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Favorite Books for Steelhead flies.

3K views 6 replies 7 participants last post by  Igor 
#1 ·
I was looking through my collection of books the other day and thought to my self “I could use more books on Steelhead flies”. I have not purchased anything good in that category in a long time. I have all the usual suspects, “Flies for Steelhead” by Stewert & Allen. “Steelhead Fly Tying Guide” by H. Kent Helvie, “Steelhead Fly Fishing” by Trey Combs, and so on. I was wondering what other good books on the subject are out there. Let me know your thoughts.

Charlie.
 
#2 ·
Spey Flies and Dee Flies by John Shewey is a great one, albeit not just a steelhead fly book.

The similarities between atlantics and steelhead are so close - they are truly close cousins in many ways.

I will check my bookcase tonight...
 
#4 ·
Hi, Charlie,

I thought I had some steelhead fly tying books that might add to the ones you mentioned, but, it seems the books you mention pretty well cover the current waterfront, their being extensively researched and vetted and all. Fusion is the name of the game now, I guess, with flies originally designed for Atlantic Salmon showing predominently in steelheaders' fly boxes, and, I assume, visa versa.

One book you might not have come across is Art Lindgren's _Fly Patterns of Roderick Haig-Brown_ (Lindgren, Arthur, _Fly Patterns of Roderick Haig-Brown_, Frank Amato Publications, Portland, 1993. ISBN: 1-878175-39-4). This is a slim little volume, but it might be of historical interest to you.

Cheers,

Eric
 
#5 ·
Charlie,

The ones you mentioned and those Juro, Eric, and Mark list together cover steelhead flies very well. Bill McMillan's Dry Line Steelhead, Trey Combs Steelhead Fishing and Flies (this is no longer in print; but should be relatively easy to find), and Deke Myer's Advanced Fly Fishing for Steelhead offer some PNW steelhead flies not often seen.

However, as Eric has mentioned, there has been a real incorporation of Atlantic Salmon flies and fly styles (like Ally's Shrimp, Irish Shrimp style flies, dees, etc.) sometimes as origianally tied sometimes with more traditional steelhead colors in PNW steelhead flies.

Veverka's book on spey and dee flies and Mann's book on shrimp flies also cover some very important newer developments. There are also quite a few of us who have learned much from the likes of Kelson, Francis, Blacker, Knox, Price-Tannat, Maxwell, Bates, Hale, Hardy, etc and who have found that many of the old Victorian era salmon flies work very well on PNW steelhead.
 
#7 ·
Charlie,

One of the very first books I got on tying Steelhead flies was "Steelhead Fly Tying Manual" by Light and Humphries (sp). It's an older book, the photography and 'step-by-steps' are quite dated by todays standards - but it's got a ton of forgotten yet effective tying Rx's that date back to the 30's through the 50's.

Igor
 
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