TroutFodder

Not trout...but my first fish ever. Yellow perch caught on some kind of fly with a piece of a worm on the hook. I still remember it like it was yesterday.

Beautiful fish, Bruce. I'm a little jealous - things are coming to a close up here.

Have you ever wondered what chironomid larvae are doing down deep in a lake? This video shows midge larvae foraging for food on the lake bottom and their swimming behavior when they decide to move longer distances to find better foraging sites. Their swimming behavior is unique, and somewhat frantic, and not easily imitated by the fly angler. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y9BokJKOM5o

Nice one mikechell. I have nightmares about hiking out of a trout stream in the dark and going face first into a web like that!

Just in time for Halloween - Things that lurk in the dark... This may look like a nightmare to some, but it is a dream for fly anglers. Often considered the Holy Grail of hatches, Giant Salmonflies (Pteronarcys californica) are a big draw for large, feeding trout. For those who get the timing right, it often results in some of the best fishing days of their lives. If you are interested in other spooky Halloween bug stories, you can read Zombies, Ghosts, and Multi-legged Hosts on the TroutFodder blog.

Good point and something I didn't think of SilverCreek. Crane Fly larvae are more common that most people think - even along the slower margins and back-eddys of fast moving freestone streams. Run a sweep net through the fine sediment and it comes up squirming with them. The time to fish them is when the water is a little high and murky. The pattern I tie works but it is rigid and lifeless in the water. Liking the mop fly even more.

I think this is a post we should all review at the beginning of each fishing season - all good advise that we sometimes forget about. I always have a small first aid kit in whatever pack I am carrying for the day. It doesn't have to extensive - just a few things to deal with minor injuries. If you get injured beyond what your first aid kit can handle, you've got bigger problems and it's time to improvise. I always have a whistle on my PFD when drifting but it certainly makes sense to have one attached somewhere on your person when out fishing. On that note, I do a lot of solo fishing in some remote areas and carry a SPOT to let my wife know I am OK, and in case of emergencies. I always keep it in my front wader pocket in a ziplock so it is always with me in case I go for a swim and have to dump my pack or my raft floats away without me!

I have never seen these mop flies until I joined this forum. I'm finding them intriguing - they could be fished as a drifting cased caddis in streams and rivers... I might have to experiment with them a little myself.

flytire, your Froggy pattern is much more elaborate than the one I "tie". I call mine the Phelps Frog. Legs are just 3 strands of yellow & black rubber hackle knotted on the ends and trimmed to make the toes. I use this pattern for brown trout on some of the slower and more woody sections of streams and smaller rivers I fish up here. The advantage is that you can cast it close to, or over structure, without getting hung up. I also cast it upstream of under-cuts and overhanging bushes, let it drift underneath, and then twitch it out. The takes are violent and you need a heavy tippet to keep the fish from diving back under and breaking you off.

Super cool skeet3t. My granddaughters are not quite ready to fly fish yet but I look forward to taking them out and catching their first fish. You story also reminds me of my early years learning to fly fish. We didn't have a trout stream near where I lived but I would ride my bike to a small creek to fly fish for creek chub on size 18 adult midge patterns. The fish were all two to three inches long but I still loved catching them and I learned a lot about casting and where fish like to hold. Thanks for sharing.

No shortage of patterns to choose from there, flytire. I particularly like #6 from the top - it would work well as either an infected scud or a "pregnant" scud with eggs or first instar juveniles in its marsupium.

Cabelas has gone in a similar direction up here in the great white north. Luckily we do have a dedicated fishing shop that stocks a reasonable amount of tying materials - but certainly no where as good as Denny's Fly Tying that used to be the go-to shop back in the 80's. Reg Denny has long since passed away and the shop has sadly closed its doors.

Nice work denduke. Larger stoneflies fish best with prominent legs. Great work with the rubber and biot legs - and quite the extensive variety with both nymphs and dries. I see some with white packing foam wings - this is a material I use on occasion as well.

flytier, you have inspired me. I have a bunch of keeled hooks that I bought may years ago and have never really used. I like the sparse, buggy look of those patterns. Will have to give them a try.

Cool, thanks for the info J-Kno. Similar to a grub I used to tie with a wire base and acetate floss over-wrap dipped in acetone. You could see the wire through the fused floss and it looked like the guts of the grub. Just for the record, I am not sure it matters much if a scud pattern is tied on a straight or slightly curved hook. I have done both over the years and when I do use a straight hook, I tie the body slightly onto the bend of the hook to simulate the turned down telson and last few segments. This is evident in the Yum Yum patters suggested by SilverCreek where the back material is bent down slightly at the back end.