Fly Fishing Size Don't Matter

Got up this morning and looked out the bedroom window. Yup, its snowing good in Northern Colorado. Also, supposed to be heavy snow this weekend and cold. Sounds like a perfect time to stay indoors and tie flies, read a good fly fishing book, or watch fly fishing video's if you have nothing else to do and honey-do's can wait. So, I am going to do something here that is sort of out of the normal for me. I came across a video that I liked pertaining to fly fishing warm water and rivers in particular for warm water fish. I thought it was very well done and set the mood for me this morning. Hope you enjoy.
**** A thank you should go to David Frazier for sharing this great video!

Confidence On The "Fly"

STAYNER DUCKTAIL

Many of those of us who tie flies seem to be always tinkering at the vise.  Working on coming up with that "Hot" new pattern that all the fish will just go nuts on this year out on the water.  Be honest now, if you have tied much or for sometime anyway, invariably, this has run through your mind.  Or, perhaps you just want to modify a certain established pattern a little bit.  That will make it a new fly right and all your fly fishing friends will credit you with be the creator of a great new pattern.  Especially, if it catches fish, and, you give them a handful to try!  Well, ya' know, you know the story from here.  There truly is probably not a snowball's chance in Hell that somebody, somewhere hasn't already thought of that or tied that pattern up during a session at the ol' vise.

How many fly patterns does an angler need to carry with him or her for a day of fishing? Well, that is a topic for another post sometime, somewhere else.  The point I would like to make here is that it really is a matter of confidence when you tie and fish a fly that works for you.  Both, at the vise, and, on the water, if you have confidence in that fly you will concentrate more when tying them and fishing them.  Why? Because you know they work and you have been rewarded with many a memory of a day{s} on the water when you caught fish after fish on that fly.  Call it what ever you want, but you know, that "Fly" is going to produce more times than not.  You have confidence on the water and confidence on that "Fly" It has become one of your favorite flies that you know you can always lean on when the weather, or the fish, or both are playing hardball with you!  Now, that is a lot said in order for me to introduce you to one of those "Flies" for me.

The Stayner Ducktail was made popular by Ruel Stayner of Twin Falls, Idaho, back many years ago.  Ruel, designed this fly to imitate Perch in the local stillwaters in Idaho.  Little did he know at the time what he really had on his hands with the creation of this pattern.  This pattern went on to become extremely popular in the stillwater fly fishing circles.  I was a member of the "Float Tube Navy" out of Boise, Idaho area.  The Float Tube Navy spent their time learning the concepts of stillwater fly fishing from a float tube and fishing many of the great lakes of the Rocky Mountains. The Stayner Ducktail became the go to fly for many of us back in the day.  It was fished with a sinking line of some sort and fished very well for Trout, Bluegill, Crappie, Bass etc. etc.  It became legendary! Now, I will add to this, that it not only became a legendary, local pattern, but a pattern whose success goes far beyond that.  The Stayner Ducktail has been fished on the rivers in Russia, on the big ponds of New Zealand and Australia, and, for the the giant Rainbows that reside in the lakes of Argentina.  Sadly, not by me, but I have seen many photos of big fish from these waters from friends who made trips to these magnificent waters.  Please bare with me as I recall a story once told to me by my fly fishing mentor, the late Ken Magee of Boise, Idaho.  Ken and several friends from the Boise area had made the trip to Russia and paid for guides to fish some of the great rivers.  He said that they had a really difficult time understanding what the Russian guides were saying, and, particularly what patterns they should use.  None of them had any of what they needed!  So, the group decided they will just fish with Stayner Ducktails.  A Rainbow Trout is a Rainbow Trout, right?  Long story short, Ken and the group had a terrific trip fishing Stayner Ducktails for big, Russian trout!  

There are more stories I could tell, but, let's refocus on the tying of the Stayner Ducktail.  Now, I might be able to tie Stayner Ducktails with anybody, but, I don't shoot video.  Being the subject just gets me all discombogulated!  So, I have done a You Tube search and found a very good fly tying video for you to watch and learn how tie the Stayner Ducktail.  Hope you enjoy watching and tying this great pattern.  Beware warm water fly fishers of the guy fishing the Stayner Ducktail!

Are Bass Dumber Than Trout?

Really, or is that just propaganda?  Read on BlogBuddies and let me know what you think?  First off,

Let me explain where I am coming from.  Like many others, I am sure throughout our country, I am still waiting for the opportunity to get into some sort of regular fly fishing mode with the 2014 season.  I mean weather, well, has been really weather here on the Front Range of Colorado.  If the wind is not blowing 30 - 40 MPH, then you have weekends like this one.  Wet rain and snow! I hope the weather man is wrong, but, they had predicted 4 - 6 inches of snow in some areas.  Can we just go fishing and get on with the season for crying out loud. 

Anyway, while I wasn't fishing today, I did manage to hit my local fly tying supplier for a few things I needed to tie up some Bluegill nymphs and a few other things from my "Stuff" list.  My wife just smiles and sends me on the way.  She knows better than to debate me about "Stuff".

I better get to the point here that I am trying to make with this post.  While looking through most all of the fly tying goodies, I over heard a conversation between Employee and Customer.  It kind of went something like this:

Customer: I am looking for materials to tie up some various streamers for fishing Bass, mostly Largemouth, but, some Smallmouth, too?

Employee:  Well, you don't have to be very selective when choosing what materials to use when tying Streamers for Bass!  Heck, Bass will eat anything as long as you find them in a feeding mode.  I would not bother with anything but a Wooly Bugger in different colors and a couple of different sizes.

Customer: Really, well that should be easy enough.  I was also thinking about tying up some Marabou Muddlers or trying some of the Articulated Streamers I see in the magazines.

Employee:  I would not even bother with all that extra work and time in tying.  Bass are really stupid fish compared to Trout! With a Trout you have to be more cognizant of how you present the materials and what techniques to use.  Trout are much more keen to what is going on around them than a Bass.  Trout sometimes key on certain materials like the Enrico Puglesi fibers that you can combine certain colors to make more exact imitations than you would need for Bass fishing with Streamers.  Here let me show you some of the material I am talking about and you will see what I mean when I say Trout are much more selective than a Bass.

To make a long story short, I blocked out the rest of the conversation as they moved to another isle in the fly tying materials section.  I had heard enough reality or propaganda.  Whichever, as I paid for my supplies, I just chuckled and shook my head.  Left me wondering what all my BlogBuddies would think of this conversation and what they feel comparable intelligence levels are of a Bass or a Trout.  Chime in if you feel the need too..............................................

Fly Fishing For Cats

As I was pondering what I wanted to talk about in this post, my mind kept drifting back to another day and time.  Time when I lived in Southwestern Idaho.  I kept thinking about a couple of unusual fly fishing experiences I had back then.  At the time, they were very unusual, in my mind anyway. What experiences I am talking about here is that of Fly Fishing For Cats!

No, not this kind of Cat you silly fool!

Nor, this one either!

Must give credit here where credit is due.  These fine looking Catfish were borrowed here from the good folks at Moldy Chum 

Back to fly fishing in Idaho.  I had on two different occasions while fishing for other fish, stumbled upon the fact, that I could catch Catfish on a fly rod.  More than one fish also each time so I had to figure that it could be done.  Complete surprise and lack of new camera technology didn't allow me to have pictures to show you so I will quickly identify with just a short note on the fishing experience.  

My first experience came while out float tubing  a lake that was filled with downed trees on a fairly shallow end of a reservoir.  I had targeted this area with some friends in attempting to find schooled Crappie.  Me like Crappie!  However, in tubing into the shallow water preparing to cast to Crappie, I viewed several Catfish lurking around.  Well, the rest of that story is that I landed several Catfish on streamer patterns that were intended for Crappie.  I was duly impressed.

Next story: I am floating a section of the Snake River down below Parma, Idaho, with a friend.  This time from a small boat.  We were targeting some Smallmouth Bass.  As we floated along preparing to fish nymphs,  fish were spotted rising in some calm water off to my right.  I am thinking Smallmouth on a dry fly now.  Off comes the nymph, and, quickly comes a Parachute Adams in a size #14.  Rest of the story: No Smallmouth, these were Catfish actually rising to take my Parachute Adams.  We had a blast fishing the slack water that midday.  I kid you not, we could not find anyone to believe our story.  But, I have the memory!

Now, that I am a Colorado resident and am focusing on writing my blog about WarmWater species of fly fishing for the most part, Catfish seem to be on my mind again.  Can Catfish be caught on a fly rod? 

Yup, my friend Dave says so over on his blog.

You might know these two fellows if you hang around fly fishing much.  Plus, this is home for me now so I have to share this video with you all.

 

Thanks to, Jay Zimmerman and Brian Schmidt for the use of their video here.

On my next post, we will review a few Catfish flies and talk about tying them up if you are interested in Fly Fishing For Catfish!