best drop-back steelhead flies

I ventured with #3 Son Gordo to ye olde steelhead mill, AKA Pulaski, NY’s Salmon River, for two days of post-spawn steelhead fishing. Due to an unusually mild winter, the spawn was very early this year. what should have been prime time numbers was picking away and scrapping for every fish. The weather was chilly, but bright and sunny, and predictably the fish were holding in the deepest, fastest, most bubbly water they could find. I was 2-for-3 on Monday and 3-for-4 on Tuesday with a couple skippers in the mix. Gordo, who was spin fishing under a float, put one in the hoop each day. All steelhead are special, so it was a treat to have our hard work and persistence rewarded. See you in November!

This post-spawn hen slammed a size 6 olive Woolly Bugger in a fast-moving slot near the head of the run. Moments before, I’d taken a two-pound skipper on the same fly as I was stripping it in to recast. Thank you both for playing!

(cue drum roll) In the end, this was an easy choice. I’d been trying for over a decade to reach 100 steelhead landed. What with trips few and far between, some truly bad luck/bad timing, and dwindling runs, the last few years had slowed my progress to a glacial pace. A fish here…none there…one…repeat. I was stalled at 97, and when I dropped my first hookup on April’s trip, it seemed like I had another appointment with disappointment. And then, the mojo shifted. Fish were on. And landed. And then I held #100 in my hands. I capped the day with a monster hen and a celebratory cigar. You can read the full, original report here.