This year, it seemed that every pheasant was a trophy.  Whether it was those early birds on opening weekend with half-colored feathers, or that lone rooster coming late in the season, each one provided a welcome warm meal and a new crop of pheasant feathers for fly fishing.  With one season behind us, another one begins – the fly tying season.  And I’ve been hard at it already, tying up new patterns with feathers from my favorite bird, beyond the nymphs and soft hackles that are so common.  Here are just a few for you to try.
The Copper Sawyer

Humpies and Stimulators are some of my favorite dries, and big flashy streamers are fun to tie and neat to see in the water. Nymphs aren’t usually so flashy, but that doesn’t mean they can’t be. The Copper Sawyer is a good mix of the usual nymph features – brown and buggy – with a little added flash and weight thanks to some copper ultra wire; and best of all it is a simple two-material fly made with feathers from our favorite bird – AND it catches fish.
Materials
Hook: Nymph, Size 12-18
Thread: Brown 6/0
Tail, Body, Wingcase: Pheasant Tail Fibers
Abdomen: Copper Ultra Wire

Tie in 6-10 pheasant tail fibers so the tips hang one-third of the hook shank length beyond the bend, serving as the tail. Tie in a 3-inch strip of copper ultra wire (use Medium for size 12-14 hooks, and Small for hooks size 16 and smaller). Wrap the remaining fibers forward about 2/3 of the hook shank and tie off, advancing your thread to the hook eye. Then wrap the ultra wire forward, segmenting the thorax. When you reach the tie off point, use the ultra wire to form the abdomen by tightly wrapping it forward and then back over the first wraps to the tie off point, trimming the wire neatly. Fold the tied-off feather fibers over the wire abdomen forming a wingcase, tie them off and trim. Form a head with the thread, whip finish and cement.

Simple Streamer

This two-material fly is a short streamer that can be used for bluegills or crappies.  It wraps up quick and uses all-pheasant fibers to trigger fish.

Materials
Hook: Streamer, Size 8-12
Thread: Brown 6/0
Body: Gray Underfeather
Collar: Pheasant Rump Overfeather

You’ll need a streamer hook, a rump feather from a rooster and the gray underfeather beneath it. Simply tie in the underfeather and wrap it forward for the body.Then tie in a rump feather – a nice big blue-green one from the top of the rump – by the tip and turn it around a couple times behind the hook eye for a collar, trim it and tie off. Whip finish, cement, and you’re done!

Advanced Streamer
This bigger, badder version of the previous fly works great on smallmouth bass and aggressive trout.  It has more substance and style to send bigger predator fish into a frenzy – and except for two pieces of tinsel – it is all pheasant-powered!

Materials
Hook: 3X Long Streamer, Size 8-12
Thread: Brown (or Red) 6/0
Tail: Pheasant Marabou
Body: Gray Underfeather
Lateral Line: Tinsel of Your Choice
Collar: Two Pheasant Rump Overfeathers

With a streamer hook secured in your vise, select a full marabou-tipped middle layer rump feather from a rooster and strip the fibers from it. Tie the fibers in as the tail of the fly. Next, find a fairly long after feather with bushy gray marabou all along it and tie it in by the tip, just in front of the marabou tail. From there, wrap the gray feather forward, forming a nice thick body, giving the fly a minnow-like appearance. Trim and tie off about 1/4 of the hook shank behind the eye.

Now tie in a piece of tinsel on both sides, forming a colorful streak for some fish-attracting flair – you can use silver, gold, pearl, red, whatever – make the fly your own! This tinsel should reach the end of the marabou tail. Finally, select two bright colored rump feathers (the blue-green ones around the tail) and tie them by the tips over the tinsel. Advance your thread and wrap the feathers around the hook to form a collar on the fly. Trim off the excess, cover with thread, form a small head, whip finish, cut the thread and cement for posterity. You can add lead wraps or a bead head at the beginning for more weight.  Fill your fly box with an army of these flies built with pheasant feathers for fly fishing and you’ll be ready for some fast spring fishing…in our outdoors.

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In the past few weeks, I’ve touched upon different jig patterns and fly patterns on tap for the new year in my articles and that, along with what looks to be a winter that will cause a cabin fever epidemic of historic proportions, has elicited some emails and Facebook messages asking me what the best way is to get into fly tying and lure making tips. There’s no better time than now to get into making your own flies, jigs and other lures so they’ll be ready in time for spring fishing and there are many excellent starter kits and tutorials available for the novice.

Get Set
Most of the necessary tools can be purchased in a starter kit which contains a simple vise, scissors, bobbin, whip finisher, hackle pliers and other basic implements. Most starter kits will contain a selection of hooks, threads, dubbings, hackles, marabou and other materials along with a pattern book showing how to tie a number of basic flies. Some kits are more in-depth than others, teaching techniques as well as patterns, but ultimately one can start tying up simple fish-catching flies right out of the box. A selection of kits is available from online retailers, including a number of basic and expanded offerings from both Cabela’s (www.cabelas.com) and Orvis (www.orvis.com).

In addition to the books included with these kits, there are a number of excellent online resources to help the beginning tier get acclimated to various techniques, materials and patterns. The best tutorial I have encountered, and the one I used a great deal in developing my own fly tying skills, is the Beginning Fly Tying series created by Al Campbell for the fly fishing megasite Fly Anglers Online (FAOL – www.flyanglersonline.com). After introducing the reader to the tools and basic fly tying techniques, Campbell walks the novice through patterns that are not only easy and cool-looking but are ones that also catch fish. Each lesson builds upon the last and teaches a specific technique or two applied directly to popular patterns. While originally released as a weekly installment series, the tutorial allows the beginner to go at his or her own pace. Before his untimely passing, Campbell followed his basic course up with an Intermediate and Advanced curriculum, both also available at FAOL along with forums and weekly patterns to continue exploring the world of fly fishing and fly tying.

Expand Abilities
While one doesn’t necessarily have to know how to tie flies to make other lures, it certainly helps. The techniques learned on nymphs, dry flies and particularly streamers, will transfer over quickly if you’re interested in tying crappie and walleye jigs, trout spinners, bucktails and other standard tackle items. While fly-tying is a widely covered topic with dozens of specialty sites, standard lure making doesn’t have as much of a front-facing presence on the Internet. With a little looking though, great resources can be discovered, including the forums of Tackle Underground (www.tackleunderground.com) where everything from spinnerbait and bass jig construction to crankbait shaping and soft-plastic pouring are discussed.

Again, if you’re looking to dive right into lure making, a vise and basic tools are a necessity for holding hooks in place for dressing and stabilizing wire frames for component assembly, and these tools are available without the fly-tying materials from most online tackle retailers. Beyond these necessities, new lure makers can also find kits designed around their specific interest. Cabelas, Jann’s Netcraft (www.jannsnetcraft.com) and Lure Parts Online (www.lurepartsonline.com) sell kits for most lure types that can be bought in a tackle shop, including in-line spinners for trout, pike and muskies, spinnerbaits for bass, crawler harnesses for walleyes and jigs for everything from bluegill to walleyes to saltwater species. After a time, you’ll know the sizes and types of components necessary to make the lures you want for the species you pursue and you can place specific part orders to fit your needs.

For me, fly tying led to spinner making, and spinner making into jigs and crawler harnesses, so be forewarned that it is difficult to turn back when you start catching fish on the lures you make. The creation of a good-looking fly or jig keeps the fire for fishing burning well into the coldest nights of winter and the reward of landing a fish the next season on a hand-crafted lure is one of the best I’ve experienced, whether it’s a muskie on a homemade bucktail or a crappie on a flashabou jig. Give fly tying or lure making a try this winter and you will find next spring even more rewarding…in our outdoors.

For a comprehensive listing of various fly tying and lure making links to help you get started, log on to www.nicksimonson.com and check out the Links section and “Like” Our Outdoors by Nick Simonson on Facebook for weekly fly, jig and lure patterns throughout the coming months.

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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

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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.

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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.)

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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.

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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.

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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

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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.

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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.

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