Hickey's Hornet

I found this bug in a Northwest Fly Fishing magazine as I was cleaning the reading material out of the john. I dig when guys tweak well-known flies and make em' their own. I 'spose this one is a variation of a prince nymph. It's a super easy and fast tie. As I said yesterday I have WAY too many blank hooks, about 8 50 ct. boxes of Dai-riki's in different sizes and styles, about 20 25 packs of Daiichi hooks- my favorite brand, and 5 25 ct packs of Tiemco. Then there is the giant hook holder that holds all the big stuff and salmon hooks.

Probably a size #12 nymph hook with an oversized gold bead. One thing I learned from Tim in Montana was bead color. He tells me that late in the season when fish have been beat to death and seen every type of bug imaginable that the bead can spook fish. I will tie a dozen of these with black beads later tonight.

I wanted this bug to be pretty heavy but I didn't have anything but real fine gold rib. So I spun the wire together to double it up and get a little more weight and flash. Here we have the biot tail, olive 8/0 thread, and a pretty much overkill bunch of dubbing. I found some dubbing in my desk that looked, moved and felt like a Brilo pad; really stiff, heavy, and able to hold its shape, plus it had a dull, almost pale greenish olive color. I mixed it up with equal parts of olive flashabou dubbing and olive super bright dubbing...so much for spooky fish!

I added a piece of pearlescent strip for the wings after dubbing the body.

After dubbing the body and clipping the wings back to about the bend of the hook I used peacock dubbing for a collar and tied off. An easy bug, would work great as weight bug in a two fly rig as an attractor above a more hatch specific bug.




These are probably my favorite flies that Tim has come up with, the PT Cruzer. My mom was up Montana visiting gramma a couple weeks ago and I had her stop and get me some bugs to copy. I called Matt at Frontier Anglers and had him set aside all the material, recipe and instructions for tying these. They are a little involved but, man, are they sexy. He sells them in all kinds of colors from natural to yellow sally to attractor pink. I'll be tying mine in #18 or #20 on Tiemco 2457 or 2488H's.

I am also about ready for a new vise. When I moved to UT back in 1988 a guy my mom worked with taught me to tie commercially...how to tie a bunch of bugs quickly without wasting time looking for scissors, etc. doing stuff assembly line style. He told me, "you ain't a fly tier until you've tied a thousand yellow humpies..." I will never be a tier, I guess because I don't use them much and hate to tie them. He taught me on a georgeous Regal vise. I had been using the vise that came in my kit. Then I moved up to the Griffin Superior 3ARP and have used that since, and it has been a perfect tool, especially for big stuff, with those big beefy jaws. I wanted to try the rotary but didn't wanna blow the dough so I bought a Griffin Odyssey Spyder vise. I had done without rotary for 15 years and still don't think I need it. I used my bro-in-law's Dyna King Barracuda but find I don't like the room for my sausage sized fingers behind the hook and don't really need rotary for tiny bugs. So I have narrowed it down to two vises; the HMH standard (not the Spartan) and the Dyna King Supreme. I am leaning towards the Supreme so if any of you have positives or negatives I'd like to hear any. Back to tying.

Bugs

Haven't had a chance to get out and fish lately, 'cept to get skunked chasing wipers at Willard a couple days ago. I HAVE been THINKIN' about fishing, though. I have also been tying flies like crazy, probably because I noticed I have WAY too many undressed hooks laying around. Sorry for the pic quality but these feller's are tiny.Here are a few of the latest:



Barr's Emerger. This is one of my favorite patterns. I tied a couple dozen with and without beadheads.


This is the rootbeer neon gnat. I'd been tying them in olive and pink and have done well with them in the fall and winter for both whities and browns.

I am a big fan of Tim Tollett of Frontier Anglers in Dillon, MT. This is one he came up with called the MVP. Don't really know what they represent with the body shape and hump but they look pretty sexy. I tied them in the usual PMD and BWO colors and a few others in attractor colors.

MVP recipe:

Tail--z-lon, I used rust and olive for PMD and BWO and then different shades of dun for the others.

Body--2 or 3 strands of krystal flash in yellows, olive, pink, chartreuse.

Rib--fine silver wire.

Hump--McFly foam. I used pink, dead egg, flourescent green, and yellow.

Legs--dun hackle tied wet style.

Collar--dubbing of yer choice.

Bead--silver.

I think these look best tied on Daiichi 1150 hooks. Tim advertises them in larger sizes for targeting steelhead. I am working on an upside down variation with chain eyes for carp.

For some reason I got into a midge mood...wife at work, kids at school and me at home all day filled this box in a couple hours. Disco's, crystal dips, tailwater tiny's, etc. I also filled up a couple stonefly boxes with much needed nymphs. Now I just need to get out and use some of these little bastards!

Hog hunt in Corinne.

The day finally came for Hunter's hog hunt in Corinne, UT. This was the hunt that Hunter won at the shoot at Sterlings upland property. Hunter has never fired a high powered rifle before. Dave let us use his .270. I took Hunter up to Bountiful range a couple times and he did ok, not a deadeye but was ok at a 100 yards...all his shots would have given up a dead animal. We got to the Sinclair in Corinne at 0930 and were met by Sterling and the guide, Lee. Dave, Tanya, Hunter, and I followed Lee to the hunting property, south and west of Corinne. We parked on the edge of the 1500 acre property and the five of us started walking into the brushy areas. Lee, the guide told us that they will let the pigs (half ferral pig, half russian boar) mate on the property and hunt them as they grow. There were two sections of property separated by the Bear river. On the other side were the big boys, up to 900 pounds. We passed some of the English and 4 horned sheep on out trek out. We walked for about an hour and saw nothing. I couldn't get used to the brush...the stuff was pretty thick and I wondered how a. you'd shoot something in that stuff and b. how the hell I'd get out of the way of a 500 pig that we happened upon! We did a loop and Lee said we would go to the other side of the property if we saw nothing. Lee then spotted these two about 200 yards away. Sorry for the shitty pic, I zoomed in too far. We all moved up to about 75 yards away and Hunter and Dave got ready for their kills. Hunter chose the black and white hog and Dave would shoot the big brown one. I could tell Hunter was going to have a tough time. He couldn't get a good spot in the prone position and the riverside was choked with brush. I have Hunter move down about 40 yards so he was on the edge of a cut bank and could get a good prone shot. We probably should have practiced in this position, cuz' he still couldn't comfortable. So I got on my hands and knees and Hunter used my back as a rest. I kept whispering to, "you got a shot, tell me when you got a shot, tell me before you take the shot." He told me he was ready, I held my breath to give him as steady a rest as possible and he let go...BIG mistake on my part...the fucking concussion from that gun? Everything is still hollow in my left ear, ringing as I type this. As soon as Hunter took his shot, Lee told me he hit him in the stomach....great...pig shit all over our meat...Dave then took his shot, a clean head shot that dropped his hog in its tracks. We walked up and met up with Dave and Tanya. Hunter's pig was wounded good, couldn't run, so Hunter put a last shot in him. The last shot was free standing and right in the right shoulder and out the left, would have been the perfect FIRST shot.

Hunter did a great job for his first big game hunt. After all the pics the work started. Lee was great. He gutted both pigs in about 10 minutes. He scooped out the guts and threw them to the side, telling us the other pigs would take care of the gut pile...not a very comforting thought. I looked back and Hunter and he had his back to me...I thought I saw a little heave....Hunter almost lost his breakfast! I guess the gut pile was the kicker for him, his eyes were red and watery. He didn't throw up, though. Lee took the heart and tried to hand it to Hunter to take his customery bite but Hunter wasn't havin' it...he wouldn't even hold it, he just kept telling Lee, "I'm good, no, I'm good." Lee said it was the first time he'd seen someone nearly puke from the cleaning. After the gutting Lee went and got the truck. We winched up the hogs and followed him to MB Meat Packing. We ought'a be eatin' hog in a couple weeks! Awesome trip, lots of fun. Hunter did great on his first big hunt and can't wait for more!

Hotspotting

Time for a rant! On a local fly fishing forum under the "stories and reports" board I wrote of my buddy catching his first fish with a fly rod and gave a short report about the river conditions and how it was fishing. I think I wrote something like, "the Weber above Coalville." From Coalville upstream to Wanship the distance is approximately 8 miles, that's straight line distance! I immediately got attacked for "hotspotting," telling the "lurkers" out in internet land and all the people who may see my post where the fish are biting. My response is go fuck yerself! I don't understand how you hotspot a section of river that is the most popular reach of water for flyfishers. There is a long, straight, dirt road about a mile in length that has 4 or 5 access points onto private land. Each access point has a fence hopper (ladder over the landowners fence) with a sign that reads something like, "blue ribbon trout fishery," and "the owner of this land has graciously allowed fishing here, please respect the property," or something to that effect. And this is a secret?!? How am I hotspotting a river that has trampled down trails from the fence hopper to the water, signs everywhere, earth tamped down from all the cars and people who park and fish...As Hunter S. Thompson said, "there is nothing more helpless and irresponsible than a man in the depths of an ether binge." The forum cops that accuse people of hotspotting an area like this must surely be huffing ether! The funny part is how many people viewed the post...one post had 5000 views and 80 responses but was started 2 years ago. My post? After only 1 day it had over 2000 views and 70 responses! Now, I can understand the whole argument. There is an area an hour from here that not many people know about. My first time there my buddy and I had the entire stream to ourselves, loads of slutty fish rising to any dry we threw, and, after awhile, we both thought we were trespassing, the fishing was so good (we were legal). I won't go posting about that place, I'd like to keep it on the downlow. But the Weber River? There ain't a section on the Weber that hasn't been hit by every type of fisherman, bait, gear, and fly. After awhile, the whole argument got funny...people getting mad online...typing in all caps...douchebags. I threatened next time I may just post the GPS coordinates of where I go, that'd really bring on pain from all the asshole forum cops. Surprisingly, I didn't get booted off the site. Done, glad to get that off my chest, sorry for the language...the image above, by the way, must be why all these turds are afraid of hotspotting. Combat fishing the Kenai River.

Works in progress...

This is one in progress I'm working on for my mom. Have never done snow before this one. I've been learning some about underpainting with acrylic and really like the idea of starting this way. When it's finished I plan on spraying it so it looks like it's snowing. That brown thing in the front is gonna be a bench overlooking the stream. Happy with the way this one is turning out but I wish I could get myself to be a little more "free" and no try to put so much detail in the background.
This is the first acrylic I've done, followed along with Jerry Yarnell on TV...I'm so past Bob Ross and his little coke nail! I will do this one again and add some cattle in the grass. I know, the cut banks look a way too symmetrical, but, hey, it was the first try! When I do this one over I'll underpaint in acrylic and finish the whole thing with oil. I like the sheen from oil and the way the colors hold...acrylic, I have learned will dry a little darker.
This one is from a photo I took on the Kenai River in Alaska a couple years ago. This would be just above the Russian River Ferry boat crossing looking upriver. Still gonna do some work on it, especially in the foreground. Really happy with the way the trees on the far bank turned out. I was also pleased with people knowing where it was...I showed Sterling a picture of this painting I took with my phone and he knew right where this was taken. Instead of painting on a regular canvas I went to home depot and bought a 2'x4' sheet of 1/8" masonite. I had them cut it into 12"x12" tiles and scrubbed each one down with acetone after giving them a rough sanding to remove any oils in the wood. Costed me 3 bucks and got 8 canvases out of it. I plan on doing this more with smaller pictures...seems like any bigger and they may start to warp. I don't know if my technique of prepping the board was proper but it's working so far.

MUDVAYNE

My favorite band and one of my favorite songs. Fished the Weber yesterday. Weather was perfect, a little chilly but didn't freeze the guides of my rod. There was another car where I wanted to fish so I went down river a good ways. It turned out he went way up river. Caught a nice brown on zebra midge, followed by a few average whities. Still very low water. As I moved upriver I switched to a golden stone #8 with a zebra below. First cast got a small brown. Moved to another area and it was tough, hard current and couldn't keep the fly where I wanted. I moved below the hole, changed up the rig and spanked the whities. I got them on the zebra in black and the rootbeer neon gnat. All were pigs out of this hole. As I left I met the guy in the other car as he left. Seems he fished on top with midges and while I saw plenty of midges on top, didn't see anything rising. Good day.

Weber 3-1-10

Got out and hit some fish today on the Weber above Coalville. This was Brents second day fly fishing...the first day didn't go too good. We were on the water at 0915. The temp in the truck read 24 degrees and when we left read 45. Georgeous day and, despite the iced up guides we both stayed warm...I got some very SEXY thigh high wool sock...yeah...I looked delicious in them! The Weber was super low, fish were stacked up in the deeper pools. Started out with neon gnats in pink and olive and lime green serenstupidies. No luck early on so I put black zebra midges on for both of us and we finally started hitting fish, even if they were whities. I got Brent squared away with his rig and decided to explore downriver a ways. I got a couple whities and a brown on the zebra. When I hooked back up with Brent he had his first fly caught trout, a 12" brown, on his stringer (Brent is catch-and-kill guy, not catch-and-release...yet). We moved up river and were gonna go when I put on a different midge emerger pattern. I hit 4 whities and 2 15 - 17" browns in one hole. We kept them for the frying pan. Brent got a couple more whitefish out of the same hole. I figured we'd keep moving upriver til we got to the truck. We crept up the shore and saw a pod of fish actively feeding in the middle of the water column, all looked to be trout. I got another couple browns right away followed by more whities. By this time I figure it's been a good day and time to leave. I decided to throw some of the big articulated bugs I'd tied up, starting with the brown one. This area was super deep, had a real steep, log choked bank on the far side with a slow current and foam line across the river. My second cast I got nailed, and was hooked up with something big! I yell at Brent to get the camera and then realize I've snagged a f*ckin' whitefish in the dorsal...wishfull thinking! I threw each color of articulated bug I had, had 2 light strikes, but hooked nuttin'. Brent had a little mishap with the camera...I held up a nice brown to get a pic of and apparently Brent didn't push the button hard enough...by the time I'd figured that out I let the fish go. This same thing happened with my buddy Sam on the Beaverhead in Montana...Sam landed the biggest brown of his life and the biggest I'd seen out of the 'Beav ever. As I was scrolling through the digital camera I got the pic of him running down the bank chasing the fish, him fighting the fish after a 70 yard run downriver, and then a pic of his daughter...didn't get the pic of him holding his trophy before releasing it. Now mine wasn't a trophy like Sam's but at least I have a witness. A good day to be on the water and good for Brent on his first fly caught fish(s).