"Steelhead Bee"

[tapster]

Any idea as to where I can find a good set of tying instructions for a "Steelhead Bee" dry fly pattern? It is a large dry fly and requires fairly stiff hackle to make it ride correctly.

[D3smartie]

http://www.flyanglersonline.com/flytying/fotw/061200fotw.html

there is one way to do it...
I dont fish that pattern much but i like the spun deer hair body better than a dubbed one...

[mgdfly]

Rodrick Haig Brown actually designed that pattern to sit low in the water and used a fairly soft hackle that would add lifelike movement to the fly. He relied on the forward, split squirrel tail wing to keep it in the surface film. I prefer to tie the wings and tail with Elk hock hair, which is very fine (for elk),stiff, resilient, similar in color, and floats like a cork. I also tie a version with darker elk and a black/yellow or black/orange body, a "Steelhead Bumblebee" as it were,that I find effective in larger sizes. I usually fish the "Bee" in sizes 8 & 10, and the "Bumblebee" in sizes 4 & 6. You should read Haig Brown's 'Fisherman's " series, if you haven't already. Tight lines Mike

[BigSkyHunter]

mgdfly,

That is some excellent information. Thanks for sharing and I going to give it a try this next week.

[Heron]

Mgdfly is correct, Haig-Brown designed the Steelhead Bee to sit in the surface film and give a good silhouette. He fished it both dead drift and on the swing, skating/waking on the surface.

From the photos I have seen of original Haig-Brown ties it had the following attributes. The wing and tail were rusty orange Fox Squirrel Tail, long, bushy, and unstacked. The wings were angled well forward out over the hook eye. Body was dubbed and well picked out, brown/yellow/brown. The hackle was soft, with medium web and only 2 to 3 turns.

This Pattern has been a favorite of mine for many years, and has proven to be very effective. I had the very good fortune to fish it in the waters that Haig-Brown originated it for. In May of 1980 a friend and I took a trip to fish the waters of Vancouver Island. One of our stops was the upper and lower island pools on the Campbell River. Neither of us were expecting fish, but we had to wet a line in this “Holy Water”. Between the two of us we raised several steelhead and large Sea-Run Cutthroat, landing our share. It was like the story he wrote “The Day Everything Happened”, (I think in “Fisherman’s Spring). A day I will never forget.

Haig-Brown truly knew what he was doing when he developed this pattern.