Ada Hayden Lake, Ames, Iowa- Trout Stocking Day Nov. 2011

I've gotten horribly lazy about taking fishing pictures lately.  Case in point....
I fly-fished the Trout Stocking Day at Ada Hayden Lake, just north of Ames, Iowa, on Friday, Nov. 18, 2011.
I landed 26 Rainbow Trout, and didn't bother taking a single picture!  There were a couple really nice-sized fish, a few "colorful" ones, and one especially that REALLY had a lot of red in its lateral stripe and on its gill cover.  But no pictures!  I should slap me.

I also got a firsthand report from a guy that said he caught a Rainbow Trout from the lake in September...this is exciting news, as it means at least SOME trout survived the entire summer in the lake!

Anyway...it was a VERY windy day, which especially made fly-casting extremely difficult, although I noticed even spin-fishermen were having issues with the wind.

Ben arrived about an hour after the stocking trucks left. We started off tossing nymphs under indicators to some visible fish.  It was somewhat productive, but not the most exciting way to fish.  We spotted a good number of fish along the face of the boat ramp...the wind seemed to be blowing them into the shoreline there.  Ben tried it first, and caught a few fish before I planted myself next to him.  We had a spin-fisherman near the base of the dock to contend with, as he was casting across that same area.  Since Ben and I were casting INTO the wind, we couldn't cast out very far...typically 15', and about 8' left of where we were aiming.

We caught more fish here.  I took off the indicator and tried a Woolly Bugger and another bizarre pattern I've tried when trout get picky.  I have decided it is time to call this pattern something...give it a name.  And so, being outrageously creative, I've bestowed the name "FishnDave's Something".  I assume it is the flash from the mylar tubing in this pattern that the trout find so alluring.  I get a lot more follows and hits from trout when I use this than anything else I've tried.  Not to say I haven't caught more trout on other patterns...but when they don't show much interest in other stuff, this one hasn't yet failed to get their attention.  Its ugly, but here it is:

Here then is the recipe for FishnDave's SOMETHING, such that it is:
-Nymph or Streamer Hook of your choice (I've used #10 and #8 sizes effectively)
-Tail of marabou or rabbit fur (your choice of color, so far a darker color such as brown, black or olive has worked well for me)
-body of mylar tubing (again, your choice of color...gold has been my top producer, silver has caught trout as well)
-a few turns of black ostrich herl at the head (or peacock herl, hackle, or even yarn).
Trout teeth wreak havoc on flies...much more so than bluegills or crappies do. So, you can give the mylar tubing a coating of epoxy, epoxy alternative (I like Clear Cure Goo products), or Sally Hansens' Hard as Nails to increase the mylar body's durability.