Help...Steelhead!

[Andrew Mann]

Are there any dry flies that steelhead will take in the Great Lakes region (mid-Western Ontario) during the spring? If so, which ones?

Thanks,
Andrew

[uptroutfishr]

Andrew,

They will take just about any dry fly, as long as you fish a sink tip line or place a several split shot about a foot and a half above the fly.

Seriously, I fish steelhead mostly from Lake Superior, and I have found that they have very little interest in dry flies when they are on their way up the river to do their business. But later in the spring I have found them still in the rivers behaving like trout. I once found several steelhead 'trapped' behind a beaver dam, and those fish were rising to flies. I visited that spot several times before a hard rain allowed those fish to head back to the lake.

I can't recommend a specific pattern, though. Perhaps someone closer to your region has some better insight.

Good luck!

p.s. You probably have something different in mind, but I have had many days in which I have caught several 7 to 12 inch steelhead on an elk hair caddis. Before these fish figure out that they are steelhead and return to the lake, they spend a summer or two in the streams acting like little rainbow trout.

[This message has been edited by uptroutfishr (edited 14 February 2005).]