My good friend, John Kreft, has a wonderful WEB page and blog dedicated to fly tying. He’s an awesome fly tier and has some great information, both historical and for tying, about flies and fly fishing. He recently posted a great blog entry about fly fishing items for the upcoming Christmas holidays. So, check out his latest post, as well as all the good content at:
http://www.johnkreft.com/2016-christmas-list-for-fly-fishers-and-fly-tyers/
John Kreft and RiverKeeper Flies
I got out with Mary Ann last week on my birthday for a little trout fishing here in Central Oregon. We hit the Crooked River about an hour from our house. It was a chilly 18 degrees when we left the house but by the time we got to the river it had warmed up to the mid 40’s. The whitefish were spawning in the river so a lot of fish were pretty active. We both picked up about 20 fish on small egg patterns using euronymphing techniques. We didn’t get anything large, but it was still pretty fun hitting the water with bamboo. Here are a couple of photos of our day.
The Crooked River in November.
A feisty rainbow that took a #16 orange egg pattern.
I got a chance to wiggle some bamboo rods two days ago on the Metolius River with my good friend Chris. My weapon of choice was a 8′ 3″ 5 wt medium fast action rod. It was a cold and cloudy day on the Metolius but there were a few BWOs out. Saw a few fish rising around 1:00 PM in isolated spots and picked up a small rainbow on a #18 BWO Cripple. I also picked up a nice 12″ rainbow on a #12 Tellico Nymph drifted along the bottom…what a great fly for winter trout fishing here in Oregon. And, because this fly is relatively unknown around here, I’m sure the educated trout in the Metolius River have never seen it. Here is Chris drifting nymphs through a popular run and one of my fish.
Fishing the Metolius River in Central Oregon.
A nice Metolius River rainbow that took a Tellico Nymph.
Mary Ann and I hit the Crooked River yesterday for some January trout action. It was a chilly 32 degrees but the sun shining brightly…you gotta love winter trout fishing in central Oregon! The water level in the river was abnormally high due to some recent dumping from the reservoir but we were hoping the fish would still cooperate. I chose an 8′ 3″ 5 wt bamboo rod for my day on the river. There were no bugs out of any kind so it was time for nymphs with a EuroNymphing setup. While my standard go-to zebra midges and bwo nymphs were of no interest to the rainbows in the river, I managed to pick up a few decent fish on a #12 Tellico Nymph. The Tellico Nymph is a great imitation for a small golden stonefly nymph. Here is my first fish of 2015, a nice feisty 12″ rainbow!
A Crooked River Rainbow in January – My First Fish of 2015!
The beautiful Crooked River
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