What's Catching You Fish?

James St. Clair

Life of the Party
Forum Supporter
Here is that fly from a few pages back. I posted some pics of the fish, but not the fly. This was the fly I tied for a different river and never caught a fish. This fall I decided to give it another go and it flat out killed 'em. I fished it under this October Caddis dry thay was also extremely succesful. But, they ate this nymph so well it was hard to get a nice long drift with the dry. Basically a Spanish Bullet with grizzly soft hackle. I'd love to know what they are taking it for that time of year (late fall)...

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Tom Butler

Grandpa, Small Stream Fanatic
Forum Supporter
The red fox squirrel nymph copy worked, but even with a layer and 1/2 of weighted wire it wasn't really heavy enough. I'll work up some other versions too when I get the proper materials. I like this one, Thank You Dave Whitlock, rip. I fished some other flies too, GRHE's and eggs, and this one really held it's own, even if not perfect for the conditions.
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This one inhaled it, but after cutting the leader I realized I could fish it right out.
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It was the better part of this double too.
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Tom Butler

Grandpa, Small Stream Fanatic
Forum Supporter
I guess I should call the ones with feather tails March Browns(?), and GRHE have mask tails? Not sure it matters, the magic is in the fur and a nice partridge soft hackle makes them quite enticing. These with an orange prism dub hot spot have been good for several weeks now.
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This little guy was so pretty I had to take a picture.
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Zak

Legend
Forum Supporter
I guess I should call the ones with feather tails March Browns(?), and GRHE have mask tails? Not sure it matters, the magic is in the fur and a nice partridge soft hackle makes them quite enticing. These with an orange prism dub hot spot have been good for several weeks now.
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This little guy was so pretty I had to take a picture.
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@Tom Butler you are a fish-catching machine!
 

QuickreleaseEN

Steelhead
I'd be remiss if I didn't give a shoutout to this fly. Not the pattern, but this one fly.
I call it the two-step because of it's simplicity. It's just a collar of blended craft fur, a little fox and some UV flash. Then, gold flash over the back and a head of olive and white laser dub. Adding eyes via UV cure takes the longest.

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The above fly has been nothing but great to me. Last thanksgiving it spent a few hours in a cold Montana river, hooking around 15 nice cutthroat and a few browns and rainbows. This year, it spent another few hours in a different, much colder Montana river. At a deep hole, it moved at least one brown every cast for about half an hour with over 25 landed- without me needing to shuffle my feet once.

I ended up breaking the fly off on a bit of submerged structure on the far bank but discovered that the log it was stuck on was reachable, only penance being a soaking wet sleeve.

Now its got a dull hook, a busted up bead, and chips in the UV cure.
Still getting it done back in WA.

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