Ugly Trout Flies

This fly, this dull and ugly attempt to mimic some sort of Midge-Caddis mutation is a tough one to sell. It is also hard to buy.

#16 Midgezilla

Pale Yellow or Cahill thread

4X Tippet Rib

Pale Yellow and Tan Rabbit Dubbing

For the next two months here on the Eagle, Colorado and Roaring Fork Rivers this bug, a size 16 or even larger, represents the most abundant goodie snack on the menu. There are so many "Midgezilla's" in the drift that our flies often return to hand covered in them.  But a really good imitation of this over sized Midge can be hard to find commercially. I get it; if I am buying flies for a shop, its a little too big for the Midge order and too small for the Caddis. It has zero bin appeal or enough bling to catch any fisherman who buys bugs and fly shops are in biz to sell, not collect flies.

If you tie, put this one on the list instead of a typical Zebra. If you are new to tying. this is a great pattern to get basics like dubbing, ribbing and thread control sharp. The natural is enormous and beyond plentiful so sometimes those fat lumpy creations you end up with when you are first starting out stand out in a crowd and get eaten.

The Stonefly on the right in the picture above has great bin appeal but the little Quill body Spider in the middle out fishes the Stone over and over. I love fishing and tying softhackles and wet flies. When tyed right, they are far from ugly but again they don't catch many fisherman. Traditional Spider patterns (like the one above) call for approx 18 barbs on the soft hackle wraps which makes for a sparse almost fragile looking bug. Trout love it but I think most of today's fisherman pass on it for a more heavily hackled fly and in my experience that is a mistake. Slim and sparse patterns simply work better.
________________________________________________________________________________

I have 2 Winter Selection Boxes as well as a collection of individual flies for sale at the shop.
Each box contains 90 flies, including Jigs, Dries, Emergers, Tech Nymphs and Bead heads specifically for late winter use here in Colorado. Each box retails for $279 and comes in a new Umpqua Lt Midge box.

________________________________________________________________________________

Renting Fly Boxes

I have two Winter Fly Selection boxes for my local waters completed and for sale through our fly shop, Colorado Angling Company. These boxes contain a mix of traditional favorites, originals, jigs as well as some high quality knock offs that all come in one of Umpqua's new LT Midge premium fly boxes .

 

#16 Buckskins and Lt. Jiglets

Knocking off or manipulating some of our favorite proven patterns really began with tweaking thread and dubbing colors to better represent the naturals in local H2O. I mean the commercially tied BWO Barr emerger will get you fish on the Eagle or Colorado, but one tied slimmer and in a darker, brown/ olive color will pick up 18.623% more fish. Sorcery such as soft hackles, beads, tubing and foam getting wrapped on  JuJu Baetis and Palms Special Emerger just helped an already perfect potion get way more potent.
I owe somebody royalties.
Its just fun to tinker as you acquire different skills at the vise and companies like Hareline keep giving us new stuff to experiment with. Try tying some Griffths Gnats or Renegades with some red or black dyed peacock instead of natural and jam a shuck on them. They suck.

Emerging Red Griffiths Gnat 

BH Soft hackle Roy Boy #20 

BH Chocolate Thunder #18

Buckskins have always been a good producer for me and I have always tied them the traditional way which is kind of a pain, so I never used them much. Then last year I came across buckskin colored tubing from Hareline and began jamming that on jig hooks with a black tungsten bead. Maybe it was because I had a bunch of them and fished them consistently, but this fly has become one of my top attractor  patterns, especially in 16 and 14's.

#22 Baetis beauties, they are in there

Woodcutters Baetis #22

Midgezilla and some red junk included

So as I was finishing up these boxes I was wondering..........would you rent one?

You have all your own stuff, you know what you are doing and you wander into a fly shop for some advice and flies. If this box, which is very specific to where you will be fishing and for the exact time of year was available; would you be tempted to rent instead of buy?

Rent Me

_______________________________________________________________________________

Tying Demo

Join the Colorado Angling Company crew at Village Bagel on Feburary 18th as well as March 4th for an evening of tying, great food and maybe an adult beverage. I will be tying a couple of our favorite jig patterns the first night. You are welcome to sit at the vise, watch, talk shit or just eat some awesome pizza and talk some fishing. $3 beer and slice special, give aways!      Come see us
6-8 Monday February 18th and March 4th
_______________________________________________________________________________

Private Water Special

I had a cancellation on Presidents weekend (Feb 15th-18th). In an effort to re book the weekend I am offering 1/2 day (1 or 2 ppl)  private water walk wade trips with no additional rod fee. Thats $150 off per angler and you get a chance to fish the Vail Rod and Gun property. This is a great deal for you local blokes that have always wanted to romp around on fabled ground with me. Email direct, bobstreb@yahoo.com
________________________________________________________________________________

If you bang around Youtube check out some of Jack Dennis' old archive footage he has been transfering to digital. There is cool fishing and tying footage of some of the legends of our sport like Gowdy, Wulff, Lawson, Lafontaine and Dennis that I have really enjoyed having coffee with lately, check it out