Salmon/Steelhead

Got to say this up front – most of these flies are not only suitable for salmon. Steelhead eat ‘em too. Salmon and steelhead are both big sassy anadromous fish and many of the flies we carry defy categorization as only a salmon or only a steelhead fly. With that background in mind, we stock a HUGE assortment of flies that are designed to be fished for salmon and steelhead, and in many cases, big lake or sea-run trout also.

Intruder Style Flies for Salmon and Steelhead We love Intruders. Every Intruder style fly we carry is suitable for salmon and steelhead, period. The Intruder style fly is enjoying a well-earned spotlight among salmon and steelhead anglers these days. The Intruder is a big, flashy, strike inducing fly pattern or style that is fun to tie, fun to buy, and fun to fish. The term “Intruder” can be applied to a wide range of flies these days – here are some of their key ingredients: Intruders are usually large. These are often flies in the 3” to 5” category. Intruders may be tied on Waddington Shanks or on some other hook-shank base, but most Intruders have a trailer or stinger hook at the very rear of the material. This design employs short-shank octopus (or ring eye hooks if the Intruder is tied on a tube) that is intended to increase hooking percentages and reduce the likelihood of the fish “leveraging” a long shank hook during the battle to see who’s the boss on the river.

We carry many versions of Intruder style flies including Signature Intruders, Silvey’s Prawn, Guide Intruder, the HOH Bo Spey, Hobit Spey, and more. We also carry The MOAL Leech style fly (the MOAL Leech has many of the Intruder-like qualities) in many sizes and colors, plus the Loop Leech.

Salmon Specialty Flies. Fly patterns we would principally fish for salmon rather than steelhead include the Manhattan Beach, Polly Wog, Popsicle, Jumbo Critter, Comet, Clouser, and a Flash Fly.

Crossover Fly Patterns (flies that we fish interchangeably for salmon or steelhead) include the General Practitioner, Fox’s Hot Shot Comet, Bunny Practitioner, River Rat Steelhead Jigs, Bead Head Egg Leech, Hickman’s Chrome Magnet, and the Alaskabou.

Steelhead flies. There are some fly patterns that are almost exclusively designed for steelhead, fly patterns that we would not fish for salmon. Huh? Consider a size #6 Steelhead Coachman, Steelhead October Caddis pupae, Septober Soft hackle, Septober Caddis, Wired Prince, Brindle Bug, Lady Carolyn, Matthews October Caddis, Paulson’s Titanic, Rogue Silver Ant, and a Silver Hilton – none of these flies would be our first choice if we were tying on a fly to fish for Chinook, silvers, chum, pinks, or sockeye.

We have a tremendous selection of flies that we would refer to as classic steelhead flies. This selection includes names like the Copper Top, Bennet’s Last Light, Dean River Horse Fly, Ferry Canyon, Purple Angel, Purple Peril, Signal Light, Green Butt Silver Hilton, Streetwalker, and Fall Run.

Skaters – yes we stock, tie, and fish steelhead skaters. Stinger Foam Skater, Steelhead Indicator, Wake n’ Bake, Waller Foam Walker, Waller Walker, Ska-Hopper, Skaten Fool, and the classic and Stinger Muddler.

Nymphs – some of the steelhead nymph patterns we stock include the Agent Orange, Dark Crystal Stone, Steelhead Caddis Nymph, Hogan’s Steelie May, Delectable Egghead CDC Prince, Egg Sucking Stonefly, Jumbo Wired Nymph, Starlight Leech, and the Tungsten Copper Bob.