Top Flies for Great Lakes Steelhead
By: Karl Weixlmann
October 16, 2024
Great Lakes steelhead fishing can be highly productive if you use the right flies. Whether you’re targeting them as they stage near tributaries or during their migration upstream, knowing which patterns to use can make all the difference. In this guide, we cover some of the top steelhead flies for the Great Lakes, particularly Steelhead Alley on the south shore of Lake Erie. These flies are designed to mimic everything from baitfish, nymphs, and eggs, some of a steelhead’s most sought-after prey. Use this collection to build a well-rounded fly box for your next steelhead outing.
Great Lakes steelhead fishing can be highly productive if you use the right flies. Whether you’re targeting them as they stage near tributaries or during their migration upstream, knowing which patterns to use can make all the difference. In this guide, we cover some of the top steelhead flies for the Great Lakes, particularly Steelhead Alley on the south shore of Lake Erie. These flies are designed to mimic everything from baitfish, nymphs, and eggs, some of a steelhead’s most sought-after prey. Use this collection to build a well-rounded fly box for your next steelhead outing.
Table of Contents
Flies for Great Lakes Steelhead
Little Precious
Recommended Sizes: #10 - #8
The Little Precious streamer was first conceived for fly fishing off of Great Lakes beaches to imitate emerald shiners, one of the major forage species for steelhead in the lake before they make a run up into our tributaries. Emerald shiners make an inshore migration from offshore waters during the fall months and become readily available to steelhead staging near tributary mouths.
The fly is simplistic not only in form but in material needed and tying execution, what many would consider a great “guide fly”. Only three materials are needed after placing a bead onto a streamer hook, with all the material tied directly behind the bead. White Finn Raccoon material forms the underbelly of the fly, tied underneath the hook shank and extending just beyond the bend of the hook.
Flash material is then tied on top of the shank, and here you can use your discretion. You can incorporate several different colors of Krystal Flash like purple, pearl, and pink to give the fly an iridescent sheen when wet, a Mirage Flashabou blend, or a small quantity of silver Flashabou. They all work and I tend to use whatever I have the most of on hand. Light olive Finn Racoon material forms the back, top wing of the fly, placed on top of the flash material.
Olive over white is a universal, effective color scheme for all streamer patterns, and the platform used when tying a Little Precious is easy to expand upon with different color schemes like tan or light brown over white. Not long after the conception of the Little Precious, I started tying a Creek Minnow Precious to imitate the various species of minnows found within the tributary habitat away from the lake.
The Little Precious has since caught not only inland trout species on the east coast, but also Yellowstone Cutthroat, Arctic Char, sea run Brown Trout, and just about any freshwater species that feed on minnows. What seems to happen to all effective fly patterns is tweaking and material substitution. But just like the sequel to a major blockbuster movie, the original is usually the best.
Three Loop Pink Lady Egg
Recommended Sizes: #14 - #10
Year in and year out, egg patterns probably stick more steelhead in the net than all other patterns combined. Featured in my first book that came out in 2009, Great Lakes Steelhead, Salmon, and Trout: Essential Techniques for Fly Fishing the Tributaries, the Three Loop Pink Lady egg pattern continues to excel in productivity. When wet, it’s hard to tell the difference between this fly and an actual spawn sack.
Glo Bug Yarn has been a staple fly tying material for decades, with a high density of individual fine fibers which can be split into strands and tied sucker spawn style when looped up the hook shank. A sucker spawn style tie absorbs water and sinks a lot faster than a traditional, round, glo bug egg pattern. When purchasing Pink Lady yarn packages, I look for the ones that contain the most infusion of tangerine. With an approximate 5/16 diameter, cut the yarn into lengths of around 4 inches and split into strands.
Strand thickness depends upon the size of the hook and how opaque or translucent you want the fly to look like when wet. Use thin strands for smaller hooks and thicker strands for larger hooks. Use two strands per fly, binding them from the front to the back of the hook shank before the start of the bend. Before folding a loop in the material I like to twist them a little so that the material is condensed. Three loops up the hook shank completes the fly. Chartreuse thread makes this fly “pop” in the water and differentiates it from all the other orange threaded egg flies.
A neat trick to try before fishing egg patterns is to use your fishing vest velcro to tease some of the material out into a halo effect that makes the fly “glow” in the water. The Three Loop Pink Lady Egg is another simple, easy to tie, gotta have it guide fly.
Half and Half Glo Spawn
Recommended Sizes: #12 - #10
For clear/slightly stained water conditions, an egg fly like the Three Loop Pink Lady is perfect, but you still need a dirty water egg pattern for conditions containing a foot or less of visibility. I’ve always turned to author John Nagy’s Half and Half color scheme, the Flame on top of Chartreuse Glo Bug. For the reasons stated above, I like to tie it sucker spawn style, which also gives it a bigger profile. On the larger hooks with longer shanks, I’ll use four loops instead of three. Instead of two, you'll use three strands of glo bug yarn, two strands of chartreuse on either side of a single strand of flame.
Don’t worry about translucency when tying larger egg patterns. Use thicker strands of Glo Bug yarn to give the fly a good measure of opacity so that a steelhead can see it.
Whether you use this color scheme tied as a glo bug or glow spawn, it can help you catch more steelhead in water conditions where you normally wouldn't even think that a steelhead could see your fly. In blow out conditions look to smaller tributaries where steelhead can be found in condensed spaces where it is more likely for them to see the fly and eat it.
More on egg patterns. While the above two patterns are essential for fishing the various
water conditions one can encounter, they are certainly not the only ones that can catch fish. Your good old reliable orange glo bug or sucker spawn still sticks fish in the net. I like to carry a diverse selection of smaller natural, pastel colors, up to big, opaque, bright ones. Include patterns incorporating cream, orange and white, for if you look on gravel bars in dropping water conditions, you can observe in the fall and spring, scattered salmon and steelhead eggs, dead eggs we call them, that have these color schemes mixed together. Round out your selection with bright patterns including pink and yellow.
Black Stonefly
Recommended Sizes: #14 - #10
Various invertebrate species of stoneflies can be found in almost all Great Lakes tributaries, from small winter stoneflies to the larger golden stoneflies. I carry patterns to imitate both, but the nice thing about steelhead is that you don't have to match the exact size, like you would an inland trout feeding on a hatch. I go by the same rule used when choosing any fly pattern when fishing for steelhead. Go big and bright in stained water, and small and sparse in low, clear water conditions. If you tie your own, you can add brightness to a nymph pattern by using the various flash materials available in the tail and thorax wingcase. A lot of stonefly patterns are now tied with rubber legs that I think enhance their effectiveness. All of these variations are also available commercially.
Stonefly patterns are effective throughout the seasons but they work especially well under certain conditions. Winter water temperatures in the low to upper 30’s will have lethargic steelhead holding in the deeper, slowest water available. They probably won't chase a streamer, eggs from the salmon spawn may no longer be readily available, but that black little bug is sure tempting. Winter is also a good time to fish small black marabou jigs under an indicator. Whether the fish think it’s a stonefly or not I don't know, but they sure produce hookups.
One of the obvious times is when those little late winter, early spring black stoneflies are actually hatching. It’s a sunny, late February or early March day with air temperatures finally above freezing and spring is just around the corner. The first indication of a stonefly hatch occurring is you start swatting them off the back of your neck. You then look at the remnants of leftover snow on the bank and see it speckled with what looks like pepper, except the pepper is moving. They are tiny, maybe a #18 or a #16, but a #14 works just fine.
If you want to up your stonefly game, try getting ahold of, or tie some articulated wiggle tail nymphs. I've watched dour steelhead in ultra clear water swim several feet across heavy current to eat one. That waggling abdomen, even in slow current, must sure be enticing.
Zonker
Recommended Sizes: #10 - #6
The Zonker platform of fly tying can produce a myriad number of streamer patterns that can be used to meet virtually any water condition encountered. This fly was developed during the 1970’s, so it’s been catching steelhead for a long time! The Zonker's main feature of construction includes a rabbit strip top wing that undulates seductively in the water. The body of the streamer is normally a mylar tube slid over the hook shank and tied down fore and aft before adding the rabbit strip wing, but it’s much easier to use a woven braid material wrapped up the length of the hook shank.
Another simple to tie yet highly effective pattern, rabbit strips marketed as zonker strips are available in just about any color you can think of, from natural, undyed, to bright pink and purple. An all black zonker puts out a wide, visible profile in dirty water conditions, and the variations are virtually unlimited, making the zonker in all of its possibilities, a must have in any steelheaders fly box. The White Death version, designed to imitate dead Emerald Shiners, is a top producer throughout the Great Lakes.
Final Thoughts
Successful steelhead fishing in the Great Lakes region depends on having a well-rounded selection of fly patterns. From streamers like the Little Precious and Zonker to reliable egg patterns like the Three Loop Pink Lady, each fly serves a specific purpose. Understanding when and how to use these patterns will increase your chances of hooking up with more steelhead throughout the season. Make sure to experiment with colors and sizes to match local conditions, and don’t be afraid to tweak your patterns for better results. Tight lines!