The famous nocturnal Hex hatch of the Midwest (and a few other lucky locations) stirs to the surface mythically large brown trout that only touch streamers for the rest of the year.
This Skwala nymph still has a couple months left to go before hatching, but it's still a good representative of its species, which was extremely abundant in my sample for a stonefly of this size. It's obvious why the Yakima is known for its Skwala hatch.
Dgt5411 on Feb 10, 2020February 10th, 2020, 11:43 pm EST
Hi. I'm new to this forum so not sure where to post this question. It seems to me that all the fly shops would offer barbless flies, but I can't seem to find any. Does anyone out there know where to purchase barbless flies?
Wbranch on Feb 11, 2020February 11th, 2020, 8:54 am EST
I've seen some fly shops selling barbless flies. However the majority of fly shops stock barbed flies. Most customers, myself included, always fish barbed flies, unless mandated to do otherwise by regulations on a stream I am fishing. If barbed flies are an issue for you go buy a good pair of needle nose pliers and it is a simple matter to pinch the barb down completely.
Maybe "most customers" should be written "many customers". I would bet you a dozen of my barbed flies that if you asked fifty fly fishers what type of flies would most likely be found in their fly boxes, barbed or barbless, invariably the answer will be barbed.
Partsman on Feb 13, 2020February 13th, 2020, 9:51 am EST
Matt, Im sorry, I did send a message, but this old laptop or this old man is not working at 100 %. I swear I just typed in 100 and all of the sudden this thing went to my email page. The pictures were great and I have tied a bunch using your suggestions. They look pretty cool I might add!
Thanks again, Mike.
Wbranch on Feb 14, 2020February 14th, 2020, 5:58 am EST
Mike,
Matt, Im sorry, I did send a message
Never received it. Glad you liked the pictures and were able to tie some of the flies. I also tie a lovely dun. #18, with stripped peacock herl body, over which I wrap XF gold wire. The wings are two dun CDC tips, thorax in Adams grey beaver, hackle is 2 - 3 turns of Hoffman #1 dun saddle.
Partsman on Feb 14, 2020February 14th, 2020, 7:57 am EST
Matt, please do,im going to get some more trout hunter cdc from flyfishfood. God, now im going to add some stripped peacock herl, what color on the peacock herls Matt? These are something I have been meaning to get just want to make sure im getting colors that work!
Mike.
Partsman on Feb 14, 2020February 14th, 2020, 8:13 am EST
AS a side note, I went fishing Tuesday up north. I fished the recon euro 10 ft. 3 wt, with troutbittens monorig. Let first say I need to invest in some good insulated understuff! It was 16 degrees when I started fishing, and on this river you just don't get out of the water anywhere. The folks who have fished the S.branch of the ausable know of what I speak! Anyways, froze my you you know what off, my feet have never been that cold! But!!! fishing with a jiggy euro streamer, which I put right in a log jam, and jigged maybe two times, then all hell broke loose! This was only a few feet away, and frozen hands, and reel+ 18 inch brown trout, and 5x tippet, now were having some fun!I cant say enough about the recon rod, its greaaat! I could not believe I actually got that fish out of the cover and landed it. I have some picks and im trying to figure that out. Went to another river later in the day and got 4 more browns just smaller. I will say, im tired of winter, my little front wheel drive equinox sucks in snow, so please some spring time weather would be nice.
Mike.