In the early spring, little bugs are king in the diet of trout in Utah. When you fish a river as heavily fished as the Provo it pays to be different from the crowds. Not only do you catch more fish than the masses, you also catch more fish. I’ve mainly been nymphing small midge patterns, beatis patterns, and other bugs in the 18 through 24 range even while fish are rising all around, but sometimes it’s fun to join the masses and be a dry fly enthusiast. However, I still like catching and not aimlessly waiving a stick in the air, untying knots, and looking through my fly box pretending to “match the hatch”, looking for a mother shucker even though I have no idea what that fly is supposed to represent.
The Bob
This fly is super easy to tie, you might already have the materials to make it, and fish will take this fly down when they are eating off the surface or when they are tailing and eating in the film. What you will need to mimic this fly is;
I’ve been using this thread lately, because I think it is stronger, but you can use any gray 8/0 threadSuper Hair in black and white. This is a lot easier to work with then making an actual biot bodyFoam to make the fly sit perpendicular to the waterFor the thorax. Any dubbing you have will work, I am just a fan of extra flashI just bought a uv lamp so I’m stoked on it, but you don’t have to add this to the fly. It will work just fine without this addition
Now comes the actual tying.
Wrap in a strand of black and white super hair Wrap the white strand around first, then trim Next wrap in the black You can skip these steps if you don’t have a UV lamp If you do, coat the fly with a little bit of the goo Cure it for 5 to 10 seconds Cut out a small piece of the foam Twist it onto the fly Take your dubbing Twist a little bit onto your thread Wrap it up Pull foam over thorax, whip finish, and enjoy catching those picky eaters.
So after last time into the Stagecoach tailwaters, I tied up half a dozen size 18 comparaduns. Well guess what, when I got to the tailwaters today, the fished wanted nothing to do with that fly. Luckily, I also tied up half a dozen RS2’s in size 20 black and olive. I fished only dries and the RS2’s accounted for all of my hookups. A dozen rainbows and one brookie, nice day on the river!
Smooth Glassy PocketsRainbow with my Orvis Access 4wt.
Over the last two weeks, it has snowed almost every other day out here. This has made for great skiing conditions. I have skied at least 4 days with over a foot of fresh powder during those two weeks. With all this skiing, I have not fished too much. However, I finally got back into the tailwater section of the Yampa today. The forecast was calling for low 40’s and sunny, so I decided to make the 2 mile trek to the tailwater.
Frenchie Nymph in the Jaw
I got to the river around 10:30 and nymphed up stream through several pools landing 5 and hooking into another 4. I was using a size 20 frenchie nymph that I had picked up in Paris last Thanksgiving. It has great detail but is covered entirely in epoxy so it sinks like a stone. This fly accounted for all of the fish I picked up nymphing.
Nice bow to the net
As the temperature increased, a few noses started to poke through the surface, but nothing too consistent. I needed to adjust for the changing feeding behavior. I continued to cast my nymphs upstream; however, once the flies reached my position, I stopped tracking the flies with my rod. My flies continued downstream from position, but this subtle change allowed my nymphs to rise through the water column like an emerger. It was immediate and continued success until the adult baetis were fully on the water.
First brown of the year
Once the surface activity was in full swing, it was size 18 traditional comparaduns in olive and black that continued to produce fish. For the really picky ones, size 20 cdc comparaduns did the trick.
Same frenchie nymph
Once 3 o’clock came around, the adult comparaduns were not catching as consistently. To account for another feeding behaviour change, I tied on a size 20 cdc rusty spinner and continued to hook up more fish. This fly has a low profile against the water surface. It was tough to track it throughout its entire drift. To compensate, I would gently set the hook any time a fish rose in the general vicinity of my fly.
This guy was the first of the dry fly bonanza, had him on a size 18 olive comparadun
It was an amazing day. I got to fish the entire life cycle of the baetis mayflies that were hatching today. Landed over 20, hooked into another 10, and over 15 were on dry flies. Mostly rainbows, with about 3 nice browns, and one brookie. The sizes ranged from 12″ to 19″.
This guy tailwalked through two different pools after I hooked him on a size 20 cdc rusty spinnerSick colors
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