Chrome Standard, tied by Pete Ouelette.

When the weather turns cold, steelhead seem to want brighter colors — oranges, reds, pinks. Pete Ouellette’s Chrome Standard is a great delivery system for mixing and matching hues in a fly that has the kind of profile and action needed in low temps. At the fly shop, check out the dyed guinea — black, blue, purple, chartreuse — and come up with your own combo.

This is a swinging fly. Cast it quartering down and across, throw a mend, then let the current take the fly in a sweeping arc. Hold a shock loop of about 20 inches and, at the grab, let the line go, then lift the rod.

Tie the Chrome Standard with orange thread on a No. 4-1.5 Alec Jackson or similar hook. For the tail, use orange-dyed guinea fibers. Wrap the body with UTC wire and tie in a thorax of synthetic “peacock” dubbing. Use yellow marabou for the wing and dyed guinea for the hackle.