BWO Soft Hackle Step by Step

BWO Soft Hackle- Fly of the Week-Week 2

Hook: Sz. 14-18 nymph hook

Thread: 6/0 Olive Uni-Thread

Body: 6/0 Olive thread

Thorax: Olive Dubbing

Hackle: Silver Phesant

fish in a down and across presentation with a lift of the rod tip at t

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Gunpowder River (pic heavy)

Well I decided to fish the gunpowder again! It was not looking to be a good day with a cold front coming through and then they released water and it went from 30 cfs to about 150 cfs. And there was rain in the forecast.  It turned out to be a great day a friend and myself totaled about 18-20 fish total in about 9 hours of fishing.  We started out the morning at about 9:30 and i was fishing a long riffle that was about 2 feet deep. I used all types of nymphs and streamers and could not get anything. Then i went downstream some to where the riffle opened into a pool that was pretty deep. There were several rocks in the pool that i knew there had to be trout stacked up on. I fished it with several nymphs but no takes so i tied on a green weenie and started getting hookups immediately. Got a few 8″ and a 10″After i caught a few from the pool they would not bite anymore so i moved on downstream with no luck. After lunch we went downstream some more and a fished a beautiful picture perfect pool with some streamers (slump busters, sculpins) with no luck so i tried some nymphs (caddis larva, caddis pupa, BH prince nymph, pheasant tail, etc.) with still no luck so i tried the green weenie with no luck. Figured some canoes spooked the fish in the pool. fished the riffles below it and hooked into 2 decent brown trout 8″ but both came off.  Fished some more riffles that people before us had fished with no luck. Came to a log jam

I switched to a slump buster streamer and fished through here and had one take from a nice brown trout about 12″ was my guess but no hookup. Switched to a sculpin with still no luck so I went downstream from the logjam and found this picture perfect run

I fished it with some nymphs with no luck!?!?!? but tied on the greenie weenie and got some really nice fish out of it. First drift through i was watching the leader and all the sudden it stops moving so i set the hook and pull this nice fish out

landed several other fish in here on the green weenie.

At about 4oclock we went to another location on the gunpowder. We got there at about 4:30 and managed a few rises but no takes to some sz. 18 green and brown elk hair caddis by 5:00 it started to rain and I switched to a sz. 18 parachute blue winged olive.  got this fish out of a small run with the bwo parachute

It started to rain more and more and the fish started to turn off so at about 6:30 we called it quits. It was a great day and i tried out the new rod and reel which are so sweet.

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The Computer has been wacky

had some computer problems. but they are fixed now. posts to coming back soon!

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Caddis Larva (cased caddis)

Here are some pics i snapped from the rapidan river in va this summer of some cased caddis popping their heads out! 

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Craneflies

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Czech Nymph Step by Step

I am going to start posting a fly pattern a week that has step by step patterns in addition to my regular fly patterns i post up! They will also be available to view under the fly tying page!

here is a great nymph patter to use when euro, polish, or czech nymphing.

Materials Needed:

Hook: Sz. 14-18 curved shank hook.

Weight: Lead wire

Thread: Tan 8/0

Back: Scud Back 1/8 (any color you want i use black)

Rib 1: 2 strands of silver flash

Rib 2: 5x monofilament

Abdomen: Tan Synthetic Dubbing

Thorax: Olive Synthetic Dubbing

Insert Hook into vise…

Wrap the wire up the hook shank.

Secure Scud Back onto the hook.

Secure Rib #1…..

Secure Rib #2

Use dubbing wax and apply Dubbing to the thread. I use synthetic but you can use whatever you like or what you have on hand. Ice dubbing is nice too!

Wrap the dubbing up the hook 2/3 of the way up. dont have the dubbing extremely tight because the loose fibers represent legs.

Do the same you did in the step above but with a diffrent color dubbing. I just noticed that in this pattern the fibers were really long…

Counter-wrap the flash.

Pull the scud back up and tie off.

Counter-rib the 5x mono and tie off.

Whip-Finish and add some head cement and the fly is complete

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Shenandoah River, VA

Well i know that most people think that we have not really been keeping up with posts! Well that is because we have been fishing!! So I figured you all wanted some pics and a good write up… well here you go…

Shenandoah River North Fork(9/5/09)South Fork(9/6/09)

Day:1

The Water was really low and the fish were very spookish so it was not our regular smallmouth fishing trip. Most if not all of the fish were over a rock bottom with cover over them providing shade. The Biggest fish 15″ was in a back Eddie that had a tree over it that provided shade. When i hooked him he ran downstream in the riffle and then ran up and down again into weeds. Next cast into there provided a 13″ fish. There is a 21″ smallmouth in that back Eddie that my friend has caught before. Those two fish were landed on a Shenks White Streamer. Caught some other fish also including one that had some narly lesions on it from the bad fish kills that went around a few years back. Later in the day we went to a different spot but noting really was working and the water was so low. The one fish i caught in the other spot was on a hopper pattern fished under a fallen tree

shenks white streamer

Day:2 (pics included!)

Woke up early that morning, packed the car and we went off down the mountain to fish the South Fork of the Shenandoah River! We arrived planning to float the river but it was running so low that most of the spots the outfitter was not going to float. So we threw on our waders and rigged the rods and wade fished near a put in. The water we was fishing was a 4ft. deep run that emptied into a large pool. Throughout the run there were some “lanes” that were between the grass that there were some fish. I fished throughout most of those and then decided to wade down along the shore and then cut across to fish the big pool from behind. Around this time(5:00pm) the fishing was starting to turn on and fish started rising. after a few casts with a walts white popper i landed this one!

After a few more casts i was able to land this nice 7″ smallmouth bass on the walts white popper.

I was landing some smaller fish and having more rise but mostly bluegills. I figured that the popper was not interesting the big smallmouth that i knew were in this pool because of some really nice underwater features that i saw such as a big under water ledge! I tied on a shenks white streamer and casted it upstream and stripped it down. Had one big hit but no hookups after 15mins. I figured i would try a walts blue slider. I had been getting some small smallmouth bass and some bluegill. Then I saw this big smallie rising every few minutes so i waited a bit and then cast the slider upstream and started stripping.   Strip…..Strip…..Strip…..SET!!!!! the fish was on and he raced upstream but was not getting very far because i was fishing an 8wt. Then he raced down stream and i pulled him in more. Next run he went upstream again and into weeds. This is when i could really use the 8wt to muscle him out of the weeds. Then he ran downstream jumping several times. Now i just put the pressure on him and brought him in.

(not the best shot)

Well after that i had some other decent fish rise for the slider but no solid hookups. We decided to wade back so we could go back to the cabin in time for dinner. It was just such a great time fishing the Shenandoah river. This was a very different smallmouth trip than i usually do because if often fish the Potomac river.

This is all for now. Hopefully there will be some fly patterns by the end of the day today.

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TBH Needs Your Help

Send an E-mail to us if you want to see any patterns tied and jan and I will see about it!

REMEMBER TO TELL ALL OF YOUR FRIENDS ABOUT THE BLOG!!!!!!!

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Golden Retriver

Golden Retriver:

Tail: Brown Marabou

Body: Ice Chennile

this is tied just like a woolly bugger just without the hackle. Great fly for both bass and trout!

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