that, we hear, some nefarious anglers dip in shrimp oil, or some such goo, to make it seem more attractive to king salmon. As if such games were necessary! This fly has an octopus style hook that grabs and holds your salmon, big steelhead, and monster trout.

The Steelhead Dart and the Trilogy Egg are fly patterns developed by our friend Darian Hyde of Hareline Dubbin. These two fly patterns have proved effective in our forays on Oregon and Washington waters fishing salmon and steelhead.

The Unreal Egg Cluster and the Unreal Egg fly are tiny little egg flies in size #16 and Size #12, and these egg fly patterns, again, are extremely useful imitating trout or steelhead eggs, in contrast to larger-size salmon-egg patterns.

One may ask whether a salmon, steelhead or trout really thinks it is eating an egg when it takes one of these egg flies? Our answer is simple – maybe yes and maybe no. Egg fly patterns that are the size and color of the loose salmon, steelhead, or trout eggs actually present in an area probably are being taken as actual food. Flies that are larger, brighter, or fished when not many eggs are around in the river could be taken by steelhead, trout, or salmon simply because they are bright and have attracted the fish’s attention.