Tag Archives: Dave Dozer

The Crooked River and the Tellico Nymph

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I was looking through my fly box recently and realized that I was out of (and hadn’t even fished) a Tellico Nymph in a very long time.  It used to be a favorite pattern of mine but for some reason I had gotten away from fishing it.  Most of us on the west coast haven’t heard of this fly as it was originated years ago in the Southeastern United States.  A well known fly back east, it does a great job at imitating a golden stonefly nymph.  And, you can be guaranteed that the fish in our local waters haven’t seen this fly before.  So, I tied up several a few up a nights ago and Mary Ann and I hit the Crooked River yesterday for a few hours of fishing.

We got the river about noon.  The recent snows were mostly gone and it was a nice overcast day with temperatures in the mid 40’s.  Small fish were already rising for BWOs on the surface.  Mary Ann picked up several fish on dries but I decided to stay with nymphs.  The Tellico Nymph didn’t disappointment me and I picked up a handful of decent fish drifting this fly towards the bottom through the deeper runs.  Since I’ve now “rediscovered” this great fly pattern, it will again be a standard in my fly box.  Here are a couple of shots from the day, as well as my fly recipe for the Tellico Nymph.

The Crooked River

The Crooked River

A nice fall rainbow that took a Tellico Nymph.

A nice fall rainbow that took a Tellico Nymph.

The Tellico Nymph

The Tellico Nymph

The Tellico Nymph

Hook:  #8 to #12 – 1X Long (Daiichi 1560)

Lead:  15 turns of .015 Lead Wire Underbody

Thread:  Brown

Tail:  Grizzly Hackle Fibers

Body:  Yellow Floss

Rib:  2 Strands of Peacock Hearl with Fine Copper Wire Counter Wrapped

Back:  Turkey Tail Fibers

Hackle:  English Grouse

Early Winter in Sisters, Oregon

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We got hit pretty hard with an early winter storm for the past two days….temperatures in the teens and 18″ of snow at the house.  So, we’re not planning on going anywhere for the next couple of days.  I had to shovel my way out to my workshop this morning:

Winter in Sisters, Oregon

Winter in Sisters, Oregon

But, my shop is heated and it hasn’t slowed down my rod building.  I put on a 4th coating of varnish on a 7′  6″  5 wt. rod I’m building for Rudy H. from Eugene, Oregon.  Here is the rod hanging up in my drying cabinet.  It will get one more coating of finish, followed by a hand polish, and then gluing on the reel seat.

7' 6" 5 wt rod drying after it's 4th dip of varnish.

7′ 6″ 5 wt rod drying after it’s 4th dip of varnish.

A Great Fly Pattern Of Mine – The DD Nymph

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I thought I would pass on a terrific fly pattern that I’ve been using with great success on Oregon and Idaho waters.  I designed The DD Nymph about 5 years ago, and since then it has out-fished just about every other fly pattern in my fly box.  It’s a great little nymph to drift along the stream bottom or as a dropper to a larger dry fly, and has been especially effective when there don’t seem to be many bugs hatching.  I suspect that fish take this fly as a small cased caddis, but who knows.  Anyway, if you tie your own flies, you should whip out a few of these for your fly box.

The DD Nymph

Hook:  #14 1x long (I use Daiichi #1560)

Body:  about 10 strands of pheasant tail

Rib:  Fine copper wire

Thorax:  Dave Whitlock SLF dubbing (I like to use the dark stone nymph color)

Collar:  Either red or chartreuse thread

Bead:  3/32″ Copper

The DD Nymph

The DD Nymph

 

My Bamboo Rods in Australia!

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A good friend and owner of one of my bamboo fly rods, Noel W., is from Australia and just sent me some photos of a recent fly fishing outing where he was successful with his 8′  3″  5 wt bamboo rod.  It’s summer down-under right now, and he got into some nice trout.  Here is Noel at Moffat Falls, New South Wales:

Fish On!

Fish On!

A Beautiful Rainbow Trout From Australia.

A Beautiful Rainbow Trout From Australia.

It Really Is In Australia!

It Really Is In Australia!

 

I Just Love Fishing Central Oregon!

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Now that Mary Ann and I have moved into our new house in Sisters, Oregon, we’re getting the chance to get out on the local waters to fly fish.  There are just way too many places to fish around here…it’s hard to pick sometimes.  We got out the last two days on the Crooked River near Prineville.  The Crooked is a wonderful tail water fishery that offers great rainbow fishing with countless small mayfly and caddis hatches throughout the entire year.  But, I tried throwing a #8 Golden Stonefly Nymph (one of my favorite patterns) in the evening when the mayfly surface activity quit.  I’ll bet I was the only angler on the river using big stonefly nymphs because the river isn’t known for much if any large stonefly populations.  But, I hit paydirt and successfully landed about ten larger rainbows between 12″ and 17″.  Sometimes you really don’t need to “match the hatch”.  Here is one of the beautiful fish that took my stonefly nymph, and the pattern that worked:

A Crooked River Rainbow

A Crooked River Rainbow

#8 Golden Stonefly Nymph

#8 Golden Stonefly Nymph