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| A beautiful Feather River steelhead that fell for a 2015 Irideus Caddis fly fishing fly pattern. Any trout fisher would be proud of this momment. This picture proves your trout fly fishing tactics can be a success on steelhead also. Its part of the sport you do not here much about beyond the glamour of giant coastal chrome fish with giant tube flies and intruder fly patterns hung op in their lips. The light at the end of the tunnel is a finesse game that demands total perfection to master the natural drift and bug selection. What will humble many will become a true fly fishing passion for others. Some of these folks will drive for hours to be here to play the steelhead game. Some days these fish will break your heart and others they will light you up like Time square New York on New Years Eve. |
It is a great time of year when your on the coast swinging bright Irideus steelhead flies for chrome fish entering the river systems. The myth these steelhead do not feed is just that. Part of the game is sustenance. Steelhead need to feed to keep on the move to complete the life cycle they live. The array of bug and minnow feasts prove to help them get the most of the spawn. We have seen a fresh steelheads stomach pumped on a small stream to find out it to had been dining on the local Hydropsyche olive caddis. The stomach pumper was not an angler we know and we do not recommend this as an aspect of matching the hatch.
This California steelhead showed approval for this Irideus nymph fly fishing fly. High sticking and roll casting tiny flies on the Irideus 6/7 spey rod has proved to be a great approach to the natural feeding steelhead fly fishing side of the sport. This steelhead would be a trophy for any trout fly fisher. If your interested in this side of the sport the Irideus fly fishing blog has some great information for beginners in our sport.
A big grumpy buck steelhead that was slashing minnows at the bottom of the riffle was after the Irideus epoxy minnows yet was hooked on a #14 Irideus Caddis fly fishing fly. The Irideus Zen shooting heads are now available for single hand fly rods aalso this year. The Irideus zen Shooting Head line up offers some custom line grain weights to balance any fly rod on the market. We enjoy our spey and switch fly rods and have tuned our Zen shooting heads to meet a distance casting approach with a finesse touch.
The nice thing about using trout fly fishing tactics on steelhead is you will hook many small fish you may have missed. These little guys or half pounder steelhead as we call them in California range from 1-3 pounds and prove to acrobatic hard running fish that deserve the respect of international fly fishers around the world. If your a good trout fly caster you will make a great steelheader in any zone.
Steelhead and trout fly fishers share many of the same things in common. This would be a picture we can both agree says a million words. "Read the water like a good book it will serve you well." Well that's 12 words yet very fitting.
It is going to be an early spring! Take sometime to build a collection of Irideus fly fishing boxes when you need some new homes for your bugs. We take pride in being on the forefront of our sport when it comes to fly box designs. Being on world class blue ribbon fly water brings out the best in our buggy fly boxes and designs.
Exploring the Sacramento River for steelhead with a fly box full of streamers. These we a few that got wet. We picked up a bunch of small rainbow trout that made for some big smiles. Yet again trout fly fishing tactics on even big river water work. We hope the fly fishing community takes part in this great side of fly fishing. Thank you to all the wonderful people who stay in touch with us after all these years. Being a small company is not easy but the rewards are a true love for our sport and being on the water.
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