Living in Winona, MN my options for tying materials are limited. I can stop at Gander Mt. when I am in Rochester but I don’t like to and I typically end up ordering most of my materials (especially hooks) from the Internet. When I can find materials in town they are typically of the craft variety and as most of us know craft materials can be great but they can also be a complete waste of your time and funds. I believe this 1st material is something most can find and is worth stocking up on. A late night need for an upholstery needle prompted a trip to of all places…Walmart. Walking down the craft isle Liz spots…stretch tubing? Clear stretchy plastic in two diameters, a thinner .5mm and a thicker .8mm in lengths of 50 feet a roll. Whoa… Oh, the kicker? Only $1.73 a roll, are you kidding me? I should point out that this product is not hollow like traditional stretch tubing but I think it has it’s applications. If you don’t want to run to Walmart to get your hands on this stuff, I’ve found it on the Internet at several places. Looks like it might be found in craft stores as well. I suggest using a stronger thread when using the .8mm stuff. In the next few days I’ll be posting a second material, available in town, cheap, and…you’ll just have to check back sooner than later. Peace

-the w.f.f.

Slide Show

Started the morning hoping to find trout rising to tiny Trico’s, the infamous “dimple.” Water levels seem low but rain last night helped to cloud the water slightly helping me out a bit. I took a water temp of 56 degrees, noting that 56 is ideal for hatching Trico’s. I moved upstream and observed steady dimples but no flies. I took a chance and rigged a 12ft. leader with 7x tippet and tied on the smallest imitation I had. I hadn’t gotten a chance to tie my own Trico spinners yet so I rigged a #20 Jujubee Midge and let loose. I could barely see the fly so I scanned the water looking for a dimple, I got a take and set the hook too sharply. I found you really only get one shot at each fish, they aren’t going to fall for it twice. Although I didn’t see any Trico’s I did get two more strikes on the Jujubee Midge before noticing a small yellowish mayfly come floating at me. The Little Blue-Winged Olive’s (Plauditus punctiventris) are out and in size #18-20. I need to tie some of these up, pronto. 

Although I didn’t land any fish on the midge pattern I was pleased that I was able to fool a few takers and as water temps rose I noticed fewer and fewer mayflies. I re-rigged with two caddis larva patterns, a larger #14 and a smaller #18. First run I got to with the new set-up made me feel like a rookie. Stumble to the water and immediately kick upstream a nice 18-20in brown, lookin’ healthy, then in an effort to get started I planted my two flies in a 6ft tall weed. Note: the flies must be in water to catch trout.  A little frustrated I retrieved my flies and concentrated on getting them down deep to fish lips. First fish up to bat was nice and it felt good to see one of these guys again, it’s actually been a week or more since I saw one up close and personal like.

Second fish went down like this…larger fish comes up the run past me, I don’t know why I thought I could cast to a cruising larger brown but I did and the first cast didn’t get anywhere. I made a quick second cast probably 4ft in front of his nose and what resulted next is one reason I love trout. He caught a glimpse of the larger caddis larva I had on as it hit the water and just nailed it, like a charging bull, no need for the strike indicator here. He faught well and was promptly released to fight another day. I worked upstream taking a few creek chubs and smaller trout when I happened upon a sucker that was still breathing turned upside down in a shallow pocket of water. Seeing him struggle I attempted to see if he could be released but to no avail, this fish was on it’s way out. Curious. I wonder what might have hit this thing, perhaps a big bad daddy brown, either way everything will eat well when he settles to the bottom tonight. 

Other quick note-ables: The nymphs are beginning to show up on the rocks again. I’m pretty sure the image above is of a Trico (Lower Right) and a late season BWO (Upper Left). Also, I was pissed to find a 4ft fire pit on the edge of the bank today with burnt trash and beer cans in it. Someone camped out on one of the best holes, go somewhere else and illegally camp (I was on WMA land) and make a mess. If I can’t trust you with making and cleaning up a campsite how can I trust you with our cold water resources? F*** You. I apologize to those of you who are respectful and would never do this, which I hope is most of you, sometimes the Fly Factory has to vent some steam or I may explode!

Slide Show

As stated yesterday I saw the plan to fish some private trout water near home through today. Called Sershen, asked if he wanted to come scout the stream with me and sure enough he did. We got on site at 12noon and fished until about 2:30pm. We parked upstream from the area I wanted to scout and planned to hike in until we met a confluence between the main branch of the stream and a feeder brook. I didn’t even put my rod together, kept everything in my pack and my eyes open as we made our way downstream. Although I picked a few rocks for bugs I did not spend too much time taking photo’s as I found mainly what I saw yesterday. Today was more about the push to see the plan through, make it to the confluence, work it back up stream, don’t doddle and thats what we did.

The trout stream wound down into a highly wooded/forested area that clearly presented a challenge to a fly fisherman looking to use his backcast. As we hiked downstream we noticed trout rising but I had a feeling they were striking caddisfly larva, I could be completely wrong on this after knowing that none of the trout struck my pupa pattern but they did take the Caddisfly larva pattern I put as the lead fly in my two fly rig. Sershen and I have worked out a rythem and we quickly hopped from one opportunity to the next, it’s nice to get into the groove and leap frog your partner.  Working these smaller streams in the summer months can be difficult, in that the plants are already pushing head height which affects both your travel speed but also your approach to most casting situations on the stream.  I lost the first few strikes I had nymphing, I went blind with no indicator and little to no weight for three reasons. 1st, a ton of instream foliage, 2nd the clarity of the stream combined with the low water level made for spooky fish and 3rd because the fish were holding high in the water column for the most part.

Sershen swung a Bugger and I fished my two fly rig on our way upstream. We got on a section that held a 5-6ft. deep hole, I was up first and with Sershen as a lookout I managed to take a tiny brown holding high in the water at the head of the pool. Sershen at bat, Bugger off and on the last strip I watched his line just dive, I saw the ever familiar flash, the orange belly and it was on, Sershen had to turn it’s head quickly before it buried itself in a field of deep foliage. This was the fish we came to see and it was excellent, the picture says it all, after the release we both just smiled. I gave it ago with Sershens rig to see what I could come up with and on the third cast I had a decent brown on but it popped off before we could see it.

We headed further upstream and fishing to a few rising trout I lost my rig getting it stuck on a tree branch on the other side of the seam, rather than disturb the hole and retrieve my flies I broke off and tied only the single Caddisfly larva pattern on and swung again, expecting the shallower stuff to hold only small fish would be a mistake, I love fishing no indicator nymph rigs upstream and tight lining them as it drifts to my feet, the strikes can be intense, seeing your leader dart, other times they can be so subtle you never notice. I made one last cast on this spot and expecting an 8in trout I was given a fat 14in Brown that ran straight towards me, awesome.

We fished a few more spots on our way back to the truck, we picked up a few more, I got one on and it tangled itself up in the weeds, sure enough once I had the trout on and backed away a bit Sershen was hooking his trout and we had two on at once, I even had to walk under his line because my fish was stuck to the side in the weeds as his trout was running him downstream, before I could get mine off he had already released his and was working on the next. We stopped and talked to the landowners for a few minutes, I introduced myself, gave them contact information and was given permission to come back and fish whenever I felt the itch. I would say this was better than I was expecting, it could turn into my lunch breaks during the summer.

Slide Show

I felt a bit outdone by roughfisher’s constant fly tying finds north of me in Fargo. I needed to find something that would match his glimmer chenille. I’m not sure I found it but I did find something. Liz and I were in downtown Winona when I passed one of our craft stores, I thought about roughfisher and had to peak inside. I was surprised, I found beads that I hadn’t seen in other craft stores, in colors I loved so I had to spend a few bucks. These beads are made of some material that has some metal in it, they do add some weight, I would say about half a regular bead of the same size. The packages have smaller beads that fit down to a size #20. Along with the beads it just so happened the owner knew a farmer that raised peacock and sitting in a large basket were full quills almost 4ft in length for a buck fifty!! I grabbed a few just to try them out.

I got the supplies home and thought for a moment, put the tunes on and started tying. I used some of the darker blue beads for midge larva flies (#20), this also gave me an excuse to use the peacock herl. At my bench it sits in a vase with other feathers, I reach up clip a strand of herl, kind of a neat dispenser as it flutters falling to my desk. I also tied up a W.F.F. variant on a more realistic caddis larva pattern which I used craft store ostrich herl as well. I finished by tying several BWO emerger patterns, just trying new things. So roughfisher, I haven’t outdone you yet, but I’m trying.

Oh, and I proved tonight that if you listen to bluegrass while fly tying you will tie faster, better, smarter and you will tie with a smile on your face the entire time!

These are basic patterns that will teach some fundamental tying techniques and will help fill your S.E. MN Spring Creek box with effective flies.

Caddis Larva

Zebra Midge

Blood Midge

I should note that this is my first attempt at recording my fly tying, I have had to learn a few things about cameras, video editing, uploading, fly tying, and myself all to manage just these few patterns and these are the simple ones. Hopefully these do the patterns and myself justice. Enjoy.