Ok, so I have fished a lot of flies in 25 years of fly fishing and since nymphing was one of the first ways I learned to successfuly catch trout on a fly I suppose I have a greater connection there. I keep a pretty extensive nymph box (actually two of them) with probably 40 fly designs in different variations. However, I seem to use one of about 5 flies every time I fish as one of the two flies on my rig. One is almost always a tried and true bug, usually on the larger side and and then my second bug is my explorer fly and could be just about anything, but usually something small.

My tried and true bugs are the classics like pheasant tails, some kind of caddis larva, or my beloved red fox squirrel nymph or RFSN.  For some reason I have never really fished a hare’s ear which might rank among other’s top nymph.  The RFSN was one of the first flies I used to consistently catch fish and since then I have used it just about everywhere I have fished and I have enjoyed much success with it.

The pattern was invented by fly fishing/tying legend Dave Whitlock.  It is a simple pattern and can be tied in various profiles to be generally suggestive of a nymph or larva.  The best I can guess is that it mimics a caddis larva or a mayfly, but who am I two try and assume why a pea-brained, cold -blooded creature eats something.  I’m not so sure how close my version is to the original, but it is pretty simple to tie so I would think I am pretty close.  I tend to tie them in sizes from 12-18.  I think the original uses squirrel for the … Continue Reading

I had a great outing today on the Lower Provo River in Provo Canyon, UT.  It started off rather sketchy as the day was really snowy and I wasn’t sure if my 20 year old Honda Accord was up to the task, but I figured if I just took it easy I could get there without any issue.  My usual 40 minute drive was more like 80 minutes, but once I got there I found I had the whole stretch to myself.  I went to Vivian Park and fished up from the bridge.  Given then weather I determined I would be nymphing.  It was about 18-20 degrees Fahrenheit and a constant snow was falling.  I had in mind to fish a fly I haven’t used in a while; a big, juicy cranefly larva pattern about size 6.  I trailed it with a size 14 red fox squirrel nymph.  For weight I used a BB size split shot and an 8 ft leader with 5x tippet.  On my fifth cast of the day, I took a nice brown trout about 15 in long.  It took to the air straight away after being hooked.  Once I landed it, I could see that he had eaten the cranefly larva.  Over the next 10 minutes minutes I landed two more fish both were mountain whitefish of decent size and both foul hooked.  I think they were taking the cranefly and I was hooking them with the RFSN.  The cranefly was big enough they couldn’t fit it in their tiny mouths.  I hooked 3 or 4 more browns ranging from 11-14 inches and all on the cranefly.  The fish of day had to be the 18 inch rainbow that was a healthy slab of … Continue Reading