Flyfishsaltwaters.com - Steep Hill Special

The Steep Hill Special is my second oldest commercial pattern. I have tied it for fly bins in fly shops for over twelve years. It has been an Umpqua catalogue pattern since 1996.

I tie my own on an inverted 3/0 hook, using the Tiemco 411S, which is purposely constructed for inverted or "bendback" applications. The length of the pattern can be adjusted to imitate a variety of inshore baitfish common to Northeast inshore game fisheries. It is my opinion that it is most effective tied 7 to 9 inches in length, about the size of a mature, well fed sand eel. It's primary feature is that because the hook is inverted, it can be confidently fished over/within potentially very productive structures (rocks, kelp, eel grass, floating debris, etc.) that would trap conventionally oriented patterns. Also, if the water is churned up with algal debris, the Special will skate on through and readily take fish, while your hook point down pattern will harvest a bounty of algae and very rarely take a fish.

I developed the pattern in response to structure inaccessibility, specifically, to fish the rock headlands that define the southerly end of Steep Hill beach at the mouth of Plum Island Sound in Ipswich, Massachusetts. Tidal currents there are very strong. The rocks, boulders, and kelp beds provide predators, such as striped bass and bluefish, ambush sites for terrain masking baitfish conveyed by the tide's flood and ebb. For a fly fisher to be consistently successful at this site, his/her imitation must similarly have the ability to terrain mask over and between the structure. Tying the pattern, hook point inverted, was the answer.

The example shown above is a bit over 8 inches in total length. It uses un-dyed polar bear as a primary tail material and dyed pale olive over dark olive over lavender over pink bucktail as a wing lay-up. A few strands of rootbeer and peacock Krystal Flashä and pearl Polarflashä provide sparse highlights to the top and sides, complementing the bold natural translucency of the polar bear (application of gratuitous flash should be assiduously avoided). The eyes are epoxy coated 3.5 mm prismatic stick ons, black on silver, epoxied in place. The natural taper of the bear hair provides the Steep Hill Special with more than adequate tail suppleness (critical to its ability to swim).

I have taken many, many stripers over 36" with the Special. I do not go out with at least four, from 5 to 9 inches, in my fly box.

Wrap monofilament from hook eye to a point about 3/8" below the bend in the hook (Figure 1) Tie in 7-10 strands of shrimp pink KrystalFlash, 5-7" long .Wrap the same up the hook shank, to a point just ahead of the hook bend. Tie the KrystalFlash down with two turns, with the excess over the hook eye. Bend the KrystalFlash 180 degrees so it trails directly over the hook point and fasten with four thread turns Figure 2)

Tie in a tail on top of the hook shank between the hook bend and the hook eye (seeFigure 3). In the illustrated example the tail consists of a ¼" diameter bunch of natural polar bear hair, about 7.5" in average length is used as the tail material. Alternative tail materials include yak hair, Icelandic sheep hair, Fishhair, Bozo Hair, and KinkyFibre. Regardless of the material used, care should be taken to neatly and squarely trim the material at its tie down end, so as to avoid encroachment on the hook eye with excess material. Apply a spare drop of superglue to the joint, taking care to avoid super glue wicking back through the chosen tail material toward the hook point.

Attach a wing consisting of olive bucktail over lavender bucktail over light pink bucktail over the tail as shown in Figure 4. Apply a sparse drop of superglue to this joint.

Attach 5-7 stands of sand ultra voilet KrystalFlash 3-4" long on both sides of the tail/wing eight strands of 2-4" long dark peacock KrystalFlash on the top of the wing and 5 strands of 1 and 1/2" long red Krystal Flash on the bottom of head. Apply a sparse drop of superglue to these joints. (see Figure 5).

Apply color to the head with a permanent, waterproof ink markers (Delta Brown for the illustrated example)

Apply five minute epoxy to the head. Apply and align 1/4" diameter, epoxy coated silver/black prismatic eyes to the head as the epoxy cures.

Allow the epoxy to cure.

Apply a finish coat of five minute epoxy as required to streamline of the head. (See Figure 6).

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