When the water's high...tie a fly!

With all the recent rain we've had, most of the local streams are running pretty high.  This is the perfect time to sit down at the vise and crank out a dozen flies.

I've been working on several ties recently that I think will be excellent flies to have in the box this Spring.  The first one is a classic Barr Emerger tied in standard Blue Winged Olive colors.  You can drop this behind a parachute Blue Winged Olive dry fly and catch fish all day long when the BWOs are hatching!

This next fly is one that I came up with on my own.  It can be used as either a BWO emerger or nymph. Black ultra wire is used to give the abdomen a segmented look.

The last fly is my own version of the ever popular black stone nymph.  I used my favorite attributes from the copper john, pheasant tail, and prince nymphs to come up with this pattern.  It's a heavy nymph, thanks to a tungsten bead and eight wraps of lead wire under the thorax.  I like to fish it as the top fly in a tandem nymph rig under a big indicator.

You can read more about these flies on the message boards at www.littleriveroutfitters.com or www.wvangler.com.

I'm looking forward to the arrival of Spring.  The aquatic insects will be hatching and the fish will start feeding.  It's only a couple weeks away...you better make sure your fly boxes are stocked soon!

Appalachian Outdoors