Tied Up

Getting closer on steelhead streamers. Learned a few things recently and got a chance to run them by my guru today. I've gotten the tail dimensions about right and things are nice and "swimmy" to give it good motion in the water. But I still have trouble with the head size. Although I think after today's consultation, I have a better understanding of how to tie properly that should help.

It's amazing the amount of engineering that goes into a steelhead streamer. Unlike dry flies where it's all about size, profile, and such, with streamers a big part of the equation is motion in the water. How best to make your fly look like a tempting, tasty baitfish to a hungry steelhead. While I'm closer, no clue if this will catch fish.

Also made some nice progress in that I've learned how to set-up a stinger hook. One thing I've learned is that unlike trout who attack from the front, steelhead bite from the rear. So having a bunch of feathers and flash trailing way back behind the hook will result in a lot of misses. The solution is tying a second "stinger" hook further back to ensure strikes turn into hook-ups. Turned out the hard part was finding the 30# Fireline that I'd been recommended for this application. Fortunately, Cabela's came through.

I'll likely tie up a few more this week. I think next week will bring a day or two on the PM to try all this out. Hope for a little warm-up to optimize conditions for swinging flies!

-Sean-