I've gotten back into fly-tying after a 30-year hiatus. In the process I'm re-evaluating the flies I use for halfpounders on the American. In past years I did well on green psycho princes and Fox's poopahs, but not so far this year. I've done better drifting standard beadhead princes and swinging an olive conehead wooly bugger with catcus chenille and rubber legs (I forget the name of the pattern). Olives and greens seem to be the best colors for flies for halfpounders for me (I'd call peacock herl a shade of green). I haven't fished evenings, but if I did I'd swing a Fox's Poopah. I've gone down around Sailor Bar just to check out the salmon in the evenings and seen the pupa swimming in the surface film. It's so cool to scoop them up and watch them emerge from their shucks.

Back in 2012 Bill K posted these popular patterns (and I know he once posted that the fish's preferences changes as we go through September and the fish acclimate to the river and its caddis hatches):
Renegade
Brindle Bug
Green/olive Caddis Pupa
Any #10/12 trout nymph
Red Squirrel nymph
Any small Steelhead fly
Any soft hackle fly
Wooley Bugger


Others posted with the Dirty Bird/Bastard, Wooly Bugger, Olive Poopah, green-bodied soft hackle.

I have a copy of Dennis Lee's steelhead book and looked at all the halfpounder patterns in there last night. I might add a few flies based on that. Lots of orange, red and pink in the patterns (but most seem to have originated on the Klamath, Rogue and Trinity).

When the water is warmer my understanding is that swinging can be more effective since the fish's metabolism is higher. So maybe now is the time to swing one group of flies, then by late October focus on drifting?

Thanks for any thoughts.