This pattern was my entry for the 2010 Pet-Fly Smackdown, a friendly competition between fellow anglers involving a fly made incorporating some material from a pet you own. This fly has been fishing rather well this season and as such I’ve gotten a few requests for the pattern, this should be one better than just listing it. The Hairball can be fished as a mini-streamer with a stripped or twitched retrieve, it’s effective when fished on the swing and makes a great single or lead nymph in a two fly rig. I tie it rather heavy so it sinks quickly, a necessity on some of our creeks. Recently I’ve been experimenting with different color and bead combinations that will hit the streams in the coming months as spring arrives and the trout put on the feed bag. I should also clarify something, in previous posts I have referred to a #10 or 12 Hairball.  When developing this pattern I first tied it with a SM Black Conehead on a #10 or 12 2X Long Nymph hook. After fishing it a while I tied a few other batches with a larger but shorter #8 2X Short Scud hook. After fishing both I have abandoned the smaller longer hook and will continue tying this fly on the larger #8/10 2X Short Scud Hook, I feel the larger hook gap is needed. The bead will inevitably change over time, I’ll use what I have handy and I enjoy changing things, trying new combinations but for the record the original pattern calls for the 2x Short Scud hook with a black bead. You may see the old version pop in from time to time but that’s me just fishing out whats in my boxes. Enjoy the video for the W.F.F. Hairball.

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Thanks to Wendy B. for the text.

It’s back. After a week long thaw that woke most of Southeast Minnesota from winter hibernation and got everyone outside to enjoy the 50°F air temp the cold has returned. I just have to remember to layer well, stay out of the creek as much as possible and don’t drop your gloves in the stream. I failed to meet two of these three winter requirements on the 21st. I wore waders knowing I wanted to be able to cross the creek without issue, this was do-able but honestly not the best choice. ~4 hours of fishing and my feet were frozen. I also failed to keep my glove (just the left one) dry when landing a smaller brown about ~2 hours in, I shook my glove off to preserve the trout’s slime coat (I basically threw it into the creek not knowing) when the guy fishing with me hooked it in a plunge pool downstream. Had he not been fishing and had my glove not acted like a sluggish thick brown trout I wouldn’t have a pair as I write this. Note: next time remember not to throw your gear in the creek when it’s ~25°F out.

I met this guy at ~11am for a couple hours of mid-afternoon trouting. I showed up a few minutes late and he had already gotten into trout by the time I was geared and ready to go. We hiked downstream roughly a mile to work a few nicer spots heading back upstream to the vehicles.  The wind was whipping from the NE at ~15mph pretty steadily throughout the afternoon. We kept our backs to it as much as possible but it still complicated matters.

Cam’s Olive Jig just crushed trout through-out the afternoon. Every second cast he was setting the hook, the wind hampered that a bit and he lost a few between landing close to 2 dozen in the few hours we fished. Normally this creek like many around the region runs gin clear especially in the winter months but for some reason it was running a bit murky. The blowing wind helped obscure the water surface perhaps helping us avoid spooking the trout. The combination of the two made this a numbers day, we each landed quite a few fish. I fished a #8 Hairball (black) the entire day. I did so mainly due to the wind, I know I can chuck this slightly heavier fly with an added splitshot alot further into the wind without knotting my rig up than I can say tossing a two fly nymph rig with smaller flies. It just happened that the trout were really into the slightly larger food offering and minimal flash of this fly.

Cam continued hooking into and landing fish from just about every spot his jig was cast. I have to admit it was enjoyable learning a bit more about the tactics of a spin angler, the method of jig fishing for trout in our area and how the spin angler deals with different obstacles. It also gave me a chance to maybe observe and reproduce certain aspects of spin angling with my fly rod. Along with learning a bit about what a spinning rig can do I also learned what it cannot do, it cannot drift a fly along a sheer rock wall unless you are casting straight upstream. The jig once cast can only be retrived in a straight line to some extent. I’m sure Cam could let the jig sink and allow the current to pull it from place to place then retrieve but for the most part I saw a straight line between the location of the cast and the angler. These are just observations not meant to discount or discredit any aspect of spin angling, just observing what I haven’t really experienced. Cam set the hook on a couple trout sending them flying, basically when a year old trout hits a jig it becomes air-born for a few seconds. Looking at the size of Cam’s jig compared to the size of the predator I could only think of something I read a while back, that by the time a brown trout gets to 10inches it must begin consuming food items one inch or longer to survive and make it past 12inches in length. If your ever questioning tossing a larger fly think about that fact and remember this photo.

We worked back upstream to finish the afternoon out. By this point my left hand was fairly cold, the glove that went swimming was frozen solid in my pocket and my left foot was getting cold. I had hooked into and landed a few decent sized trout, all very healthy, thick well fed brown trout. We were looking to get into some larger brookies but none were had though several times the bright colors on the browns looked pink at times making us question the fish until it was closer. Near the end of the afternoon I dead drifted my #8 Hairball down a deep run and with one strong strike followed by a nice flying leap I had the fish of the day on the line. A beautiful kype jawed male looking somewhere between maybe 16-17inches. He ran me around a bit and bent my rod nicely before coming to hand. We finished the day fishing to a big hole in the wind, we each landed a couple more and parted ways. My foot was really cold and the wind was refusing to let up even alittle, although I could have stayed out longer I took off for home smelling of big ugly brown trout. Awesome.

Slide Show

Enjoy a minute from the Feb. 14th outing. Remember to change the video settings from 360p to 720p in the lower right corner after the video begins playing. It will take alittle longer to load but well worth the wait. Thanks Wendy B. for another excellent day on our Driftless Creeks.

The Field Report

• Arrival: ~8am, Departure: ~4:30pm
• Airtemp: Arrival ~35ºF, Departure ~42ºF
• Wind: NW 18mph at 8am slowing to 8mph at 4pm
• Water Temps: ~12:30pm 39ºF, ~2:45pm 41.5ºF
• Midge in the snow at 10:30am, Rising trout at 1:15pm

Wendy B. and I met roadside a bit before 8am under sunny skies. The wind was predicted to be a beast for the early morning hours dying down as the day wore on. We chose a spot that did not compliment the wind well, right in our faces for most of the day. With that said it posed minimal comfort issues but made casting a pain in the ass. After hiking in a ways we broke up and began casting nymphs. I played around with a #12 Hairball (tan) trailed by a #16 Pink Hot Spot Scud for a majority of the day. I know we sent most the fish at the first few places scattering, the wind was a hindrance the first hour or so. Winona County was under a wind advisory until 9am on the 14th. Just ask my 50ft white spruce that came down while I slept the night before.

Fishing was a bit slow the first couple of hours, we hiked and fished looking for good places to get out of the wind and into the sunshine, had their been no wind I would have been in a t-shirt most of the day. We sat on a few runs and I eventually landed a fish around 10am. Picking up a couple nymphing, the #16 Pink Hot Spot Scud out fished the #12 Hairball 2:1 easy over the course of the day. Wendy B. was successful with a #14 Orange Scud earlier in the day. We hiked upstream, the plan was to fish a while then access a second stream to finish the day out.

At site two I took an initial water temp and checked the rocks. Interesting how one stream will put off midge like crazy and the next puts off tiny black stones in large quantities. We had hoped to find a reason to fish this second site as far as the winter regulations would allow but after half a mile we hadn’t found what we were looking for. At 12:30pm we stopped in the sun and out of the wind to make lunch. I often want to bring lunch and stop to eat but rarely do, today the longer hours and distance travelled through thick wet snow almost demanded re-fueling. I managed to bust out a crude fire in the snow with a lighter and what nature had to offer around me in a reasonable amount of time. Wendy prepped kindling while I prepped the site and got the tinder needed to get flames roaring. Fifteen minutes later we were stuffing hot dogs topped with all the fixings down enjoying the moment in the snow. Trash packed away and fire covered with a foot of snow we busted out to find a trout, a decent lunch in less than thirty minutes.

We thought for a bit about hiking a ways and fishing something we both knew but decided instead to peek around the corner, glad we did. Once back on-stream we noticed rising trout almost instantly, consistently rising trout, launching trout. After watching a handful of brown trout propel out of the water we dropped our gear to rig 18inches of 6x tippet with a #20 Midge Dryfly. A few minutes later on my second drift a smaller brown came up for my #20 Jujubee Midge. We thought about splitting up but if done properly back to back trout dry fly fishing can be fun with a friend. The one who wasn’t fishing was taking pictures and landing trout with the net. I continued with the Jujubee midge but found that once the CDC wing was slimed the fly was useless. I believe it has its place in my box for finiky trout that demand the look and behaviour of this fly, the first two drifts showed why CDC can be so effective. I opted for a #20 Midge that had hackle rather than CDC for the wing/legs. We continued catching nicer back to back browns ranging from 10-13inches over the course of the next hour or so, we would have landed more if the wind hadn’t fouled a fair number of casts up. Nothing like watching your leader and tippet blown straight back at you as your line is laying down on the creek, it could have worse though. The dry fly hour can make a day, it did this day. The trout ceased rising at ~2:30pm, the water temp was 41.5ºF. We continued upstream swinging streamers through a few deeper sections with minimal results.

On my suggestion we opted to hike 95% of the way back out and round out the day sitting on a few runs. This was maybe not the best choice, we busted ass through the snow and by the end we were both pretty beat. We split up and each took a spot. I swapped my rig to the #12 Hairball (tan) trailed by the #16 Pink Hot Spot Scud and began picking off brown after brown. The nymphing was almost as good as dry fly fishing, I couldn’t keep the fish off my line had I tried. A couple of times I lost a fish as it struck my flies emerging from the water as I prepared to cast again. In forty minutes I must have managed close to dozen brown trout from 8-12inches and one pushing 13inches from the single run. I lost twice that for sure, takes ranged from aggressive to sluggish making it difficult to anticipate a strike, sometimes your line would twitch and others it would come to a very slow stop. The sun began to hide behind clouds and the air temp seemed to drop a bit signaling the end of the day.

The Bug Report:

With the warmer weather I spent a bit of time checking rocks, beginning the count and assessment of the hatches for the coming season. I hope to get out to a few places I’ve caught decent mayfly and caddis hatches the last two years to check the rocks and see where I should concentrate my efforts come spring. I can tell you now that the Dark Hendricksons are on the rocks. Ephemerella Subvaria were pretty thick on the creek we fished, the wing pads still have a ways to go before they are mature enough to hatch but provided we don’t get major flooding the Dark Hennies should be good to go. Other bugs spied…everything! This creek is alive. Caddis larva of all kinds, Maccafertium nymphs (either Light Cahills or March Browns), Giant Water Beetles and Leeches all clung to rocks I examined. 

Slide Show

I’ve gotten some good feedback regarding the Jan. 17th video I released a few weeks back with Charlie Parr singing Ol’Rattlesnake, I enjoy knowing that folks out there enjoy whats going on in S.E. Minnesota. I found this on youtube.com thought it was worth posting here. When Parr is blaring over the radio my tires are often descending into a valley on a gravel road. My fishing gear in tow and a smile on my face. Hard not to smile under those conditions. Hard not to smile just listening to this guy play.

• Arrival Air Temp: 12degrees Departure: ~18
• Onstream Arrival: 11:15am Departure: 2:30pm
• ~10mph Winds from the SW
• Zero Midge Activity, No Risers
• Ice Shelving Created Issues
• ~15 Brown Trout Landed
• #12 Hairball (Both Black & Tan)

We arrived onstream later than planned but the weather hadn’t warmed like it was supposed to and even at 11am it was pretty chilly with a decent breeze coming from the SW. Fingers were pretty cold the first hour or so. We spied the creek and almost drove to a backup location but already geared up and not wanting to waste over an hour we opted just to play the hand we were delt. The previous weeks cold temperatures allowed this section of creek to freeze up quite a bit. Most slow sections were completley froze over and the spots that were open had significant shelving complicating any drift to be had. I opted for a smaller #12 Hairball (Black) on a shorter ~8ft leader thinking it would be a bit easier to manage with the ice shelves.

We fished only a couple of spots but managed more fish than I was expecting given the shelving and temperature combined with no midge activity. The trout were hunkered low but several did end up chasing down our flies as we lifted them out to cast. I lost atleast two nice fish as a result of this, perhaps bringing my fly up too early. Strikes from the larger fish were subtle and harder to detect, pretty typical for these conditions. Smaller <12in trout were fairly aggressive smacking my #12 Hairball pretty consistently. The ice shelving caused me to lose atleast one fish and maybe another due to a poor hookset as a result of my line getting caught on a bit of ice.  Before we left Sershen spied a bait container left in the snow with the left over contents strewn about. A few things about this bothered me, 1st the trash, don’t leave your trash here. 2nd, this is an artificials only section of creek, bait is not allowed. 3rd, this is the 3rd time in the last six months I’ve seen this in the same location. On top of that, why not just throw the worms leftover in for the trout? I called the Winona County DNR Conservation Officer when I got back to my truck to inform him of the infraction. Winona County has only one officer to monitor all our streams and our half of the Mississippi. Due to use alone the Mississippi will always get more of his attention so I try to let him know what’s going on when I can. It was pretty apparent this had occurred recently as the snow had yet to hide the evidence.

All in all it was a good day in the Driftless area, the sun eventually peeked out for a bit but didn’t hang around for long. The 30 degree airtemp we were hoping for did not materialize even after we had left the creek. Warmer weather is coming this next week, could be good, it could be bad. If night time air temps stay above freezing I could see the average stream water temp dropping as the snow melts. This will put fish down, midge will cease to hatch and the fishing could get more difficult. The trade off? It may get rid of a fair amount of snowpack which is needed around the state as well in this area. Hope for the best and that melt issues are minimized.

Slide Show

I’m guilty of jumping the gun. I have the information available to me but with zeal I just sat down and began tying. I’m pleased I found tying these flies more enjoyable, it came a bit easier this time and makes knowing that I have to do it all over again that much more tolerable. According to those in the know my hackle is far to light for these to pass as Dark Hendricksons. I may end up taking a razor blade to them to save the hooks or I may attempt them anyways just to see, maybe the lighter bodied flies will pass as Lt. Hendricksons. They may end up in a box somewhere, I’ll pull them out 10 years from now and exclaim its the “Dumbass Hatch!” Anyways, learn from my mistake as I must. Do your research before you reach for your nice dry fly cape.

Slide Show

I woke yesterday with options. I saw Liz out the door and off to work. I had the choice to fish but the strong winds and already pretty cold air temp of ~4degrees by 8am made up my mind for me. I have my limits you know. So what to do with the morning off but brew coffee and tie flies. The question…what to tie? I’ve been watching this video again and again and it’s getting to me. The only problem here is the standard dry fly, I suck at tying these damn things and I’ve got a mental thing going on that has allowed me to avoid them. I spent the first hour of daylight sipping coffee and sucking it up. I whipped out 1/2 dozen in a reasonable time of ~40minutes and was actually a bit surprised. I think they will do the job and they don’t look all bad. The hardest aspect of this fly for me is getting the wings positioned properly. I have to admit I kind of enjoyed tying them and will be at it again soon, as I ‘ve been told practice makes perfect…

With the remaining portion of my morning I took care of business. I cleaned the kitchen. The stove, microwave, counter tops, vacuumed and even did a bit of laundry. My home is primarily heated with a wood pellet stove of which it consumes a few hundred lbs of hardwood pellets every week, especially when it’s cold enough to keep me home tying flies rather than fishing. I finished the morning by hauling 400lbs from the barn to the porch. Gotta keep the lady of the manor pleased with me, she after all allows me to fish like a non-stop fool, attends TU meetings, fixes my clothes and puts up with trout talk all the time. She deserves it for sure. Next thing she is getting is a pair of breathable waders though. Not a bad morning save the lack of trout smell on my hands.

Slide Show

• Onstream Arrival: ~11:15am Departure: ~3pm
• Arrival Air Temp: ~15degrees Departure: ~20
• Wind: ~10mph from the South
• 2:1 TB Stonefly to Midge Ratio at ~12:30pm
• #18 Orange Hot Spot Scud/#12 Hairball (Tan)

Of the four hours we were on stream well over half was spent trudging through thigh deep snow sinking close to your knees even with snowshoes. The 4-6inches of powder coating the under-snow made for a slow and challenging hike upstream for the day. We arrived and observed little trout activity but seeing a few midge in the snow I rigged a #18 Orange Hot Spot Scud. We chose maybe not the best stream to fish as the wind was coming from the south and we chose a north/south valley. Forced to deal with the wind we kept moving for the most part fishing each spot for a few minutes and moving on. The sun peeked through only a few times for brief moments making the day.

Close to 2pm I spent twenty glorious minutes fishing a #20 Wilted Spinach to a small pod of rising trout. Although I lost the only strong take I had it was a challenging approach and it felt good just to earn the strike. To fool the weary trout. As soon as the sun left it was back to hiking through thick woods in deep ass snow to see more of a stream I had never fished before. A good reason to fish it quickly, get a feel for it and take a few mental notes. 1st, lots of very shallow areas with rocky substrate. The afternoon was filled with nothing but Tiny Black Stoneflies crawling through the snow. This was the largest emergence of this insect I have witnessed. I took note of the shallow areas and tried to steer clear so as to keep from disturbing the deeper sections keeping frantic trout from agitating the feeding pods. 2nd, the rocks clearly said Caddis. 3rd, find any habitat improvement areas. I ended up swapping back to the #18 OHS Scud for the majority of the afternoon. I lost a few to snags and fished a couple deeper locations with a #12 Hairball (Tan) getting a strong strike from a brown as I basically jigged my fly through a deep run. The day ended with a long hike down and out of the woods. The sun, absent most of the day, kissed our shoulders as we exited.

Slide Show