"Hot Spots" on nymphs & other flies

[Nymphmeister]

What do you all think about putting a "hot spot" on a nymph or other fly? This is usually a small amount of bright color, such as a couple turn of bright red, flourescent pink/orange/chartreuse dubbing added into a fly. Europeans do this a lot- an example would be putting the bright dubbing between the abdomen and thorax sections on a Czech nymph. Sometimes they use the same color but use a couple or turns of flashy stuff like Ice Dub. You could argue that the white biots in the wing of a Prince Nymph are a hot spot- a light color that stands out against an otherwise dark fly. Many Great Lakes Steelhead flies use hot spot- a Pheasant Tail or Montana nymph tied with a flourescent pink, orange or chartreuse thorax. A black stonefly tied with a wingcase of sparkle or diamond braid in a funky, contrasting color (blue, red, chartreuse, copper, etc). Or tying a trout fly in a drab color but making a prominent head out of fire orange tying thread. An egg sucking leech. I tend to think that incorporating "triggers" like this is often effective. But it's also good to have natural, plain, drab flies that look like the naturals do. Showing the same fish and unnatural fly, over and over again, can turn them off. But... that little something extra can sometimes make your fly stand out in a good way, and the fish will single it out over a natural. Similarly, low light or dirty water would also tend to favor flies with hot spots/triggers. I guess you could consider flashback nymphs to fall in this category too. What do you guys think about all of this?

[Dave]

Torrey, great post, and this raises a question I was going to pose soon to you and Aaron regarding Steelhead flies. As you've said, and as I've witnessed over the past two months, the Steelhead flies tend to be anything but inconspicuous. They often have at least a single focal point, or "hot spot" usually identified by color. That being the case, is it because it is early in the season, and these fluorescent colors are attracting the fresh runs? Do the colors eventually get drabber as the season progresses (like with spring fishing versus late summer fishing)? I recently started tying some large stoneflies with a "hot spot" in the abdomen, under the wing case. I guess a more natural version would be the Montana Stone, with the yellow, nestled between the predominantly black counterparts. I tied one version of a stone with a crystal chenile abdoment, and some other vibrant additions. I'm wondering how successful they will be. That being said, I'm still tying plenty of eggs, as those will be the predominant food source.

Getting back to trout flies. I'm definitely going to have some natural drab patterns along with their parallel "hot spot" variations. It is funny sometimes. On heavily fished water, I imagine the fish are so used to seeing plain versions of flies, and in some other rivers, anglers probably tend to go in the other direction and use more vibrant patterns. This is probably dependent on the fishing community present at a specific river. For instance, I've fished the Deerfield a lot, and most of the patterns I see used are all "hot patterns", so that when I use something natural (or anyone else for that matter), it becomes really effective. I'm sure there are multiple examples of this other places, and regarding streamer patterns, and their "exotic" qualities.

[Nymphmeister]

Dave-
Most of the "nymphs" tied for the Salmon River seem to almost all have some sort of flourescent color/hot spot somewhere in the fly- usually either in the thorax on wingcase. Eggs work all Winter- various shades of pink work well in particular. Nymphs start to because more effective from about December on, as eggs become less common in the drift. Medium size black stones, usually in about #8-12, are very popular & effective- again, usually with some sort of hot spot. Sparkle Braid for the wing case is popular- try blue, red, copper, pink, orange, or chartreuse. You can also use a little piece of flourescent antron yarn for the tail- I like orange, pink or chartreuse. An egg head can be added to a nymph, either with a glass bead, metal bead, or a few turns of chenille. You are only limited by your imigination. I've caught fish on just about everything I've tied. Think presentation, color, and size mainly. Small, gaudy attractor type flies are also popular & effective on the Salmon River and other places too.

[Nymphmeister]

Dave-
You asked if the fly selection leans toward drabber as the season progresses and there are more fish holding in the river as opposed to fresh-run fish. The answer is yes, sort of. Smaller & drabber seems to be a very general rule as you move into the Winter, BUT, gaudy stuff still works. Normally you downsize the flies though, and that includes the egg patterns- the exception to that might be swung flies like Speys, Popsicles, Buggers, Egg-Sucking Leeches and the like. Bigger is often better in that case- gotta make it worth the fish's time to chase & eat it. For dead-drifting, fly size of course relates to water levels, clarity & speed. Higher, faster, murkier flows mean somewhat bigger, more opaque and/or gaudier patterns; lower, clearer, slower flows means smaller, sparser, drabber & more translucent flies. A big, fluorescent chenille egg vs. a sparsely dressed, small, pale Sucker Spawn will look very different to a Steelhead under various conditions. They might not even be able to see the Sucker Spawn in fast, somewhat dirty water- but I bet it will outfish the daylights out of the big, gaudy chenille egg in when presented to fish in clear water holding in the moderate currents of a pool in the Winter. On the whole, I think eggs generally work best when tied on the sparser, smaller, more translucent side, usually in natural colors. However, every fly has it's moments and a large chartresue Glo-Bug tied densely with 3 or 4 strands of yarn will kick ass in dirty water on fresh fish. I have noticed that say in December, if I fish more natural looking flies, I catch more darker fish that have held in the river a while, versus if I put on a brightly colored Estaz fly I will tend to catch more fresh fish. I've noticed that various shades of pink egg type flies work well in the Winter, when water temps are in the 30's- I think this is true everywhere. Matt Supinski, Steelhead god, author & guide from Michigan, often mentions the effectiveness of pink eggs in the Winter. And pink is just plain a good steelhead color in general- have shades from a pale baby pink right up thru hot pink and cerise. When tying pink Glo-Bugs, I often put a dot of purple or blue in them. For an Estaz fly, you can make a short tail of antron yarn in those colors. I like an orange tail on a chartreuse Estaz fly, caught many a Steelhead on that one, esp. in low light and/or murky water. Works well on fresh fish too in the lower river. The last time I fished Shcool House pool on the Salmon, I tied one on a few minutes before dark and hooked and broke off a really big 15# plus fish- it might have even gone 20. Both depressing and exciting!

While I have never fished Michigan for Steelhead (but I'd love to & plan on it sometime in the future), from what I understand the rivers are quite fertile and they are fishing for mostly wild fish. Because these fish are so attuned to natural food, when the supply of eggs dries up in late Fall they feed heavily on nymphs, and they fish them hard with flies matching the dominant nymphs in each particular river. It seems like we fish a lot more small, gaudy, attractor type flies on the Salmon. 2 fly rigs are legal in Michigan, so they also commonly tandem up a nymph & egg- when there are spawning salmon the digging dislodges many Caddis larva, Stoneflies, etc. and the Steelhead eat them. Anglers there also fish a lot of Hex Nymphs- they are quite common in MI streams, but not so much in NY. The Salmon River has lots of Stoneflies of various sorts (Golden, Giant Black/Brown, Early Brown, Early Black, etc) as well as a lot of Caddis larva in shades of olive & green. Helgramites are also quite abundant and are supposed to work well also. You may want want to slightly upsize these flies, and add a hotspot" of some sort- fluorescent bead to the head, Estaz in a thorax, Crystal Chenille or Sparkle Braid for an Abdomen, blue wingcase, fluorescent wire rib, etc. I also know some people wear by medium sized general purpose nymphs like a #10-12 Hare's Ear and the like- drab, lifelike, and nothing to scream "Imposter!" to the fish. Definitely #1 in popularity for a nymph on the Salmon River would be a Black Stonefly nymph, anywhere from about a #6-14, with the middle sizes being most popular & effective in general. There is usually, but not always, a "funky" aspect to the pattern- either a colored wingcase, often tied with Sparkle/Diamond Braid (in copper, blue, red, chartreuse, pink or orange), or a funky colored thorax in some flourescent shade (usually chartreuse, pink or orange). Blue is a popular & effective fly color on the Salmon River, and other places too. It seems to be at it's best in clear water in general.

No matter the time of year and conditions, I almost always start with something bright at first light, more often than not chartreuse (often paired with a second color like fluorescent orange or pink), 'cuz I know they can see it.- either a Glo-Bug or an Estaz fly. After it gets light, I may switch to more natural colors if chartreuse stops working, or maybe to another fluorescent but different color. And in the last half hour of the day, pink is often a magic color. That works on resident stream trout too, hint, hint.

[Dave]

Wow, what an answer, thanks Torrey. As always, you've covered every base.

This is all wonderful to know for Great Lakes fishing. I'll definitely come prepared with Stoneflies, in both drab/"life-like" and more exotic variations. I spent a day a few weeks ago with yards and yards of estaz (every possible color I could get my hands on). . . so I think I'm covered at least for this year and possibly next. I still vividly remember the first car ride up to Pulaski, learning how to tie eggs and Steelhead flies from Aaron, as he tie madly in the front seat explaining the details and intricacies ;D! Perhaps the most critical, and yet basic element you mentioned is that as winter roles along, SIZE is of the utmost importance, and more often than not, downsizing will be a necessity. AND, although the drabber flies may be more realistic, the gaudy/flashy ones are also still of great value.

You mentioned a book in the last post that Aaron had strongly recommended to me, and let me borrow recently. EVERYDAY, I find myself reading again and again, chapters of Matt Supinski's "Steelhead Dreams". It is a THOROUGH examination of the STEELHEAD, from A-Z: how these creatures function, what they eat, spawning processes, how they migrate, where they can be found under MYRIAD conditions, fly selection, seasonal changes, etc, etc, etc. It keeps on going. Matt covers a wide spectrum, focussing on his home waters of Michigan (Muskegon, (the Mighty Mo&#039, Manistee, St. Joseph's), and also gives a synopsis of other Great Lake tribs, especially the Salmon River. I was going to write a book review of it later. Just a quick interesting and important fact: Steelhead have INCREDIBLE sense of smell, 3 parts per million (3ppm)! ! ! Matt also takes the reader through the Great Lakes "evolution" of Steelhead in this fishery, and also in regards to Atlantic Salmon too.

[Nymphmeister]

Steelhead Dreams is the best book currently available. I think one reason we tend to fish smaller flies in the Winter is partly because in cold water, the fish mostly lay in the slower pool water where smaller patterns are generally more effective anyway. We definitely fish more gaudy stuff on the Salmon than they do in Michigan, although again, I tend to downsize my offerings in the Winter. Try a Frammus- chartreuse chenille body and a relatively sparse wing of cerise Glo-Bug yarn extending to about the hook bend. Can be fished both dead-drift and on the swing, usually from #6-10 on a wet fly or 1xl hook. Another excellent fly is the Teeny nymph, tied in a variety of colors, anywhere from a #2-14 on a shorter wet fly type hook- colors include natural pheasant, black, bleached ginger, olive, hot orange, hot pink and hot green. I've caught fish on all of them, from my first truly big steelhead (14 1/2#'s) on a #2 hot green to a low water winter fish on a #14 black one. Mostly I like #6-10 in that fly- it's tied on a short shank hook so it comes out smaller than it sounds. Hot Pink in about a #8-10, give or take, is a great Winter pattern. Not too many people seem to fish that pattern anymore, and it works really well and can be tied in 60 seconds or less. It works well on King Salmon too, esp. when the water is low and they are getting hammered- a #6-8 in hot orange, green or pink is the ticket in that situation.

[Nymphmeister]

So has anyone played around with hot spots on their nymphs? Love to hear about your experiences with this.

[SlowNDeep]

i tie some eggs with a single strand of red thread (about half an inch) hanging off the hook. have also tied small black winter stones with red heads. both flies are effective, but i cant say for sure that the hot spot makes a difference

i have asked about eyes on saltwater flies before and gotten different responses. generally the responses vary with respect to geography, rather than species. rhodeys say no eyes and capers say you must have em. go figger, either way they are fishin for stripers.

i imagine hot spots are just the same, they probably dont matter as much as people think, but are probably effective sometimes. part of my enjoyment in fly tyin comes from my appreciation of the pattern, which, occaisionally, matters little to the fish. I could fish all day with a brown caddis larva or a prince nymph (which has 2 big hot spots that imho need to be there), but i cant tie them all day, i need variation.

[Nymphmeister]

Most days presentation counts the most, but we've all seen the exceptions. I remember one day in the early season a friend and I were stripping weighted black Woolly Buggers at the Farmington in slower pool water, and my buddy foul hooked all his trout near the tail- the trout were actually slapping his fly with their tale and getting hooked. I was using a similar fly but mine had chartreuse on the underside ( a "hot spot" ), and all my trout were hooked fair & square in the mouth. All we could conclude was that the fish were lethargic in the cold water, and the additional trigger of bright color in my fly seemed to be just enough to stimulate them to strike/eat my fly instead of just slapping at it first with their tails. They reacted to the drab fly, but actually tried to eat the one with the additional stimulus. Interesting stuff.

[Troutbum from Griswold]

So I wonder if, for example, midge larva that is chartreuse, would be considered a full blown hot spot. Chartreuse isn't a natural color and because the fly is so small, the whole fly would be considered a hot spot. I plan on fishing a lot of midge nymphs this winter, I do anyway. Just want to do it more often and play around with different colors. The chartreuse thing is just a thought. Forgive me for my spelling of the color as well. :-\