Scrounging Craft Stores for Fly Tying Materials

 Fly tying materials can be expensive, we all know this. If you want to offset the cost a bit,  scrounge up material to re-appropriate at craft stores. Oftentimes the color options are limited and the materials aren't quite as ideal as those designed specifically for tying flies, but in many cases you can find something suitable or even ideal for a few uses for much cheaper than "the real thing". And sometimes you can get exactly the same product marketed in different different packaging for less than half the price. Around the holidays the craft stores and sometimes even Walmart or Target will have silver and/or gold tinsel that is really just the same thing as Flashabou. Michael's and Hobby Lobby also have products that serve perfectly as flash for big esox or saltwater flies. I was grabbing loads of this sort of stuff around the Holidays, some of it at prices under a dollar and most of it under $3.00.

Cat approved.

More recently, I managed to find this funky yarn that essentially looks like polar chenille at a Michael's Cheyenne and I stopped at . It's called Scrubby Sparkle and distributed by Red Heart. The core is a bit more course and unruly than chenilles designed for fly tying, but I've already tied flies with this stuff and it makes an excellent under-body for Gurglers and other foam-backed topwater flies. It would also be a good filler material in large streamers. It comes in a decent color variety and at four buck for 174 yards, it's a steal and will allow you to save the polar chenille and other more expensive but specialized material where it really counts. 

From material to build dubbing brushes with, to flash, to foam, there's a lot of stuff at craft stores that is more than serviceable if you want to save a few bucks. It's unfortunate that merely marketing something to fly fishers makes it more expensive, it would be nice to see this go away overtime.This isn't just a sport for the upper classes, and it doesn't need to and shouldn't have an expensive barrier to entry. I definitely recommend a trip to the old craft store every now and then just to see what you can find.

Big Smallmouth, Walleye, and the Importance of Chartreuse & Yellow

 With late winter/early spring rain comes my first real shot at large walleye on the fly in my area. This is one of my favorite times of year, when getting big fish on the fly becomes a regular occurrence again. I've gotten more and more into targeting trophy specimens of each fish species I regularly fish for, and consistently getting large walleye on the fly is one of my proudest achievements. With the weather perfect for it on March 26th, I set out just after sunset confident something exciting would happen. But before I could catch a walleye, a big swirl in very shallow water drew my attention. I had on a woolly bugger with a yellow tail, chartreuse body, and white hackle, a fly that I could not lie without. I dropped it where the swirl had been and quickly felt a grab. It didn't feel like a walleye, and was soon airborne to prove that it most definitely was not... I don't think walleye actually jump, but smallmouth bass sure do. My first smallmouth of the year was a pretty damn good one. 

Though the yellow & chartreuse Woolly Bugger is primarily my choice for big walleye and crappie, it has produced many big smallmouth bass, largemouth bass, and some bullheads and carp as well while night fishing. It loses some of its charm in daylight, which isn't all that surprising. But for whatever reason between the time the sun sets and before it comes back up again, there are few flies for freshwater "warmwater" species that will draw quite as much attention. 

On to the task at hand: get the first walleye of the season. 

It didn't take that long. The fish was right along the contour I'd expected, ate just like a walleye should, and gave the slow, head-shaky fight most walleye perform. It was a typical one for this spot but a nice walleye for the fly rod. I rarely see big fly tackle walleyes, most seem to be around 18". My average is 23". Much of my success can be chalked up to living right near a spot where large walleye routinely move into very shallow water. 

That was the first, but a couple weeks later it is still my only walleye so far this season. This season is off to a slow start. Smallmouth and the huge early season crappies though? Very different story; stay tuned. 

Until next time, 

Fish for the love of fish.

Fish for the love of places fish live.

Fish for you.

And stay safe and healthy.

Thank you to my Patrons; Erin, David, John, Elizabeth, Brandon, Christopher, Shawn, Mike, Sara, Leo, C, Franky, Geof, Luke, and Noah for making Connecticut Fly Angler possible. If you want to support this blog, look for the Patreon link at the top of the right side-bar in web version. 

Edited by Cheyenne Terrien

Simple But Deadly: The Christmas Ornament

Throughout the years, I've very infrequently delved into fly tying on this blog. That may partly be because fly tying feels more like actual work to me than fishing does, but that's neither here nor there. Whatever the reason, I only occasionally have written actual fly tying posts, with recipes, tips, and productive patterns. And because I do routinely mention specific fly patterns, and have over the years simplified and honed my own fly selection down to relatively simple to tie but extremely effective patterns that can fool more than one species of fish, it's high time I started a fly tying series. Most of these flies, basically all of them, are other tyer's designs. A few are my own. But they all work, and I have an immense amount of faith in them. This series is not written for beginner tiers who are still learning simple methods and steps, but for experienced tiers looking to diversify their fly selection that can understand very simplified instructions that don't cover every step in detail. This is "Simple But Deadly."

Flash flies are a loose collection of different patterns composed mostly or entirely of synthetic flash material. There are a number of notable patterns I’d call flash flies, from the salmon and steelhead pattern by the very name “Flash Fly,” to the Empie Shiner and Kreelex. I semi-accidentally came up with my own flash fly in 2018- an abomination of material some would say should never be graced with the designation of being a fly- but it just catches fish so damn well.

The Christmas Ornament was born when I brought home a beat up musky cowgirl lure I found on the side of the road. The wire, hooks, and blades were flattened, unquestionably from being run over by cars a time or two. But the flashy skirt was in good enough shape that it seemed like something I could use to tie flies with. It was a multicolored mylar material, like Hedron Saltwater Flashabou. I tied an utterly hideous fly out of that, articulated and intended for muskie and big pike. The material from the musky lure wasn’t long enough for the tail, so I blended rainbow krystal flash and holographic flashabou in a couple sizes and colors. The fly ended up being pretty useless, but on one day on Lake Champlain, I realized I needed something durable and flashy. I cut off the back hook of that fly, and not only proceeded to catch pike and pickerel but even largemouth ate that silly thing. And thus the Christmas Ornament was born. The fly has caught numerous big bass for me, as well as stripers and bluefish. Mostly, though, it is just a pike catching machine. 

Materials:

Tail: Hareline Krystal Flash, rainbow. Hedron Saltwater Flashabou, Gold. Hedron Holographic Saltwater Flashabou, gold. Hedron Holographic Flashabou, green. Hedron Holographic Flashabou, gold. Equal parts, hand blended.

Body: Hareline Saltwater Flashabou, gold. Hedron Holographic Saltwater Flashabou, rainbow. 1 part gold, 2 parts rainbow, hand blended. 

Thread: UTC 140 Fl. Fire Orange

Hook: Size 4-2/0 Gamakatsu B10S

Hand blending flash takes some practice. Lay out the flash on a flat surface, obviously keep the fibers parallel. Make sure the colors are evenly distributed. Then bundle it all together. The tail fibers should be 3 to 4 times the length of the hook shank. For the body, tie in 3 or 4 clumps about 4 inches long, tied in halfway between the ends and then folded back, almost like a reverse tying bucktail. You can add eyes to this fly if you’d like but they aren’t necessary. Using lead wrap to weight the fly is also useful in some situations. Yes, these are very simplistic directions, but this is a very simple fly. I didn’t feel a photographic guide to tying it was necessary. It also doesn’t need to be perfect, just full-bodied, even, and durably tied.  

Until next time, 

Fish for the love of fish.

Fish for the love of places fish live.

Fish for you.

And stay safe and healthy.

Thank you to my Patrons; Erin, David, John, Elizabeth, Brandon, Christopher, Shawn, Mike, Sara, Leo, C, Franky, Geof, and Luke for making Connecticut Fly Angler possible. If you want to support this blog, look for the Patreon link at the top of the right side-bar in web version. 

Edited by Cheyenne Terrien

Surprise Brown Trout

 One warm day in February, the first day it seemed we might be moving out of the long standing cold weather pattern, Cheyenne and I went for a hike along a tiny river valley stream. Like many of the streams in the same rock formation, this one seems nearly immune to low water and ice issues often inhibit the seasonal fishing quality of streams in the adjacent upland areas. Though tiny, I was aware it held sizable wild trout or at least had historically. Having only fished it once prior and caught just one tiny brown trout, I of course had a rod along with me. 

Tied to my tippet was a green weenie, a fly I’ve never quite given credit to. I’ve rarely ever tied or fished the green weenie for some reason. I’m not quite sure what had come over me but I’d churned out a half dozen one day before this outing and decided that would be the fly I’d throw. It’s a dead on inch worm or caterpillar imitation. That is, in fact, what it was tied to imitate. And yet I felt compelled to use it during a time of year notably lacking in such larvae. Fishing the green weenie in the winter certainly isn’t unheard of, not at all. Plenty of angler have fished and caught with the green weenie in the winter. It’s just funny to me that having confidence in a bright green worm when there’s more than half a foot of snow on the ground is possible.

Since fishing wasn’t top priority, I was fairly selective about how much casting I was doing. I occasionally handed off the rod to Cheyenne, too. I wasn’t really expecting anything. We came upon a deep, log-filled bend hole. I made one short bow and arrow cast into the soft water on the inside of the bend. As soon as the fly got to depth, my line came tight and a substantial fish was on. It was more than twice the size of any fish I’d seen in this stream prior. A brown trout of wild origins (it has been a great many years since this stream had been stocked), this specimen was an impressive example of what CT lowland creeks and brooks are capable of producing. 

I know the same stream has brook trout as well. Though that was the only fish I or Cheyenne caught this day, I know return is inevitable. I’d like to see a large brook trout there- something the size of that brown. I am sure there are a few. 

Until next time, 

Fish for the love of fish.

Fish for the love of places fish live.

Fish for you.

And stay safe and healthy.

Thank you to my Patrons; Erin, David, John, Elizabeth, Brandon, Christopher, Shawn, Mike, Sara, Leo, C, Franky, Geof, and Luke for making Connecticut Fly Angler possible. If you want to support this blog, look for the Patreon link at the top of the right side-bar in web version. 

Edited by Cheyenne Terrien

EP Peanut Butter for Backwater November Blitzes

 First of all, Happy Holidays everybody! I hope you've had and are having as good a holiday season as you could under the circumstances. Obviously things still aren't going fabulously, but it's best to keep our spirits up. I hope you are getting some fishing time between family Zoom calls.

This year saw one of the most drawn out fall runs in recent memory. There were still blitzing stripers to be found in December, and in November finding action just took a little less searching than it typically would most years. On the 13th though, I barely had to search at all before I found stripers and hickories blowing up in the backwaters. It was one of those dreary fall days that felt really fishy, and if I'd put in the effort I might have been able to find larger fish somewhere out front. Time wasn't in abundance though so I took what I had in front of me, which was schoolies eating peanut bunker. 

Such circumstances call for Enrico Puglisi's Peanut Butter. Believe it or not, I'd not even fished an EP fly until Ian Devlin handed me a rod with one last fall. I'm not sure why I'd been so slow to pick up on their usefulness. Now I've got a box filled exclusively with EP flies. The takes on the Peanut Butter when bass are eating juvenile menhaden are fully committed. Rarely ever do they seem to not suck the fly in on the first attempt. 

Ian's preferred retrieve when fishing this fly in peanut blitzes- and it does seem to work best for me as well- is a slow and steady two hand draw. If I get the fly where it needs to be and retrieve it that way, I'm essentially assured a take.  

The only drawback to EP fibers are their fouling tendencies. It is paramount to carry either a brush or velcro to undo the tangles in the fibers, either after a fish has mangled the fly or a cast has spun it up. Without this tool, fishing these flies becomes exceptionally irritating and darn near impossible. A piece of velcro lives in it's own compartment in my EP box, and without it I'd be lost. 

I'm very much looking forward to applying EP flies to black bass and scombrids next year. Black bass especially. I got a few good smallmouth this year and I'm really thinking I ought to get back into targeting both largemouth and smallmouth. I used to be pretty good at it, now I'd consider myself a mediocre bass fisherman.

 Fish for the love of fish.

Fish for the love of places fish live.

Fish for you.

And stay safe and healthy.

Thank you to my Patrons; Erin, David, John, Elizabeth, Brandon, Christopher, Shawn, Mike, Sara, Leo, C, Franky, and Geof for making Connecticut Fly Angler possible. If you want to support this blog, look for the Patreon link at the top of the right side-bar in web version. 

Muddler in Dark Waters

 If I had to pick one fly to fish for trout at night for the rest of my life, it would be some variation of the classic Muddler. With variations in size and wing material, and adding or removing weight, the Muddler can do pretty much anything I need a night-fishing fly to do. I can imitate a large stonefly nymph or sculpin with a few split shot bouncing the fly along the bottom tightlined. Dressed with floatant and dead drifted or twitched, a small Muddler imitates an insect appropriately. Large, unweighted Marabou Muddlers fished in the film, across stream and with a slow retrieve, does a fantastic job of imitating a rodent or frog. It's true that a simple black Bunny Leech has accounted for the largest trout I've ever caught, and there are times I may have said that was my favorite night fly. But when I'e stopped and thought about it, there's no question, the Muddler covers all the bases. 

On a unfortunately well lit night in early September, this fly once again proved it's value. The Farmington was low, the water crystal clear, and the conditions all but assured slow fishing. I was confident that smaller, more subtle presentations would dominate productivity, and there was enough surface activity that I expected good action in the film. I tied on an unweighted size 10 Muddler Minnow and fished it across and down and sometimes across and up, occasionally giving it little twitches but otherwise just maintaining contact. The feed was slow. The first fish to hand was an average rainbow, released quickly. Not what I was looking for. A while later, I registered a gentle take. I lifted the rod into a heavy fish, though one that didn't fight very hard. In my experience, it's either all or nothing. Some night hooked trout hardly fight at all, others put up an excessive show of power and acrobatics. This one was very much one of the former. It was at hand without much fuss at all. 

It was a stout fish, a wild brown with girth to spare, though certainly a bit short of 20 inches. Nonetheless, exactly the sort of fish I was looking for. 

Time and time again, that simple pattern proves it's worth, be it in daylight or in darkness. The muddler really is a template, not a pattern. That template has morphed into new patterns, from Lou Tabory's Snake Fly to Kelly Galloup's Zoo Cougar. The neutral buoyancy and eddy making capabilities of a spun dear hair head are some of the best tools in a fly tyer's arsenal.

 Until next time,

Fish for the love of fish.
Fish for the love of places fish live.
Fish for you.
And stay safe and healthy.

Thank you to my Patrons; Erin, David, John, Elizabeth, Brandon, Christopher, Shawn, Mike, Sara, Leo, and Franky for supporting this blog on Patreon.

Brackish Flies

Because the Covid19 outbreak is hitting the economy hard and those who stand to lose the most financially are small business owners, I find it pertinent to use this space to promote my friends in the fishing industry. I very rarely use this blog as a platform to try to sell anything, but with trade shows getting cancelled and the economy absolutely tanking, I want to help my fishing friends out in any way I can and this is the best I can do. If we're at all friendly, have chatted on occasion, and you are small business owner who is worried about how things will turn out with this pandemic, please get in touch and let me know what I can do to help.

Geoff Klane has been a good friend of mine for while now. I've fished with him in both CT and MA, on my home waters and his and a little bit in between. When I met him, he had already started his business, Brackish Flies, tying custom fly orders and guiding, and soon after he started rod building as well. His business has grown substantially in the time that I've known him and that's fantastic. Geoff is a good dude and good people deserve success. Right now, like so many other small fishing businesses, Geoff is having to deal with clients understandably canceling early season trips as well as trade show cancellations.

This would be a great time to give Geoff  holler and stock up on some flies. I've fished flies that Geoff tied and they were workhorses. They took a beating and lived to take even more. Geoff has gotten especially creative with the deadly Empie Shiner pattern, he can pretty much tailor that one fly to match most baitfish color variations. There aren't many predatory fish species that won't eat an Empie Shiner. 

Geoff builds some pretty fantastic looking and functioning rods as well, so if you are in the market and want a rod made exactly to your specifications, it is definitely worth looking to Brackish Flies.

And, of course, when things start to get more relaxed in the not-to-distant future, consider booking a day with Geoff. He guides for warmwater species in the Lowell canals with emphasis on carp, striped bass long the Massachusetts shoreline, and for sea run brook trout. Geoff is very knowledgeable, enthusiastic, and just a pleasure to spend  day on the water with. So check out the website linked in the second paragraph and buy some flies or a rod, or book a future fishing trip.

Until next time,

Stay safe and healthy.

Thank you to my Patrons; Erin, David, John, Elizabeth, Brandon, Christopher, Shawn, Mike, Sara, Leo, and Franky for supporting this blog on Patreon.

*All photos in this post courtesy Geoff Klane unless otherwise captioned.

Devlin Blends and Captain Ian Devlin Charters

Because the Covid19 outbreak is hitting the economy hard and those who stand to lose the most financially are small business owners, I find it pertinent to use this space to promote my friends in the fishing industry. I very rarely use this blog as a platform to try to sell anything, but with trade shows getting cancelled and the economy absolutely tanking, I want to help my fishing friends out in any way I can and this is the best I can do. If we're at all friendly, have chatted on occasion, and you are small business owner who is worried about how things will turn out with this pandemic, please get in touch and let me know what I can do to help.

My friend Ian Devlin makes some of the best flash blends I've had the pleasure to tie with. My largest ever snook and biggest striped bass were both caught on flies that use Devlin Blends, and I am certain that the flash blends made a difference in the performance of those flies. Ian's yak hair and slinky blends certainly make it easier to tie really big flies. He makes these by hand, and they are basically descended from flash blends Dave Skok was making.

If you are planning to spend some of your quarantine time tying large baitfish imitating patterns for big brown trout, pike and musky, striped bass, largemouth bass, sharks, tuna, taimen, wahoo, baramundi, snook, you name it... get yourself some Devlin Blends.

If tying big flies is too intimidating for you but you're looking to try fishing something large for herring, shad, and bunker eating stripers this season, Ian also ties and sells some excellent imitations of these baitfish with his blends. Ian can be found through Devlin Blends and Captain Ian Devlin's Charters.
Ian is still booking trips now for fly and light tackle striped bass fishing in western Long Island Sound. I'd certainly especially recommend booking a trip with Ian after things settle down. Ian is one of my favorite people to fish with. His knowledge base and teaching ability are exceptional. He knows his water, he knows casting, he knows how fish operate. He's also extremely knowledgeable of birds if you have any interest in that. If you want to catch fish and learn a lot while doing so, Ian has got that covered. And his custom Lake & Bay is a great skiff to ride and fish from. Give him a call and book a trip. Buy some flash blends. Definitely do what you can to help your local businesses through this situation.

Until next time,

Stay safe and healthy.

Thank you to my Patrons; Erin, David, John, Elizabeth, Brandon, Christopher, Shawn, Mike, Sara, Leo, and Franky for supporting this blog on Patreon.

*photos in this post are courtesy Ian Scott Devlin unless watermarked. 

Simple But Deadly: George Harvey's Pusher

Throughout the years, I've very infrequently delved into fly tying on this blog. That may partly because fly tying feels more like actual work to me than fishing does, but that's neither here nor there. Whatever the reason, I only occasionally have written actual fly tying posts, with recipes, tips, and productive patterns. And because I do routinely mention specific fly patterns, and have over the years simplified and honed my own fly selection down to relatively simple to tie but extremely effective patterns that can fool more than one species of fish, it's high time I started a fly tying series. Most of these flies, basically all of them, are other tyer's designs. A few are my own. But they all work, and I have an immense amount of faith in them. This series is not written for beginner tiers who are still learning simple methods and steps, but for experienced tiers looking to diversify their fly selection that can understand very simplified instructions that don't cover every step in detail. This is "Simple But Deadly". 

George Harvey's "Pusher" isn't as much of a pattern as it is a template that can be tinkered with in as many ways as you want save for one. It's the wings of the pusher fly, what sort of feather they are and how they're tied in, that make it an innovation in the world of flies designed to catch trout at night. You may never have hear of the Pusher before, and that's okay, most fly fisherman haven't and most never will, but if you want to try to catch salmonids in the dark it is a good idea to have a few of these in your box. Now, lie I said this fly can be tied in different ways, and what follows is my own. I believe George typically used Guinea Foul for his wings, others use mallard flanks. My friend Mike like to put in some black marabou for added movement. But this is what I do:

Materials:

sz6-4 2xl-3xl streamer hook

any ol' black thread

golden pheasant neck feathers

black dubbing

grizzly rooster saddle

black hen hackle

pheasant neck feathers

Begin, after affixing your thread, by tying in a clump of golden pheasant neck fibers for the tail.

Tie in a grizzly rooster saddle hackle at the tip. 

Then dub a roughly cigar shaped body with any black dubbing of you choice. The body should be 2/3-3/4 the length of the hook shank. I tied a small order of streamers not long ago that used up a lot of black craft fur, so I used some of the excess soft under fur (if you could call an artificial product that) on this fly and other pushers I've tied recently.

Palmer the hackle up the body. You can use wire or mono wrap here to secure the hackle better if you'd like. 

Tie in a black hen soft hackle, tip first, cleaned of fluff. 

Use every wrap of fibers out of this feather. Bulkiness doesn't hurt like it does tying a soft hackle spider. Tie in and trim the stem.

Pick and clean two cock pheasant neck feathers like this:

Then tie each in, concave side out, on either side of the hook. You can put some thread wraps immediately behind them to prop them out even more if you'd like. 

Tie in another grizzly saddle hackle, this time butt first, and dub the head with the same dubbing as the body or wrap peacock herl as an alternative. 

Wrap the hackle forward three times, tie off, and whip finish or do some half hitches. Don't worry if the head looks a little sloppy, or the rest of the fly for that matter as long as the body is well tapered and the wings are set straight and true with the concave side out. 

The Pusher can be fished wet or dry, though it was designed as a subsurface fly. I've taken numerous trout as well as smallmouth and largemouth bass at night on Pushers. Joe Humphrey's Pennsylvania state record brown trout fell to a Pusher. Fish these flies when the rivers are low and warm. Work them down and across stream, in slow walking pace water and over shallow drop offs, with a hand twist or figure eight retrieve. Takes are often very jarring. The idea is to imitate a large aquatic insect, or even something like a crayfish, creeping through the shallow, slow water that trout and bass often feed in after dark. The Pusher does this job quite well, its wings moving water and getting the attention of fish that may otherwise have let a more subtle offering slip by.

Until next time,

Fish for the love of fish.

Fish for the love of places fish live.

Fish for you.

Thank you to my Patrons; Erin, David, John, Elizabeth, Brandon, Christopher, Shawn, Mike, Sara, Leo, and Franky for supporting this blog on Patreon.

Simple But Deadly: Rich Garfield's Sirloin

Throughout the years, I've very infrequently delved into fly tying on this blog. That may partly because fly tying feels more like actual work to me than fishing does, but that's neither here nor there. Whatever the reason, I only occasionally have written actual fly tying posts, with recipes, tips, and productive patterns. And because I do routinely mention specific fly patterns, and have over the years simplified and honed my own fly selection down to relatively simple to tie but extremely effective patterns that can fool more than one species of fish, it's high time I started a fly tying series. Most of these flies, basically all of them, are other tyer's designs. A few are my own. But they all work, and I have an immense amount of faith in them. This series is not written for beginner tiers who are still learning simple methods and steps, but for experienced tiers looking to diversify their fly selection that can understand very simplified instructions that don't cover every step in detail. This is "Simple But Deadly". 

Rich Garfield's "Sirloin" is a twist on the classic muddler. It's a three material streamer, very easy to tie, and I guarantee most of you that tie your own flies have two of the three necessary materials already. You may not have the third, but I highly recommend getting it if you want to tie the Sirloin. There are decent substitutes but I wouldn't call a sirloin without it's trademark wing an actual sirloin.

Recipe:

sz. 10 to sz. 1, 2x or 3x long streamer hook

Danville 3/0 waxed monocord white

Coyote belly fur

black, grey, brown, orange, olive, or white chenille

Deer hair

Start, after tying in your thread, by cutting a clump of coyote fur, measuring it to about the length of the hook shank, then tying it in as the tail.

Tie in your chenille, wrap forward four to five turns, then tie off and trim (on hooks smaller than sz. 4, wrap chenille to just behind where the head would start. Hook sizes 4+  get 2 wing, under get one).

Tie in another clump of coyote fir, proportionally equivalent to the first.

Tie in your chenille again, and advance it four to five turns again, then tie off and trim.

Tie in a second wing of coyote fur, proportional to the first.

Trim and stack a clump of deer hair, pinch down to the top of the hook, make too loose wraps, then tighten while continuing to hold the clump in place to for the collar.

Spin two or three more large clumps of deer hair to form the head.

Whip finish or do 5 half hitches.

Using a razor blade, trim the bottom of the head flat.

Then round the rest of it.

Use your scissors to get the head to the shape you prefer.

Adirondack guide and tyer Rich Garfield really hit the ball out of the park on this one, the coyote hair provides a great natural color blend and swims beautifully in the water. You can modify this fly by adding lead or no lead wire, wrapped or as a keel, or simply use split shot or a sinking line to get it down. Fished without any weight near or at the surface at night, early in the morning, late in the evening, or on cloudy days, the sirloin can draw fish up. Strip the Sirloin quickly through the shadow lines along the bank in the summer when trout aren't actively rising. When striped bass are on shrimp st night in the creeks, swing a sparse Sirloin in tandem with a flatwing. Twitch this fly along the bottom to fool smallmouth feeding on crayfish or madtoms. This is not the last of Rich's concoctions that will find itself in the "Simple But Deadly" series... oh no, there in at least one more worth delving into.

Sirloins ready for action.

Until next time,

Fish for the love of fish.

Fish for the love of places fish live.

Fish for you.

Thank you to my Patrons; Erin, David, John, Elizabeth, Brandon, Christopher, Shawn, Mike, Sara, Leo, and Franky for supporting this blog on Patreon.