Cleveland Weather Forecast, OH (44118)

Steelhead

NEW TRENDS FOR
GREAT LAKES STEELHEADING
Capsule Review of a Presentation by Jerry Darkes

Rocky River Nature Center, September 01, 2009—The Emerald Necklace Chapter of Trout Unlimited held its first local membership meeting this evening. The featured speaker was Jerry Darkes who is widely known for his expertise and life-long experience fly fishing for steelhead, especially along the tributaries throughout northern Ohio. His hour-long presentation touched on new trends in steelhead fly fishing which included a look at two-hand spey rods, switch rods, and tube flies.

In opening, Jerry stated that steelhead have existed in the Great Lakes for over the last 120 years, and that there have been self-sustaining populations in a number of areas. In fact, the first plantings of steelhead in Lake Erie happened around 1900. But, it has only been during the last 15 to 20 years that Lake Erie has come into full bloom as a premier steelhead fishery.

Jerry cited "Chuck ‘n‘ Duck" as one of the earliest techniques of fly fishing for steelhead throughout the Great Lakes. It employs weighted monofilament lines and is still used today. Second is the technique of casting upstream with an indicator float and dropper flies for dead-drifting through steelhead runs and pools. The dropper flies, he remarked, are usually glo-bug eggs and nymphs tied tandem fashion with split shot ahead on the dropper line.

Jerry continued, "If you’re not aware, you might be surprised to learn that there are any number of different species of insects in the rivers and tributaries around here such as golden and black stone flies, plus an abundance of caddis"…that matching tied nymphs to these types is a good bet. At this juncture, Jerry showed a slide of one of his fly boxes packed with Prince Nymphs in a variety of sizes and colors, from traditional white wing and peacock herl bodies through purple, brown, tan, and orange combinations.

Steelhead Flies—In commenting about steelhead flies, Jerry claimed one must view them not as bait flies, but as attractor patterns. "Sometimes", he went on to say, "it’s a matter of cycling through one’s arsenal of fly colors to find the flavor of the day. It’s also a matter of cycling through different sizes. On one given day, a chartreuse pattern may work. Then on the next day they [the fish] will favor something in pink and smaller. Steelhead are very color conscious."

With the thought still lingering about steelhead flies being viewed only as attractor patterns, Jerry switched to talking about bait flies; namely, streamers. &quo5;The fact is", said Jerry, "during their time in the lake steelhead eat bait fish, shiners…smelt…shad…etc. So when steelhead run up the tributaries to spawn they remain hard-wired to their reflexes of attacking anything that looks like a bait fish." In Jerry’s view, big, brightly colored, flashy streamers will trigger a steelhead’s aggressive behavior, and that’s why it’s important to use nothing less than a 12-pound tippet. According to Jerry, even a 20-pound test tippet can be used because steelhead don’t see the line, just the fly. (The stronger caliber of tippet also enables pulling loose from snags with more success.)

Spey Casting & Swinging Streamers—Next, Jerry highlighted the benefits of swinging streamers using eleven to fourteen foot spey rods. This technique, he pointed out, is the new trend finding favor among veteran Great Lakes steelhead fly anglers. A Switch Rod is similar, but lighter and shorter and better suited to indicator techniques.

Spey casting, which originated on the River Spey in Scotland to meet the challenges of fly fishing for Atlantic salmon, requires a two-hand rod and matching spey-grade fly lines. Essentially, spey casting is a roll cast, but with more built-in looping power, and with which one can roll-shoot out 100 feet or more of fly line. The overall strength of a spey casting system enables steelheaders to fish in tough and extreme conditions others normally walk away from. Even in frigid weather with ice and snow all around Jerry has had success swinging streamers for big steelhead.

When spey casting Jerry recommends quartering downstream and letting the streamer swing and hold in the current. No stripping is necessary as steelhead do not respond well to a fly with excessive movement. The idea is to let the current give life to the streamer—to let the pulsing and undulating actions of the streamer’s materials excite a steelhead into "crushing" it.

Getting a fly down to the right level, however, may require a very long leader with split shot and/or a length of tungsten-coated leader material. When wading, one of big advantages of spey casting is being able to avoid catching onto trees or other obstacles in tight or overgrown sections of a stream or river.

Tube Flies—During the last portion of his presentation Jerry addressed the advantages of using tube flies in conjunction with spey casting. "Tube flies are very popular among Scandinavians", Jerry noted while silently acknowledging the success they have had fishing these kind of flies. The one most important plus factor is hook flexibility. While on the water hooks can be easily changed without having to change the fly. This is particularly helpful if the point of a hook is broken off. When fish are striking short, a tandem-stinger hook assembly can be tied on. Also key is the use of strong, short-shank hooks which provide better and stronger hook ups as well as better line-to-hook leveraging power when playing a steelhead. Then too, because a tube fly can be pulled up on a line and out of the way, unhooking is easier.

Another plus factor is fly tiers are no longer limited by hook size selection and are therefore able to tie larger steelhead flies, even up to six to eight inches in some cases. In tube fly construction hook and fly bring into play a separate yet integral system of dynamics. Unlike traditionally tied steelhead flies, tube flies offer a range of new and flexible choices which have proven to up a steelheader’s catch rate.

Throughout his presentation there was no hiding Jerry’s enthusiasm for pursuing steelhead with a spey rod and fly fisher’s vest full of tube flies. For Jerry, this new trend, which he says is really old, is the exciting new adventure awaiting those who fly fish for steelhead on Great Lakes tributaries.

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