The Bead Head Pheasant Tail. Perhaps the world's best nymph.

This is the first of a series of blogs on my favorite flies. Don’t look for any surprises, these flies are on a lot of other fishermen’s short lists, because they are so effective. Like most fly fishermen I have “tweeked” the original pattern a bit, mostly making it simpler, easier to tie and, in my opinion, more effective.

I think many features included in popular fly patterns are added to attract fly fishermen, not fish. Take legs on nymphs for example. Many mayfly nymphs, especially those that swim when in the water, tuck their legs in and wiggle their abdomen to move. Eliminating the legs from this pattern made it a much faster tie, and I think it catches more fish. Besides, I doubt many of the leg imitations included on nymphs actually LOOK like legs in the water. If I want a leg look, I will add something suggestive of legs instead of actually trying to create them.

When I first started fly fishing and fly tying I wanted to tie every pattern I saw. My favorite pastime was going to the fly shop and picking up the latest and greatest material to tie the latest and greatest pattern.

There is nothing wrong with this, people can pursue their hobbies anyway they like, but if you tie mainly to catch fish and would rather spend time on the water than at the bench, then this is the fly to add to your box. Once you get it down, you can put one out every five to ten minutes. This is a good thing, because you will use a lot of these flies.

These instructions might look intimidating, but this is a very simple tie, and once you get it down you will just whip them out.
Here is how I do it:

Thread: Black.
Its very important to get the right size. 8-0 for the big flies, 10-0 (Gudibrod) or 14-0 Griffin work great for smaller bugs. Thread build up will kill this fly, so use a fine thread.
Hook: Size 14 - 22
In the rivers I fish most are between 18 and 22. Match the most common size in your river.
Bead: Spirit River Gold or Copper bead to match hook size
Get a bunch of hooks with beads before you even start. A good pair of fine tipped tweezers really helps this process. I stick the beaded hooks in a piece of foam.
Rib: Fine copper wire. Tie this onto the hook first, lash on with thread wraps from the bead all the way back to the bend. You palmer it over the body after it is formed.
Tail: Pheasant tail barbs. Cut off some pheasant tail barbs right against the shank of the feather to use for the tail. A little trial and error will help you learn how many to use. Bring them together so the tips are lined up and measure the length you want for the tail (I usually make it a little smaller than the hook shank) Lash the tips at the bend, two or three wraps right on top of each, check the length, adjust if necessary, then lift the butt ends and throw a wrap on the hook up against to the previous wraps (below the tail butts) to lock it in, then wrap the thread up the shank to the bead. You will NOT be lashing down the butt end of the barbs, they are hanging there waiting for you to use them to make the body.
Body: Wrap the butt ends up to the bead and tie off. You can control the thickness of the body by the angle you use when wrapping. Next take the copper wire and palmer it up to the bead and tie off.
Collar: Peacock herl. Believe it or not, you will soon discover that you will have to “size” peacock herl to fit your fly. You will find some herl is much fatter than others, and it will make a difference in how the fly looks. Match the fatness to the proportions you are trying to achieve by tying the fly.
To “bulletproof” the herl, wrap it around your thread a few times then make one or two turns, tie off and you are done! (Note: The flies in the picture have a small amount of Hare's Ear fur (from the actual ear. I don't normally tie it with the fur, it was just an experiment that didn't seem to make any difference to the fish)

Here is a fish caught on this fly. I've posted more on Flicker. Click on the link below. Run the slide show, and you will see the fly in the fish's mouths (with a few exceptions where the fly is next to the fish).

http://www.flickr.com/photos/58755445@N00/3288797843/in/set-72157614006895269/

Getting it going.

I didn't go fishing with Steve again that summer, nor did I go fishing myself. Steve did teach me some rudiments of fly tying, so I practiced that throughout the summer, as well as practicing my cast with the help of some fly casting videos from the late Mel Kreiger. It was this video which finally helped me understand the importance of "loading the rod" and I began to have a good enough cast to not embarrass myself when fishing.

We finally hooked up again in August, and Steve took me to another spot on the Weber, much closer this time. It is a large hole formed by an irrigation weir, the weir creates a five foot water fall which has created the hole. About 6o feet downstream from the waterfall is an island that splits the river into two streams, the one on the south side smaller than the one to the north. Steve put me right in front of the island and said "cast right into the foam created by the fall, and dead drift back". So I did, and eventually caught my first fish on a fly that I had tied myself, and I was more hooked than the fish, (which was released). Not me, I have been hooked on fly fishing ever since.

After the trip I asked Steve when we would go again. He said, "I don't know Tom, but you know you can go fishing by yourself if you want" and I did. I went fishing almost every day. I would charge out of the high school where I teach, drive up the the same hole on the Weber and fish for a couple of hours. I think I had gone fishing over 200 times by the time the next August rolled around, and I kept up that pace for another two years, before my wife put her foot down and (without saying the words) implied that SHE was the best catch of my life, and if I didn't want HER released, I better spend more time at home. So I did, and tried to go only a couple of times a week.

And I caught fish. Hundreds of them, mostly Whitefish, but Browns, Rainbows and Cutthroats as well. I found other holes on the river, all within 10 or 15 minutes of my house. I read books, I watched videos, I bought fly tying materials. I basically packed a life time of fishing into the next three years and now consider myself to be an advanced, knowledgeable fly fisherman. I can talk about fly patterns, fishing techniques, and the places and history of fly fishing with anyone. I would call myself an expert if my casting and fishing skills were more robust and I AM an expert in the techniques I use all of the time. I am only an average dry fly fisherman, but can catch a fish with a nymph in just about any river (and I have) and I am getting pretty good at stillwater fishing as well. I don't do a lot of streamer fishing in rivers, although I have occasionally caught fish on streamers and dry flies in streams.

Next post: Fly tying.

Time to Fish

Well, I learned to false cast to feed out the line, then I learned how to attach a fly with an improved cinch knot, and how to tie on tippet using a triple surgeons loop. Finally it was time to go fishing.

Steve's choice was the Weber river, at the "Blue Ribbon" section on a stretch near Wanship. At that time I had no idea that Wanship existed, even though I have lived in Utah all my life. It was as if I had been transported to another world. We put on the waders, and got in the water! Way in, the place Steve wanted to fish required a precarious wade along the inside of a freeway bridge where the water came up above my waste. I am basically a coward, and just don't wade in water where I feel the slightest risk. That was my first trip, and the first and only time I waded in above waste deep water in an unknown section of a river.

Of course it wasn't unknown to Steve, and we made it under the bridge to a much more shallow section bordered by deep runs that Steve wanted to fish. He rigged me up with one of his favorite flies, which he called a "Crane Fly Larvae" because the guy who showed HIM how to tie it called it that. Now I know that it wasn't even close to being a Crane fly larvae (it was tied on a 16 hook) and probably represented the small cased Caddis which clung to the rocks by the millions.

His other "ugly" fly was what he called a "Butt Head Hare's ear, because it was simply a Hare's ears body, with a large, dark Thorax made from the Ear of the hare's mask, the little fuzzy black hairs that Steve would pull out in a tuft and spin to make a thorax with a thread head. This fly is still one of my favorites, but I have added a bead. I have caught hundreds, if not thousands of fish on the bead head version of this fly, it is still the first fly I tie on.

But on this day neither of us caught a fish. Luckily, I was to learn that getting skunked on the Weber River was actually a very rare event, but that was what happened on my first day of fly fishing with Steve.

Got waders now what?

So I had waders, and was committed. I had a good friend and fellow teacher named Steve Anderson who fly fished and we had talked about his helping me get started, so I told him about the waders. The next step was a trip with Steve to Sportsman's Warehouse in SLC to get "geared up". I can remember looking at the array of fly rods, and being amazed at how expensive some of them were. Steve picked out an 8ft 6" St. Croix Pro-Graphite 5 wt. rod that cost $75.00, a pair of wading boots, a cheap vest, and a $50 dollar reel. We bought a five weight line, a leader, and some tippet, a clipper and some splitshot. I was ready to fish!! (Steve is above right, releasing a fish)

Well, almost ready. I didn't know how to cast, and I didn't have any flies. "Don't worry about the flies" Steve said, "I will provide you with what you need."

"Gee, Steve, do you ever think I could learn to tie flies", I asked with some wonder in my voice.

"Sure", he said. "But I only tie simple and ugly flies that catch fish". Ah, I was in the glow of fly fishing fantasy. Me, catching fish!! Me, tying flies! Well my fantasy was cooled a bit, when Steve tried to show me how to cast.

Steve started with a Roll Cast. Why do teachers do that? They act as if a roll cast is easy! The fact is, it is a difficult cast, and darn near impossible without water to provide tension on the line. I still don't have a very good roll cast!

Well, that was a disaster. So next we started with a simple cast, with just a little line out. Steve had me watch the line so I could tell when the line had stretched out behind me before starting the forward cast. Like every other beginner, I was trying to cast a fly rod like a spinning rod, with large tip swings and large loops. Steve showed me "11:00 - 2:00" to help me keep my loops smaller. It worked, I was able to make a fairly successful cast as long as I watched the line.

I was just about ready to think I was on my way to be a fly fisherman when Steve said "Now you need to learn how to feed line out by making false casts" (to be continued)

Fly Fishing

Yellowstone Cutthroat


All of my

life I wanted to fly fish. I remember my father was given an old fiberglass Fenwick fly rod after working 25 years at his job, but it never got used because he didn't know how to fly fish. I remember looking at the thick line, much thicker than the mono line used in my spinning rod, and wondering what it would be like to cast it. On trips to Yellowstone I saw fly fishers in the river, and envied their grace full casts.

We did a lot of fishing as boys, since there was a pond with bluegill, and another that was stocked with trout. At the bluegill pond, all we needed was a stick and about 10 feet of line wrapped around the end. We would stash our sticks after fishing, and when we wanted to fish it was a simple as catching a grasshopper, climbing out on a log overhanging the pond, dap down and catch bluegill. The fish always were eager to be caught.

The planted pond was another story, while you could catch a carp anytime, catching a rainbow depended on when it was stocked last. We spent many summer days at both, catching fish.

On the fourth of July they planted special fish, larger Rainbows and Browns and had a fishing contest. My brother caught a big Brown one year, and won a hatchet as a prize. An even bigger one got away, as I tried to help get it in, but it broke off. I had never seen a Brown Trout before and was mesmerized by its beautiful red spots, and its different appearance from a Rainbow.

One day I took my family up to the Uinta's for a little fishing. We were using powerbait and having no success. Next to us a young boy was fly fishing, using a spinning rod and a bobber, and catching fish.

I had an old tackle box of my fathers that had some flies in it, so I sheepishly asked him if anything I had might work (the box contained a bunch of large wet flies) The boy looked destainfully at them, then opened up a fly box brimming with what looked like incredibly small flies (although they were probably size 16) that he had tied himself. They had a basic Adams look, without wings. The boy showed me how to put floatant on the fly, I cast it out and caught my first fish on a fly. We had many other takes on that little fly, and I was thrilled.

A few years later I wanted to catch a Yellowstone Cutthroat Trout at Yellowstone Lake. When I was a boy my dad would take us to the lake and we would troll (with him rowing the boat) with a mepths spinner and a nightcrawler. We all caught big, beautiful fish, it seemed like magic to me, because my usual catch was either a blue gill or a puny planted Rainbow Trout.

Well, I wanted my kids to have a similar experience, so we talked to the store employees who suggested we got to Gull Point and use Jakes lures. On a lark I bought four flies and a clear bobber.

Well the wind was blowing and no fish were being caught. Suddenly I saw a rise and decided to put on my fly and bobber. I made a good cast, and couldn't believe it when the fish rose up and took my fly! It was the only fish I saw caught that day, and my desire to fly fish was on fire.

Well, sometime in the 90's I walked into the newly built Sam's club in Layton, and noticed they had neoprene waders on sale. They were Ninja turtle green, complete with a knee pad to create the Ninja effect. I took the leap and bought them (to be continued)