Wet FlyintermediatePacific Northwest
Freight Train
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Big Y Fly Co.
Matched on wet flies, salmon, wet. Broad by-type catalog useful for common benchmark patterns and inexpensive backups.
Schultz Outfitters
Matched on wet flies, steelhead, steelhead. Michigan and Great Lakes shop lead for steelhead, trout, and smallmouth patterns.
Fulling Mill Flies
Matched on wet flies, salmon, broad catalog. Large pattern house with broad freshwater and saltwater fly categories.
Orvis Fly Catalog
Matched on wet flies, salmon, broad catalog. Broad retail catalog for standard trout, warmwater, salmon/steelhead, and saltwater patterns.
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Randall Kaufmann named this fly the Freight Train because when a steelhead eats it, the experience is about as subtle. Layers of purple, orange, and fluorescent green hackle create a color palette that exists nowhere in nature except inside an artist's fever dream, and yet steelhead eat it with the conviction of someone who has been waiting their entire migration for this exact combination of hues. The Freight Train does not creep up on fish. It announces itself, dares them to respond, and they do. Repeatedly. There is no explaining this fly. There is only fishing it.
Quick Facts
Where to Fish It
Deschutes River
OR · Freestone River
North Umpqua River
OR · Freestone River
Rogue River
OR · Freestone River
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Related Reading
region guide
Pacific Northwest Steelhead: The Complete Guide
Steelhead are the fish of a thousand casts. In the Pacific Northwest's rainforest rivers, anglers swing intricately tied flies through emerald runs for the chance at one explosive take from a chrome-bright sea-run rainbow. This is the complete guide to the pursuit.
species science
The Great Migration: Pacific Salmon Life Cycles
Pacific salmon are born in gravel, grow in rivers, vanish into the ocean for years, then navigate thousands of miles back to the exact stream where they hatched — to spawn and die. Their lifecycle is the most dramatic story in freshwater biology, and understanding it makes you a better angler.
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