J
jesse202505
Great job getting a big fish on the fly! Is that the eagle creek on the Clackamas?
Congrats on the silver Jesse. I just finished reading Fly Fishing For Summer Steelhead by John Shewey. Its a short book and I gleaned a lot of good info out of it. I am now reading The Complete Steelheader by John Larison. Someone had recommended it in a post last winter. I too am anxious for winter steelhead to arrive.
Tying Steelhead flies isn't going to save you a ton of money, usually, but it is fun, and most of the patterns are pretty easy - I buy intruders almost always (because they are a bear to tie) , and MOAL leeches when I'm felling lazy. The rest of them are not complicated to tie, and relatively inexpensive once you break the materials down per fly.
I did a cost analysis of tying my own MOAL leeches just last week, and came up with this:
$1.53 for materials + $50 labor (my standard hourly rate x .25 hours) = $51.53 per fly.
Great buck 'ho there, jesse! That's a really cool fish, I like those buck bulbous noses.
everett, my bro is the cheapest person I know. If he can save a penny by doing it himself he will. It turns out your hourly rate is exactly $0.00 if you are not working on a money making job, from how he breaks it down. LOL.
Best,
I spend 99% of my river fishing time on the Wilson. The final chapter of the Shewey book is on winters and talks about some different flies used and swinging with sinking lines. The Larison book looks to cover all aspects of steelhead on the fly. I just started into the Larison book last night.