EAR NYMPH
Weighted or unweighted, these match-all bugs fool
trout in any water.
GRIFFITH’S GNAT When trout are eating super-tiny bugs, it’s hard to beat this
classic midge paern.
BLACK GHOST This classic Maine-born streamer is killer
for trout holding in fast water.
BLUE-WING OLIVE These lile mayflies are ubiquitous on rivers nationwide, and they
hatch almost year-round.
DAVE’S HOPPER
Most people are inclined to pick larger sizes to match big grasshoppers, but the smaller sizes may get
you more strikes.
ROYAL WULFF Split parachute wings let this dry fly ride high through fast water.
Use it with a dropper nymph.
BLACK WOOLLY-BUGGER
This universal streamer matches everything from leeches to baitfish and oen
produces when all else fails.
COPPER JOHN This wire-bodied nymph sinks rapidly and stays deep, where many
of the biggest trout lurk.
BREADCRUST This generic wet fly caddis imitation scores big trout solo or when swung in tandem with
a small streamer.
ELK HAIR CADDIS Simply the best caddis imitation you can find. I carry light and dark
styles in sizes 12 to 20.
MUDDLER MINNOW
One of the best generic baitfish imitators, this streamer shines in
slow or fast water.
PARACHUTE ADAMS
Arguably the most versatile dry fly ever tied, the Parachute Adams’ white post also makes it
easy to follow on the dri.
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T
he Woolly Bugger is the perfect paern for a
TIE A
FIVE-MINUTE FLY
learning fly-tier. It’s big, so you can see what you’re doing, and it involves only a few inexpensive materials. Most important, it’s a proven producer for trout, bass, and almost anything in between. The savvy angler always has at least a few Buggers in the ol’ fly box.
STEP 1 Wrap a piece of black 6/ thread along the length of a size elongated hook. Always wrap the thread away from yourself, over the top of the hook.
STEP 2 Secure one large black marabou feather at the front of the hook and wrap all the way back to the bend. Leave enough exposed to create a tail.
STEP 3 Connect a -inch ( cm) piece of fine copper wire by the tail and also a strand of black chenille. Wrap the thread forward, then the chenille, but leave the wire behind. Next, tie off the chenille with a half hitch.
STEP 4 Now tie on a saddle hackle feather (black or grizzly), palmer it back (i.e., wrap with spacing), and secure this with a couple wraps of the wire. Trim the leover hackle. Wrap the wire forward and tie it off with the thread. Trim the excess wire.
STEP 5 Finish the fly with a tapered thread head. Use a whip-finish knot, apply a dab of head cement, and you’re done.
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4
5
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KNOW
YOUR BUGS
Instead of grabbing a fly and hoping that you’re close, get some inside information by seining a stream before you fish it. First wade out to where fish typically hold. Firmly grasp a small hand seine downstream of your feet on the creek bottom and turn over a dozen or so rocks. Bring up the net and look
closely. Also check the surface flow in the current below if fish are actively feeding around you. You should pick up hatching insects, as well as any terrestrials that have the fish turned on. You don’t need to be an entomologist to figure out what to do with what you seine.
MAYFLY NYMPHS come in many forms depending on the particular species: crawling, swimming, and burrowing. Try to match the general size, color, and profile of the insect.
STONEFLY NYMPHS are oen large and can’t swim, so they crawl from stream booms to dry land or overhangingvegetation to emerge. Match color and size to entice trout.
CADDISFLY NYMPHS have two aquatic life stages. The larva lives in a tiny tube made of twigs and sand. It then seals itself into a case to pupate and grow legs and wing pads.
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Practice AnimalMagnetism
The long, flexible hair from a deer’s tail is widely used in making bucktail jigs as well as streamer flies like the Clouser Deep Minnow. Deer body hair, meanwhile, is shorter, stiffer, and hollow. It can be spun around a hook shank with thread and trimmed to make floating bass bugs. In either case, you can have the satisfaction of catching fish with lures and flies made from your own trophy, if you happen to hunt. Here’s a quick cut to get you there.
CUT AND CURE Start with a fresh deer tail cut at its base from the hide. Slice open the hide to expose the tailbone and remove the bone, starting at the base and working on the underside. Scrape away as much fat and tissue as possible. To get the right deer body hair, cut a few hide pieces about x inches (x cm)in both white (belly) and brown (back or side) shades, and scrape. Coat the scraped hide with salt and allow to cure, which will take a few days.
COLORS TO DYE FOR Aer the hide dries, gently wash bucktail or body-hair patches in lukewarm water, using a standard household detergent. Rinse thoroughly to get rid of grease and grit. Air-dry the hair, unless you plan to dye it, in which case keep it wet while you ready a dye bath. Deer hair is easily colored with common fabric dyes such as Rit or Tintex. Believe it or not, one of the best dyes to use for some colors such as orange or purple is unsweetened Kool-Aid. The most useful color for both flies and jigs is natural white; save at least one tail without dyeing it. For, say, smallmouth bass jigs, you’ll probably want to dye some tails in green, brown, and orange so your jigs will imitate crayfish.
Making a bucktail jig is easy. Clamp a jighead
by the hook bend in a
fly-tying vise or locking pliers. Fasten somefly-tying or polyester sewing thread right behind the jighead. Separate and grab a 1⁄8-inch-diameter ( mm) clump of white bucktail with your thumb and index finger. Cut this clump at the base of the fibers. Hold it next to
the jig—hair tips to the rear—to gauge desired hair length, then trim the bus accordingly. Now hold the clump so bus are just behind the jighead and secure bu ends of the hair fibers to the hook shank with six to eight tight turns of thread to anchor the hairs onto the hook. Continue adding clumps of hair all the way around the jig. Finish with