Foam Ant Fly

My fascination with topwater fishing for sunfish began with Rebel’s release of its ultralight line of Crickhopper crankbaits and spilled over well into my fly fishing phase. My fly tying endeavors have allowed me to put together some awesome summertime foam patterns to keep those panfish afternoons alive and well long after the walleyes have gone deep and muskies continued to frustrate. Here are some great foam terrestrials that are quick ties, making for fast fishing.

Foam Ant Fly
Thread: 6/0 Thread
Hook: Size 12-16 Dry Fly Hook
Body: Closed Cell Foam
Legs: Dry fly hackle
Wing: Antron

Foam Beetle Fly
Thread: 6/0 Thread
Hook: Size 10-14 Dry Fly Hook
Body: Closed Cell Foam
Underbody: Peacock Herl
Legs: Pheasant tail fibers

Foam Armyworm Fly

Foam Armyworm Fly
Thread: 6/0 Thread
Hook: Size 12 Curved Terrestrial Hook
Body: Black Closed Cell Foam
Underbody: Green Microchenille
Legs: Dry Fly Hackle, Trimmed
The simplicity of these foam flies is what makes them so fun to tie and fish. All of the above patterns can be assembled in less than five minutes, even by a beginning fly tier. They don’t require floatant due to their buoyant base material and even a rookie can use them to draw a strike from bluegills, which seem to disregard even the sloppiest fly cast when something is sitting on the surface. Sometimes, I tie them up in outlandish colors, just to find out what the sunnies are unwilling to strike. So far, they haven’t passed up the goofiest combination of foam and feather.

Vary the colors, the accompaniments and the sizes to find some fun patterns you can call your own. Keep the ones that work best and don’t worry about the ones that end up in the shoreline trees or snagged in the windsock on the neighbor’s dock. A sheet of foam will last an entire summer, and is always a good investment to help keep those summer bluegill afternoons popping…in our outdoors.

Foam Beetle Fly

Trout Fly Materials
1/64-Ounce Gold Jig, No Collar
6/0 Black Thread
Black Marabou
Black Medium Chenille
Black Saddle Hackle

The Camden Crunch is my nickname for this buzz cut jig version of the woolly bugger and just like its parent pattern it can be tied in many variations. The lure takes its title from the state park in southwestern Minnesota where I have used it on the Redwood River with great success for brown trout. Based on its lineage, my guess is that it would work well on any trout stream or bluegill pond. The pattern couldn’t be simpler, unless you removed the hackle, which you can do, but then there’d be no crunch, and what fun would that be?

Secure the jig in your vise with the hook eye pointed down. Start your thread at the head of the jig and form a thread base on the hook. Tie in a pinch of marabou on top of the hook shank, forming half of the tail. Keep the tail short – no longer than three-quarters of the jig’s length – to prevent short strikes on the marabou. I trimmed the tails on my first set of these patterns while streamside after I missed half a dozen strikes and that made all the difference. Rotate the jig in your vise and tie another pinch of marabou on the bottom of the hook equal in size and length to the first portion to finish off the tail. (Figure 1.)
Rotate the vise so the jig is back in the starting position. At the base of the tail, tie in a saddle hackle feather, with the curvature facing the hook bend. Then tie in the stripped end of a three-inch strand of medium chenille to the hook shank in front of it. Advance your thread to the base of the jig head and let it hang. (Figure 2.) Palmer the chenille forward, keeping each wrap tight to the one before it. Tie the chenille down as close to the jig head as possible and trim the excess. (Figure 3.)

Next, using hackle pliers, wrap the hackle forward over the chenille. When you reach the jig head, secure the hackle with your thread. Make a few more thread wraps, further securing the materials to the hook; whip finish and trim the thread. (Figure 4.) Apply a drop of head cement to the tie-in area behind the jig head.
Finally, trim the hackles around the jig’s body so they are about one hook gap in length. (Figure 5.) This gives the fly a leggy appearance, like a crunchy bug of some sort, such as a dragonfly nymph. One morning, I landed over 15 trout on a single Camden Crunch. By the end of the outing, the thread had given way, the hackles had been stripped and the chenille was unwinding from the hook shank.

While black has been my go-to color on any given day, I’ve also caught a good number of trout on a crawfish pattern tied with pheasant rump marabou and brown hackle over rust-colored chenille. Olive hackle over olive crystal chenille has also worked well. (Figure 6.) The Camden Crunch can be presented in an across-and-downstream fashion with ultralight tackle and shouldn’t be fished on line over four-pound test, unless you tie it on a heavier jig head. Remember, the lighter the jig, the lighter the line needs to be for a good cast and presentation. The 1/64-ounce jig head is light enough to allow the lure to pull double duty on the fly rod as a streamer too.

Stocked or wild stream trout, bluegills and crappies in your area should take well to this easily customizable jig, so give it a try and feel free to experiment with colors and add in various bells and whistles like sili legs, krystal flash or body wire for extra effect. You’ll find it to be a potent pattern that should bring a few more fish to hand…in our outdoors.

For more great patterns, tips and stories, log on to www.nicksimonson.com, follow Our Outdoors on Twitter @OurOutdoors, or become a fan of Our Outdoors by Nick Simonson on Facebook.

There have been a lot of changes in my life over the past five years. I’ve lived in two states and three towns and have had six different jobs, with this one being the most consistent. In that time I’ve fished over 60 lakes and rivers, gaining some level of familiarity with all of them. And though the waters I frequently fish have changed over the years, my habit of keeping a fishing journal remains the same. And thanks to this process, and my ability to customize it, I have found patterns that exist from water to water, and sometimes even across species, which I build on for even greater success in the future.

Fishing diaries help remember your angling experiences.

Fishing Diary Details Great and Small

My fishing diary is less like diaries and more like an IRS form (but one that’s actually fun to fill out) complete with dates, places, notes, and some crude drawings that sometimes more like a drunken Pictionary effort than a lake map, but I can generally recall where they point to. Each page, and more so each year’s completed diary, provides me with permanent written insight into what I was doing, what was working and what was biting. Even if I was on a lake just once, that entry provides a snapshot of what I experienced and I can take that information with me for the next trip and avoid some guesswork in the process.

Recording a trip is quick and easy with a standard form, and the one I made for myself five years ago has gone mostly unchanged. From basic information such as water, date, who I was fishing with and time of day, to the more specific details such as lures, bait, depth, location, moon phase and weather conditions, all of my data is written into or marked in fields on this one convenient page. All the fields help provide details of what was happening and my success or lack thereof. However, as I have ventured into other realms of angling, I have found that modification to my standard fishing diary entries has helped in my fishing endeavors.

Adjust on the Fly

Particularly for fly fishing trips, ice fishing trips and outings for muskellunge I have found it necessary to alter my fishing diary pages. As these varieties of fishing are quite different than a standard run for river walleyes or an outing for bass, it is nice to have fields that correspond to each style of fishing. For example, fly fishing may require alteration of flies, tippet sizes and lines and may be very dependent on what is happening in the world around the water such as changes in flows, insect hatches, and other variables. I add in these fields to document those events on my fly fishing form.

Ice fishing is a different world altogether, for both angler and fish. The hardwater season requires different fishing methods and more precision with lures and finicky fish. My ice fishing page addresses those conditions and has fields like “tip-ups used” and “holes punched” to keep track when those efforts work best.

Muskie fishing is unique in the fact that the fish are notoriously tough to catch and just seeing one can be considered a successful outing. Noting the where, when and what lure a big fish followed is important for subsequent trips, because yesterday’s lazy trailing fish at the cabbage patch on the twelve foot hump might be next week’s vicious strike on a figure-eight at boatside. My muskie journal pages reflect these facts, with a bigger space for maps and GPS coordinates to document encounters and it includes categories such as “sightings,” and “follows” along with the standard “fish caught” category.

The Big Picture

Ultimately, all of these pages end up in a binder for a particular angling year, with each journal beginning with the first open water trip of the season and ending with the last ice fishing outing. By comparing journals, taking note of weather, dates, and moon phases, I’ve been able to calculate when the best fishing is for my favorite species. Walleyes run hard from the end of March into late April on my home river, and then usually spawn and are slow until mid-May. Smallies fill the void during that time and then they spawn and fire up again in June. Many of my biggest largemouth come after July 4, when the water on my favorite bass lakes warms up and brings them under the docks.

When correlating moon phases with fishing success, I’ve found that for muskies, bass and late summer walleyes, the full moon date and the days around it have brought big fish to boat consistently. Through the hundreds of previous outings cataloged in my fishing diaries, I am able to determine dates and conditions, which lend themselves to good fishing.
As open water seasons approach, try making up a sheet that fits your style of fishing, or use a page from my book to get a start on your fishing journal. When the pages pile up and the bigger picture comes together, you’ll begin to notice patterns and identify probabilities that will lead to more success…in our outdoors. (Visit www.nicksimonson.com or click the image below for a sample fishing diary that you can use to start your own angling diary.)

Last week, as I braced myself against the wind and made my way up the walk in the glow of the front porch light, I saw through the blowing snow that first sign of spring. It wasn’t a robin, hiding its head under its wing in the late January cold. It wasn’t a dandelion poking up through the frozen ground. Those warming-weather sights are still a couple of months away. No, this first sign of spring was the glint off the cover of the Cabela’s Spring Master Catalog sticking out from under the mailbox lid.

The rustic Philip Goodwin painting was a throwback to simpler times as two anglers battled a splashing fish to net in the radiance of the sunset while their buddy tended the campfire on shore. But the warmth of the fishing scene on that particular piece of mail wasn’t the only sign that spring was approaching. Behind that catalog were the Cabela’s Fishing Catalog, Tackle Craft Catalog and Fly Fishing Catalog as well; bulking up the armload of mail I hauled into the house. As I flipped through each one after dinner, pausing to look at new crankbaits, flashy reels, fly vests and trolling motors, I felt the chill of winter melt away, despite hearing the wind that howled outside.

To help keep cabin fever at bay, I’ve spent the better part of the last month restocking my fly box, ordering lure components and attempting to get out on the ice against 30 mile-an-hour winds, single digit temps and three-foot snow drifts. This winter has been trying at times – particularly while traveling for the holidays – but it has also provided moments to prepare for the coming season and these mailings assure me that day-by-day, the first green grass and moving water will be here eventually.

Another sure sign comes in that preparation for the earliest of open water seasons: trout fishing. And there’s one fly that brings with it all the colors of spring, from the pinks and reds of Valentine’s Day to the peaches, oranges and whites of Easter, right up into the flashy chartreuse of the first blade of new grass. The colors of these egg flies seemingly draw spring to my tying bench and they are a hallmark of my annual outings in search of trout. The glo bug is synonymous with drift fishing on Great Lakes tributaries from New York to Minnesota and the multitude of color combinations match the eggs of any species and then some.

Tying the glo bug reminds me a great deal of my hunting dog, Gunnar. When we started hunting, all I had to do was take him to the field and he took over from there. There was hardly any effort involved on my part in making him the hunter that he is today. It was his instinct and my occasional good shot that led to our success for pheasants, grouse and partridge over the past five years.

It is the same way with the glo bug. Attach a few pieces of McFly Foam egg yarn to a hook with a dozen wraps of thread, pull up on it, cut it and fluff it and you have the most amazing egg imitator since Eggland’s Best hit supermarket shelves. The flies practically tie themselves. After placing an order from the catalogs now piled next to my office desk, I tied 50 glo bugs up in a morning and completely restocked my supply by the end of the weekend. With my egg box filled, and a few spares to boot, I can tell you that no pattern brightens a vise in January like a glo bug.

If you’re running a temperature with a bout of cabin fever and are looking forward to spring, there’s not much I can do about the weather. What I can tell you is that the world looks a little bit brighter and the fishing this spring will be a whole lot hotter when you have a solid selection of glo bugs at your fingertips. Whether in pink or orange to match actual roe or in chartreuse to trigger bites, you can tie the entire spectrum of these go-to flies in preparation for an egg-citing spring…in our outdoors.

From Bismarck to Brainerd to Balaton, the region has been blasted with the most epic blizzard since those doubled-barreled every-other-weekend storms from the winter of 1996-97. My wife and I crawled along I-94 to visit my family just before the Gulf-fueled, moisture-laden monster dumped 16 inches of snow. We were able to skate our way back on treacherous roads with near-zero visibility just in time to start the new week.

Though the storm didn’t stop our holiday revelry, it did put the kybosh on some well-laid plans for ice fishing with my brother and our buddies over the Christmas weekend. So instead, we gathered around the table and I watched my stack of poker chips and the bag of Chex mix in front of me disappear in an inverse relation to the snowdrift that grew just outside the living room window. As I missed open-ended straights and was out-gutted in 3-2-1, I discussed the future opportunities for ice fishing with my friends, whose company I was more than willing to ante up for. We failed to reach a consensus, but put a lot of options on the table along with our wagers. With the recent snowfall, one thing was a sure bet; I’d be spending a lot more time sitting at the vise than over an ice hole, and I started as soon as I was in the door of the house and unpacked.

With two pheasant skins in hand, I headed up to my office and settled in. The feathers on these late-season birds were nothing short of perfect. Iridescent browns, greens, reds and yellows were offset by shades of cream and gray under the white light of the desk lamp, a perfect palette for what appears to be a long tying season. To get in the rhythm, I began cranking out some of my favorite pheasant flies – a few nymphs to shake the rust off, some tried-and-true dry flies and a couple streamers that all incorporated the pheasant feathers on hand and reminded me of those awesome outings in much warmer seasons past, some half a world away.

The Carey Special Fly

A Special Fly

For a beginner, no homemade fly is more memorable than the one that lands the first fish. For smallmouth on the fly rod, it was an oversized Carey Special that did the trick and got me hooked on the ritual of cranking out a few dozen of these wet flies each season in for bluegills, trout and bass. An effective damselfly nymph-imitator, and a good all-around “looks edible” fly; the Carey Special utilizes a unique pheasant feather and the allure of peacock herl to trigger fish.
The Carey Special
Hook: Wet, 2X Long, Size 8-14
Thread: Black 6/0
Tail: Feather fibers from a church window pheasant feather
Body: Peacock Herl
Hackle: Three turns of a church window pheasant feather

Golden Parachute

Einar’s Parachute Hatcher Fly

When my fly fishing mentor handed me his custom parachute fly, I had no doubt it would catch fish, but I didn’t realize just how many it would bring to my hand. Standing in the cool waters of a Norwegian stream, I cast Einar’s Parachute Hatcher to each rising trout as we worked the pools that teemed with feisty wild browns in northern Norway over five years ago. We ended the two-day segment of the trip with over fifty fish. The memory of our time and success on the water seems as unreal now as the mountains of snow piled high in the front yard. Since then, this struggling mayfly imitator has been a staple in my box and has landed everything from those brown trout to surface-feeding bluegills and bass.

Einar’s Parachute Hatcher
Hook: Curved Scud, Size 12-16
Thread: 6/0, Color to Match Dubbing
Tail: Pheasant Tail Feather Fibers
Body: Dry Fly Dubbing
Post: Antron Yarn
Hackle: Dry Fly Hackle to Match Dubbing

Trusty Rusty

The Rusty Sparrow Fly

The final focus of my early efforts at the vise brought back visions of summer evenings of crappie fishing at the cabin and stripping this fly under the reddened surface of Big Detroit Lake as the specks slashed at every offering. The Rusty Sparrow is another great “something edible” fly that has a permanent spot in my streamer box and is a cabin fever induced modification of the classic Gartside Sparrow pattern. Incorporating the under-utilized filoplumes of the cape and a twist of rump hackle for its collar, the Rusty Sparrow is a great combination of substance and style. At least the fish think so.

The Rusty Sparrow
Hook: Arched Streamer, Size 6-12
Thread: Brown 6/0
Tail: Two Square Pheasant Rump Feathers
Body: Brown and Gray Dubbing, tied “buggy”
Hackle: Rusty Pheasant Rump Hackle
Head: Pheasant Rump Filoplume

Each of these flies’ hallmarks and their dependability come from the materials that form them. There’s hardly a feather on the entire pheasant’s body that can’t be used in some sort of fish-catching fly. I’ll tie up more of these, learn some new ones, and experiment with variations throughout this long winter season. I hope you do the same with the time winter allots us and when the piles of snow have melted and the world shifts from white to green, we can swap these patterns and others streamside on a warm sunny day somewhere…in our outdoors.

For step-by-step tying instructions for these three patterns and more fly tying and lure making tips, log on to www.nicksimonson.com or become a fan on Facebook by searching: Our Outdoors by Nick Simonson.

Nick Simonson

Of all the game birds sportsmen pursue, none is more colorful than the ringneck pheasant. Which makes it a pretty odd fact that the most popular fly used by outdoorsmen is the generally drab looking pheasant tail nymph – or simply, the PTN. Of course, trout, bluegill and other fish don’t seem to mind, considering most of their food sources are brown in color and about a half-inch in length. Sometimes though, little additions make a big difference in triggering fish, and dressing up the PTN with some flash or color can help put fish on the line and electrify your outings.

Pheasant Tail Nymph

So with the materials piling up on the fly tying desk after the pheasant season opener, now is the time to learn some new twists on a classic pattern to help you fire up some fall trout or some spring bluegill. From the addition of beads and flashy wingcases to accented thoraxes and wire bodies, these patterns turn the PTN from drab to dynamite and give you new options to try on your favorite fly fishing flows.

The most common way to highlight the PTN is to add a bead head. Before you start tying the fly, slip a bead to the front of the hook next to the eye and tie the usual nymph body up to it, but take note of the smaller tying area to keep things proportionate. A standard brass bead is still a bit boring, so feel free to experiment with different colors. Black metal beads make for subtle options while providing some extra weight. Or make the fly scream “eat me!” with a blaze-orange metal bead. For a neat color highlight, add a glass bead to the nymph’s head in red, pink, blue or other hue. The options are only limited by the colors you have available, so invest a couple bucks in a variety pack of glass beads or pick up a few brass or tungsten options.

Another body part that can be modified on the PTN is the wingcase, which is pulled over the abdomen of peacock herl. Instead of creating the case with the tail feather fibers, tie them flat and add in a piece of pearlescence, tinsel or other flashy material. Wrap in the herl as normal and fold the pearlescent material up toward the head. Tie it down and trim, creating the legs with the remaining feather fibers and form a thread head. A quick detour from the normal pattern adds some flash to the back of the fly – resulting in this variant’s common name: The Flashback PTN. The same tactic can be applied to any nymph with a wingcase, such as the popular Gold-Ribbed Hare’s Ear.

For an egg-laying appearance or just something different, start your PTN off with a dash of color. After anchoring the tail fibers in place, tie in a small ball of dubbing in pink, orange or chartreuse to fire the fly up from the butt section. From there, wrap the standard body in place and finish the fly as normal. This variant is known in many tying circles as the Hot Butt PTN, for obvious reasons.

Finally, feel free to borrow from another popular pattern to put a new twist on Ol’ Reliable. Using wire, you can combine the flashy abdomen of a popular midge pattern – the brassie – with the bulk of the PTN. Simply form the body of the pheasant tail nymph by twisting the wire over the abdomen area to provide both weight and flash. Tie in two pieces of different colored wire and wrap them side-by-side up to the herl thorax area for added attraction.

All of these variations on the classic pheasant tail nymph will expand your skills at the vise and should give fish something new to consider next season. The options are limited only by your imagination and by experimenting with material and pattern combinations during the tying season you might just find next year’s hot pattern on your vise, just waiting to be tested on your favorite trout or panfish waters…in our outdoors.

Pheasant Tail Nymph

Author with a nice smallmouth

Except for a few wily grayling in the cold running streams of northern Norway, few freshwater fish have fought as valiantly on the flyrod as the smallmouth bass of my home water. These fish, from late April through October on the Sheyenne River and others like it in the upper Midwest, are happy to oblige a fly fisherman working a streamer down a rip-rapped bank, or one skillfully cast under overhanging trees. The big fish, those over 17 inches, bite best in spring and fall but can be found in the warmest months with enough probing. Constant action from one- to two-pound fish can be had all season long.

Of course there are many patterns that will take smallmouth bass on many different waters. I’ve caught them while presenting size 14 dry flies and landed them on large pike streamers. But there are three patterns that have provided more success, season after season, than all others. As a result, these three populate my smallmouth fly box in a variety of colors and sizes. This trio is a set of flies no fly angler should be without when pursuing bronzebacks. The remaining months of the hard water season provide ample time to tie (or buy) these effective patterns in order to be ready when the smallie rush is on to stage, spawn and smash every offering they see with greed and gusto.

Clouser Minnow

This fly is the Godfather of all smallmouth flies. Designed specifically for the pursuit of smallies in east coast streams by Bob Clouser, the bucktail pattern is the forerunner of all smallmouth patterns, as it is in many anglers’ streamer boxes. The design is simple, the presentation is easy and the result of fishing one is typically an aerobatic assault from a hooked smallmouth.

The bass fishing flies mentioned in the article

The pattern consists of bucktail (or a synthetic hair) in an attractor color, such as chartreuse, as the back of the minnow over a layer of Krystal Flash material followed by an underbelly of white bucktail. A set of barbell eyes serves as the weight to put the pattern in the strike zone, lending to its original name of Clouser’s Deep Minnow. In the water – particularly the clearer flows of late spring – the streamer is a thing of beauty. The hairs pulse and tremble, and the Krystal Flash strands fire off glints of sunlight which one can only assume trigger that “it’s scaled, better eat it” reaction in the brains of all bronzebacks.

The pattern can also be customized to various prey species. In oranges, blacks, blues and browns, with the darker bucktail over the lighter, the Clouser Minnow becomes a crayfish imitator. Green or olive over a small amount of black bucktail and a white belly makes a great baby bass pattern. They can be tied up sparse, as recommended for baitfish imitation, or thicker for a fuller body profile to imitate crayfish. A solid selection of Clouser Minnows in a variety of colors is a must for anglers pursuing smallmouth on the fly.

The Woolly Bugger

The Woolly Bugger is everything to all fish. It’s a minnow, it’s a crayfish, it’s a nymph, it’s a leech, it’s a worm, it’s a bird, it’s a plane, it’s Superman. The smallmouth is as common a victim to the wiles of the Woolly Bugger’s marabou-and-hackle attraction as a trout or panfish.

The tail of marabou undulates in the current like a minnow or a leech, the hackle fibers tense and relax like the legs of a crayfish or the gills of a dragonfly nymph. The basic materials – chenille, wet hackle and marabou – all come together so nicely on the fly-tying vise that for many it is the first pattern attempted when learning how to put a fly together with feathers and thread.

Fished higher up in the column, without weight, the Bugger is a free-floating form, a morsel lost in current. With a few twists of .02-gauge lead wire underneath the chenille body, or a shiny bead head, it becomes a minnow or water insect squirting through the water column. With chain-link or barbell eyes holding it close to the bottom, it becomes a crayfish or a dragonfly larva scouring the substrate.

If you’re fly fishing for smallmouth, or any fish for that matter, a solid selection (maybe even a boxful) of Woolly Buggers, are worth tying this offseason.

Mickey Finn

Along with its brother, the Blacknosed Dace, these compact bucktail streamers are quick ties and effective at triggering fish. The traditional Mickey Finn is simply a three-part wing of yellow bucktail over red bucktail over yellow bucktail with a streamer hook dressed in silver tinsel. Meanwhile, the Blacknosed Dace is a similar pattern of black bucktail over brown bucktail over white bucktail over a gold-tinsel-covered hookshank with a pinch of red yarn tied in at the bend.

I like to substitute oranges and white for the standard colors in a Mickey Finn. Make it a Tricky Finn with your own color scheme or a Trippy Finn with wild attractor colors such as pink, purple and chartreuse. But don’t stop there, change tinsel colors or use colored wire for the hookshank dressing. Try pearlescent, red, orange or blue tinsel or copper wire for a new twist on some old highlights.

Switch the colors in the Dace pattern around as well, using green, white and a few strands of Flashabou for an emerald shiner. Or go gray and white with some solitary blue and yellow thrown in, and a Sharpie-drawn dot for a spottail shiner. Make the standard red tail something different, like chartreuse, pink or some other color that smallies in a given water key in on. Tie a few of each pattern up and experiment with them this upcoming season.

The key is to keep using classic patterns, mixing and matching their components and trying them out, season after season. Work new variants into your box, bounce them around on the bottom, strip them through likely smallie haunts and staging areas and hold on for the wildest battle you can find on a fly rod from April to Autumn…in our outdoors.

A nice muskie caught while fishing at night

Fall not only represents a time to return to the field, but also a time to restock fly tying and lure making materials for the winter. From partridge and grouse in the early season, to ducks, pheasants and deer as cold air sets in, the bounty of nature on the wing and hoof can help you land a number of finned species next spring.

The feathers of the Hungarian partridge, particularly the barred soft feathers of the chest and back, are popular soft-hackles for forming collars on wet and nymph flies. The Partridge and Yellow and a variety of similar soft hackles from England, dubbed “Spiders” get their attraction from the subtle undulations of the partridge hackle fibers. Sharptail grouse and ruffed grouse also have an abundance of soft hackle feathers that can be used for a change of pace in wet hackle patterns as well.

The most popular upland game bird in the upper Midwest is arguably the ringneck pheasant. The vibrant coloration of the male ringneck also makes it a well-liked bird among fly tyers as it is so versatile at the vise. The tail feather fibers are a standard in many nymph patterns, which imitate the underwater phase of a variety of insects. In fact the Pheasant Tail Nymph (PTN) is a basic pattern which is tied with just the tail fibers and a couple turns of peacock herl to imitate immature mayflies. The tail fibers can also be knotted to form leg imitations on many popular grasshopper flies. The variety of rump, chest and back feathers of the ringneck pheasant are great on soft hackles and can also be tied up to make some flashy streamers. Save the skin and tail of a ringneck for a productive winter at the vise.

Time in the blind or on the X can help you stock up on popular waterfowl feathers for fly tying as well. Mallards, a popular pursuit in the sloughs and on the lakes of the upper Midwest, provide a bevy of materials for fly tying. Mallard shoulders and flanks provide great feathers for streamers that are popular for salmon as well as a variety of nymphs and wet flies.

A turkey tag also opens you up to a world of possibilities, as wild turkey quills are a staple for fly tying. Wing cases on nymphs and wings on wet flies, and the elongated wings of grasshopper imitations can be fashioned from the durable fibers of the wild turkey quills.

Big game, especially whitetail deer, provide a great source for both fly tying and lure making materials. The most popular deer material for both fly tying and standard lure dressing is the tail of the whitetail deer. In the natural colors of brown and white, or died in a variety of attractor colors such as red, yellow, chartreuse and purple, the bucktail fibers make a pulsating attraction when tied on to the collar of a standard jig or on a streamer hook.. Don’t forget to dress up the standard treble hooks on spoons and crankbaits with a little red bucktail as well.

The body hair of the whitetail deer is a very buoyant material, and should be saved for beetle patterns, as well as a number of high-riding trout flies for fast water. It can be died and spun into the bodies of popular bass bugs, such as frogs, mice and poppers. It also makes a great wing and doubles for elk hair in a pinch, for those Midwesterners who can’t make it to the Rockies or draw a once-in-a-lifetime tag.

These common game animals, along with the less common ones, like moose, bear, elk and antelope, provide a variety of materials to use in standard patterns, or to experiment with throughout the long winter. Save a patch of fur and feathers from each species you pursue to help fill your fly box this winter and dress those jigs and spinners for springtime walleye and pike, but only after enjoying a successful set of fall seasons…in our outdoors.

Easter weekend, with most of my peers hunting snow geese somewhere from Nebraska to North Dakota, I was in Northern California. My father and I had made the journey from St. Paul together by plane. We were going to visit my sister and her fiancé and their new child my first nephew Martin. I was a trip that was full of new discoveries.

A nice Trinity River Steelhead

Although my sister’s fiancé, Michael Sonn, and I are separated by distance, we share a passion for fishing. He is the kind of guy that keeps his G-Loomis rod in the back of his car in case an opportunity to do some casting presents itself.

When we first arrived we inquired if we would like to do some fishing, and made a quick call to his friend Alex who happens to be a local guide. Luckily for me Alex was available to take us out for a float trip the following day on the Trinity River in search of Steelhead.

Before we all went out for dinner Michael and I went to a local sporting goods store were I purchased the proper licensing. There we also picked up some Roe to use for bait. After dinner with the sun setting we all went for a walk along a coastal marsh in Humboldt Bay. There we saw Greater Canada geese, buffleheads and a few flocks of green-winged teal returning from their wintering grounds.

It was dark when Michael picked me at my hotel the following morning. In northern California it was 5:15 am, back in Minnesota it was 7:15 am, about the normal time I wake up for work. We picked up some coffee at a drive through and headed for the mountains.

To get to the Trinity River from Manila you must drive over a mountain pass through parts of the Redwood Forest. Taking this route you pass by the areas where some of my favorite scenes from the Star Wars movie, Return of the Jedi, was filmed. It is an eerie drive in the dark, with fog clinging in the clearings and clouds at eye-level.

We met Alex in a small town near a public landing along the river. We dropped his truck off at the landing and made our way along the river to his house. Alex is fortunate enough to live along the river and has the opportunity to keep his drift boat down the bank from his house. One day he launches the boat upstream and does a float to his house. The following day he does a float from his house downstream to another launch. Fishing all the way.

It had just lightly rained the night before in the mountains and the water clarity was perfect. Too much rain and the Trinity becomes green and Steelhead cannot see your bait. Too little rain and the water is crystal clear and the Steelhead flush at the approach of the drift boat.

Alex explained that steelhead fishing was a lot like muskie fishing in the sense that it takes a lot of time on the water to land a fish. He also went through the various techniques we would be using to entice them. He explained these things all while tying up multiple fishing lines on the bank of the Trinity before we pushed off.

Once we got out into the current, you could feel the power of the Trinity. Throughout the river there was steep ledges, powerful curves and deep channels. You have to fish using the current. My impression of steelhead fishing is a mix of cat fishing and walleye fishing. One must play the current like you do for cats, with the finesse you need for walleyes.

The first couple breaks in the river we practiced the routine we would be going through to present our bait to the Steelhead. The drift boat captain and fisherman must work as a team, playing the current with the boat and bait, to be successful. The object is to have the boat drift through the breaks at the same speed as the bait. This way you can cover the most ground, presenting the bait in front of the fish that are suspended in the strongest current.

We were anchored, casting into a good break just a mile into the drift when I hooked into my first Steelhead. Steelheads have a strong backbone like pike; dig into the water like walleyes and jump like bass. On the Trinity fisherman are required to use barb-less hooks, which makes landing a fish tricky. I fought the fish I hooked for several minutes before losing it at the boat. I was disappointed but felt lucky to have fought a Steelhead.

Shortly after that I would briefly have another Steelhead on the line. We saw the fish roll and flash in the river before spitting the hook. Alex told to me that he saw me set the hook upstream and explained that with Steelhead you want to set the hook downstream, going against what would seem natural.

Later in the day Michael would hook into another Steelhead that would break his line and that would be our only action of the day. Pretty typical explained Alex, usually you hook into more fish then you land. He said on the best day he has had on the river his boat hooked into twenty fish and landed fourteen.

My father, who I would coin as a luckier individual then myself, landed a nice native Steelhead on an earlier trip with Michael and Alex. The beautiful fish was returned into the powerful Trinity in compliance with the regulations. That evening when Michael and I were driving back into Humboldt Bay we saw thousands of Aleutian geese feeding in the green fields surrounding the water. It was another awesome sight, some of the flocks of these sub-species of Canada geese were feeding right off the road. For this old waterfowler, these simple pleasures are priceless. I am already looking forward to my next trip to Northern California to fish for Steelhead again.
For information on fishing with Alex check out www.jetstreamguideservice.com.

Tying a Globug fly

In my quest for steelhead knowledge, I have found some interesting patterns, from complex streamers to simple nymphs. Stocking the fly box has been both rewarding and exciting as my arsenal takes shape for my trip to the shores of Lake Superior this spring.

The most enjoyable box to compile has been the one containing various egg flies. This is due in part to the simplicity of the egg patterns and their bright hues of pink, orange and yellow. What follows are three of my favorite egg flies learned this off-season, which are simple, fun and proven patterns for the North Shore, which I have been told no angler should be without.

Glo Bug

Thread: 3/0 or 6/0 to match pattern, or white
Hook: Curved hook such as a Scud or Egg Hook size 10-14, 2X strong
Body: McFly Foam to match the spawn, from pink to peach to chartreuse

Of all the patterns, this one has been the most engaging. How a simple material turns from stringy mess into a perfect pom-pom is beyond me, but it sure produces some great looking egg flies. McFly Foam is inexpensive and is available in multi-color packs for under five dollars, meaning you can tie dozens of eggs in a variety of colors for what you would pay for five of them from a catalog!

Anchor your thread on the hook shank and build a small base. Select a length of McFly Foam, and separate it into halves or thirds and surround the hook shank with it. Secure the material to the hook with a wrap over it, clinching tight on the pull down, and on the way back up. Make another wrap exactly on top of the first wrap, and then a third wrap on top of that one.

Lift the foam out of the way and advance the thread toward the bend of the hook making two tight wraps under the material, as close to the tie-in point as possible. Then move the thread back in front of the material and make two or three wraps. Whip finish and tie off.

With your thumb and forefinger, grasp the McFly Foam and pull up, making sure all of the material is pulled up from the shank. Keep tension on the material while taking your scissors in your other hand. Trim the McFly Foam while still applying pressure. If you cut high, the egg will be big, if you cut near the hook shank, it will be smaller in diameter. Many Glo Bugs use a 90/10 color mix, with the lesser color acting as a yolk or blood spot to add some realism.
Thread: 6/0 color to match body
Hook: Nymph or curved nymph hook, size 10-14, 2X strong
Body: Medium Estaz in pink, orange and chartreuse
Tail: 10-15 strands of Krystal Flash.
Weight: 6 wraps of lead wire

Tying an Estaz Egg fly

Estaz Egg

This simple pattern looks like a shooting star and adds some sparkle to the standard egg presentation. Start by wrapping the lead wire in the center of the hook. Then secure the lead with your thread. Advance the thread to one hook-eye length behind the lead wraps. Here you can tie in a Krystal Flash tail, about one hook-shank in length. Next, tie down a three-inch length of estaz material at the back end of the lead wraps and advance your thread to the front of the lead wraps.

Cover the lead wraps with the estaz material, forming a round profile by wrapping back over the center a couple times. Once the egg reaches a round proportion, tie off the estaz near the front of the hook, whip finish and trim. Add a small bit of head cement. The weight will get the fly down in the column, and the flash should trigger strikes in all egg-seeking fish. Thread: Red 6/0
Hook: Scud hook, size 10-14, 2X strong
Body: Medium pink chenille
Weight: 6 wraps of lead wire

Tying a liamna pinky fly

liamna Pinky

Named for the renowned Alaskan lake that is as famous for its trout and salmon fishery as it is for the monster that is believed to live beneath its surface; the Iliamna Pinky is a simple egg pattern that has been proven on big steelhead in Lake Superior. While it may not necessarily look like an egg, it is hard to deny this fly a spot in any egg box.

Start by securing the six lead wraps to the shank with your thread. When you reach the back of the lead wraps, tie in a three-inch strand of pink chenille. Vary the colors to cover the whole spectrum, but pink is a must-have.
Wrap the chenille forward with an edge-to-edge palmering that covers the lead wraps entirely. Make one final turn of the chenille in front of the lead wraps, and secure it. Trim the chenille and tie a small thread head in front of the body. Whip finish and cement, and you are done!

These flies are fast, fun and fill the box quickly! From the words of one adviser, if you don’t have at least five-dozen eggs in your North Shore box in a variety of colors, you’re probably under-stocked. The patterns work on more than just steelhead too. Try them out in the spring on your favorite trout pond, when ice has just lifted or in the fall on spawning-run browns. Make it an egg-cellent season this year…in our outdoors.