Ben64
About indicator leader formula, I like to fish like this:
 
Fly line>9 ft of 12-10 lbs Maxima Chameleon>Split shot above Knot or swivel>15 inch of 7 or 6 lbs fluorocarbon tippet (I like Redwing)>fly.
 
Maybe a little too heavy for the creeks ?

fished elk this past friday through yesterday. arrived and had my line in the water about 11:30 friday. within an hour i had 2 hook ups and a 7# brown in hand. proceeded to hook up 8-10 more times, landing 5 more fish by 4:00. probably landed 4 or 5 more on saturday on about 8 hook ups, fishing in the rain all morning that turned to snow around 11. went to the laundromat @ 1:30 to dry some gear out. called it a day about 4:00 or so. over the course of the day the water rose a little and started to get some cloudiness and color. my buddy landed around 8 over that same time period. Tried to fish yesterday morning but it was too frustrating in 25-30 mph winds with 50 mph gusts. stopped by the mouth of walnut first thing yesterday and there was probably 10 footers rolling in.
 
I don't fish the bathtubs so i have no need to use anything smaller than 5x tippet and very rarely do i go below 4x, usually sticking with 2 or 3x. only reason i was using what i did this past weekend was i didn't have any heavier leaders and the hole we fished was very snag prone and i was trying to prevent losing my whole rig every time. I probably went through at least 30 flies, 3 leaders, an entire spool of 3x, and a ton of weights.
friday and saturday's winning formula - 9ft 2x (10.7#), 12-18 inches of 3x flouro tippet (9.2 #) blood dot egg(yellow with orange dot, or light orange withe red dot), dropper 4x (7#) size 12-14  black sloan, a few on b.h. pheasant tail(ran out of sloans) . 3-4 .6 gram split shot 8-12 inches above my top fly. the way the hole is set up, you have to get it down quick. set my BOBBER at 4-5 ft above the weights. my buddy hooked a couple on an orange san juan worm as well. had zero luck with white or peach sucker spawn, which was very odd.
 
funniest part of the trip was about 10 minutes after we got there, a gentlemen in his 60's walked up, sat down, lit a smoke and started b.s.'ing with us. told us he had been up and down that stretch of stream a couple times and hadn't seen a fish all day. very funny considering i was staring at 40 of them 25 ft in front of his face.
 

I would recommend, instead of split shot, trying to incorporate as much needed weight as you can into your flies, if possible, with wire, lead wrapping, bead heads, etc. Indicators, split shot, terminal tackle, etc, all have their place, but the more "junk" you add to your line, the less of a natural drift you will have, which is all important in these tough conditions. I have put more of an emphasis on incorporating weight into my flies over the past couple of years, and must say it has made a world of difference. 

Cold front moved in...pack your gloves, its a bit chilly.

6lb stellie
As far as swinging intruders Ive found the early fall and early spring are most apt to cooperate with that. anything under 45 degree water temp the aggression and willingness to travel to hit a presentation decrease incredibly. Not saying wont happen just much lower possibility. For sure the best type of fly fishing watching a fish light up and smash a streamer.

Late Nov-Dec can be very productive swinging streamers to winter run or early arrival spring run fish. I've had some of my best days swinging 34-40 degree water.
Those Erie fall run fish behave more like hatchery rainbows and become lethargic in cold water. I believe the winter and spring run fish have retained more of their pacific cousins genes and behave more like pacific steelhead. 
I don't use full blown intruder type flies much. I prefer to tie more of a scandinavian type tube fly as they are quicker to tie for me.
Today: icy guides and 34 dg water temp.
 
 
 
 

 

6lb stellie
Dano fresh chrome certainly fall into that more aggressive mind set then the fall runners that have been in the trib for alittle while that become lethargic and more leery of everything. Again it happens as we all know with fishing logic goes out the door. March- April to fresh run fish is where I seem to get production the most from swinging intruders.

the whole reason the intruder was developed was for winter fishing in sub 40* water for fish who were unwilling to move
 
a big fly that is easy to cast ... to fish deep and motivate a fish to eat
 

the whole reason the intruder was developed was for winter fishing in sub 40* water for fish who were unwilling to move
 
a big fly that is easy to cast ... to fish deep and motivate a fish to eat
 
 
The intruder was developed as a western salmon fly to intrude and initiate irritation strikes by salmon and make a big fly with a large silhouette without a large hook and shank.
 
Makes sense to stay deep and motivate fish but seems to move Steelhead out of the way in cold clearer water. colder water I can only seem to get aggressive males to partake or very fresh fish. ones that have seen the Gamet of flies are on to the game and just turn or move.

Ben64
Hi guys.

That's it ! Today was my last fishing day here. In PA. Leaving tomorrow for Europe

Get a great week some days into fish (one day was insane with maybe more than 20 fish) and other like today, very slow. Seems there are more fish in some tribs than others.

Thanks for your help hope get back soon

Have a safe trip back, nice to see you had a successful week too. That's more fish you caught in a week than I've actually landed all season haha. What was the size of the biggest fish you caught this week?

Divemaster

Ben64
Hi guys.

That's it ! Today was my last fishing day here. In PA. Leaving tomorrow for Europe

Get a great week some days into fish (one day was insane with maybe more than 20 fish) and other like today, very slow. Seems there are more fish in some tribs than others.

Thanks for your help hope get back soon

Thanks !

In 7 days fishing I had 2 good ones. Biggest one probably 7 lbs maybe 8. I suck on "sizing" a fish. I ll put some pictures as I get back home

Have a safe trip back, nice to see you had a successful week too. That's more fish you caught in a week than I've actually landed all season haha. What was the size of the biggest fish you caught this week?