A Wetfly Leader For Trout

    Pretty much always a good rule-of-thumb, ‘simplicity’ should ever be the core principle of rigging terminal gear for trout fishing -- & simplicity means minimal clutter. 

I've come to prefer store-bought tapered leaders over knotting my own together, as they turn over nicely, & fish cleaner with fewer tangles minus the multiple knot connections.  And the cost of a good tapered leader is not much of a factor if the leader is made semi-permanent with the addition of a rigging ring. These are catching on, & may be available at your local fly shop. The ones I’m currently using are the #2 rings from Feathercraft. These are tiny, about the size of a #8 hook eye – & smaller models are available, though I can’t imagine dealing with anything smaller than the #2 ring which is plenty obscure.     

Here’s my leader: a store-bought 7-1/2 foot tapered fluorocarbon leader, tapering to 4x (6 or 7lb test), as a butt, to which I fasten a #2 metal rigging ring. Now I’m never cutting into my tapered leader to splice in a new tippet – I tie the tippet to the ring, quick & easy. The 7-1/2 foot tapered butt is good for leaders from 9 to 12 feet, fishing 3 to 6lb test tippets, or down to as light as you like. If I want to go longer, say, 15 feet, I splice a 2 foot section of 4x or 5x to the ring, then splice the tippet to that.

If you generally fish shorter &/or lighter leaders, purchase a 7-1/2 foot leader tapering down to 5x, cut a foot from the 5x end – making a 6-1/2 foot butt, tapered to somewhere in the neighborhood of 4x – tie the ring to that, & add as light a tippet as you want to make an 8 to 10 foot leader.

To make a high-stick nymph rig, attach a second fly to the ring with a short length of tippet. And the ring makes a good stop for a bit of sink putty, if needed.

The extremely lethargic aside, anglers knowing they don’t have to cut back & re-splice the leader to freshen tippets are less apt to neglect that necessary chore, as, wah-la, it only takes a moment to tie to the ring – no cutting back & splicing, & no fly-snagging tippet loop-loops. 

I keep the rings stored on a snap swivel, which holds them for tying & drawing tight to a leader. I like a Palomar knot for attaching the ring, second choice, a Uni or San Diego knot – either of these is stronger than a clinch knot & won’t crinkle the leader. 

The tiny rigging ring is undetectable & does not interfere with presentation in any way that I can discern. The ring is so small & light that it will float on the surface film, so I use them with mono dryfly leaders as well.

I get impressive mileage out of my tapered leaders by adding a rigging ring, with one leader now in service for four years, cut back only a couple inches each year for a fresh knot – & that rig gets used almost daily in summer.

I’m not crazy about handshake loop line/leader connections on terminal rigs meant to fish trout with dryflies & soft-hackle wetflies. Loop to loop connections are clunky things. Double nymph set-ups snag on them, and they add bulk. More bulk means more stuff for trout to notice & be suspicious of. Noisy suspicious bulk: lines them down. I fish a lot of small soft-hackles pot-shooting surface feeding trout & want the softest delivery possible, so I prefer to nail-knot the leader butt to the flyline – which is better for high-stick nymphing too, as loop/loops hinge, & also deaden the transmission of subtle takes. (Short-line, high-stick nymphing is an intuitive art, in which the practitioner wants the cleanest connection to the fly possible.) And the nail-knot connection is practical with the semi-permanence a rigging ring provides. The leader butt will generally outlast normal wear & tear on the first couple of inches of flyline above the connection, so no need to freshen the connection any more often than you would with loops.

I like a fairly stiff material for the leader butt, which aids in creating open loops while casting, keeping double-nymph rigs from tangling; & a softer material with as much stretch as possible for the tippet section[s]. Pull & stretch the leader before fishing -- if it doesn't straighten out & remain straight until you wind it back on the reel, don't buy that kind anymore. Some that work for me are the Orvis Super Strong; Umpqua; & Cortland, the least expensive & usually available locally.            

Flyfish NE Washington with Steven Bird: http://ucflyfishing.blogspot.com   

Black Hole Caddis Emerger

Black Hole Caddis tied by Steven Bird  

     In my last post we considered the addition of a color spot or ‘hot spot’ to create a stand-out feature that might make our nymph more visible & attractive to trout. But color is not the only way to gain visibility. Sometimes fussy trout demand a more subtle form of obfuscation in a stand-out nymph.

     The #12-#16 spotted sedge (Hydropsyche) emerging from June into August are the heaviest of the caddis hatches on my homewater.  Spotted sedge concentrate trout & afford a long season of opportunity to experiment with new patterns, a thing I look forward to doing every summer at the river. The yearly rounds of fishing & observing & tying & binge thinking have led to some interesting discoveries that, more often than not, serve to tilt or even shatter notions gathered from past years.

Trout prefer the emerging pupae of spotted sedge above all other stages; & drifted & swung soft-hackle nymphs work well. At maturity, the natural pupae are chestnut-brown with black wing holsters, & abdomens ranging from cream through shades of tan & darker to chestnut brown. Many individuals exhibit an olive coloration on the abdomen, making them nearly identical to grannom pupae at emergence. (Spotted sedge are often mistaken for grannom, though more abundant than grannom in the Columbia drainage.) Quite a few years of my search for better spotted sedge patterns were belabored with the notion that nailing the colorations of the naturals was a prime objective in creating a good pattern, right up there with correct size & shape. And I did nail the natural colorations, at least to my own eye, & came up with some decent fly patterns that have proven reliable, & even, at times, taken with stupid abandon by trout – yet still I’ve not found any one pattern to be reliable at all times & under all conditions. I discovered early on that no one imitation would prove the be-all-end-all I wanted. No perfect world. There are just too many nuanced variables influencing our quarry’s momentary whims. And always subthemes running through.

Oh, & those bag-like creations based on the theory that sedge pupae rise from the bottom inside a bag of gas?...  Phfft. But hold on, you who are gas-theorists, I don't want to lose you, stay with me, I think you might find some sparkling gaseous merit in the Black Hole patterns presented here.  

A longtime mystery to me was the reliable effectiveness of dark nymphs like the Partridge & Peacock or Leisenring’s Black Gnat, which seemed to trick selective trout feeding on emerging spotted sedge pupae as well, & often better, than any of the more ‘imitative’ patterns I could come up with. I hate to admit it now, but that was a mystery to me for years, & I couldn’t explain it, so I shoved it into the ‘Unexplained Anomaly Department’ of my mind, where it needled, while I blithely pursued the color/material problem while missing the important lesson contained within the overly-dark nymphs.  

     Then one day, at last, I began to consider the prevailing light conditions, & what trout might be really seeing. I finally got around to considering that spotted sedge emerge in low light – The Gray: early morning, overcast days, & most importantly, evenings, after the sun leaves the water, until dark. It came to me that I spend very little time fishing in light bright enough to show my natural-colored patterns off to best advantage. I reasoned that trout feeding on emerging pupae near & on the surface were, for the most part, looking up at a gray background & actually seeing very little color at all, but rather, acting on more subtle cues like size, movement, & profile. I laid a sheet of gray construction paper on the table & laid out my favorite sedge emerger patterns on it. In light, the LBG & the P&P stood out starkly, like ink blots, like black holes, while the natural colorations tended to blend into the gray background. With distance, the ‘naturals’ faded more into the gray background, while the dark patterns remained very visible, as silhouettes. I picked up the paper with the flies laying on it & held it under the table in the shadows – & noted that the dark patterns remained more visible, & still visible when the ‘natural’ colorations disappeared from view.

The observation led me to believe that the Partridge & Peacock & Leisenring's Black Gnat work as emerger patterns for spotted sedge because: they provide movement by virtue of their soft hackles, & the dark (black, lack of) coloration is readily visible as a sharp silhouette in low light. There is good reason the simple Black Gnat was Leisenring’s favorite fly. And we’ve all heard some version of that well-founded bit of angling wisdom: ‘If you’re not sure what color, black is always a good choice.’ I think fish are used to seeing their prey as a colorless silhouette, so are less apt to refuse a black imitation of the right size & shape than they might an imitation of the ‘wrong’ color. Black is a reliable form of obfuscation, perhaps the most perfect form.

When fishing over a heavy spotted sedge emergence, or any hatch, you need an edge. Your imitation is competing against bazillions of naturals & must get the trout’s attention without being offensive, & the harder profile a darker imitation affords is an unobtrusive way to accomplish that.

But, of course, a fly tier can’t resist sullying the purity of plain black.

Looking at my nymphs in the shadows under the kitchen table, I noticed that the wire ribbing glows, reflecting light to near darkness, & that got me wondering if flash might be applied as an effective body material for a nymph, beyond simply ribbing, a sort of ‘hot spot’. I wondered if I might somehow get hi-vis profile, flash & color into the fly through incorporating colored tinsel, which would be a quick & easy tie &, I determined, would reflect some color in any available light while providing a hard silhouette in lack of light. Flash as the body material for a nymph is not exactly a new idea, of course, the 24 Carat, a soft-hackle, & the popular Copper John are a couple that come immediately to mind. Experiments, some ill-conceived, some not, led me to the low-light sedge emerger variants featured here, which caught trout & show promise. I started to play with the metallic designs at the end of the season this year so haven’t had a full season to try them out, though results so far are encouraging & I plan to fish them a lot next year, along with some other tinsel-bodied nymphs (including a damselfly nymph & midges) designed to fish for insect species other than caddis.

Black Hole Sedge

Hook: #10-#18 Daiichi 1150 or caddis style

Thread: black

Rib: (choice) fine wire wound over the abdomen & thorax

Abdomen: (choice) mylar tinsel – weight through the thorax area with about six turns of copper or lead wire & shape the body with thread or floss before winding the tinsel – after winding the rib over the tinsel & thorax, I coat the finished abdomen with Loon Hard Head to keep the rib in place over the slippery mylar tinsel & form a sturdy light-diffusing miasma over the abdomen which serves to blend the tinsel & wire colors, creating a juicy segmented effect

Thorax: peacock herl (attractive in light, turns black as light dims)

Hackle: Black hen or choice 

Head: a few turns of black rabbit dubbing in front of the hackle – & finish.

Flyfish NE Washington with Steven Bird: http://ucflyfishing.blogspot.com 

Hot Spot Pheasant Tail Nymph – Parti-Color Riffs

Pheasant Tail Nymph tied by Steven Bird

     Though I mention the Hot Spot style Pheasant Tail Nymphs in my last post on PTN's, it struck me that the idea of the design is a notable departure from the venerable takes of Skues & Sawyer, & the ancient designs before them. I think the Hot Spot version/idea deserves its own post, as it is a fairly significant nymph design, representing the shift in thinking away from older observations & theories concerning how & what trout see, & how they react to color. 

As with the PTN, the origin of the Hot Spot PTN is difficult to pin down, though the visible genesis of the idea hints that evolution rather than outright creation is at work. Some say the idea of a color spot or ‘hot spot’ began with George Skues’s version of the Pheasant Tail Nymph, which he tied with orange silk, resulting in an orange head.  Later, some unchronicled British angler liked the orange head, decided the orange head contributed to the fly’s effectiveness, so he expanded on that theory to include an attractive orange thorax, a “hot spot”, resulting in a variant of the Pheasant Tail Nymph that is now universally popular. The French & other European anglers are credited with picking up on the British pattern, experimenting with the color spot, & eventually incorporating the idea into other nymph patterns.   

We know that fish will react favorably (bite) when presented with certain colors they are not likely to see in nature. Colors that trigger an attack response -- ‘trigger’ or ‘attractor’ colors. ‘Firetiger’, for example, a color combination which one could argue looks like a yellow perch on acid, seems to have a universal appeal, effective where no perch exist & on a spectrum of species, including trout. It is a thing that is broadly known, though few can explain exactly why. And there is much in this that will remain unknown until fish start talking. In the meantime, we accept ‘attractor’ colors as the staple paint jobs of lures & streamer flies. And not coincidently (there is no such thing as coincidence) the basic colors of the ‘firetiger’ combo, red-orange/chartreuse-yellow, are colors essential for creating reaction baits designed to fish sea-run salmonids not really in the mood to eat. And consider the most popular salmon, steelhead & trout ‘attractor’ colors – the tried & true colors used wherever those fish swim – what do those colors have in common? Those colors reflect the basic unsullied color spectrum & its overlapping wave lengths – they are colors that will maintain visibility over greater distance & in lesser light than those colors we have come to think of as ‘natural’ colors, those muddied colorations which actually function as camouflage in nature. Simply put, trigger colors comprise the basic colors, the visible light/color spectrum, & are visible & attractive to fish over a greater distance in the low visibility conditions we often meet while fishing: off-color water; deep water; overcast days; tree shadows; early morning & late afternoon low light. And fluorescent versions of these same colors will remain even truer in lower light. 

So, won’t including psychedelic colors on nymphs meant as imitations of specific insects make them look clownish in the eyes of selective trout?...

I am still convinced that natural colorations get the nod, if conditions be such that our quarry has the advantage of visibility clear enough to detect the coloration of an average sized nymph at about a 4-foot distance or depth, the visibility we might encounter in a spring creek or mountain pond in good light. Trout living in slow, clear water are notoriously canny, & that due to their ability to see well in their crystal environment. Yet that’s not to say trout in such environments won’t eat a nymph sporting a parti-colored thorax, they will, but as with any imitation offered such fish, the imitation will, usually, need to approximate the size & shape of the current bill-of-fare & be presented well.  In recent years I’ve had good results fishing color spot nymphs over blizzard sedge hatches & selective trout on my homewater. Some evenings, the incredible abundance of naturals pouring from the river can be humbling if not downright discouraging to a flyfisher having to compete with them. It’s a matter of having to wait your turn. However, with the addition of a color spot to an imitation of the right size & shape, those turns come more frequently, the imitation standing out, more visible in the throng. If the color used is a known trigger color for our chosen water, a double advantage might be achieved with both increased visibility & the aggression trigger added to our offering -- a double whammy.  

Hold a traditional #14 Hare’s Ear or Pheasant Tail Nymph at arm’s length in early morning light & you will notice the coloration in the fly blurs to darkness at the distance. In slightly lesser light the fly may lose its color entirely, becoming a dark silhouette. This exercise serves to illustrate how the color of our nymphs might appear to fish in the low light conditions we often seek trout in. Trout feeding on mayfly nymphs in early morning or at dusk, or in water deeper than four feet, are looking for a dark silhouette of the right shape & size. Assuming our Pheasant Tail Nymph is the proper size & shape to fit the bill, what happens when we incorporate a color spot that enhances visibility & is a known reaction trigger of our quarry? Well, a look at the patterns currently popular with European nymphers seems to indicate they think good things will happen, as a fluorescent hot spot seems the ubiquitous addition to most European nymph patterns nowadays.

But that’s not to say American designers have been idle. Consider a very popular fly that’s been around for a long time, the Montana Stone, a staple, a stonefly nymph pattern meant to fish for P californica, the giant salmonfly. The Montana Stone is tied with a black chenille abdomen & shellback, yet sports an orange or yellow chenille thorax (& I’ve seen them in chartreuse), colorations not exhibited by the natural nymphs, yet it is a killer pattern where salmonflies occur, often out-fishing more imitative patterns. Why? My guess is that the Montana Stone is the right size & shape of the favored prey, & the addition of the color/hot spot increases its visibility in the deeper freestone runs where trout seek the big stoneflies, & may also serve as a trigger color. In any case, there is no arguing the effectiveness of the Montana Stone.   

The color spot is an added trigger. And, as any bass man can tell you, the quarry’s preference of a trigger color can change with the water, the season, variables of light, daily, or within the day, & for any number of ambiguous reasons known only to fish. Preference in trigger color, I think, tends to run in cycles, & I suspect light, & the angles of light, to factor heavily though not solely. I may be wrong, but I don’t think trout are as shifty as bass regarding trigger colors. (And remember, by ‘trigger color’, I mean those colors or combinations of colors not usually found in a fish’s diet, yet still able to provoke a strike reaction from the fish.)

The trigger colors attractive to trout & salmon are fairly well known, & interestingly, the taste for trigger colors (‘egg colors’ in steelhead circles) increases through their pre-spawn season. And, in my own experience fishing trout, I’ve observed what seem to be over-riding regional color preferences that I’ve not been able to explain or find research that will explain. Under similar light conditions & water clarity, the trout in one river system show a decided preference to chartreuse, while in another river, on the other side of the divide, they like pink. Why? It’s a mystery. And one reason why I carry Hot Spot PTN’s in a variety of color variants.

Though an infinite number of Hot Spot PTN variants are possible with dyed pheasant tail in the mix, I keep the working flies simple, using a basic soft-hackle PTN recipe, natural pheasant tail, just changing the thorax coloration. My thorax material is dubbing made from shredded synthetic yarn, which holds its color when wet. (I generally add some lead under the thorax of my nymphs.) 

“Whoa,” you might say, “this goes against all that stuff you preach about achieving obfuscation.” 

To which, looked at in the strictest sense, I might plead guilty. Call out the firing squad & I insist on a last cigarette. But then, I might stretch to argue that the inclusion of a trigger color may be considered an obfuscation of sorts, in itself, if we define obfuscation as creative flim-flam. So, ladies & gentlemen, I elect we broaden the definition as we gain insight into the way fish see, perceive, & react. Nothing is static, apparently. Not even the classics.

                

Fly Fish NE Washington with Steven Bird: http://ucflyfishing.blogspot.com

        

           

Pheasant Tail Nymph – Soft-Hackle Riff

Pheasant Tail Nymph tied by Steven Bird

     The Pheasant Tail Nymph, tied with no other materials but pheasant tail & fine copper wire, was developed by Avon riverkeeper Frank Sawyer, who meant it to simulate Baetis species found in the limestone streams of southern England. Sawyer is generally credited as originator of the design, yet interestingly, Sawyer, in his writings & interviews, never seemed to contribute to that popular mythos, instead crediting an ancient Devonshire pattern, the Pheasant Tail Red Spinner, a dry fly, as the inspiration, noting that the fly fished well as a nymph once the hackle was chewed away. Also, as riverkeeper, Sawyer worked for Brigadier Carey who was a friend of George Skues & acolyte of Skue's nymphing methods & fly patterns. George Skues, widely known as 'the father of modern nymphing', was much older than Sawyer &, at the time of Sawyer's 'discovery', was already tying & fishing a soft-hackle version of the Pheasant Tail Nymph, very similar to the one pictured above. Skues tied his version with orange silk which produced the orange head still popular in our time. We in America love to build icons & hang laurels upon them, & fair to say that in many cases laurels are deserved -- there is no question that Sawyer's simple PTN has proven one of the greatest trout flies of all time -- yet, in his own comments, Sawyer, to his credit, points toward the truth of all fly development: We stand on the shoulders of all who came before us & nothing is static. 

Who was first? Well... like hare's mask, references to pheasant tail as a good body material for constructing flies date back to medieval times, so safe to say the name of the first person to catch a fish on a fly made with pheasant tail has long faded to obscurity. We are thankful nonetheless.

Since its creation, the Pheasant Tail Nymph has spawned quite a few variants. Probably the most popular version on our side of the water is the American Pheasant Tail Nymph, an Al Troth creation, like Sawyer's, but with a thorax of peacock herl.  The APTN is one of the most effective patterns I know for meeting baetis hatches, & covers a lot of other mayflies as well – march browns; PMD’s; calibaetis in lakes – the spectrum of  species exhibiting brownish coloration, & there are many. The dark thorax coloration peacock herl provides simulates the darkened wingcase & thorax of mature nymphs at hatch time, making this version a good emerger pattern. Though the APTN is tied with no hackle, I’ve found it to be very effective tied as a soft-hackle, particularly when meeting emergers.

Tying & fishing quite a few versions of the PTN has led me to believe that there are trout tickling qualities inherent in pheasant tail. The combined coloration of the wound swords create a blotchy, nuanced realism & illusion of segmentation, the reddish fuzz contributing breathing, obfuscating motion as well as realistic coloration. Like hare’s ear, a perfect material. (We are fortunate that Nature often repeats its subtle patterns in things fairly close to hand.) Because trout want to eat it, & because it resembles so many types of nymphs, I tie soft-hackle versions of the PTN to cover a variety of insects – mayflies; smaller stoneflies; caddis & midges. A Pheasant & Hare’s Ear version is a good pattern for meeting the prolific spotted sedge hatches of the Columbia drainage. The zen simple Starling & Pheasant is a good midge pattern at my favorite lake, but also works good weighted & rolled on the bottom to simulate smaller cased caddis. The Pheasant Tail Nymph is simple & multifunctional, & no fly box should be without an assortment of them in #12 through #20.

   

I also tie ‘Hot Spot’ versions that work as attractor patterns, using hot colors like yellow (my favorite), chartreuse, orange, red, purple or whatever, for the thorax. The Hot Spot versions work well for me in winter. A #8 version makes a good steelhead nymph. And those pursuing stocked hatchery trout in the local ponds & brooks will find the Hot Spot variants particularly effective on those fish. Also good tied with more subdued, natural thorax colorations, try olive, tan, gray or cream.

   

Soft-Hackle Pheasant Tail Nymph

Hook: #12-#20 

Thread: rust-brown or dark-brown

Tail: 3 to 6 pheasant tail sword tips, about 1/3 the body length -- as an alternative, I tie some with barred bronze mallard flank to mimic the tails of natural baetis & march browns in my neighborhood 

Rib: fine copper wire wound over the abdomen & thorax

Abdomen: pheasant tail – 5 or 6 swords for a #12 – before winding, I twist these counterclockwise about half a dozen turns, forming a rope, which blends the colors better & makes a stronger, more segmented body (as fibers get torn out by fish, I just clip off the unwanted appendage & keep fishing) – they will last longer if the swords are twisted into a rope – I’ve found the E-Z Mini-Hook hackle pliers to be the perfect tool for grasping the bundle of swords when winding pheasant tail bodies

Thorax: peacock herl – 2 swords, twisted, for a #12 

Hackle: one turn of brown partridge, grouse or speckled hen, stripped on one side - I apply a bit of black dubbing in front of the hackle when tying versions to fish for baetis (PMD's), red quill, march brown, calibaetis & other species of mayfly emergers that develop a dark wingcase/thorax at maturity - & finish.

Grasping a group of pheasant tail swords with E-Z Mini-Hook hackle pliers.

   

    
Flyfish NE Washington with Steven Bird: http://ucflyfishing.blogspot.com                  

UC Hairwing Drakes

UC Green Drake - tied by Steven Bird

UC Green Drake Cripple - tied by Steven Bird

UC Black Quill - tied by Steven Bird

UC Redband taken on a Black Quill

     Though all the western drakes occur in my homewater, the upper (U.S.) Columbia, black quills dominate, with green drakes a distant second. No matter, as trout here take them (the naturals) opportunistically without particular preference. But that doesn’t mean it’s easy. Good imitations are a must, & over the past ten years I’ve seen the big dries evolve in a decided direction toward what I would term a fairly unique ‘UC style’.

Form follows function. The fish, & the water type in which the fish live, will determine the form. The heavy, conflicted currents of the massive American Reach require a reliable floater, while the trout require a fairly accurate imitation. When all is said & done, the Wulff style (I suppose that could be interpreted as the western hairwing style) gets the nod. Which is nice, as it affords the opportunity to fish classically beautiful dryflies. UC tiers have taken the old style a step further, with a careful eye toward precise imitation, mixing hair colors to create realistic wings of buck tail, calf tail, elk & deer hair -- & that mixing of colors a hallmark of the UC style. 

UC Black Quill

Hook: #10-#12 TMC 200R

Thread: Yellow

Tailing: Black deer hair 

          

Rib: Strand from a yellow poly rope, or twisted yellow floss, or something yellow that won’t fade when wet

Body: March brown dubbing

Wings: Natural black buck tail or calf tail, tied upright, divided, & trimmed to shape

Hackle: One mahogany-brown & one grizzly dyed yellow, a size smaller -- & finish.

UC Green Drake

Hook: #8-#10 TMC 200R

Tail: Black deer hair 

Rib: Yellow poly or twisted floss

Body: Medium olive dubbing

Wing: Buck tail or calf tail: stack a pinch of black, a pinch of dyed blue dun, a tiny pinch of green or yellow, a generous pinch of natural light gray or white-ish bucktail – pull upright, divide & trim to shape

Hackle: One brown & one grizzly dyed yellow -- & finish

During short evening hatch periods you don't want to waste precious time tying on fresh flies. So to ensure ultimate floatation, I pre-soak my dries in Loon Hydrostop at the bench, then before fishing I dress the fly with Loon Lochsa floatant.  Great stuff, non-toxic & doesn’t bleed an oil slick. After catching a fish, I give the fly a shot of Loon Fly Spritz 2, make a few false casts, & I'm back at it with my fly floating nicely. 

Flyfish NE Washington with Steven Bird: http://ucflyfishing.blogspot.com

Dragonfly Nymph Variant - A Big-Fish Fly For Summer

Dragonfly Nymph tied by Steven bird

     There is no questioning the effectiveness of the olive & brown Wooly Bugger for dredging lakes; & no question in my mind the reason is: the pattern works well to simulate the larger dragonfly nymphs present in virtually all lakes & slack-water sections of rivers & streams. And as dragonfly nymphs take two to three years to mature, larger size models are always available to fish.

Not being one content to leave well-enough alone, I couldn’t resist modifying the basic olive & brown Bugger seeking a bit more realism through nuance of detail & coloration, attempting to match the dragonfly nymphs present in a local lake. The version presented here is my current favorite & has worked well for me in a variety of waters. This one may be taken as a sculpin as well as a dragonfly nymph, & it has proven a good smallmouth bass fly. Spring & fall, when fishing trout in lakes, I’ll fish this pattern on a full-sinking line cast to the shoreline or weedbeds & retrieved with short strips & pauses. In summer, when the water warms & trout move deeper, I troll* this pattern with a fast-sink line, or mono tipped with a fast-sink head, or a length of lead-core if I need to get really deep.

*Common in the West mostly when anglers get bored & resort to dragging the fly with their kick boats – yet in New England, where I grew up, trolling with flies & fly tackle was, & still is, a favorite method for fishing trout & landlocked salmon. Many of our classic streamer designs began their careers  as trolling flies. I love the way fish slam a trolled or mooched fly, & I often fish a dragonfly nymph imitation that way, without shame or reservation.

Dragonfly Nymph

Hook: #4 - #8 TMC 200R

Thread: Olive, brown or black

Tailing: Should be the same length as the hook shank. Begin tying in the tailing materials with the tying thread even with the hook point. Stacking, in this order: Tie in 2 strands of olive pearl flashabou; a quarter-inch section of olive-dyed mallard flank; select an almost marabou grizzly hen dyed olive & tie in flat (like a flatwing); select a brownish, almost marabou ringneck pheasant rump feather & tie in flat; 2 strands of olive flashabou; & another pinch of olive-dyed mallard flank as a topping.

Rib: Heavy, olive wire reverse-wound over the palmered body.

Body: Dark olive chenille palmered with brown shlappen or saddle hackle.

Hackle: One turn of dyed-olive grizzly hen, then three turns of brown, speckled game hen or Welsummer hen.

Head: Olive/green dubbing. (I save scraps in all shades of green & blend them for use on this pattern.)  

     

Dragonfly Nymph tied by Steven bird

Flyfish NE Washington with Steven Bird: http://ucflyfishing.blogspot.com

Indispensable Fly Tying Stuff - Loon Hard Head

     Those of you who’ve read me for any length of time know that I am a cynical Yankee & seldom endorse any products except through very circumspect necessity, as I feel to do otherwise would be to taint the zen purity of Soft~Hackle Journal, which we hold sacrosanct & immutable. There are no ads streaming & blinking here & there never will be. Yet, we need certain things. As Bert says: flyfishers are an incestuous lot. And because there really are small companies with integrity, founded & staffed by anglers who share our view of sustainability, who give back, as well as being committed to quality, useful products, I feel it might serve to further our craft & enjoyment to give the best of these deserved mention – just the good guys with the stuff I like & find most useful – & with that, I am pleased to welcome Loon Products as a sponsor of Soft~Hackle Journal. Loon meets SHJ’s highest criteria with a quality line of non-toxic products meant to enhance our game & environment. (And we like the name.) I posted a link to Loon’s catalog in the right-hand column under ‘Stuff I Like’, & invite readers to check out their great line of well-thought products.      

I became acquainted with Loon through my wife, who for a long time had been fairly patient & reasonably cool about me clogging the kitchen table with fly tying stuff, her main source of complaint being the noxious fumes from my head cement, which, according to her, was giving me brain damage.

“…Why do you think they call it fly dope?”

Then one day while looking over fly tying potions in a catalog, I let it drop that there was non-toxic, odorless, water-base tying cement available.

“O goody,” she responded, “You better order some because that’s the only kind you’re opening inside the house any more – I’m not going to let you kill us both with that stuff you’ve been using.”

I needed a general-purpose penetrating cement & something thicker for finishing heads, so I ordered a bottle of Loon Head Cement & a bottle of clear Loon Hard Head. Both came with handy applicator brush tops.

I immediately liked the Loon head cement – it goes on white, which aids in seeing where you put it, penetrates like water & dries clear, shiny & tough. And no toxic fumes. My girl is happy &, turns out, wise.

I’m thankful for her prompt because I tend to be slow off the base. And though I am well satisfied with the non-toxic head cement, I’ve found the Loon Hard Head to be indispensable for a lot of operations besides finishing heads, which it does perfectly. Hard Head comes in clear & a spectrum of colors as well, it is the consistency of epoxy & will serve in most tying operations calling for epoxy – without the mixing & waste, & sets at about the same rate as fast epoxy. It can be applied with the brush or a needle. One application gives a nice, working head on smaller flies, & two or three coats gives you perfectly slick heads on saltwater & salmon/steelhead flies. And I’ve found that the longer I use Hard Head, the more uses I find for it. Here’s a few more:

* Make epoxy-back nymphs easier – 2 or 3 coats of Hard Head over the shellback material produces a nice, shiny, non-clouding hard back for nymphs, beetles & scud – also a perfect coating for thread or floss bodied ants.  

* Use a bodkin to paint a coat of Hard Head over delicate quill, mylar tinsel, thread & floss bodies. Eliminates the need to reverse wind wire over tiny quill bodies.        

* Apply Hard Head to the thread around the base of parachute wing posts, then wrap the hackle before it sets – keeps the post & hackle bedded in place, hackle won’t ‘climb’ the post with use – gives the fly a lot more mileage.

* Coat all thread wraps with Hard Head when constructing foam flies, & can be used for sticking foam as well. Your foam creations will look prettier & hold together with rough use.

* Apply Hard Head over the wraps securing hair wings to ensure they stay in place. When tying deer & elk wing cripples I apply it over the thread binding the wing after tying the hackle in, then wind the hackle & tie off over the wet Hard Head. Everything stays put & the fly lasts longer.

* Use Hard Head to glue eyeballs onto saltwater & large streamers – & it can be brushed on or dipped into for building slick, durable hard heads on bait imitations.

* Unruly materials like saddle hackles for flatwings, matched quill & feather wings, or cheek feathers & jungle cock eyes, can be set in position with the aid of Hard Head – take a couple loose turns of thread to tie in, tweak the feather[s] into position, then apply a drop of Hard Head at the tie-in point, let it set for about 15 minutes & continue tying with your materials set in perfect position.

* Clear Hard Head is just the thing for repairing split jungle cock nails & coating feathers to produce classic, natural eyes for streamers & salmon/steelhead flies.

* Hard Head is excellent for coating nail knots & line-splice connections.

That’s a lot of uses for one potion – & there are probably more I haven’t stumbled upon yet. Loon Hard Head is great stuff. And if you are still hassling with 2-part epoxy & toxic head cement, I'm certain a bottle of Hard Head will be an upgrade to your bag of tricks.