Bill McMillan pioneered the idea of the deep wet fly swing for winter steelhead, using only a floater and a fly tied on a heavy hook that would penetrate and get down. The Washougal Olive is one of his "get down" flies.

Both the Spade and the Skunk are famous West Coast patterns. The Spade combines the best of both and it is a very fast and easy tie.

The Purple Peril is a famous West Coast pattern that combines two of my favourite steelhead clouds: purple and brown. I find that brown is an under-appreciated colour for Great Lakes steelhead. It's probably a safe estimate that most of my steelhead have been caught on flies where brown was a main colour.

Skunks in a variety of forms, have always been great fish-catchers. This is a really easy pattern and a great first steelhead fly for beginners.

The Van Luven was my very first attempt at tying a steelhead wet fly. I chose it from the pattern book simply because it was one of the few flies for which I had all of the materials. It turned out to be a great fly for Great Lakes salmon, catching loads of them on our Lake Ontario tributaries.

Downforce flies aren't one particular pattern, rather it is a style of fly tying. These flies get down on their own and stay down. They don't have to be dragged down with a heavy sinktip. these characteristics ensure that these flies get where they are supposed to go and then stay there.

A few years back, I noticed baitfish swimming in the shallows, occasionally reflecting a copper glint from around the head. That gave me the inspiration to tie the Copperhead Minnow. On my first try with the little streamer, it quickly proved its value by hooking a bunch of brown trout. I've also seen the need for small streamers when fishing for smallmouth and they were on to small baitfish.

This fly imitates a stage in the life cycle of a mayfly where it is most vulnerable to trout predation: the trip from river bottom to the surface to hatch. When a mayfly nymph is close to emerging, its skin falls up with gas, it becomes buoyant and it floats to the surface. This fly imitates this stage of the nymph as the clear beads reproduce the gas filled skin and reflect light on the nymph's trip to the surface.

Joe Brooks designed the Blonde series of flies for both fresh water and the salt. They come in a variety of colour schemes and in this case I've gone with the Honey Blonde of yellow over white. This is a combination that has worked well for me for striped bass.

A Pennsylvania angler, Samuel Slaymaker, created three small bucktail streamers that are intended to imitate young trout: the Little Rainbow Trout, the Little Brown Trout, and the Little Brook Trout. Adult trout are cannibals and have no hesitation in eating their own young. These small streamers are intended to imitate young trout and offer a tasty meal to a larger trout. They're not hard to tie and they are effective.

A Pennsylvania angler, Samuel Slaymaker, created three small bucktail streamers that are intended to imitate young trout: the Little Rainbow Trout, the Little Brown Trout, and the Little Brook Trout. Adult trout are cannibals and have no hesitation in eating their own young. These small streamers are intended to imitate young trout and offer a tasty meal to a larger trout. They're not hard to tie and they are effective.

A Pennsylvania angler, Samuel Slaymaker, created three small bucktail streamers that are intended to imitate young trout: the Little Rainbow Trout, the Little Brown Trout, and the Little Brook Trout. Adult trout are cannibals and have no hesitation in eating their own young. These small streamers are intended to imitate young trout and offer a tasty meal to a larger trout. They're not hard to tie and they are effective.

Back in 1969, my very first fish on a fly rod came on a Black Ghost. The one pound smallie took the streamer that had been fished off the end of a level sinking line. I had been out on the St. Lawrence River in a little tin boat owned by my buddy's dad.

The Black Ghost has been one of my favourites ever since.

My previous Marabou Nymph video shows how to tie the fly. It's intended to be an expendable fly, so its construction is not that robust. This version uses a more robust construction method.

It doesn't get much easier than the Marabou Nymph. If we need loads of an expendable fly that will catch fish, ell try this one. It has the added bonus of looking very lively in the water and it's at home being swung or dead drifted.

If your local waterways have yellow perch in them, then you have to have at least one yellow perch pattern in your fly box. Our brown trout section of the river is a tailwater fishery and during high water events, baby perch get washed through the dam into the brown trout section. Then the trout go nuts on any perch-like fly pattern. Give this one a try.

The Black Nose Dace is a famous streamer pattern that has accounted for many trout and other species as well. Here's an easy step-by-step on how to tie it.

The Mini-Brown streamer came about due to a dumb mistake. I was supposed to be copying the Professor wet fly, but I misplaced my sample and tied the fly from memory instead. The result was this little streamer, which has turned out to be a dynamite little pattern for both trout and panfish. I also tie it in a Mini-Brookie and a Mini-Bow version.

Pheasant Tail Nymphs have been a staple of anglers for many decades, having been popularized by Frank Sawyer. Here's a simple to tie, bead head version, tied Euro style.

The Mop Fly has this really bad reputation because it's tied from strands from a mop. I have to admit, I don't like it. yet it catches fish, so here it is, the Infamous Mop Fly.

The Micro Mono Caddis Larva is an easy micro pattern to tie. This size of fly is often essential in late summer to early fall when much of the insect life is tiny. Having a small pattern like this one the end of your leader can spell the difference between success and a skunking.

Here's a very simple way to tie an effective soft hackle wet fly.

The Cow Dung fly is a very old English pattern that legend has it, was inspired by an angler who trod on a cow pattie and noted that the flies he disturbed were the same ones the trout had been eating.

The Leadwing Coachman is a very effective pattern whenever Isonychia mayflies are emerging.

The Pheasant Tail Flymph is a very effective pattern whenever mayflies are emerging.

The Orange Fishhawk has been a very effective pattern for me whenever caddis are emerging.

The Red Tag is a classic wet fly that's great for smallmouth bass, panfish or trout.

The Woolly Worm is a classic wet fly that's great for smallmouth bass, panfish or trout.

The surf can easily shred the bucktail on a standard clouser. Check out how this one can survive in the surf.

This simple Gurgler is a great topwater fly for striped bass. I love watching big bass smack it.

This simple Sand eel pattern has been most effective striped bass fly, accounting for the most and my biggest striped bass.

The Willie Gunn is a very famous Atlantic salmon pattern that has proven to me to be very effective steelhead pattern as well. Here it is in a tube fly version.

The Brown Trout Weamer has been one of my most successful patterns, accounting for 14 different species of fish, caught in both fresh and saltwater. Here it is in a tube fly version.

The Headstander Fly was inspired by the Shaky Head technique from conventional fishing. It exploits the buoyancy of rabbit fur to stand the wing up to make the fly look like a small fish foraging along the bottom, and an easy target for a marauding predator.

The March Brown Spider is best used when March Browns are hatching. The fly can also be used as a generic wet fly for panfish and smallmouth bass.

The Twitch Fly is an easy to tie pattern that's highly effective for smallmouth bass when they're in a fussy mood and not willing to chase, plus it'll take carp as well.

The Bass Bunny Bug is an easy to tie pattern that's highly effective for smallmouth bass and other species. It's a good pattern to use to learn how to tie in a rabbit strip wing.

The Sunday Shadow is a very famous Atlantic salmon fly commonly fished in Scandinavia and the UK. It's a very easy fly to tie and makes for a great first tube fly project. There's no reason why this fly can't be effective for other species as well.

When we start out tying tube flies, it's common for anglers to find that their tube flies do not swim level. As the fly swings into slower currents, the hook rides progressively lower. As a consequence, when a steelhead hits, we miss the fish. This video explains why and what is needed to stop that from happening.

When we start out tying tube flies, it's common for anglers to find that their tube flies do not swim upright. As the currents get faster or if they're stripping the fly in, it rides on its side. this video explains why and what is needed to stop that from happening.

This Diving Caddis fly is one of my own designs and it's intended to imitate the egg laying, diving females of the Hydropsyche genus - the Tan Caddis and the Spotted Sedge.

The Cahill wet fly is a very easy tie that is highly effective in the spring during mayfly hatches.

The Partridge and Yellow is a very famous Yorkshire wet fly that is still highly effective and very easy to tie.

The Gold Ribbed Hare's Ear (GRHE) has to be one of the most famous and effective nymphs out there. This particular style of GRHE mimics swimming nymphs like Isonychias.

The ubiquitous Woolly Bugger catches everything.

The CDC Emerger is best used when trout are hitting mayflies, but not the duns.

The Kings River Caddis is my go-to pattern when the Spotted Sedge is on the water.

The Green Rock Worm is great for those cold, clear brook trout streams.

The Elk Hair Caddis is the classic caddis dry imitation.

The Mickey Finn is a classic streamer with broad applications.

Designed by Bob Clouser, the Clouser streamer is an effective fly for any species of bass.

The Yak 9 Pike Fly is one of my patterns that has proven to be durable, easy to cast, and catches pike.

The Bunny Leech is effective for both bass and steelhead.

The Partridge and Orange is a classic Yorkshire wet fly, and a favourite of trout everywhere.

The Marabou Spey. Marabou flies are very effective steelhead patterns.

Learn how to use the techniques and tools for tying tube flies.

The Midwest Leech, an effective pattern from Michigan guide Matt Zudweg.

The Slammer is a popular B.C. pattern that Rick uses with equal effectiveness in the Great Lakes.

Here's a tough pike fly done in perch colours, that's sure to be a favourite with pike everywhere.

The Lady Caroline, one of the most famous Spey flies to ever grace a river.

The Cummins is an effective Atlantic salmon or steelhead wet fly.

The Amherst Spey is a dynamite steelhead pattern.

The Blue Charm is one of the best east coast producers of Atlantic salmon.

The Rusty Rat is an original Canadian east coast pattern.

The Green Highlander is a famous Atlantic salmon pattern that is a favourite on Canada’s east coast.

The Brown Trout Weamer has been my most successful pattern, responsible for fourteen different species of fish.

The Emerald Shiner imitates a popular baitfish for both bass and steelhead.

The B&C; Thingy has proven to be a very effective steelhead tube fly

Named after a famed East Coast salmon guide, The Austin has done well with early fall steelhead and Atlantic salmon.

The Dirty Harry was my original Weamer design (elements of a wet fly and a streamer, then fished like either one) and it was designed to fish when rivers were high and running off colour.

The Little Brown Thing or LBT is my best fly for making second pass over a steelhead when they have plucked at my first offering.

This Steelhead partridge and Orange is a variation on the famed Yorkshire wet fly of the same name. This one is good when steelhead are fussy. It can be swung as well as dead drifted.

The Grey Catt caught my first Cattaraugus Creek steelhead on this well known New York state steelhead and bass creek, hence the name.

The Black Nosed Dace is a common minnow in our area and very popular with bass and steelhead. This fly is an adaptation of a pattern on of my fishing buddies loves to use and a very effective one too.

The Yellowtail is a slick salmon or steelhead fly that will penetrate well and stay down.