Fly Fishing Gear for Steelhead and Dolley Varden

Techniques include Wet Fly Steelhead Swing

Below is a list of gear you will want to have for fly fishing rivers for Steelhead and Dolley Varden. The ideal rod is a 9 ft 8wt tip flex (fast action) fly rod, a 7wt Sage will work great also as Sage rods tend to run stiff. Using a lighter rod can make for a challenge casting the large flies and attempting to tire big fish quickly. I personally use a 9 ft 8wt Orvis Trident TLS rod with a 7-8 Reddington Reel and a custom multi-tip line. If you would like to buy a commercially sold sink tip fly line, I really like Jim Vincent's RIO VersiTip multi-tip fly line. It includes a 15 foot floating, intermediate sink, type 3, type 6, and type 8 tip sections. The mulit-tip system allows you to fish a variety of water without having to pack around extra spools. However, if absolutely don't have $120 to spend on a fly line, then the next best thing is the Scientific Angler's Ultra3 Type V sink tip fly line. It will work well in the faster steelhead runs.

When you are fishing over steelhead and salmon, you need to have a good reel so you can tire the fish out quickly and release it unharmed. A reel with a clicker drag alone will give you and the fish a much harder workout than either of you need. Plan to spend $200 or more for a decent disc drag reel.

Item Type Brand (Retailer) Avg. Price
Rod 9 ft 7wt (1) Sage Discovery or RPL $250-$400
9 ft 7wt (2) Sage VPS $350
9 ft 8wt (2) Orvis Trident TLS $345
9 ft 8wt (2) Orvis T3 $595
Reel 7-8 Disc Drag (1)(2) Redingtion Brakewater Large Arbor $279
Reel 7-8 Disc Drag (1)(2) J. Ryall Steelhead Series $250
Line 8wt Mulit Tip (15ft floating, Type 3, Type 6, and Type 8 tips) (2) RIO VersiTip $120
Line WF8FS, Type IV and V (2) Scientific Angler's Ultra3 (Cabela'a, Ted's) $50
Leader Built up leader tapered from 30 lb to 10 lb (Length to match water visibility) Maxima Ultragreen $3.75
Tippet (Add 2 ft to end of leader) Spool of 8 lb and 10 lb Maxima Ultragreen $3.75
Flies Fall #2 Marabou Streamers in white, black, blue, purple and conbinations of each, #4, #6 Wolley Buggers in black, purple, #4, #6 egg sucking leaches $1.75 each

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