Some big nymphs I like

Lately, I have been chasing trout on the Guadalupe River in Central Texas. While I don't exclusively nymph, it has been the go to means of catching fish most of this season. Well that and finding the hole that the fish are in....low water does seem to concentrate trout.

Inspired by my most recent trip, I thought I would mention a couple of large nymphs I like to use in my two nymph rig. These nymphs are not always fish catchers, and I'm personally not a big subscriber to the "attractor nymph" philosophy. However, I do think that how the large nymph drifts can be critical to how the smaller nymph trailing behind it drifts. Taking a two fly interaction approach I generally choose a large nymph to achieve a certain goal in my drift rather then expect it be a fish slayer.

Nymph #1

The main hole I have been fishing for most of the season is about 4 foot deep, at best 10 foot long with about 3 feet of densely packed fish at the bottom width. The flow is pretty fast in that little stretch so getting down has to be very fast to get into fish. In such a situation I turn to....

Case Closed Caddis by Rich Strolis

Links above are to video tutorials.

I load mine with a lot of lead wraps (covering as much 3/4 of the hook shank), and it drops like a rock and takes the little nymph down with it. It has also accounted for several fish on its own this season.

Nymph #2

While the above nymph has been the one I have fished most this season. My plan B has been a bastardized version of the Chimera from the guys at Fly Fish Food. (My thanks for developing this fly). I say bastardized because I have substituted similar, but not the same materials for the ones they used, but the fly is essentially the same. However it is lighter then the above fly and my olive version is significantly more subdued and natural looking. The latter is what I attribute my success with this fly to more then any other feature.

Chimera by Curtis Fry

This fly took a a 16-18 inch trout just this week.

Nymph #3

No big nymph.

Forget the big nymph and do it all with split shot. Sometimes the fish get wise to complex rigs....or at least thats my two sense. In these cases sometimes ditching all the big nymphs can make all the difference. Now be sure to consider that your small fly's drift will dynamically change once the other fly is removed and it will take some serious readjustments to get back in the fishing zone if you are already there, but I could be the difference between a made day and getting skunked.



Hopefully this prompted some thoughts about planning out large nymphs in a two nymph rigs.

Ice Nymph/Midge Tying Tutorial

This is not an original pattern and I suspect it has been independently developed more then once, but what matters is it catches fish. In the previous post on Midges I gave a gallery of the ones I put together and keep ini my box.  Most of which are simple variations of the pattern tutorial below. Very minor material changes can produce dynamically different midge/nymph patterns.

The color of thread is the most obvious thing to change to result in a totally different color fly, but adding flash for the underbody adds additional variations. Plus different types of flash make for very different color patterns. The choice of rib can also change how prominent the segmentation is on a fly. You might surprised how much of  difference extra small wire versus small wire makes on a size 20 fly.

Let's get to the vise.

Place beaded hook securely in the vise.

Start the thread (UTC 70) behind the bead and secure wraps down the hook away form the bead use as few wraps as possible.  Its important through out this fly to not build up wraps behind the bead until both the Flashabou under body and wire rib have been wrapped back forward (see steps below).

Insert Ultrawire size small into the back of the bead and secure with a few wraps. 

Also insert 2-4 strands of silver Flashabou behind the bead and secure with several wraps.

Now wrap down into the bend of the hook with close flat wraps to bind the flash and wire to the hook.

Return the thread forward to just behind the bead.

Wrap the Flashabou forward with consecutive wraps to cover the entire hook up to the bead. Then tie off the Flashabou with a minimal number of wraps. Finally cut the tag ends.

Make well spaced wire wraps with the Ultrwire to create the rib over the Flashabou body. Then tie off the wire and cut the tag end using old scissors or wire cutters.

Dub white ice dub on to the thread.

Wrap the dubbed thread behind the bead.

Whip finish the fly. 

Go Fishing.

Midges on my Mind

So after a good fishing trip where size 20 midge/nymphs kicked some butt for me. I felt compelled to tie a few more up in some other colors.  Here is a little gallery. I'm hoping to get a tutorial up later this week.

 Size 20 caddis hook

Thread: UTC 70
Rib: Small Ultrawire
Head: Gold Bead
Body: thread or palmered Flashabou
Thorax: Ice dub or Superfine dubbing

Heptageniidae nymph

My biology background gives me a preference for using scientific names. Thus I know my aquatic insects by their scientific familes far better then by the common names used by fly fishers.  Heptageniidae includes the March Browns and Cahill mayflies. My last trip on the Guadalupe for trout brought about this design after reeling in a leaf with a few of these mayflies on it. So here is my attempt to match the hatch.

Hook: Gamakatsu C13U
Thread: UTC Olive 140
Head: Brown Glass bead
Thorax: Olive Rabbit dubbing (topped with UV resin)
Body: Wrapped extra small blue wire ultrawire
Tail: Hack fibers

Bead head Electric Caddis

Hook: Size 18
Thread:Cream UTC 140
Head: Brown Glass bead
Thorax: Light Cahill Hareline dubbing (top colored with permanent marker)
Abdomen: small copper ultra wire inserted in micro-tubing and stretch wrappped

Wing case: UV resin

Electric DT Nymph

I used techniques from the DT Nymph and the JC's Electric Caddis tied by Rich Strolis and John Collins respectively in this fly. 

Hook: size 14 

Thread:Olive UTC 70

Legs: Black antron split and folded back

Tail:Black Antron

Abdomen: small ultra wire inserted in micro-tubing and stretch wrappped

Body: Olive rabbit dubbing

Wing case: UV resin

Vertical View