Dry Fly Innovations

There was a deep channel that flowed by a large boulder against the far bank and I could see my Slow Stone (dry fly fish Idaho) floating, belly down through the center of the channel.  I was thinking wow that’s an awesome place for a big fish; when right on queue a large “brownie” appeared out of nowhere at the hook.  Without hesitation, he ate the fly, and when the hook sank into the back of his tongue; all hell broke loose.  Ripping line, racing between the boulders and staying deep, he raged his battle in earnest, but after a few power runs and a bully ending, he nose dived into the net.  He was a gnarly old male about 23 inches long, but not quite as fat as he should have been.  Check picture at the bottom of blog.

And so the morning went.  I was tossing Slow Stones and Halloweens (dry fly fish Idaho) over holding water with no fish feeding at the surface.  It was fairly slow and after a couple hours in a few different locations I had only landed 5 fish, but they were all big guys.  So I pulled out and went up river searching for a midge or BWO hatch.

It didn’t take long to find the hatch I was looking for.  The BWO’s were all over the surface so I tied on the old tried and true–BWO Emerger (dry fly fish Idaho) that we’ve had such great success with this winter.  I worked my way above the fish and began picking targets; and just like normal if the cast was good, so would be the result.  I started hooking fish regularly, but there were a few fish that were smaller than normal.  I stayed with the hatch for a few hours, then switched back to a Halloween (dry fly fish Idaho) to finish out the day.  I caught one more large brownie and called it a day.

The Squawla hatch is not quite in full swing yet.

Black Gold strikes again!

I had fished the South Fork on 3/10 and the wind was blowing so hard you couldn’t fish small flies, so we tied on a Black Gold (dry fly fish Idaho) size #14 and had a pretty good day considering the weather conditions.  I went back to the South Fork 3/16 to see if the Black Gold (dry fly fish Idaho) phenomenon was a fluke.  It wasn’t a fluke, from 12:30-3:00 pm I landed 13 rainbows on a #16 Black Gold Stimulator.  After 3:00 pm the fish began keying on adult midges and they refused the Black Gold.

So it was back to small bugs and the adult midge they liked was a #22 Black Thread White Wing (dry fly fish Idaho).  Once I had figured out the right fly, almost every fish working the surface I got a hook in.

And so it went another gorgeous day on a spectacular river (South Fork of the Boise River- dry fly fish Idaho) and a bunch of rainbows in the net.  One note, I caught a large, beautiful male yesterday and as I put my hand around its belly it squirted milt.  That means the fish will be moving to the reds soon.

Steve Hardy was gently moving the #22 midge (dry fly fish Idaho) across the surface of the slick when a small fish moved toward the hook. Suddenly, from the depths a large golden body roared to the surface and stole the fly from the smaller fish. The hook was set and all hell breaks loose! The fish zinged off line as it bolted to the center of the slick; back and forth the battle raged on until a spectacular 20-inch female lay resting in the net. I even got to watch it happen on Steve’s handy-dandy small video camera. How cool is that?!!

We worked Halloweens (dry fly fish Idaho) and Slow Stones (dry fly fish Idaho) early in the day below the Powerline Hole, but the fish in the upper river didn’t seem to be keying on the larger squala patterns. I caught one giant male on a Halloween in a riffle, but we never saw a single natural stone (dry fly fish Idaho) on the water. No problem though; we moved to the slick up above and began catching one fish after another on a #22 black emerger (dry fly fish Idaho). There were a few small fish we landed also.

After exhausting the run of brownies on the slick, we decided to move down river to work some stone patterns (dry fly fish Idaho). We began fishing the Bridge Hole and immediately there were squala on the water, not in larger numbers, but they were there. Strangely, the fish were not keying on them; instead the fish on the surface were taking emergers. We continued to throw our stone patterns, but no takers. They wouldn’t even take the naturals that occasionally floated by.

It was 5:30 p.m., windy, and a slight mist of rain began to fall, but being the die-hards that Steve and I are, we decided to try one more hole. The smart fishermen were headed down the river for home. It was very dark for 6:00 p.m., and the wind was swirling hard. It was cold; we both had our sweaters and hoods on, and our hands were freezing as we began to fish the Boulder Garden.

Steve and I were both using a slow stone (dry fly fish Idaho) in the gentle current around the rocks, fishing the deep edges and around the sunken boulders. As to be expected, we seemed to be wasting our time. I had been focusing most of my casts tight to the edges and decided to try a mid-stream cast over a cluster of sunken boulders. I could see the fly perfectly against the shimmer of the wave when he came–a massive break at the surface and a toilet flush as he submerged with my fly. I set the hook gently, and his initial surge told me he was a giant. After working him around the boulders out to the depths of the pool and across the river, he finally succombed to the net. He was a beefy 21-inches long, dark,  yet golden, and we guessed him at 5 lbs.

We hiked out at dark, and my final thought was–you know, sometimes it pays to be the idot that stays until dark in impossible weather conditions!

Wind blowing 15 mph and gusting to 25, temperature barely above 40 degrees.  All small bug hatches swept from the surface of the water….what in the hell are we doing on the South Fork of the Boise with a box full of dry flies.

Well at least the wind was blowing up river so we decided to fish.  It was impossible to work a small fly so Geoff made his choice, a Black Gold Stimulator #14 (dry fly fish Idaho) and I made mine, a Halloween #12 hardback.  We made our choices knowing there was virtually no way we were going to catch a fish on March 10 on a large dry fly.  Fish are hard wired to tiny flies in the winter and it was obvious we were wasting our time, but we came to fish.

We casted upstream with the wind and began to work a stretch of water up from the low bridge.  After ten minutes of working a boulder line a remarkable thing happened on a Black Gold Stimulator (dry fly fish Idaho).  A giant rainbow slipped to the surface and ate that fly.  Geoff set the hook and immediately the fish was air born, then racing for the center of the stream.  I look at Geoff, Geoff looks at me and our eyes are big as saucers.  This cannot be happening, but reality set in when we slid a gorgeous 20 inch male into the net.  After a high five, a long look at a beautiful fish, he disappeared into the river bottom.  No way!  Did that happen?  Yes and if it happened once it could happen again, I immediately changed flies to a Black Gold #14 (dry fly fish Idaho).  Geoff made the right call, he said the fly  was magical and I was beginning to think he was right.

Geoff and I separated and I moved to a stretch of water a little lower on the river and began to fish another boulder line, casting the fly to holding water.  In tight to the bank, behind and in front of boulders and gently riding the foam lines, I served the fly.  There was a large flat boulder under the water ahead of me about 30 feet away with a deep drop off on the right side.  I landed the fly just off the edge of the boulder and it began to float down stream.  Like a ghost he came from under the boulder and took the fly.  In a heart beat the hook was set in another South Fork monster and the battle began.  One awesome jump, three monster runs and a slow bully finish and he was in the net and I’m thinking all the time this can’t be happening.

There was a large boulder in the water ahead of me and I had just caught a nice rainbow to the right side of it.  I moved up to the boulder and cautiously looked over; there was a beautiful 15 foot stretch of holding water in front of the boulder and I casted to the head of it.  The fly slowly floated toward me closer and closer to the boulder.  The fly was almost out of sight in front of the boulder when she rose up, no more than 6 feet away from me and took the fly.  The hook was set, the line was screaming to deep water and I’m standing there with my eyes wide open and my jaw dropped looking like a deer in the head lights.  The war raged on down the river in and out of the boulder patch until she lay at rest in the bottom of the net.  She was a spectacular 20 inch female.  I revived her a long time, admired her beauty and watched her slowly disappear to the river bottom.  Wow!!!

And so the day went, working beautiful water in a small hurricane on the 10^th of March, stocking cap, heavy sweater, and gloves to stay warm, and landing big fish on a dry fly like it were June.  It was a gorgeous day on the river, two flocks of turkeys, tons of mule deer and 13 big rainbows.  Geoff was right, Black Gold (dry fly fish Idaho) is a magical fly; not only on the South Fork but check out the front page our website.  It’s a great fly in New Zealand also, as one of our clients found out.

You know, I’m generally writing about sneaking up on a big “brownie” or serving a BWO to big rainbows feeding troughs, but we just finished the Boise Sportsman Show and I could not believe the amount of skilled dry fly fisherman I met.  It made me proud to live in this area and share the water with such a wonderfully skilled group of people.  I admired the way you analyzed our flies, paying attention to the detail and immediately recognizing where that fly could be fished and when.  I remember countless fishermen that could identify every material that specific fly were constructed of.  Many of you reminded me of me, where I would purchase a fly; through, particular and selective, because dry fly fishing is all about the “Fly”

I want to thank all of the people who shared time with us at the show, for purchasing our product and teaching me many valuable fly tying techniques and unique fishing strategies.  You were awesome; and I know that could have selected a large handful of people at tour booth that could have fished with the so called “Experts” and gave them a hell of a run for there money!

Thank you for the lesson!!!!!

Nate Brumley

At 10:15 we’re on the river driving toward the dam and the river is alive with fish.  Every slick and every window of holding water there were noses popping at the surface.  The river was showing every sign that it was going to be a monster day on the “O”.

We parked on the midge water just below the dam and just like clock work there were Brownies working the surface.  Geoff snuck into position on the high side the run and the second cast…bang!!  He’s into a big old brown, with a lot of spark.  Up and down and across the hole the battle raged on until a beautiful 18 inch fish slid into the net.  We snapped a few photos and admired her a minute, and slid her back for another day.

Geoff dried the #22 BWO Emerger, ginked the shuck and engineered back into position.  He targeted another fish and the cast was perfectly served.  There was a moment pause, then a big mouth encompassed the hook.  A gentle hook set, an instant jump and then a bolt of electricity zinging across the slick.  The war was on again!  Life is a beautiful thing with a fly pole in your hand, the right hook on your tippet, and a 20 inch Brownie thrashing at the end of your line.  The fish begrudgingly slid into the net and filled it up.

And so the morning went picking a fish here and there and the hatch staying strong with targets at the surface to serve a fly to.  Things all of a sudden, like someone flipping a light switch there were no fish feeding anywhere on the slick.  We figured it to be a perfect time for lunch and let the fish regroup for the afternoon show.  The show never happened and the fish stayed down, so we moved down river in search of rings.  All the schools of fish we saw feeding in the morning has disappeared and the Owyhee shut down.

We hit a few runs of water with small numbers of fish feeding and we picked up a few more fish, but the hot fishing of the day was over by 2:00.  Oh the Owyhee, it can throw you more curve balls than a pitching machine and occasionally it throw you a split ball.  You never anticipate a hatch to come off early in the morning on the Owyhee in the winter, but by golly it did.  We should have been there at daylight!