The Reef

Ive had the opportunity this last month to spend some time with some of the greatest anglers to draw a breath, most of that time had been off topic so I'll just focus on what's really important.  A few weeks ago the trek to Wyoming was made to tangle with some of their trouts in celebration of an upcoming wedding.  Although the fishing was slow to our expectations, and the weather sucked, great times were had by all. Enjoy

Mornings started like this.

Scene from the movie 'Titanic'

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The 'Captain'

The 'Crew'



The 'Convert'

The 'Muscle'

The 'Target'

The 'Result'

Here's to the Bride and Groom



Gift Box

With spring approaching quicker than it has in all my days on earth, I've been frantically trying to catch up on my orders for the shops as well as put a few boxes together for friends, donations, and future family.  Below are a few shots I put together of a box I gave my future brother-in-law and his spring order of SPlatte PMD's, SPlatte Baetis's and SPlatte Rollers.  Although it pains me a bit to see all these flies land in other peoples flybox, a certain sense of grace is felt knowing they'll all be getting wet on the end of someone's line this spring.  Get yours

An assortment of Barr's Graphic Caddis, with and without a tungsten topper, these will make their way to the Arkansas headwater.

                                        SPlatte Rollers in #12 with a couple wraps of lead in the thorax to help take it down to the next level.  Drop a SPlatte Baetis off the back of this caddis nymph and hold on.  There's a reason there are 4thousand fish per mile in this river, they all have enough to eat.                                      

 A few of Charlie's Two Bit Hookers tied with flouro fibre wing buds, an instant tailwater clasic.  You'll also notice a few Pure Midges, again courtesy of Mr. Barr and a couple tungsten bead Rainbow Warriors. 

 More hookers in #16, I prefer the 2.0mm tungsten in this size.  4mm's of Tungsten on TMC 3769 have equiled a ton fish to the net, these flies just don't give up.

 Here is collection of a few different Pat Dorsey patterns rolled into one fly.  It makes for a killer tied on a #22, TMC 2488.  Anyone out there willing to donate their old, non used medalion sheeting?  Just put it in an envelope addressed to me and expect good karma coming back within 2-3 working days. 

15dozen SPlatte Rollers ready to hit the fly bin at the new and improved Royal Gorge Anglers fly shop just outside of Canon City.  If you missed the grand opening, you'll be needing to stop in to see what the industry buzz is all about.  

5dozen SPlatte PMD's should hold off the masses for now, I've already started tying for the post run-off PMD season this summer.  The Ark is a Hopper Dropper river and you can't go wrong with this combo in July and August.

Life is good, and even better when you're fishing.  Get out there.

Salt

My good friends Joe and Brandon headed out last week with their wives in seach for bones and permit in the Bahamas.  Joe had spoken with the his guide and after exchanging a few emails about what's hot down there right now, I had a material list and a game plan.  McKnight's 'Crimp' is an Umpqua pattern that shares the common charactoritics of a shrimp and a crab.  Working on this pattern this last week been an oportunity for me to upsize the hook size and work with some materials not normally in my wheelhouse.  The first half dozen 'attempts' have been discarded to spare the embarrassment associated with tying shitty looking flies.  I'm looking foreword to the pictures of some of these flies stuck in some faces.

                              
                             
                              



Shotglass Video

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My good friend Jon agreed to tape this video for me, thanks dude.   Dig it

The Shot Glass Baetis from coloradoflyfisher on Vimeo.

Industry Spotlight: Juan Ramirez

Many of us know him as Hopper Juan, his children know him as Dad, his wife knows him as a huge pain in the ass, and Montana Fly Company knows him as a cash cow.  Juan has been tying and fishing as long as he can remember and has perfected these skills to the point where he is considered by all, one of the best in the industry. Beyond his fly tying prowess, Juan carries himself as just an average Joe, but to those who truly know him, he's a lot more than that.  Soft spoken, congenial, and all around cool mo-fo can all be used to describe him as a person, and as a fly tyer, incredible is an understatement.  As a fellow fly tyer, I've had the opportunity to work with Juan and the noticeable distinction between he and most of industries finest tyers is that he is always willing to give away what is otherwise undisclosed.  Whether it's working with a new material, or another way to fashion it to the hook, Juan is always excited to share his skill set.  Granted, he always has his secret weapons stashed a little deeper in his boxes, but if asked, has always been willing to tip off those who show interest in learning a new technique or what to use in a certain situation.  If you haven't yet, and I doubt you haven't, check out his blog and see what I mean.

Guide Flies

Being busier than I've ever been with barely enough time to feed myself, 'Guide Flies' are usually those that appeal to me the most.  They need to be quick to tie, sturdy, inexpensive, fish catching flies that won't cause any mental distress if it gets snapped off on a fish or hung up on a rock.  Having a family, a day job, a mortgage, and a brown dog, my main goal at the vise is to pump out as many flies as I can in one sitting.  There's really no telling how long I'll actually be able to twist  before someone has a bad dream or a conference call meeting needs to be accepted, so having materials, hooks, beads, etc pre-loaded is important to keeping the efficiency high each session at the bench.  My good friend Juan Ramirez is always bitching about fact that he never has time to fill his own flybox, go on vacation or even watch TV and a few years back warned me of the evils of commercially tying, I now fully understand what he meant.  Here are a few things I do to insure my time is spent wisely. 

Buy your hooks in 100 packs, it's cheaper and can be organized to where you're not spending time searching through Ziploc bags to find the ones you need.

 Load your tungsten beads while you're waiting for your laundry to dry or on the phone and stick them somewhere you can get to them while at the bench.

Twist up all the bodies of your flies you'll need for a trip and stash them somewhere, that way, you can come back to them and finish the thorax.  This will allow you to get in the groove and not have to deal with too many materials all at once. 

Load the finished flies in your box with enough room to apply your epoxy and start in on another batch.

Shotglass

The 'Shotglass' is one of my newest spin offs of the original Splatte series and is a great pattern to have in the box when you're looking for something a bit different.  The original thought behind this fly was incorporating a clear glass bead into the thorax, representing the gas bubble in an emerging nymph.   As far as making for a great looking fly, this did the trick and put the smack down on fish in the process.  Not pictured are the Red, Blue Dunn, and Dark Brown version of this fly.  The Dark Brown and Dunn have taken the place of RS-2's and pheasant tails in my box, with the added durability and fish appeal it's really a no brainer.  With the variety of colors tungsten offered from Montana Fly Company, it was an easy exercise to incorporate tungsten into the pattern by replacing the glass.  Almost any fishy colored thread can have a Lucent tungsten bead to match.  Two of my favorites include the coffee and burnt orange, but they all have a place in the box.  Hook selection for this fly can range from straight to curved but the hook gap must be considered before expecting the fly to perform the way it should.  I originally tied this on the TMC 2488, like I do everything else, but found that the hook gap could be overrun by the bead in smaller sizes.  Field testing proved a ton of hook-ups, but I wasn't pleased with the amount of fish being unbuttoned during the struggle.  The clear choice from there was the TMC 2499spbl.  Despite the fact that this hook is technically barbless, the 'shovel' like barb has a holding property that allows fish and dropper rigs to remain on the hook, I've never had a problem with either coming undone.  Other than being super sticky as well, this hook has enough gap to hold super huge fish and has become my first choice when reaching into the hook bins.  The two downsides to this hook are the expense and the fact it's only made down to a size 18, it seems you pay a premium for all those features.   Special thanks to Hopper Juan for taking these pictures.   

Tungsten Shotglass (Watery Olive and Christmas Red Lucent)

Tungsten Shotglass (Rusty Brown and Burnt Orange Lucent)

Tungsten Shotglass Top View

Shotglass Midge (Black/Glass) Top View

Shotglass Midge (Black/Glass)