Rusty Quill Body Parachute and a SLF Rainbow

Parachute Red Quill (#14 in picture)

Hook: TMC 14-20

Thread: UTC 70, Rusty Brown

Tail: Brown Spade Hackles

Body: Quill Body

Post: Turkey Flats, White

Thorax: Rusty Superfine Dubbing
Hackle: Whiting 100s, brown or Whiting neck hackle

SLF Rainbow

Hook: TMC 5263 #10

Thread: UTC 70 White

Underbody: Red Holographic Tinsel

Gills: Orange Poly on each side

Body: White SLF Hanks and Midge Krystal Flash

Olive SLF Hanks and Peacock Krystal Flash

Eyes: Hareline Adhisve Holographic eyes 1/8" Silver coated with Flexament.

Montana Fly Co. to carry the Ice Emerger

So imagine my surprise, when at the FFR last week, opening up the Montana Fly Company catalog and scanning over the new flies for 2010 and seeing the Ice Emerger! What the spank!!

I wish I would have known about this. Well, I guess that's not a totally bad thing, I just wish I would have been given some notice about it. My first reaction was, "they picked it up". "What about the Hopper?" The Hopper Juan was not in there and was not picked for production. Kinda like the overwhelming gold metal favorite sports star that never makes it past the Olympic trials. I thought for sure it would have a chance. My second thought was, "what a sh@&$ picture of the fly. Now honestly, it does look horrible and I wouldn't want to order this fly if I were a shop owner looking to order some new flies for the upcoming year based on this photo in the catalog and web site.

The finished product looked better and I was pleased with what was on display at the show. I made a few comments about this and that and we shall see if they make those adjustments. The variation that I sent in was the Ice Emerger Baetis-with a chocolate body and Callibaetis Ice Dub wing as opposed to the thread body shown above. So look for it in your local shop and make sure you try some out next spring on the BWOs.

Slacking!

I know that I have been slacking a bit and I hope to have some new stuff up soon. I will be at the 2009 Retailers Show in Denver this weekend and hope to have some new info for you guys out there to report. Until then, you will have to take a look at these photos of a trip to 11-mile Canyon with my friend John Gordon. We fished a heavy trico hatch and had a blast. Once we figured it out, it was good. Actually, I don't know if we did figure it out, but we did catch fish and had fun so that counts right?

The rod I want

I have finally found the rod that I have been looking for. I have been searching for an 8' 4wt. dry fly rod. I turned down the opportunity to buy a Scott G 8' 4wt a few yeas ago and now regret doing so. I have been searching for that model with no luck. I stumbled upon this site and my dream rod was right there. A Scott G2 8' 4wt. There is only one problem. It is made in Colorado, but only sold in Japan, part of Scott's exclusive partnership with Japanese dealers. I contacted my Scott rep and asked if one could be obtained, but no, they are not available in the US. The cost for these are 94,500 yen and that is roughly a little over 1,000 US dollars. A bit high for my tastes. So the search continues.

I came across this...

on a bar wall in Crystola Colorado.

Blonde and a bug

Wow! I never knew Paris followed my blog, but I am thankful for the shameless plug!

I am not sure which one I would rather take to the river.

Flys and some more flys

Hopper Juan

Green Drake

Go 2 Prince

Bullet Head Foam Stoned Hopper

Juan's Holo. Baetis

Orange Stimulator

RS2

Furmisky Caddis

Juan's Baetis Nymph

Mini Hopper Juans. ( Juanitos)

Belly shot

Hopper Juan belly shot.

BWO Emerger

BWO Barr Emerger using floure fibre wings.

BWO parachute

My Beatis Nymph

Ever wonder what a fly would look like with a bead head?

Now I know the reason why I put a bead on my flies. Because the real bugs have helmets on their heads. This bug almost looks fake. Arkansas River, 2008

Some Small Thread

I was given this new thread by the owner of one of my local shops last week and I was surprised that I had never heard of it. I have all of the manufactures catalogs and scour the Internet for all items related to fly fishing and tying and have never seen this. All I can say is that this is pretty thin thread. Actually, it is not thread at all. It is very thin mono, as far as I can tell. I have played around with it a bit, but I have yet to finish tying a fly with it. It takes a very light touch with this. My main problem was I kept nicking it on the hook point and breaking it. I will continue to play with this "new" thread and report back.

Not enough fishing.

Well, I would love to report to all the followers out there that I have been so busy fishing, out traveling the roads, in search of that perfect hatch, that one big brown that showed himself right beside the over hanging grass eating PMD emergers, but no, that has not been the case. Fishing has taken a backseat to the more important things in life such as school shopping, family life, and grocery shopping. In between everything that should get done, I have been tying like crazy to keep up with demand for my flies. I have sent flies to Pennsylvania, and Denver with more to go out soon. It's amazing to think of how many fish have been caught on flies that I have tied. Some of my flies are carried in Ghillies Fly Shop and they have started to get in demand. I can hardly keep up with what is needed and not to mention of flies like BWOs that are needed in the Fall. I like to stay at least one step ahead, but right now, I am two steps behind! My own fly boxes needed a little attention a few weeks ago , so I sat down and tied for myself. That was nice to see all those empty slots filled up with new flies that I could catch fish on.

I was able to get out this past Friday to Cheeseman Canyon. It's a beautiful canyon filled with lots of fish. I caught a 19 1/2" Rainbow on a dry that I almost spooked. What an awesome sight it was to see him sllooowwlllyyy rise to the fly.

I was able to get into a good many fish that day using my BH Glossy Back Baetis. I will try to put up a tutorial of that fly soon. As soon as I can get one step ahead.

Juan's Ice Emerger Tutorial

The Ice Emerger is one of my favorite flies to tie on once I see fish rising to emergers right below the surface. It borrows from the great RS2 pattern and the floating nymph, two of the best patterns out there. It is fairly easy to tie once you figure out what you are doing. I also tie this one in a BWO pattern in sizes 20-24. You can either dub the body or make it a thread body. It's up to you.

PMD Ice Emerger
Hook: TMC 101, Dia Riki 310, #18-20
Thread: UTC 70, 8/0 Uni-thread, Brown.
Body: Thread body or dubbing, Hareline Dubin, #24, Cholocate
Tail: Microfibetts, divided
Wing bud: Ice dubbing, U.V. Light Yellow
Thorax: Hareline Dubbin #24, Chocolate.


Thread Ice Emerger

BWO Thread Ice Emerger
Tie On two Microfibetts and split them.

Dub with the color that you want the body to be. This is Hareline Chocolate dubbin.



The wing color for PMDs that I use.

You may have to tie a few to get the amount correct.

Dub onto the tread and make it fairly tight.

With your thumb and index finger, slide the dubbing down the thread so it bunches up on the thread.

Once it is on top of the hook shank, make sure you hold it there with your fingers and make a complete wrap of thread around the hook shank. When you pull down on the thread, the dubbing ball should stay put right on top of the hook shank.

It will not be secure so you will need to make a few wraps to secure it better. I wrap in front and behind as well as use some X wraps.

Just make sure you do not compress the dubbing ball down too much.

Now you can start to dub the thorax area. Do not use too much dubbing here as it will cover up the dubbing ball. You just need enough to cover things up.

Your fly should look like this now, once you tie it off.