Turd Wrangler Tube Fly

You guys can thank Aaron Ostoj for the name of this tube fly.  It cracked me up as soon as he posted his comment in a reply on Facebook.  He thought it would look good for a sculpin species that he and his friends affectionally call "Turd Wranglers."

My thought process behind this fly was to tie something that has a good amount of movement, is not too big and not too small, and could possibly look like a scuplin or maybe even a crayfish.  I also wanted to have a nice balance of natural materials and synthetic materials that would complement each other and work well together.

If you like quality fly tying materials for high end flies such as married wing salmon flies and classic spey and dee flies, stop by his site.  I'm sure you'll find something you like! http://www.aaronmostojfeathers.com/index.html

Good Times With Good Friends

With a busy guiding schedule its pretty hard to find time to get out on the water and fish for yourself, when you do have that time, sometimes the last thing you want to do on a day off is fish.  So I want to thank Frank for dragging my tired ass out for a day on the water. 

December 2nd - Big Flies in cold water!

The water temperature was 39 degrees today in the lower Salmon River.  A light but steady rain that started at 10:30am made an otherwise prefect December day slightly uncomfortable.

Swinging these 4" flies on a 10' slow sink polyleader (2.6ips) through the slower water in the tailout of a big pool produced one steelhead and one brown trout for me today.

25" female hit the Blue/copper Prom Dress

20" brown trout hit a fly given to me this morning by one of the DSR staff to test out for him.  A Olive/rabbit strip leech with "Sonic" cone head.  I'd say it works!

Protect the loops on your sink-tips!

This simple little junction made from 25 lb. or 30 lb. test Maxima can help protect the factory loops on the end of polyleaders, MOW tips or other sink-tips.  Just cut a 12 inch piece of the Maxima and tie a double surgeon's loop at either end so you end up with a "junction section" that is about 3-4 inches long.

 When swinging flies I like to attach a tippet of 10 lb. test Maxima ultragreen to the end of my MOW tips by making a double surgeons loop and looping it to the loop on the tip. But this relatively thin mono can cut  into the factory loop on the sink-tip and shorten its life.

The solution is to make a short junction of heavier mono (25-30 lb. test) which will protect the factory loop from excessive wear.  Then you just loop your lighter tippet to the end of the "junction section".

Ready To Do Battle

November steel

Persistence pays off swinging 3" cut-shank Intruders in the lower Salmon River today.  After a fruitless morning the White/pink fly got slammed by a 28" male just after 12 noon.  An hour later the Blue/silver fly had a nice tug from a fish but didn't connect.  With the water level at 335cfs these flies fished well on a 2.5' sink x 7.5' float medium MOW tip and 4' of 10lb. test Maxima ultrgreen tippet.

Beautiful November day with calm winds and sun.  Water temperature 41.

This one had alot of fight! Fresh out of Lake Ontario!

Wade Softly, Carry a Big Stick

             In low clear water remember to wade softly and quietly.

Interested in purchasing some Steelhead and Atlantic Salmon flies for your next trip??  Or just to look at some Frank's awesome work at the vise.  Check out Frank's new site Swarner and Son catering to the swinging angler.

Purple King Tying Video

Big Squaretail

SRS Follower Zak landed this Toad of a Brown Trout while out Swinging for Kings today.

Simple Awesomeness

What's In The Vise??

• 1" Plastic Tube
• Conehead glued in place 1/2 way on the tube.
• White Artic Fox Fur.
• Flashabou.
• White Artic Fox.
• Hackle - Teal feather
• Jungle Cock
• Conehead

This is a good early season steelhead pattern for Great Lakes fish when they fish enter the tribs.

Lower Fly Zone Construction



Church Pool - Shane Muckey Photo


DEC has almost finished the bank stabilization along the Church Pool section of the lower Fly Fishing Only section.

Balmoral Dee Fly Video

Here is the Balmoral Dee Fly and this is my first stab at making my own tying video.  As for now it's basic but I plan on playing around with the editing software and will include a test tank video for future flies.  Enjoy!!

Spey Nation V

Once again Geoff and crew put on a great event. Looked like everyone casted some rods, I talked to a lot of friends and clients during the day also made some new friends. Can't wait til next year.

Along a California stream.

A Brother of a client of mine was out camping in CA and took this picture.

First Push - Tailout Teaser

First Push - Tailout Teaser from scumliner media on Vimeo.

Dog Days of Summer

Another day near 90 degree's, Trout streams getting to warm to fish, really makes you miss days like this. 

Friday Casting Lessons

                      This will get your blood pumping at the office today!

Thanks Zak for the photo

A nice shot of a Salmon River Steelhead, along with the Rod, Reel and Fly.

What's In The Vise??

These are a pretty quick and easy tube fly that has been producing for me for Steelhead and Browns.

Materials:

1" Plastic Tube
Artic Fox
Flashabou
Artic Fox
Flashabou
Schlappen
Jungle Cock
Fits Turbo Cone

You can slide a conehead onto the tube and super glue it in place and tie the materials in front of that to keep the materials propped up.

Airflo Rage Compact Fly line

Tim Rajeff and Tom Larimer talk about the Airflo Rage Compact Fly Line. This should be a great line for the Salmon River, I have one to try but I haven't strung it up yet.BTW, I think Tim is having to much fun making these video's, plus pay attention for some new slang in the spey world. 

Echo3 8134 Break Test

This break test video of the New Echo3 Spey rods is pretty impressive, watch this rod load up before it breaks.

Feenstra's Emulator

(Recipe for fly shown - there are other variations by the originator, Kevin Feenstra)
Hook: Dai Riki 700 size 4 - 4x long shank
Tail : Barred Marabou
Body: 1 or 2 Emu feathers wrapped forward followed by 1 Schlappen feather palmered through the Emu
Collar: 1 Mallard Flank feather (wood duck color) tied in by tip and wrapped in the opposite direction.
Flash: Copper Flashabou tied in on top of the body
Head: Nice solide clump of Australian Possum underfur and all. Push the tips over the eye of the hook so fur surrounds the shank and wrap the thread around the middle of the clump.  Push the butt ends back, wrap in front of them, for the thread head and tie off.

Airflo Head Bag

I'm one for "trying" to keep heads and tips neat and make sure they get put back in the right place. The Airflo head bag will help in the madness of tips and heads wound up in my pack or in my waders pouch. The overall size is 8"x10" and the pages are 6 1/2"x7", so its compact. Airflo heads come in a page instead of a spool so you can add them right in. Retail is about $16.00 on the bag, with extra pages are $1.00.

Stout Steelhead???

A weekend of Steelhead fishing with the boys wouldn't be complete without some Steelhead Extra Stout beer(s) and some facial hair, but I think Neill over did the facial hair!!

Tube Fly Hangers

Tube Fly Hangers are a pretty cool way to keep your tubes neat and organized in your box.  They will hold a tube up to almost 2" long and if you have a slotted box like these new Umpqua Streamer boxes, they look quite nice in there.