Renegade

Renegade

hook: TMC 900BL
tag: gold tinsel
aft hackle: brown rooster saddle
body: peacock herl, 4 strands
fore-hackle: white rooster saddle

Invented by Taylor "Beartracks" Williams in 1928, the Renegade should be the Idaho state bird.

Reminder

Black Ant

hook: TMC 100
body: antron, black
hackle: black saddle

REMINDER:
- Fly Times is here to stay,
- trout love ants
- and Buster Wants To Fish is now banned in five states.

The Fishes In My Head

Flytimes Foam Damsel
hook: TMC 200R
body: thin (THIN!) strip of 2mm foam, tan
post: tag end of foam body
hackle: grizzly cape, oversized
thorax: antron, hare's ear brown
note: hackle is tied as a parachute, post is then drawn forward over thorax and tied down over the eye.

Its late summer and the days are just now starting to get shorter. Nights are longer and cooler. Trout cruise the shallows of my favorite stillwater. The fish have a sense of the changing season. They feed mostly on unseen nymphs and scuds, occasionally rising to a bug on the surface.
Mid afternoon and the sun is high. There is no hatch to speak of and the wind is starting to blow. Through the clear water I can see well enough to tell the rainbows apart from the browns. There aren't many of them but if I'm patient and range quietly around the bay I find them.
I'm casting through the wind. The fly splats down above a fish. Without hesitation the trout rises to take the adult damsel imitation. I wait for the fish to turn down before I strike but it happens fast and I don't remember when I struck. I land this one and many more. I also break a few off.
The wind blows harder, the trouts continue to rise to my fly as it bobs along in the whitecaps. Sight fishing to big browns and rainbows almost as good today as it was the day I was out there five years ago.

Best hatch of the year

Flytimes Poly Wing Baetis

hook: #18-#20 TMC 101
tail: brown antron
body: Superfine dubbing, gray olive
wing: ~1/3 to 1/4 strand of polypro yarn
thorax: same as body

Here at the Flytimes Ranch we call it the working man's hatch because it lasts long enough that nobody has to take time off to fish it.

Olive Biot Parachute

Flytimes Olive Biot Parachute

hook: TMC 100 #14
post: white turkey flats
tail: light dun micro-fibetts
body: olive turkey biot quill (long side)
parachute: brown saddle hackle
thorax: olive antron dubbing

Summer is over and the PMDs and PED's are still emerging while mahogany duns and various baetis species are just getting started. This time of year I'll fish this pattern all day. If the blue winged olives start to hatch I'll tie a tiny BWO pattern on the dropper.

The grass is high and the water's low; it's hopper time!

Jimmy Legs Hoppers

Speckled Wing Spinner

Flytimes Callibaetis Spinner

hook: TMC 101, #14-#16
tails: nylon bristles
body: gray antron dubbing
wingcase: gray poly-yarn
wing: oversize grizzly hackle

Another Flytimes variation of a Craig Matthews pattern. This imitation can be excellent for sight fishing to cruising trout when there is no specific bug activity. During an actual spinnerfall you better have a fresh spool of 6X and a dozen of these flies.

Thee Old Parachute Hare's Ear

Flytimes Parachute Hare's Ear

hook: TMC900BL #10- #12
post: white poly yarn
tail: deer hair
body: Hare-line Plus Dubbin, gold #9
hackle: brown saddle hackle
head:Hare-line Plus Dubbin, gold #9

The Kraken

Baby Crawdad?

Dragonfly Nymph?


Hook: Dai Riki 710, #8
Weight: .030 lead wire, ten wraps on back half of hook shank
Abdomen: dubbing loop of bunny fur, palmered forward over lead wrap
Eyes: medium black chain eyes
Wings: orange crystal flash
Thorax: brown antron dubbing
Head: brown antron dubbing.

I fish this fly on a full sink line in stillwaters to imitate a dragonfly nymph or small crawdad.
I've tied a few in a light varient and plan on testing it out on the carp flats later this season.

Double Bunny

Articulated Double Bunny

Here fishy fishy fishy.

Damsel Nymph

Marabou Damsel Nymph

Hook: TMC 2312, #12
Tail & Body: blood quill marabou
Eyes: plastic or x-small bead chain

Good for trout, bass, sunfish, carp and who knows what else.

Lakes: They're all we have left!

Stillwater Chironomid Pupa

Looks like the rivers around here are never comin down. That leaves lakes. Fourtunately there are some great early season stillwaters here in Washington and Washington Lakes has the dope on all of 'em. Tie up some chironomids, grab those indicators, pump up the tube and get out there!
Let us know how you do.

"On a scale of 1 to 2"

Flytimes Skwala Nymph

hook: TMC 200R, #8-#10
tails: light brown super floss
body: light brown sparkle yarn
legs: light brown super floss
thorax: olive gray Arizona Scud Blend

Ken: On a scale of 1 to 2, 1 being the worst and 2 being the best, how would you rate the fishing today Wally?
Me: 1
That was the rating system that Ken came up with during our Saturday afternoon float. Its a system that accurately reflects the binary mood of the Yakima River in early spring. The fish are either on or off.
In fact, now that I think about it, it's not early spring on the Yak, it's winter. Saturday night was the first night in weeks that the temperature did not dive below the freezing mark on thee olde thermometer. Snow still covered the northern slopes of the surrounding hills and river banks.
Sunday wasn't much better though I did see exactly one adult skwala. Clouds settled in just above the canyon rim. The light was low and gray and a very slight breeze blew downstream. It seemed like baetis weather but there were only a few midges.
Snap was in the boat with me for the afternoon. We took turns rowing, the other casting adult skwalas into all the likely lies. In a normal year (whatever that is) it might have been too early for skwalas, or it might have been exquisite timing, fishing the hatch just when the trouts were turning on to the big bugs. As it was we were way too early. Winter still lives in the Yakima River Canyon.

Go Ugly Early or: How I Learned To Stop Worrying 'Cause This Fly is the Bomb!

Peacock Skwala Stimmy

hook: TMC 200R #10
tail: deer hair
aft hackle: brown saddle
body: peacock herl
wing: deer hair
fore hackle: grizzly saddle
thorax: yellow Superfine dubbing

Those winter steelies better get with the program. I'm giving them one more month to start biting before I retreat back to the trout streams.
Sometime in early March the skwala stoneflies start hatching. Couple that hatch with a staunch blue wing olive emergence and you got some of the best trout fishing of the year.
This here skwala fly is my most productive pattern. I have tried to tie more complicated and convoluted imitations but I keep coming back to this one. An oldy but goody to be sure but the secret to getting the most out next month's skwala hatch is to get on it before everyone else. The homestream gets crowded and after seeing 10,000 or so skwala imitations the trouts get a little weary of big an hairy flies.

Fly Tying Masters

Pink Jiggly

Lately there has been some interest in WT's Original Old Timey Flytimes Flies. First of all let me say that I'm flattered that my readers see how much hard work and dedication I put into each bug. But more importantly I am proud to announce that I will be offering a limited amount of my Original Old Timey Flytimes Flies for sale. Of course these collectible flies are not for everyone. My flies are only for the select few anglers with the kind of discerning taste that can palate my sparsely dressed and tastefully appointed flies.

"How much WT?!"

Good question reader. When it comes to tying flies I'm no Randall Kaufmann but I do tie at least half as good as he does. In fact just to keep it simple we'll say that I am exactly half as good a tier that Randall is. Therefore I am going to offer WT's (that's me) Original Old Timey Flytimes Flies at excactly half the rate Randall himself would sell them for.

"But you and Randall don't tie the same flies WT!"

Of course we don't, my flies will cost half as much as they would if Randal did tie them. It goes like this (pay attention son).

Dry Flies - $22.50
Sculpty the Sculpin - $25.00
Carp Flies - $37.50
Saltwater Flies - $25.00

Minimum order is $100.00 just like on Randall's site. Place your orders before I am as good as he is.

Power Ant

Power Ant

Hook: TMC 206BL
Body: black antron
Wing: white poly yarn
Legs: white Superfloss
Hackle: brown rooster saddle
Head: black antron

Do not go to North Idaho without a dozen ants! A few years back I fished the Lochsa in mid July. The intense heat of August was a few weeks early. Early summer hatches fizzled out pre-maturely and the fishes were bummed about it. I tried my best to cheer'em up. It wasn't until I tied on a #12 power ant that I got a few laughs.

Quick lesson:
Trout love ants. Learn it. Love it. Live it.
Testing begins summer semester.

Iris Caddis

Flytimes Iris Caddis

Hook: #12-#18 TMC 900BL
Tail: antron, gold
Body: Hare-tron Dubbin, light olive-brown
Wing: crinkled Zelon, tan
Head: Squirrel-SLF Dubbin, amber

Craig Matthew's Iris Caddis is reminiscent of LaFontaine's famous Emergent Sparkle Pupa. Matthews omits the deer hair wing and ties the zelon in as a short wing rather than a shuck that envelops the entire body of the fly. The pattern I tie is something between the two with a longer wing and sometimes, though not in this instance, a short deer hair wing. I also use Matthews' dubbed head, rather than LaFontaine's peacock herl head.
This fly is an awesome imitation of an emerging caddis. I tie it on anytime there is caddis activity on the river and sometimes (the deer hair version) as a searching pattern. The wingless version is also effective when fished as a wet fly on a downstream swing.

Boyd Aigner's Chopaka May

Chopaka May

Hook: #14 Dry Fly
Tail: moose body
Abdomen: Olive Grey Superfine dubbing
Wing: single clump of deer hair, tied upright
Hackle: Dun, clipped across the bottom

This classic Northwest stillwater pattern was created by Boyd Aigner. Clipping the bottom of the hackle even with the hook point allows the fly to land upright on a calm lake surface. According to the 1986 edition of Flies of the Northwest the Chopaka May "provides a very natural silhouette. The take is slow and unhurried."
Flytimes has fished Chopaka Lake at least once a year but is going to skip this North Central Washington lake this year. Chopaka suffered a severe winter kill last year and encroachment from illegally stocked smallmouth bass has also taken its toll on the quality of this fishery. Washington Department of Fish & Wildlife (WDFW) has scheduled the lake for rotenone treatment this coming fall. Flytimes is an advocate of the plan to rehabilitate Chopaka Lake but would like to see it executed sooner rather than later.
Flytimes Logic: The fishing was bad last season and will be bad again this season. Ergo, WDFW might as well treat the lake this spring, giving the newly planted trout a full summer to grow, providing a quality fishery no later than springtime in '08.

Edit: This just in from Bob Jateff, District Six Fish Biologist, WDFW.
"Our plans are to do the rehab in the fall of 2007, but I do agree with you that spring would be better. Unfortunately, it takes approximately one year from the time that you decide to do a rehab until the time you actually complete the treatment. This is due to the Department of Ecology's regulations that we must follow very closely. That still doesn't mean that I can't try to move it up a bit, it's just that I doubt if it would be much before September before we get the okay."

Redux: Those Cheeky Brits and their Scottish Neigbours...

Bob's Bits

Those Cheeky Brits and their Scottish Neigbours come up with the best names for their flies. Here's a sampling.

Wee Double - Thee Trouthole always orders a "wee double," then he oders two more.
Zulu - I'm guessing its black.
Dog Nobbler - A chum fly?
Butcher - Like in that movie "Hostel"
Camasunary Killer - More gore from the folks brought us Jack the Ripper.
Tash Bung Fly - ???
Carp Biscuit - Like a Scooby Snack.
Booby - Not as cool as you would think.
Coch-y-Bonddu - I think that it's like a cockroach.
Willie Gunn - He's a groundskeeper.
Goat's Toe - It's a Pagan thing.
Hairy Mary - Old school.

Little Hopper

Hopper

A little hopper for small streams.