Oak Orchard - Year 4

Tuesday night after work, I met up with Steve "The Mailman" Nelson, for our annual midnight drive up to Oak Orchard for the tournament. We arrived just after midnight; we didn't waste much time setting the tone for the trip. Drinking until about two am, we hit the hay for a brief nap, until the four am alarm went off. It was five days of awesome fishing, not too many brown in the system, but the steelhead, and kings were there and ready to eat. One of the reasons I do this tournament, is the food, it is so good and there is no shortage of it. Each day we get breakfast, lunch, and dinner, everything is home cooked right there on the river, so I guess "riverside" cooked is more like it. Stoneflies were, again, my fly of choice for the whole tournament, hot bead head prince nymphs, and small eggs were also working well. One fly that I would have never thought to fish, the San Juan Worn, was cleaning up for one of the guys in our group. Anyway I could type for hours about the trip, but I'm going to let the pictures tell the story.

Featured Fly - Winter Stone

Here is an awesome Winter Stone Fly pattern that I have been tying up since the Fall. Stoneflies be a common bug, found in most streams in the Mid Atlantic, this is a great fly to have in both your trout and Steelhead boxes. This fly has done very well for me this year, fooling fish on streams from NY for steelhead and browns, to trout streams in PA. I tie it from a 14 to a 10, for the black and brown winter stones.

Materials:

Hook: TMC 2302 sz. 10-14

Thread: UNI Thread 6/0 - Black

Bead: Cyclopes Black - Sz to match hook

Tail: Goose Biot - Black or Brown

Rib: Ultra Wire - Brassie - Brown

Body: SLF Dubbing - Black Stone or Brown Stone 

Shellback: Swiss Straw - Black or Brown 

Legs: Mallard or Partridge - Black or Brown

Wing Case: Swiss Straw - Black or Brown 

Thorax: SLF Dubbing - Black Stone or Brown Stone 

Antenna: Goose Biots - Black or Brown 

Step 1: Make a thread base, tying in the ultra wire at the same time. Once at the hook bend, make a    small thread ball. (this will help split the biot tails)

Step 2: Tie in the 2 goose biots in front of the thread ball.

Step 3: Move your thread to the front of the fly, tie in a piece of swiss straw. (for the smaller flies split the straw into 3rds length wise)

Step 4: Add the dubbing the the thread and dub moving forward, about half way up the hook shank.

Step 5: Pull the Swiss straw forward, pull tight, then tie down.

Step 6: Rib the body with ultra wire.

Step 7: Dub the back of the thorax.

Step 8: Take a partridge feather and split the tips of the feather forming a "V". Then lay the feather down with the fibers sticking out each side, making the first set of legs.

Step 9: Fold the swiss straw forward making a wing case. 

Step 10:  Repeat step 8 and 9.

Step 11: Tie in goose biots out the front forming the antennas. 

Step 12: Trim the goose biots, then whip finish.

Finished Fly:

Here are a couple fish that fell to the Winter Stone this past fall and winter:

This Oak Orchard Brown fell to the Winter Stone  

This Salmon River Steelhead fell to the Winter Stone