San Juan Worm 02/15/2016 Photo Album

Fishing with worms is woven into the fabric of my fishing existence. I have fond memories of my brother and I trailing my dad with a coffee can and picking worms from the rich black soil as he turned over sod and dirt with his garden spade. We accumulated enough garden worms to fulfill our fishing needs during the early season in Pennsylvania, and they were always very effective in April and early May.

As the season advanced my father and brother and I would visit my grandfather at his house near Boyertown after a heavy rain storm. My heartbeat literally pounded against my chest from the adrenaline rush that resulted when we gathered coffee cans and flashlights and charged into Pop Pop’s back yard. Here we discovered fat juicy nightcrawlers sprawled along all the flower beds and in my grandfather’s large vegetable garden. I am sure the worms were also present in the grass, but it was much easier to spot them in bare soil. Brother Jim and I took turns executing the messy task of picking the nightcrawlers. It took some practice, but fairly quickly we learned to recognize which end was the head, and once this extremity was identified, a very quick gooey snap was necessary to pinch and slowly extract the retreating worm. Collecting nightcrawlers was an exciting nighttime adventure.

When I began fly fishing in Pennsylvania in my early thirties, it took some time before I became proficient enough to catch fish on a regular basis. I trusted my worm drifting skills and knew that the tried and true methodology produced success. Fishing with flies however was largely an unproven technique. With this view of the efficacy of flies compared to worms, I formulated a compromise strategy. I knotted a bait hook to the end of my tapered leader and then impaled a worm to my hook. I added a split shot and lobbed this fly fishing/bait hybrid configuration to all the likely holding spots, and this method landed a decent amount of fish. I liked the feel of playing a fish on the long rod, and being able to pick up line and toss to the next hole was more efficient than reeling up line using a spinning reel.

Wapsi Flesh Ultra Chenille

The next step in my fly fishing evolution was our move to Colorado. Shortly after I arrived in 1990 I began to investigate the rivers and streams along the Front Range as well as more distant destinations. It did not take long for me to discover that the closest river to my home near Castle Rock was the South Platte, and fortunately the area downstream from Deckers was a premier trout fishery. I began to make frequent forays to this beautiful stretch of river, and in an effort to accelerate success, I also read as much as I could about the gold medal tailwater fishery. The books and magazine articles that I studied repeatedly mentioned San Juan worms, pheasant tail nymphs and RS2’s. Naturally I accepted this advice willingly and began to add these flies to my fly boxes.

24 Finished San Juan Worms

These were the halcyon days of the South Platte River in the Deckers area, and I can remember numerous visits when large brown trout and rainbow trout chomped on tan, flesh and chocolate brown San Juan worms. The most fortuitous aspect of this discovery was the ease with which I could generate a dozen San Juan worms. All that was required to produce a San Juan worm was a hook, a spool of thread and a section of ultra chenille. Meanwhile the South Platte River trout seemed to relish San Juan worms in April and May more than any other time of the year. These months coincided with elevated releases from Cheesman Dam in response to snow melt descending from the Rocky Mountains. The elevated flows scoured the river banks and flushed natural worms into the South Platte, so the hungry trout gorged on the delectable morsels, and my simple ultra chenille imitations represented a close approximation.

Blend of Old and New Flesh Chenille

Unfortunately the South Platte River was greatly impacted by the Hayman Fire in 2002 and remains a shadow of its status in the 1990’s. For this reason I fish there infrequently, but I discovered that San Juan worms continue to tempt trout in many other western waterways. The worm pattern is particularly effective during high murky water conditions, and for this reason I decided to replenish my dwindling supply. I possessed a small remnant strand of flesh colored ultra chenille, and my efforts to locate replacement material were thwarted last winter. Undeterred I once again embarked on a search, and on a trip to Charlie’s Fly Box I was elated to discover a skein of Wapsi flesh ultra chenille. This was a close match to my remaining sample so I purchased a spool. I produced ten flesh worms, five tan, five red, and four bright pink; and I am now prepared to tempt trout during spring conditions with an array of tasty worms.

Iron Sally 12/19/2015 Photo Album

In previous posts I extolled the virtues of the iron sally nymph. I continue to regard this fly as one of the prettiest imitations in my fly box, and I enjoy creating these gems. Another advantage of the iron sally is the weight provided by the wire wraps that form the abdomen.

Top View of a Shiny Iron Sally

During 2015 I did not utilize the iron sally as much as I intended, but it did spend time on my line primarily during days when I spotted yellow sallies fluttering over the stream. Apparently I deployed them enough to deplete my supply, so I tied an additional four to bring my inventory back to fifteen. This really is not a huge amount, and if I begin to experience more success, I may run short.

Zoomed In

The designer of this fly had a stroke of genius when he or she decided to combine the gold ultra wire and black crystal flash to construct the abdomen and legs. The iron sally attracts both fishermen and fish.

Juju Emerger 12/13/2015 Photo Album

I tied ten juju emergers last spring, and I tested them on several occasions during the early summer time frame when pale morning duns were active. I can report some success, but I also lost quite a few and reduced my supply to three. I suspect that my short supply affected my willingness to knot a juju emerger to my line, as I gravitated to the salvation nymph in many situations where a juju emerger might have been effective.

Juju Emerger

Since I had the requisite materials on hand, I decided to create twelve new flies to bring my total to fifteen. I completed this task several weeks ago, and I am anxious to utilize them for longer intervals during 2016. Charlie Craven’s recipe specifies size 18 hooks, so I complied with these directions and made eight. Once these were completed I clamped some size 16 hooks in my vice and produced four larger imitations.

Super Macro

On Friday December 11 Jane and I stopped at Charlie’s Fly Box in Old Arvada on our way to Golden. The main salesperson was busy with another customer, and Charlie Craven asked if he could help me. Rarely do I get an opportunity to speak with the owner of the shop and one of my favorite fly designers. Charlie helped me find the two packets of hooks that I was seeking, and then I took the opportunity to ask him about the juju emerger. I was surprised to learn that the pattern that I copied from his instructions is actually intended to be a blue winged olive imitation. The two strands of olive and one strand of brown super hair create an olive body with a segmented appearance similar to a baetis nymph. I now wonder if I should create some size 20’s and 22’s for the smaller broods of blue winged olives that emerge late in the season.

A Size 16 Juju Emerger

Surprisingly Charlie told me I should use two brown and one black strand of super hair to mimic a pale morning dun emerger or alternatively two brown and one orange. Now that I learned this from the designer, I may produce some additional variants to imitate pale morning duns. I understand why I unknowingly selected the salvation nymph during pale morning dun hatches instead of the juju emergers…my juju emergers were designed for a different mayfly hatch!

Salad Spinner 12/12/2015 Photo Album

I must confess that you will not find this fly anywhere else if you search the internet. In addition, I have not yet tested it in a live stream scenario. The salad spinner was designed by my young friend Danny Ryan, and although I have not used it, Danny demonstrated to me that it was a fish catching machine on the South Platte River, as he extracted fish after fish from that drainage on an October visit. This day of fishing convinced me that I needed to manufacture some to add to my fly box for the upcoming season.

Closer

Danny has limited funds to purchase fly tying materials, so he attempts to make the most out of what he has. A friend in Texas gave him a box of materials that her deceased husband accumulated, and Danny stretches this cache of floss and yarn as far as his imagination allows him. This then was the source of the salad spinner. Danny caught quite a few trout during our October day on the South Platte, and when he removed the salad spinner from the jaws of several fish, he noticed that quite a bit of aquatic vegetation accumulated on his fly, thus the name salad spinner.

Angled from the Side

Although the fly is not intended to imitate a specific insect, I suspect that it falls into the midge genre, and it is probably taken for an emerging midge pupa. The combination of fish attracting colors makes it stand out in the cold tumbling flows of Colorado rivers and streams. They are a relatively quick tie, so I created ten as my starting inventory. If the fish demonstrate a strong preference for this black attractor, I will quickly produce some more.

Completed Batch With Ingredients

Here are the steps:

1. Start with a size 18 or 20 scud hook such as a Tiemco 2487 and slide a bead on to the shank and around the bend to the hook eye.

2. Place some black thread in your bobbin and attach it to a hook 1/3 of the way behind the hook eye.

3. Attach brown or speckled fibers from a pheasant tail feather as a short tail.

4. Attach a strand of extra small red ultra wire to the shank in front of the tail.

5. Wrap the tread forward  and create a tapered abdomen until you reach the 1/3 point where you attached the thread.

6. Wrap the red wire forward to create a rib and tie off at the end of the abdomen.

7. Tie in a section of white poly. The thickness should match the size of the fly, but for a small hook size probably 8-10 fibers.

8. Tie in two strands of peacock herl and create a thorax. I actually substituted black peacock ice dub for the natural peacock.

9. Fold the poly yarn forward over the thorax and tie it down and then whip finish.

10. Allow the poly yarn to angle forward over the hook eye and cut it off to leave a stub to represent an emerging wing.

Zebra Midge 12/10/2015 Photo Album

The zebra midge is an amazingly productive fly that I tend to overlook. I continue to fall into the trap of thinking that it is difficult for trout to see such a tiny morsel in the rivers and streams of Colorado, yet when I experimented with one on my line, I typically enjoyed a favorable response from the fish.

A recent example of my flawed thinking is described in my 10/02/2015 Arkansas River post. I stopped at the ArkAngler Fly Shop in Salida, and a young gentleman behind the counter practically ordered me to use a midge larva in the morning. As my wife will attest, I am a chronic follower of orders, so I adhered to his advice and had great success in the tumbling waters of the Arkansas River that day.

Another reason to favor the zebra midge is its simplicity, and this translates to easy and fast fly tying. Only four materials are necessary – a hook, a bead, thread and fine wire. The hardest part is threading the tiny bead on to a size 20 hook. I abandoned using tweezers this go round and instead used hackle pliers to clamp on the bead and then centered it over the minuscule hook point. It worked better than tweezers, but I can report a few instances where I did not have the bead centered, and the pliers released causing a BB style gun shot.

Newly Minted Zebra Midges

I tied seven new zebra midges to bring my stock to 20. I produced some black and olive varieties, and hopefully I can discipline myself to attach a zebra midge to my line more frequently in 2016.

Craven Soft Hackle Emerger 12/10/2015 Photo Album

The soft hackle emerger has evolved from an experimental tie to a mainstay in my fly box. Over the last two seasons I gravitated to this fly more frequently than the RS2 and with good reason. It delivered. I believe that the additional flash of the white fluoro fiber tail and wing grabs the attention of the trout more readily than the drab RS2. Also the soft hackle style probably serves as a better imitation of emerging blue winged olives during hatch situations.

Top View Without Bead

I continue to deploy the RS2, but I usually reserve it for the time period before BWO’s appear, as this is when the nymphs are active deeper in the water column. I also concluded that the soft hackle emerger is best tied without a bead since I am generally fishing it as an emerger near the surface. Active movement of the soft hackle also seems to be quite effective in many hatch situations.

Completed Batch of Twelve

I tied twelve of these productive flies over the last several weeks to bring my inventory level to 50 again for the upcoming season. The hardest part of tying this fly is the folded soft hackle, but since it only requires two turns, I do not get overly upset if my fold is not perfect. The fish do not seem to care.

RS2 12/03/2015 Photo Album

I chronicled the history of the RS2 in a previous post, so you can read that explanation by clicking on the link in this sentence. When I first began tying these diminutive nymphs in the 90’s, I used muskrat guard hairs for the tails, and I did not include a beadhead. At some stage in my fly fishing evolution, I became a huge proponent of dry/dropper fishing, and I began to add tiny silver beads to my output.

At this point in my fly fishing life I make all my RS2’s with beads, and I substituted fibers from a brown pheasant feather for the tail. The bead never seems to prevent fish from chowing down on the RS2, and the extra weight allows me to fish it as a single dropper off a large buoyant top fly.

Side View

Over the last two seasons I discovered that Craven’s soft hackle emerger is also a productive fly before and during blue winged olive hatches, so I migrated to using the small wet fly more frequently than the RS2. Despite this tendency, I continue to deploy the RS2 on a regular basis. I suspect that it also is taken for a midge larva during certain periods when baetis are not present in large numbers, and the small amount of weight related to the bead enables me to fish it deeper than the soft hackle emerger.

A Completed Batch

When I counted my supply of RS2’s, I found twenty present in my boxes and bins, so I tied an additional ten to bring my total to thirty for the 2016 season. The RS2 is an essential addition to my arsenal, and I do not plan to approach streams without some.

Bright Green Caddis Pupa 12/01/2015 Photo Album

I documented my history with the bright green caddis pupa several times on this blog, so I will not repeat it here. This fly is a great producer particularly during the April time period ahead of and during the grannom hatch on Colorado rivers. I experienced particular success on the Arkansas River with this fly. My post on caddis pupa 01/26/2014 provides a solid description of the techniques I use to fish the bright green caddis pupa in advance of the fabled spring hatches.

A View from the Top and Side

During the spring of 2015 I once again failed to intersect with a significant caddis emergence, and consequently the bright green caddis did not produce many fish. This was the second consecutive year in which caddis pupa were not effective flies for me during the period before snow melt in Colorado. Hopefully conditions in the spring of 2016 will reward my ongoing confidence in the emergent caddis pupa imitation.

Resting on Deer Hair

The bright green caddis pupa belongs to the same family of flies as the emerald version. I follow the recipe precisely that is published in Gary LaFontaine’s Caddisflies book on page 40. When I counted my remaining supply of bright green caddis pupa, I discovered that my boxes and bins contained 35. With a goal of carrying 40 to begin the next season, I only needed to manufacture five, and I quickly completed a batch in late November. Hopefully I will be able to encounter more situations in 2016 where the bright green caddis becomes an indispensable weapon to fool Colorado fish.

Beadhead Emerald Caddis Pupa 11/19/2015 Photo Album

My history with the emerald caddis pupa is explained in a 01/01/2012 post, so I will not repeat it here. In short I began using it with success in Pennsylvania, and its effectiveness translated to Colorado and western rivers. Besides being an effective imitation of various caddis species, I suggest that the emerald color is a significant triggering characteristic that attracts fish during times of the year when a specific matching caddis species is not present in significant quantities.

Top and Side View

The style of fly is copied from Gary LaFontaine’s emergent caddis pupa, which is described in Caddisflies. As Gary prepared to write his book, he performed dives in Montana rivers so he could observe the behavior of caddis as they emerged and moved through their life cycle. He was dissatisfied with the many patterns in existence at that time, and he sought improvements. During his dives he identified a significant triggering characteristic and then searched through many materials until he found a solution. He discovered that caddis pupa surrounded themselves with a bright air bubble as they swam from the stream bottom to the surface to quickly pop free and emerge into the adult stage. He was certain that imitating this glittering air bubble would lead to a caddis wet fly imitation with improved effectiveness.

After much trial and error he stumbled on to a material called antron yarn. This fabric was used in the manufacture of  carpeting, and during his experiments, he noticed that it created the illusion of an air bubble similar to natural emerging caddis. With this discovery he designed caddis subsurface patterns that used antron yarn which also was known as sparkle yarn. The critical element of the LaFontaine caddis pupa is the sheath that surrounds the abdomen, and this body component is comprised of antron yarn tied in at the bend and then folded forward to create a shroud above and below the body. Since LaFontaine’s ground breaking book, many tiers have created alternative flies and a vast number of variations, but the original design continues to catch fish and has served me well over many years. I plan to continue fishing with a proven winner that is fairly simple and straightforward to produce.

Perched on Deer Hair Used for Emergent Wing

For some reason I did not seem to fish caddis pupa as frequently in 2015 as in previous seasons, and consequently I counted twenty-five in my boat box and bins. Since I established a target beginning inventory of thirty, I only needed to tie five to reach my goal. I cranked these out yesterday, and I am prepared for caddis situations in 2016. One reason for less caddis pupa usage was fewer trips to the Arkansas River during the early part of April. I also suspect that I defaulted to the ultra zug bug in many situations where I may have previously resorted to an emergent caddis pupa.

A Fresh Batch

Hare Nation Nymph 11/16/2015 Photo Album

Last winter I conceived a hybrid fly that I named the hare nation nymph. The name is a combination of hares ear nymph and salvation nymph, and my concept was to combine the features of two of my most productive flies. From the salvation nymph I borrowed the nymph back and flashabou strip along with the black peacock ice dub thorax and a coating of clear nail polish over the entire back of the fly to accentuate the flash and sparkle. From the hares ear nymph I utilized the buggy hares mask dubbing with plentiful guard hares for the abdomen and the pheasant wing feather fibers for legs. I produced thirteen of these new prototypes and used nearly all of them during the 2015 season.

Top View Shows Off the Flash

The fact that I consumed nearly all of my new flies indicates that it was a success. In addition to combining the salient traits of two productive flies, I also speculated that the hair nation fulfilled the role of a dressed up pheasant tail nymph, as it presented a similar color scheme. For some reason I historically tied my pheasant tail nymphs on size sixteen scud hooks with a bead, and this translates to a body length comparable to a size 18. I liked the idea of having some nymphs similar to pheasant tails that were a size larger for pale morning dun hatches.

A Batch of Hare Nation Nymphs and Key Ingredients

I did not pay close attention to the precise circumstances that favored the hare nation, but I recall using them early in the post-runoff time frame when pale morning duns are prevalent, and I am certain that they produced. Whether they outperformed a standard salvation nymph or not remains open to question. Perhaps in the coming year, I will alternate between the two flies during prime pale morning dun emergence periods and judge whether one is more effective than the other.

Zooming in on the Finished Flies

At any rate I experienced enough success with my new creation to convince me to tie twenty additions for my fly storage bins. In a worst case scenario I increased my salvation nymph supply by twenty, and that is not a bad circumstance. Stay tuned for updates on the evolution of the hare nation nymph.