How Much Weight Do You Put on a Nymph Rig?

Here is an excellent article about how much weight to put on a nymph rig. If you nymph rivers this is well worth the read and look!

Take a look RIGHT HERE!

Lee Wulff''s Famous Flies

Hi Everyone!

Well tonight, it was all about Lee Wulff's classic flies. Just before we tied flies tonight, we had a slide show of fly fishing in Belize. The slide show came from the 7 adventurous Central Albertans who went bone and permit fly fishing.

The Wulff series of flies float through choppy and at times rough water without sinking. Lee Wulff successfully used hair wing flies using white tail deer and calf tail or calf body hair! Lee Wulff usually had a single wing although many fly tyers prefer to divide the wings.

Through the years many different  hybrids of the Wulff have developed. The Royal Wulff, White Wulff and Grey Wulff are classics. Today you can also find the Grizzly Wulff and the Adams Wulff!

The challenge with the Wulff series is getting the proportions right and then consistently tying them!

Remember that this Thursday is the IF4 Film Festival at Carnival Theatre You can get your tickets at TC Outfitters for $15 or click on the picture below to buy them on line! We need 125 patrons to break even so bring your spouse and fly fishing buddies. It will be a very enjoyable evening.

Next week is our final fly tying session of the year. Ralf Kuntzemann will close out the tying season for us! Ralf says just bring your regular tying kit, nothing special is required!

(just click on the above banner to get on line tickets)

White Wulff

Hook: Standard Dry Fly sizes 8-16

Thread: UTC 70 denier white or cream

Tail: Calf tail or calf body hair

Body: White/Cream  antron or rabbit

Wing: Calf tail or calf body hair

Hackle: White or Cream

Adams Wulff

Hook: Standard Dry Fly sizes 8-16

Thread: UTC 70 denier grey or grey/brown

Tail: White Tail Deer

Body: Grey antron or rabbit

Wing: Calf tail or calf body hair

Hackle: Dun or Grizzly/Brown

Grey Wulff

Hook: Standard Dry Fly sizes 8-16

Thread: UTC 70 denier grey or grey/brown

Tail: White Tail Deer

Body: Grey antron or rabbit

Wing: White Tail Deer-natural

Hackle: Dun

Royal Wulff

Hook: Standard Dry Fly sizes 8-16

Thread: UTC 70 olive or black

Tail: White Tail Deer

Body: Peacock herl and red floss

Wing: Calf tail or calf body hair

Hackle: grizzly/brown

"Lefty" Kreh has Passed Away

Today was such a sad day! We lost fly fishing legend, Lefty Kreh.

For those interested, head over to the tribute that was posted in the New York Times. It was one of the best tributes I have read!

Sculpins with Doug Pullan

Hi Everybody! 

Doug Pullan was our guest instructor tonight. Doug did a great presentation on sculpins. Doug lead the group in tying a muddler minnow and two sculpin patterns that I can hardly wait to try on our local river and some lakes that I know have sculpins.

Doug's presentation is below. Do take some time to take a look! It is very detailed!

As always Doug, thanks for the fantastic evening of fly tying!

Next week we have a slide show from the Belize group and we will be tying Lee Wulff's famous flies: the White Wulff, the Royal Wulff and the Adams Wulff!

Bring white, black and olive 8/0 thread for next week!

Muddler Minnow

Hook – Streamer Hook #6

Thread – UTC 70 Black

Tail – 2 Mottled Turkey Quills

Rib – Gold Wire

Body – Flat Copper Tinsel

Underwing – Natural Gray Squirrel Tail

Overwing – 2 Mottled Turkey Quills

Head – Deer Hair

Fish Skull Sculpin

Hook – Streamer Hook #6

Thread – 6/0 Olive or Brown

Tail – Barred Rabbit Zonker Strip Olive or Brown

Body – Barred Rabbit Zonker Strip Olive or Brown

Side Fins – Partridge Feather Olive or Brown

Head – Fish Skull Helmet Small Olive or Brown

Wool Head Sculpin

Hook – Streamer Hook #6

Thread – UTC 140 Olive

Under Body – Lead Wire Size .025

Rib – Chartreuse Ultra Wire Brassie

Body – Chartreuse UV Ice Dub

Wing – Rabbit Strip Olive Variant

Throat – Sculpin Wool Red

Head – Sculpin Wool Olive

There are over 300 species of sculpins worldwide, most of them are salt water or brackish water occupants, many being found in North America.

Sculpins are plentiful in rivers but they also found in lakes. They are designed to live and feed on the bottom of the stream or lake bed where structure exists like rocks and logs. When it swims, it sometime appears to be hopping along the bottom because of its inefficient ability to swim. This is partly due to the absence of a stabilizing air bladder which normally gives buoyancy to a fish. When drifting in a stream’s current, they tend to tip up; when swimming, they tend to plane down.

The slimy sculpin which is predominant throughout North America can attain a length of 4.5” although most adults range from 2 to 3 “ long with colorizations of tan, brown and olive. Sculpins have large heads. The eyes are set rather close together on top of the skull. Body conformation is long and narrow. All of the fins, including the tail are rounded. The pectoral fins are unusually large.

Body coloration is dappled to camouflage with the streambed. Sculpins are chameleon-like and change color quickly to match their surroundings, so a pattern to match the colour of the substrate is always a good choice.

The primary food slimy sculpin prey on is invertebrate benthic insects, which make up 85% or more of their diet, but has also been known to eat crustaceans, fish eggs, and small fish. The invertebrate benthic insects on which the sculpin prey includes aquatic insects such as mayflies, caddis flies, stoneflies, and dragonflies.

There are many sculpin patterns that are available to the fly fishermen but one stands out among the crowd. That pattern is the Muddler Minnow.

The Muddler Minnow was originated by Don Gapen of Anoka, Minnesota in 1937, to imitate the slimy sculpin. In 1937 Gapen developed this fly to catch Nipigon strain brook trout located in  Ontario, Canada. The Muddler, as it is informally known by anglers, was popularized by Montana, United States fisherman and fly tier Dan Bailey. It is now a popular pattern worldwide and is likely found in nearly every angler's fly box, in one form or another.

The versatility of the Muddler Minnow stems from this pattern's ability to mimic a variety of aquatic and terrestrial forage, ranging from sculpins, to leeches, to grasshoppers, crickets, spent mayflies, emerging green drakes, stonefly nymphs, mice, tadpoles, dace, shiners, chubs, and other "minnows," along with a host of other creatures.

There are limitless material and colour variations, however the essence of the Muddler Minnow is a spun deer hair head. While each Muddler may differ in colour or profile, all true Muddlers have a fore-end or body of spun deer hair that is clipped close to the shank to provide a buoyant head. Typically there is an underwing of squirrel hair and a wing of mottled secondary turkey feather. Often the fly body is made of gold/silver Mylar or tinsel wrapped around the hook shank. Marabou may be tied in as a substitute wing for colour and lifelike movement through the water. The head may be weighted or unweighted, according to the style of fishing, the target species and the intended imitation. The traditional Muddler uses brown mottled turkey quill segments for both tail and wing. It also seems to lack the underwing of gray squirrel tail. As originally tied by Don Gapen (and as still tied by The Gapen Company today), the Muddler Minnow's head was sparse and "raggedy," the head and collar being fashioned from a single clump of deer hair. The dense head featured on most of today's Muddlers was the invention of Dan Bailey, ca. 1950, because Muddlers were mainly used to imitate large grasshoppers out West back in the 1950s.

Muddler patterns are generally effective when fishing for any freshwater or saltwater species in cold or warm water environments. This pattern is most often used to catch all species of trout, steelhead, Arctic char, large grayling, both Atlantic and Pacific salmon, taimen, lenok, smallmouth and largemouth bass, pike, redfish (red drum), tarpon, and almost anything else that swims.

Effective retrieval tactics include stripping the floating Muddler across the water surface rhythmically, imparting a "wake", or allowing the Muddler to sink and twitching or pulsating it against or across a river's current. An unweighted Muddler will float and appears as a hopper, moth or struggling mouse. With a tiny piece of split shot in front of it (or an intermediate flyline) the Muddler can be made to swim slowly over weedbeds and shallow gravel bars. With more weight, the Muddler can be stripped wildly in the shallows to imitate and alarmed baitfish, or allowed to settle in deeper water. When weighted—either on the fly itself, with split shot, or a sinking leader or line—the Muddler may be fished right on the bottom to effectively imitate a sculpin. When imitating sculpins, Muddlers must be kept right on the bottom and fished slowly, with occasional fast strips of maybe a foot to a yard, as if trying to escape a predator.

Andros Island in the Bahamas with Bruce Tilbrook!

Bruce Tilbrook and three other fellows did some bonefishing at Bare Bones Club on Andros at Mangrove Cay. 

Here is a trip summary!

This is a brand new lodge at Mangrove. They're just now building the website. My brother-in-law and I were there from March 1st to the 7th. The other two guys are still there until the 14th. But we did manage 5 full days of fishing.

The bones averaged 2-4 pounds and a few 5 and 6 pounders were caught. In photo109 the bone lost weight trying desperately to make it to the boat---it lost weight from a shark. I played around to long with him. He definitely would have been around 8 or 9 pounds! Photo 52 is yours truly and brother-in-law Doug with a double. And, photo 102 shows the building where the club is located.

The flies that worked the best were local shrimp patterns and, of course, pinkish-coke coloured Crazy Charlies. Pink Gotchas worked well too.

Transportation to the island is from Nassaua with LeAir---about a 15 minute flight.

I was previously at Andros about 20 years ago on the north end. That time I fished just two days but lucked out the first time with fooling many bones. I was guided by the famous Charlie Smith who invented the Crazy Charlies. I understand he's in his 90s now and doesn't guide anymore due to failing eyesight.

I highly recommend Andros as a bonefish destination.

PMDs (Pale Morning Duns) with Kelly Stickle

Hi Everybody!

Kelly Stickle was our guest tyer last night. It was Kelly's first time doing a presentation with our gang and he did a tremendous job! Kelly's theme was PMDs. He taught us three patterns that include a nymph, an emerger and of course a dry fly! Kelly also shared some very creative ideas on tying PMDs that will certainly make us think about how we construct our flies. I certainly liked his ideas on constructing a parachute post by using UV resin as well as installing hackle around the post with just UV resin holding it. Great ideas Kelly!

Thanks Kelly! Great presentation!

Next week, Doug Pullan is our guest instructor. Doug is doing Muddler Minnows and I believe sculpins. This is a presentation you will not want to miss.

Doug asks you to bring the following thread:  UTC black 70 denier (8/0), UTC olive 70 denier (8/0), UTC 140 Olive (6/0) along with a black permanent marker! See you then!

Split Winged PMD Nymph

Hook: Mustard 3906 size 16

Thread: brown 8/0

Tail: Pheasant dyed yellow

Body: Pheasant dyed yellow

Thorax: Goose biots, Brown; Yellow1 mm razor foam and Canadian Olive dubbing

Kelly's Thin Skin PMD Emerger

Hook: 9671 size 16

Tail: z-lon or antron, brown

Body: pale yellow superfine

Rib: Gold wire

Wings: Thin skin

Thorax: Brown dubbing

PMD Dry Fly

Hook: Standard dry fly size 16

Thread: brown 8/0

Tail: White hackle

Body: PMD Superfine

Post: Antron

Hackle: White or Cream

Some Chironomid and Midge Patterns from the British Isles with Bernie Peet

Bernie Peet was our guest tyer one week ago. I was in Belize on a fly fishing holiday and missed this awesome session! Bernie is a regular presenter with our club and I sure appreciate his efforts to bring his skill and expertise to the group! Thankfully Bernie did a chironomid/midge presentation. It may be the only one we have this year! Take a look at the four excellent patterns he taught the group! 

Thanks so much Bernie, I always appreciate the thought and effort you put into your presentations!

A special thanks to Rick Miyauchi for tying the samples for this blog post!

Phil’s Grey Boy – Phil Rowley (English)

Hook: Mustad C49S or Daiichi 1130, 10 – 14

Thread:  UTC 70 black

Rib: White Stretch Floss

Body:  UTC 70 Black Thread

Thorax: UTC 70 Fluorescent Orange Thread

Bead: Black (#10 – 7/64^th , 12 and 14 3/32^nd)

Gills:  White Uni-Stretch

Corran Buzzer – Hywel Morgan (Welsh)

Hook: Wet Fly or Nymph Hook, eg Daiichi 1560, sizes 10 - 16

Gills:  White Uni-Stretch, doubled

Thread: UTC 70 Black

Body and Thorax: UTC 70 Black

Hotspot/Target: Mirage Opal Tinsel

Finish:  Thin UV Resin

Blushing Buzzer (Variant) – Stan Headley (Scotland)

Hook:  Wet Fly or Nymph Hook, eg Daiichi 1560, sizes 10 – 14

Thread:  UTC 70 Black

Body:  Black UTC 70, 2 – 3 layers

Cheeks: Fluorescent Orange Floss

Thorax:  Peacock Herl (says Bronze in the Original Recipe)

Hackle:  Dark Furnace Hen, one turn

Corrib Duckfly Wet – after Davie McPhail (Ireland)

Hook:  Short shank nymph/wet fly, eg. Daiichi 1560, size 12

Thread:  UTC 70 Black

Tag: Silver Flat Mylar

Body:  UTC 70 Black

Thorax:  Orange Seal’s fur

Wings:  White or Cream Hackle Points

Hackle:  Black hen