Last year I was fishing (without luck) at the glenmore reservoir Calgary, it’s a beautiful place surrounded by trees and with a nice clear water. I have been told that trouts down there are huge. That day were  about ten people fishing and trust me, no one have at least a bite and two o three people that I asked about how the fishing was, told me: nothing! Is my first time here.

 While I was fishing at the shore I saw a small animal in the water. I called it animal, but really was a scud, what happen is that i had no clue at all about them. I took a stone from the bottom of the the water. About 20 of these “animals” started swimming like crazy. I took one and I tried to hook it but it was too small that i can barely take it with my fingers.

Now, I have tied the scuds…wow I really think it will work without problem. The book says that you can find it at weedy streams or stillwaters, tie it in olive-brown, tan, orange and even pink. I think pink works really good imitating shrimp and trout loves shrimp.

For the overbody, you can either use scud back or a plastic strip. You can get scud back at the fly shops, they came in different color and size, the one I have is maybe too wide. Plastic strips, you can use a empty plastic back, a ziploc is perfect, the good thing about, you can cut it any size you want and is cheaper!

I’m moving along the nymphs, this is the last one so far, now come the wet flies.

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I have been told that all the midges are really small; you should tie it at sizes 16-22 1XL but the fly at the book definitely is not in this range, looks big comparing with the one I have done in size 18. Some of the patterns in the book definitely are not tied in the recipe’s hook. Also, the recipe at the book asks to use 8/0 thread on the ribs but I think is really thick to the size of the hook and is not really good the result. The thread is color gray, I think my gray is too dark so it doesn’t help.

I have been reading about midge pupa patterns and you can find hundreds of it. This specifically pattern seems to be one the most known, plus is really easy to tie. One more time, the instructions in the book are really precise, although the recipes have some lacks. I have found that the majority of the inaccuracies are on hooks size and thread. So, you need to guess a little bit with the book in some things.

February, the trout season is coming and Calgary is getting warm before everybody think. Hopefully we will have the Bow River open wide soon to start fish all my flies. I’m really excited about the season, finally my passion will be complete.

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“This fly is designed to float vertically, with the conspicuous wing tuft above the surface and the body hanging under water.”

A fly, that floats vertically? Wow…I have no idea about this kind of flies. CDC is back and at this particular fly is the key material to make it float. Actually I didn’t know that if you use it you don’t need to use floatant. I thought it was difficult to tie because the CDC, but actually is easy due you will be using just the barbs directly to the hook and not with a special technique. I like it in this way.

Turkey biots are used; the instructions at the book show a really easy way to do it even though is not easy to keep it in the right way at the hook. My good friend Randy, showed me how to make it softer, is really simple and basic….take a towel paper, put some water and put the feather on it. That’s it. The only thing the book doesn’t talk about is the use of the hackle pliers to do the job. Those kinds of feather are not too long and you want to help yourself with the hackle pliers, especially to tie off the feather.

My first fly is a size 12, the recipe asks for 14-20, but I tried a little bit bigger first just to make sure everything is OK and actually, it is. Later on, I try a size 16 and works beautiful. This is one of those patterns really easy to tie in any size, even if it doesn’t look easy.

Couple weeks ago, when I was at the Bow River, it was a Midge’s hatch in the water, really tinny ones, I didn’t know what to use in this case, I tried a stimulator, but mine was too big, size 12 and it looks like Godzilla beside the tinny midges.  I described the experience and the little tinny flies to my Friend Randy, who told me: heyyy those are Midges! So I’m thinking to head out to the bow river one of these warm days (thanks to the sun’s explosions yesterday) and try my Biot Body Midge Pupa. I need to do it, I felt powerless last time, because the browns and rainbows were in front of me! At 10 ft!  Eating midges but not hitting my stimulator….you have no idea how I felt, I was about to go into de water and fish it with my hands. Now that I know what to use, I will do it again. Actually I think this pattern is perfect to the Bow River and it winter hatches, because the wing case in this fly and its vertical floating is going to look the exact same way like the midges.

That’s what fishing is all about, CHALLENGES all the time, challenge to catch a fish, look and find different options to do it and do what you need to do to have fun. I really like to tie my own flies because I have the choice to do what I want in my home and not spend time going to the fly shops (all far away from my home) looking for a specific pattern and maybe they don’t have.  I will spend time and money. I just prefer learn how to tie it and enjoy doing it.

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Deer hair, is not an easy material to work with, is my first time and to be honest, I spent something like five minutes trying to keep it in the shank of the hook and don’t allow it to spin around the hook. I have been looking for different deer hair and all these seems to be short, mine is around 1 ½” long. The elk hair is 2 ½” and feels different. The thickness of the elk is really high than the deer hair. But I have been told that deer, elk, moose, etc. are use a lot in fly tying. Better to be prepared and learn really good how to work with.

All these hairs come in different colors, so far I’ll be using natural hair. The book doesn’t have any instructions about the color, but the pictures are really clear and easy to see that all the colors are natural colors.  I have been told that bleached colors are not use too much. When you go to buy hairs, please do not buy any hair curved, is just difficult to tie. Always try to pick the longest, straight, bright and natural hairs.

This fly is just great, I like it a lot, the hair as I told you is difficult, but with a little bit of attention, the result is good. This fly looks more as a dry fly, for the hair but as a nymph…let see if it works! The black body makes a nice match with the natural color of the head.

With the hair, please be careful to do not crowd the eye of the hook; however this fly has a few wraps under the front hair to make sure that the hair won’t be in the eye. Also you need to give a little bit of shape to the head, you need to use your scissors and be careful to not cut all the head. Anyway..Is a really nice fly to tie, I like it a lot, hope it works to make sure that I’ll be tying more of these.

The body material is black yarn, is not wide like polypropylene, the texture look the same and I know it will sink really easy, because it absorbs water quickly. The book says:  “This pattern can be fished in the film as a midge emerger or fished deep as a dropper off a heavier nymph as a searching pattern”. It seems as a real nice-versatile pattern. I will try it with a little bit of floatant and for sure it will work very nice.

This kind of pattern, make me feel motivated to keep going in my CHALLENGE 109, I have 99 flies to go and all year around to go fishing ant try it all. In my first post I talked about go once or maybe twice to go for ice fishing…..I have been four times now and I think I’ll be ice fishing a little bit more. Is a really nice experience although the weather in Calgary is such a crazy weather, last week we were in -35…this week +2. I can understand now why people get sick really easy here.

With cold weather, raining, sunny whatever the weather is, I love fishing, I really don’t care about bad weather if I’m enjoying my passion. But what I really enjoy the most: Share my passion with all of you.   

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Is an easy-tinny one, the size of the hook is 16, it doesn’t use too many materials, just three materials and I got it tied in less than 10 minutes.  One of these materials is Z-lon, I was thinking in use white polypropylene because looks like the same material, but actually the Z-lon is bright than the polypropylene and if we use this, the fly is going to look not too shinny , but with the Z-lon you will have a shinny wing case to this small fly.

Disadvantages of this fly? Is not weighted and is too small to weight it.  You will need to use slip shots in your line and it’s tricky to cast, I found this really difficult to do it because you have your fly in the end of the tippet right? Ok, one foot above you have the split shot and when you’re casting, the fly spin around the slip shots and your line is a mess. I rather prefer to weight my flies with lead wire or tungsten bead heads, much easier.

My fly look nice and really simple, it doesn’t have any technique that makes me have hard times, comparing with all the previous. This one is like the one to take a breath and keep going. You know what? I would have preferred that the author spent these pages in another fly. Yeah, I know! For sure, it will fish like crazy or maybe not, but the simplicity of the Palomino Midge is unique.

My second fly, I have try it with different colors, the book says “Midges come in all sort of colors –red, cream, olive, black, tan, even purple”. Of course you will need to match all the materials and not make it look like a colourful clown.

This coming week is a fly fishing week in Calgary, the 26 will be held the International Fly Fishing film festival.  Another event, Friday 27 until Sunday 29, will be held the Western Canadian Fly Fishing Event. Of course I will be on both, all of both seem interesting to get knowledge and to know people living the same passion. After this coming weekend, one month close to the trout season, get the gear ready and start fishing all my flies and enjoy the nature and amazing Alberta’s landscapes.

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 “Big flies use lots of materials and take longer to tie, so be patient with this salmonfly nymph.”
The Benchside Introduction to Fly Tying

I have known that the stone flies are huge beside all the flies, I couldn’t believe it until one of my friends was cleaning a rainbow trout that he caught and inside his/her stomach we found huge huge huge stone flies, then I thought, OK! Stone flies are really huge and rainbow trout seems that love it.

I love it to tie this particular fly. It takes me around an hour to get it done, because all the steps that required and as I told already: you don’t need to rush when you’re doing your flies, take your time and enjoy it at 100%. Actually I made this fly last Saturday, I started doing it at 11 pm, it was a cold Saturday night and I thought..OK, is a great night for a fly tyer get done some flies, my first one was this fly and this is my result:

The wings…wow seems difficult but no, is really easy to do it. To make sure that the barbs of the wings stay together you need to use the “Folded-strip Wing Case” but the book’s step for this technique are different from mine and what I do first is put some water based glue to the feather. I let it dried while I’m making the fly.

My second fly was one the same one, I started making at 12:30am and get it done at 1:30. This was a hard one, because the size, this is #12 the first is #8. The proportions are crucial in this fly and mine seems to be just in place, but I think it could be better. All the instructions in the book are still really good ones, clear and with helpful details. How they explain the technique to do the wings, is really easy to understand and I tell you, the pictures are helpful

After two flies, I tied another one; this was a copper john size #18. It was my first fly ever in size 18 and let me tell you…are difficult.  I went to bed around 2:30am and you know what? I felt really happy, for me is the perfect plan: Cold night, fly tying, good music from my iPhone and something to drink could be a beer, coffee or your drink of choice. A fly fisher will be happy with this environment. Trust me.

That’s is what life is all about for me, enjoy every second as the last in your life, do what you want to do, not matter what you need to do it, if is a long path, You just need start walking down the road. Every time in a while, make sure make a stop beside your road, think about where you’re at, look what you have learned, enjoy the moment and keep walking. Never ever stop dreaming and doing what you love to do. YOU WILL BE HAPPY. Please, live your passion, share your passion

“Life is not the amount of Breaths you take.

It’s the Moments that Take your Breath Away.”

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