NohackleHS

One thing that has not been mentioned is how the rise form can differ for a picky trout. For a typical rise the trout sees the fly as it approaches from upstream. It then opens its mouth and sucks it in. For a super selective trout the rise can be different. When the trout sees the fly coming from upstream he follows it closely as it approaches. When the fly floats above him, he continues to examine it. Then, if he decides to eat it, he goes after the fly after it has passed him. His mouth actually points downstream when he eats the fly. Of course the water has to be flowing very slowly for this type of rise to occur but this type of rise is not that unusual on a spring creek. Sometimes he eats the fly only a few inches after it has passed him. However, I've seen trout chase after a fly over a foot to eat it.

If you are fishing a high mountain stream with a very short growing season and sparse insect hatches, the fish will probably not be that picky. They can't afford to be since there is a scarcity of food. However, if you are fishing a spring creek with prolific hatches of different insects, then, yes, the fish will probably be a lot more picky. I can remember fishing Armstrong spring creek near Livingston Montana. I was a relative newcomer to flyfishing. I tied on a #20 adams and fished a slow rifffly section of the creek. I thought that with the riffle the fish wouldn't be that selective. Wrong! When I cast my fly, this one fish came right up to the fly (eyeball to eyeball) and then dropped back down to his lie. This happened twice from the same fish. Maybe some of the other fish weren't that picky, but this one sure was. I've also had similar experiences at crystal clear lakes where the fish have a lot of time to inspect whatever is on the water's surface.

I have fished Manzanita Lake in Lassen Park when there were lots of bees on the water. Considering the number of bees and the fact that many of them were creating a disturbance with their wings, I was surprised that I didn't see a single trout eat one of them. Manzanita is a crystal clear lake that used to have great hatches of midges, callibaetis, damsel flies and flying ants so maybe the fish were just preferring these insects over the bees. Still, when you see the bees disturbing the calm water and trout in the vicinity rising to other insects, I was convinced that the trout didn't care for them.

colotyer, I also would put in a vote for Rene Harrop. His videos "Life Cycle of the Mayfly" and "Life Cycle of the Caddis" demonstrate how to imitate mayflies and caddis at different stages of their development. I must admit I'm biased since my largest fish on a dry fly, a 22-inch rainbow from Silver Creek, was caught on one of Rene's creations (a transitional dun).

Years ago when I used to fish a lot of rusty spinners, I took the advice of a California Flyfishing Hall of Fame angler, Hal Jansen. When he ties a spinner he uses a poly wing as other do. Most anglers ties the wings in the same plane as the hook shank. Hal Jansen suggested tying the wings pointed slightly downward (if you view the fly from the side, the wing tips are below the hook shank). Thus, the fly floats more on the wing tips than a conventional spinner. Since I've always tied my spinners in this fashion, I can't say that it's more effective than other spinners but I always did have good success with this fly. I used to fish a lot of spring creeks where the trout were very selective.

Droppers are very commonly used by nymph fishermen at Pyramid Lake. The most common method is the blood knot dropper (method 4 in Flytire's post). A stronger dropper knot is a double uni. At Pyramid the fish are LARGE so most anglers use 2X and 3X tippets. The larger, stiffer tippets help in reducing leader tangles (although I still get my share of them). Some days the fish prefer to hit the dropper fly while on other days they prefer the end fly.

Actually, Rocco, there is a good reason why the bigger fish tend to hold near the far bank. The section of the stream I was talking about is public on the near side of the stream and private on the far side. The public side gets heavily pounded by fly anglers while the private side goes virtually unfished. Thus, the bigger fish do hold near the far bank because the water there is undisturbed (except by the longest of roll casts).

My home stream has two personalities. In the open areas back casts are possible and roll cast are not necessary. However, there are many areas of the stream where there are trees, bushes and steep banks behind me so roll casts are the only way to go. One difference is that the stream is wide in certain productive spots so long roll casts (as far as you can make them) are required; the bigger fish tend to hold near the far bank.

Before tying a batch of the same fly take the materials you will be using outdoors and look at the colors of the materials. I've found that colors and shades of colors when viewed with indoor lighting can look quite different than when viewed in sun light. Quite often a material that looks dark under indoor lighting will look a lot lighter in full sun light. Also, when you are looking to buy a material at a fly shop, take it over to a window; you'll get a better idea of its true color by doing this.

One suggestion on trying to shorten the learning curve. After you've tied a fly, take the time to critique it. Assuming you have the right materials, there are two basic factors that go into tying a "good" fly, the right proportions and the right tying techniques. Look at the fly. Are the proportions correct? If not, make an adjustment on the next fly you tie. Second, look at what else is wrong with the fly. Is the dubbing messy? Is the rib not equally spaced? Are materials not securely tied in? Things like these are related to your technique. So if you have these types of problems, work on your tying techniques. You can't tie consistently good flies if your tying techniques are not fundamentally sound.

I'm old enough to have a "Fly Trap" that holds my flies for drying on my vest (I don't think they sell them anymore). This is a metal box with a flip-open front and a ripple foam pad that holds the flies. The "Fly Trap" is vented (holes on the sides of the box) so the flies can dry. When I remove my flies from the "Fly Trap", I first check for the sharpness of the hook and sharpen them if needed. If the fly is matted down, I steam them. The steam restores the fly to pretty much the original condition. The steaming also reveals any flaws in the fly.

I've also had good experience with the Fly Fishing Store. On one of my orders they made a mistake. Not only did they correct the mistake, the sent me a pair of scissors as part of their apology. It's been many years since I've had a company go that far out of the way to make a customer happy.

I know your question is about Montana. However, there are some places to consider on the way. I live in the bay area and used to fish Idaho and Montana for over 27 years. From the bay area both Silver Creek (near Picabo) and the Henrys Fork (at Last Chance) are pretty much on the way to Montana. If you like spring creek fishing, you'll love these streams. Just something to consider. You didn't say what part of California you live in so these streams may be out of the way for you.

A VERY simple, effective midge is essentially a Troth Elk Hair Caddis without the palmered hackle. Dub a body. Stack the elk (or deer) hair and tie it on as you would on the elk hair caddis. That's it. You can vary the color of the elk or deer hair and vary the color of the dubbing to match the naturals. I used to fish a lot of spring creeks and this fly was as effective as any other midge I used. However, as the years went by, more and more fly shops started selling similar flies and their effectiveness dropped a bit. The good news is that they are SO simple to tie and you only need two materials. My first flies were dubbed with black or grey dubbing and natural deer hair.

I tied my first fly when I was in the boy scouts (I'm 71 now) using a salmon egg hook, black thread and a black hackle (I don't remember where I got it). I actually caught a couple of four inch trout on it. I didn't really start fly tying seriously until the early 80's so I guess that means I've been tying almost 35 years.

In all honesty, I've never tied or fished flies as small as 28-32. However, if I did fish them, I would try to find a hook in this size range with the widest gap. On my home stream most of the anglers use flies 20-22. I did this before but I lost a lot of fish. I was talking to a local guide about losing a lot of fish and he suggested that I try a size 16 TMC 3769. It has the gap of a 16 with the length of a size 20 (2X long hook). He felt that large gap did not affect it effectiveness. Yet, it did improve his ability to land fish. Ever since then I tie almost all of my fly on this hook and have had great success with it. So I'm guessing that the same approach would apply to your situation. However, as small as these flies are, I don't really know how many hooks you have to choose from. In any case, this is just another thought.

A popular fly at Pyramid Lake is a fly called a Balanced Leech. See the attached url. http://www.pyramidlakeflyfishing.com/product-category/balanced-leech The key to the fly is the bead that his tied on an extension (a straight pin) that balances the leech and allows it to sit horizontally when it's in the water. When fished under an indicator and under choppy water conditions, the fly bounces up and down in an enticing manner. I've only used the fly a couple of times so I can't swear by its effectiveness. However, I've read many reports that it is a very productive fly.

Another factor is the type of stream you are fishing. If you are fishing fairly fast riffle water where the trout don't have much time to make a decision about your fly, then wings are probably less important. But if you are fishing a relatively slow moving, crystal clear spring creek or clear-water lake where the trout have a lot of time to examine your fly, wings may more important. I can remember fishing Armstrong Spring Creek fishing a #20 Adams in a slow moving stretch of water that had a small surface riffle; Twice in a row I had a fish come from the depths, examine my fly literally eyeball-to-eyeball and then reject the fly. I was relatively new to flyfishing and that's when I realized that fish in spring creeks can be a lot more selective than those in freestone streams.

For a lot of my smaller nymphs I use a #16 TMC 3769. It has the length about the size of an 18 nymph but the hook gap of a 16. Several years ago I was complaining to a local guide that I was losing a lot of my better fish on my small flies. He suggested the 3769. He felt that the larger gap didn't seem to affect the fly's effectiveness. Since then I have used this hook on my small midge and mayfly nymphs and it's worked really well. Another guide for the same stream said he also uses this hook quite extensively.

I won't ever run out of flies to tie because I am continually experimenting with new flies. For me, that's a huge part of the fun of fly tying. I like to tweak existing flies to make them more effective. When I see or read about flies that peak my interest, I'll tie up a few to test them out. Logically, I know that there isn't a "magic" fly that the fish can't refuse. But it's a lot of fun trying to find it. And when I do find flies that are more effective than their standard counterparts I can be pretty sure that I'm the only one using them.

Bimini, Here's something to try to help you understand the dubbing process better. Take a small amount of dubbing and spin the top port of the dubbing around the thread. Move the dubbing to the hook shank. Wind the dubbing around the hook shank 1 or 2 turns; this should lock the tip of the dubbing against the shank. Now continue to spin the dubbing around the thread. You'll notice that the more you spin the dubbing the tighter the dubbing adheres to the thread and the thinner it gets. Thus, by using the process (and varying the amount of dubbing) you can determine how thin or robust you want the body to be. If you want a more fuzzy and loose body, don't spin the dubbing as much. (I hope this isn't too confusing)

In thinking a little more about this post I realized two more things that I have come to appreciate. The first is the improvement in tippet material. When I first started fly fishing over 40 years ago a popular brand of tippet was Nylorfi (made in France). Unfortunately, the "5X" was the diameter of 4X and the "6X" was closer to 5X. Not only this, but the stuff was a lot weaker. 5X Nylorfi broke at 4 lbs (not 5 lbs as is common today) and 6X broke at 2.4 lbs (not 3.5 lbs). Believe me, the improvements in diameter and strength have made a huge difference. The other thing I've come to appreciate are indicators. I know that many anglers frown at their use. However, before indicators came along I can distinctly remember sitting on the bank of Silver creek wondering how I could get my flies down to the level of the fish while getting a decent drift. I knew my flies weren't getting deep enough but I didn't know what to do about it. When I learned about indicators, these problems were solved.

I've been fortunate to have taken 27 two-week trips to Idaho and Montana. I had the opportunity to fish fabled streams as Silver Creek, the Henry's Fork and the Montana spring creeks (Armstrong, Nelsons, and Depuys) as well as Yellowstone park. I was fortunate that when I was forced into early retirement due to a medical problem that I was still able to fish my local stream, Putah Creek. I learned that Putah had a remarkable number of fish over 17 inches even though it's about an hour from the East Bay and less than an hour from Sacramento; it was WAY better than I ever thought it would be. I was fortunate to start taping fly fishing TV programs when these programs were more popular than they are today. I have taped well over 500 shows just on trout flyfishing. I'm 70 now and, frankly, I don't know how many years more I'll be able to fish. Thus, I do appreciate each trip a little more and I do stop and look back to appreciate all of the wonderful experiences of flyfishing and fly tying have given me.

Steve, The approach for tying the wings I the videos above is MUCH more straightforward than the one Mike Lawson uses in his videos. So, in my opinion, you would probably be better off tying nohackles as done in the videos than trying to learn Lawson's approach (if you can even find his videos).

There are two videos in which Mike Lawson ties the nohackle, "Tying Western Dry Flies" and "Tying Flies for Spring Creeks and Tailwaters". I bought these tapes many years ago so I don't know if either or both are available on tape or dvd. I might warn you that Mike makes tying the wings look quite easy, but I had to practice a lot before I could tie the wings as he did.