Still more Flies

As you can see, I've been busy NOT FISHING!

Here's some more flies I tied over the weekend. I don't even know what to call most of these, but I'm sure others have tied similar stuff before. If anyone knows of the true name for any of these, I'd like to know...at least maybe I can title my fly pictures correctly:

Miscellaneous nymph...

Size 10 Clouser Deep Minnow tied with craft fur:
A "modified" Cap Spider (small glass beadhead instead of a jighead):

A small size 10 crayfish pattern of my own design:

A dubbed-bodied pheasant-tail nymph.

A fairly simple rubber-legged nymph:

...and a Mohair Leech:

More fly ties, January 2010

Here's some flies I tied recently:

This is a Griffith's Gnat. I used brown hackle instead of grizzly. I don't know why I did that.

Below is a beadhead Clouser Swimming Nymph. I used possum dubbing for the abdomen. Looks like there's a big gnarly guard hair sticking out of that!

Below is another idea for a crayfish pattern. It seems ok, but still not exactly what I'm looking for. Getting closer, I think.

This is a beadhead PTN. A lot of folks on here seem to like them, so thought I'd give it a try. This is one of my first attempts at this fly. I think I could've done better with the peacock herl thorax, but overall not too bad, and it should catch fish!

"Icicles at Night"

Testing out my new camera.... The first is the actual color picture, the second is one I converted to "grayscale".

Icicles at night:

Pond in Ankeny
1-15-2010
6:15pm-10:15pm
10" ice thickness
Fish sought: crappies
Fish caught: 17 crappies, 2 bluegills

Got out Friday night. First 2 hours were pretty steady, last 2 hours weren't very productive...plenty of fish showing up, but they just wanted to annoy me, rather than feed. I was too comfy and lazy to move at that point. Figured the attitude of the fish would be the same everywhere on the pond anyway. It was still fun!
I used a BFGS special vertical-style jig tipped with a couple red maggots.
This pond is about 15' deep, but I fished holes in 5', 7', and 9' depths, and caught fish in each. I moved deeper as the evening progressed, which actually seems counter-intuitive. But I started shallow, so I only had one direction to go, really.
The fish weren't big, but I'm not complaining:

Banner PitsDate: 1-14-2010Time
Fished: 12:45-4:00pm
Fish sought: trout
Fish caught: 45 rainbow trout

Left work at 11am, went home to dust off my ice-fishing gear (I hadn't been out yet this ice season...in fact not since Nov. 24!), and then headed down to Banner Pits. The DNR stocking truck was still there, but the stocking was already completed.

I spotted a small opening near shore amongst the many that got there before I did. I asked the anglers on either side if they minded if I drilled a hole there, and they gave me the green light.

I still had a Cicada blade bait tied on from last year, and I was too lazy to try anything else. I took some maggots with me, but never bothered to use them.

The fish were hitting fairly well for the first hour, then it slowed down considerably as the trout started to disperse. I started off about 10' from shore. When that bit slowed down, I drilled a hole 2' closer to shore and caught more fish. When that slowed, I went another 2 feet closer to shore. Caught more fish. Drilled one more hole about 3'-4' from shore, and caught more fish before I needed to leave.

A good number of folks stopped by to see what I was using, since I seemed to be doing much better than everyone else. Probably all the fish were caught less than 3' beneath the ice.

There were some folks next to me that brought their 4-yr old son. He was energetic, sharp, and competitive! I had fun bantering with him. We were giving fish names...I told him I was just catching the same fish over and over...because it was my pet fish "Rob" I had brought to the lake so it could get some exercise. He named his "boy" fish Dorothy and Sally...

What's a report without pics?This was probably the biggest one I caught. I didn't measure, but I'd guess it was close to 15":

More Fly Patterns Tied-Up

Here's some more fly patterns I've been tying lately:

This is a lead-eye zonker bass worm pattern:

This is another lead-eye bass worm pattern using very thick chenille:

This is a Craft Fur Baitfish pattern, tied behind a beadhead:
This is a very different-looking Craft Fur minnow pattern...this is small...Size 10 hook:

Here's a Scud (aka Freshwater Shrimp) pattern...thought it also might work good for ice-fishing:

Speaking of ice-fishing, I tied up the next two patterns on 1/64 oz jigheads. The rabbit fur moves very well in water, and I hope this will entice some finicky fish into biting.

Fly-Fishing Articles I've Written

I've submitted a handful of articles to the Fly Anglers Online website over the past couple of years. They've been kind enough to use them. For those interested in perusing these articles, I've included the links to them here (in no particular order):

Warmwater Fly-Fishing at Night:
http://www.flyanglersonline.com/articles/warmwater/2009/warmwater20091221.php

Late Summer Mid-Western Reservoir Outing:
http://www.flyanglersonline.com/features/warmwater/ww011809.php

Iowa Bluegills - Spring '08
http://www.flyanglersonline.com/features/warmwater/ww062308.php

Fish When You Can!
http://www.flyanglersonline.com/features/warmwater/ww072108.php

Fly-Fishing Around Central Iowa
http://www.flyanglersonline.com/features/warmwater/ww060208.php

Iowa Stocker Trout - Fall 2009

I fished Lake Petoka on "stocking day" yesterday. Great weather! It was 48 degrees...light rain. Wind wasn't bad.
I didn't get there until almost 2 hours after the fish were stocked, and apparently I missed the big FRENZY! Most folks had already caught their 5-fish limits quickly on spinners and small spoons. The action had pretty much died by the time I arrived. I probably saw a half-dozen caught during the 2 hours I was there.
I was hoping to catch some on fly gear. I tried Clousers, a Rabbit Fly, Boa Yarn Leeches...I had looks and follows, but no takes on any of them.
I tried spinning gear, and caught 2 rainbow trout on Reef Runner Cicada blade baits. Had a lot of follows on those. However, the water where I was fishing was rather shallow, so I had to move these lures faster than I really wanted to in order to keep them above the bottom.

Some flies I've been tying lately...

I've been tying more flies lately, so I thought I'd share some of the patterns that are working for me...or that I HOPE will work for me.

This is an "Epoxy and Mink Baitfish" pattern, but I used neither epoxy nor mink. The fur strip is Pine Squirrel.

These are excellent bluegill topwater flies tied using sheet foam...called "Gurglers":

Below is a Clouser Deep Minnow...this is a small version tied on a #10 hook and using Craft Fur instead of bucktail. I think the craft fur is a better choice on Clousers this small. I've been doing VERY well with these lately on bluegills and hybrid sunfish:

Below is a Stayner Ducktail pattern. The mallard flank feather is tied flat on the back...which is supposed to give it great action as is slowly sinks, and when it is retrieved. I haven't fished this pattern yet, but it looks pretty good:

This is called a Rabbit Fly. Rabbit fur tail and wing/thorax, dubbed body, and peacock herl head.

This is basically a Pine Squirrel Cheater, although I added some soft hackle near the eye of the hook.

Some EP-style baitfish

A crayfish pattern:

A zonker (rabbit strip) minnow pattern tied with a heavy conehead:

Some examples of the Boa Yarn Leech patterns that have caught a BUNCH of fish for me this year:

Night Fly-Fishing 11-13-09

We had an unseasonably nice evening on Friday night, so after supper and a bit of time with the family, I headed to a local pond to do some fly-fishing.
It was slow, as it has been for several weeks now. But, I did manage to catch a few fish. I stuck with the #8 yellow boa yarn leech pattern, and landed 3 crappies, 3 bluegills, and this 19" channel catfish. The catfish was a nice surprise this late in the year, and put up an excellent fight on my 5wt fly gear.

Night Fly-Fishing 11-01-2009

I fly-fished last night after dark. Once again it was slow?but I found a few fish scattered in the shallows. Ended up with 12 crappies, 5 bluegills. BEAUTIFUL night to be out! It was calm... comfortable @ 52 degrees?I did get sprinkled on a couple times, but it never lasted very long before clearing up again. The almost-full moon kept popping in and out of the clouds, which was pretty cool.You can see the yellow boa yarn leech I used in the picture below:

Night Fly-Fishing 9-19-09

Beautiful night last night...calm...mid-60's. No ducks or geese on the pond!! Great night for fishing, right? YEAH!

Well, really fishing was S-L-O-W. I fished for a about 2 hours...from 7:30pm-9:30pm. Caught 10 crappies, 5 bluegills...and a minnow.

A muskrat had been swimming along in front of me, and kept splashing everytime I would move or cast...but he'd come right back up and continue to swim around in front of me...like 20 feet away. Finally, it swam along the shoreline to my right and then swam to the bank, where I could no longer see him. Just a couple minutes later, I hooked something big...and it splashed a several times, and I was sure I'd hooked that darn muskrat. It swam across in front of me, so I turned on my cap light...and it was a fish! The minnow. BIG MINNOW!

It was a trick to land by hand, alone in the dark, but I managed. The "minnow" was a 29" Grass Carp. SWEET!!

Plugging the length into a couple of weight-to-length conversion equations specifically for Grass Carp yields an average calculated weight of 12 lbs. Not bad for the 5wt fly rod!

I used a yellow boa yarn leech pattern again, although I had started off the evening trying something like a Thunder Creek minnow pattern tied with yellow calf tail...(had some bumps on that, but no fish).

October 16, 2009

Wasn't sure if the weather was gonna get any better, so I went fly-fishing after dark on Friday. Air temp was around 43 degrees. Fishing was slow at the local public pond I elected to fish. I managed 6 crappies, 6 bluegills, and a 16.5" largemouth bass that provided a heckuva good fight! Also lost another good fish, that was probably either another bass, or possibly a catfish.


The fly I used was one that has worked really well for me on this particular pond all year. It is a #8 yellow boa yarn leech, which you can see in the bass's mouth below: