Water Boatman
- Thread starter _WW_
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paging @Starman77 
First encountered an evening Boatman hatch at Lake Manzanita in Mt. Lassen park during the early 80's. Had no idea whj\at I was looking at, just knew they floated and moved fast. So tied on my largest beetle imitation, stripped fast and got nailed pretty much every cast for the half hour of the hatch. Since then make sure to have a few of these on hand.
Thanks, Billy, as I probably would have never seen this posting, seeing how I primarily monitor the Lakes forum.paging @Starman77
I'll just attach an article I wrote up some years ago about my T-Waterboatman pattern, as most of the information is still valid. Hope it helps... As for what colors work best in BC, I think any dark color works best, but often the naturals are light tan in color, so you can try those too. Ideally, you would have a dark back and a light-colored belly, but that makes the fly more difficult to tie. Frankly, I haven't found lighter-colored patterns to work any better than dark-colored patterns.
Rex
@Starman77,
Thank you so much for taking the time and effort to open us up to that excellent pattern and how to fish it. Ill be adding them to my box soon.
Seems this week, today actually, is the day Central Oregon has finally turned the corner. I think Spring is here to stay for us. Still snow on Black Butte though, so no planting yet.
Be safe all.
Bob
Thank you so much for taking the time and effort to open us up to that excellent pattern and how to fish it. Ill be adding them to my box soon.
Seems this week, today actually, is the day Central Oregon has finally turned the corner. I think Spring is here to stay for us. Still snow on Black Butte though, so no planting yet.
Be safe all.
Bob
I have tied and fished a backswimmer with great success
Can’t locate the pattern directions though
Good fly
Can’t locate the pattern directions though
Good fly
I should have been using them on my recent trip to NE Oregon because the lake I fished was fully covered a few days before my arrival and half covered when I got there. As @Starman suggests, the trout are used to eating them during winter because they periodically have to come up to the ice for air. That pattern may have worked well.
Yesterday Krusty and I fished a Zipper Lips lake and caught an enormous number of fish. He fished out of a high speed pedal kayak and I used a dead slow float tube. He was able to fish the entire lake and I pretty much confined myself to one rather shallow end of the lake. We were both successful but used different methods to hook fish. Now with a fly rod in his hand instead of a paddle Krusty's catch rate has at least doubled as he has instant contact with the fish.
I fished mostly slow and shallow using a floating line with a clear 15' intermediate sink tip. Two flies that produced the best were a boatman pattern and a flashback halfback that I believe is often taken for a boatman. After breaking off my best boatman I tied on a fresh halfback and continued to hook fish. Best fish of the day was just a bit over 20'' and we each caught just one of that size. I left the halfback on until it was time to leave and it was still catching fish as I approached the takeout. It hardly resembled a fly by then, the tail had a single fiber left and all of the legs had been broken off, the only thing remaining intact was the mylar flashback and I assume that was the trigger that was still attracting fish.
I see some boatmen that are black with a tan belly and others that are mostly tan. Yesterday I saw some take flight right under my rod tip that were actually white, I had never seen that before. Tie them in several colors to match the local menu. I fish them with short fast strips interspersed with pauses, takes are usually hard.
I fished mostly slow and shallow using a floating line with a clear 15' intermediate sink tip. Two flies that produced the best were a boatman pattern and a flashback halfback that I believe is often taken for a boatman. After breaking off my best boatman I tied on a fresh halfback and continued to hook fish. Best fish of the day was just a bit over 20'' and we each caught just one of that size. I left the halfback on until it was time to leave and it was still catching fish as I approached the takeout. It hardly resembled a fly by then, the tail had a single fiber left and all of the legs had been broken off, the only thing remaining intact was the mylar flashback and I assume that was the trigger that was still attracting fish.
I see some boatmen that are black with a tan belly and others that are mostly tan. Yesterday I saw some take flight right under my rod tip that were actually white, I had never seen that before. Tie them in several colors to match the local menu. I fish them with short fast strips interspersed with pauses, takes are usually hard.
I've read that boatmen sometimes "carry" a bubble of air with them to breathe from. If the fish are taking your fly for a water boatmen, I wonder if the flash in the flashback mimics that shiny bubble.
Matt, boatmen lack gills so they must come to the surface to obtain air. Their ingenious solution to that is to use a bubble of air taken from the surface for their extended stay under the water. That bubble is highly reflective and is easily mimicked by a bright reflective material such as mylar. My experience has led me to believe that fish react to to the flash when boatmen are active and they don't spend much time looking for legs or other characteristics.
