Streamer succes !

This is the place to get real advise on real fishing.
 
Glad it helped.

Buy?  Egg patterns are so easy to tie.  Get a vise, materials and learn.  You'll get added pleasure from landing something on your own creation.  In the long run you will save a lot of money too.

IMHO also. Nicely said.

Here! Here!

Neaphyte,
 
Sorry for the hijack!  Glad you and your son had some success!  Keep observing  and thinking and trying and it gets better and better!  You have to pay the dues, but it's a gas paying them!
 
L13

It was pretty ripe last week, but 1500 for 4 or 5 days should clean it out pretty good.  Thursday. Friday look good for temperatures, although 1500 is a little more water than I like.
 
L13

A little early to commit but look out for you weekend warriors.. could be soaking rain Wednesday through Thursday... if it comes through as some models are predicting it will be an even bigger blow out!

Nice !!
neaphyte, sounds like the trip was a success.. glad the streamer / sight fishing worked well and hope you come back with new ideas learned.. looking forward to them..
salmon fishing for myself is basically a tale of 2 rivers (or bobs) but streamers have always produced well for a predator fish over a feeder fish..
300 flies ? gosh, in the day I would tie 500 streamers for the season of clients.. carry about 50 per day, lose about 10 maybe if the bite was hot..
It's steel time and anything goes (fly wise) until spring then it SRS Streamer time again..
Hope to share ideas and water with you sometime.

Shot at a king in the surface film downlow.
Pretty much your only chance and even then few and far between.
Stars must be perfectly aligned.
Ripping takes on streamers lower in the water column the norm.
But then I have to admit I have never spent a season targeting them at the surface.

I've had every species hit surface for a fly throughout my time. Not always streamers though. Usually in tail outs of drifts while fly is skating slightly below surface. The two that take the cake for me are a brown and coho. Both in the joss hole coincidently. The ho was mid December on a blue extaz with blood red crystal flash pulled from the front over the back and tied off with a tail. It was high water and was dead drifting from the north bank in head of joss hole letting it swing straight down in the oxygenated pocket rolling over the slate. about a 12# beat red male crushed it nose first and can.e right out of the water.. lost it as I wad using 5 or 6# maxima and didn't stand a chance. Awesome is an undrstatemdnt.

The brown was in the tail out with a wooly bugger no weight. It was my first outting ever with a spey rod in 1999... stripping line out and getting the fly out, while still dry and floating on the surface a 5# brown crushed it right off the surface. My brother and I looked at each other in shock for a few seconds then I proceeded to land the fish.

My son had a coho crush his yarn fly this past august with no weight on. The thing came right out of the water...straight tight lined tail out of drift...

Steelies in tail of town pool February 1992... crushing black extaz on the strip in of the tailout... a top 5 day of my time for sure... kings here and there through the years.

Steelies post spawn in may 2007...late may ...the first year they implemented no weight rule after may 1st??? They took severe inticing but once again they struck on the straight downstream from almost tickling their noses with a maribou tail... took 3 fish in two days of target...

Yes it can be done all year round with various patterns

Neaphyte... great to keep the kids involved...tight lined brother!

Absolutely, Jack!!!!! One of my best days ever was there with you. I had that in mind when I said upriver end of Sept. 

Lucky13
Had a double digits male steelhead come up and grab a globug hanging on the surface below me while I was lighting a cigarette (so at least 10 years ago).  Scared the shazit right out of me and the fish!
 
L13

Had that happen last year for me.    My line was probably 20 feet down just hanging out.  I had the pole under my arm and was trying to get my fly box out of my pocket to change it up.  Almost ripped the pole out of my arm

hot tuna
Thus the term , drag the bag. Often happens when egg sacks come to the surface after the drift. The tail of the black hole was perfect for that

Used to drift bags with weight forward fly lines early on in my beginning years when flies didn't seem to work... the bag drag picked up fish often. Ya know, there's so many old styles and methods that just get lost in time. But they all still work...

Interesting jerry... amazing you can fish certain methods and never know it. I prefer to let a dead drifted nymph swing out at the end... always has been effective for me. From what I just read regarding leisinger lift and tactics, that's pretty much a staple. Interesting reads regarding the leisinger method on the net

Steelhead on the surface?
The first I saw was the guy with the golf ball sized yarnball plunked in water shallow enough so it sat on the surface swinging back and forth.
Fishing a Zebco 33.
Lucky and I were smuggly laughing about it when a mid teen steelhead came up and crushed it.
It took off destroying the reel.
 
Second was guiding a dentist fron VT.
There used to be a pocket between the silo and glide that held fish only on high water.
As I was once again trying to explain that he was not finishing the drift his globug was swinging across the tail of the run where he should have been drifting.
Rod backwards under his arm and a steelhead comes up and grabs.
Turned, ran about 10 feet and fell off the hook.
 
Targeting that pocket I had three take on top in one morning.
It was a day with so many kings I truely started trying to find ways not to hook them.'
Finally went with a bomber on top.
One hit dead drift at the top of the run  and two skating across the tail.
Got 2 or 3 more from there before a flood changed that whole stretch of river.
Have had them come short a few times in the lfz.
 
Still carry some sort of dry with me just in case.
 
Lucky I think I recall one coming up for you below the meadow one day.
Not dry but weightless at the surface.