Early Fall Wood River Rainbows

Go West Young Man

        Well, my girlfriend and I have finalized plans to head west to do some fly fishing in "heaven". We will be fishing the various rivers of the West Yellowstone, MT area and the Provo River in Utah for 2 glorious weeks in late July!!! This is something I've dreamed of doing since I started fly fishing. Definitely something we'll be able to cross off our bucket lists. On more of a local note, the cold weather broke enough for me to take a couple of trips the Wood River this week. Unfortunately, no fish to speak of, but the river looks to be in great condition. It was good to get out there and scratch that itch a few more times before the season concludes at the end of the month. So in honor of our trip west, this week I'm posting the Green Drake Sparkle-Dun. From the DVD I've been watching (thank you again Dave!) the Green Drake is one of the many prolific hatches on western rivers such as the Madison, Henry Fork, the Firehole, Slough Creek, and so on. I'm also posting a few pictures I found on my phone from the Wood River, of some beautiful early fall Rainbows taken on a dry (Elk Hair Caddis if I recall correctly). Until next week.

Cheers,
     Craig

    
                                                        Green Drake Sparkle-Dun

                                           Hook: #12 Daichi Standard Dry Fly
                                           Thread: 6/0 Olive Uni-Thread
                                           Tail: Dark Olive Z-Lon
                                           Body: Olive Superfine Dubbing
                                           Rib: Gray Turkey Biot
                                           Wing: Bleached Coastal Deer Hair

A new weapon

                                
                                                   Black Quill Soft-Hackle
      
                                 Hook: Mustad #10 Dry Fly Hook
                                 Thread: Black 6/0 Uni-Thread
                                 Body: Brown Superfine Dubbing
                                 Hackle: Hen Saddle Soft-Hackle


        To start things off this week, I would like to extend a big thank you to Dave Porreca of River and Riptide Anglers. Dave does weekly tying classes that cover anything and everything you can catch in the Ocean State (and surrounding states as well). Tonight's class was spring mayflies on the Wood River (our home trout water). The way Dave teaches the class is most helpful for people of every tying skill level. We concentrated on the first hatches of the fishing season which are the False Grey Drake and the Black Quill. He explained that even though the Grey Drake come off en mass, the Black Quill which hatch in with the Drake, are the ones fish key in on (this is because the Drake crawl onto the bank and hatch from there. They then swarm above the river, but never actually land on the water until evening to lay eggs. The Black Quill will hatch at the same time, and will sit on the water and the fish love em.) We progressed through all stages of this mayfly's life cycle, tying flies to represent them. We started with the Black Quill Soft Hackle (picture above). Dave explained that this is one of the best flies to throw if the fish are being finicky. The reasoning behind this is that the soft hackle can represent various stages of the mayfly's cycle. It can be a nymph rising to the surface, an emerger, a cripple, or even a stillborn fly. It can be fished wet, dry, or you can swing it. You can tie this fly as a dubbed body, or using black turkey quills and dubbing in a thorax. We then moved on to tie mahogany Compara-Dun's. Same thing here using a dubbed or quill body. We finished the evening tying rusty spinners, which represent the final stage of life. The soft-hackle and compara-dun's were tied using #10 dry fly hooks, and the spinners using #12. So once again, thank you to Dave for the great class. I strongly recommend visiting River and Riptide Anglers if you are in the area, or the website www.riverandriptide.com if you're not. Dave has great gear, and everything you need to tie, at great prices and ships anywhere. Can't wait to fish the soft-hackles...less than two months away!!!

    Cheers,
       Craig

Fly of the Week for 3Feb-10Feb

So this week I'm going to post two flies that I've recently tied. The first one, shown above, that fishes well just about all year, is a Bead Head Hare's Ear Nymph. I've added a little bit extra to this one.I tied in some pheasant tail and flash-a-bou to create a wing case and emerging wings. This fly worked very well for me a few weeks ago on the Wood River, considering I don't fish nymphs too often.

#16 Daichi 1560 Wet/Nymph hook
Thread: Gray 6/0 Uni-thread
Tail: Hare's mask fur
Body: Dubbed Hare's Ear
Ribbing: Gold Ultra Wire
Wing-Casing and Wings: Pheasant Tail and Flash-a-bou

The one above is a fly that comes off early in the season (about April) and works well on both the Wood and Farmington Rivers. This is a Light Hendrickson Dry. If you notice I've only hackled in front of the wing, to make sure the fly doesn't sit too high in the water.
Hook: Daichi 1100 #16 Dry Fly Hook
Thread: Grey 6/0 Uni-Thread
Tail: Medium Dun Hackle fibers
Body: Cream Hareline dubbin
Wing: Natural Mallard Flank Feathers
Hackle: Metz #2 Dun Hackle

If there are any questions or comments please feel free

Tight Lines,
 Craig

Welcome!!!

Thank you for visting and welcome!...This is the first of many fly fishing blogs I will be posting. I decided to set this up because there are few sites you can go to and get weekly updates about fly fishing here in the northeast. In this blog you will find fishing updates for some of the class trout fisheries around new england and the northeast U.S. to include the Wood River and Blackstone River in Rhode Island, the Farmington River in Connecticut, the Deerfield River in Massachusetts, the White River in Vermont, and the Upper Connecticut River in New Hampshire. I'll also include some of the other states we'll be fishing this year. Also, I'll be posting a fly of the week. I'm still fairly new to tying, but I'll give it my best shot to provide enough information to be helpful. Also at the bottom of the page there are a few links to a couple of my favorite fly shops and websites. Feel free to comment about anything, and I'll gladly help with any questions that come up. So, thanks again for stopping by and here's to a great season!!!

  Cheers and tight lines!

 Craig