Busy Time!

Sorry I haven't posted in a while! You would think this would be the dead time of year for somebody obsessed with fly fishing, but man, I have been super busy! Leading up to January 1st I had a medium-sized fly order I needed to finish for Lund's Fly Shop in River Falls, Wisconsin. Lund's is one of the best fly shops I have ever been to, and I am not just saying that because they sell a bunch of my Scott Hanson designed flies. And I also am not just saying that because they advertise here on the ol' blog, although neither of those facts hurt...

Some of the flies I tied for Lund's Fly Shop. Go there and buy some!

In the days since I finished that order I have taken on a new task. I am working on the photographs that will be accompanying an article I am sending in to Fly Tyer magazine. I have sent Fly Tyer several articles in the past, and they have even published two of them, so hopefully they like this new one I have written. As always, writing the article turned out to be far easier for me than getting usable photographs. Cameras and all their technical what-have-you's tend to drive me a little crazy. I am almost done, though, and hopefully all of the photos I send in will work for them. Wish me luck!

This photo is just to prove that Fly Tyer has actually published some of my articles...

After I get the article done I will have to start in on another, much larger, order for Lund's, which will be due on March 1st. I also have a fairly substantial order for a private party who has hired me to tie several dozen dry flies in the 22 to 24 size range. I, myself , never fish with flies so small, so hopefully the finished flies turn out OK. I am of the mindset that small flies catch small fish, but I am also of the mindset that the customer is always right, so if he wants small flies, small flies he will get!

Along the way my Beginning Fly Tying classes start in St. Paul in February, (Click Here To Get More Info), and right after that I will be teaching the same classes in Forest Lake, MN (Click Here To Get More Info). After that the local Fly Fishing Expos start, and the Film Tour happens. Or is that vice versa? Oh, and don't let me forget I have a wife and 4 kids to tend to! Or is it 5 kids now...? I can't remember. Oh well, they're all asleep, so I better get back to tying flies.

Fly Focus: Pink Scud

If you are fishing in a quality trout stream, there is a good chance that some scuds live in it. And, as a general rule, trout love scuds. And who can blame them? They are essentially like little freshwater shrimp, and we all know how good shrimps are, am I right? Oh man, I could eat about 50 plates of shrimp scampi right about now... That's probably why I am 30 pounds overweight...

Mmmmm, doesn't this scud look yummy?

There are a lot of scud patterns out there. My favorite is the tried and true plastic bag version, which I learned about 25 years ago or more. I call it the plastic bag version because a thin strip of a plastic zip-lock style bag is used for the shellback. It's cheap. It looks good. And it's an effective fly. What more could you ask for?

Let's learn how to tie a pink version of this scud pattern, shall we?

Pink Scud Pattern Recipe

Hook: Scud hook in size 12-16
Bead: Black or copper, sized to the hook
Weight: Lead wire
Thread: Orange or pink, 8/0 or smaller
Tail: Pheasant tail fibers
Rib: Copper wire, size small or Brassie
Shellback: Strip of plastic zip-lock style bag
Body: 50/50 mix of pink Ice Dub and pink or orange rabbit fur

SWAG

I may be biased in this regard, but as far as I can tell it's almost impossible to not love The Riffle. If you do love this blog there are now three ways to show it. Not only do we have stickers that you can slap on the rear window of your Yugo, your tackle box, or your forehead...

I wouldn't recommend slapping one of our stickers on your forehead, but I guess I can't stop you. I am not sure who the handsome model is, but man, he's got some dreamy eyes, doesn't he?

But we also have fun buttons that go perfectly on your shirt, your backpack, your gear bag, or even your ear lobe, if you're into things like that...

That looks great on a flannel shirt, doesn't it?

And we also have super cool magnets, which you can stick on your fridge, the bumper of your Yugo, your tool box, or, for those of you with a metal plate in your skull, your forehead...

As far as I remember, I don't have a metal plate in my skull, so I used the fridge for this magnet photo.

If you would like any of this stuff to show your love for The Riffle, head on over to the Store page and place an order. While you're there, check out all the flies we have for sale, all of which are hand-tied in the Good Ol' USA by an expert fly tyer. You can even request a quote for custom flies, if you have a fly in mind but you can't find it anywhere.

R.I.P. 2018 Trout Season

Today marks the last day of the trout season around here. Since I am not out on the water, I thought it would be fun to take a pictorial look back on the season that was. Join me, won't you?

For me, the season started on an absurdly cold and snowy day in February.

This is Ted. He can be very persuasive about going fishing, even when the weather is terrible...

Ice in the guide.

I didn't actually fish this day, but I did have fun at the 1st Annual Kinni Mini Clave in May.
 

The "Clave" is a great place to try out fiberglass rods!

Going through our stuff before hitting the stream in Forestville State Park.



Trout Trip at Forestville State Park

Lots of fish in this stretch...

A nice, buttery Brown.

My buddy Bryon's first Brookie.

Smallest trout of 2018.

"Watching the woods"

A rare graphite appearance.

Just one of the dangers of trout fishing.

North Shore stream.

Mayfly

Appalachian stream.

The Madame X seemed like a good choice...

Another buttery Brown.

Wrong way!

Last fly of the season: a completely battered Mushroom & Swiss Bugger. Thanks 2018 trout season!

Favorite Creek

The Trout Season has been open around here in one form or another for almost 9 whole months, and in all that time I hadn't gotten over to my favorite stream yet this year. I really did not want to have to go into the winter without doing so, so I took the day off of work yesterday and hit it. My plan was to hit my fave first, and then head to a nearby brook trout stream in the afternoon. I wasn't sure what to expect since we have gotten quite a bit of rain in the past couple of weeks, but I was cautiously optimistic that the water would be in good shape. When I got to the first stream it was obvious that it had been up and out of its banks recently, but now just had a slight tinge of color in it. In other words, perfect!

My favorite stream...

Action shot!

There are not many reliable insect hatches on this stream, so I figured I would be fishing subsurface all day. The night before I had tied up a bunch of my Mushroom & Swiss Buggers and devised a new caddis pupae thingy with a CDC hackle. I love adding CDC to my nymphs, as I have written about before both here and in Fly Tyer magazine, but I had never done a caddis nymph with CDC. I was excited to see what the trouts thought of it.

CDC Caddis thingy...

A nice brown on the new caddis pupa thingy

I started the day with my new caddis imitation, and it didn't take long to see that the fish really, really liked it. I caught about a dozen in the first 45 minutes, all browns ranging in size from 6-12". After that first hour the water started to rise and get a little dirtier. The fishing turned off for a while.

A beautiful, brand new Mushroom & Swiss Bugger, ready to get chewed to bits.

This fish kept swimming up on the wet bank after I tried to release him. He should have followed the arrow, but he's a fish...

An old guy strolled by and watched me catch this modestly sized brown, then he insisted on taking my photo. At least I look good...

I was just about to call it quits and head over to the other creek to fish for brookies when I decided to switch to the Mushroom & Swiss. Right off the bat I hooked a nice brown, and then another and another and another. And a dark and fat brook trout. All the fish seemed to be in a hurry to fatten up. Maybe they were getting ready for winter or the spawning season or they hadn't eaten much when the water had been high and muddy, or maybe they have trouble pushing themselves away from the buffet, like me... Whatever the case, the fishing was so good I never did make it over to the brook trout stream. I am not much of a fish counter, which is good because that means there is no way for you to contradict my claims, but I would say I caught upwards of 60 trout throughout the day. All browns with the exception of the one brook trout and 2 chubs. And all of my Mushroom & Swiss Buggers were either lost or got completely chewed up.  I guess it's time to tie up some more!

Last fish of the day.

My last Mushroom & Swiss Bugger at the end of the day... It was a good run!

Gear Used: Unstructured Glass 804-4 fiberglass rod, Lamson LP-1.5 Lite reel, unnamed green biot-bodied CDC-hackled bead-head nymph size 12, and Mushroom & Swiss Buggers size 8.