Forecast

Todays Forecast: Snow, Temperatures in the Twenties. Good Chance of Trout. This will be the forecast for the next few months. I love winter fishing, the crowds are not there, but the fish are. They still need to eat in the winter and I find winter fishing to be as fun as the spring, summer and fall, only colder!

Flyfishing Quote of the Day

Fly fishing is like sex, everyon thinks there is more than there is, and that everyone is getting more than their share. (Henry Kanemoto)

Grip Hooks

Grip Hooks are now available for purchase at selected retailers.

The new site will go live in 3-4 days but..if you'd like to order your Grip
Hooks now please call us or e-mail us at 410-472-6799
contact@greatfeathers.com.

The following hooks are available for delivery now;

11001 #14-#18 25pk.

11201 #14-#18 25pk.

14682 #14-#18 25pk.

14731 #6-#8 25pk.

14711 #10-#20 25pk.

14703 #8-#16 25pk.

11911BL #12-#20 25pk.

11013BL #10-#20 25pk.

11011BL #10-#20 25pk.

11801BL #8-#20 25 pk.

14723BL #6-#20 25 pk.

30012 #2 #4 #6 10pk

or you can purchase them from Steve Korbay at www.flytyingspecialities.com

	Grip Hooks Caddis Pupa & Emerger 14723BL
	Grip Hooks Dry Fly & Nymph 11801BL
	Grip Hooks Dry Fly 11011BL
	Grip Hooks Dry Fly 11013BL
	Grip Hooks Dry Fly 11911BL

Tight Threads,
Chad

How to increase fishing time with your wife and family

It was my anniversary this past weekend. We had a fabulous weekend. After the weekend, my wife said to me, well for pulling this off you have earned more fishing time. So for you fellas, wanting to earn some extra points with your wife and family and earn some extra needed fishing time. Do what I did. Surprise her with a quick over night stay at a bed n breakfast joint.

I knew our anniversary was coming up and instead of buying something for her, I went out side the box and arranged for some friends to watch our children for a night and took her down to a beautiful mountain bed n breakfast. The weather was absolutely perfect for end of October.

I had a dozen roses and a nice box of chocolates waiting. My boss gave us a really nice bottle of wine. So we were able to relax and enjoy our selves for a day and night. It was perfect. After the weekend, my wife told me that I have earned a ton of extra fishing time for pulling this one off.

So for you fellas, in need of some extra fishing time. Think out side the box, do something lovely for the wife and you to should earn extra time on the river!!1

Rising Cost

If you are a flytyer and enjoy the materials you get... Now would be a good time to stock up on your hackles, fur, feathers and hooks. We plan to see our favorite materials double in price come Jan 1. With the price of corn going up, you can expect to see the cost of hackles and feathers rise sharply. I know of 3 hook manufactures that will be raising prices as well Jan 1 due to manufacturing cost, steel, and oil. So, now would be a good time to stock up on your favorite materials before the prices raise.

Cheers.

Fall and a little new river

Woke up at 5ish on Saturday morning. Headed out the door to pick Todd up.

Got to Todd's and he was ready to go at planned time about 6:00 ish. Threw his gear in the truck and we were on our way headed west to a little new stream to both of us. About an hour and some later we arrived at the first pull out that looked liked the parking lot. But I was convinced this was not, so we decided to head further up the road. Next we came to an area we knew was the parking lot. So we jumped out and strung up the rods, waders and gear ready to go.

After we got ready and headed down to the river. Nice little river. I sat down to rebuild my leader and just kinda of listened to the river sing. Todd got him self all ready and headed up stream to where I was sitting. It took me a little bit to build my leader, but as soon as I was finished I got flies tied on and I was ready to go. I moved up stream just a tad about 100 or so hards away from Todd. Made my first cast and I moved a pretty nice sized trout. Worked up stream a bit and caught a few browns nothing of great size. I deciced that I wanted to head down stream and try some different areas.

As I walked down stream found some nice holes that held some very nice browns and bows. I was very surprised by some of the fish in this river. As we worked our way down river, we both manged to catch some nice fish. We fished here until about 2:30 before we decided to move to a different body of water to end the day.

Blue River

Fished the Blue River at Palmer Gultch this past weekend. This is the first time I have made it down to Palmer Gultch in a few months. I enjoyed a the drive up there after dropping my kids off at day care. Had a few cups of joe for the road, some Massive Attack for the tunes along with some Janes Addiction.

Was surprised at the pull offs along the Hwy, all most of all of them had cars in there. Thought it was going to be crowded day on the river. But got up to Palmer Gultch and the first bunch of car parks were empty and the lot was pretty full. I looked at the river from bridge up stream as far as I could see and no one was on the river. Hoped in a whole I call Big Boulder, but there were a few folks who must of just stepped in the river right before me. I could not see them from above. I moved up stream a little way with about hundred yards or more between us. I didn't see any fish rising when I got to the river, but I saw a nice sized boulder that had a decent size pool behind it. I made my way up river a tad and got myself into position and made a two cast in front of the boulder and didn't care for my cast. Let out some more line and made my cast about 20 feet in front of the rock and started to let the drift happen, just as I thought I wasn't getting a good drift, I began to pull the line out of the water and make a new cast. As I began to pull the line, the streamer made its way to the top and I began to skate it off across the top before completely pulling and making a new cast when all of a sudden, all I saw was a monster of a head make its way on to fly, fly gone, line tight, bend in the rod and a fight was on. The fish made two leaps out of the water and I was shocked by its size and it swam down stream. I let out a yell of enjoyment and help please. One of the gents fishing down stream from me saw I was making my way down stream and he made is way up stream, when I yelled down to him and asked if would mind netting my fish. We netted the fish and said that is one of the biggest fish I have seen in this area in a long time. We put a tape measure to it. 26"3/4 long, with a girth of about 16" and about 9 lbs. Big Brown!!! Welcome to fall. Released the fish back into the water, guy asked what did he take, showed him my new bunker bomb streamer. He liked and was surprised that the fish took a streamer. I said they take them all the time down here, this is a really good body of streamer water. We also talked how the big fish probably made its way out of Green Mtn Res. Said our goodbyes and good lucks and I started to make my way up stream.

Did really well until I made my way just around the first big bend and the fishing kinda of turned off. So I decided to get out and walk down below the bridge on the other side for awhile. Got in just before the bridge and fished above, under and below the bridge. Caught several nice bows and two snake river cutts. Didn't see any Kokes up this way yet though. I made my self around the bend and fished the first fast deep pool at the beach and didn't even scare a fish in there.

Then the thunder and rain came. So I decided I would head back to the truck and make my way up stream towards the dam for two hours, but when I started walking back to the truck, I was looking down at the river and saw the river come alive fish were jumping every. Made my way down to the river and started to try my regular set up. Not even a hit or an interested fish, cause they were taking emergers of some sorts. So I quickly cut line and started going through various small, BWO and Midge dries and mergers. Finally got set on a size 24, white and grey adult juju. And that's when they are starting taking it on the top. For the next hour until the rain and wind stopped, every cast, every other cast I hooked a fish. Didn't land them all, but Hooked a ton. Then the sun came back out and it someone turned the off switch. Sat around trying for about another half hour and nothing was on at all. Packed it up and drove home. Great day to fish and almost a full day that needed to be had.

Cranefly

Cranefly

Hook: 200r or 270 #12

Thread: 6/0 Danville Flymaster Waxed

Rib: 3x Mono

Body: Arizona Simi Seal Olive

Shellback: Magic Shrimp Foil, Pearl Grey

Tail: Olive Antron Fibers

Fishing South Platte

Fished the Deckers area on the South Platte tonight for the first time since Spring. The flows were above 400. Hatches, Tricos, Caddis, Midges and Midges. Didn't see any fish rising. Worked the shoreline, slack water, and the deeper slow pools. Fished from 5:30 till 8:00 pm and caught about a dozen or so fish. Nothing was smaller then 16". I did see one fish that was pushing around 24" that is sitting next to shore. Its mouth was pretty beat up and looked this fish has gone through hell. But when I got close to it, it took off into the faster water.

My set up for this evening was my CQ Little Brown Trout trailed by various stuff. I tried Czech Nymph, Jujubees, Barrs BWO emerger, RS2 and a new no name fly I tied this past weekend. All fish took the streamer.

The area I fished was big rock to Lone Rock Campground and then to finish up the night between the bridges. The water between the bridges was more off color and dirty then above the campground.

All in all it was a good night to get out and wet a line and catch a few fish.

The Blue Wing Olive

The Blue Wing Olive

Hook: Partridge K3A Swedish Dry Fly

Thread: Powersilk Brown

Tail: Golden Pheasant

Body: Ligas Ultratranslucent Olive Dubbing

Hackle: Cree Dry Fly

Wing: Puglisi EP Fibers 3-d Olive

Thorax: CDC Dubbing mixed with Sythetic Peacock

Fall Flies and Thoughts

Well Fall is around the corner, the weather has begun to change. The days are shorter and getting shorter. I am ready for the cool crisp air of fall. Been thinking Hoppers, Tricos, Small BWOS, Streamers, Eggs and October Caddis the last big hatch of the year. Fall Brings Brown Spawers, Kokanee Salmon, big Rainbows following the Kokes and gobbling up their eggs. Yum.

The time is now to experience the best fishing of the year.

The International Fly Tying Symposium

The British Invasion they are calling it for the upcoming International Fly Tying Symposium Somerset, New Jersey on November 22 and 23rd. Over 100 tyers from both North America and Europe will be here to show off their mad tying skills. In addition to the tyers there will be over 50 vendors peddling their products of flytying material, hooks, vises, books and videos. Check out the website for more information. http://www.internationalflytyingsymposium.com/

I would like to attend this event some time to see some of the patterns that are coming from our friends across the pond and see their style of tying up close.

Fly Tying Zone

This post of the Fly Tying Zone is based on Grip Hooks! Grip Hooks are manufactured by ScientificFly from South Africa. Excellent designs, beautiful black, black nickel, and bronze finishes,. The hook ranges include standard trout fly hooks; barbless trout fly hooks; bass hooks; saltwater hooks; and carp hooks. Grips' characteristic long points make for sharper points and retain fish better, particularly while fishing barbless.

Check out their website for the list of hook models being offered. http://scientificfly.com/
For more information contact. or a list of USA dealers, contact:


Kevin D Compton
216-862-9382 EST
griphooksusa@gmail.com

Kevin turned me onto this hooks last fall and I have nothing bad to say about the hooks. I have been using them along with Dohiku, Knapek, Hanak and Skalka hooks recently.

I have been tying more and more of my flies on these hooks and moving away from the barbed hooks. Just a preference and easy release of the fish. I don't need to use my hemostats at all when fishing barbless, because the hook slides very easy out of the fish or my self, when hooked. LOL. Below is a Picture and model # of Grips Barbless hook models.


Dry Fly 11011bl


Grip Caddis Pupa & Emerger 14723BL



Grip Dry Fly 11013bl



Grip Dry Fly & Nymph 11801bl

Grip Dry Fly 11911bl


If you get a chance give these a hooks a try!

Happy Tying!

Fly Fishing Retailer

Fly Fishing Retailer 2008 Colorado Convention Center, Denver, Colorado September 14-16. What is the Fly Fishing Retailer? FlyFishing Retailer World Trade Expo is where brands are launched, innovations are unveiled and connections are made. Designed for the specialty FlyFishing industry, where your manufacturers, suppliers, retailers, shop owners, internet shops, buyers, guides, outfitters, distributors, importers, exporters, press and industry influencers come to see all the new products being pushed by the manufacturers. This show is not open to the general public and you need to be connected to the flyfishing industry in one way or another to be able to attend.

Here is the list of some of the companies that will be exhibiting at the show.
Abel, AFFTA, American Fly Outfitters, Angler Sport Group, Angler's Book Supply, Bauer Fly Reel, Brodin Landing Nets, BW Sports, Canadian Fly Fisher, Chota Outdoor Gear, Clear Creek Products, Cliff Outdoors, Costa del Mar Sunglasses, Croakies, Dan Baileys Fly Shop, Dr. Slick, ExOfficio, Federation of Fly Fishers, Fetha Styx Custom Rods, Fishpond, Flambeau, G. Loomis, Galvan Fly Reels, Giorgio Benecchi's Products, Hardy, Hareline dubbin, Islander Reels, Keough hackles, Lagartun, Larva Lace, Loon Outdoors, Loop Tackle, Montana Fly Co, Nautilus Reels, NRS, Orvis, Patagonia, Petitjean Fishing, Rainy's, Redington, Rio, Ross Reels, Sage, Scientific Anglers, Scott, Simms, Spirit River, Streamworks, Targus, Temple Fork, Umpqua Feather Merchants, Vosseler, Wapsi Fly, Whiting Farms, William Joseph, and Yellowdog Flyfishing Adventures, just to name a few.

Note: Missing from this years exhibitors, is Cloudveil, which I find kind of funny since they are running a huge ad in the Fly Fishing Retailer Preshow guide. Both the show guide and website doesn't show Cloudveil as an exhibitor. They were at the recent Outdoor Retailer show in Salt Lake City. Which gets me to wonder why they are not showing or listed yet as an exhibitor at the upcoming Fly Fishing Retailer show. They are kinda of new to fly fishing community by a few years, so why would they not show at the Fly Fishing Retailer and run a huge one page ad as inspired angling apparel. They have great stuff. I have yet to try their waders and boots, or some of their accessories, but I am a huge fan of their shirts, pants, and regular clothing. Hmmm?

Fly Tying,

Where do you draw your inspiration from for flytying. Do you scour through magazines for fly patterns, or the many books available to flytyers these days, or does it come from the internet, via blogs, websites, flyshops, forums, ect... Over the last 10 years there have been many great names associated with fly tying. Vince Wilcox, Mike Mercer, Renee Harop, John Barr, Charlie Craven, Scott Sanchez, and others. Lets not forget to mention our friends from across the pond. Paul Whillock, Steve Thorton, Oliver Edwards, and some of the up and comers. http://www.flytyingforum.com/ is a great way to meet and see some of the patterns that are coming from across the pond, down under, South of the boarder and our own backyard. There are a ton of fly fishing forums popping up on the internet with sub forums leading to flytying.

I was recently asked where does a fly tyer get some of the materials to tie patterns from European tyers. So I have decided to put a little list here of web sites to acquire materials to tie the Czech Nymph, Realistic Golden Stone, Caddis, ect...

The first site here is out of California and is run by Steve Korbay. His website is www.flytyingspecialties.com/
He specializes in realistic materials from a company called Virtual Nymph. Virtual Nymph has a bunch of products for the realistic tyer. Some of the products that Steve offers on his website are Japanese Nymph Legs, Nymph Skin, Porcupine Quills, Realistic Caddis, Stonefly and Stoneclinger Wings, and Freestone Caddis coating. He also specializes in Czech Nymph products from Jan Siman products from the Czech Republic and some of those materials are the Magic Shrimp Foils, Czech Nymph Dubbing, Skalka and Knapek hooks, dubbing brushs, flat lead, and Oliver Edwards Caddis Legs. Steve has a great site and is quick in turning your orders around.

The next site is www.czechnymph.com out of the Czech Republic and they specialize in Czech Nymph products carrying Hends products, Klima products, Hanak Hooks, and Air Fishing. If you are confused about the currency exchange, don't be, they have a currency exchange rate changer for the current day built into their site, so if you are buying in Euros, dollars, and pounds, it will show you todays current rate. Since you will be ordering from Czech Republic, don't expect to get your products super fast. The usual turn time is about 3 weeks. But they offer some neat materials from body glass(similar to our larva lace, magic stretch, d-rib, and micro tubing), Body Quills, dubbings, backside foils (like magic shrimp foil), Live body(like nymph skin) and various other products.

This next site is Jan Siman from the Czech Republic as well. www.shop.siman.cz
And his offerings are for Czech nymph products from the Magic Shrimp Foils, Czech Hooks, dubbing brushes, dubbing, and various other tying materials as well. They too have a currency conversion calculator built into their site so you know what your paying for your products at the time of checking out. They are also shipping from the Czech Republic so expect your goods in about 3 weeks after placing your order.

Now for some of the American materials that are we are all accustomed to, Wapsi, Hareline and Spirit River found in almost all American shops across the states. I don't think I need to go into detail about their offerings since they are readily available in all most all shops here in the U.S.

Now some of the magazines that are dedicated to flytying. The first one is Hatches which released its first issue this past fall with a new issue due out this fall. Hatches is from the website www.flytyingforum.com and the magazine offers fresh water, saltwater and warm water tying.

Next is the Fly Tyer which has been around for a long time that is dedicated to flytying of all kinds. Fly Tyer offers easy to hard patterns for the home flytyer to experiment with. It is published 4 times a year and has both U.S. based and European tyers submitting patterns to the magazine.

Next is the Flyfishing and Tying Journal from Amato publishing and has been around for sometime as well. The magazine is really well done and is not like the other fly fishing magazines hotspotting places to fish, but goes in a different direction offering styles of fishing, how to fly fish and flytying. There is usually about a 2 dozen different flies in each issue, which is nice to see some of the patterns being developed. They offer new patterns and old standbys. They also have from time to time flytying contest of certain patterns and fly tyers from across the globe submit patterns to this little contest. And from this contest there was a book published on Patent Patterns that shows flies tied from various tyers across the globe. A really good source of fly tying patterns for all levels of flytyers.

Some books that are coming from Europe is Listen to the River and Flytyers of the World by Steve Thornton. Listen to the River is Steve's own patterns that he has come up with. The photos and description of step by step on some really interesting patterns are available in his two different volumes with a third volume coming soon. Another project Steve has been working on is a Fly Tyers of the world books. A four volume series of books bring you some of the worlds best flytyers. Volume 1 is out now and volume 2 is due out any day now, with 3 and 4 following later this year and next. This book series is done very well and should not be overlooked, because it will offer the insight into some of the worlds best flytyers.

Now jumping back to stateside I am going to offer up Charlie Cravens Fly Box. Charlie Craven opened up a really nice fly shop in Old Towne Arvada a few years back and is becoming known as one of the best flyshops in the country. Not just for the Great customer service that Charlie, Greg and Ross give on a daily basis but for the Flytying tutorial's Charlie has up on his website of step by step patterns from Charlie, Greg, John Barr and others. He has a 145 pattens up on his site and is adding more patterns as time permits. Charlie also has a book that is hitting shelves any day now called Charlie Craven's Basic Fly tying. The book will have 17 popular nymph, dry and streamer flies with over a 1000 photos to boot. This book will become a collectors item because it covers flytying fundamentals, tools, materials and techniques to tie a wide range of patterns. I expect the photos to pop off the pages like another book that Charlie spent some time tying and taking photos for, which has already become a collector book in flytying circles John Barr's book Barr's Flies.

Now for the best reference books out there to date come from the minds of Ted Leeson and Jim Schollmeyer called The Fly Tier's Benchside Reference and The Benchside Introduction to Flytying. For folks that have been tying flies for a long time the Fly Tie'r Benchside Reference should be on your desk to consult when you need to learn a move or how to tie some material a certain way. This book is the best book out there on how to help!!!. For new Tier's the Introduction book is great resource to help you begin and learn your way into the art of fly tying.

There are hundreds of books dedicated to the art of flytying and I have only listed a few that I think are very valuable resources for the flytyer and should be used as much as possible to help you expand on your knowledge of flytying.

Over the course of time I hope to expand on some of the other books, resources, websites, patterns, and flytyers available to us the fly tyer to help us become better fly tyers and experiment with different patterns.

Thanks for stopping by and hope you enjoyed this segment of Life on the Fly.

Roaring Fork Valley

Headed up to the Roaring Fork Valley this past weekend with my Dad. We left Denver around 9:30am on Friday. We drove straight to Basalt with a quick stop at Taylor Creek before going to the campground at Rudei Resivoir. We set up camp back in the gully campground, there were only two sites left, so we made the right choice to set up campe before fishing.

Once Camp was set up, we put on our waders and headed down to the Frying Pan for some fishing. We decided to fish fish just below the dam for awhile, (wanted to get my dad into some fish right away). Got into the river and I tied on mysis and dirty cdc caddis. It didnt take long to get into my first fish. Within the hour I had caught about a dozen fish. My Dad also got into some fish soon after getting into the river. We worked my favorite stretch just below the little diversion dam for about an two hours before we moved down river.

Next stop was about 2 miles down river right before the first no trespass signs. We fished this section for about two hours and after many trout later we decided to head back up river to my favorite section on the Pan. We fished this section for about 3 hours and witnesses an incredible hatch of Rusty Quills. We didnt see many fish rising, we waited and hoped for a spinner fall, but that never materialized, so we headed back up to the dam area to fish the last hour of daylight we could.

Back at the campsite a little after 9:30 had a beer and got ready to turn in for the night. I had to kinda of keep my ears open for Jason, since he was going to try to find us at the campground so we could float the Roaring Fork on Saturday. Jason showed up almost close to 1:00 am with raft in tow. After a bit of chat with Jason upon his arrival, I headed back to tent to crash.

Woke up Saturday morning to a very nice day and after we got all of our bearings together, we headed down to Breakfast over America for breakfast, but they were jam packed and the wait was long, so we headed down to Carbondale for the grub. After breakfast, we headed to the flyshop across the street to arrange our shuttle and find out about what section to float. After a little of bit of discussion we decided to float Catherine's Bridge to Glenwood Two Rivers Park.

We finally got on the river around 11:00 am and launched soon after. The flows were a bit higher then expected. We started pounding the banks for fish. Since the river was higher, we had to work the soft seams next to bank for fish. I landed two fish from the boat after being on the river for an hour or so. It was after 1:00 pm before we found some public land to stop and wade fish. Since none of us were really familiar with floating the Roaring Fork we really didn't know what to expect and where to stop. At our first wade fishing, I had two hook ups, dad had none, Jason landed a really nice 22" bow and got a kiss from Stout the dog. Jason had another two hooks and that was about it, before we decided to move on.

Time for me to take the oars. Rookie is now Captain of the Raft, look out and secure your belongings. I didn't do too bad, I rowed for the next two hours down river, trying to concentrate more on what I was doing, being new to the oars and staying closer to the middle of the river, making it a bit harder for Jason and Dad to get to the fish. Finally I found an island were we docked and fished for a while. I did ok, a few hook ups of nice fish, landed a hunch back brown and lost a few more. It was starting to get late so we headed for Glenwood. Dad in front, Jason on oars, me in the back, I didn't fish too much at this point, but let my dad work the edges and try to get him into fish. We landed in Glenwood a bit after 4:00.

Now for the comical stuff of the day. Got the gear unloaded of the boat, somebody swiped my streamer box, what a bummer, I am still mad its gone. But Jason went to get the truck and back it down the dock, I noticed he was next, so I thought I could move the boat into the docking area, big mistake, I got out into the current and completely missed the dock, and I was on my way back down stream towards the canyon, I was able to get it to land but a good two hundreds yards past the dock. Boy I have a lot to learn on the oars, I was back rowing and still going forward, something didn't quite work out right for me. Oh well, I guess its part of the learning curve on how to row! Got the boat loaded up and gear stored away, said bye to Jason and Dad and I head into Basalt for Dinner with a quick stop at Frying Pan Anglers so I could get a new net. We had dinner at the River Bar and after dinner headed back up to the pan for some fishing.

We headed straight to the dam section and fished there until 9:30 or so. Both Dad and I caught fish which was nice since the first half of the day was pretty rough. We had the river pretty much to ourselves and fished a few different sections. Hoping for some pretty good dry fly spinner fall action, never really happened, so we headed back to the campsite. Rolled in around 10ish and talked about the day. Crashed around 11.

Woke up around 8:00ish on Sunday and broke camp down and loaded the truck up, headed down to Basalt for breakfast before heading back up to the river to fish. Got on the river just after 10ish and fished various sections working our way down river. After getting into the river I did alright when I first got into the river, but then it cooled down and took about an hour before I started hooking up again. Caught up to my dad and again moved further down river to a section I have never fished before. Started working the pockets and faster water with my streamer/dirty caddis rig and started hooking brown after brown for the next two hours. We decided to pack it in around fourish and head back to Denver. So Dad could spend Monday with the grand kids.

All in all it was a good trip!
Now back to the vise for the up coming Yellowstone trip in two weeks. Look for a few patterns to be posted in the coming weeks.

Welcome To Father Natures Life on the Fly

Hi there and Thanks for stopping by. In this blog Father Natures Life on the Fly, I will be posting snippets of flyfishing and flytying in the Rocky Mountain West.

This first post is going to be about the Dirty CDC Caddis Fly that I created earlier this month.

The Dirty CDC Caddis came to life from the Dirty Caddis I produce only a few days earlier. The CDC really brought the Dirty Caddis to life when under water. I have tested the Dirty CDC Caddis on the Colorado River and Blue River. The Colorado River I fished the pattern just before dark when the caddis started hatching in swarms. The neat thing about the Dirty CDC Caddis is that is more of an Emerging Caddis that was brought to life. I was hooking fish as soon as the fly hit the water, on the drift and on the swing. I was really pleased at how the fly performed on the Colorado. The following Friday I took it up to the Blue because of the major Caddis Hatch the Blue river was seeing and I intended to fish the Palmer Gultch section, but with traffic and getting a late start from leaving Denver and wanted some good daylight fishing, I decided to try under the I-70 bridge and work towards the damn. This was a good call because the patterns I had tied were in sizes of #14 and #16 and not your normal sized tailwater fare of #18 and smaller, so this was a good test. I was very pleased because it performed just as good the Saturday before on the Colorado river. So this past week, I took it back to the vise to tweak the color combonations a bit. I decided to do some in a Olive, Natural Grey, and the brown ones. That was about the only thing I really tweaked with the pattern. The pattern is going to get another test run this upcoming weekend on the Frying Pan and Roaring Fork rivers.

The pattern-

Dirty CDC Caddis

Hook: Dohiku HDN 302 -

12Thread: Power Silk Brown 10/0

Underbody: .010 leadfree wire

Ribbing: Brassie Ultra WireBody: Dirty Dubbing (own Blend)

Emerging Wing Buds: Swiss Straw BrownLegs: Partridge

Wing Case: Magic Shrimp Foil Brown and recolored

Thorax: Brown CDC Dubbing mix w/Siman czech brown dubbing

Chad Gauerke

Father Natures Life on the Fly