Fly of the Week #10- Catch's Conehead 20 Incher

Great new color! 

(This is my new go-to hat. Move over Patagonia)

With a zesty summer style, Simms comes at us with  new hat offerings.  We got to look over all the new and exciting, uber high quality product that the Bozeman, Montana company will be offering in 2017.  It's really difficult for me to wrap my mind around a new year being talked about like it's tomorrow, but I guess we are used to that by now with 2017 cars already on lots, the 2017 school year being several short weeks away and August in a couple of days!

If you check out the gear reviews, I bought a new boat patch from Simms a couple of months ago and I figured I might add that review now, since I am showing off the new hats I figured it would be a Simms day.

WBFC is going to be offering NEW Simms hats of various designs/colors with our WBFC logo embroidered!  look for them in the shop soon or online soon.
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Fly of the Week:

With the passing of the golden Stone season comes the influx of summer stones into the Yakima system.  Summer Stones, AKA Short Wing Stones, are prevalent throughout the catch and release portions of the river.  My entomological knowledge of the summer stone is very limited.  What I do know, is that the female can fly and the male can't- hence the common name- Short Wing Stone.  According to what I read on West-fly, the summer stone is related to the Golden Stone and the range of the species is, in the USA, primarily the Northwest region.  That is one reason you may have never heard of the Short Wing Stone.  If you are visiting and have the wonderful opportunity to fish the Yakima system, I would not be without the Conehead 20 Incher from Catch flies.  It's a super pattern, really heavy so it gets down deep fast, and it's a popular guide fly here at the shop.  I would run a two nymph rig, the Conehead up front and either a PMD nymph or caddis larva or pupa off back.  Mid day nymphing has been a good way to catch fish when the temperatures soar and the sun pushes the fish deep.

Recipe:

Hook: Curved Nymph 6-12

Thread:Black or Olive

Bead/cone:  Brass or Tungsten, sized to hook 

Weight: Lead wire, sized to hook

Tails: Dark Brown Goose Biots

 Rib: Gold or Brass Ultra Wire 

Floss Underbody: Dark Colored Dubbing 

Abdomen: Peacock Ice Dub 

Wingcase: Turkey Tail Quill with two strips of flash

Legs: Partridge and rubber legs

Thorax: Natural Hare s Mask Dubbing- olive or rust

Fly of the Week #9- ESP Caddis

What is ESP?  If your some sort of astral traveler and fringe science geek, ESP stands for extrasensory perception. I'm not discounting ESP and I certainly have had experiences that are unexplained, but it is still on par with backwoods lore like Bigfoot and locally-- Mel's Hole.  Some might imagine ESP to be a cool "power" but how fun would it be to be able to know when the fish are going to bite?  That sounds totally lame to me.

Half the fun of fishing is the suspense that builds as you ply the waters in hope of the take.  On a slow day, you might even count how many takes you had.  Of course, counting fish is either a sin, or a requirement, depending on the camp or company you keep. I will admit to being a fish estimator, as in, "Ya, we got into them, we probably caught 12 to 14 fish."  or "They all ran 16 inches".  The times I do wish I had ESP is when I talk to people on the river and they are telling me about having had a 40 fish day and they were all over 18 inches.  On those occasions, I just take 50% off each number and call it good.

Emergent Sparkle Caddis

Colors- green, tan, olive, brown, your choice

Ok, Ok, so back to the other "ESP".  We covered X-caddis last week and the picture should give those seasoned anglers a big hint.  It's a famous fly pattern and it started with Gary Lafontaine.  His work  was based on in-stream  insect observation and the patterns to imitate caddis.  We now know the ESP as the Emergent Sparkle Pupa.  It's a killer caddis emerger pattern and will fish circles around other patterns during a good caddis hatch.

It's an almost too easy to tie pattern.  It can be tied or bought in several colors- the green above being a popular color, as well as olive, brown and tan.  Matching the naturals in your home water is still a valuable route to take to success.  To fish them, try doping the deer hair only and use a tight line or shallow nymph technique.  Swinging this fly can also produce strikes.  It can be a great small water fly or dropper.

ESP Recipe
Hook- Dai-Riki #135 or #125, Sz 12-20
Thread- Veevus- brown or black
Underbody- many variations- from green flash to dubbed antron, Haretron or Ice Dub
Overbody- Antron yarn- tail is clipped from overbody so be mindful of that.
Wing- Deer hair- I like the X-caddis hair we sell.  It comes in natural, dun and bleached.
Head- Dark brown dubbing- Haretron, Hare's Ear or something similar that makes a tight dubbing noodle. No need for a buggy look, just a clean head.

That's about it.  Tie some up and see what magic you can make.  If your really good, you can "know" when fishing is best, but if you're really smart, you will just call the shop and get all the details!

WBFC Staff

Fly of the Week #8- X- Caddis

Olive X-Caddis- Sz 14-16

If I didn't like tying so much, and was forced, by fillet knife point, to choose just one fly to fish this summer or at least, the caddis hatches around Central WA, I would not hesitate grabbing a handful of X-Caddis.  The X-Caddis is the creation of  Craig Mathews and ranks among the best in emerger representations ever created- for caddis.  Its popularity was gained because it fools the wary trout of the greater Yellowstone area to the pressured fish of the Yakima River, and beyond.   If a fly becomes famous, it usually stems from it's universal appeal to fishing people, ease of tie, and  trout susceptibility. 

The X-Caddis in olive, dark olive, brown and black all work well in the Yakima and its tributaries. Olive or dark olive seem to be the best universal color, especially during the low light feeding frenzy that sometimes happens in the caddis heavy stretches of the river.  Just bring a flashlight if you fish until after dark, I would rather see a rattlesnake then feel one!   I dip just the deer hair wing into something like Fly Agra and then false cast it dry.  The combo of deer hair and Fly Agra make for a great floating dryfly.  It works well in the soft water of the lower canyon, as well as the rough water around Cle Elum or the various tribs.  This is one of those flies that we are always restocking, and that alone should attest to its effectiveness, if you've never fished these great flies, give them a try and see what happens. 

X-Caddis Recipe

Hook: Dai-Riki #320 or #305, sizes 12- 20 

Thread: Veevus  8/0 color to match body 

Tail: Zelon or substitute, amber gold or caddis gold- crinkled 

Body: Dubbed beaver or Antron: tan, brown, olive or black- basically match the naturals 

Wing: Deer or elk hair- I like Nature's Spirit x-caddis deer hair! 

Fly of the Week #7- Headlight Sallie

Headlight Sally- Size 14 or 16

As far as small Stoneflies go, Yellow Sallies are not overly prolific in the Yakima system.  Farmlands and upper river(Cle Elum) have decent hatches of these brightly colored and easily spotted aquatic insects.  

Like all Stoneflies, the Yellow Sally migrates to the shore, crawls onto land where they hatch and mating takes place in the bushes. The egg laying flights occur at or around  mid-afternoon to evening. The female is egg laden, hence the red "butt" on most adult patterns.  As they drop to deposit the eggs, the stonefly will often become another food source for hungry trout.  Of course, catching one and matching it's color is the best way to fool wary trout.  However, a lot of production flies are a decent match for the Sallies around here. 

One of the elements I like best about the Headlight Sally is the opal tinsel body.  Opal tinsel is just plain awesome for any fly, be it a traditional dry, an opal elk hair caddis, a midge emerger or as flash on the ever popular Dolly Llama streamer. 

I might try adding some recipes, since we are a tier's shop, to the fly of the month posts.  Eventually, I hope we can have some photographs or videos too, as the blog develops.

Headlight Sally

Hook- Dai Riki #300 14-16

Thread- Yellow Veevus 8/0 or 10/0

Post- Upright white calf tail or for a variation, some hi-vis poly or 1/16th dia. yellow foam cylinders. ( foam being used for extended tail/body and post)

Hackle- Light Ginger wrapped parachute

Wing- Hairline Clear Wing

Body(hook) - UTC Opal Mirage Tinsel, Med. 

Thorax dubbing- Nature's Spirit X-tremely FIne Natural Dubbing- #13 Sulphur Yellow

Extended Body- 1/16the Foam Cylinder or Hairline Fine Chinelle in Fluorescent Yellow ( Burnt to create taper)

Butt- Red permanent marker 

River Update:

While the river is still fishing pretty good, the USBOR has dumped an immense amount of water into the system! The river rose close to 1000 cfs from yesterday to today.  Also, due to our spring like weather this summer, we have unbelievably cold water.  I was told by Aron, one of our guides, that the river was  48 deg. F in the morning and only got to 52 deg. F at lunch. Crazy cold water for July and one reason we have a truly year 'round fishery on the Yakima. The telling story about the picture to the right is one of numbers.  Looking at the dam releases we see close to 4600 cfs being released in the headwaters but as little as 700 in the lower system!  This is all OK with me, since I tend to be one of those people who like to eat food and drink high hopped beer.  Both food and hops being grown in abundance throughout the lower valley.  The good news is fish are still being caught, the weather is perfect for fishing- overcast, no wind and mild temperatures. 

READ WHY

WBFC Staff