Tag Archives: Salmon River

The Pumpkinator – An October Caddis Dry

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We’ve started seeing a few October Caddis showing up here in Stanley and I wanted to come up with a new dry fly imitation that would float well and could be easily seen in fast water.  Here is what I came up with that a number of fish have been interested in….The Pumpkinator!

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The Pumpkinator

The Pumpkinator

The Pumpkinator

Hook:  #12 – 2X long

Thread:  Red

Body:  Orange Ice Dub

Rib:  Gold Tinsel

Overbody:  Orange Foam

Underwing:  Orange Crystal Flash

Overwing:  Light Tan Sparkle Yarn

Legs:  Orange and Black Rubber Legs

Hackle:  Brown

Native Cutthroats on the Yankee Fork!

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I went hunting for native cutthroats on the Yankee Fork with my good friend, Peter, from Northern California.  Peter is responsible for getting me into bamboo fly rods many years ago.  When he put a Leonard Duracane in my hands and told me to fish it for the day, I was hooked.  Aside from several salmon smolts, hatchery rainbows, and whitefish, I did manage to find a few native cutthroats as well.  Here are some shots from our day.

Peter and I getting ready to hit the Yankee Fork.

Peter and I getting ready to hit the Yankee Fork.

The Yankee Fork.

The Yankee Fork.

A nice 10" native cutthroat that took a #16 black ant pattern.

A nice 10″ native cutthroat that took a #16 black ant pattern.

A beautiful 14" native cutthroat that took a #14 Yellow Sally Nymph.

A beautiful 14″ native cutthroat that took a #14 Yellow Sally Nymph.

 

First Fish on a Bamboo Fly Rod.

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I got one of my bamboo fly rods in the hands of one of our good friends, John, from Colorado recently.  John is relatively new to fly fishing, but he didn’t have any difficulty picking his first fish swinging a black wooly bugger on my 8′  3″  5 wt rod.  Here is John in action:

Swinging a bugger on the Salmon River.

Swinging a bugger on the Salmon River.

Fish On!

Fish On!

A happy angler.

A happy angler.

Swinging Buggers with a Bamboo Switch Rod on The Salmon River

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I got out my 10′  6″  5 wt Bamboo Switch Rod today and tried swinging some large wooley buggers through some of the heavy, deeper water downstream from town a ways.  We’ve had some unusually hot weather for the past several days so I was thinking some of the larger cutthroats might have moved into the faster moving, more oxygenated water.  I chose a weighted #4 Black Wooley Bugger with a gold cone-head.  This proved to be a good choice and I was able to pick up a few nice cutties.  Here is a sample of my day.

A #4 Black Wooley Bugger

A #4 Black Wooley Bugger

A nice 16" Cutthroat that couldn't resist my wooley bugger on the swing.

A nice 16″ Cutthroat that couldn’t resist my wooley bugger on the swing.

Sometimes, it really takes patience!

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Mary Ann was on the river guiding today so I went out on my own.  I hit a favorite spot on the Salmon River, and had the hardest time finding any fish willing to look up for dry flies.  The water looked good, and there were olive stoneflies, caddis, and golden stoneflies out on the water.  But, I only managed a entice couple of 10″ rainbows to my dry flies.  Whitefish were very happy to take nymphs, and I picked up 12 or 14 on stonefly nymphs and prince nymphs.  After 4 hours of fishing I was just about to call it a day.  But, instead, I worked upstream to deeper water, still trying the same dry flies that I had been trying earlier in the day.  Surprisingly, from 3:00 PM to 3:45 PM when It was 98 degrees, I picked up 6 nice cutthroats on a #12 olive bodied Elk Hair Caddis and a #8 Yellow Crystal Stimulator.  I’m not sure why I had this success late in the day, but I was certainly happy to finally find some cooperative Cutties!  Here are a couple of photos for my day:

Slower, deeper water upstream by the rocks.

Slower, deeper water upstream by the rocks.

A nice cutthroat that took a yellow crystal stimulator.

A nice cutthroat that took a yellow crystal stimulator.