Purple Haze 02/15/2021 Photo Album

During a float trip on the Colorado River on 07/07/2020, my guide knotted a purple haze to my line during the afternoon, and this simple act resulted in the guide’s net sagging under the weight of two bank dwelling brown trout in excess of fifteen inches. Needless to say this convinced me that the purple haze is a viable fish attractor in Colorado, and I made a mental note to tie some during the off season between 2020 and 2021.

Looking Good

I remained true to my commitment and recently manufactured five size 14 3XL purple hazes to experiment with during the upcoming season. I had to visit Charlie’s Fly Box in Arvada to purchase purple dubbing, as I never experienced the need for purple flies in my forty years of fly fishing and fly tying. Since I took the plunge to add purple dubbing to my supplies, I also created a purple haze chubby Chernobyl and a purple haze pool toy hopper. A purple hopper may be a reach, but I am anxious to see what happens.

Zooming In

I feel heightened anticipation for the dry fly season in 2021, so that my parachute purple hazes can ride the currents of western rivers and streams.

User Friendly Green Drake 02/12/2021 Photo Album

My post of 01/31/2019 provides a nice description of my introduction to this fly. It also describes how I envisioned it enhancing my arsenal of green drake imitations, and it contains a materials table. You can find a step by step video performed by the designer himself, Andrew Grillos, on YouTube.

The Better Side

During the 2019 summer season I tested the user friendly green drake on numerous occasions, but the results were less than impressive. In fact, I switched back to my more trusted green drake versions on several occasions, and they resulted in superior performance. As it turns out, the saga of the user friendly green drake was not over. I continued to carry four in my green drake fly box, and during a visit to the Cache la Poudre River on 07/17/2020, I knotted one to my line as a last resort after cycling through my other green drake imitations. Voila! The out of favor green drake accounted for seven trout during my remaining time on the river. Once again on 07/21/2020 I defaulted to the user friendly green drake on the Taylor River, and it yielded decent results including a fifteen inch rainbow trout. Again the user friendly green drake model proved its worth on 08/11/2020 and 08/14/2020 on South Boulder Creek, as it produced trout during several stints on my line.

Five User Friendly Green Drakes

Needless to say these productive periods convinced me to restore the user friendly to a prominent space in my fly box. I counted my stock of five and approached my vise to create five additional flies to bring my total to ten. Hopefully the user friendly green drake will continue to impress me during 2021 and become the preeminent green drake imitation in my possession.

Parachute Green Drake 02/09/2021 Photo Album

2020 probably stood as my high water mark for encountering western green drakes. Readers of this blog may already know that chasing green drakes is one of my foremost endeavors, as I navigate the seasons of fly fishing in Colorado. I encountered green drakes on the Cache la Poudre, Taylor River, Lake Creek, and South Boulder Creek. My most dependable green drake action generally originates from the Frying Pan River, and I never made the trip to that revered tailwater in 2020. Needless, to say the many green drake hatch experiences resulted in the depletion of my inventory, and a recent quick count revealed that I needed to to tie six parachute styles to bring my supply to my target level.

Cannot Wait for Green Drake Hatches

My post of 02/09/2020 (ironically the same day as this post) provides an update to my green drake quest and includes a link to a materials table and other background information. I recently approached the vise and spun out six new parachute green drakes. Hopefully these will serve me well as I continue my quest for western green drake hatches in 2021.

A Fleet of New Parachute Green Drakes

Chubby Chernobyl 02/08/2021 Photo Album

Chubby Chernobyls and hippie stompers became the fashionable flies over the last couple years. I was slow to jump on the hippie stomper craze, but once I stumbled on to its effectiveness, it became a dry fly favorite. Chubbys, on the other hand, took me a fair amount of time to embrace. Prior to my trip to Argentina, I purchased a fly box full of flies gathered by Taylor Edrington of Royal Gorge Anglers, and several chubbys were among the collection. Upon my return from Rio Manso, I periodically tied one to my line, but they did not produce and the large wing grew saturated with water. This made the fly heavy and reduced my confidence, so I clung to my tried and true fat Alberts, pool toy hoppers and classic Chernobyl ants.

Tan Ice Dub Body

I fished on in unenlightened bliss until July 2019 on the Yampa River, when I knotted an ice dub olive body chubby Chernobyl to my line. I was shocked to discover a hot fly, as several robust trout engulfed the large attractor along the edge of the Yampa. Unfortunately I lost the only such flies in my box within a short amount of time, and the Steamboat Fly Fisher did not stock the ice dub tan or olive body versions that I was enamored with. I bought and tried some alternative body colors, but their effectiveness was lacking.

Five New Chubby Chernobyls

Fast forward to 2020, and my usage of chubby Chernboyls increased significantly. I learned to apply floatant to the large gangly wing, and I increasingly substituted it for the fat Albert, and it performed reasonably well. I find the slow, gradual disappearance of the large poly wing, when a fish grabs the nymphs, to be enormously seductive.  For a materials table and additional accounts of my history with this fly, check out my previous post of 01/17/2020. The cubby Chernobyl is rapidly earning my trust as a valued top fly in dry/dropper configurations.

Nice Angle

I counted my inventory of chubby Chernobyls and determined that I was reasonably stocked, so I simply increased my supply of two of the favorite colors; ice dub tan and gray. In addition I created a single chubby Chernobyl with a purple body as an experiment for the upcoming season. My guide on a float trip on the Colorado River utilized a purple haze on my line for a considerable amount of time, so I purchased a packet of purple dubbing to tie some. Since I had the purple dubbing available, I applied it to several favorites to experiment with a color that somehow avoided my attention for nearly forty years of fly fishing.

Purple Haze Chubby Experiment

Hippie Stomper 01/10/2021 Photo Album

In recent years the hippie stomper emerged as my number one dry fly. Most of my dry flies are seasonal in nature, as they imitate specific hatches such as pale morning duns, green drakes and caddis flies. The hippie stomper is a foam attractor  that does not imitate a single hatch, but instead it is a generally buggy foam creation that captures the attention of the fish year round. For a short narration on where and how I used this fly successfully, click on this link to my last post, 11/26/2019. Contained within this blog post are links to earlier writing including my introduction and a materials table.

Nice View

During 2020 the hippie stomper continued to shine throughout the season. It is particularly effective on small high mountain creeks, where I routinely begin with the stomper riding solo on my line. If I can get away with responsiveness to a sole dry fly, why mess with the inherent tangles that accompany a dry/dropper approach? However, a size 12 or 14 hippie stomper can support one or two beadhead nymphs, if the fish are seeking their meals below the surface of the creek. During this past summer season, I experimented with a double dry set up with the hippie stomper typically in the first position and a green drake, stimulator, caddis or pale morning dun dry fly on the point. The white winged hippie stomper enabled me to easily track both flies, and quite a few successful days resulted from this approach.

Climbing Over Each Other

Purple Haze Hippie Stomper

I counted my supply of hippie stompers and determined that I needed to tie nine with a peacock body to restore my beginning inventory to twenty-five. Clearly the hippie stomper occupied my line extensively, and this led to the inevitable shrinkage in supply. After I spun out the nine replacement flies, I tied a batch of five with a medium olive ice dub body, and then I added five more with a purple body. I bought purple dubbing in advance of making some purple haze parachute flies, and I was curious whether the same purple body might prove effective on the already lethal hippie stomper. I cannot wait to enter hippie stomper mode in 2021.

Five Olive Ice Dub Versions

May Break 05/06/2020 Photo Album

My first ever guided fishing day occurred on the Frying Pan River in the early 1990’s, shortly after we moved to Colorado from Pennsylvania. During this wonderful day my guide introduced me to the western green drake hatch, and seeking this exciting hatch has been an annual quest ever since. The guide set me up on the right side of the river and pointed out a nice trout that periodically surfaced along a current seam to crush the large mayflies attempting to become airborne. He tied an odd fly on to my line that struck me as a poorly tied mayfly dun. Apparently the trout thought the fly was expertly tied, because several fine Frying Pan browns sucked it in with no reluctance. I asked my guide what the fly was named, and he said it was a green drake cripple.

As I browsed through the scanned patterns in my iPad, I encountered a fly called a May break from Southwest Fly Fishing. This fly looked very similar to the green drake cripples that enabled me to enjoy some success during my first guided fly fishing trip on the Frying Pan River. I decided to manufacture a few to determine if they still possessed the magic of the early 1990’s. I reviewed the materials list and determined that I possessed all the materials except for gray marabou and dun antron fibers. I concluded that I could substitute the gray fluffy feathers from the base of a game bird feather for the gray in the tail. For the twisted marabou abdomen I elected to simply use light olive marabou since that color matched the body of a green drake, and I substituted some gray-olive antron for the dun antron thorax shroud.

A May Break

Upon completion of five May breaks, I examined my output, and I was quite pleased with the flies on my tying bench. They closely resemble the green drake cripples from my memory, and I am anxious to give them a trial on western streams during green drake emergence time.

A Bit Closer Look

Royal Wulff 05/05/2020 Photo Album

The royal Wulff is allegedly one of the most popular flies in the world. It was created by Lee Wulff as a visible high floating attractor, and it certainly matches that description. I tend to gravitate more to flies that are intended to imitate something, although I am not sure how I explain my love affair with the hippie stomper and Chernobyl ant. At least in those instances I can envision a likeness to a terrestrial or large stonefly. The shape and key triggering characteristics of a royal Wulff clearly fall within the range of a mayfly with a tail and upright wing, but how does one explain the peacock and red floss body?

I rarely fish a royal Wulff, because I generally default to a stimulator or adult caddis as my large searching dry fly. However, I have friends who knot a Wulff to their line more frequently, and they report decent success. One of the flies that popped up on my iPad, that I scanned from Fly Tyer Magazine was the royal Wulff. With recovery time on my hands after surgery, I decided to spin out five.

Another Angle

The most difficult aspect of a royal Wulff, in my mind, is the calf hair wing. Calf hair is more slippery to work with than deer hair or feathers, so pinching and figure eight wraps are a necessity. I managed to overcome the wing challenge and produced five respectable royal Wulffs, that I added to my fly box. Hopefully I remember these new ties, when I wade into a mountain stream in a few months.

Five Ready for Action

Squirrel Tail Comparadun 04/15/2020 Photo Album

I browsed through my collection of scanned fly patterns from back issues of my various fly fishing magazines, and I encountered the squirrel tail comparadun from Fly Tyer Magazine. I am a huge fan of comparaduns, and I recalled having a thirty year old squirrel tail that was given to me by a friend, while I lived in Pennsylvania.  Why not give these a try?

Nice Side View

I searched through my zip lock bag of natural animal hair patches and quickly snatched the squirrel tail. A quick inspection revealed that it remained in prime condition, so I placed it on my fly tying bench. I also grabbed my muskrat patch for the body and then shook some size 16 standard dry fly hooks on my magnet and threaded some gray thread into my bobbin. I was now prepared to experiment with squirrel tail comparaduns.

Five Completed Next to a Squirrel Tail

I made five, but I must report that squirrel hair is harder to manage than coastal deer hair. The five flies turned out to be quite respectable comparaduns, but the hair is fine and slippery and difficult to cock as an upright wing. The stiff squirrel tail fibers served as excellent outrigger tails, but microfibbets are an equally effective stiff tailing material. I gave them a try, and I embedded a pair in my fly box. It will be interesting to see how they perform compared to my usual gray deer hair comparaduns.

Desperate Caddis 03/30/2020 Photo Album

As outlined in my 03/29/2020 post regarding the better woolly bugger, I initiated a project to tie new flies that intrigued me, when they appeared in the many magazines that I subscribe to. The next item in my scanned fly pattern queue was the desperate caddis. The designer of this fly promised that it was a very quick but effective tie, and after producing five at my tying bench, I am inclined to agree. The fly only requires four materials including the thread and hook. The designer’s main revelation is to eliminate a dubbed body on a fly that has dense hackle wound around it, because the body is barely visible to the trout. In the desperate caddis design the thread suffices as a body.

Size 16

I sat down at my vice and created five desperate caddis. I chose gray thread, which yielded a gray body, because I find gray to be universally effective in caddis adult dry fly situations. The Adams is a great example of a generally imitative dry fly, and it possesses a gray body. The desperate caddis is a very simple dry fly that should fool numerous greedy trout in the coming year.

Bring Them Closer

Spin Doctor 03/27/202 Photo Album

I subscribe to at least six fly fishing magazines, and before I dispose of an issue, I flip through it and scan any fly patterns that stir my interest. With my fly boxes replenished with all my favorite patterns, I decided to review my scanned patterns for new additions to my ample supply of flies. Of course tying new flies is only a first step. I tend to revert to favorites, and it takes extra commitment to provide a fair test for a new pattern.

If you follow this blog, you know that I am a big fan of Andrew Grillos, the king of foam. One of the fly patterns that I scanned with the intention of trying is called the spin doctor. This fly is essentially a conventional spinner; however, Andrew incorporated two sections of 1MM foam to provide improved buoyancy and visibility. Because I normally fish during the late morning and afternoon, I rarely encounter strong spinner falls. Mating mayflies and spinner fall events tend to occur in the early morning and evening hours in the west, since these times generally coincide with the calmest hours of the day.

A Different View

One notable interaction with pale morning dun spinners took place on the Conejos River during a July 2016 trip. For the full story check out my post of 07/20/2016, and scroll toward the end. On this day I was camping near the river, so after dinner and clean up I wandered to a nice nearby hole and began to fish. As luck would have it, a pale morning dun spinner fall commenced, but when I frantically searched my fly boxes, I was disappointed to learn, that I did not have spinner imitations of the appropriate body color. I subsequently remedied this oversight and stocked a variety of spinner flies, but at the time I shifted into improvise mode. I plucked one of my size 16 cinnamon comparaduns from my box, and I mashed down the deer hair wings, so they parted in the middle and spread out at ninety degree angles from the hook shank. If you read my post, you learned that the ploy paid dividends, and I enjoyed some fine action over the remainder of the evening.

Zoomed on the Bunch

Despite this improvisational success story, I realized that I had not tied spinner flies in quite a while, so I decided to create some spin doctor patterns in pale morning dun body colors. I crafted two with light amber, two with a light olive body, and two with the aforementioned cinnamon. I am anxious to give the spin doctors a test during the upcoming season.