A week ago I fished the overflow arm of Y Pool on the Swift. This "dead" water was full of very spooky rainbows that were rising to something small. Most likely chironomidae or something like that. I tied on a fly for the occasion. Sorry for the less than good photo (I'm not a photographer) but this is what landed three bows and lost two others in that hour that I was there (it was late. If I was there earlier I would have risen more trout) This works in the overflow arm and the Y Pool proper and in the tree pool downstream when I need a tiny fly.
Hook - size 26 (I could use a smaller hook BUT I can ADJUST things without going smaller
Body - ultra fine synthetic dubbing in BLACK
Wing - grey cdc
Tie on the wing first, clip the butt ends and dub on a slim black body. Put a turn of dubbing in front of the cdc to make it stand up. That's it!
This fly works well all season when we fish to trout that are rising to something that we can't see on this river. Now, we can make this a size 28 fly by NOT dubbing the back end of the hook. The body is smaller and the trout are not bothered by this. Try using just black thread for the body. It also works. Leave a tiny strand of black thread hanging off the bend of the hook. That works too. Just use a black body and grey cdc (not too much) and you will have a great time fooling trout on this river. 7x tippet also does the trick.
As I write the Millers is dropping below 1000cfs. It will not be long before one can fish this river safely!
Ken
7 comments:
Love this fly! I have a bunch from 22-32. 32 is a PAIN IN THE A** to tie but I rarely go a day without a hit on it. I primarily use white CDC but will try to grey, I think I have some light dun and medium dun CDC lying around...
Nate
im still catching slabs of crappie..some up to 2 lbs bigger than a basketball....all on a 8 weight...so much fun!!!
Ken,
Some of the best patterns are simple. This one looks like a real winner. I'll be tying some up ASAP.
Thanks!
Ken, have you ever tried the same exact fly but with a little bit of good floating foam instead of cdc?
Looks great, I'm just a perpetual tinkerer when it comes to tying :)
Will,
I've used foam for years but I like cdc better. It can look like an unfolding wing or the breathing filaments on midge nymphs.
Ken
Cool - I appreciate the thoughts Ken. Be well,
Will
I tie these little midge emergers down to size 32 (although just tying the body short on a larger hook as Ken suggests would probably give a more reliable hookup). I usually skip the dubbing and just go with a thread body and I sometimes substitute a synthetic like parapost or polypro yarn for the CDC. The synthetics are a little less delicate than CDC and if you fold the fibers around the thread you can get a neat little wing post with very little bulk (I learned this from Ed Engle's "Tying Small Flies"). I find foam to be much too bulky for such small patterns.
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