Archive for the ‘Classes & Clinics’ Category

Beautiful! The first words that come to my mind as I whip finish a neat head on my favorite spey pattern; The Green Butt Silver Hilton Spey. The long flowing hackles undulating in my slight breath overtop of a neatly dubbed black body with even wraps of silver oval tinsel. All of which are accented by a neat silver tag behind a glowing chartreuse floss tag.

It is now the beginning of June; the Rogue River is raging at 14,000 cubic feet per second in Agness. The high water, more likely than not, is bringing in the first large wave of our Summer Steelhead. The water is way too high to fish so I will whip out a couple more spey’s instead.

I have been experimenting with spey hackle now for the past couple years. I have tried everything from long schlappen to the costly blue eared pheasant. All the materials I have used have their time and place. The one hackle that I have settled into that makes me happy is Rhea. It is easy to use, relatively inexpensive, and comes in a multitude of colors and sizes. Its long wispy fibers undulate in the water without collapsing like marabou. The one down side to the longer fibers is that they can be fragile but for us tiers that just means more time at the vise…tough life.

I tie my traditional spey’s on the Alec Jackson Heavy Steelhead Iron in sizes 1.5 to 5. I use the longer rhea fibers on the 1.5, the shorter tip fibers on the 3 and rhea body feather for the 5. The Alec Jackson hook is a very elegant hook with a sharp point and a heavy wire. The heavy wire adds weight to my speys and helps keep them riding true in heavy currents. This is a hook that when the fish grabs, it almost always sticks and stays. Barbless sticks as well as the barbed and causes a lot less damage to the fish.

The multitude of sizes and colors of traditional speys makes them a viable steelhead pattern all year long. Fished on a sinking tip, the pattern will swim beautifully across heavy winter currents because of its sparse material makeup while maintaining a large silhouette because of the long spey hackle and wing. In the summer months, when the water temperatures have warmed, a spey fly swung dry lined is my second favorite way to catch a steelhead (the first is skating a dry fly). And here is the best thing of all; they are easy to cast!

Here is a fun pattern that works great on the Rogue:

Halloween Spey

Hook: Alec Jackson Steelhead Iron Black Size 1.5

Thread: Ultra Thread Fl. Orange 70 Denier

Tag/Rib: Gold Mylar

Body: Rear 2/3 Orange Floss; Front 1/3 Hot Orange SLF

Hackle: Fl. Orange Rhea

Collar: Orange Guinea

Wing: 4 Matched Black Hackle Tips

We have a lot of Rhea here in the shop. Each feather goes for $5.00 but you can generally get 4-6 flies out of one feather. While in the shop, ask to see some of Paul Miller’s Rhea Intruder style patterns. They are beautiful, unique, and I would be willing to guess that they cast a lot better than rabbit strips with lead eyes.

Fishing Chironomidae (Midges) can be a very effective method of fooling our little slimy trout friends because of one very good reason; they are active in lakes and streams all year round. On any given day, they can be found in three different forms; Larva, Pupa, and the most familiar Adult. Midges come in a variety of sizes depending on the environment you are looking for them in. Lake midges (2-20 mm; 0.07-0.8 in) are larger than stream midges (2-7mm: 0.07-0.3 in) and can be found in a variety of colors (blacks, browns, greens, tans, creams and reds).

Introducing the Lake Chironomidae Indicator System:

            Chironomidae Larva and Pupa are found on or near the bottom so often times fishing them in a lake means using a very long leader below an indicator, sometimes up to 18 feet. This may seem like a difficult task but in a lake we generally don’t have to cast far so we can get away with it…until we hook a fish. Imagine this, you are on Diamond Lake fishing the opening trout season here in Oregon and hook a pig! You fight the fish and finally start to get the fish towards the boat when all of a sudden you can’t reel in any further because you have hit the end of your 18 foot leader where you have a fixed indicator. Choice words are most likely “spoken” while the fish flips you the fin and swims away.

            In order to combat this problem before you experience it, Will has brought in “Quick Release Indicators” in two different sizes and colors. Here is how they work:

Step 1:

Insert leader (orange line) through black stop and orange ball.

Step 2:

Form a loop in the line that will be pinched between the ball and stop.

Step 3:

Push the black stopper into the ball pinching the loop. Note that if you push the stopper in too firmly, the system will not work. I recommend trying this a couple times to get an idea of how much pressure is needed.

Step 4:

Now that you have it all rigged, cast out, watch your indicator closely, and then set on any erratic movement of the indicator. Now that you have put pressure on the indicator, it slides easily up and down your leader allowing you to land the fish easily…

This system will work very well on lakes like Diamond Lake, Klamath Lake, Hyatt Lake, and Howard Prairie. To compliment this system we brought in a whole series of Chironomidae including the Ice Cream Cone!

Best Regards,

 Stuart Warren

The Ashland Fly Shop

(541) 488-6454

A big thanks to Bob Quigley, Rich Zellman and Jon Hazlett for coming down and making our first 2 Fly Tying nights a blast! They all had good audiences as they created their artful creations. These guys are tying some of the more innovative and edgy flies out there right now. And they catch fish! (but we all know Steelhead will eat anything )

Also a special thanks to Keith Liddy and all our youngsters (and their parents) who are making it out to refine their skills add some of their own flies to their collections! Thank you!

We are again offering 2 classes from Local Master Tyer, Bob Quigley!

Bob has been fly fishing and tying in this region for over 20 years and taking his class is a major insight into what patterns are successful on local waters and beyond. Not to be missed.

Bob Quigley in his Tying Room

Saturday, March 13th - Tying Quigley’s Signature Trout Patterns

Saturday, March 27th - Tying Quigley’s Best for Local Steelhead & Trout

Call the shop for details on this opportunity to learn from one of Fly Tying’s Greats. There are still a few spaces left at this writing.

Where: The Ashland Fly Shop

Time: 10 - 4 pm

Cost: $50

Winter Fly Tying Sessions are Back!

Please join us the 1st & 3rd Tuesdays of the month for our FREE fly tying sessions held at the shop from 5-7pm!

The tables & chairs will be up by 5 so come early to get a good seat. Remember to bring your own vise and materials if you have them, but if you don’t there is usually an extra around for you to use.

There is no true “structure” to the tying, though many choose to follow along with what Keith is demonstrating for the evening. You may also choose to work on your own flies and get hints & tips from the hosts along the way.

Again this year Keith Liddy, Stuart Warren and myself will be on hand to host and we usually have a special guest host tying as well.