Griffiths Gnat 03/03/2025 Photo Album

I searched back in time across this blog, and I found no posts on the Griffiths gnat. I know I have tied some, so I suppose I neglected to write a report on this diminutive fly. It requires only two materials aside from the hook and thread, and those two are peacock herl and grizzly hackle. The aspect of this fly that makes it challenging to tie is its small size.

A Model Griffiths Gnat

I expanded my efforts to fish in lakes over the past several years, and midges comprise a huge portion of the biomass in stillwaters. A Griffiths gnat is purported to be a solid imitation of an adult midge, so adequate quantities in my fly box are highly recommended. I have tied a griffiths gnat to my line from time to time on lakes, but I would characterize my success as sporadic. Unfortunately I knot one of these on my line, when the fish are rising sporadically, and I am not certain what they are eating, so I may be misjudging the source of the trout protein.

A Clump of Four

Apparently I had not tied these in a while, so I counted my supply and concluded that I could use another four, so I settled at my tying station and generated them. I am ready for stillwater action in 2025.

Tricos 03/01/2025 Photo Album

For an excellent description of my introduction to trico spinners along with a materials table and other information, click on my post of 01/15/2012. After a particularly frustrating day on the South Platte River I created trico spinners using CDC for the spent wing. My post on 02/27/2019 describes this effort to imitate the tiny but abundant mayflies. My post of 12/05/2011 describes my history with sunken tricos. This is also worth a read.

Trico Spinner

I failed to encounter a trico hatch in 2024; however, in an effort to cover all my bases, I counted my supply of spinners in size 20, 22, and 24 and sunken tricos in size 22. I concluded that I needed to tie five additional spinners in size 24, one size 20, and five sunken tricos. I experimented with various materials for tricos over the years, but for this iteration, I used white microfibbet tails, black thread bodies, white antron for the wing, and fine black dubbing for the thorax. For the sunken tricos I added a strand of super hair wound around the hook shank for the abdomen.

Sunk Trico

Hopefully I will encounter a trico hatch and spinner fall in 2025. I need to make a point of visiting the South Platte River in Eleven Mile Canyon, as the trico event is a regular occurence there. As I have learned in the past, it can be an exercise in frustration, but an experienced fly angler needs challenges from time to time.Trico Assortment

Purple Haze 02/18/2025 Photo Album

You may begin familiarizing yourself with the purple haze by accessing my 02/15/2021 post. Here I describe my introduction to the purple-bodied attractor, and a materials table is presented. I use purple dubbing for the body, but I believe the original fly uses a purple floss thread.

This fly is a relative newcomer to my winter fly tying progression. I attempted to incorporate its usage into my seasonal fishing routine, but I must admit that it tends to lag my usage of the hippie stomper, stimulators and deer hair caddis. Nevertheless, I have allocated some time to the purple haze over the past several summers, and it has produced a few nice fish.

Flies from Storage

I opened my fly storage containers and counted my purple haze population, and I concluded that I was adequately stocked with eighteen size fourteens present. I decided to skip tying the purple haze this year, but I am prepared to tie more should they suddenly be in high demand and require replenishment.

Yellow Sally 02/18/2025 Photo Album

My earliest post on the yellow sally was on 02/02/2016, and the latest was 02/26/2020. I read both of these, and they are informative, if you have an interest in yellow sallies. Both describe the circumstances that provoke the usage of a yellow sally dry fly.

It has been a few years since I encountered a dense yellow sally hatch like that which amazed me on the Eagle River. Nevertheless, I spy these small stoneflies fluttering over the water quite often during July, August and early September. They are quite prevalent, so it is a good idea to carry some in your fly box. If you read my earlier posts, you will learn that I experimented with several different styles of yellow sally, but I returned to the basic deer hair version. It is tied in the same way as a deer hair caddis, albeit with yellow deer hair for the wing, a yellow dubbed body and ginger hackle.

From My Storage Box

Although I have not tied additional yellow sallies in several years, when I counted my supply, I concluded that I retained sufficient numbers to get me through the 2025 season. Thinking about yellow sallies makes me anxious for summer, and that is not a good thing, since it is only the middle of February.

Klinkhammer BWO 02/16/2025 Photo Album

I recommend reading my post of 01/09/2018 for a more detailed explanation on the circumstances that cause me to knot a Klinkhammer BWO to my line. This article also includes a materials table.

Originally I envisioned the Klinkhammer emerger pattern as a solution to the riddle of disappointing results, when using my CDC blue wing olive during a baetis hatch. I thought that the fish were grabbing emergers, before they were blown away by the strong gusts of wind, and the Klinkhammer style with the dangling abdomen and shuck seemed like a solid bet to solve the riddle. Tilt. They did not perform any better than the CDC blue wing olive, although I have experienced sporadic luck with them. The white wing post is a positive, as it allows me to track the fly better than the gray CDC.

Visible White Wing Post Is Welcome for Tracking

I still carry a supply of the Klinkhammers, and I decided to count the quantity in my bins. The inventory yielded the conclusion that I possessed an adequate supply, so I did not tie additional quantities for 2025.

Comparaduns 02/16/2025 Photo Album

For the background story on my relationship with the comparadun, read my post of 02/21/2014. I just read it, and it brought back many of the details embedded in the adoption story of this fly. I highly recommend reading it, if you are not familiar with or a proponent of this style of fly.

Nice Fan Wing Size 16 Light Gray Comparadun

During a pale morning dun hatch, these comparaduns are indispensable. I carry them in size sixteen and eighteen and with cinnamon and light gray body colors. My poly light gray dubbing has hints of light yellow in it, and I think this is a key to its effectiveness. I bought the stuff in Pennsylvania at the inception of my fly tying career, but I retain a huge supply, and this alleviates any concerns about running out.

Size 18 Light Gray on a Refurbished Hook

I have experienced many fantastic days of fishing to pale morning hatches, and rarely do these comparaduns let me down. I have hit the PMD hatch on the Colorado River in July, the Yampa River in June, the South Platte River in late June and July, the Arkansas River in July, South Boulder Creek in August through September, and the Frying Pan River during August through October. The cinnamon comparadun shines on the Frying Pan River.

Size 18 Cinnamon Comparadun

I usually test the cinnamon version first, and on rare occasions the trout ignore it, so I switch to the light gray body color. Rarely do I find that neither of these flies work. As an aside, the salvation nymph and pheasant tail nymph are also stalwart performers before, during and after PMD hatches, but I usually use the hatch as an opportunity to fish the comparadun dry fly.

Nine New Comparaduns with Associated Materials

As is my practice, I counted my comparaduns, and I concluded that I needed to add three size 18 cinnamon, two size 18 light gray, and four size 16 light gray. Actually, I probably could have skipped tying any, but I wanted to round out my inventory to multiples of five. Why? Don’t ask. It’s just who I am.

CDC Blue Wing Olive 02/14/2025 Photo Album

For a look at my history with this fly inspect my post of 02/18/2022. I was unable to search for more recent posts, so this leads me to believe that I have not tied these flies in a few years. That is hard to accept, because I use and lose these tiny morsels quite frequently; however, I used my chronological listing of posts to scroll back through fly reports for 2023 and 2024, and I found no more current titles referencing CDC blue wing olives. It is also possible that I forgot to complete a write up.

Size 20

At any rate, I tie these flies in three sizes; 20, 22, and 24. I also tie other small blue wing olive imitations such as the Klinkhammer version and soft hackle emergers. Generally the CDC BWO tied comparadun style gets the job done, but frustrating episodes, where the fish ignore my trusty mainstay led to experimentation with variants. Recently small soft hackle emergers fished in the film with floatant have brought a degree of success particularly during windy conditions. I suspect the soft hackle and the swept back fluoro fiber wing represent a cripple or a fly struggling to get airborne in cold temperatures with strong wind.

Minute Size 24

I also suspect that the trout key on movement, and the dead drifting motionless CDC blue wing olive does not cut it, when motion is the image that trout are scanning the surface for. For this reason I tied a few hackled CDC BWO imitations to experiment with in the upcoming season. I made these in size 22, and they are the same as a CDC BWO, except that they feature a small hackle collar wound behind and in front of the wing.

Hackled Variety

My annual count of CDC BWO’s suggested that I tie four size 20’s, two size 24’s and five size 22’s with hackle. I am anxious to continue the experiment with CDC BWO variations in 2025.

Eleven New CDC BWO Flies

Stimulators 02/11/2025 Photo Album

Stimulators! I cannot think of a more appropriate name for this fly. They are easy to track, because they float high and dry on all those hackles, and the fish take notice. Fish are stimulated by the fuzzy image of a stimulator.

New Materials Purchased to Make Stimulators

Check out my posts of 02/13/2024 and 02/14/2024 for additional information on this popular fly. Each has links to previous posts for deep drilling this fly further. When I journeyed to Argentina for a fishing trip at Rio Manso Lodge, I bought a fly box in preparation, and it contained quite a few stimulators. When I returned to Colorado, I decided to experiment with them, and I was quite pleased with that decision. Since then, stimulators have become a necessary fly in my fly box.

Pale Olive Body Size 14

I primarily rely on three colors; yellow, gray and light olive. Yellow sees a lot of line time during golden stonefly and yellow sally seasons, and the gray and olive are effective searching patterns all year long. If trout are refusing my hippie stomper as the surface fly, I sometimes switch to a stimulator and trail a smaller dry in a double dry fly configuration. This combination is especially effective on high gradient mountains streams during the summer months.

Size 14 Yellow Stimulator

I counted all my stimulators and determined that I was adequately supplied except for olive, so I produced six additional size 14 and 16 pale olive body stimulators. In addition, I discovered four damaged yellow stimulators in my refurbishment canister, so I repaired them to yield two more size fourteens and two size sixteens. I am very anxious to roll out my stimulators in 2025.

A Batch of Ten

Deer Hair Caddis 02/02/2025 Photo Album

One can delve deeper into this fly by starting with my 02/11/2024 post and then following the links back in time. This fly has been a mainstay in my arsenal, since I began fly fishing in Pennsylvania in the 1980’s. This is not surprising given the prevalence of caddis flies throughout the world.

Olive-Brown Ligas Size 14

The fly is rather simple to tie with only a dubbed abdomen, deer hair wing, grizzly hackle, and dubbed thorax. The most difficult aspect of this tie is preventing the wing from rolling around the hook shank. My steps to prevent this are a solid pinch, twisting the thread clockwise to create a narrow cord with bite, and then winding forward a bit through the deer hair stubs in the same manner utilized for stimulators.

Light Gray Size 14

When I am fishing a dry/dropper and experiencing refusals or a single large dry fly that results in similar snubs, I often switch to a large lead dry with a size 14 or 16 deer hair caddis as the trailer. The large front fly enables me to follow the earth toned caddis, and quite often the fish suck in the trailer. The hippie stomper/deer hair combination can be quite effective.

Fresh Supply of Deer Hair Caddis with Materials

I have narrowed my supply of deer hair caddis down to two body colors; Ligas olive-brown and light olive, and these seem to serve my needs. I also carry some with a light tan body, but I rarely resort to them. I determined that I needed four additional olive-brown in size 14 and five more in light gray, and I quickly produced them for my fly boxes. I also tied four light gray in size 16 because I had them in an unraveling state in my damaged fly canister. Bring on the 2025 caddis hatches.

Harrop Hairwing Green Drake 01/31/2025 Photo Album

It appears that I have not tied Harrop green drakes in quite awhile, as my last post was on 04/13/2018, and that is very late in my annual fly tying cycle. My post of 12/29/2015 provides the story of my introduction to this productive fly. My lack of more recent posts suggests that I have not used the hair wing extensively in recent years, or perhaps I posted under a different name that avoids my search string.

Size 14

The hair wing version of the green drake is very similar to the comparadun from a color perspective; however, it possesses the unique characteristics of hackle and a swept back deer hair wing. The hardest aspect of tying the fly is positioning the angled deer hair as the last step and preventing it from rolling around the hook or sliding into the hook eye.

Size 12 Hovering

This fly is usually my third option during green drake emergences; however, on occasion I knot it to my line as a prospecting pattern, as it resembles a stimulator. I had quite a bit of success prospecting this fly during July on the upper Arkansas River during gray drake activity.

Batch of Six with Materials

My count revealed that I was running low on both size twelves and fourteens, so I cranked out four fourteens and two twelves. Hopefully these flies will see some action during 2025.