Featured Fly - Low Water Stone

Here is a small stonefly nymph that I came up with this last trip to Oak Orchard. It did very well fooling the high pressured fish. With low and clear water, we have found that small and black with a little accent color, work the best. I tie this little guy in 5 different colors; Pink, Fl. Chart., Peacock, Olive, and UV Brown.

Materials 

Hook: TMC 2457 sz. 8-10

Thread: UNI Thread 6/0 Black 

Tail: Goose Biots - Black 

Body: Life Cycle Dubbing - Black Stone 

Legs: Partridge Feathers - Black 

Wing Case: Swiss Straw - Black 

Thorax: Ice Dub - Olive 

Step 1: Secure the lead wire.

Step 2: Wrap the lead wire forward

Step 3: Make a small dubbing ball, tie in the 2 goose biots as tails.

Step 4: Dub the body, up to the lead wire.

Step 5: Tie in the swiss straw.

Step 6: Dub the Thorax

Step 7: Cut a "V" in a Partridge feather, then tie in.

Step 8: Pull over the swiss straw, making a wing case.

Step 9: Repeat step 6.

Step 9: Repeat step 7.

Step 10: Repeat step 8.

Step 11: Whip finish.

Finished Fly

Oak Orchard

Well I'm back from NY now, it was a great trip. The crowds were high, water was perfect and the fish were there and ready to bite. I spent 3 days on the Oak this past week, as you know from my pervious post. The fishing was great, tough but great, with so much fishing pressure the choice of fly definitely seemed to matter a bit more this go around. Anything small and black seemed to be the ticket, my hot flies for this trip were all related to a black stonefly, below you will see a couple examples. Ill let the pictures tell the rest of the story.

Enjoy!

Steve with a nice Oak Orchard Brown Trout

Steve with an awesome Oak Orchard Brown Trout

Oak Orchard Steelhead  

Not Huge, but man was she pretty 

Great Lakes Steelhead Flies 

Steelhead Tube Flies

Great Lakes Steelhead Nymphs

Sandy Creek Steelhead, First Steelhead of the season 

Peter with a hog of a Brown Trout

Nice Sandy Creek Brown Trout

My monster

Fishing the Oak

Sneak peak of what's to come. Just got done fishing Oak Orchard for the Archers Club Fly Fishing Tournament


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

2 Days on the Tully

Sunday and Monday I found myself back in trout mode. Sunday I had the pleasure of fishing with Rob and Evan Thrash, Rob had been teaching his son Evan to cast in the front yard, thinking he was ready to get out on the water, he got Evan a float trip for his birthday. What a present! The water was a great level,  a little off color, and the temps were in the high 50s, perfect day. The fishing was pretty steady, mostly all nymphing. Worms, Midges, Pheasant Tails, and Sugar Daddy's were the ticket.

Around 2pm on Sunday, I met with a repeat client from the Steelhead Camp Joey and I ran last fall, Carl Bear and his fishing buddy Jim. We fished till dark, it was the same program as the day before, all nymphing. Midges seemed to be the ticket with the pheasant tail not far behind.

Hot Flies: Zebra Midges, PT, Sugar Daddy, San Juan Worm

Give the Little Guys a Chance

With the Tully flowing at 1200 and the Schuylkill at 2600, I decided to take a look at one of the smaller streams near by. The water was a bit off color but still fishable, so on the hopper went with a small pheasant tail off the back. Not sure why I decided to put a hopper on but it was the right choice, the PT off the back worked well, but there is nothing like a fish exploding on a hopper even if its only 10 inches.

The Tully is back down to a fishable level, 325cfs this morning now down to 244cfs. Fish are eating caddis on top, and midges, black and red underneath. 

One of my favorites 

Rain can fog up the camera lens but its still a pretty brown 

Small Streambank Hopper hidden inside this guys mouth