Fly Tying: Bugeyed Products & More

FLY MEN FISHING COMPANY

Fly Men Fishing Company Products

Trout Tattoo Pays Respect To Grandfather & Mentor

Ashley Hupke was recently visiting SwittersB’s site and checking out the trout tattoos. She remarked on her own tat and I asked her to share her tattoo and how it came about. I hope some of us can be a worthy enough example to the children in our lives to warrant such respect as Ashley has for her grandfather.

Ashley Hupke (Pays Homage to Grandfather)

“My Grandfather was born in Mapleton, IA July 11th 1937 and died in Boulder, CO May 13th 2009. He was the father I never had growing up. When I was about 3 years old he started taking me to the lake close to his home and taught me how to fish. During our fishing trips we have taken throughout his lifetime and mine we have mostly fished for trout. I decided that a rainbow trout was a perfect match to remember my grandfather not only because we fished for them but because the bright original colors bring back happy memories. (my tattoo has strips of color if you look closely you can see forest green, orange, red, and pink) The last fishing trip I made with my grandfather before he passed away was a family trip to Maloney Lake in Nebraska. He was my inspiration and I am thankful for every moment spent with him. Even if the time I had was short I will cherish his memory for a lifetime.” (Ashley Hupke, September, 2009)

Ashley Hupke's Trout Tattoo

Hale Bopp Leech Pattern

The Hale Bopp Leech was developed around 1995/6 (that is about when the Hale Bopp Comet became known to the public) by a young Derek Fergus. A bit of a fly fishing rebel as I recall, I first encountered him at FF club & shop functions promoting his dubbing blends for stillwater leech patterns. He was a non-purist FFer experimenting with materials and techniques. An aside, I recall a FF club event at which Fergus was the guest speaker. He was discussing dredging heavy waters for steelhead. An audience sat aghast  as Derek discussed attaching a slinky up the terminal rig akin to a drift fisherman and lobbing the rig into the slot to dredge for holding fish. Oh my the outcry and head shaking of the step and swing crowd. Later, I encountered Derek teaching how to tie the Hale Bopp pattern at a shop in Welches, Oregon. He was giving away small packets of his dubbing as a promotion and showing how the dubbing blend looked in the Hale Bopp Leech pattern.

Since then, this sleeker leech pattern has become accepted as a dependable pattern for stillwaters. I just recently had great success with it, while my staples (Little Fort Leech, Calico Bugger and Minnow Bugger) went ignored. It is a simple affair to tie: don’t over dress the marabou tail, dub the body (why not find Derek’s dubbing or a synthetic blend will do) sparse and fibrous to allow for movement. A smaller than usual bead allows for the desired up and down undulation during the retrieve, but don’t put on the bigger bead unless deeper diving is required and then maybe the Type III or IV is a better device to get the sleeker bodied leech down in the depths.

Hale Bopp Leech (Brown w/ Orange tail) SwittersB

The above Hale Bopp was recently used to great effect on an Oregon lake. This fly is a bit chewed up and coming unraveled. The color combo’s are limitless like most Bugger patterns. I would stick with the typical stillwater flora tones (brown, green) and then black, gray, purplish-maroon.

Hale Bopp Leech (Original Colors) SwittersB

Derek Fergus explored the once great trout fishery, Davis Lake (Oregon) and other Central Oregon lakes while establishing this scragglier leech pattern’s rep. Add it to your Leech arsenal….a more lean silhouette compared to the blockier Bugger silhouette.

Thin Mint (Worthy Lil' Bugger) SwittersB

The above Thin Mint is a good stillwater pattern. But, by contrast the animation of the fly’s body comes from the palmered hackle compared to the dubbed fibers of the Hale Bopp. The Thin Mint tail is typical of most production ties (save the cool mix of colors), shorter and chunky. Some prefer this, thinking the longer tail leads to ‘short’ hits. Short or long, the Hale Bopp calls for a sparser, snakier tail.

Chirurgen-Knoten (Surgeon’s-Knot)

FliegenFischen

I routinely use this knot to join tippet to leader. I also use it to attach the leader to the butt section. I do not care for the oft used loop to loop joining of leader to butt section (I use a longer butt section of at least a foot or longer). I have not had this knot fail. Simple to tie. Fairly easy on frozen fingers…just make sure to bring the smaller tag end through with the longer tippet each time. Cut the shorter tags ends close to the knot. Excessively different line diameters are more difficult with this knot.

Fly Fishing’s Downtime (Between the camp and the lake)

I have never been one to get out on a lake at first light. Surprises me as I am on a river at 0-dark-30 for salmon, steelhead, trout. But, for a stillwaters I am in no hurry. If I am on the lake by 9:00am I am doing fine. So, I like the early morning. The sun cresting a ridge top bringing warmth to the face, removing the morning chill. I usually sit with a cup of coffee, smoking my briar, camera nearby and just take in the calm. Few people up. Maybe one boat on the lake. One or two old timers sitting in their folding chairs lake side watching their ‘poles’. It is during this time of low angled light that I observe the possibilities for photo’s. I do not dilly dally with the set up or settings. I just snap and hope for the best in my undisciplined way.

Pebble Mine? Single Barb Says How About The ‘Coal Rush’?

“The scientists who completed the analyses concluded that PacRim’s plan to strip-mine for coal directly through 11 miles of salmon-bearing streams would significantly damage local wetlands and headwater streams in an area 45 miles west of Anchorage. Restoration of the fragile and valuable wetlands and streams that feed the salmon-rich Chuit River would be virtually impossible, they determined.”

COAL RUSH?

These projects have no doubt been on the drawing boards for sometime. Clinton, Bush, Obama. Does it matter anymore? The power of the world economic order appears to supersede any Governor, Sec. of Interior and President? This China connection is our looming demise.

Gale Ontko (Historian, Author, Veteran….along a quiet road)

Gale Ontko and Superb Writing~SwittersB

True Story: Driving along a back road east of Prineville, Oregon. I was remarking to the family about the history of the region and how few Oregonians really know their history. I further remarked to my captive audience that the best, bar none, history I had ever read was by Gale Ontko…his Thunder Over The Ochoco series was extraordinary. ‘Oh, I want to check out that unmarked cemetary down aways’.  We troop around the cemetary looking at the few headstones. The young mother and child taken the same day. The pioneer graves. The ornate fence around a grave. And suddenly I notice a headstone for Andrew Gale Ontko. Wow, I wonder. Look at the last name…that must be related. That is an unusual last name! Then upon closer inspection I see the nearby circle headstone with just Gale Ontko and the depiction of Indians Astride Horses! OMG! I was just talking about him! The reflexive reverential silence one deploys in a cemetary was gone as I bantered on to my still captive audience.

Wooden Cross at Ontko Grave~SwittersB

So, let me once again encourage  any NW USA history buff to find Gale Ontko’s six volume set and learn about the Western Shoshone Nation, Chief Paulina, Howard Maupin, Smith Rocks (who was the courageous Smith), the explorers, the thriving history that was so dominant around Mt. Pisgah. A must read. What a discovery for me (and my captive audience)!

Stillwater’s Puzzle (When Kicking About With A Bugger Isn’t Enough)

I have to be taking a break to kick or row about searching with a pulled Woolly Bugger or wet fly in the surface. I am more comfortable focusing upon a drop off a shoal or back bay and intently working a pattern to induce a hit. When times are slow, the full range of why’s, where’s and how’s come into mind. I try to stay there mentally to learn. I try to avoid the maybe’s and could’s because at that point…if I fall into that mode of thought, I am not a thinking fisher anymore and might as well kick about aimlessly trolling a some undulating marabou concoction.

So, this past outing called for some tactical calculations and in the process I mentally noted all the factors stillwater fly fishers consider while trying to seduce some little rocket (or some bigger slob) to our creations. The presentation? To slow, to fast? How long a strip or should I use a finger roll? Is the clear Intermediate down far enough? Let’s see, this is about 10 feet of water and at an inch a second that would take……..  When I got hits, I noted how far into the retrieve I was and possibly how deep or how far up the fly had been retrieved? What do I see going on about me? Hatches, pre-emergence signs in the surface film. What do I see rising for those emerging chironomids? All I see are small fish. Is it worth the effort to throw a floating line at predominantly small fish in the hopes for something bigger? Or, should I keep digging deeper in the water column for that memorable cruiser?

The fly? Alway foremost in most of our considerations. Color, weighted or unweighted? What should I imitate or should it be suggestive or provoking? Old standby’s aren’t working. How can a Little Fort Leech fail? But, it is failing. So is basic green! What? A few fish on The Calico Bugger. A few fish on a nymph. No consistency. Finally, the obvious intrudes. Dragon flies everywhere, all day. I cannot remember the names. Are they the longer nymph or the shorter stouter nymph. I fish both. The Kaufmann’s Dragon works great and I couple this with a Hale Bopp Leech (Derek Fergus) and a pattern emerges…the Brownish Hale Bopp with a reddish orange marabou tail starts being the ticket. It stayed consistent for  several days.

Hale Bopp Stillwater Pattern (Notice Trout Teeth v. Finger) ~ SwittersB

Wind, moon, temperature, barometer, retrieves, location, structure, hatches, light… all bounced around in my head like a popcorn popper. Much easier to bob along pulling a Bugger and catching your four fish. But, not my usual intent…admittedly I’m too intense to just do that…despite my best intentions, I do care how many I catch. I do care how big they are. I do care about results. I don’t share that with anyone near me. I just think it. And, when I become too consumed with the puzzle, I do sit back and take some photo’s or just pull that bugger about while I smoke my briar.

Last Light~SwittersB

I have remarked before how much I savor those final fifteen minutes or so when I turn and face into the fading light. The backs of porpoising fish are sometimes visible. Splats, dimples and glumps are discernible all about you, but most enjoyable straight ahead looking into that semi glowing funnel of light…last light.

Tony's Last Light Version of Bliss~SwittersB

Tony’s version of last light solitude is always turned toward the shore line and the weeds and reeds hoping for that wallowing cruiser. He endures the little ones in the nursery looking for mama.