Mini Trude Series

Since I've had a few days on my hands from work and I REALLY need to be on the water I thought I'd arm myself with a couple of small experimental Trudes. These are tied on a 18 dry fly hook and with this little spin and a little off the norm, I'm excited to give these patterns a try.

Left pattern------------------Mini Adult Midge Trude

Right pattern----------------Mini Baetis (BWO) Trude

Buffalo Midges.

They are the hatch you dont want to miss for sure. These bugs are quite large in comparison to the norm. When the fish key on them it can be crazy!! Usually these larger midges usually show between Valentines Day and Presidents Day. Of coarse all this depends on weather and other factors. Usually you can have a mix of these midges and BWO which will drive you nuts cause you dont know what to throw. So you just throw both. Problem solved.



This is the actual bug pictured here. In this shot its roughly between a size 18 and 16.



This is what I came up with after looking at this midge closer. Here is the receipe, pretty simple.

Hook---------------------Size 18 dryfly hook in this picture

Body---------------------Brown 8/0 thread, I like to coat the body with Sally Hansen's Hard as Nails.

Rib-----------------------Tan 8/0 thread tied at the tail end of the hook that spun with a dubbing loop tool tightly to form a rope if you will. Than this rope is now wrapped up the shank of the hook.

Dubbing----------------None was used in this pattern I didnt want alot of bulk at the thorax. If you decide on using dubbing I would suggest the superfine.

Wing--------------------Light Dun Poly Yarn.

Hackle-----------------Grizzly which was used on this pattern or you can used a light dun.

Now tie some up.

Wasatch Fly Tying & Fly Fishing Expo

***************Dear Fellow Fly Fishing & Outdoor Enthusiast,


The Stonefly Society and Cache Valley Anglers, chapters of Utah Trout Unlimited, are pleased to announce the Third Annual Wasatch Fly Tying & Fly Fishing Expo. The Expo will be held Friday and Saturday, March 20-21, 2009 at the Karen Gail Miller Conference Center, Salt Lake Community College, 9750 South 300 West, Sandy, Utah. This two-day Expo will feature fly tying demos from some of the best fly tiers in Utah, casting clinics, fly tying and fly fishing workshops, casting competition, fly fishing film festival, prize raffles, exhibitors, and more. Last year’s event was a great success and we anticipate this year’s Expo to be bigger and better. Saturday evening we will conclude the Expo with a banquet and auction featuring renown author and fly shop owner Charlie Craven (www.charliesflyboxinc.com) as our keynote speaker. Expo activities on Friday will go from 4 p.m. - 9 p.m. and on Saturday from 8 a.m.- 4 p.m. The banquet Saturday evening will start at 6:30 p.m. and will include a live and silent auction.

Thinking of Summer....In Winter!!! You bet!

So with all of the Soft Hackles I've been tying up I needed to shake off the rust and tie up a few Trudes. These pattern are great to fish as attractors so this Summer I'm hopefull these will produce somewhere. I cant wait for Summer if you didnt notice. lol

Experimental BWO Soft Hackles

While getting back from my little excusion to the Ghetto I wanted to fine tune my BWO patterns so these patterns are what i've come up with. I'm going soon to test these out and I'll report back on the success on these in a week or two. If you would like a receipe for these just email me at p111562@hotmail.com and I'll shoot you the details.

Enjoy~

Back to the Ghetto

Got a call from Corey to go hit it up and try our luck with some fish on the Ghetto and see what we could drum up. We met up, rigged and we were on the water. Now as of lately I've been on this Soft Hackle addiction so I was armed with my best arsenol that I could think of. I had Beatis (BWO) on the mind in hopes of some risers. Cor got into a few fish nymphing right away and I was getting a little discouraged that I havent connected yet.

Corey had told me that down stream further there was a large pool where there might be a chance to see if some fisher were rising so down stream we walked. I noticed some early midges on the water but not what I was hoping for. Once we got to the larger pool to my hopes there were some risers. I could make out what they were but the plan was to swing the Baetis soft hackles right into the feeding lane. Well it didnt take long before I connected. Once I had my first fish on to my suprise it was a Whitefish. Yes a Whitefish!! I was a little surprised myself because Whitefish usually feed on the bottom so even though I was a little bummed I was still determined to get into a nice brown. After few more drifts into the feeding lane I connected into another fish. LOL you guessed it...another Whitefish! "It must have been a fluck!" I thought.

Cor decided to hit the pool from another angle before we contemplated about moving on upstream. We packed our gear and moved upstream. The road that we had to take was covered with a fresh covering of snow. Roughly 12 inches of snow and we had to drive a couple of miles to our parking area. In the process I got stuck and got myself out but I shortly got a call from Cor saying..."I'm stuck big time Pat I think I'm going to need a tow truck!!" I told Cor start walking toward me because at this point I got myself stuck again. I could see Cor walking toward me but he was still along ways away. I finally got myself free and tried to keep the tires in the snow ruts the best I could. I met up with Cor and we drove the remaining distance to find Cor Toy buried big time. I got out and assessed the issue and told Cor." I got a tow strap Cor but I need to turn this truck around." Once we got me turned around.

We started digging Cor's truck out. I remembered that I had a couple of old wooded oars in the back of my truck. Dont ask me why I had them back there but they came in handy for situations like this. I also never go out on any venture without the Towstrap. Which I had to use once I got turned around.

Hooked up the Towstrap to Cor's truck and we got him out of his jam. It wasnt easy with all the snow and ice underneth and getting traction was tough at best. There was another vehicle down where we were but for the life of me I dont know how it got down there with just street tires. Once we got turned around we were able to park the trucks. Now lets go Fish!!! We earned it now!!

By this time the sun was starting to break out of the clouds. We walked up onto this first nice pool and saw a few risers and there were a small BWO hatching coming off but nothing major....yet. I picked 3 quick fish and we decided to move upstream. Cor seen a nice run where he was still nymphing and I moved upstream to see what was around the bend. Corey met up with me a little while later we hit some more water together before deciding on another run he had fished the previous weekend.

Corey pick off a few fish and the BWO hatch wasnt real strong but it caught the browns attention and they were picking them off. Ok, I thought now its game time. I slipped on BWO soft hackle pattern that I've been working on and it didnt take long before it was game ON!!

We carefully walked upstream in hopes that we wouldnt spook the fish. It was stealth mode from the get go. Our cast had to be spot on without spooking the rising browns. To add to the already challenging situation we had some overhanging trees to deal with as well. We had to fish on our knees of fear of being seen.

Cor and I took turns as we were picking off fish left and right. Here is a release that Cor got while I released a nice brown.

At this point the hatch was starting to die off but I knew we had about another 30 minutes before the risers would go deep. There was a nice little run that emptied into a nice pool. A lot of the browns were right up against the far bank and what our plan was is to cast upstream with some BWO Soft hackles and let them drift right the browns feeding lanes. This worked and I connected with a nice 20 1/2 Brown. I was so excited, by far the best fish I've taken from the Ghetto. I'll be back for sure. Thanks Cor for the fun. We worked our asses off to get ourselves unstuck but it was well worth it.

Photography Credits go to Corey K.

Thanks Cor~ Excellent job!!!

Logo credits go to Mr. Loopy

HELP SAVE OUR WATERS! LET'S UNITE WITH THE
UTAH WATER GUARDIANS





This last summer the state supreme court decided unanimously in the conatser v. johnson case (http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/data/u...tser071808.pdf) that the public had the right to use waters in the state for recreational purposes. This use includes streams and rivers on lands owned privately. This was a great victory Utah anglers as it ensured that the fish owned by the them, but trapped on a stretch of river that was privately owned, could be enjoyed by anglers who stayed within the confines of the river. Other legal recreation such as kayaking, floating and swimming is now also possible on these bodies of water.Unfortunately, a few Utah House Represenatives are trying to pass legislation that would overturn the conatser decision. Mr Ferry has introduced bill 187 (http://le.utah.gov/~2009/htmdoc/hbillhtm/hb0187.htm). This bill will not please the many recreation enthusiasts in Utah. Many anglers know of Mr. Ferry's bill, and everyone is very unhappy. We have begun to unite together to fight this bill. We believe that private land owners should not be able to hold public resources such as water and fish hostage from public use.I want to encourage anyone that has been a follower of my blog, family, friends, fellow flyfisher's, anyone out their lurking...... PLEASE, PLEASE, Help and get involved in writing Utah House Represenatives. If you live in Utah you can follow this link below and look up your District Represenative. http://www.le.state.ut.us/house/index.htmAlso, there is a website dedicated to this bill:http://utahwaterguardians.wordpress.com/UTAH WATER GUARDIANS and Fellow Fly Fishers U N I T E !!! We need your support. The outcome of this bill could effect YOUR state water rights as well.Anyone that has questions please email myself or visit www.utahwaterguardians.wordpress.com and help all of us spread the word.