The Hopper Juan: royal gorgeous caddis

Wednesday, March 26, 2014

The Royal Gorgeous Caddis

The production of the Royal Gorgeous. These flies are now available in local fly shops such as Royal Gorge Anglers in Canon City, Anglers Covey and The Peak Fly Shop in Colorado Springs. These will be a hot pattern to have starting right now and going into into the summer. Make sure you have some!

Tuesday, April 19, 2011

Royal Gorgeous Caddis

Here is a video on how to tie the Royal Gorgeous Caddis. It's a simple fly to tie, the hardest part is making the dubbing. I use a mixture of 3 dubbings, but you can mix what you like and probably do just fine. Take a look.

Tying the Royal Gorgeous Caddis from Juan Ramirez on Vimeo.
This little caddis pattern works great anywhere there are caddis larva and pupa drifting around. It is based off of the Cimarron Special, a pattern from Greg Faught, one of my favorite patterns of all time. This is a very simple pattern to tie and the key is the buggy rubber leg dubbing.

Saturday, April 9, 2011

Arkansas River 04/08/11

Arkansas River, CO

I was finally able to get out yesterday, the first time this year. I used to be able to get out more, but right now my free days are filled with laundry, grocery shopping trips, kids and fly tying demos. My time on the river has been replaced with the time behind the vice.
I hit the Arkansas River with a couple of friends and it was pretty good. The fish were eager to eat and there were even some BWOs coming off despite clear skies. The wind wasn't as bad as I thought it would be although it was blowing all day. The set up was a Hopper Juan on top, followed by a #14 Golden Stone and a #16 Royal Gorgeous Caddis (RGC). The RGC was the early favorite with many fish eating it. In a different stretch of water, the Golden Stone was the favorite. As the day went on, I switched to an Ice Emerger as the last fly. A few fish came on it, but the caddis was still the preferred fly, although my friends had success with a Barr Emerger.

The Three Amigos

The set up I used worked great on the water I was fishing. I was usually running through knee deep water and both my bottom flies had tungsten beads to get deep. I think this is the best way to fish the Arkansas River or any fast pocket water stream. It's a lot of fun and I thought of switching to dries or a bugger yesterday, but they way I was fishing was producing so why not stay with it. As summer rolls around, I hope to be able to provide more fish pictures and stories. Today will be laundry day and grocery shopping day mixed in with some fly tying. I am already planning the next trip!