Despite the wet beyond most of our rememberenantial capabilities, which are admittedly waning as the seasons pass by, the summer steelhead are piling up, as I write, and as you read these sage words. Yes.
As of June 11, there were about 16,000 summers over Willamette Falls. Close to 3,000 summer steelhead have reached Foster Dam on the South Santiam and over 4,000 have been recycled downstream to Pleasant Valley or Waterloo Park. Some of these fish have made the truck ride and zipped back to the Dam more than once. Several-hundred summer steelhead had passed Winchester Dam on the North Umpqua by mid-May.
OOhhhhh. It’s gonna be a fine summer steelhead season, and we know that a bunch of you local guys and gals have been swimming your flies in the high waters already, with steady and increasing success.
In preparation for the dropping and clearing flows, out of greatest respect for the summer steelhead season that will develop before ya know it on the North Umpqua, Deschutes, Clackamas, Siletz, Rogue, Klamath, and San Joaquin rivers – Chris and I have shot (and I do mean shot) videos of 40 (count ‘em) summer steelhead flies. These are all highly original and super effective flies virtually guaranteed to catch boatloads of summer steelhead. I know this to be true because each and every one of them is a completely original pattern developed by me myself in all humbleness and sincerity.
This is true even for the flies that look suspiciously like a Green Butt Skunk without a tail or a Purple Peril without a tail and a wing.
Here’s the deal. Five basic fly styles. Nine flies each in four styles, plus four flies in the final series. You do the math. Forty of the nicest summer steelhead flies you will see come out of my vice (or is it vise?) for fly fishing.
There will be the Summer Boss Series, the Chenille Series, the Zowie Dub Series, the Baby Boss Series, and the Mini-flat-braid Series. Chris and Nate egged me on and fed me coffee intravenously to keep the time per fly at around 3 minutes. I made all sorts of blunders while shooting the videos, most of which will stay in just for realism.
We all had fun. Check out a few shots of the flies, to whet your appetite. Chris has a Tarpon trip and a few days guiding that will cause all of us to wait, patiently, for the videos to post. That said, get your heads into summer steelhead gear and be prepared to have fun with these patterns soon.
JN
The flies look great Jay. If you don’t have enough room in your fly box I’ll take a few off your hands!
Like the old school tying style less material & a little sparkle,love the big eyes on the hooks makes it easier to tye on in low light.
Awesome. And if you ask my wife: it’s vice. Otherwise it’s vise.
Gorgeous flies, Jay. And a very sneaky way to guarantee an entire chapter in the next big book on steelhead flies. Again you earn your title. You are the embodiment of sneaky. By the way, where have you been the last couple of weeks? No calls, no emails. And everywhere I go I run into people who are fishing the flies in those pitures. I ask them where they got those flies, and they describe some nice man with a pony tail who hands out free flies, is super nice, then slips in, catches all the fish, let’s them all go, and floats into the sunset…