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.

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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.

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The Peacock and Partridge pattern that Tim Barker a.k.a. Planet Trout introduced me to a year ago turned into a spring/summer staple and for weeks I fished it hard. The #16 with the Hot Yellow Wire proved to be the most effective. I fished it deep as a trailing nymph , as a solo wet fly and even as a dry fly (as long as the floatant kept it riding high). This fly just rocks and I had to tie another dozen for the coming months, I remember it being particularly effective on the rise by allowing the fly to sink then simply high sticking a run, fish would bolt from the depths to grab this bad boy within inches of the surface. For this round I tied half exactly as last year and half with Orange dyed peacock herl.

I also sat down to work on an emerger pattern for the coming BWO hatches. I turned to Charlie Cravens Mole Fly pattern for inspiration. I played with some material substitutions such as CDC Puffs instead of the regular CDC feather that Charlie uses. I can trim some of the CDC out on-stream if need be so for the time being I put an entire Puff on each fly then played around with some beaver dubbing along with a couple other options, some I tied with dry fly dubbing and others with Hare’s Mask to see which perform better than others. I plan to fish these trailing a standard dry fly, hopefully the CDC Puff will achieve the effect I was hoping for, something like a Klinkhammer type dry fly. The trout will let me know how I did.

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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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I know it’s not a Caddis pattern but I needed a break the other day and was searching youtube for the usual fly fishing distraction when I came across a video from Frank Smethurst. He ties a midge pattern that peaked my interest. This thing has it all, it looks buggy as hell, it’s easy to tie, I’ve got all the materials and it has me pumped for the frozen tundra and midge season that’s coming soon. I love the use of the under-feather and it had me looking my hackle stash over for other varieties of under-feather, some of the smaller pheasant tail feathers around the rump contain excellent under-feather for this use. Most of your capes are going to have some of this under-feather on the larger hackle feathers. This is the only and best use I’ve seen for this material to date, the down side you ask? I’m now going to have a hard time tossing those “useless” feathers after I’ve used the palatable hackle, I’m sure in a few years I’ll have a box brimming with nothing but the butt ends of hackle feathers, a testament to my obsession. I hate waste and this fly is a great “waste material” fly. I looked through my waste pile of  material trimmings and found enough spare materials off the bat to tie a half dozen.

Under-Feather Midge

• Hook: #18-22 1X Short Scud Hook
• Thread: Red 70 Denier UTC
• Body: Stripped Peacock Herl
• Wings: Pearl Krystal Flash
• Thorax: Under-Feather

Another anti-waste aspect of this fly is the stripped peacock herl. After reading a post from Switter’sB a year or so ago I’ve used only the herl on left side of my peacock quills for the fullness leaving several quills with the right side fully intact, now I have a good reason to strip those lengths of herl down to form quill bodies. I know there are chemical methods to strip the fibers off the quill but I’m not one to jump to chemicals if I don’t have too. A bit of my time and fingernails did just fine stripping the quills clean. I should also note that I used Zap-A-Gap to coat the herl body ensuring longevity. Always wanting to try my own variations I also fooled around with two colors of goose biot bodies, I love the look of a biot body. Check the video out, I enjoyed it.

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Notes and Observations:

• Size and Prep ALL Dry Fly Hackle Before Tying!
• Be Weary of Elk/Deer Hair that contains Broken/Damaged Hair. It is a pain.
• Practice, Practice, Practice.

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• Hook: Dai-Riki 075 #14
• Thread: GSP 50 Deiner White
• Bead: Craft Store Bead
• Weight: 10 Turns of .15
• Rib: SM Black Ultra Wire
• Over Body: 12 Strands of Black Krystal Flash
• Body: 85% Black/15% Peacock Ice Dub
• Hackle: Black Saddle Hackle (Oversized)
• Collar: Peacock Ice Dub

Begin the fly by crimping the barb, placing your bead and adding the turns of .15 weight. I prefer to prep a dozen hooks with the bead and weight before beginning, it will save you a bit of time. Begin the thread behind the bead, leave a gap between the weight and the bead so material can occupy this space later in the process. Secure the weight to the shank and work the tying thread to just past the hook barb. Tie in a stretch of SM Black Ultra Wire, then tie in 12-15 strands of Black Krystal Flash. In previous versions I have also incoporated 6 or so strands of peacock herl tied in after the flash and brought over the body then covered with the Krystal Flash. Prepare in advance a mixture of 85% Black and 15% Peacock Ice Dubbing, dub a “houseflyish” looking body, it can be a bit on the rounder side, this is supposed to imitate perhaps a drowned Black Fly, Beetle or other terrestrial that trout may be exposed to. Once the body is finished bring forward the strands of Krystal Flash and secure them to the top of the fly forming the overbody. Clip the excess Flash and wrap the Black Ultra wire forming the rib (3-4 Wraps), this keeps the fly strong so it is able to catch several fish before the body begins to disintegrate. Tie in the hackle feather and make 1-2 turns then tie off and clip the excess. To finish this fly I use a very small amount of Peacock Ice dubbing wrapped 3-4 times right behind the bead to force the hackle back a bit and to hide the tying thread. Whip finish and pull the thread tight behind the hook, this is why I use the GSP here. The strength of the thread allows me to pull it tight behind the bead without the thread breaking. This also keeps it safe from trout teeth so it does not need to be sealed with glue or head cement.

I was introduced to this fly through On The Fly Guiding, a local guide service that also provides helpful Driftless Area information including fly patterns for Southeast Minnesota. Hearing chatter of this productive pattern I had to tie my own, I put my usual spin on the situation and afterwards I had a very productive summer pattern at the end of my line. This fly imitates a drowned terrrestrial and during the summer months it can be particularly effective. Be prepared to have it hit right as it enters the water. Good luck.