Ok, so I maybe fish a streamer more than most, I admit it. Once I figured it out it became simply second nature, almost to a fault. There are times I’m fishing a streamer when I should really be fishing nymphs, something to work on. The evolution of angler should never stop, it is through constant evaluation and re-evaluation that we excel. I write this two Ranger IPA’s down and looking forward to tossing flies at trout tomorrow. Ironic that I think about my streamer “crutch” as I write the introduction to something I’ve been mulling over about for a couple months or so, something more natural, with more…boogie. The Jungle Boogie, with less flash, a simple yet effective profile and tons of motion it is my Sculpin pattern. Sure, it needs extensive field testing and this coming season will allow for that, but for now I am confident that it will see trout. Browns, brookies, and yes…stocker rainbows will see this pattern in the coming months. Then after a couple adjustments and the development of a couple more color options this will become a staple in my arsenal. This fly, named after the movement that the jointed sections provide, tied on two #12 Dia-Riki 135 Scud hooks and linked by a simple length of backing, moves. I like the lack of flash, it will have it’s days when the trout turn down the flashy SMB for something more… realistic. Weight will need a bit of tweaking, as of now it’s roll casting close to 40ft accurately, I’d like to get 50 out of it. I’d also like to mention that the dubbed portion of this fly is made possible by the groovy dubbing courtesy of Singlebarbed.com, the Free Range. Natural in color with just enough flash to freak me out, this stuff rocks and that’s the only reason why I keep plugging it. Get into it, trust me, you’ll never go back. With that… the only fly that I know of that has a theme song…the Jungle Boogie. Kool and the Gang, 1974…get down, get down…Jungle Boogie. Here I come trout…

Note: This is Not a Woolly Bugger.

Slide Show

Winter season in Minnesota. Goddamn have I been waiting for this, for some reason the urge to get back to the creeks I know grows each off-season and with this year’s non-stop Iowa fishing I want it even more. Fishing in Iowa is nice and I enjoyed exploring new creeks but the Minnesota water I know has been sorely missed. This is the beginning of the season, of the year, of the hatches, of the new creeks and the old favorites. It is another year being a Driftless bum, what a beautiful thing. The snow hasn’t shown up and tomorrow we will be fishing in the wind but we’ve got a plan and if the will is there… I want the snow but I’ll take fishing in Minnesota again, I’ll take it and smile. To a new year and a dozen #20 Jujubee Midge flies, all of which will likely find their way to the creek in the coming months. If your heading out tomorrow, good luck, may the wind be at your back and the bugs be active.

p.s. I’d like to thank Carl for the blocks of wood/cork holding two seriously strong magnets, I could not get a single hook to lay stuck down like other magnets I’ve used. This is a seriously awesome thing and it’s usefulness (especially with smaller hooks) speaks for itself. Never again will I struggle to find a hook ready to meet my vice. Note: the last picture stinks due to poor lighting, I spent time on and off knocking these out today finishing after the good afternoon light had set.

A proposition, a proposal, a tit for tat, a quid pro quo if you will was discussed a while back with this guy. His flies for mine, I liked this idea. His arrived first, mine are on their way. New ideas are already filtering through my mind, these flies have got to just kick ass. Seeing someone elses work prompting my mind to look at something in a new way, this is a good thing. I look forward to tossing them soon. Thanks John.

Slide Show

Sat up listening to this… tied up these. Free Range Dubbing and Soft-Hackle equates to…deadly.

It’s going to be cold, shitty ass weather. Starting at 7am and fishing until the cold gets you, you run out of flies or 7pm hits. It’s the PetFly SmackDown coming to an Iowa trout stream near you. This year featuring a potential snow storm, ice and rain. Not to mention the opening weekend of Iowa gun Deer season (don’t forget your blaze orange). Tie your flies, pack your boxes, grab your gear and hold on to your ass. Here we come Iowa look out for the Hairball, this year we are gunning for the win.

Biot Comparadun: #16 BWO

• Hook: #16 Dry Fly
• Thread: Olive UTC 70
• Tail: Dun Microfibbets
• Wing: Dun Deer Hair
• Body: Olive Turkey Biot
• Thorax: BWO Dubbing
• Head: Olive UTC Thread

Critical Thoughts: The wing is too long on some of the flies I tied, tails as well. The wing should sit more at a 45 degree angle to the rear and should maybe be a bit further towards the hook barb than in this example. Color is a decent match but the photos here do not do color any justice. I tied half with a lighter olive dubbing for the thorax and half darker. All in all I’ll venture to say they will bring a trout to surface and are a bit better option than what I currently have in my dry fly box, with that said more in a #18 and #20 are needed.

Slide Show

After sampling KBarton’s Free Range dubbing during the kick ass carp trip out west I knew I had to have some. No, I knew I needed it ALL. I don’t know where to begin, this stuff is awesome. Coming in every mind-blowing color of the fly tyer’s rainbow Singlebarbed has out done himself yet again. I say again because although I haven’t plugged the Sixth Finger yet you will notice my pair of those sexy blades showing up in many of my tying photo’s. If I’m tying they are on my hand, I wonder if I’ll ever really be able to go back. Back to the Free Range, with colors like Pea Green, Rust, Black Claret, Caddis Green, and Brown Mustard you can tell this was made by a tyer for tyers. The guard hairs, subtle flash and easy to dub mixture grabbed me right away. Montana was going to let some of his stash fly back to Minnesota with me but I said no, I just knew I would have to have the whole lot and after contacting Keith my white package arrived the other day.

The timing couldn’t have been better, I’d been checking the mail waiting for my stash to give me a reason to bust out the vise and get to work. I’ve been fishing a bit in my free time but haven’t had any reason to tie, simply put…my boxes are full and unless I’ve run out I can’t justify sitting inside tying when I could be out fishing or enjoying the fresh air Southeast Minnesota has to offer. With the arrival of my Free Range I had the motivator I was looking for to sit down and knock out a couple dozen. I picked a simple fly, something that wouldn’t detract from the Free Range, the Free Range Soft-Hackle is what I’m calling it. Just a dubbed body with a single wrap of Partridge for the collar. My gut tells me that I’ll take loads of trout with these flies. Thanks to John Montana I used a new technique to apply the dubbing that takes full advantage of all the subtleties of this stuff. This method involves a bit of wax, a touch of dubbing and sending my thread to the moon to achieve a nasty, buggy, trout turning body. I tied three dozen in six colors, thanks Keith for investing the time to make this awesome dubbing. This stuff will be put to good use in many future W.F.F. flies. If your looking for some hit Singlebarbed’s store and stock up and while your at it get those scissors, if you tie with blades in your hand you will love these and likely never go back.

Slide Show

From Caddisflies by G. LaFontaine pg. 315.  ”Nearly every mention in modern angling literature of adult caddisflies includes the solemn advice “Always catch one because caddisflies appear lighter in flight than they actually are.” The most common reason caddisflies appear lighter in the air than they do in the hand is that the wings of most species are fairly translucent, and they allow a lot of sunlight to pass through them. When an angler holds an adult in his hand and looks down at it, the light does not affect the coloration. Maybe someone finds it valuable to view adults this way, but it has been my experience that it is difficult to get wild trout to take caddisflies from my hand. They usually suck adults off the surface, looking up at them, which is roughly the same way fly fisherman see them in the air… Even the way fly fishermen look at an insect is warped by the “mayfly” obsession. It is fine to study a mayfly in the hand because the wings are upright, but certainly a caddisfly, with two sets of wings over the body, must be looked at against the natural background of the sky for a fish-eye view; and a matching artificial should be chosen the same way.”

Additional Thoughts:

• Could the thickness of the Elk hair wing contribute or detract from the effectiveness of the pattern both in terms of color, a thicker wing would block more light which would make the color appear darker? Whereas a sparsely tied wing is more translucent creating similar conditions to what LaFontaine describes above? I remember an outing with Wendy B. fishing the hatch I am attempting to imitate here and the sparse No Hackle Elk hair Caddis pattern was crushing fish. The sparser the wing became, the more fish took to it, even sitting half in the film.
• The #16 Two-Toned Chubby No Hackle Elk Hair pattern is an attempt at better imitating the caddis I have been seeing as of late by imitating the olive/black body I had documented previously as well as the bulbous body shape.
•  The Olive CDC & Elk, we’ll see how effective this version is for the spring caddis hatches. I have my hopes but I think the Olive maybe too much. Also, it’s hard to get the bulbous body appearance by palmering a CDC feather.

Slide Show