Success

Talked to my Dad in the UP last night after a solid day on the Manistique river. Before this trip up I gave him a bunch of flies I tied up -- eggs, pheasant tail nymphs, and green caddis nymphs. On the phone last night his first words were, "What were those green things? And, can I get more?" He'd managed to hook into7-8 salmon, and land two, all on my green or olive caddis nymphs.

I have to say, this is pretty rewarding! Validates that even though my flies aren't always the prettiest (though I'm getting better) that they do catch fish!

My steelhead egg and nymph box is now nicely filled for the season, so I've had some time to explore other things. Last week I tied up some steelhead pheasant tails without beadheads on #12 scud/egg fly hooks. But my latest experiment is tying streamers. I picked up a couple of Kevin Feenstra patterns at a shop over the weekend. Inspired by the guru of big, crazy patterns for swinging to steelhead, I tried one of my own. For a first attempt, not bad. But I suspect it blows up after a big, pissed-off steelhead smacks it once. I've ordered some more materials and will commence to tie up a batch for Fall antics!

-Sean-