The Ignorant Angler

Here is a bank sipper from a recent foray to the Madison.  A few caddis were drifting on the surface when I arrived in mid-afternoon.  Not a huge hatch, but enough to get my attention, and that of some fish too.  This fish showed itself.  I missed it, put it down, rested it for a while.  When I returned, it was back, rising, picking off the occasional caddis.  A few drifts later it exploded on my fly.  I might not get a better one this year, at least not on a dry.    
So, what was the fly du jour?  Lately I've taken to tying a variety of parachute type caddis. Anything that might be more visible is just fine for my aging eyes.  They are ties of Mike Lawson's EZ Caddis. You can see him tie the fly here. I've tied pink posted ones, some with white posts, some with a combo of pink and fluorescent yellow, black too.   A tan hackled, orange posted one got this brown.  














And, since a brown trout from the Madison River was the star of this post, I thought it appropriate to includ…

It's been a while since I've written. I apologize.  I've shirked my duties as a blogger.  
It's been a while too since we've had occasion to use a hopper.  This one, patterned after Mike Lawson's Henry's Fork hopper, was tied with the intention of floating it in the Blackfoot.  Why the Blackfoot?  Beats me.   I just thought it was a good idea. 
Well, years passed.  The hoppers never saw the Blackfoot.  One day, this past summer, I found the forlorn hoppers in a fly box next to my tying bench. Their time had come.  I packed them off to the Madison. 
I've always liked the look of elk hair hoppers.  This pattern looks good on the water.  It floats like the cliched cork.  And, it's not too tough to tie.  
And, pray tell, how did they work that day on the Madison?  Well, pretty darned good.  There were no sippers that day.  The takes were pretty explosive. 
To quote Dan Holland from the Fly Fisherman's Bible:
A trout feels about a grasshopper the wa…

A few weeks back, I fished a small creek that wound lazily through a meadow.  Once in a great while a fish would rise.  It wasn't a feeding frenzy.  I had no clue as to what they were taking.  There were no winged insects.  Couldn't see much of anything drifting in stream either.  I remembered reading "When in doubt, use a beetle", courtesy of Mike Lawson.

So I stripped off some line, measured my cast and sent the beetle on it's way.  A couple of funky drifts and I figured out the current.  A fish rose again.  Out went another cast.  The fish took.  A nice little brown.  I got three more out of that little run.  Clearly, they liked the beetle.

It's a simple tie. I used whatever material was available.  In this case, a dubbed body of peacock ice dub, some black electronics foam packing, black flashabou for legs, orange post for visability.

This version is a low rider. Even with a short line, it was a $#%h? to see.  When a fish rose wherever I thought the fly …

Took a road trip one day last week.  The valley, a little off the beaten path,  was still green.  The intent was to fish, which I did.  But the scenery and profusion of flowers captured most of my attention.


By mid-day it had grown quite warm.  Make that hot.  So, back over the pass I went.  Still early, there was time to drive over to the Henry's Fork.  After nearly forty years in Montana, and having driven through the area countless times, I've yet to fish this storied trout water.

I stopped by the Henry's Fork Angler, picked up a copy of Mike Lawson's book, and purchased an Idaho fishing license.  If you ever want to throw the shop guys for a loop, just ask for a steelhead permit too!  I may have been the first, last, and only person to ask for one.  Not too many steelhead in this neck of the woods, but I'm ready if one ever shows up.

I then drove home, still not having fished the Henry's Fork.