The Top Secret Midge and Blue Quill Angler

The top secret midge is a midge pupa pattern that was developed by guide Pat Dorsey of the Blue Quill Angler in Evergreen Colorado. I love to fish this pattern on the lime in PA. When it's tied very small it cleans up.  I fish the pattern tandem on nymph rigs, as a dropper on dry drop rigs, and I fish it solo on a greased leader. I havent found a way that it isnt effective.

The Blue quill angler is great shop out in Colorado. They have a fantastic staff and unbeatable customer service. They have a great online fly shop  HERE. They offer free shipping on order over $5. Yes that is correct.  They have fair and competitive prices and good selection of materials.  You can pick up wing material for the top secret HERE, or you pick up some all ready twisted top secrets HERE.                                                                The above top secret twisted by Dorsey.

Heres a pair I twisted up. Ones got rusty brown superfine for the thorax region and the one to the left here has dark brown stella dub. I use grey thread for the rib instead of white.  Use white if you want a very translucent rib. The white pretty much vanishes.  One both I used dark brown uni thread, top secret wing material and Dai-Riki 125 hooks.  All the materials are availble at the blue quill angler fly shop.

 Heres a video on how to tie Dorsey's Miracle Nymph

Tight Ties 

Johnny Utah

Goosy adams parachute

Here is a version of the adams I put together some time ago. It works just as well as any adams. It has caught me some very selective trout though, that refused a standard adams parachute.  I tie this fly on light wire scud or emerger hooks. This one is tied on a daiichi 1130. I tie and fish them in a range of sizes. Really small ones are very effective.  The abdomen of the fly is fibers from a grey canadain goose feather. I wrap them so the under side of the feather is shown on the shank. I then rib the abdomen with dark grey montana midge body thread. It gives it some flash. The abdomen I use grey stella dub.  The post is siliconized poly yarn. And the hackle is your standard hackle for the adams, grizzly and brown.

Tight Ties everyone.

Floating nymph 2

The pheasant tail nymph is a deadly nymph for sure, but an equal to the famous pheasant tail, is the Gold ribbed hares ear nymph. The hares ear  also makes a great floating nymph. Its very productive and can be effective in a range of sizes from 12-22 and im sure it would work well if you can manage to tie it smaller as well.  In this video I twist one up with a hi-vis post of hot pink parapost. The dubbin I use is my  U.V. High Test. I have been using this dubbin for this pattern for some time now and it does seem to give it an edge over your average parachute hares ear.  All parachute flies no matter the pattern are emerger flies. And we all know how effective emergers are thanks to Carl Richards and Doug Swisher.  Twist these guys up and give them a try.

A Throw back and a lesson remembered

I did a video of an old pattern. One that has caught myself and so many others so many trout. I did the old school ant, but of coarse I used synthetic dubbin. I tied up a batch of Cinnamon ants, because I am going to fish a spot on a spring creek that I know the trout there get a regular diet of cinnamon colored ants.

Ants of this color are always small, well at least were I am from. They usually are between a 22- 26. I tie them in size 28 as well. If the trout are being picky, the smaller sizes are required.  In the video I tied a Huge one so the video would be clearer. I also tie these tiny ants in dark brown. This color represents the common ants that you see all the time. Yup they to fall in the water and become pray to the trout. The browns I tie in the same sizes.

I need to fire up the dye bath, to dye some tiny hackles red. There is an ant, one I have only ever seen on two streams. One in New Jersey and the other in P.A.. The body on these ants is the same color as trico, a super deep brown, pretty much black. The kooky thing about them is they have bright red legs. Weird looking they are for sure. But the trout are aware of them and they do look for them. I discovered these ants one July morning some years ago. I was fish the trico hatch and there was a rather large trout sipping occasionally. He was my last trout catch, I got the others, and put the rest down from catching them. I drifted my trico over that trout several times without even a look. I swapped patterns, going through my trico arsenal, and nothing.

I stood and watched the trout feeding. The rises were not in any kind of timing, but they were sipping rises just like the trout was taking spinners.  I got my binoculars out of my car and peered at the film, I could see trico spinners, drifting right over the trout.  I noticed a smiggin a extremely small bug on the water, smaller than the tricos. The trout came right up and took it. I thought hmm perhaps it was a midge or maybe an ant. I tried a griffiths gnat #26, the trout looked but no take. He didnt look again. I swapped out for the old timely cinnamon ant. I tied the size 26 ant on the line and cast it over him, it came into his window and he came right and sipped it right in, or so it appeared. Once I got the trout in, I saw he was fowl hooked. By chance i managed to hook him on the top of his head. Hey you try and keep track of a size 26 ant 15ft away. lol

 Once he settled and I removed the hook from his head, I pumped his throat. I had to see what he was eating. To my surprise, I pumped out a mess of the dark, red legged ants, and just a couple of small cinnamon.  I have a huge arachnophobia, I mean I will scream like a little girl when a big spiders on me. When i pumped the throat load on my hand, I could of swore those little ants were spiders. I nearly threw it right in the stream.  Upon closer inspection i noticed only six legs, but they were red.  I went home and picked a mess of hackles off the white neck i had and dyed them red.

Two weeks later later I returned to this stretch of stream with my hatch matching ants. I thought well they should work.  I had tied a couple up parachute style and a couple the old way. I tried the parachutes first. Not even a look. Hmmm. I put a trico on and started catching fish.  I got down near the area where I had the run in with that selective trout. A couple of trout were rising under the large sycamore. I watched the fish for a short while. I noticed one rising that was certainly larger then the rest. I set my trico a drift to him. He refused it. I tied on the old school red legged ant. Sent it a drift, and nose up, dorsal, tail, he was one. A great fight with a 17" wild brown. After I released him, I made my way back up to the fish that refused he parachute. There were some which didnt want my trico, and I wondered if they would take the ant.  I got every one of them with it, one the first drift to them. From that day on, I always carry red legged ant, tied the traditional way.

Heres a video of the traditional fur body ant. As I said earlier, its a large cinnamon. I tie the red legged ants to small for video. And I dont have a pic because as I stated earlier, I need to fire up the dye bath and dye some size 26 hackle red.

The Miracle Nymph

 The miracle nymph is a midge pattern which Ed Engle describes as "A  famous south Platte midge pattern."  It was created back in the early 70s by Ed Marsh. He also created the buckskin.  The miracle can be fished any way imaginable and is deadly on sipping, midging trout.  In both still and moving water. This pattern works well all over the country. Brooks, Browns, and Rainbows, all fall for the miracle.  I commonly use it as a dropper on my rigs when I fish midge dominated waters such as limestone streams.


The pattern utilizes floss to give depth to the body.  The white floss get wet and the thread under body bleeds through.  Giving the fly a nice translucent body. The floss is protected by a rib of copper or gold wire. The head is just a simple black thread head.  Different color under bodies can be quite effective as well. Red, and yellow for example can extremely effective at times. The head should be black no matter the color of the body. A light wire hook is recommended for this pattern. I prefer emerger hooks, for the light wire and wider gap. Also the shanks are short, so you can tie a size 24 on a size 20

 This is what the miracle nymph looks like wet.

A dry Red miracle nymph

A wet red miracle nymph

The Great A.K. Best, well known for his quill body flies, tied the biot miracle nymph. He subs out the floss and wire for a white goose biot. The fly has great segmentation but the translucently takes longer to  work then with floss.  When the fly is wet like shown in the picture you can see the black under body, giving the fly a secondary rib effect.  Once the fly is thoroughly soaked is does have a really nice translucency.   The biot is strong and durable enough that it does not require a rib.  This fly is a fish catcher 100% wild brown trout approved

Here to left is a the biot miracle nymph wet.

Here is a pink biot miracle. 

And below is me tying the original Miracle nymph enjoy.

Tight Ties everybody.

 

The Floating Nymph

The floating nymph is an essential fly for every fly box. Its possibly the deadliest emerger pattern. These patterns should be in every dry flyers arsenal. There are several species of mayflies which the nymph floats in the film while the dun emerges. So there is a time in there emergence when the nymph is just riding in the film. The trout love emergers, and they will feed on them exclusively. Not only is it a great hatch matcher, Its also a fabulous searching pattern. If trout are rising and I dont have a clue what they are eating. I use either a floating nymph or an ant. I havnt met a stream yet that its not deadly on the trout.

My favorite floating nymph is the floating pheasant tail nymph. Yup even floating the the pheasant tail nymph is still deadly. Other floating nymphs I like to use are thread body ones. They will sit right down in the film and there simple and quick to tie.

As I write this Irene is a blowing away, shaking my house. Hope the old girl holds up. Major amounts of rain have fallen already. The tri-state area is flooded for sure.

Heres a video of how to tie one with a post for a wing. Its a parachute pheasant tail nymph. I will do a video of the other parachute post method. Both are effect ties. Check it out and please subscribe or follow me, I will have many more videos to come.

Improved zug bug video.

  Watch and subscribe or friend me  Enjoy. Thank you.

J.E.U. Trico Emerger video

Here's a video of my trico emerger. Enjoy

The Zug Bug....What a bug!! and the improved zug

The Zug Bug was invented by Cliff Zug as a caddis fly imitation, it can be deadly. While it works very well for that purpose it also works well in any number of fishy situations as a prospector, dropper, and even as a wet fly on the swing. I have enjoyed countless fish on the old zug bug. Hands down its easily one of the top 10 nymph fly patterns of all time. I put it #3 next to the pheasant tail #1 and the hares ear #2.

The zug is an old pattern dating back to the 30s. Its still just as effective today as it was back when the fly was developed. Many people have forgotten about this gem of a pattern, but not me. I will never be without zug bugs.

The original pattern calls for peacock swords for the tail, A body of peacock hurl, a silver tinsel rib, brown hen hackle, and a wood duck flank feather for the wing case. No doubt that the original pattern is extremely effective. I have fished this recipe for many years and so have many others with great success.

If you don't have zug bugs in your vest or box, then get tying or buying. Your missing a guaranteed fish catcher. Tie some up and next time you go out, go zuggin'

Now that the history and selling of the zug is over. I will tell about my improved zug bug. The improved zug bug looks almost identical to the original, except it is sparser, more durable, and has better action. Here is the recipe and a tutorial.


THE IMPROVED ZUG BUG
Hook- My favorite zug hook is the mustad 3906/S80. I have been using this hook for years with no complaints to date.

Thread-Black 8/0, but fire orange, purple, and yellow add to the attraction of the pattern, other colors such as brown, and olive, can be used for more natural looks.

Tail- Peacock swords, they bunch up under water and give the fly a great taper.

Body- 2 peacock hurl taken from close to the center of peacock eye. You want the shorts hurl fibers. 2 hurls for size #14 & #16, 3 hurls for 10s and 12s. 1 hurl for 18s on down.

Rib- Fine Holographic silver tinsel and fine or xsmall silver wire.

Wing case- Natural mallard.

Hackle- Died brown Hungarian partridge very sparse and clipped on top.


start near the eye and wrap back to the barb.


Tie in about 3-4 peacock swords, let the tips extend past the bend by about 2/3 the shank length. tie down to the front stop and trim excess at about 2 hooks eye from the eye.


Tie in your silver holographic tinsel. Tie it down wrapping back to the barb. Bring thread forward.


Tie in your wire, wrapping back to the barb. Leave thread here.


Tie in your peacock hurl by the tips. Tie in the tips while wrapping to the eye. Bring thread back to the two hook eyes point.


counter wrap your peacock(wrap it the opposite way you wrap your thread), do not over lap. wrap your peacock til you reach your thread. Tie down and trim your excess.


Now bring your silver holographic tinsel up through. Wrap the same way you wrap your thread. Nice open spaced turns. Tie it down and trim the excess.


Now rib the wire, Wrap it exactly on top of the tinsel. You can do this just by wrapping the same way. Tie it down and bend and break off the wire


Now select a brown partridge hackle from the shoulder of the bird. Strip off the fluff at the bottom of the bottom of the feather. Hold just the tip of the feather, and stroke the remaining fibers back. Tie the feather in by the tip.


Take one complete turn of hackle, as you turn push the hackles back. tie it down and trim the excess. Now push the side hackle down and trim off the top hackles.


Select a nice mallard flank feather. Strip off the fluff and run your finger nail up the convex side of the feather. This will make tying it in a lot easier.


Tie in your feather. You want the thread to lay right against stem where the mallard flank fibers and stem meet. Wrap forward tying it down. stop two turns from the eye. Trim the excess. And wrap back to the tie in point of the feather.


Whip finish. Be sure on the last two steps your and the entire fly and what ever fly you tie that your wrapping tightly. You dont want that mallard feather coming out.


trim your feather. Keep your scissor square across the back and snip. Snip the feather at about the middle of the shank. Take some sallys and coat the head and run a small bit up the quill of the mallard feather. This will make the feather near indestructible.


Top view of the completed fly.


Your completed improved zug bug.



A wood duck flank feather.


The zug bug.

Tight Ties
Johnny U.




This brown liked the improved zug bug.

U.V. Resins Review. Clear cure goo, bug-bond and clear cure fly finish.

U.V cure resins.

 The introduction of these product to the world of fly tying has made a major impact. They hold 1 great advantage over epoxy and that is the cure time. Each one cures in a matter of seconds. Other advantages are no mixing. No in between time to get the resin on and cure it. Because you use uv light to cure the product, you have limitless time to shape, spread and coat your creations.
I use these products for making cases on nymph backs, doing "epoxy back flies", and for coating fly heads.

 One of my patterns in particular uses the resin over the entire back of the fly. I used this pattern to test out each of the resins. I fished the pattern with each product on them for 4 weeks straight,(total 12 weeks) and got results that I want to share with everyone who cares to read my blog. I will cover price to product quantity, performance, ease of use Ie containers and applicators, and availability.

 There are 3 competitors in this market of new interest to fly tiers. They are loon uv clear fly finish, bug-bond multipurpose uv cure resin, and clear cure goo aka c.c.g. I think everyone knows of the company loon. Loon as you already know or may not know is an excellent company. There products are well researched and come at good prices. Bug-bond is a relatively new company. Based over seas in the U.K., from what I can tell they are only in the u.v. game. Clear Cure Goo, is also a relatively new company. They popped up in recent years and are being pushed hard as a U.S. based company. They push there product mainly as a salt water fly product. But they also promote fresh water applications.

 Here are the numbers for cost and quantity. All prices are full retail price. And I listed them in order for most product for the best price.

 Loon- 59.15 ml for $22.88- Loon does not have a kit available. There light retails for $34.95 but you can find it cheaper. So your looking at a possible kit of $57.83.

 Bug-bond- 20ml for $25.50 at white water flies. There kit goes for $47.95. The kit comes with a 20ml bottle and a u.v. light. Bug bond also makes a power light. It is much more powerful than the light which comes with the kit. They call it there uv torch. It retails for $57.73 and I believe is only available in the U.K.**** update, white water flies now carries the torch light, you can even get it in a kit.****

 C.C.G.- 10cc/10ml syringe for $13.50. They have a 15ml bottle for $17.00. There kit retails for 49.99 and it comes with two syringes so you get 20mls and you get there light. There light retails separately for $30.00.

 Summary- Its quite simple to tell that Loon crushes the competition with 59.15ml@ $22.88. compared to bug-bond at 20ml@ $25.50 and c.c.g. at 15ml@ $17.00.
Loon- $0.39 a ml
Bug-bond- $0.79 a ml
Clear Cure Goo- $0.88 a ml

Here I will cover ease of use and availability

 Loon- The resin is very easy to work with. The bottle is large and is easy to handle. It sits perfectly up right and is easy to have on your bench. A brush of okay quality is included as well as a cap to make the bottle a squeeze bottle. The brush works well for large jobs, and the squeeze bottle adapter is very convenient for the small jobs. Both the brush and the squeeze bottle applicator screw on to the bottle. Loon can easily be found on-line and in many fly shops across the country.

 Bug-bond- Bug bond resin itself is very easy to work with. The bottle is a small to medium size bottle that is easy to work with and easy to keep upright on your tying bench. The bottle itself is a squeeze bottle applicator. You simple snip the tip and your ready to start. The brush is a screw on cap for the bottle, and the squeeze bottle tip is apart of the bottle and the cap screws on securely to cover. They also make a brush applicator that is an okay brush. And it is the same as the loon. Bug-bond is a product of the U.K. so its availability in the U.S.A. is very limited. Although a quick search on line and you can find it, with free shipping to boot. I am unaware of any actual store front fly shops that carry bug-bond here in the U.S.A.

 Clear Cure Goo- Clear cure makes several different consistence of resin. Each one is easy to use and work with. The syringe are very uncomfortable to use and next to impossible to store or keep on your bench. There bottles are small. They are easy to use, store and keep on your bench. They have several different application bottles, there is one with no applicator, the method would be to use your bodkin. They make a squeeze bottle applicator, which is nice and easy to use. They also make a brush applicator bottle. The brush is the same story as the loon and bug bond. The syringe and the squeeze bottle have a little rubber cap to cover the application tip, it does not screw on. C.c.g. is taking the country by storm. You can find the product very easily on-line and and many fly shops are starting to carry the product.

 Summery- Loon's bottle has it all in one, and is easily found. Bug-bond's bottles either come with a squeeze (very nice) or brush, and is not so easily found here in the U.S.A. C.c.g. syringes are very inconvenient. There bottles are nice and you either get a squeeze bottle(nice) or the brush bottle or no applicator bottle. The rubber caps to cover the tips are easily knocked off and do little to keep excess goo form oozing out.

 Here I will cover the performance of each product. I cured each product with there own light and fished the pattern fly for 3 weeks straight. Bouncing bottom the whole way in the rocky streams of eastern pa and western N.J. (yes, it got snagged and yes I went swimming. Brr was that cold in the winter)

 Loon- Loon cures is fully cured in under 8 seconds with there power light. It adheres to nearly anything. Goes on clear, cures clear with no residues. In my fly testing loon performed flawlessly.

 Bug-bond- bug-bond cures fully in less than 5 seconds with there torch. 10 seconds with the standard light that is included in the kit. It will adhere to almost anything. Bug-bond when cured has a slight residue left behind. It is not sticky and will evaporate in a short time. About the time it takes you tie another fly. In my fly testing bug-bond performed flawlessly.

 Clear Cure Goo- C.c.g. cures in less than 10 seconds with there light. It will adhere to almost anything. C.c.g. when fully cured does leave a residue behind. It's slightly tacky, so dubbin particle will adhere. It doesn't seem to dissipate in any quick fashion. This is true for both the thin and thick. The flex cured with a slightly oily residue, not sticky at all, very similar to bug-bond residue. In my fly testing c.c.g. had problems. The flex came clean off the nymph. Both the thin and the thick turned white after only a 2 days.

Summary- Loon performed great, as well as Bug-bond. C.C.G. didn't do so hot.


 I hope this helps anyone who is interested in purchasing u.v. cures. My results say much about the companies and there product. While I do like bug-bond a lot, I will be sticking with loon clear fly finish. That is if I ever finish the bottle. 59.15 ml has lasted me many dozens of flies and I think I may have finally put a dent in the bottle. As for c.c.g. I say buyer beware.

Tight Ties
Johnny Utah.

Additional info- I have continued use of the u.v. resins. Still working on finishing that loon bottle! I recommend with all the resins you give them more cure time. The times i listed above are all manufacture cure times.  I have found that each one does take additional u.v exposure to fully cure. 

 1/18/12  I have a bottle of bug bond thin on the way, and will be purchasing the c.c.g. hydros to test out through the next couple of months. I will report back the details.

Trico Cosmic Cripple Spinner.

This is the spinner pattern I have been using the last several outings. It was my result of an earlier fishing excursion. I noticed the the wings on trico, and other mayflies, are not coming from under or even the middle of the body. They are on the upper portion of the thorax.

The bodies of the flies are in the film not on the film as they drift down the stream. I tied this pattern with that thought in mind. I wanted to show the body down in the film and the wings on the surface. So far the testings of this pattern and its tying style, has been excellent.

With the way the wings are tied in, your capable of pushing them upwards and fishing with them up. This way your representing a cripple dun, cripple spinner, hell I'm sure the fish might even think its an emerger.(not that fish think) You can push the wings back flat again and it fishes very well as spinner. The moving of the wing from spent to upright doesn't effect the material, the material goes right back to the way it was easily.

Now many of you will say that's nothing new when you see the pattern, you might think its just a poly spinner. While poly (siliconized) is my favorite for the pattern, It doesn't mean its your run of the mill poly spinner. It does take some elements from other patterns. It includes a double or triple wing for larger flies. This of course is from the triple wing spinner, hands down a very effective pattern. And of course poly. Its how its tied that gives you a different fly.

Here is the fly and i'm working on a video of me tying this fly.

This the trouts view. Notice how the wings are set back as well. This is another observation of mine. The naturals wings don't come out of there head, like so many other patterns do.


This is a side view, you see how the ENTIRE body sits below the wings. This is yet another observation i made will seeing a natural trico spinner drift by.


Here is what it looks like when you force the wings up. It makes a nice cripple dun pattern. The fly lands and float on its side just like many cripples do. It give the one wing silhouette. You then can easily get the wings back to spinner style.

Video to come. Might not be the best quality, this humble fisherman cant afford a high end came to do great videos like Davie Mcphail. He's an excellent tier and does wonders with those videos. Check them out and listen carefully as he does give great tips and instructions.

Tight Ties
Johnny Utah

Johnny's Rock Worm Crack

This pattern is just a little adaptation of the trout crack tied by Mr. Wilson. I tied this pattern up some time ago, and have fished it quite regularly on the free stoners and have had good success with it. Its very simple to tie, the only handy thing is that with this tying style it pays to know how to hand whip.

So here is a tutorial of how to tie my rock worm crack.
Materials
Hook- I prefer a emerger hook, but any emerger or scud hook will do fine.
Thread- Mono thread. I like uni mono thread. In the sewing world its called invisible thread. You can get a ton for cheap, its good quality, you just have to re-spool it.
Body- Caddis green polar dubbin
Head- Black polar dubbin
Rib- Tying thread
Stripe- UTC vinyl rib. Use midge size for smaller patterns and nymph for larger


Hook in vice. Lay down a layer of thread back past the barb about a hook eye. This hook is Daiichi 1150. Its one of my favorites.


Dub your body up to about a hook eyes length before the hook eye.


Tie in your vinyl rib. Tie the rounded side Up. I'm using chartreuse. Olives make a nice stripe as well.


Dub your head.


Rib the fly back towards the barb. Take open close wraps. Rock worms have many segments. Make sure to put as much pressure on the thread as possible to really get it dug into the vinyl.


Trim of the vinyl, Now whip finish, With mono a regular whip will not hold well. I whip by hand so I came up with a whip that holds the mono. I call it the double twist whip, or the mono whip. When you rotate the thread over its self, on your hand turn, do it twice. This really gets that mono to bind together. Then you can head cement if you wish. If you do not do the mono whip you better cement.


Top view of the finished fly.

Here's one with a tan stripe. This is the fly that big bow crushed.

This is an emerger hook which i like very much, Its a Saber model 7050.
I have had no problems with this hook. Have been tying on it and fishing it for over 2 years. For the low cost sabers are great hooks. You can score 100 for 6.99 at the fly shack.

Soft Hackles. The Rusty Johnny, The bloody hares ear, and The J.C.E

I love soft hackles, they are very effective flies, and they are my favorite to tie. Here is some of my patterns. They are all brown trout approved.

This ones the Rusty Johnny



This one is the bloody hares ear.


This one I call J.C.E. (Johnny's caddis emerger) I have great success with this pattern. Bouncing bottom, swinging, in the film,it doesn't matter the browns eat it up.

U.V. High Test flash back scud.

Here is my flash back scud tied with my U.V. High Test blend. This one here had been fished all day and caught well over 15 trout. Its tied on a Mustad c49s #12, great hook. Deadly wild brown trout approved fly, the bows dig it as well.

J.E.U.'s Trico Emerger.

Here is my trico emerger. Its extremely simple, but yet highly effective. Floats great and is easy to see. Best of all Its brown trout approved!




This is how it sits in the water. The body will rides down in the film.
The hook is a #22 Mustad c49s, great hooks.
Here a video on how to tie the fly- J.E.U. Trico Emerger
Tight Ties
Johnny Utah.

The S.&J. Trico Spinner

Here is the S.&J. spinner. The wing is a mix of zelon and snowshoe rabbit foot. It floats great and best of all it is wild brown trout approved!





Hook is a daiichi 1130 #22.

Tight Ties
Johnny Utah

Montana Fly company emerger hook 7125

I said i would report back with how i like the hooks. Well, I had a 25 pack of #24s. I tied  all 25 trico patterns. I fished the hooks this week and let me tell you, they did extremely well especially for a #24. I had expected to possibly have several missed fished due to the size, Not the case at all. The hooks made great sets, and held the fish wonderfully. Had some serious pulling on the hooks and line. The hooks held up great, no bends.

Finally report, They are Excellent hooks. You can get the hooks @ Casters fly shop

Rusty Trout Bane. Jewel style.

Here is a rusty jewel trout bane. The latest in the bane series.

Tricos, Improved snow shoe, and my top secret spinner.

Its now later in the hatch, the trout have switched over to spinners that have begun to fall. I take off my emerger/cripple and tie on the T.S. Spinner or a improved snow shoe. Casting and drifts are the same. I'm still fishing above the fish, casting down and letting the fly present first.

I wasn't satisfied with the results of the snow shoe spinner, so I made some adjustments and I get better results with it. The key is to keep it sparse and small.


#24,Top view of the improved snow show spinner. The thorax cover is micro foam.


Bottom view of the improved snow shoe spinner. The thorax is black sts. Yes sts. Its possible to dub and tie a #24 with sts dubbing.

The Top Secret Spinner.


#24, T.S.S.


#24, Top Secret Spinner.


#24 T.S.S.

Trico emerger/cripple. Deadly!!!

Once i have finished my bagel and my coffee. Its time to get in position to catch the trout feeding on my favorite hatch, the trico!. Now when I say finish my coffee and bagel, there gone by 5:15 am. The whole while I'm watching and targeting a pod of risers, or one large trout that's enjoying the trico feast.

Now I'm putting my waders on and my rod is already rigged and ready rock. I did this the evening before. My leader total is about 18' feet long. I wade out slow as a snail, to get into position for my first cast. I like to be above the trout for this hatch. I have found from keeping notes, that I certainly get more takes presenting the fly first.

At this time in the morning, the females are emerging, and trout are well aware of this and feeding steadily. The pattern i display below is hands down the deadliest pattern I have used for this part of the hatch. I have another in the works, but for now this one is my go to. Its simply a standard mayfly cripple, tied very small.


This is a # 22 mayfly emerger. Tied on a daiichi dry fly hook.  The hackle is whiting dun neck hackle.
Two turns is all that's needed.

This is how the pattern should ride in the water. If tied properly it will also land this way on almost every cast.

My other spinners are next. Improved snow shoe, and my favorite, my top secret trico spinner.

#24 als trico and #24 A.D spinner

A.D. SPINNER


Trouts view of the a.d. spinner. A very nice silhouette. This baby cleans up during the spinner fall.

The hook is a montana fly company 7125. Its a nice quality hook. I havnt had the chance to fish with the hooks yet though. I will report how they do in field.

Tricos continued Johnny U's A.D. spinner.

Ok, lets get back to TRICOS! Here is one of the spinner patterns i use. Its very effective. Its Al's trico spinner with a twist. I made the butt green to show some eggs still left in females abdomen. I also brush up the hackle fibers to each side, then take some uv resin and put just a wee bit on the brushed up bottom of the hackles. I seen Davie Mcphail do this with a spinner pattern he tied on YouTube.  So thus the name. A is for Al, and D is for Davie. The A.D. Spinner.






I tied this on a size 14 standard shank hook for photo sake, I usually tie them on a 20-24 short shank dry fly fly hook. Light wire scud hooks work great for this. Remember tricos have a very short stubby abdomen.