On their recent trip to Montana’s Bighorn, both Chuck Furimsky and Harry Schoel fished a backwater area and to their surprise, each caught a very nice smallmouth bass. Nothing wrong with smallies, to be sure, but where did they come from? No matter, they fought well and made a memorable trip for both friends.

Nice Smallie, Chuck!! Where did it come from?

My friends, Chuck Furimsky and Harry Schoel have been fishing the Bighorn during the Trico hatch. The spinners fall till about 11:00 in astounding numbers. The fish have been running 14-18 inches with a few larger. Great size fish on 6X and 7X and size 22-24 flies. The rest of the day its nymphs until the black caddis at evening.

The ‘horn is a big river and one should have a watercraft if they expect to cross back and forth, so Chuck and Harry bring pontoon boats. To make it easy on them, they rent a small moving truck and keep the inflated boats in the back. All they have to do is drive up, unload, and go fishing. The truck is moved to their takeout by a shuttle service.

Tricos will be falling through September, and on the ‘horn they fall in the billions every day. Unless one sees it in person, it’s hard to believe there can be that many insects in a river–day after day after day. If you have a chance to get there, do so.

Yup, they just move in and go fishing.

Chuck with a nice brown on the Trico.

Harry with a nice rainbow on the Trico.

Another great idea from Mr. Goldbead, Theo Bakelaar. This concept allows the fly to ride upside down with the bead scraping bottom, making both noise and kicking up mud. The placement of the bead above the top of the shank inverts the fly greatly decreasing hangups.

Bend a pin, add a bead.

Tie bead/pin assembly at front of hook, addy a body and legs.

A couple of finished Bottom Walkers and a sample of hook with bead/pin assembly in place.

Our friend Theo Bakelaar is foaming at the vise. Here’s a neat idea for using a circle of foam to make a muddler head. My friend, Mark Rayman, from Colorado, uses a circle of foam to make a great diver pattern. Is foam the new deer hair?

Tie in circle of foam on top of shank to start Muddler head.

Tie foam top and bottom to form head, then finish.

Add eye for final high floating Muddler.

Mark Rayman’s Diver. Diver shield is circle foam.

This great idea came from Harrisson Steeves, a friend of Theo Bakelaar. It’s a fabulous idea, and I’m already seeing it as a possible Down and Dirty tactic for many imitations. Fold the foam and glue in place with Instant Glue—Gorilla Glue makes a good product for this.

Cut the foam for the body. In this case a circular piece.

Tie in tail and fold foam up around shank. Glue in place with Instant Glue.

Add wing and hackle.

Fabulous idea. Foam away!

Our friend Theo Bakelaar, from Holland, has been tying many imitations of recent days. He is kind enough to send along photo instructions of his very fine work. Some of his imitations call for an extended body, and he uses J:son detached body pins to build it. These are really slick. They are available from Feather Craft in a set of three sizes. See them at https://goo.gl/2zg4uc

Cut thin foam strip.

Mount detached body pin in vise, attach thread.

Fold foam along pin attach with thread. Pull thread up between sides to form rings on body.

Wrap body as long as needed, tie off. Leave butt ends to tie into hook.

Some great example is finished flies using this tool.

Here are a couple of generic patterns from Theo Bakelaar in Holland. His Little Black One is simplicity to tie, but very effective. Body: black ostrich herl, bak, Swiss straw, tail: red yarn.  It can be dressed with a peacock herl body or with coarse dubbing, or fine feather dubbing, etc.—color of your choice. The back may be Swiss straw, flash material, peacock herl, deer hair, or a host of other materials. In other words, this is a generic pattern that can be pushed in every direction possible. Want to go wild? Add rubber legs or folded hackle, or…. Note the red tail. This is a strong feature in many imitations from England, Europe, Africa, Australia, New Zealand, and South America. In other words, it works.

The Sili-Skin sand eel is another example of a pattern that can be modified in many ways. The colors of material used, the type of materials used, the length of materials used, the bulk of the fly, the colors applied with the marker, and so on. Fuss a bit, it’s a fun imitation to build from.

Little Black One

Sili Skin Sand Eel

Thread of contrasting or complimentary color–dependent on final imitation design. Tie in a wing/tail of flash material.

Wrap a strip of “skin” around the hook to build the body to the desired thickness. This can be omitted if the body is to be very thin.

Tie in a wing of whatever materials you wish, mix in flash, of a different color than tail, etc.

Fold a strip of “skin” over the fly–length depends on final design.

Trim “skin” to shape.

Add eyes and color with permanent markers.

Lots of options with this pattern technique.

Capt’n Jake Jordan is currently holding marlin school in Costa Rica. His students always do exceptionally well partly because Jake and his crew know where and how to find marlin, and because Jake really knows how to take the fight to the fish. Imagine hooking a blue marlin of 120 pounds in the open ocean as far as 150 miles offshore. How long does I take to land a fish of that size (and bigger) on a fly rod? Well in the open ocean for the average fly fisher, probably an hour or more. Jake’s students do in under 20 minutes. The secret lies in the fighting tactic. The fish is fought directly off the reel. The rod is pointed at the fish, and the drag set light. After the first run the drag is tighten just a bit. After the second run the drag is tightened more. Another run and the fish is basically exhausted. I have used this tactic for many years on king salmon in Alaska, landing fish in excess of 50 pounds on a 6 or 7 weight. Friends use it on wahoo along the south coast, fishing from their sea kayaks The only caveat is that the reel must be up to the job, and the angler must know exactly, as in exactly, how to adjust the drag with great precision. This is where I find the Hardy Ultralite and Fortuna reels to be so effective. From 0 drag to 29 pounds in less that one rotation of the drag knob. Easy to calculate drag at each point with a spring balance and then readily apply it as needed during the knock-down-drag-out fight. By the way, Jake and others, like Andy Mill, are now taking this tactic into the tarpon world with great success.

This is the critter they are after. Hook this on a 5-weight!

Greyhounding blue marlin. Notice position of rod.

Jumping marlin. Notice position of rod.

Crash, bang, boom. Notice position of rod.

Cranking–notice position of rod.

Theo’s in the Fly Tying Olympics—or at least it seems that way. Here are three more patterns that he finds especially useful in Holland and other European venues. He has also fished them in the U.S. with great success. I will say this, his Wood Louse imitation is one of the best uses I’ve ever come across for hot melt glue in fly tying. Of course the Wood Louse is only a minor step away from a scud or cress bug—Hmmm. By the way, you can buy hot glue in a variety of colors—orange scuds, grey scuds and cressbugs–they even come in glitter.  I can see them now. https://goo.gl/L9sLEv

Palmered Hackle

The Palmered hackle fly has long been a favorite. Theo’s reminder is to start at the front of the hook and wrap rearward.

Once the shank is fully paltered rearward, reverse and wrap back to the eye, tie off and finish the head.

This fly makes a great suspender for a small nymph or pupa–hang it 15 inches or so off the bend of the hook, tractor/trailer style.

Theo’s Danger Baby

Theo’s danger Baby. Simple to tie, but very effective. Try different wing colors, and perhaps a red tag instead of a green one.

Hot Glue Wood Louse 

Wrap the shank with ostrich herl–for small flies, use peacock herl or coarse dubbing spun thin in a loop.

Swipe the melted end of a glue stick over the top of the imitation–front to back.

One tasty looking imitation that can readily morph into a scud or cress bug.

Theo’s been at it again. He’s in a tying mood and wanted to share some of his favorite patterns. The Goldbead Bomber is very similar to the old Brown Hackle imitation, or the Red Tag. For some reason, peacock herl, brown hackle, and red tag have always made a great searching imitation, both dry and wet. Really, the photos are self-explanatory. Have a look.

Then, there’s the Goldbead Terminator. Not exactly an Arnold look alike. More of a Prince Nymph variant. The flash is a nice addition that substitutes for the white biots of the Prince.

Now for a very interesting concept—the Oval Bead Boatman. Gotta get the hook eye really hot. If you get the bead half way on and no further, it’s there forever. But, a really fun fly to tie. Can’t wait to try it. I can imagine a whole series of flies with oval bead bodies. Great tying concept.

The Goldhead Bomber

The Godhead Bomber is fast and easy to tie and always a good choice for opportunistic fishing.

The Goldhead Terminator

The Goldbead Terminator opens with a gold bead at the head and dubbing ball at the rear of the shank.

Dubbing ball helps spread black biot tails and silver flash material.

Tie in ginger hackle by tip at rear of hook,  form a peacock here body, pull silver flash to front along sides of hook.

Wind hackle palmer to head, make several more wraps right behind bead, finish fly.

Oval Bead Boatman

Get it good and hot.

Force bead over eye to melt it onto hook shank.

Tie in black plastic strip at rear of body, pull over top, and tie off, cut away excess.

Add biot or rubber legs at side and finish fly.