Fishing Tips 101

Beyond the Basics--Probing all the Depths Throughout the Season

Part I

A discourse on how to master fishing from the top to the bottom, this article examines the contributions of the experts in the field, seeks out common principles and practices, and endeavors to apply these concepts with detailed strategies along with a self-test to determine what a reader needs to review or learn. I have given a lot of thought on how I want to organize this material for on-line reading, and I decided that the easiest format would be a question and answer approach. To that end, I present information, raise questions, and then provide the answers right below a section of information. Hopefully this will reinforce new information, as well as challenge the reader who knows the information but may be a little slow on total recall. My goal is both instructional and a means to reinforce and learn new knowledge so that the knowledge may be easily applied on the stream.

Introduction

As a generalist, I am a dabbler in arts and master of none so it is no surprise to me that I attained a particular level of expertise as a fly fishing angler and then fell into years of stagnation. My gains, if they were plotted on a graph by skills and years, would show limited attainment for a long period of time. Perhaps you too are familiar with some of my rationalizations for technical stagnation: (1) I just don't have the time to master another level of expertise. (2) To become proficient at fishing on the surface, the subsurface, the middle column and on the bottom, demands that I return to the vise that I abandoned thirty years ago when genetically manipulated chicken capes hit $65 dollars! (3) I am getting too old. I can't keep track of all the names of the flies that I have in my vest now, let alone learn the Latin names of the insects they imitate. (4) Although I am passionate about fly-fishing and have been for the better part of 40 years, I have other passions as well that compete with my leisure time. In short, I had not made a concerted effort to expand both my knowledge and skill level. For too long I had been content to fish on the top and the bottom, with the exception of using a dropper just below the surface film. In short, I did not have a systematic methodology for fishing from the top to the bottom of the water column throughout the season.

I know that just reading a couple of books on nymph fishing is not enough. Knowledge must be applied. As a former high school English teacher, I know that mastery of any skill requires knowledge and practice--lots of practice! But it also requires a working knowledge of specialized terms, and most importantly it requires setting clear goals and breaking down each goal into achievable lessons and sub-skills. So, why should you read a secondary source that reviews primary sources? You shouldn't, unless you have read the primary sources, and you are now seeking a methodology to apply what you have read in a systemic method. Keep in mind that this article makes no attempt to teach entomology. It is beyond my scope. Instead, the primary goal of this article is to help an inexperienced angler learn the primary Montana hatches, select the appropriate patterns and apply the appropriate delivery to a specific area of the water column.

The primary sources that I have used are recognized as experts in the field of fly-fishing. They continue the long-standing tradition of applying new insights to very old challenges. When I finish the entire article, I will include a bibliography. When I present information that the authors and other experts are in agreement, I consider that information to be in the realm of public knowledge, and I will not footnote or add an endnote of attrition, as it is not my intent to write an academic paper. Whenever, possible I cite them by name in the body of my text with a direct quotation. Sometimes I may reference their work by using the title of their book or just referencing their name. Make no mistake, I champion their books. I welcome any help in improving this article. You may contact me at dave @ glaciertoyellowstone .com.

To begin, let's start with a review of seasonal hatches in Montana and appropriate fly patterns, which will be followed by a photographic display of these same patterns for identification purposes. Note: the photographs of the fly patterns are courtesy of on-line fly-fishing stores. I have provided a direct link for each particular fly pattern, which can be purchased on-line. The fly pattern photographs begin on item 18.

Dave Archer

Pre/Post Test on Fly-fishing Patterns for All the Depths

Note: The answers to each of these seasonal periods is at the end of the questions for each particular period in the season. Take out a pen and a piece of paper and determine what you already know, what you need to review, and what you need to learn and practice.

How apropos! Tonight I attended the May, 2010, Klamath Country Fly Casters club meeting in Klamath Falls, Oregon, and Dave Hughs, author of Nymphs for Streams and Stillwaters, was the featured guest speaker. The guest speaker previous to this was Rick Hefle. Dave remarked that on one of his fishing trips with Rick, he asked for Rick's fly boxes and laid them out next to his. Both men were not surprised that they had covered the five principle aquatic insect groups: stoneflies, mayflies, caddis, scuds and terrestrials. What bemused both anglers was that they were mutually exclusive in their selection of patterns. Dave went on to discuss the importance of having a number of searcher or generic patterns to cover the common food forms. Some of his favorites were Brooks Montana Stone, BWO nymphs, Pheasant Tail, Beadhead Prince Nymph, Copper John, among others. In the absence of a predominant emergence of a specific aquatic insect, which would be noted in a stream sampling or a stomach sampling, Dave urged listeners to search the water with their favorite search patterns, and he confided that of late one of his favorite patterns was the Lightening Bug.

Photo property of Fly Art Studio -- Lightening Bug

Early Season - Pre-Run-off: Mid-April to Mid-May

1. Name five primary hatches in the early season from mid-April to mid-May. Hint: think mayfly, stonefly, caddis and chironomidae. (Yes, in Montana the weather is far from predictable and the season can be early or late depending on snow-pack and prevailing weather patterns, but this period is the period before the warm weather impacts the rivers and streams.)

2. During this preseason, pre-run-off, what is an ideal water temperature for hatches, and will you be hoping for cloudy conditions or sunny conditions?

3. Name three well-known nymph patterns that work well for a baetis hatch. (Undoubtedly, you will name patterns just as affective as what the experts recommend.)

4. One of the early hatches during this period are the midge hatches. Since they are so small, what are some patterns to compensate for their size?

5. The March Brown dun is tied in brown and gray in size 16-14. The Western March Brown mayfly will be typically a Rhithrogena morrisoni or a Rhithrogna hageni. The March Brown dun's wing is mottled and it has two tails. What would be a good, old-standard for a March Brown dun? Nymph? Emerger?

6. What insect is named for the "Mother's Day Hatch?"

Answers to the pre-season; questions 1-6

1. Blue-winged olives (Baetis), midges, March Brown mayfly, Skwala stonefly and towards the end of this period the Little Black Caddis and the Grannon Caddis.

2. Most authorities say that during this time period the ideal water temperature is 50-degrees. They also suggest that baetis mayflies and the March browns seem to hatch more profusely during cloudy conditions in the afternoon.

3. Pheasant Tail Nymph #20-14; Hare's Ear Nymph #20-14; Beadhead Prince Nymph or a Zug Bug. If you know your bugs, you have already exceeded these suggestions.

4. The midges are typically size #20, and they often tend to cluster together so a number of patterns are tied in a clustering visual effect. One such pattern is the Griffith's Gnat.

Photo property of Round Rocks -- Griffith Midge

5. One old favorite for the March Brown dun is the March Brown Compra-Dun. The dun is noted for its mottled wing, its brown body and two tails. A common nymph is the Hare's Ear, and a good emerger pattern would be a March Brown Soft-Hackle, which imitates the nymph as it ascends to the surface. The emerger nymph is most often cast across the stream or up and across the current. Fish typically hit the fly at the end of the swing as the fly pattern rises to the surface.

6. The "Mother's Day Hatch" is most often associated with a Grannon caddis hatch. This May hatch can be prolific on many Western rivers at this time, along with other species of caddis fly such as the Little Black Caddis. The size is typically 10-14. The body is usually dark brown dubbing wrapped with fine tinsel. The thorax is also dark brown, and the wing case is most often a slate color such as duck quills tied at the side. (Western Hatches by Rick Hafele and Dave Hughs)

Post Run-Off (Mid-May to late June): Water flows are stabilizing along with clarity. During this time a hot day can trigger additional volume. When the water is rising, fishing can be tough. Watch for falling water levels, as once the river starts to consistently drop trout go on an eating binge! (Now, before you contact me and chastise me for the following hatches and their time slot, I readily acknowledge that many of the hatches presented in the post run-off can be present in May prior to run-off and even during run-off.) This is a wonderful time period of multiple hatches coming off almost every day. So, when is it exactly? Well, in high water years it typically starts the last week in June and runs through the middle of July. In drought years, contact a fly shop!

During this period anglers are on the look out for PMD's, stoneflies, caddis and the eagerly awaited Western Green Drake (Ephemerella grandis and doddsi), and the Brown Drake (Ephemera simulans). These are the big boys size 12-10. They have stout bodies and long tails, although the Brown Drake is more slender. These hatches may overlap. Don't look for a large hatch. In fact, you may only see a couple of these bugs on the water, which means that you need to put one of these patterns on right away!

7. Ephrmerella inermis and infrequens, one of the most prolific mayfly hatches for this time period, is a small, yellowish to light olive dun commonly referred to by using three letters. What is this bug and, what is its distinguishing features?

8. The Big Hole River is famous for this hatch, as is the Madison River, but many visiting anglers do not realize that Pteronarcys californica also hatches in June on the Bitterroot River, Rock Creek and the Blackfoot River and the Yellowstone, just to name a few. The hatch can move up the river three miles a day. It is preceded by great nymphing opportunities, and even when the hatch wanes, trout are on the look out for these huge morsels of food. Following on the footsteps of this hatch, and sometimes overlapping, is a similar stonefly. What are the names of these two stoneflies and what are their distinguishing features?

9. After the big drakes hatches and the famous stonefly hatches have receded from the trout's memory, many smaller hatches come on the scene, such as Slate Wing Olives, small Blue Wing Olives and PMD's that have hues that begin to look olive in color, so it is important to have many baetis patterns in your fly box in different sizes and colors to match what you find on a particular day; however, early summer brings another stonefly that emerges from fast riffles. The female returns to these riffles and lays her eggs. What is the name of this stonefly, and what is its size and color?

10. A host of patterns imitate the Little Yellow Stonefly, but if you walk into any Montana fly shop, you can start by asking for a _______________ pattern.

11. Name a Little Yellow Stonefly nymph pattern, along with an emerger pattern. There is no right answer. In the answer section I have selected a pattern that should be easy to find in a fly shop.

Answers to the early summer and mid-summer; questions 7-11

7. One of the most prevalent hatches for the post run-off and into summer is the PMD or Pale Morning Dun (not to be confused with a Pale Evening Dun, which is similar in color and shape but is a different genus, Heptagenia. The Pale Evening Dun emerges during mid-summer.) PMD's are typically size 16. Their body is a dull yellow with some green hues. They have unmarked wings and three tails. Inhabiting moderately fast riffles, they emerge during the morning, but on cloudy days the hatch can progress into the afternoon. The spinner fall usually occurs in the morning when the sun clears the mountains and touches the water.

8. The Salmon Fly and the Golden Stone are important hatches. Measuring one to one and a half inches, the Salmon Fly begins its migration across the bottom of riffles when the water temperature climbs to near 50 degrees. Grayish brown on the topside, the underbelly of the Salmon Fly is orange. The Giant Golden Stonefly is in fact a mottled brown and yellow giving it a golden cast. Slightly smaller, the Golden starts hatching a few weeks later, but it is not uncommon to have them over-lap when the Salmon Fly hatch is on the wane. (Trout Stream Insects by Dick Pobst)

9. This mid-summer stonefly is the diminutive Little Yellow Stonefly of the Isoperia genus, and it is size ranges from 16-10. The "Isoperla and Peltoperla species are small, at 3/8 to 5/8 inch." (Nymph-Fishing Rivers and Streams by Hefle)

10. The Little Yellow Stonefly imitation is most commonly referred to as a Yellow Sally.

11. In addition to a Yellow Sally an excellent dun imitation is a yellow Elk Hair Caddis. A good emerger would be a Yellow Soft Hackle. And there are a host of nymph imitations. Hefle recommends a Smurf Stone and Mercer's Gold Dust in sizes 16-10.

Season: The Dog Days of Summer

12. What is the common name for the tiny mayfly with the white wing and black body, and what size imitation should you use in late July and August?

13. This is the season to bring out the Hopper patterns, but what other terrestrials should you have in your fly box?

14. Remember how important the baetis group or Blue Wing Olives are to the Montana angler? Well, in addition to the small trico hatch, the Tiny Blue-Wing Olives begin to emerge at the end of summer. On what type of water will you most likely find these insects?

Answers to mid-summer and late summer; questions 12-14

12. This miniscule mayfly, Tricorythodes minutus, is most commonly referred to as the Trico hatch. The duns hatch in the early morning hours, which can extend into late morning on cloudy days. The spinner fall is within an hour or two. Because the hatch is so prolific, trout gorge themselves on these mayflies by just leisurely sipping them. Pattern size ranges from 20-16. Here is a tip for those anglers who find it difficult to pick out their pattern when it is surrounded by hundreds of live insects. Tie a smaller trico pattern off a small Parachute Adams.

13. Ants and beetle patterns

14. The Tiny-Blue Wing Olives typically inhabit slower currents and spring creeks, such as the Clark Fork. Another mayfly, more often associated with stillwater fishing, is the Speckled Mayfly or Callibaetis. It too inhabits slow water and spring creeks.

Photograph Property of River Bum

Season: Late Summer and Fall

15. In addition to the BWO's, a large mayfly begins to emerge from late summer into October. With a gray and brown mottled body, this mayfly has unmarked wings. The spinner fall is both in the morning and evening (Pobst). This Siphlonurus occidentalis is commonly referred to as the _______________________.

16. Two more important mayfly hatches occur in the fall. One is brown and the other is more reddish brown (Heptagenia). What are the common names of these two mayflies?

17. This large caddis also does not come off profusely, but when you seem them on the water, get ready to change patterns. It is large with a reddish orange body and mottled wings. Many books refer to this caddis as the ___________.

Answers for Late Summer and Fall

15. Western Gray Drake
16. Mahogany Dun and Western Red Quill
17. This large caddis is often called the Giant Orange Sedge, Orange Caddis and the October Caddis.

So, now it is time to organize your fly box and stock up on missing patterns. You may want to take a small felt pen and label the names in your fly boxes. Hefle in his book, Nymph-Fishing Rivers and Streams, suggests 12 nymph patterns. I agreed with most of his choices, although a few were unfamiliar to me. Some of them are old standbys and found in most Montana fly shops. The most commonly used nymph patterns are the Prince Nymph, Beadhead Gold-Ribbed Hare's Ear, Pheasant Tail, Zug Bug, Beadhead Red Squirrel, Beadhead Krystal Flash Caddis, Copper John and various stonefly patterns.

To help newcomers to this sport, I have included a list of photographs of the more popular patterns. I have listed them in the same order as the questions posed above. I remember how embarrassed I was at a take-out when an outfitter, who I had worked for, asked me if I had seen any flavilinea. Had he asked me if I had seen any small Slate-Wing Olives I may have been able to hide my embarrassment. See if you can identify the following patterns. The next section will cover information on tips and techniques for fishing from the top to the bottom. The collective information was garnered from published authors who are considered experts in the field, but first identify the following patterns.

Genus or Specie Name: Baetis
Approximate season: Throughout the season
Water habitat: Varied but tend to prefer shallow riffles and runs
Identifiable traits: Slate, gray wings with olive body (light to dark)
Hook size: 14-24; most common is #16, 18
Distinguishing features for the dun: Olive or olive-brown with gray wings
Distinguishing features for the nymph: slender and tapered; three tails
Popular patterns: Blue-Wing Olive dun; Pheasant Tail Nymph; Baetis Soft Hackle
Additional Information: The baetis group are fast swimmers and subject to behavioral drift. (Hefle). Swisher and Richards in their book, Selective Trout, recommend using the smaller size when an overlap of insects are on the water.

Photo Property of Central Flies -- Blue Wing Olive

Photo Property of Round Rocks -- Serendipity Olive BH

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19. Name this Insect or Fly Pattern

Photo property of Central Flies -- March Brown

Genus or Specie Name: Mayfly, Rhithrogena morrisoni and Rhitorogena hageni

Approximate season: Early season, late winter

Water habitat: Fast water; they migrate to slower water

Identifiable traits: Large and brown, they are the first big mayflies of the season

Hook size: #14-16

Distinguishing features for the dun: Mottled wings, brown body, two tails

Distinguishing features for the nymph: Flat heads, squat bodies (clingers) 3 tails

Popular patterns: March Brown; A.P. Olive; Mercer's Poxy Back; Hefle's March Brown Flymph; March Brown Comra-Dun

Additional Information: Subject to drift and dislocation. Emergence takes place in the afternoon.

Photo property of Central Flies -- March Brown Nymph

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20. Name this Insect or Fly Pattern

Add photograph

Genus or Specie Name: Skwala

Approximate season: Early season; late winter

Water habitat: Moderate to fast water with good levels of oxygen
Identifiable traits: Olive to olive-brown with dark markings; ¾-inch in length

Hook size: #8-10

Distinguishing features for the dun: Overall appearance is very dark with lighter under-belly.

Popular patterns: Parachute Adams; Olive-Black Stimulator; Olive-foam Skwala

Additional Information: Look for temperatures in the mid 40's. Although this is a very popular hatch to fish on the Bitterroot River and Clark's Fork, keep in mind that it is a crap shoot regarding the weather!

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21. Name this Insect or Fly Pattern

Photo property of Madison River Fishing Company -- Elk Hair Caddis

Family Name: Brachycentridae -- Grannon stonefly (Black Caddis; Mother's Day Caddis -- B. occidentalist)

Approximate season: Early season

Water habitat: Riffles and runs

Identifiable traits: 3/8 to ½ inch; olive to olive-brown

Hook size: #18-14

Distinguishing features for the dun: Green body and tan wings

Distinguishing features for the nymph: Dark green body

Popular patterns: American Grannom (Schwiebert); Cased Caddis Larva; Beadhead Caddis Larva; Morrish's HW Caddis Pupa; LaFontaine Olive Diving Caddis (Hefle)

Additional Information: As case builders, the larvae are subject to drift. They pupate in moderately fast water. The pupae exit their cases and swim to the surface mostly during the evening. When they reach the surface, they split the pupal skin and escape into the air.

Photo Property Madison River Fly Company -- Goddard Caddis
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22. Name this Insect or Fly Pattern

Photo Property of Round Rocks -- Midge

Photo Property of Round Rocks -- Griffith Midge

Family Name: Chironomidae

Approximate season: Throughout the season, but early season midges wake up the trout.
Water habitat: Slower water
Identifiable traits: They are tiny and look a little like mosquitos. They come in multiple sizes and colors, and I must confess that they are too much of a challenge for me.
Hook size: 22-16
Distinguishing features for the adult: Long slender bodies with long legs
Distinguishing features of the pupae: Long slender bodies that hang vertically below the surface film.
Popular patterns: Griffith's Gnat; Midge; Brassie Nymph; Beadhead Midge Pupa
Additional Information: Similar to caddis, midges live as larva on the bottom of slow water streams and spring creeks. They emerge as pupae and hang under the surface film for long distances prior to emergence. They are tiny and often cluster close together, which some patterns imitate. They must be tied small and slender.

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23. Name this Insect or Fly Pattern

Photo property of Central Flies -- PMD

Genus Name: Ephemerella inermis, infrequens (PMD's; Hendricksons, Sulfers)
Approximate season: Some pre-season but mostly post-run-off or early summer
Water habitat: Wide variety of water conditions, but they seek out water with high levels of oxygen so look for them hatching in slow-moving riffles.
Identifiable traits: Typically small; dull yellow to light yellow-olive
Hook size: #16-18
Distinguishing features for the dun: Light to dark gray wings, yellow-olive body
Distinguishing features for the nymph: Olive-brown body, three tails
Popular patterns: Light Cahill; PMD Emerger; PMD Cripple; Beadhead PMD; Flashback Hare's Ear.
Additional Information: In his book, Nymph-Fishing Rivers and Streams, Hefle suggests using a "pattern that matches the natural that is dominant in the stream on the day you are fishing." This requires spending a little time with a net. Most of the experts frown on using stomach pumps, as it can be potentially lethal to a fish. BWO's and PMD's are MUST HAVE patterns for any Montana river or stream. The PMD's are subject to drift, and interestingly they return to the bottom more than once during emergence. Not all of the PMD's emerge in the surface film. Some emerge in the water column, which is the reason that a PMD soft-hackle wet fly works so well. (Hefle) The PMD hatch is fun because you may use a dun, an emerger or even a nymph right through the hatch.

Note: The Pale Evening Dun, E. invarie, comes off a little later in the summer during early evening, and it is strikingly similar to a PMD.

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24. Name this Insect or Fly Pattern

Photo property of River Bum

Genus or Specie Name: Ephemerella grandis, doddsi
Approximate season: Early season - run-off and post run-off
Water habitat: Both spring creeks and faster water on rivers noted for clean, cool water
Identifiable traits: This fly is a fat, juicy, large fly not seen in large numbers
Hook size: Size #10 2XL (Dick Pobst)
Distinguishing features for the dun: Lead-gray wings, green body with yellow hues
Distinguishing features for the nymph: More dark in color from olive brown to a reddish brown, the nymphs are crawlers and as such are more portly, size #8-10
Popular patterns: Green Drake Wulff; Green Drake Compara-Dun; Western Green Paradrake. Some searcher nymphs work quite well such as the Zug Bug; Gold-Ribbed Hare's Ear or a bulked up Pheasant Tail Nymph.
Additional Information: The hatches are typically thin so if you see a couple of these bugs on the water, start off with a dun pattern right away.

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25. Name this Insect or Fly Pattern

Photo Property of Madison River Fishing Company -- Salmonfy

Genus or Specie Name: Stonefly, Pteronarcys californica
Approximate season: Pre-run-off - runoff - post-run-off, mid June to early July
Water habitat: Clear, cool, highly oxygenated freestone rivers and streams
Identifiable traits: Stretching from one to one and a half inches in length, wait until one of these giant, orange colored monsters crawls down your neck!
Hook size: #10-6 XL
Distinguishing features for the dun: Long, folding lead gray wings with large antennae. The head displays a little orange, but fat underbelly is a pale orange.
Distinguishing features for the nymph: The nymph has a dark, segmented body with a dark brown wing-case and a short tail.
Popular patterns: Just ask for a Salmonfly in any shop and they will show you their favorites. Nymphs: Montana Stone; Bitch Creek; Kaufmann Stone; Smurf Stone etc.
Additional Information: Montana is reknown for its Salmonfly hatches on the Big Hole, Madison, Blackfoot and Rock Creek to name just a few. It is the egg-laying females that trout hungrily await. The sun is usually warming up the morning dew when the females fly off the shrubs and trees and head for the water. Remember, Golden Stoneflies often overlap with the Salmonfly hatch. If you are getting rejections with the large stonefly, switch to a smaller stimulator, especially one that has both orange and gold in the pattern.

Photo Property of Madison River Fishing Company -- Bitch Creek Nymph

Photo Property of Round Rocks -- Stimulator (Salmonflies or Golden Stones)
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26. Name this Insect or Fly Pattern

Photo Property of Madison River Fishing Company -- Golden Stonefly

Genus or Specie Name: Stonefly, Calineuria californica
Approximate season: Run-off and post-run-off, June to mid-July
Hook size: #6-10 3X long
Distinguishing features for the adult: A bit smaller than the salmonfly, the golden stonefly is typically one inch long in the body. The wings are light brown and the body is light brown and yellow.
Distinguishing features for the nymph: The abdomen is light to dark with noticeable light banding.
Popular patterns: Golden Stonefly Nymph; Beadhead Golden Stone; Brook's Stone; Mercer's Brown Stone.
Additional Information: The color of both the adult and nymph can vary greatly in the yellow tones, yellow-brown and even light brown with yellow markings. They prefer fast water. They are the predators of the aquatic insect world and actively crawl around, but they do not drift much. They are vulnerable to trout during their migration to the shore. Weighted patterns with additional split-shot is recommended.

Photo Property of Madison River Fishing Company -- Stimulator

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27. Name this Insect or Fly Pattern

Photo property of River Bum

Genus or Specie Name: Isoperla
Approximate season: Pre-run-off; post-run-off; early summer
Water habitat: Clean, cool fast water
Identifiable traits: Generally around ½ inch in length, light tan to a bright yellow body with light brown wings with two tails.
Hook size: #10-12 3x long
Distinguishing features for the adult: Two flat, brown wings on top of light or yellow abdomen.
Distinguishing features for the nymph: Slender, tapered bodies
Popular patterns: Little Yellow Sally; Blond Mormon Girl; Little Yellow Stone
Additional Information: Trout key on these abundant stoneflies during migration from the riffles to slower water, where they crawl up into the vegetation in the afternoon. Females typically deposit their eggs in the evening. However, during the day many of these little stoneflies get blown into the water so if they are swarming around, give one a try.
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28. Name this Insect or Fly Pattern

Photo property of River Bum

Genus or Specie Name: Mayfly. Tricorythodes minutes
Approximate season: Late summer, August through September
Water habitat: Slower currents and spring creeks with silty bottoms (Clark Fork River)
Identifiable traits: Tiny white wing with dark body; spinner wings fold out flat
Hook size: 22-24. Again, I would suggest using a very small parachute Adams with a trailing Trico pattern tied off the shank of the Adam's hook with a 6x or 7x tippet.

Photo property of River Bum

Popular patterns: Trico; Trico spinner
Additional Information: The hatch usually begins early in the morning with a spinnerfall a few hours later. They often blanket the river. Because of their short lives, over-lapping generations continue throughout the late summer and into the fall.
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29. Name this Insect or Fly Pattern

Property of Fly Fishing Outfitters -- Mahogany Dun

Genus: Mayfly, Paraleptophlebia
Approximate season: Late summer to fall
Water habitat: Gentle riffles, slower water and spring creeks
Identifiable traits: Clear wings, mahogany or brown body,
Hook size: #18-14
Distinguishing features for the dun: They are slender.
Popular nymph patterns: Copper John, CDC Pheasant Tail Beadhead Emerger and Lawson's Floating Nymph
Additional Information: The Mahogany Duns emerge in the morning and hatch in the evening. Hefle points out that the Mahogany Dun is also called the Blue Quill and the Slate-winged Mahogany Dun

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30. Name this Insect or Fly Pattern (Aquatic Crustaceans)

Photo Property of Round Rocks -- Scud

Approximate season: Fresh water crustaceans spend their entire lives in the water.
Water habitat: Slow, clean, well-oxygenated streams (spring creeks) and lakes
Identifiable traits: Looking like shrimp or pill bugs, scuds come in a wide range of colors from ¼ to ½ inch. Color is often determined by the surrounding vegetation.
Hook size: 16-10
Additional Information: Scuds come out from hiding and feed in low light. Use a dead-drift or VERY slow retrieves. According to Phillip Rowley in his book, Fly Patterns for Stillwaters, a "golden olive or dirty yellow-colored scud pattern is a good choice during the fall months....Some scuds have a distinct orange spot. This is the brood pouch or marsupium of the pregnant females so keep that in mind at the tying bench and on the water."
Patterns: Sparkle Shrimp; Glass Bead Scud, Pearl Shrimp, Dubbed Scud

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Let me begin by saying that after 15 years of being a fly-fishing guide in western Montana, I offended a party of fly fishermen on my first spring outing of the season. They had come to fish the Blackfoot River, a little early, I might add. After three days with this very large party, their complaint against me was awkwardly relayed to me by the guide in charge. I was shocked. I must be honest in telling you I was hurt and angry, but then I had to realistically appraise my guiding skills and etiquette.

Had I become complacent and sloppy through the years? After much reflection, I had to shoulder most of the blame. We were fishing in coffee-colored water. Our Woolly Buggers, shackled and weighted down with lead, resembled some primordial serpent. The runoff was late and especially heavy. As a schoolteacher, I was unaccustomed to fishing in the manner that all of us were forced to fish; generally the runoff is usually over by the time school is out. Although my clients caught about the same numbers of fish as the clients in the other boats, I failed to be assertive and take charge, according to one of the clients.

On one of the days, I was encouraged into a friendly conversation on incompetent teachers and tenure laws. I threw caution to the wind and laid the blame on the shoulders of lazy administrators who fail to follow due-process procedures and document. This conversation followed a request by the client to exchange political views with a Democrat. The man had promised his wife he would yearly hold at least one civil conversation with a Democrat, and I was his man.

I thought to myself, don't get pulled into a political debate. In spite of the slow fishing, everyone seemed in jovial spirits, so I threw caution to the wind, again! I had broken another rule: Don't discuss your personal life, your politics or your religion. Apparently my behavior and views were brought up at the round table that night. On the third day I broke from the pack (nine guides) and headed for the upper Clark Fork. That was the day the fishing improved dramatically on the Blackfoot, and you can guess the rest of the story.
My worst offense, however, was reserved for the last day when I gave casting advice to an elderly gentlemen who had been fly fishing for 40 years and loved to either encroach on his partner's water or cast out in the middle of the river. I had become critical. I heard it in my voice. I drove home from the Blackfoot that fourth morning reflecting on the qualities that I admired in the top guides whom I worked with through the years, and I took stock of myself as a guide.

The following year, at age 52, I retired myself as a guide, knowing that I could no longer keep up with the younger, more passionate guides. Let me share with you the responsibilities of both the guide and the client. Hopefully, this will help you communicate with your outfitter in selecting a guide who is best suited for you.

Guide Responsibilities
1. Be an accomplished fly fisher, a cautious rower and an enthusiastic teacher.
2. Hold a state guide license and be trained in first aid and CPR.
3. Work hard to help your client catch fish. Never give up or become discouraged.
4. Be friendly and honest. Never inflate the fishing prospects, and allow a client to cancel a trip due to inclement weather or poor fishing conditions.
5. Be punctual. Be organized, and carry extra equipment and supplies.
6. Provide a classy lunch!
7. If you are with a large group and you are having good luck on a particular pattern, share with your fellow guides.
8. Know when to join in conversations and when to withdraw and allow privacy or just quiet time.
9. Ask the clients how much instruction they want. Gauge their response. Many clients find themselves invited on trips, and yet they are really not interested in learning a new skill, not to mention feeling the pressure from a guide. Many of these clients are content to enjoy the float trip in the company of their friends.
10. Never take for granted the natural beauty that surrounds us. Share in the wonders of nature and the catching and releasing of wild Montana trout.

Responsibilities of the Client

Be realistic in your expectations and as well as your fishing skills. As a guide of many years, I would just cringe when I had a client who booked a trip in the heat of August, had little or no rudimentary casting skills and fully expected to catch a trophy trout that day. A few years back I heard a guide good-naturally say to a client who was denigrating the river, "Well, the fish are here all right, but like a lot of folks, they're not hungry all the time. That's why they call it fishing, not catching."

If a guide tells you he wants you to cast no more than six inches from the shore, he's serious! If you didn't have the skills to do so he wouldn't ask you. A client who spends a fortune to come to fish in Montana and then winces when he looses a few bucks' worth of flies always puzzles me. If you're not losing flies, you're not fishing hard.
Also, dress appropriately. If you do not have waders, wear an old pair of pants and a pair of tennis shoes. At least once a year I would have a client who would show up in dress pants and Gucci loafers. Realistically, this limits the guide's opportunities to stop the boat and let clients wade fish favorite hot spots.

Speaking of flies... Please ask the guide ahead of time if you are expected to pay for the flies. Some shop guides merely add the flies onto your total bill and deduct any flies you didn't use that day. Some outfitters and guides make it a policy to provide the flies free in the hopes that the tip they receive will compensate their loss of flies for the day. Other outfitters and guides bill the client for each fly and leader used. I have worked under both systems. I will tell you honestly that many times I will have given up $20 worth of flies and leaders. As an independent guide, I paid retail prices for flies and leaders most of the time.

Regarding tips (no objectivity here!). Did you enjoy your day? Did the guide work hard at getting you over fish? Did you have a gourmet or lavish lunch? Was the trip well organized? I won't share trade secrets about how much the outfitter pays the guides, but I will tell you that the guide is responsible for all of his equipment and insurance. With few exceptions, the lunches are made by the guide or paid for by the guide. Shuttling the guide's rig usually costs $25 a trip. Boats and rafts are usually replaced within six or seven years at around $4,000. Trailers are forever breaking down. The season is very short. Up-front yearly start-up costs translate to three guide trips before the guide makes a profit. OK - guides do have a great job, but tips are greatly appreciated.

What type of guide do you want? Most people rarely make requests of the outfitter in selecting a guide. Are you new to the sport? Do you really want a day's worth of concentrated instruction? Some guides do poorly with beginners; others never know when to let up. Good communication between the guide and client easily resolves this dilemma. I generally push and demand a great deal up until lunch. After lunch I let my beginners just have fun. When they need instruction, I wait for them to ask for it. Ask your outfitter for the best instructor for a beginner, and if you are an accomplished angler, ask for the best guide.

Do you want a young guide who bursts with enthusiasm, rows the boat with a fierce macho pride, and jumps up and down like a cheerleader? Your outfitter has them. (God, I am getting old.) Be open with the outfitter regarding what you want in a guide. And finally, I would like to close with some advice to novices. Take a class before you book a trip. Check out a fly casting VCR tape. I recommend Doug Swisher's instructional tape on casting, as well as his book. But if you want to learn on your vacation, ask for a walk-in trip instead of a float trip. Trust me, you will learn more in one day of instruction on a creek catching dozens of seven-inch trout than you would spending a couple of days casting from a boat with no previous experience.

Duck Hunting with a Scull Boat
By David Archer
Copyright David Archer 2010

Note: I sculled for twenty years in California, Wyoming and Montana. After a ten year hiatus and two total shoulder replacements, I will give it another try this fall in my own scull boat design, which is similar to the Humboldt design.

Hunting ducks on open water in a scull boat had its beginnings during the market hunting era on both the East Coast and the West Coast. With the improvement in boat construction using fiberglass materials, sculling saw a resurgence during the 1960's and 1970's. Today dedicated scullers still ply their stealthy craft on waterways across the country. It is a small fraternity of men, however, and sometimes it can be tough to find a mentor. Much information may be gleaned from an on-line sculler's forum and other dedicated sites. The following article covers the basics before someone attempts to buy a boat and learn on his own.

A traditional West Coast two-man scull boat is 14' in length and powered by a long, slender sculling oar that exits the stern through a rubber boot. Laying on his back, the sculler adjusts the oar so that the curved part of the blade is facing up and the flat side facing down. If you are right handed, the starting position would be to grip the end of the sculling oar so that your clenched hand is holding the oar in a straight line, resting slightly over your left shoulder. The sculling motion is a figure-eight rotation of your wrist. This pushing and pulling motion propels the boat forward. However, if it is not a fluid motion, the boat will rock from side to side. Do not exaggerate the figure eight motion. Keep it tight. If I am at rest and want to begin the process, I would cock my wrist in the downward motion, which then tips the blade on its side. I would then pull the handle up towards the top of the figure eight. At that top point I would rotate or cock my wrist back so that my next motion would be a push motion. The pushing motion would drop slightly to the bottom of the figure eight. At the top of the stroke, I rotate my wrist to the downward stroke and pull back. Naturally, the wider the figure eight and the slower the movement and the boat will begin rocking or moving more to one side or the other.

Turning the boat slightly necessitates that you either pull or push the oar in the figure-eight motion. For example, if the sculling oar is in the correct position with the flat bottom facing down, and you rotate your wrist and pull or push the oar, the nose of the boat will glide around to the new position. However, after each push or pull, you will need to re-position the oar straight behind you, flat side down so that it can slice through the water and not block the boat's turning progress. You wait to make some progress before repeating a push or pull movement. Slight adjustments while sculling is just a mater of prolonging a push or pull action slightly longer. (Yes, it is possible to scull in reverse, but I could never get my mind wrapped around the mechanics so I was never successful.)

Since the sculling boat has a long keel on the bottom, the keel helps track the boat in a straight line. Nonetheless, the trick is to keep the figure-eight strokes short so that before the boat goes off its straight line, the sculler adjusts or shortens the stroke with the opposite push or pull stroke. To increase speed, the left arm is lifted up so it is resting on top of the sculling oar with the left hand gripping the oar just in front of the right hand. You generally have to scrunch your body and shift to the side a bit, but this two-handed approach allows us weaklings a strong method for "sprinting" or closing the distance just before you sit up to shoot. Strong men close while sculling with their left arm and hold their shotgun with the right hand so that they lose no time sitting up and getting off a shot.

Most scullers use a kayak paddle or a set of oars when they want to retreat from rough water. In the past, I kept my life jacket as a pillow to prop up my head. The idea is that you want to have your eyes barely peaking over the front combing. (Black face) Because of the possibility of a wave rolling up the deck, a small combing is essential. Years ago the Lynn-Lee scullboat was equipped with a canvas wind shield. Similar to an old baby buggy, the windshield (wave shield) would pop up and be secured with two bungee cords.

The boat would seem dangerous, but I have been out in choppy water in three separate designs, and I always felt safe with a few exceptions where I found myself a mile from shore in rough water. In this situation, pull out the stowed outboard motor and head for shore using your kayak paddle to negotiate the waves. Another safety measure is too toss your lead weight overboard. Since you need about a 70 pound, lead ingot shoved to the very tip or bow of the boat, the easiest method is to have a long rope attached to the ingot. (This bow weight is to keep the bow tip as close to the water as possible. Birds looking at the approaching scull boat see a deck that gradually rises from the water to the combing. It looks like a partly submerged floating object.) At the end of the rope, attach the floating rope to a decoy. If the water is not too deep, the decoy will mark the spot so that you can retrieve the weight later. In twenty something years of sculling, I had to do this only once, although a number of times I pulled the weight to the center of the boat to keep the nose pointing up during rough weather.

So, just what is safe? I have seen scullers in really rough, choppy water, but I thought they were foolish. I head for shore when the gentle waves start lapping my boat or when I find that the boat is hard to control when it is lifted up in front. During rough weather, work the shoreline in two to three feet of water. It is hard to get off a good shot due to the rocking motion of the boat, but you will be amazed at how close you will get to the birds that have landed and walked up to the shore. I have also worked geese close to shore with two to three feet of waves. I would get within ten yards, but when I would drop into a trough, they would disappear. And when I tried to get off a shot, a wave would push me out of alignment. It was pretty funny the times that I would try it from the safety of near shorelines.

Scull boats make excellent layout boats in the marsh or in flooded fields. As always how well you cover the boat is a key factor. Remember also that you have a limited shooting arc of shoulder movement. You do not need camo or netting when you are sculling out in open water. The preferred color is dull, battleship gray.

Open water sculling is exciting. It is the essence of sneaking up on resting birds out in the open water. It can also be frustrating because larger flocks tend to jump early sending the entire raft into the air before you are in range. Ah, shit! You say to yourself as you sit up to stretch. To your great surprise a few singles in easy range jump when you sit up to stretch. Always sit still and survey the area before you sit up to stretch. I can't tell you how many single geese I have taken after the roar of thunder when a big flock got nervous and took flight. Early on in my learning curve I thought the remaining singles or pairs were wounded or crippled birds, but when I pursued them too fast, they would jump up and fly away! (You will need a good set of binoculars to spot birds that are worthy of a 100-yard scull.)

If you are new to the sport, pick off the trailing pairs and try and gradually separate them from the big flock. I would say that if you take your time, don't rock the boat or show too much of the boat's side profile, you have a good chance to separate birds and get off a shot. Regarding the first shot, I will say up front, that I have peppered resting birds with a sluice shot on open water many times. Giving how much work it is to spot a raft, sneak up on them and close the range, I will not apologize for occasionally sluicing birds on open water. Most of the time it is not necessary. Many times you will sit up and they freeze in shock. I have missed easy shots when this happens.

One effective open water tactic is to set a dozen decoys out in open water. Back off a hundred yards and drop a lone goose decoy or magnum mallard with a heavy weight. Tie your scull boat to the anchored decoy and stay put until birds land in the decoy zone. Sometimes after a scull you will head back to your anchor decoy and suddenly see two or three birds hanging out at your previous resting spot. Use the sun so that it is behind you. Resting birds don't like to look into the sun for very long if they think that you are just a slow drifting log or object. Fog is good until you get lost and birds appear out of nowhere ten feet from the boat. Needless to say too much fog defeats the purpose. I never wanted hamburger in the bottom of my boat.

Sculling into bays can be very effective. I have sculled on birds until I hit the mud and stopped forward progress. I have been within fifteen yards. Pick a single bird and stay with it until it drops. These are weird situations, and when I was young I would have visions of birds falling out of the sky with three shots! Flock shooting is a difficult lesson to learn. I ounce worked my sculling boat on swimming geese that headed to a flock of geese just off the shore. They went right into the "dekes". When I realized what I had done, I sat up unarmed and the birds took off right in their spread. Two Montana hunters stood up without shooting. They had a safe shot, but they too were shocked with the entire episode. They had never seen a scull boat before, and when they realized what I was doing they decided to honor my scull. Too bad no one shot as all three of us could have had a safe shot. They told me that if I could do it again at a safe angle, we should all shoot. I just laughed but later in the day I chased some mallards towards their spread. The birds got nervous and jumped up and flew into their decoys. Safely out of distance I watched them drop some mallards. I would think that a sculler at one end of a small lake would really be able to keep the birds moving down lake to a waiting layout boat hunter.

If you can get on a lake safely during winter, hunting the ice edges can be awesome. Bring a fishing pole with a nasty lure with large treble hooks to retrieve downed birds on the ice. Never go on the ice! Never go on a lake during winter unless you have an easy put-in and take-out! Don't bring a dog with you! Only go out on blue-bird days. Throw a white sheet on the deck, wear a white hat and jacket and you will have a blast. Finally, if you have a wet suit, wear it. To often, however, young men tend to push the envelope of safety resulting in tragedy. Regarding winter conditions, never scull on rivers! Scull boats cannot be turned sharply or quickly maneuvered. The only type of river I would scull on would be very slow stretches such as can be found on the Jefferson. Scull boats are not designed for rivers!

You will find many sculling sites on the Internet. You can still buy a boat in the Humboldt Bay area (Eureka, California). I do not believe that flat bottom sculling boats made out of wood are as effective as traditional designs. If I ever get around to posting this on my blog site, I'll post some of my old photographs, along with the scull boat that I am presently building. Heavier scull boats track in a straight line better than light boats. This is a fact. My best boat was a HEAVY wood / fiberglass boat. It had a FULL running keel. The cockpit combing was so high compared to other scull boats that it had a notch cut out up front to track the birds. I bought it from a man in Eureka who wanted to buy a two-man scull boat. That boat was the best damn boat I ever owned, and I have owned five scull boats, and I am presently building my last boat. One stroke and it would glide in a straight line effortlessly. I sold the boat to a friend so that I could have a two- man boat. Later the man who sold it to me tried to track the boat down after my friend sold it! Even when I was young, I would struggle loading it into my truck. I should have...yeah, I sold my 39 Chevy when I got out of the Army too!

Finally, the first season of sculling is quiet often disappointing. During the 70's I would watch men try and scull and end up selling their boats before the season was over. I didn't get many birds my first year, but I started getting close limits the following year. It is important that you have someone give you a lesson on sculling. Sit up on the deck combing and video-tape the lesson. Get on the sculling forum and ask questions. If you are going to hunt on open water far from shore, have someone on shore to come out for you in a "mother" boat if the weather changes. Cell phones are great for that situation. Better yet, tow the scull boat on a scouting trip and take turns with a friend during the middle of the day!

General Observations:

Closing the distance: Remember that when you are sculling or chasing birds on open water, they are swimming away from you. When they jump, you are shooting not their exposed breast and belly but their backs. You must be close for a clean kill, and truth be known, you end up shooting a lot of cripples on the water. Also keep in mind that when the birds jump, they are going to get a couple of wing beats, five to ten yards, before you can sit up, take aim and fire. (Shoot slightly under the birds as they rise off the water flying away from you.)

Study their behavior: If they stall and shift around, they are ready to jump. If you can see color and details, they are in range. If you have a pair that keeps turning left and then right to look at you while they are swimming, wait until they turn to a profile and then take the shot. Geese will simply try and out swim you so use two hands to close the distance or back off and go slower. If a couple of ducks or an entire raft jump when you are just out of range, NEVER fire. If you stay down, they will most often just glide a hundred yards and then land. I have closed in on geese like this two to three times before I dropped one or more of them. Again, remember that there will always be a few birds close by that stay on the water.

Blacken your face and keep your hands down: If geese swim to shore before you close the distance, they have an advantage as they can stretch their necks up and look inside your boat. If they see your arm or wrist move, they will sound the alarm. (90% of the birds that you flare will be because they saw your wrist move above the combing. Use a black golfer's glove to protect against blisters and camo the rest of your hand, along with your ENTIRE face, and NEVER move your head around to see which birds you will scull towards.) Just as you will have frustrating days wondering what you did wrong, you will have easy days when you scull within ten yards of ducks or geese.

Calm, sunny days are best because the boat has no chop slapping against the boat, and your scull can be smooth, silent and deadly.

Practice before the Season: It is essential that you practice your sculling techniques during the summer, and while you are at it, troll a fly or lure. The silent flash of the sculling oar attracts fish! The greatest challenge is to drop the oar and set the hook. The easiest birds to scull on are mallards, pintails and Canada geese. The most difficult birds to scull on (from my experience) is widgeon. They are nervous birds in a flock. They will start a roll where the nearest group flies up to the front positions, and then the roll continues.

Only use your binoculars for spotting and targeting birds. Sometimes you will lose them in the glare or fog and you will have to glass again to ascertain your bearings. Over-and-over again, throughout my years, I would spook birds that were close by when I slowly lifted up the binoculars. Sometimes it would be reflection off the lens, and sometimes it would be the movement.

Always blacken your face. If you wear glasses, use a single lens, as when you are laying on your back the bi-focals will get in your way.

If you penetrate a flock and parted birds see your side profile and movement of the oar out through the transom, they will flare. The biggest problem with sculling is heading into shore and running out of water. It sure is frustrating coming to a halt with undisturbed sleeping birds just out of effective killing range. If you scull shallow water, you will need a sculling blade that is straight versus the slightly dropped blade, which is most common. You need both types of blades on hand for shallow conditions.

Blades are made in a variety of materials and fiber glassed to a wood 1 ¼" closet pole. Here is what I have.

Blade length: 36 inches (rounded on top the height of the blade tapers to the tip of the blade. The blade and the handle are encased in cloth and resin)
Blade width: 3.5+ inches
The blade tapers to the tip at ¼ inch.
Where the blade connects to the pole, the thickness is 1 ¼ inch where the top of the blade slips into a vee in the pole. These measurements are the finished product when it is glassed. The notched vee in the pole and blade is 7 to 8 inches. Use a resin grout to fill any cracks, and then sand and shape it smooth and use cloth and resin from the tip up the pole for about eight inches. Sand and paint gray. (Tip: Cut a small V where your hand grip goes. This will indicate the correct position of the blade indicating correctly that the rounded or contoured edge of the blade is facing up. This is always the starting position.

I once had a shorter and fatter blade. The blade was made in a plaster mold with a balsa wood core. It too was a good blade. The key is that the blade must be flexible, even whippy.

I hope this helped.

Dave Archer
541-783-3796

To defy the rigid orthodoxy of contemporary fly fishing and eliminate fur, feather and hair from the artificial lure or "fly" brings to mind Hemingway's protagonist flipping live hoppers in his short story, Big, Two-Hearted River. My own father fished the Sierra-Nevada creeks and streams with a South Bend fly rod, but he never carried anything resembling a fly, preferring instead to head out to his favorite creek with live crickets, grasshoppers, grubs and, of course, worms. During the past decade many outdoor writers, searching for another writing angle to add to the plethora of expanding advice, have looked to the past. Guess what they have discovered? Many of our grandfathers and great-grandfathers thought of themselves as fishermen or anglers rather than rigidly identifying themselves as spin fishermen, bait casters or fly fishermen!

The outdoor writers churn out mind-numbing challenges for greater fishing prowess and finesse. In fairness, however, some writers are rediscovering that a plastic creature dangling at the end of a fly rod is not a mortal sin. My own creature of choice is a Berkley Power Bait Atomic Teaser or a small Gitzit (tube bait). My own journey of discovery began over thirty years ago when I watched a young man stick a good-sized largemouth using a ten-foot fly rod and a weighted deer hair abomination. He was flipping to dead treetops during a low water year on Lake Orville on the South Fork arm of the Feather River. During that same period of the early 70's, I caught small mouth bass with my fly rod and a Woolly Worm on the Russian River with a friend . My duck-hunting partner, Bill DeWalt, took me to a farm pond where we caught bass on poppers during the evening bite. I had great fun, but I looked at the sport with disdain, preferring instead to drive four and five hours into the Sierra Mountains for the supreme rainbow trout. What an idiot I was to ignore bass for more than thirty years. Equally stupid was to set aside my fly rod for two or three years as I learned conventional bass fishing with a bait casting rod. Now I never leave home without both conventional gear and fly-fishing gear. It doesn't get any easier than flipping out a Gitzit, a one-inch plastic-lipped minnow or a three-inch worm or grub at the end of a fly rod.

Plastic Creatures on the Bottom

Keep it simple. Take one of your old leaders that has been broken off to about three or four feet and about 1X or 2x in strength and attach a #1 Mosquito Hook or a #2 Gamakatsu hook. Better yet, tie on a three or four foot piece of 20-lb monofilament with any old hook that is available to you! Thread your plastic creature on the hook Texas rigged or with the hook exposed such as it is with an Atomic Teaser or a small jig. Use a dry fly line or a sinking tip line and fish the same structure as you would if you were fishing with conventional gear. Remember what you learned when reading Gary LaFontaine's book, Fly Fishing the Mountain Lakes? If you didn't read this excellent book on trout fishing, let me sum up his stillwater nymph fishing advise. Be still! Don't be impatient. Bottom crawling creatures barely move!

It is one thing to know this and quite another to practice it. A couple of years ago I was fishing with my son on Davis Lake, a fly fishing only lake below Bend, Oregon. Our strikes and fish landed were few and far between. I backed off the boat from the tulles and slowly stood up after I made a cast. I was using Denny Rickard's Sealbugger. As I watched it hit the surface, I could see smaller bass skedaddle and then tentatively reappear in the vicinity of the fly after about thirty or forty seconds. After about a minute or two, I watched as two larger fish slowly swam from cover to inspect the offering. They too never closed in on the fly, but instead they circled and headed back to their lairs. When I gently twitched the fly or crawled it one or two inches, the bigger fish would re-inspect the plastic creature. Sometimes I would repeat this procedure three or four times with long pauses in between before a fish would suck up the offering. Many times I would be spotted peering at them through my Polaroid sunglasses from a distance of thirty feet. No matter--I had learned my lesson and went on to catch upwards of 20 fish in the next couple of hours. Bass are explosive on the surface, but they are quite timid when bottom feeding, much like a brown trout on Montana's Rock Creek.

Tick! Tick! --Who's There?

Awh, the subtly and nuance of knowing when a fish has glided up to your offering, flared his gills and gently sucked in your lure only to spit it out as non-edible. One thing that you learn in bass fishing, regardless of gear, is to watch your line for any slight, telltale movement. Set the hook! Always keep your line straight and taunt. When I can't stand it any longer and I want to twitch or walk my creature a couple of inches, I first gently lift up on the rod and allow the plastic creature to settle back to the bottom where I wait again before moving it a couple of inches. I am always surprised when I feel resistance as I lift the rod tip up from its lowered position.

Surface Action

Lest anyone think that I have great success every time I go bass fishing, think again. I have plenty of days in the spring where I fish for hours, try every thing I have in my tackle box or vest and still go home skunked. In July and August fishing slows down during the heat of day. Really good fishermen tough it out and catch fish under these difficult periods relying on skills and techniques honed over the years. Many of us prefer the shade of the afternoon, an early dinner and the anticipation of top water action as the sun sets on the horizon. Unlike the action on the bottom, surface strikes are violent and swift. A rule of thumb for floating deer hair creatures, sliders, chuggers and poppers is to cast and not move the fly until the last ring of surface disturbance has disappeared. Most of the experts call for slight movements of the fly with l-o-n-g pauses, and I concur. I have read a number of sources that contend that bass prefer calm water conditions when fishing with poppers. I have not found that to be true when the water is rippling from a gentle breeze, much the same as fishing a stillwater lake in Montana.

Streamers and Minnows

Why would a bass ignore a perfectly healthy minnow imitation crossing its path? Perhaps the healthy minnow could escape, and the bass would have expended great energy for naught. Perhaps that fat old bass is lazy and just wants easy pickings. With that in mind, your streamer or lure (and I mean lure) should imitate a wounded or struggling minnow. We all know this, but sometimes we fail to focus on the crippled minnow and begin stripping in the fly or lure like it was in escape flight. Denny Rickards, the author of a number of books on stillwater trout fishing, extols the importance of the pause or stall in retrieving a fly. Many insects pause from over exertion. As they regress in the water column and slip downward, trout move in for the easy take. Crippled minnows or dying forage fish will often struggle valiantly, over exhaust themselves and pause to regain their strength. It is the pause that often triggers the strike. Strip! Strip! Strip - Pause. More and more I turn to a Clouser minnow fly, which is a pattern developed for small mouth bass by Bob Clouser. Universally acclaimed for a plethora of species, this simple streamer pattern rides with the hook up and offers two bulging lead eyes. The pattern may also be utilized as a jig. When a Clouser doesn't work, I tie on a one-inch Crankbait.

I am not trying to reach depths of 12 to 15 feet. I use a dry fly line to fish just under the surface, reaching a depth of two or three feet. Recently I fished the John Day River in eastern Oregon. Renown for its small mouth bass fishery, I arrived too early in the spring. The water was high and roiled. I had the most success that day casting a small crankbait back into the eddies and protected waters along the bank. Stripping in the line immediately pulls the crankbait to its designed depth. I always got the strike on the pause.

So there you have it. If you like dogma and you want to be a purist, stick to hair, fur and feathers when casting to bass. If you want to catch more bass, think plastic! Finally, on the question of whether to spray fish attractant on your plastic or traditional fly, a little dab will do ya just fine when no one else is around. Being too un-orthodox might have unintended consequences.

Dave Archer
www.fishingtips101
www.glaciertoyellowstone.com
www.guidetohighway395.com

Goose hunting in March? You bet, and it's legal if you hunt on private property for the special depredation hunt for White Front geese in Klamath County. The old refrain, "You should have been here last week," was answered with a "We were, and we got skunked!" Two hunters and a fumbling cameraman and none of us fired a shot on our first hunt. But how sweet it was on this last day of a short, special hunt, and it was, indeed a special hunt. The Duck Commander would stroke his scraggly beard and nod his head in approval.

I joined Steve Barrow and his brother Cliff southeast of Klamath Falls on a piece of private property wedged between a couple of irrigation ditches and a nearly dry creek. The small rivulet opened up to form numerous shallow mud depressions, which drew in returning mallards. The previous weekend we placed our goose decoys around the shallow depression of the creek bottom, and huddled in a small washout. It was a bluebird day, and the only two birds that came in range chuckled as they looked down on us eating lunch and swapping old stories. Today was different, however. It had the foggy promise of a good shoot. Packing our gear across the field, we could hear the high pitched honks and cackles of birds directly overhead, invisible in the fog.

Steve suggested we place the decoys out in the field within shooting range of the shallow drop-off above the creek. We huddled beneath a lone and very large cedar. One of the trunks had broken off so we had some cover. As I had decided not to pay for an out of state license, I brought my camera. The barrow brothers had no sooner taken their position when multiple flights of geese dropped down below the fog and spotted our decoys. Three groups of twenty to thirty birds merged in one flight circling our sixty foot cedar. They split around the tree on both sides and dropped into the decoys. The Barrow men know how to shoot. In seconds both men had their two goose limit. And I stood under the tree gazing through the branches as geese dropped out of the sky. My camera was out of reach. It was classic, and the best part was that for the next three hours Steve and his brother called in small flights, one after another, hoping I could get some decent camera shots.

I had nothing but problems with my digital camera, but I had one of the best "hunting" experiences of my life. The Duck Commander would have had to film for days to capture the action we had in four hours.

Dave Archer

After spending almost twenty-five years exploring and fishing Montana, my retirement in Oregon poses a singular challenge. I don't have the time or energy to fish all the waters of my new adopted state. I initially purchased a couple of Oregon fishing guide books and found them helpful. Craig Schuhman's book, Moon Outdoors - Oregon Fishing, however, is my go-to-bible on Oregon fishing.

Having written a Montana fly fishing and camping guide a number of years ago, I am in awe of the expansive coverage Craig has included in his 470 page book. The content is rich in details, and he does not generalize or gloss over hard to reach watersheds. Having already explored a number of creeks and streams in southeast Oregon, I immediately went to the pages covering the upper Sprague River, the Sycan River, Thompson Reservoir, Dogg Lake and a number of other smaller fishing waters I had already covered. Two of the books I had previously purchased gave fishing information that were inflated and generalized. I tested Schuhman's information with my experience, and his credibility soared. Oregon Fishing is indeed a Complete Guide to Fishing Lakes, Rivers, Streams, and the Ocean.

Although I missed not seeing photographs in the guide book, once I began using the book, I was appreciative of the well thought out organization and keyed maps. Each featured body of water covers the species of fish, facilities, directions and contact information for tackle shops and other related businesses in the area. As a new resident in Oregon, I especially liked that I never got lost while I perused through the book. Organized by geographical sections, each body of water is given a site name and number, along with a general location of the site in relation to the nearest town or landmark. Under this information is a reference to the map with the page number. If you are serious about fishing Oregon, this book is a must have guide book!

Dave Archer

Agency Lake, (Upper Klamath Lake) November 16, 2007

Photographs courtesy of Don Archer

With the flooding of 2500 acres on Agency Lake (Upper Klamath Lake) by the Nature Conservancy, duck hunters have been probing and exploring the new terrain. Prior to the breaching of the dykes, I met an old duck hunter out on the lake one blue-bird day. We crossed paths on the open water and cut our engines to chat. He is in his mid-seventies, and he has been hunting the lake for over forty years. I candidly admitted that I had been lost in the fog twice that year and was contemplating buying a GPS. He was excited about the upcoming flooding and reclamation of old marsh. "Do you realize," he said, "that we have the opportunity to study and chart the flight patterns of ducks and geese on uncharted grounds. Get a GPS and keep notes!"

My first hunt was a disaster. I picked a partially submerged dyke with broken willows to back my grassed boat up against. In front of me I had a small body of water about twenty yards wide that followed the old dyke. This sliver of water ended up against a floating mat of straw that stretched for a half a mile. On the other side of this impenetrable tangle of mat, hundreds of birds flew in from the lake, crossed the new open water tracts and landed on the edges of the straw to rest. Six weeks into the season, the birds climbed high over every tree lined dyke. Probing the water I found depths of three to five feet on the edge of the vast swath of floating straw from the fall harvest. The next day I headed over to the Williams River area to find cover.

I positioned my boat in a cluster of willows with shallow water all around me. For the next three hunts, I did very well calling small flights of teal and lone mallards. I watched hunters at mid-day fire up their Mud Buddies and explore the area for back-water mallard water. My mid-November the large flights of teal zig-zagging across the new water seemed to disappear. The birds were not dropping into my stool and almost all of the flying birds were not responding to my calls. Even more frustrating, my boat was not positioned correctly for pass shooting. I watched enviously as some duck hunters fired at birds from their boat out in a maze of floating mat and tulle patches. As if I had eaten sour grapes for lunch, I told Don that they were probably shooting at divers.

Towards the Williamson River a few fields remain uncovered by water but without any cover.

Coming in from my last hunt with one bird in hand, I decided to get as close to the shallows as I could. Earlier I had observed that the eastern edges of this new tract met fallow grounds infested with tall weeds. On my first outings I had not disturbed any large concentrations of birds hiding in the thick maze. But this time my old friend Don Archer and I watched as mallards jumped from the edges as far back as a fifty yards in this weed, congested thicket. I looked for any tell-tale signs of a boat dragged into this cover, but I found no signs. I stood up on the highest position on my boat and yelled Eureka! I spotted a pot-hole in the jungle. Meanwhile, the birds we jumped were already circling back and dropping into the tangled web of brush and weeds. Moving down the shoreline I spotted another pot-hole and some dark silhouettes. "Oh, oh," I said to Don. "I think I am looking at some decoys." Just then a guy stood up and lifted both arms in the air in frustration. They had passed up firing on ducks directly overhead not wanting to give their secret location away to us. I gave a friendly gesture back and moved out of the area. At least he had not given me the middle finger salute. I have been very tolerant of exploring duck hunters stumbling onto my spread. After all, the flooding took place almost a month after the season opened. I hope this courtesy continues as duck hunters move in and out of the area trying to find good locations.

Don Archer waits for my lab Buddy to take a leak.

Initially I was worried that too many hunters would pour into the area. So far that has not been the case. Most of the newly flooded land is large tracts of open water adjoining the lake. Many of the local hunters still return to their favorite spots at the mouth of the Williamson River and along the tulle shores of the straits. With the exception of divers, mid season typically slows in the number of puddle ducks that stay in the area. I am just delighted, however, that in these times of high fuel costs, I have a new hunting area only a few miles from my home. It will be interesting to see how the new marsh comes to life with tulles and bulrushes. A spokesman for the Nature Conservancy said that in a test section the tulles came up in two years and in five years the test section had matured. So far I have only found three entrances through the "breached" dykes, although the tract can be accessed from the Williamson River. Any duck hunter worth his salt will find the "secret spots." If we are tolerant of each other this season and demonstrate good manners in the marsh, all of us are going to have a lot of fun figuring out how to hunt this newly created marsh. Additional marsh will be created east of the Williamson River adjacent to Goose Bay. According to Matt Barry, project manager for the Conservancy, as reported in the Herald and News, November 19, 2007, 2200 additional acres will be flooded surrounding Goose Bay. Barry estimates that the water level will be lower than the other areas, which should attract puddle ducks. Best of luck!

Dave Archer
dave@glaciertoyellowstone.com

Brookings, Oregon and Gold Beach (Rogue River)

July 26, 2007 "I am not Worthy!"

Creeks, streams, rivers and lakes beckon me, but of late the Pacific Ocean whispers promises of bigger water and bigger fish. My growing fascination for ocean fishing caught me by surprise. Bloody bait and endless trolling never appealed to me, but in truth, it is fishing that requires more patience than what I could have endured in my younger years. Had the label "Attention Deficit Disorder" been around during my school days, I certainly would have qualified. It is not that I elevate trout fishing or bass fishing above bottom fishing or salmon fishing, it is simply that the former both offer continuous casting and mobility. As I grow older, however, the appeal of trolling and catching a large salmon prompted me to head for the coast to investigate this logical extension of my angling experience.

Living only four and a half hours from the coast, the allure of salt water fishing began with my first crabbing excursion on the Charleston Bay last fall. Had it not been for my wife noting that many of the crabbers were out trolling for salmon in between checking on their pots, I would probably still be concentrating my efforts on bass and trout. However, like all new endeavors specialized equipment and new skills have to be learned. The learning curve for conventional bass fishing was tough enough after a life time of fly fishing for trout. Ocean fishing will be a commitment of money and time, as well as learning boating safety. With that in mind, my first stop was Brookings, Oregon where I could prowl the docks while my wife visited her sister.

My first mistake was to purchase a rod and reel from a woman in the fishing department at Bi-Low in Grants Pass. Before you howl in protest at my seemingly sexist or chauvinist leanings, let me explain. I wanted a sales person who was an old sea dog, someone with real ocean fishing experience. When a woman stepped forward to help me, I tossed out a quick "sizing up her experience" question on salt water fishing. The question went directly to my task at hand, "Do you sell salmon rods and reels?" Quick to push down any further judgmental queries, I ended up walking out the door with an 8.5 foot Ugly Stick and an Abu Garcia level wind reel. Certain that I would be gouged in the tackle shops along the coast, I choose to save money and buy from an inexperienced sales person who answered my question with, "Yes, here is a popular reel."

"Penny saved, pound foolish" echoes in the recycle bin of my memory bank. I had purchased a popular river rig for salmon and steelhead fishing. The rod was too long for bringing a salmon to net while in a rocking boat out in the ocean, and the reel was too small for the minimum 300 feet of line required out in the ocean. My 18' skiff was not in compliance with the Coast Guard requirements. I did not have a proper throwable PFD. I did not have a VHF marine radio, nor did I have a magnetic compass or sound producing device, not to mention a visual distress device. I was only going to venture a mile out and test the boat I reasoned. I also noted that most small boat anglers had a back-up trolling motor. I cancelled any notion of just going out past the jetty to test the sea worthiness of my boat. I was not sea worthy. I also discovered that I need to take an Oregon test on safe boating procedures. I tried to book a bottom fishing trip, but the ocean was too rough so I headed up to Gold Beach to fish the mouth of the Rogue River for the first salmon arrivals for the fall run.

The owner of Rogue Outdoor Store in Gold Beach, Jim Carey, makes his living with repeat customers, both local and from out of the area. Like any good fly shop or tackle shop owner, Jim makes his living passing on information, providing instruction and helping people get set up properly. If he isn't too busy, he goes out of his way to help beginners, which in my case included setting up my rod when I showed some confusion on how to set up a sliding spreader and a Rogue Bait Rig by Luhr-Jensen. Designed for a 4" to 6" anchovy, the main line attaches to a spreader rig. The spreader rig is a V-shaped springy steel contraption that separates the dropper line and sinker from the running line to the bait rig. Jim set me up with a Glide-O spreader. The simple practicality of this rig is that if you tangle while playing a fish, the main line runs free. Since the spreader has a drop leader on lighter pound test line to the weight, the weight can be broken off without the loss of the fish. Additionally, the fish do not feel the weight when they take your bait or lure. From the second tip of the V- spreader the line extends 40 to 50 inches to a swivel. Below the swivel are a rotating blade and a single hook on a slip knot. The single hook adjusts to the baitfish length and body bend for correct rolling action. The single hook is threaded up under the jaw and extrudes out of the mouth. Jim told me that a good bending angle for an anchovy is the natural bend of your leg just above the knee. Using a slender, rigid wire with a notch at the end, the wire is pushed up the anus until it exits the mouth. The wire is notched on the terminal end of a perfection loop and then pulled back out the anus. A treble hook is then attached with one of the three hooks sunk into the flank of the anchovy just above the tail. Jim may be reached at Rogue Outdoor (541-247-7142) or online at www.rogueoutdoor.com.

The next morning I headed to Lex's Landing to launch my boat for $5 and wolf down a breakfast burrito, which was delicious. I learned a lesson pulling a camper and a boat. It was an invaluable lesson if you travel to fishing grounds with a non-angling spouse. Pay for a mooring spot so you can head out early in the morning and not disturb your wife! I trolled for three or four hours dodging boats coming at me from all directions. Standing on the levy the previous day, it looked like the boats, for the most part, were traveling in an elliptical orbit in the same direction. When I got on the water early in the morning I had a half mile between me and the next boat. By nine o'clock I counted close to forty boats. By eleven o'clock my wife and I counted close to 60 boats, and I could detect no discernable pattern. By noon the coast guard was herding the small boats back into the safer water. Although I didn't have any action, it was a good trial run for later.

Fishing tip: Jim Carey recommends an Oregon blade, which is made locally. Information may be found at oregonblade.com.

Dave Archer

Basic Fly Patterns and Presentation

I always drop by a fly shop if I am away from my home waters, especially when I am fishing in Montana. The price of bugs is generally the same, but the information is invaluable. Shop owners frequently buy regional and specialty flies from their guides.

Keep in mind that each day shop outfitters send out their guides with the simple goal of getting their clients into fish, and everyday information is traded back and forth on what works, where it works and when it works. Shop owners and clerks readily pass on this information to first-time customers for half a dozen flies or less! Naturally, every shop has their killer flies that they use to expand the sale, but I don't believe that I have ever been duped. Fly shops have short seasons. In order to survive, they depend on customer loyalty, which in turn depends on their credibility. Regarding published hatch charts, take them with a grain of salt. Although I personally admire the dedication and perseverance that it takes to compile a hatch chart, the vagaries of Mother Nature generally render them in the category of "You should have been here last week." The best source of information will be from the local fly shops. Regardless of where you buy your flies, stay out of the bargain basement. Not all flies are tied equally.

For years I would shake my head in puzzlement when a client fishing with me on the Bitterroot River would open up his fly box and pull out a cheap and poorly tied fly. Rather than upset a client's out-of-state purchasing acumen for Montana trout flies, I would just resort to some swaps if I knew I was dealing with a tightfisted bargain hunter. Look for stiff neck hackles that will keep the fly high and dry. The next simple test is to look at the body to see if it is slender and proportionate. Finally, a good dry fly should have a three-point landing. When the fly is resting in the palm of your hand, the hackle and the tail should be aligned so that the bottom of the hook is barely resting on your palm. If the tail is too short, the fly will not land as well, nor will it offer the same profile to trout.

It is the fly that triggers the strike. The one topic guaranteed to generate instant conversation among fly anglers is the mention of fly patterns. No other facet of fly fishing evokes so much enthusiasm and reverence. Through the years many surveys have asked prominent fly fishers to share their favorite fly patterns. Lefty Kreh, in an article in Field and Stream, published February 1972, polled 12 expert fly fishers. The following list of dry flies, nymph flies and streamer flies represents a composite of the most frequently used flies for each category among these 12 experts.

* Dry Flies: Light Cahill, Adams, Royal Wulff, Irresistible, Quill Gordon, Humpy
* Nymphs: Trueblood Otter Shrimp, Quill Gordon, Ed Burk, Yellow Stone Fly, Muskrat, Woolly Worm
* Streamers: Black Nose Dace, Spruce Fly, Muddler Minnow, Gray Ghost, Black Marabou, White Marabou

Dan Abrams, in a similar type survey published in Sports Afield, October 1975, polled 30 notable fly fishers regarding their top four fly patterns. Seven of the 30 were prominent Rocky Mountain fly fishers. A generalized list of the most popular patterns produced the following: Adams, Royal Wulff, Humpy, Muddler Minnow and Gold-ribbed Hare's Ear Nymph. Add the Woolly Bugger and a Light Cahill in varying sizes and I would be content for quite some time. Well, of course, I would need to add a hopper pattern and a PMD and maybe a....

One of the great joys of fly fishing is sharing what works. If you are a beginner and meet a friendly fly fisher, pull out your fly box and ask, "Which one should I use?" I fondly recall many occasions when someone took me under their guidance and shared their secret fly for the day. Through the years my own collection of fly patterns grew in direct proportion to my fly fishing budget. Like most of the fly fishers I know, I can never have enough patterns. I have a number of match-the-hatch patterns for those special days, and I have my reliable stand-by attractor patterns and generic patterns that I started out with 40 years ago.

I have prioritized the following recommendations for the young beginner who has an empty fly box and a thin wallet. If you would like to begin tying your own flies, I highly recommend Jack Dennis's manual, Western Trout Fly Tying Manual. For a more in-depth approach to matching hatches, I recommend The Complete Book of Western Hatches by Rick Hafele and Dave Hughs.

For those of you who are new to the sport of fly fishing and have never fished in Montana, I offer 20 patterns that will cover about 90% of the fishing from Glacier to Yellowstone. Be observant of what the trout are feeding on and use a small aquarium net to scoop up the bugs and look at them closely. Purchase a fly box with a foam backing and sort your dry mayfly patterns by color and size. For example, I start out with light, cream-colored Cahills and pro-gressively move across in increasingly darker shades to pale yellow, bright yellow, yellow-green, green, olive green and into the green-browns and finally mahogany and rust colors. I set up a separate row of gray and tan mayfly patterns. Personally, I am less concerned with Latin identification as I am with finding the right sized imitation in as close to the natural color as possible. Organizing my fly box in this manner helps me to locate a pattern quickly. It also reminds me what colors I am missing or what sizes I am missing. The following 20 patterns are the ones that "I never leave home without." If you plan to fly fish in the Eastern Sierras or the Cascades, be sure to stock up on these patterns.
Dry Fly Patterns

Royal Wulff: Sizes 10-16

The Royal Wulff is the definitive attractor pattern. Created by the famed Lee Wulff, it imitates nothing, and yet it of-fers to the trout an equivalent of an exquisite Julia Child masterpiece. Derisively called the "Dude Fly" because of its white calf-tail wing, this extravaganza brings the fish up! Best of all, it is a fly the caster never fails to see. To digress for the beginner, keep in mind that you have to set the hook, as the trout will spit the fly out on its dive back into the water. Most beginners miss the take because by the time they react, the fish is safely on its way. Wear Polaroid sunglasses so that you can begin to train your eyes for underwater movement. Early detection allows you to react more quickly.
Presentation: Classic, upstream dead drift.

Humpy (Goofus Bug): Sizes 10-16

The Humpy's origin, according to Jack Dennis, is shrouded in controversy. Whether the fly originated in Jackson, Wyoming, or elsewhere is really unimportant. What is important to the beginner is that this fly works, and it is an indispensable pattern to have in your fly box. Although it is an attractor pattern, it may imitate a large caddis or stonefly in larger sizes. The fly is ideal for fast-flowing waters because of its inherent buoyancy. The Royal Humpy is especially easy to track in fast water. When sparsely tied, the Humpy works amazingly well on slow waters and can be used to imitate a Little Yellow Stonefly. The great advantage of this fly for the beginner is that it is almost unsinkable, and it offers great visibility in fast water for both the fisherman and the trout. It is, however, a most challenging pattern to tie. The best directions for tying this pattern may be found in The Second Fly-Tyers Almanac by Robert H. Boyle and Dave Whitlock.

Presentation: Classic, upstream dead drift. However, since this pattern closely resembles a caddis fly and floats so well, try drifting the fly downstream under willows or overhanging branches. As the fly drifts to the targeted area, lift the rod tip up to create an erratic skipping motion on top of the water, and then lower the rod tip quickly to allow the fly to drift once again on top of the water. Await the strike!

Renegade

It would appear that the Renegade attractor pattern has faded in popularity over the last 20 years, but it is a great fly for late evening fishing, as the white hackle in the front helps to see the fly on darkened waters. The second advantage is that the dual hackle design keeps the fly afloat when it is difficult to see after sundown. If you are new to the sport of fly fishing, be sure you have a good supply and a range of sizes for the Royal Wulff, the Humpy, the Renegade, the Adams and the Elk Hair Caddis.

Adams/Parachute Adams: Sizes 12-22

The ubiquitous Adams is probably the most widely used dry fly pattern on the North American continent. It imitates any number of gray mayflies. I highly recommend acquiring as many Adams in various sizes as possible. Because of the difficult visibility with this pattern, I have switched over exclusively to Parachute Adams for sizes 16-22. Although this is a generic type pattern, a size 20 Parachute Adams performs quite well during a Trico or Baetis hatch on slow moving water with a nine-foot leader and 6X tippet.

The Trico spinner imitation has a small black body with divided white poly wings in the spinner position. During the heat of summer, get out on a Rocky Mountain river like the Clark Fork between 7 and 9 am (varies) for the Tricorithodes or Trico hatch followed by the spinner fall.
Although one of the smallest of mayfly species, nonetheless, this is a staple for feeding trout primarily because of the preponderant numbers during the spinner fall. Generally found in slower waters, the trout settle into a sipping, rhythmic rise form. Do not be deceived by the small rings and the dark noses - big fish! Fish in the morning during those dog days of August. I'm sure you will be delighted with the experience regardless of how many fish break off and get away. Because I have trouble seeing a small Trico, I often add on a small Trico as a trailer behind a small Parachute Adams.

Presentation: Classic, upstream dead drift.

Gray Drakes (Heptagenia and Siphlonurus) typically hatch throughout the summer starting in early June. Sizes 10-18.

Tricorythodes typically hatch late in the summer, usu-ally at the beginning of August. Sizes 20-26.

Light Cahill or Light Variant: Sizes 12-18

A light cream color Heptagenia mayfly imitation is another must have pattern. The Light Cahill pattern may also be used on slower waters and lakes to imitate Callibaetis. The Callibaetis dun body is olive-brown, however, so you may want to darken a few of your Light Cahills with a magic marker.

The Light Cahill can be used to imitate Ephemerella or Heptagenia mayflies, but be sure to closely inspect the size and color of the insect, and then match it with your color coded fly selection.

PMD - Pale Morning Dun

Pale Morning Duns are probably the most prolific and reli-able hatch from Glacier to Yellowstone. These Ephemerella drake patterns should be part of your must-have patterns in sizes 16-22. PMDs hatch from June through October. Lighter in color from their cousins the Green Drakes, their bodies range from olive green to pale yellow and tan. The wings are generally slate gray to yellow. PMD cripples should be part of your collection. Nymph patterns such as the Zug Bug, Gray Nymph and the Hare's Ear generally work well. The darker green patterns will work well during a Baetis hatch as well.

The famous Green Drake hatches (Ephemerella grandis) are typically from mid-June through mid-July. If you are in an area with a Green Drake hatch, be sure to stock up on a number of these drake patterns at the nearest fly shop. The hatch is generally not heavy, but if they are out, the trout are looking for them. Reports from guides returning to the shop will determine if you should buy traditional drake patterns or Compara Duns or Green Para-drakes. All of the above patterns range in color from pale yellow to green to olive brown. Stock up.

Elk Hair Caddis: Sizes 10-18

Unlike the graceful rise and gliding fall of the mayfly, a cad-dis hatch looks like a burst of kindergartners swarming over a playground. An accompanying soundtrack for a mayfly would be a Viennese waltz. Conversely, the caddis dance would be a rap soundtrack by Snoop Dogg. Generally, the caddis will hatch in the evening. The most popular body colors are brown, olive, green, gray and tan.

Caddis flies are not easily missed, and in the pupa and winged stages they are an important part of the trout's diet. Look for them in the quiet pocket water under willow branches or overhangs, especially in the evening. You may also want to select a few patterns for the emergent phase such as a sparkle pupa. For larger caddis imitations use a Humpy or an X-Caddis. Use a Goddard Caddis for fast, heavy water.

One of the Montana guides I worked with collected the caddis cases and tied them on a Mustad hook with a peacock thorax. He fished them on a dead drift on the Big Hole, and I was impressed! Beginning with the Grannom Caddis hatch in May, caddis emerge throughout the summer and fall. The most consistently popular pattern is the Elk Hair Caddis.

Presentation: Classic, upstream dead drift or erratic ac-tion produced by rod tip action.

Blue-Wing Olive: Sizes 16-22

The Baetis (Blue-Wing Olive) is an important pattern in Montana, as Baetis hatch from May through October. They are generally smaller than a PMD. The body color for a Baetis pattern is olive brown with gray wings and light gray hackle. It is not uncommon for trout to be sipping the smaller Baetis during a hatch of PMDs.

Salmon Fly

Montana's favorite hatch calls for big bugs that hold up under heavy water conditions. They need to stay high and dry. The Salmon Fly pattern is constantly being reinvented and im-proved. During a Salmon Fly hatch, local shops have these flies displayed in tubs and buckets. The Salmon Fly hatch generally emerges late May and is essentially over by mid July. Water temperatures need to be in the low 50s.

Stimulator

The Stimulator represents a pattern for stone-flies in orange and yellow. When the trout quit hitting the big Salmon Fly patterns, they tend to strike at smaller stimulators long after the Salmon Fly hatch is over. The Stimulator is best used during a Golden Stonefly hatch.

Streamers and Wet Flies
Muddler Minnow: Sizes 4-8

Popularized by Dan Bailey of Livingston, Montana, the Muddler Minnow should always be in your fly box. I have met fly fishers who fish almost exclusively with Muddler Minnow patterns. Along with its offshoot, the Marabou Muddler, this pattern has probably taken more large fish than any other fly, especially on the Yellowstone River. The Muddler may also be greased up and used as an effective hopper pattern, and I have used it both dry and wet on the same cast with interesting results.

Presentation: Fish the Muddler slightly upstream or down-stream in a quartering action. Retrieve the Muddler by simultaneously pumping the rod tip and stripping in the line in quick, little jerks which imitates the darting action of a sculpin minnow. Allow for pauses, and add weight if necessary.

Woolly Bugger: Sizes 4-8

This pattern is a must for late spring and early summer when the water is high and off-color and the hatches are sporadic. If you are fishing from shore, make short casts around all the rocks and boulders. Be sure the fly is actually sinking to the bottom. Add lead to your leader if necessary. Use a short 2X or 3X leader. Make short casts and keep the rod tip high so that you keep the Bugger bouncing along the bottom. Lift the rod tip when you feel a bump. Do not assume it is just a rock. If it is, lower the rod tip and let the bugger sink again.

Yuk Bug and Girdle Bug: Sizes 6-12

I love this bug! I have caught so many beautiful fish during early summer when the water is still high but clear. I float along until I find a logjam or flooded backwater eddy. I usually select a size 10 Yuk Bug. The Yuk Bug has a dark body wrapped with grizzly hackle. Protruding from the body are white rubber legs. I find I generally have to cut back on the length of the rubber legs. I want them to pulse, and I want them to flare at the sides rather than collapsing backwards. I do not use weight. I fish it like a dry fly, allowing it to gradually sink. Most important, I cast from a kneeling position. I am always amazed at how adept large trout are at hiding. As the Yuk Bug sinks into quiet water, the trout will slowly emerge from its hiding spot. I have had large trout appear from under a small tree trunk in shallow water. They never rush to the Yuk. They take their time. It also works well in creeks and small streams. I love this bug!

Nymphs
Hare's Ear Nymph: Sizes 12-16

In my opinion, this is the best of the small nymph patterns for spring creeks, beaver ponds and slow, flat stretches of river. When I fish high-elevation lakes, I always bring along the Hare's Ear Nymph and a Zug Bug in smaller sizes. They work wonders. If you have someone along who is not an accomplished fly caster, use a plastic water-filled bubble with as long of a leader as possible. Attach a Hare's Ear or Zug Bug and cast out as far as possible and retrieve with a spinning reel. If the fish are rising to the surface, be sure to cast way over them, as the splashdown from the water-filled bubble will spook the fish in the near vicinity.

Bead-head Prince Nymph

This is perhaps the most popular nymph in the region! If you don't have any, head to the nearest fly shop. They work great as a dropper off a hopper pattern during the heat of August.

Pheasant Tail

The Pheasant Tail Nymph is an excellent soft hackle nymph for slow water. The key to this fly is a slender silhouette and a sparely-tied hackle.

Terrestrials
Hopper (Joe's, Dave's, Jay's, Dan's): Sizes 6-12

As you can see from the partial list of Hopper contributors, grasshopper imitations are recorded in the "Who's Who of Terrestrials". Rarely, however, will you find such citations on the bins in a fly shop. For beginners I recommend a clipped deer-hair collar. This feature adds stability and superior floatation. Although the grasshopper is meant to have a low silhouette, without the deer hair the buoyancy is drastically reduced and the caster generally struggles with a sinking pattern.

Presentation: The best source of information on hoppers can be found in the September 1985 issue of Fly Fisherman. In this issue Dave Whitlock, in his article "Hoppertunity", discusses hopper behavior, pattern characteristics and Hoppertunity Techniques. Here are a few of his suggestions: Being a terrestrial insect, the grasshopper is on unfamiliar "ground" when he gets blown on the water. No gentle landings here. Make a splash with your hopper. Strip the hopper in with intermittent twitches from rod-tip action. Use a heavy tippet, and use a twist piece of lead to sink the hopper in those promising pools. Cast close to undercut banks and overhangs where trout hide during low water periods. Fish during the heat of the day. Carefully pick your targeted area. Although a smashing hopper on top of the water will trigger a strike, it also quite often spooks fish in the outlying area. Keep moving and practice stealth.

Beetle Patterns

The deer hair patterns dyed black work wonders. Rick Hafele and Dave Hughes in their outstanding book, The Complete Book of Western Hatches, point out that the Woolly Worm is also a good pattern to imitate a water beetle in still or slow moving water.
Ant

Although ant patterns are difficult to see in small sizes, ants are a staple diet for trout during the summer.

Bead-Head San Juan Worm

I have always had a certain amount of disdain for the San Juan Worm, but I have a growing appreciation for this pattern during the spring and again late in the fall. I favor the bead-head version with the bead in the center.

Well, there you have it - the 20 patterns that I would never leave home without!

If you actually got this far, and you are a beginning fly fisher, be sure to check out "Mastering the Basics of Fly Fishing" by following the link from this site to my Montana site.

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