Steelhead and the Snowfly

Photo credit: Randy Riksen

Steelhead and the Snowfly

by Jeff Hubbard, Outfitters North Guide Service

The Michigan trout opener is almost as enriched in history as our opening day of the firearm deer season. As trout anglers, it’s something we anxiously wait for all winter. It gives us the motivation to tie flies throughout the winter and fill those boxes for the hatches to come.

If you’re a steelhead angler, you have already been out there braving the elements. You trek through the knee-deep snow looking like Ralphie’s little brother in the movie A Christmas Story. You’re praying you don’t start sweating because if the sweat begins, the cold sets in for the rest of the day. I understand that winter fishing isn’t for everyone; it’s cold, and chipping ice out of the rod all day gets a little old. I enjoy it though because as a full-time river guide, it’s when I get to spend time on the river with a rod in hand chasing after this magnificent game fish.

When winter does start to loosen its grip, a hatch begins to occur on the Pere Marquette River. This hatch is something every steelhead angler should take advantage of. It isn’t a tiny little, microscopic midge fly but the little bigger, much more prevalent Little Black Stonefly. (Capniidae family- Allocapnia granulata) When temperatures start to warm, the river jumps up in water temperature, and these crawling little stoneflies begin to emerge. These are the first stoneflies of the year, and some anglers refer to them as the Winter Snowfly.

In their adult stage, you can spot the stoneflies crawling around on the snow as early as January. The peak of this hatch usually occurs from late February through April. In those late winter months, you usually don’t see trout feeding on these adult bugs on the surface. The trout’s metabolism is too slow with the cold winter water. Later in the spring, they will feed off them on top.

Under the surface is a different story, this nymph is very abundant, and you should be fishing it for steelhead and trout in the winter and spring months. Since I started fly fishing and fly tying, this pattern has been in my fly box. This steelhead fly requires a little bigger presentation and hook. A heavy wire hook in size 6 or 8 works well; you don’t want a simple trout hook, it’s usually too light. You don’t want a simple trout hook. It’s usually too light. It will bend out on a steelhead; they just have too much attitude.

The first steelhead I ever landed took a stonefly nymph out of a pool on the Rogue River in Rockford, Michigan, on a day in late March. Stoneflies are abundant on many West Michigan rivers, from free-flowing to tailwaters. Rivers as big as the Muskegon and as quaint as the Pere Marquette will see this hatch. If the river bottom has gravel and rocks, it probably has stoneflies.

Focus more on fishing the little nymphs when air temps rise above the freezing mark and it becomes a sunny day. If you have snow at this time, just the sun’s reflection off the snow will warm the edges of the river even more, getting stoneflies to start crawling and emerging. My preferred method is using a strike indicator set-up for fishing eggs and nymphs. Usually, I run an egg fly and a Little Black Stone as the dropper fly.

In the winter months, when the water is cold, steelhead love to focus on the slower pools. They don’t want to work too hard in the colder water temps. This fly under a float works well in that you can slow the speed down and fish it off the bottom where those lazy winter steelhead will be. When the river starts to warm, still run the same set-up, though focus on more pocket water and a little faster flows. The steelhead will be staging to spawn where the stoneflies are more abundant. In these shallower pockets and buckets, fish the fly once again off the bottom, just enough to slow the drift down.

But I will also let the nymph swing out until it becomes tight below me. Doing this will allow the nymph to go from its deepest point to rise at the end in the faster current. This will give the impression it’s starting to surface to emerge or crawl out. I have my clients do this when fishing an indicator set-up. You will be surprised how many times a fish grabs it as you’re starting to bring it up to recast. Even egg flies can get hammered in this technique.

This fly is very effective on sunny days, and when fishing pressure has been high during winter or spring. These steelhead have seen a lot of egg imitations, flies, spawn, or beads floated in front of them. I usually try to mix it up with a nymph. If the sun is out and the water is clear, this pattern can be very effective. This spring, before the Hendricksons start, remember the Little Black Stonefly when chasing steelhead or trout in your favorite Michigan river.