What's Catching You Fish?

Tom Butler · Mar 25, 2022

Bob Rankin said:
I’m starting to stock pile for the smokerView attachment 9801

They just don't grow 'em like that 'round these parts. My wife would die, I'll show her when she gets home. With no steelhead season I've been looking for something to smoke from the WDFW p-n-t lakes.

Pink Nighty · Mar 25, 2022

Bob Rankin said:
Same fly all week.
View attachment 9798

That guys find have seen better days!

Billy · Mar 26, 2022

SpeyrodGB · Mar 26, 2022

Rainbow footballs there.

Wanative · Mar 27, 2022

Billy said:
View attachment 9868 View attachment 9869 View attachment 9870 View attachment 9871 View attachment 9872

Those Eastside fish make our westside fish look like anorexic snakes.

clarkman · Mar 31, 2022

good old fashioned trash panda baitfish pattern caught an absolute pile of these today during a recon mission (more on the trip report)....until the first one got so mangled, I had to put another one one.

bass thumb is real....

Billy · Apr 1, 2022

clarkman said:
good old fashioned trash panda baitfish pattern caught an absolute pile of these today during a recon mission (more on the trip report)....until the first one got so mangled, I had to put another one one.

bass thumb is real....

Would you be willing to do a sbs of that fly? I don't remember if you had one on the old site

clarkman · Apr 1, 2022

Billy said:
Would you be willing to do a sbs of that fly? I don't remember if you had one on the old site

Sure. I'll throw one up in the next week.

I've tweaked a few things since I first started tying this style several years ago. Swims better, kicks better, holds its profile better. I dunno if it matters since the very first iterations caught the hell out of early season fish too.

iveofione · Apr 1, 2022

No pictures today but a flashback Halfback in size 14 saved the day on Tuesday. This week was my first time out this year and I visited a Spokane area lake known for it's good sized fish. I wasted nearly 2 hours using a couple of different sinking lines and a variety of flies without getting so much as a bump. Then changing to a floating line and fishing a level leech under an indicator I landed a 20" football shaped rainbow but couldn't repeat the action.

Then with time running out and having an appointment to keep, I tied on the little Halfback and started casting up to within about a foot of the bank. Results were immediate and I hooked 6 more fish in fairly short order, the smallest 16'' and the others about 18''. I had one spectacular breakoff when a fish hit the fly in the first second after it hit the water and snapped a 4x tippet.

Had I started with the Halfback it would probably have been a 10 or 12 fish day but at least I salvaged some of the day. It was curious to see bank fishermen casting as far out into the lake as they could while a couple of us were casting from 30' out into foot deep water at the bank.

Next month I'll be using the tiny flies for big trout act on a lake that Freestone and I both caught 25'' trout in last year. Halfbacks and soft hackles thrown near the weed beds produced big fish along with Carey Specials.

Tom Butler · Apr 1, 2022

Have not been able to sleep, so I tied these last night. Sz 14 cdn blk simi leech. Wasn't paying attention and the 5/32" fl. orange bead is for 8-12, and popped off the first fly. Oh well, lets go for it. I've been going through my stock, alternating rods and lines, a 4 and a 6, or a fast and a slow, to compare so I fished two of them.

both did well for such ugly flies

beautiful morning, but at 28 degrees there was some guide ice this am.

Wes Penny · Apr 1, 2022

A good chunk of my fishing background is stillwater and that’s definitely where my fishing and tying comfort zone is. Having recently moved from the interior of BC to Vancouver Island and literally just a couple minutes from the bank of the Cowichan River, I’m learning to fish rivers and tie the right patterns. I’ve invested in a Czech nymph set up and just starting to get over the frustration of tangled tippet on the rod tip and flys slingshot from boulder snags to high tree branches. But I’m also discovering the beauty of brown trout and how addicting they are.
A recent trip and some rock turning gave me a valuable lesson on golden stonefly nymphs. So I came up with what I hoped would be a successful pattern and so far I haven’t been disappointed.

dpenrod · Apr 2, 2022

Wes Penny said:
A good chunk of my fishing background is stillwater and that’s definitely where my fishing and tying comfort zone is. Having recently moved from the interior of BC to Vancouver Island and literally just a couple minutes from the bank of the Cowichan River, I’m learning to fish rivers and tie the right patterns. I’ve invested in a Czech nymph set up and just starting to get over the frustration of tangled tippet on the rod tip and flys slingshot from boulder snags to high tree branches. But I’m also discovering the beauty of brown trout and how addicting they are.
A recent trip and some rock turning gave me a valuable lesson on golden stonefly nymphs. So I came up with what I hoped would be a successful pattern and so far I haven’t been disappointed.
View attachment 10467 View attachment 10468

Great looking fly! What's that body material if you don't mind sharing?

Wes Penny · Apr 2, 2022

dpenrod said:
Great looking fly! What's that body material if you don't mind sharing?

Thanks!! The body base is yellow Textreme BodyFly, similar to veevus body quill. The darker segments are tinted resin dabbed against sculpin olive wire.

SpeyrodGB · Apr 2, 2022

Wes Penny said:
Thanks!! The body base is yellow Textreme BodyFly, similar to veevus body quill. The darker segments are tinted resin dabbed against sculpin olive wire.

Those look great.

Wanative · Apr 2, 2022

Wes Penny said:
A good chunk of my fishing background is stillwater and that’s definitely where my fishing and tying comfort zone is. Having recently moved from the interior of BC to Vancouver Island and literally just a couple minutes from the bank of the Cowichan River, I’m learning to fish rivers and tie the right patterns. I’ve invested in a Czech nymph set up and just starting to get over the frustration of tangled tippet on the rod tip and flys slingshot from boulder snags to high tree branches. But I’m also discovering the beauty of brown trout and how addicting they are.
A recent trip and some rock turning gave me a valuable lesson on golden stonefly nymphs. So I came up with what I hoped would be a successful pattern and so far I haven’t been disappointed.
View attachment 10467 View attachment 10468

Really nice imitation of a golden stonefly.

Oliver1329 · Apr 5, 2022

Wes Penny said:
Thanks!! The body base is yellow Textreme BodyFly, similar to veevus body quill. The darker segments are tinted resin dabbed against sculpin olive wire.

Could you please do a SBS for this fly?

Northern · Apr 6, 2022

Pleasant day with a central WA trout lake all to myself, so I put my All Songs playlist on shuffle and sang along

Strong, fat, jumpy stockers, so they all looked like this, in the 13-15" range (SO much stronger than the wetside ones!)

As pictured, a red bead black leech was the most popular, with a few others getting random eats

Fish were taken with the following songs and flies (not reporting LDRs)

Ruby eyed leech, black:
• Pink; F**ckin Perfect
• Springsteen; Point Blank
• Joan Jett; Hate Myself for Loving You
• Cash; Ring of Fire
• Dolly Parton; Coat of Many Colors

Maroon hair leech with pink soft hackle collar:
Aaron Tippin; Kiss This

Yellow/brown schlappen bugger:
The Knack; My Sharona

Yellow & olive soft hackle:
Miley & Noah Cyrus; I Got So High That I Saw Jesus