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I started tying some flies this weekend getting ready for steelhead next month and salmon all summer. I hope to have some pics up this week. What sort of flies does everyone use for Steelhead and Salmon?

When I got to Alaska in 1993, I had just sold the fly fishing proshop I started in 1988. So I just used the gear and flies that produced well steelheading in Michigan. Perhaps the success I enjoyed came from showing some alien flies to the trout, salmon and charr I was now fishing. We all seem to do best with flies we personally like. Spey flies, large assorted nymphs, simple streamers, Muddlers, Mickey Finns, and Matukas, it was years before I fished egg patterns at all, and never have I fished an egg-sucking leach, but others do well and fish little else. My current thing is tube flies. Do you, 'Boater fish Dollies and Cutts there in SE, on or near the surface? Bill

For a while I tied and used some elaborate polar bear hair streamers and found that rolling them in the surf break on incoming tides was deadly on silvers in two favorite rivers. But then I found my old coho patterns fished the same, slammed the same...

Been using plain old coho flies for salmon since I was a kid... cannot imagine changing now. Though I have become a total Gami snob for salmon flies. The old reliable Mustad 37616 just does not keep up...
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Bill,
My favorite past-times is fishing dolly's and cuts in the creek mouths or off the beach. I usually strip a small minow pattern along the surface really fast and can actually see the dolly's and cutties making V's in the water chasing the fly until one catches it. It's always exciting. I remember one night I was fishing a chartrues Clouser Minow, probably about a #1. And I happen to come across a large school of sea run cutthroat that were heading up the creek spawn. In about 1 hr I had landed a dozen cutties the smallest one was 18 inches and I even managed to pick up a small coho in the process. Probably the best night of fishing I've ever had, or atleast the most memorable.

A "Thunder Creek" type fly would be excellent, are you familar with these slim minnow imitations? Once tied,I epoxy the forward 1/4 of the pattern. I plan to tye the next batch tube style, allowing a smaller hook and increased durability. Bill

I haven't gotten into tube flies at all. I've read about them but haven't started to tie any. I tend to use brown and white buck tail to make a minow and put some red eyes and red flashibou on it. Not a lot of red but enough. Red makes a huge difference when I'm fishing smaller streams.

Easy/cheap tube tie setup is just a very large hook ( a5/0 eye-less traditional Salmon fly, or any such hook with the eye cut off, will do) Chucked up good and tight in the vise used as a form to slide the metal or plastic tube on. The touch of red is worthwhile or can be a bead or two between the fly and hook. A very small treble is traditional,(#12) seems coarse I know,( check regulations) but single hooks do not, (very often) allow the fly to hang just so. 'Worth playing with. Bill

I'm a little far from salmon, but put in about 12-18 days a year for summer steelhead. I used to tie and almost exclusively use a few of the classics (Silver Hilton, Skunk, Green Butte Skunk, Fall Favorites, Blue Charms etc). Eventually I got inventive and simply started putting what I thought looked good on the hooks. Still stay mostly with furs and feathers in blacks, purples, bright greens, reds, and orange and some chenille with gold or silver tinsel, but tying is a lot more fun. My kick in the last few years has been large hooks with low water or spey type patterns (small flies). I never stick with a pattern either. When I land a fish, the fly comes off for retirement, and I tie on something entirely different. I do as well or typically better than my companions and have come to believe that presentation is more important than pattern. I do show the fish a lot of variety though, because I usually throw out a 3-fly daisey chain on the end of a spey rod. I haven't quite tried it yet, but am nearly convinced that an empty hook with the proper presentation will catch fish. Might give it a go this summer. I need to replace last years retirees, so perhaps I can shoot a couple of pictures as I tie things up. 1Minute

I know that variety is key when it comes to steelhead. I spent a week on the Situk in Yakutat a couple years back. One thing I picked up from some of the more experience steelheaders up there was if you don't catch a fish in 5 minutes on a fly, switch to a different fly. I know this isn't possible on all rivers but when you are sight fishing it's was a proven tactic. We had some mornings where we hooked between 10 and 15 fish. Of course the most successful pattern was a #6 Mickey Finn. But switching to a dark colored woolybugger at dawn and dusk produced a lot also. Which probably started my obsession with small brown minnow patterns.

Pictures please.

why don't you just come downstairs and find out AKBoatboy

For Salmon, my goto fly is the Blue Charm. When they aren't biting and its within the season for them, I often switch to a mayfly pattern tied on a #12 trout hook. I've had good luck fishing these two on the Gander & Exploits Rivers down here in Newfoundland.

M1911A1Shooter: I'm envious. Never had opportunity to go after Atlantic Salmon yet. Maybe with retirement....... Keep us up on your exploits. 1Minute