Sorry lucky, I been throwing the SRS for a number of years. We used to hide the fly from other anglers .lol One time some guy got a look at it after I caught or lost a few fish and said " that's a snaggin fly" laughed my azz off , mostly because it was a size # 4 instead of a # 12 black stone.
Ah , I even tied a few today :)

The late and sorely missed Mark Stoddard had a killer for spring steelhead in his baby rainbow, which worked everywhere these fish come in even though he developed it on the Oak.  I never tell someone to stop fishing stonefiles! Besides, you can give the fly some action!
 
L13

Just read this thread, thanks for informing lucky... salmon river stone??? I believe ive seen it in a book once or twice... i think mine work better though... lol!!!

Tuna did you ever get a chance to use the nymphs i gave you back in october... my lame azz hasnt tossed a fly yet this whole steelhead season... i did tie up a dozen a few months back for a friend though who happened to do very well with them in the lfz

Thanks Lucky-
 Sometimes ya wonder if your own observations are a little twisted depending on the day or timing. Glad to hear that mine were more or less what actually happened.
  Some days I worry about me---or whoever that was

The most productive fishing I saw this winter was a guy In Pineville that hooked and landed  4 in 5 or 6 casts on what was a slow day. His luck ran out  as his jar of 3" hellgramites  became empty.  Pretty standard big trout bait.  Harder to come by though , and most bait doesn't bite!  I use ostrich herl and marabou together  in a longer tail than you normally would put on a bugger.  I have no idea what the secret fly is, but I do know some of the flies from my smallmouth box have migrated.  
 
 

A friend of mine came up with an awesome hellgramite pattern....they are deadly on trout and bass
looks just like those mean little buggers....he was tying them up and selling them at bass pro til corprate wisdom kicked in....he was tying them while not busy in the fly shop, they sold for $3.50 ea....he had tied up over 2000(in 6 mo) and they sold as fast as they were put out....but then the big wigs decided his time would be better spent cleaning the shop....so they threw away an extra $14,000/year because they didn't want someone "wasting time" while at work.
but, it is the most life like pattern i've ever seen

OK bear,I just have to know what is the receipe for that pattern?
This is the first I've heard of anyone using those critters for Steelhead,but seeing that the SR is loaded with them it's no big surprise.
I'm out here in Ohio waiting for some decent weather to go fishing,don't like cold,raw,wind and snow blowing in my face.Besides that the flow gauges all show high and probably dirty water.I have until April 7th to get out there so I'm patiently waiting

Long shank hook, put on wraps of lead wire (play around with the placement til you get the fly to fall even and land natural)
1. at the hook shank tie in a piece of flex wrap black (i use electrical tape)and a piece of felt ( i make them 3/16 inch thick and alittle longer than the fly will be...tie in the flex wrap first, because it will be the outer covering for you head and thorax
2. at the shank tie in some chenelle the color of bug you want (a brownish green under body works well here....for the head
3. use goose biots for the jaws, 3-5 per side
4. pull the flex wrap and felt back and tie off forming the head
5. I vary from the pattern here, i run my chenelle to the back of the flt and tie it off
6. tie in,  up at the head a saddle hackle, and make a tight set of wraps about 1/8th inch
7. bring the flex wrap and felt back on top forming the thorax and tie off (here you clip off the flex wrap, because the abdomen will be the felt with thread wrapping)
8. tie in another saddle hackle, what i do is 2 wraps with the hackle then pull back the felt and do 2 wraps of the thread....continue this to the back of the fly
9. tie off the hackle and the felt
10. with the felt that is left i form a tail by cutting a V and either thread the hook eye through the body before the tail or just leave the tail hang loose.
 
if i was any good with the computer i could show you some step by steps

Dime,
 
SRS is HT's, so I am not going to rain on his parade.  While I have seen size 4 stones in the fall, the spring stuff is usually tiny winter blacks and early browns, which is probably why the little critters  are so effective in the winter. Hellgrimites were the impetus for the "no inverts for bait from trout streams" regulation in NY.  The bassers and bait dealers on the Schoharie would throw old matresses and box springs into the water, then haul them out later and pick the Dobsonfly larvae, but leave the mayflies, caddis, and stones to dessicate. Art Flick pushed the legislation, and since then you cannot pick invertebrates, including crayfish, in a trout stream without a scientific collector's permit.  In PA, last time I lived down there, you could pick up to 50 per day for personal use, and you can take hellgrimites, crayfish, stones, etc from streams that are Class C (not C(T)) or lower (if you can find a D anymore!) in New York.  This probably only meant big leeches, hellgrimites and crawdads back when the law went in because everything else is too small and squishy to keep on a hook, but in recent times, I've seen people using tiny leeches and scuds attached to fly hooks with super glue, with deadly results.  On the other hand, one of the most successful angler's at Irondequoit Creek this spring has been hammering fish on small (2-3") red rubber worms, and the Joe's wigglers (rubber Hexagenia nymphs) from Michigan used to work really well on the SR, so maybe the imitation will work just as well as the natural.
 
L13

Lucky, used to hammer smallmouths with helgramites in the big "d" with live helgramites in the famous narrowsburgh bridge pool as a child with my father out of a row boat... in my early teens we would night fish bardparker pool where the east and west branch met and we'd take nice browns with helgramite immitations tied on long shanked hooks with the front quarter bent up... the body consisted of olive black or brown chenille with a phome pull over head and rubber legs woven around with the chenille throughout... dont see why they wouldnt work for steel. You wouldnt believe the dobsen flies we would encounter while night fishing. They would look to land on us while standing in the river in the pitch black thinking we were a tree to land on... you would here their wings flapping from 40 feet away it seemed... atleast it was a warning to start swatting soon... lol...

For soft plastics ive been inclined to try the yamamoto baits in various colors in three inch size for steel... yet to try it but this year may be the ice braker for me