How to Tie Seek & Destroy Steelhead Dry Flies

This is a step-by-step instruction on how to tie the Seek & Destroy Steelhead Dry Flies. Living and guiding on the Bulkley River, one of the best steelhead dry fly rivers in the world, has given me great opportunity to test out dry flies for steelhead. When I first started fishing the Bulkley most of the dry fly patterns were some form of deer hair wing and head. Very simple flies tied on a single iron. The Bulkley Mouse is the best known pattern that came out of this style of flies. It is a good pattern that attracts fish well and it has a good solid take ratio. The main disadvantage is that it needs to be greased, and riffle hitched, and even then it tends to be dragged under the surface quite easy. In those early days I fished Atlantic style Bombers a lot. They are very good attractor patterns, or search patterns, as they are called in steelhead lingo. The problem with Bombers is that, again, you have to riffle hitch them and the fish tend to slash at them and don’t eat the fly. I recall rising a steelhead 12 times on a Green-butt Bomber and never catching it….

Over the years I have tried to come up with the “perfect” dry fly. One that floats all day without grease, does not need a riffle hitch, attracts like a Bomber and “closes” like a Bulkley Mouse. My “Seek & Destroy” dries are the end result of many years of experimentation and fulfill all my criteria. Tied on a tube they are almost unsinkable; I can fish the same fly all day without greasing it. I don’t have to riffle hitch it, or thread the leader through a hole in the bottom of the tube. It will ride up all day long without it. It’s visibility for the angler is good, due to the calf tail wing/post, which allows me to track it on long casts (try to do that with a black Bulkley Mouse!). The flies are as attractive to the steelhead as a Bomber is but I get a much higher hook-up percentage. For the last 4 years or so I really have not changed anything to the fly because I cannot think of anything that would improve it. After many requests on how to tie the “Seek & Destroy” patterns, here is a step-by-step instruction on how I tie them.

Taken from: https://skeenaflyzone.com/seek-destroy-steelhead-dry-flies-by-jaap-kalkman/

Materials needed: Semperfli Nano Silk, Skeena River Fly Supply (SRFS) 3mm Plastic Tube, SRFS 1.8mm Plastic Tube, SRFS 3.2mm Junction Tubing, craft foam, deer hair, UV Shimmer Flash, Kid Goat hair

Materials

For the Low Light version:

– 1.8mm chartreuse inner tube from here

– 3mm Glow in the Dark tube from here

– Pearl Accent Flash from here

– Black craft foam

– Black deer hair

– white calf tail from here

– black Nano Silk thread 12/0 from here

For the Bright Light version:

– 1.8mm salmon orange inner tube

– 3mm salmon orange tube

– Pearl Accent Flash

– Rusty brown deer hair

– brown craft foam

– white calf tail

Step 1: Melt a flange on a 1.8mm plastic tube. Insert this 8mm into a 3mm diameter plastic tube. Leave 2mm of the 1.8mm diameter tube sticking out of the 3mm tube. Do not insert any further than this since the rear of the tube needs to be kept free for hook insertion.

Step 2: Create a flange by melting the front of the 1.8mm and 3mm tubes. If needed press the hot flange against a metal surface to press the two tubes together and form a flange.

Step 3: Tie in your thread in front of the bump that is created by the flange of the 1.8mm plastic tube. This further secures the connection between the outer and inner tube.

Step 4: Tie in two strands of UV Shimmer Flash (pearl or yellow). Tie them in so that there are two strands on each side of the tube.

Step 5: Tie in the foam back. Prior to tying the foam in you can slightly taper the foam so that it is wider in the front.

Step 6: Tie in a clump of deer hair just in front of the foam. Take a couple of thread turns while applying tension on the tread to cause the deer hair to spin around the tube. Clip off the butt ends of the deer hair.

Step 7: Tie in the second deer hair wing, right in front of the tie in point of the first wing. Keep the wing slightly longer than the first wing. Clip off the butt ends and clean up.

Step 8: Bring the foam strip forward and tie it down just in front of the second wing. Fold it back, leaving a small "bumper", and tie it in. Pull lightly on the tag end and clip it off close to the tie in point.

Step 9: Tie in a bunch of Kid Goat body hair. Prepare the wing by evening out the tips as much as possible. Take about 10 turns with good tension at the tie in point; this will angle the wing up at a 45 degree angle. Whip finish the thread and apply crazy glue to the thread and wing base in order to stiffen up the wing.

Step 10: Take the fly out of the vise. This top view shows the fly proportions. Note the longer second wing.

Step 11: Cut off the excess tube; cut the tube very short, in-between the wings. This assures that the hook does not sit too far back.

Step 12: The completed Seek & Destroy flies; Top row: Bright Light version for clear/bright conditions. Bottom row: Low Light version for low light/cloudy conditions. Left column are the larger "Seekers", right column are the smaller "Destroyers". Generally I search with the larger "Seekers". If I happen to get a refusal on the "Seeker" I close with the "Destroyer".