I love thinking about bugs and flies, on my mind as of late are the BWO’s that I’m sure I’m missing while stuck at work during the height of the day. One pattern that looks the part, easy to tie and gets great results down here is the standard WD-40 pattern. I like it for a couple reasons, the slim body, the wood duck feathers and it’s an easy, speedy tie that anyone can master quickly. With that said my box has plenty of WD-40′s in it, I’ve stuck with a #16 because it is the most representative of the full mature Baetis nymph. Thinking about bugs and flies I began to think about a WD-40 Brassie pattern that I’ve put together here, later I found that others have had the same revelation.

The WD-Brassie (W.F.F. Variant)

• Hook: 1x Short Scud #16
• Thread: Olive 70 Denier UTC
• Tail: Lt. Olive Woodduck
• Body: Hot Yellow SM Ultra Wire
• Thorax: Black Mink Fur
• Wing-Case: Lt. Olive Woodduck

Things to note: to get a truly seamless body with the wire and to get the correct proportions, tie in the SM Ultra Wire near the hook eye and have it mirror the curve of the hook along the side facing you (not on top) and secure it back to the hook barb. When tying in the woodduck tail DO NOT clip the excess wooduck free (this will result in a bump making the wire wraps one too thick at the tail), rather wrap your thread over the woodduck to the point where you begin the thorax and wing-case. Leave it sticking out here and wrap the ultra wire forward, by keeping everything even up the length of the body the wire has a seamless resting spot with no bumps from materials that were tied in and cut free and you can use the woodduck from the tail to make the wing-case without tying more in. Using Mink fur was an experiment, I see future potential. The guard hairs are excellent but this was a challenge to dub with for the first time. I like the color contrast and I think the Hot Yellow will set the trout off, alot of our Baetis nymphs are either a darker olive/black or the light, almost translucent olive color. I’m thinking that the sun hitting the wire will appear like one of the translucent olive colored nymphs.

Slide Show

It’s been way too long since I had myself a day with the cold water. Conditions: 55-60 Degree Air Temp, Overcast, WNW Wind at ~20mph after 8am. The S.E. MN region has had it’s share of rain this summer season this last week was no different. Three out of five days saw rain in the gauge. I had some concerns about finding clear water but my fears were eased at 6am when I stepped up to the bank at dawn. I could see the rainbows stacked thick just waiting for me. My goal for the day was a two part mission. One, nab a stash of stocker rainbows while the wind was low during the morning hours. Two, migrate to a much smaller system in search of the Heritage strain, our native brook trout and avoid the wind that would get brutal as the day wore on.

The semi-stained water I saw at 6am gave me confidence that my plan was going to make for an excellent day despite the early morning wind and thick clouds. I rigged a new fly I’ve been mulling over in my head for a while now that is essentially a short, fat mini leech. A downstream and across approach with a decent amount of weight to keep the fly a good 3-6inches under the surface produced fish after fish. Hard to argue with 13-14inch rainbows readily taking just about everything presented to them. I fished the new pattern until a series of rises forced me to swap to a Devestator with a #16 WD-40 trailer. A few minutes later and I was working a few more rainbows and a tiny brown to the net, all in all I would say I got close to 2 dozen to hand and another 2 dozen hooked in the two hours I spent here.

I pulled off the water and split for the next phase of the plan but found a road closed sign staring me in the face. A choice, abandon the rest of the plan and make a snap choice on a second option or drive the round about way and loose a good thirty to forty-five minutes to the road. I chose the road and MPR as a result of the wind and my goal of finding my way to brook trout. I drove until a series of events signaled the continuation of the day, turning down a gravel road, passing a steep grade road-sign and hitting the brakes on the truck. The untouched stream is my favorite, no paths and the only sign of humanity is the occasional piece of trash or debris from rain events. The rainbow stop off was good for moral but lacked many elements of the journey that I need. The hike, the woods, wilderness, wildlife, the unknown.

Water conditions here were good, clean and clear running in the low fifties for a temp. I continued with the new mini leech pattern but left off the split shot, casting to smaller shallower water with spookier fish. The second cast I realized that I had left backcast land with the rainbows and turned into roll cast country when I hit the gravel road. On a shorter ~7-8ft leader and fishing no indicator just watching the water I lost the first two fish I came across. I’m watching my fly line connection for a strike or any signal from the trout, a roll, flash, anything. The second fish I lost was maybe a 12-13inch brookie that got off shortly after I hooked it, no big deal. I stayed out of the wind and was very comfortable the rest of my time here. Checked the rocks, minimal mayfly activity but plenty of caddis with the occasional riffle beetle. I fished upstream a ways using a variety of flies. A #16 Pink Squirrel, #16 WD-40, #18 Orange Scud’s all took trout along with the new mini pattern that I fished most of the day with. I got my brookies and got to see a new stretch of Driftless water but due to my detour I had to access this water at a different point than I had originally wanted causing me to run out of water to fish a bit too early, go home? No, a pit stop to see if I could find a few larger browns was in order.

This spot provided deeper water that in the last month had seen a rain event clearing a wide channel through swatches of thick vegetation making the conditions perfect for streamer fishing. I’m learning more and more that choosing wisely to take advantage of the current conditions will make for a better day on the water. My approach here is a cast straight across or slightly upstream with a mend if nessecary to encourage my weighted flies to sink deep then as my line begins to curve and tighten with the current I either: watch for a strike and just tight line it until my line straightens out behind me or add a retrive after I have allowed the flies to sink. The excellent thing here is that I often get to watch a fish come darting out of the depths to nail my flies making for a good show and the best strike detection possible. I managed to land a few nicer browns with one topping 16+. Not a bad way to end a day on the water, good to be in this place again.

Slide Show

Day 2 started a bit later, on stream at 8:30am. Fished a short stretch with coffee near by, once again looking for something larger, I know they live here. Once again the SMB was readied and after a few casts I had a timid strike and a thought occurred to me. Wendy B. had recently put a few of my flies on some fish with success but he noted that the amount of flash in the collar might be a bit much and after trimming about half of the amount out he was finding the fish more willing to smack it. I considered it and then busted out my scissors to trim off a fair amount from one of mine. Back in the drink a bit later and I was into a 14in Brown that faught hard.

A criticism that I’ve had as of late is that I need to get the fish on my drag rather than stripping my line in. The rod tip combined with a smooth drag will keep constant tension on the hook, without it a good run/shake may dislodge the hook. This may have been the reason a few of the fish I could have landed the day prior were able to smile at me as they hit the road down to the trouty hole. I worked on my line management to get the trout on my drag as quickly as possible, a short bit later…trout in hand. So nice. Read the rest of this entry »

Fished most of the day, met up with one Wendy B. on location for a bit of morning coffee, good conversation and of course a few trout. We nymphed up rainbows with the typical Orange Scud and Miracle Nymph but after seeing a few larger fish I swapped to a streamer, Wendy B. did the same and we both nailed a few nicer fish. You have to love it when from on high you strip your streamer in, staring at your victim less than twenty feet away, you cry out “EAT IT” and the trout promptly turns and does exactly that, brilliant. Wendy B.= FISH ON! That was just the start to an awesome day, I mean by 11am I had enough good things happen to hold me over but as it were I had the day to myself and the weather was too good to turn down.

I left Wendy B. to stop off at a second spot, gin clear despite the rain and melt. I could have stayed and tempted fish but I hadn’t fished this spot before and I knew I could find a location that offered slightly stained water when usually it runs clear. Good to take note of locations like this, fish them after a rain event or the melt and take fish more easily as the water is tinted to your advantage. Second stream I stuck with my streamer expecting a few Browns to come out and play but no luck. I tried, tried some more but nadda. I picked bugs to get a feel for the situation and it was clear to me that a skinny BWO nymph was the way to go, the WD-40 #16. Good choice, as it was the only fly that took any trout on the second stream, it even took a few Brookies which made this my first day where I managed all three specie of trout you can find in S.E. Minnesota water.

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