The Colors of Spring

The Colors of Spring

With Spring comes the reality of eggs and preparing yarn straws of your most effective color combinations.  Here are mine.

(Top-to-Bottom)

Iliamna Pink & Red, Apricot & Steelhead Orange, McCheese & Red, Steelhead Orange & Red

Spring is a time of fluctuating water levels and temps, making for tough fishing.  Quite often the result is fluctuating hatch activity or no hatch activity at all during fishable conditions.  The obvious solution is going subsurface, dredging nymphs and streamers which are very effective in their own right.  However quite often, the "hatch" that trumps them all is the egg in the current. like it or not it, regardless of the current subsurface activity, a trout will not ignore an egg. It is a fact of nature where a high-valued nutritional food source is identified and taken out of reflex. Quite often when visible, you will see trout move far greater distances to take an egg vs a nymph they are actively feeding on. 

I find McFlyFoam to do exceptionally well for me, and I tie them in 4 colors utilizing he "straw Method".   My best producer year in and year out is the Apricot and Steelhead Orange.  If you have not fished eggs in the past, give them a try.  You may be surprised.  

   Building an Egg Straw

Begin with 3 sections of the desired egg color, and 1 section of desired yoke color, a straw and a loop of wire longer than the tube.  

Align the McFlyfoam as such.  It will naturally cling together.  And run the loop of wire through the straw.

Place about 1" of material through the wire loop.

Pull the wire back through the straw

Pull about 3/4" through the other end.  That is about what you will need for each egg you tie. Tie your material in at the mid-point of the section extended out. When you cut off to form your egg. pull another 3/4" out for your next.

Tying The Rootbeer Caddis

The Rootbeer Caddis

The Rootbeer Caddis was tied last fall looking for a variation that would sink quickly, have a bit of flash along with good movement.  It proved very effective as the trailing fly on tandem rigs.  Hope it adds to your box.

Recipe

Hook:  Caddis Emerger #16-#12

Bead:  Gold Tungsten

Thread:  6/0 Dark Brown Uni-thread

Abdomen:  Rootbeer Body Glass

Thorax:  Wood Duck Dyed CDC

Wing-case:  Fire-brown Turkey Biots

See you on the water!

Using Your Indicator

Using Your Indicator

When fishing Indicators, we are all looking to achieve a "drag free drift" right? Well.....maybe a little drag can be a good thing. Especially when drifting streamers.

(Flies shown:  Little Crappie Fly, Guinness Trout, Golden Retriever, Ralph's Little Pine)

Dredging large weighted nymphs and Buggers with any mix of shot, anchor flies and any your choice of indicator is most commonly a pursuit aimed at attaining a dead-drift presentation. Meaning no outside influence is imparted on the fly. It drifts as naturally as possible along the bottom.  The fish are holding deep through the winter months, holding tight and not willing to expend unnecessary energy. They are selective....you want natural.  It is a very effective way to pull large fish through the cold months. 

But there are times when a dead-drift is not the most effective method, and managing the drift of your indicator to "apply" drag to the fly can be the ticket.  Many folks struggle to keep a wooly-bugger or small weighted streamer freely drifting under an indicator, but if you observe a drifting Bugger suspended, it will drift nose down  with some movement of the marabou tail.  Looks good and is effective. ....BUT.

Mend your line downstream and impart tension on the indicator and it becomes a manageable tool once downstream of your fly. Observe the fly in that position and the fly will "swim".  It now becomes a live minnow, struggling yet still swimming. The takes can become aggressive.

Once tension is applied to the indicator, any tailed nymph or streamer will swim  wherever you guide it through the water-column.  

While the majority of the time a natural drift is the way to go.  Just keep in mind when fishing  streamers beneath an indicator, applied drag can be as effective or even more so than stripping to impart action.

See you on the water!

WINTERFEST 2019

WINTERFEST 2019 

Winterfest 2019 is in the books and a great time was had again. 

And the approaching storm was kind enough to offer up 2 days of mild weather before the hawk blew in. 

This years crew.

Good water, trout and great company.  

Add the balmy weather and its impossible to have anything but a good time. 

This year Jim not only caught the largest fish of the trip, But he smashed the previous years with this 36" hog.

And once again we were reminded....We are going to need a larger net. 

He then iced the cake with a beautiful brown buttered-up in winter colors.
Note the reminders of the past years flood damage.

The trip even gifted a trout in my direction.

1st trout of 2019!

Another year has begun, again kicked off by Winterfest.

My thanks to great friends, and welcome to another blog year.

The Thanksgiving Bug

The Thanksgiving Bug

I like to fish the Thanksgiving Bug at the tail end of the Little Wild Turkey hatch. Drifted through a pool and then left to skate across the tail-out can bring some exciting strikes.  At least that's how it will happen when I am sleeping off 5 pounds of turkey, gravy and stuffing in my recliner. 

A happy turkey day to all!!

Tying The Skittle Special

The Skittle Special Wet Fly

The Skittle Special is a variation of the Skittle and the Carrie Special.  It's a very productive pattern fished as a classic wet, or deep with split-shot. It does very well for me with split-shot and an egg trailing on a 12" dropper. 

Skittle Special Recipe

Hook: #10  3X Long 1X Heavy

Thread:  Black Flat-waxed

Abdomen:  Tying Thread / Peacock Herl / Orange-dyed Grizzly Saddle

Hackle:  Hen Pheasant Shoulder

The View Downstream

The View Downstream

It had been several weeks since I had been on the waters back home, and to say I was anxious would have been an understatement. with a flash flood only a month removed, the fact that changes could have occurred should have been 1st on my mind.   As I drove down the access road and turned to cross the spring, I noticed it appeared that nobody had been through there in a while. But nothing really registered.  Rigging, I did look out and notice that the stream appeared wider, and the hole below was far less defined than normal. still nothing.  For some odd reason, I grabbed my wading staff. Odd for me on this stretch?  It wasn't until I was 20 feet from the bank in waist high waders, my feet barely holding ground, and my wading staff humming and vibrating like a suspension bridge cable in a hurricane.  That...is when it hit me. Things had changed. I was not going to be able to turn around. So it was either get across or get wet, as each newly created channel challenged me as I crossed.  

Miraculously, I found myself dry, but exhausted and stumbling my way through the gravel on the far side.  Pushing reality out of my head, that on the return trip my weaker side would be downstream. It was a thought that I really was not prepared to deal with just yet.  Until then, I would fish.  

The morning did not let me down.  The water gave up 3 fat browns, all near clones of the 1st in the net.  All of which took a #14 Apricot McFlyfoam egg with a Steelhead Orange yoke.  

The trip back across was an exhausting 15 minutes.  With one very close slide of about 5 foot downstream.  Upon reaching the far bank I stood looking out over the water.  At first glance it looked so unchanged and harmless.  That, and the fact that I was focused on only getting a line in the drift reminded me of just how quick a situation can get ugly when we fail to pay attention after weather events.