# Best Spring Flies



## btownbb270 (Apr 10, 2014)

This is my first year steelheading. Its so addicting! Im up to 13 fish for this season. It seems that when I leave a spot someone walks right to it and pulls a few out of the same hole.
What is your go to fly in the spring for steelies? I have been fishing with a egg sucking leach with a small egg pattern dropping below that. I have been getting about 2 every day Ive been out but only in one spot. Any suggestions?


----------



## ngski (Aug 16, 2005)

Don't tell anyone my favorite is an egg sucking leech here's a secret I tie a black bunny leech and use the plastic bead above the leech a couple of inches looks like a leech swimming after the bead. This is my killer muddy water rig.


----------



## nooffseason (Nov 15, 2008)

You have a couple good ideas on flies. Big buggers too if the water has some stain. My suggestion would be to explore more, you mention only fishing one spot. When I steelhead fish I'm walking miles of a river typically. That's a lot of the fun in it for me I guess too. You'll find all sorts of holes and runs a long the way. Get out there and don't concentrate on one spot just because you know it holds fish, there's fish throughout the entire river


----------



## mdogs444 (Aug 29, 2012)

Sucker spawns, single eggs, buggers, zonkers, and soft hackles are all good for dead drifting. If swinging, I like large zonker leaches, intruders, Senyo's AI, or anything that combines arctic fox and predator wrap.


----------



## kapposgd (Apr 10, 2012)

Great job averaging two a day on your first season! In early spring I've had good success on stoneflies then later in spring i like olive colored buggers. My go to this time of year is a bead fished below the redds. Haven't picked up my fly rod since I went to the pin, when I'm running a bead/bag tandem the bead often outproduces roe


----------



## kernal83 (Mar 25, 2005)

Kapposgd when you run the bead bag tandem do you like to trail the bead behind the sack?


----------



## btownbb270 (Apr 10, 2014)

Another question for all you veterans. How long are they in the river for usually? My girlfriends little brother is coming into town from Vermont May 9th and I would like to try and get him into some steel.


----------



## kapposgd (Apr 10, 2012)

I like to run the bead behind the bag by snelling the top hook and leaving about an 18 inch dropper. Steelhead will chase beads from much further distances than bags which might make it seem like a good idea to run the bead above. But the bag acts like a split shot when its above a buoyant bead giving a better presentation with both offerings near the bottom if you trot


----------



## pafisher (Mar 10, 2013)

btownbb270 said:


> Another question for all you veterans. How long are they in the river for usually? My girlfriends little brother is coming into town from Vermont May 9th and I would like to try and get him into some steel.



It depends on water temps.When it reaches high 50's low 60's they will be gone.When the spawning is finished they will get aggressive and start feeding.There should be plenty still in the rivers May 9th but time will be running short.


----------



## mdogs444 (Aug 29, 2012)

^ what he said. Once the water is consistently in the high 50's, the smallmouth will start to show up in good numbers and the steelhead will start to retreat. Last year, they were still coming in fresh until almost the end of May due to the long and late freeze. It may be like that again.


----------



## btownbb270 (Apr 10, 2014)

Thanks for all the info guys. I really appreciate it!!


----------



## rickerd (Jul 16, 2008)

If someone is catching them after you and you were not catching, watch them to see what they did differently. I see some people wade in too far or too close. Usually don't wade past knee deep water but keep shallower most of the time. Are you getting drag free drifts? Are you snagging a fish or too and spooking the rest? If you snag a fish, it happens, learn to stop from setting the hook. The fish will shake it off, or wait till fish is pointed downstream and pull it off. Because you didn't set the hook, many times it will release and not spook the others. Big clue is a fish shaking its head. This means they took the fly in their mouth and are trying to set it free. You know what to do, set the hook and let them run.

A good starting point on flies is black for muddy water, white for clear water. I don't use eggs or fluorescent colors in clear water because it seems to spook them. When water is not yet clear, many colors will work. I also go to soft hackles in clear water with some silver flash. pay more attention though to profile of fly than color though. large profile in muddy water and smaller sparse profile in clear water. Tailor the weight of fly to depth and flow. Bead head vs no bead head.

Good luck,
Rickerd


----------

