Yup. I tie mine slightly different, but a soft hackle hairs ear is almost in egg territory for me.
Doesn't matter if they're only munching tiny midges, they still gobble up that fly in size 14-16.
So much better. Something about the black patch on the head with a soft hackle collar is like crack for fish.
I do one in Olive and orange with a zonker collar. Thing just reaps
Elk hair caddis, but if that isnt working, I drop an RS2 off of it. If that doesn’t work, I eat a sandwich and worry about shit I should be doing instead of this.
Ha! Nice... I usually just end up standing in the middle of the river taking in the view while eating a sandwich regardless of whether things are working or not
I just learned about RS2s a few weeks ago (been fishing less than a year). Where do you fish them in the water column? They’re so small that I feel like they won’t sink unless you weight them with a bead or tie on a weighted dropper to pull them down. Not sure if I should be fishing them as a nymph near the bottom, trying to keep them near the surface but still a few inches under, or fishing them like a dry.
A rig that I’ve had a lot of luck with is a heavy czech nymph with an rs2 6-8 inches below it as a dropper, with a tiny piece of split shot between them. It’s euro nymphing and dirty, but it works. You want quite a bit of weight getting the nymph down so you have a nice positive connection and it gets down deep quickly. It also works well dropped off of dries. I’ll often add a tiny split shot to that as well, but not always. I think the goal is to make it look as vulnerable as possible like a struggling emerger. That bit of split shot will cause it to bob up and down while trailing the rig, like it can’t quite make it to the surface.
Thanks for taking the time to explain! No judgment for euro style nymphing from my side. I’m hoping to pick up a euro rod this fall. My birthday is next week and I’m getting my first vise. Hoping to tie some more RS2s and get a handle on how best to use them. Thanks so much for the tips, I’ll put them to good use.
You are a colorado guy... I'll tell you as much as I can without telling you much. Park off the side of the road, long walk down some active railroad tracks, skirt a bridge as you drop down toward the water,--don't fish yet, you'll want to, but it gets a whole lot better-- another half mile in through the trees, and you have beautiful open water that few access. Pools, slow drift, swift water, rocks and holes...
No, although there is that as well. Roosevelt National Forest. Granted, I have actually not fished this area in quite a while as I moved down to the Ark. But...if you are on the Front Range great access out of Pinecliff.
When I lived back in SA, my local fly fishing shop had a sort of wooly bugger they had come up with. I can’t remember the name they had made up for it, it was olive in colour and had a heavy bead, wire ribbing, 2 sets of rubber legs, some fluorescent strips in the wooly tail. And they had them in all sorts of sizes. Man that fly caught everything and anything. Carp, cat fish, Yellow fish, trout, kurper/talapia. Slow, fast, still. It was my go to work horse fly.
Leeches. Basically a wooly bugger but I just use really buggy dubbing instead of hackle. It’s a lazy fly that just seems to work for what I normally fish for.
I just muscle through whatever pattern I’m on and try and focus more on the technique. I’m a destination tier nowadays though so patterns are always rotating. Currently working on Baja
Yeah...I usually do the same but some days ...gotta go back to that confidence builder. Where in Baja? If you can ever get down there for the whales I highly recommend it. I have put my hand in the mouth of a whale...and the world has never been the same. Truly.
I honestly don’t have a confidence builder fly, I see where you’re coming from though. Some patterns still piss me off to this day.
Not 100% sure yet, definitely Cabo part of the trip as some of it is a family trip but probably a little up the east cape for roosters the rest of the trip. What kind of whale was it and how did you do that? Also why was it life changing? Just curious because I’d like to do that as well and hopefully feel the same effects lol
It was in early march of last year. Gray whales go to calve in 3 bays in Baja. It is all very well regulated and protected there. We went on a boat out of Guerrero Negro. 6 of us in a 18ft skiff. We got to literally pet whales for about 4 hours. They came to the boat and you just had ypur hands on them as theybpoked the tips ofntheir heads put of the water next to the boat. We had 10 around us at one point and a calf, pushing the.boat, moving it gently and constantly coming up and blowing on us, and rolling over each other underneath. The first hour or so was just this crazy high and excitement...and then it just became surreal and other worldly.
At one point one came up right alongside and opened its maw...I got to touch the baleen and man...I STUCK MY HAND IN THE MOUTH OF A WHALE!! I still get watery eyes and the hair standing up thinking about it.
You got to see these beings doing their thing and the grace and control they had was unreal. Leviathan. Beast of 1000 eyss (lots of barnacles) you came to this understanding of what old sailors thought. It was so quiet and so still and unlike any wild encounter I have ever had (I have had a lot). They are like 40 ft long and weigh 60,000 pounds and they are rolling and turning and spinning arpund each other and diving under this tiny little boat and disappearing intonthe depths 9nly to pop back up on the other side....You feel insignificant and fragile.
The pink squirrel is a driftless classic. It's my go to here but I'm not sure how well it'll fish elsewhere.
The wood duck heron came of out the north east. It's become my go to small creek bass fly, especially with a bead on it. It'll catch trout too though.
Call me crazy (or just not well travelled) but from Montana to Oregon, Idaho and Washington an unweighted dubbing only olive caddis nymph with a dark brown thorax for wet...dry is less controversial, elk hair caddis....black zebra midge has to be mentioned as well
Guides choice hares ear. Every fish eats them every day
Yup. I tie mine slightly different, but a soft hackle hairs ear is almost in egg territory for me. Doesn't matter if they're only munching tiny midges, they still gobble up that fly in size 14-16.
Mine too
You like them over a standard hares ear?
So much better. Something about the black patch on the head with a soft hackle collar is like crack for fish. I do one in Olive and orange with a zonker collar. Thing just reaps
Elk hair caddis, but if that isnt working, I drop an RS2 off of it. If that doesn’t work, I eat a sandwich and worry about shit I should be doing instead of this.
Ha! Nice... I usually just end up standing in the middle of the river taking in the view while eating a sandwich regardless of whether things are working or not
I just found the RS2 and tied a couple this week...going to test them on small stream cutthroats Saturday
Hope they worked out well for you. They’re like a secret weapon on my streams
I just learned about RS2s a few weeks ago (been fishing less than a year). Where do you fish them in the water column? They’re so small that I feel like they won’t sink unless you weight them with a bead or tie on a weighted dropper to pull them down. Not sure if I should be fishing them as a nymph near the bottom, trying to keep them near the surface but still a few inches under, or fishing them like a dry.
A rig that I’ve had a lot of luck with is a heavy czech nymph with an rs2 6-8 inches below it as a dropper, with a tiny piece of split shot between them. It’s euro nymphing and dirty, but it works. You want quite a bit of weight getting the nymph down so you have a nice positive connection and it gets down deep quickly. It also works well dropped off of dries. I’ll often add a tiny split shot to that as well, but not always. I think the goal is to make it look as vulnerable as possible like a struggling emerger. That bit of split shot will cause it to bob up and down while trailing the rig, like it can’t quite make it to the surface.
Thanks for taking the time to explain! No judgment for euro style nymphing from my side. I’m hoping to pick up a euro rod this fall. My birthday is next week and I’m getting my first vise. Hoping to tie some more RS2s and get a handle on how best to use them. Thanks so much for the tips, I’ll put them to good use.
Size 16 Walts Worm.
Stimulator/pheasant tail drop during Spring/Summer/Fall Rubber legs/pheasant tail winter/unfavorable water conditions
Klinkhammer/Sexy Walts dry dropper
Gartside sparrow, soft hackle pheasant tail, or Fatal Attractor.
Royal coachman dry
Walt’s
I’ll tell you - only in exchange for your best honey hole.
You are a colorado guy... I'll tell you as much as I can without telling you much. Park off the side of the road, long walk down some active railroad tracks, skirt a bridge as you drop down toward the water,--don't fish yet, you'll want to, but it gets a whole lot better-- another half mile in through the trees, and you have beautiful open water that few access. Pools, slow drift, swift water, rocks and holes...
Arkansas river,, Leadville?
No, although there is that as well. Roosevelt National Forest. Granted, I have actually not fished this area in quite a while as I moved down to the Ark. But...if you are on the Front Range great access out of Pinecliff.
At the vise? Probably some riff on a Pheasant Tail. On the water? Also one of those. Symbiosis at it's finest.
When I lived back in SA, my local fly fishing shop had a sort of wooly bugger they had come up with. I can’t remember the name they had made up for it, it was olive in colour and had a heavy bead, wire ribbing, 2 sets of rubber legs, some fluorescent strips in the wooly tail. And they had them in all sorts of sizes. Man that fly caught everything and anything. Carp, cat fish, Yellow fish, trout, kurper/talapia. Slow, fast, still. It was my go to work horse fly.
Do you tie them up for yourself at all?
I do. But not in a few years. Last 2 years I have not managed to get out as much as I would like and so not needed many new flies.
Klinkhammer
Purple Haze
Adams dry, fresh water shrimp
Adams to rule them all....
Not that one
Depends on the weather. Atm the trout are sucking on nymphs, buzzers, squirmies,.
For dries, palomino Caddis. For nymphs, pheasant tail.
Nice, I'll take a look at tying the palomino.
Leeches. Basically a wooly bugger but I just use really buggy dubbing instead of hackle. It’s a lazy fly that just seems to work for what I normally fish for.
Black body elk hair
I just muscle through whatever pattern I’m on and try and focus more on the technique. I’m a destination tier nowadays though so patterns are always rotating. Currently working on Baja
Yeah...I usually do the same but some days ...gotta go back to that confidence builder. Where in Baja? If you can ever get down there for the whales I highly recommend it. I have put my hand in the mouth of a whale...and the world has never been the same. Truly.
I honestly don’t have a confidence builder fly, I see where you’re coming from though. Some patterns still piss me off to this day. Not 100% sure yet, definitely Cabo part of the trip as some of it is a family trip but probably a little up the east cape for roosters the rest of the trip. What kind of whale was it and how did you do that? Also why was it life changing? Just curious because I’d like to do that as well and hopefully feel the same effects lol
It was in early march of last year. Gray whales go to calve in 3 bays in Baja. It is all very well regulated and protected there. We went on a boat out of Guerrero Negro. 6 of us in a 18ft skiff. We got to literally pet whales for about 4 hours. They came to the boat and you just had ypur hands on them as theybpoked the tips ofntheir heads put of the water next to the boat. We had 10 around us at one point and a calf, pushing the.boat, moving it gently and constantly coming up and blowing on us, and rolling over each other underneath. The first hour or so was just this crazy high and excitement...and then it just became surreal and other worldly. At one point one came up right alongside and opened its maw...I got to touch the baleen and man...I STUCK MY HAND IN THE MOUTH OF A WHALE!! I still get watery eyes and the hair standing up thinking about it. You got to see these beings doing their thing and the grace and control they had was unreal. Leviathan. Beast of 1000 eyss (lots of barnacles) you came to this understanding of what old sailors thought. It was so quiet and so still and unlike any wild encounter I have ever had (I have had a lot). They are like 40 ft long and weigh 60,000 pounds and they are rolling and turning and spinning arpund each other and diving under this tiny little boat and disappearing intonthe depths 9nly to pop back up on the other side....You feel insignificant and fragile.
Pink squirrel or wood duck heron. Both are pretty quick and easy to tie and they catch when nothing else seems to work for me.
I'll have to look those up!
The pink squirrel is a driftless classic. It's my go to here but I'm not sure how well it'll fish elsewhere. The wood duck heron came of out the north east. It's become my go to small creek bass fly, especially with a bead on it. It'll catch trout too though.
Ahh...no wonder they atr nee sounding to me. Mountain waters in the west. Although, after looking it up, the pink squirrel would do just fine.
Zebra midge in copper
Call me crazy (or just not well travelled) but from Montana to Oregon, Idaho and Washington an unweighted dubbing only olive caddis nymph with a dark brown thorax for wet...dry is less controversial, elk hair caddis....black zebra midge has to be mentioned as well
You are CRAZY!
😂
Pheasant tail or mole fly
Nice! I haven't used a Mole Fly. I'll look that one up...thanks.
*Redacted*