Fly patterns

A multi-color yarn rag egg that Hawkins calls 'a deadly fly' under a float on the Manistee and that 'will fool most salmon and steelhead.' Chuck Hawkins sizes it dime-sized in pinks and oranges before runoff, quarter-sized in chartreuse, orange and bright yellow during runoff, and muted afterward; Kraimer fishes a quarter-sized Clown as the attractor above a smaller realistic egg. Fish it under an 8 to 20 g float or chuck-and-duck from fall through April.

Indicator nymphing · Chuck and duck

The original yarn egg, still in every Michigan steelhead box in Oregon Cheese, Golden and Chartreuse per Current Works, with a #12 short-shank scud hook the all-around Pere Marquette size and #14 to #16 for low clear water. For salmon, Trails to Trout advises blue, black and chartreuse pre-spawn and red, pink and orange during the spawn, in #6 to #8. Cream and pale yellow versions carry through the winter and the April to May sucker spawn.

Indicator nymphing · Chuck and duck · Euro / tight-line nymphing

A McFly Foam or Glo Bug yarn core under a yarn veil that goes translucent when wet, imitating the milky, non-viable eggs that make up most of the drift. Tied on a Gamakatsu C14S or TMC 2457 #8 to #12 (TMC 105 #6 to #10 for salmon); natural combinations for clear water, Chartreuse over Flame and Flame over Cerise for high or stained flows. Fish it behind spawning salmon from September through November, with aging-egg colors through winter, and natural steelhead-egg shades in March and April on the Manistee, Betsie, PM, Muskegon and Au Sable.

Indicator nymphing · Chuck and duck · Euro / tight-line nymphing

Loops of angora or knitting yarn imitating the 2 to 3 mm pale-yellow egg clusters of white suckers and redhorse, which spawn late April into late May (peak around May 10 in the Detroit River study) on the same gravel trout and drop-back steelhead use. Betts reports over 100,000 redhorse ascending the Muskegon in May and June with big trout feeding behind the redds, and Current Works and Betts both fish pale yellow sucker spawn for spring steelhead and walleye eggs. Fish it #10 to #14 under an indicator directly below sucker redds; the U.P. window runs into June.

Indicator nymphing · Chuck and duck · Euro / tight-line nymphing

A pale egg with a contrasting blood dot, designed by Great Lakes guide Jeff Blood to resemble a spawn-bag cluster. Its washed-out body matches aging eggs from November through February, when most drifting eggs are milky with patches of color. Fish it #10 to #14 in clear winter water.

Indicator nymphing · Chuck and duck

A Sucker Spawn tied with dyed pearl Diamond Braid instead of yarn, so it flashes in off-color water. Supinski lists 'Krystal Meth weave eggs' among PM, Muskegon, Au Sable and Platte winter staples, and Great Lakes guides rate it best in dirty water. Retail sizes #8 to #14; fish it larger and brighter as flows rise.

Indicator nymphing · Chuck and duck

A single strand of Estaz chenille wound into a ball, which the Pere Marquette River Lodge says 'should be in every steelheader's fly box if you're fishing the PM,' tied in chartreuse, pink and peach. Best in dirty water; fish it #10 to #12 as the bright attractor in a two-egg rig from September through April.

Indicator nymphing · Chuck and duck

Feenstra's articulated egg-and-fry: a size 10 rear hook wound with white grizzly marabou, joined by mono to a size 6 egg hook that carries craft eyes, a possum collar, pearl flash fins and a pink Ice Dub thorax. It reads as an egg with a fry attached, which is what drifts below spawning gravel in spring and behind salmon redds in fall. Drift it under an indicator or swing it slow on the Muskegon, Manistee and PM.

Indicator nymphing · Swinging flies (spey / switch) · Chuck and duck

A small yarn egg of 6 to 8 mm for gin-clear, low water when fish demand smaller, realistic patterns. Trout hooks (Daiichi 1130, TMC 2457) #14 to #16 match the 4 to 5 mm steelhead and brown trout eggs and 2 to 3 mm sucker eggs better than a salmon-sized Glo Bug; fish it on light tippet from winter through the May sucker spawn, and on small inland streams after the October brook trout spawn.

Indicator nymphing · Euro / tight-line nymphing

A soft translucent egg with a milking veil that closely resembles a real egg, sold in #14 in Apricot, Kiwi Opaque and Tangerine Opaque. Supinski names 'Otter Eggs' among Great Lakes winter steelhead staples; fish #14 apricot for pressured fish in low clear water from November through the May sucker spawn.

Indicator nymphing · Euro / tight-line nymphing

A two-tone yarn ball tied semi-Glo Bug style that became popular around 2000, typically fluorescent orange over yellow. The orange and yellow split suggests a mixed cluster of steelhead and sucker eggs, which is why it is a late-March through May fly on the Muskegon and PM. Retail sizes #10 to #12.

Indicator nymphing · Chuck and duck

A translucent chenille egg that George Daniel fishes in #16 'sweetcorn' during the sucker spawn, where any egg close to the natural pale-yellow color produces. Fish it as a small dropper below a heavier nymph behind sucker redds in late April and May.

Indicator nymphing · Euro / tight-line nymphing

A multi-egg yarn or chenille cluster suggesting several 7 to 8 mm Chinook eggs washed out of a redd together. Use it #4 to #8 in high or stained October water below spawning kings and coho, keeping the hook gap under a half inch to remain a legal artificial fly on Michigan streams.

Chuck and duck · Indicator nymphing

A multi-color yarn-loop cluster in the Sucker Spawn family, suggesting a clump of eggs of mixed age. Fish it in pale yellow and cream mixes during the April to May sucker spawn and in orange mixes below salmon redds in fall, sized #8 to #12 for stained water.

Indicator nymphing · Chuck and duck