Fly Tying Iron Lotus

The Iron Lotus is a small mayfly imitation designed by Lance Egan. The body is a thread body, coated in lacquer, and the bead head is a tungsten bead. Both these characteristics, and a little lead, cause this fly to sink faster than a rock. This fly can be tied in either brown, olive, or brown-olive. The brown is great for standard mayflies, the olive for BWO's, and the brown-olive for anything in-between. Typically, the thorax is constructed with Arizona Synthetic Peacock Dubbing for olive bodies and natural squirrel/hare for the brown. But, no matter what color the abdomen, I use Hook and Hackle Lighting Dub in Olive. This material is found exclusively at Hookhack.com; it's got great flash, great bugginess, and great UV properties. Now, you may be thinking, "Why in the world is he using olive dubbing for the thorax on brown nymph too?!" Well, think back to the pheasant tail nymph, brown pheasant tail (generally speaking), and green peacock herl thorax. And the fly fishes very well! So, to simply the list of materials, I just use the Hook and Hackle Lighting Dub in Olive. That being said, because of the way the lighting was, the photograph makes it actually look tan. It's still actually olive. You'll also notice in the step by step, my thorax is huge. That's fine because as it fishes some fibers will, for certain, pull out. Here's the Recipe:

Hook: 1x Long Nymph Hook (Realistically 14-18)

Bead: Gold or Black Nickel Tungsten to match hook size

Tail: Coq de Leon hackle fibers

Abdomen: Brown, Olive, or Brown Olive Thread

Rib: Grey Thread

Wing Case: Jan Siman's Shrimp Foil-Brown Olive

Thorax: Hook and Hackle Lighting Dub in Olive

Click Below for the Step-By-Step

Fly Tying Basic Caddis Larvae

Troutnut.com ©

This is a very simple, quick, and effective fly pattern. It requires minimal materials, and can be tied in a variety of sizes. It imitates a free swimming caddis larvae, not a cased. This is as simple as it gets. You can make it way more complex by adding actual legs, scud backs, flashbacks, bedheads, hot spots, etc; this is the way I do it. The abdomen is created using olive dubbing, and ribbed with a shade of green colored wire. That adds segmentation and durability. The thorax is then constructed with a primarily guard-hair dubbing, that when teased out will form the legs.

Little Lehigh 3/24

Today I got out fishing again. There was a Newbie Jam through PA Fly Fish down near the Little Lehigh, so after the morning Jam session, I went fishing. It was kind of rainy, gloomy day, but there were still people fishing. I walked up and down the Special Regs section, looking for a place I wanted to nymph. Hopped in a couple riffles and such, but no such luck. Later, I came upon a small pool, created by a mass of rocks extending out from the bank. There were probably 6 or so trout holding. I could make out 4 rainbows, 1 brown, and another trout. I crouched there for nearly 45 minutes changing flies attempting to get one of the fish to take it. I finally switched to a dry-dropper set up consisting of a small Stimulator and my size 16 GAC (Gaeron's Action Caddis). The GAC ended up doing the trick. I landed a nice 12-13 inch brown. After that I walked upstream to a fair sized pool. I casted to the far side by some brush, and there was a colossal rise and take of my fly, breaking the surface of the water in an almost obnoxious manner. I set the hook crazily after it scared the crap out of me, the fish put a nice bend in the rod for the few moments it was on. After that, my day ended.

Little Lehigh 3/17 Fishing Report

Today I went fishing on the Little Lehigh. I got out with my dad and my friend, Ed Maurer, from PA Fly Fish. We left early and got to the stream about 8:20 or so. Started out nymphing, and pretty much did so the entire time. I landed one rainbow (13 inches) and one brown, had two others on, and missed a couple strikes. The fish that were hooked, and the ones that were landed were all done so on a size 16 GAC Nymph (Gaeron's Action Caddis). The rainbow was the first fish to be caught on the rod I built, the first fish of the year, and the first fish to be in the net. I even tried fooling around and taking some underwater photos.

Rainbow

Brown (Wild)

Rainbow underwater

Rainbow Swimming Away

Fly Tying Prince Nymph

The Prince Nymph is a great nymph pattern, but whether it is an attractor or an imitator is debated. Many say it is fairly reminiscent of a stonefly. A little history of the pattern; it was originally created by Doug Prince in 1941, in Moneterey CA.This pattern typically features a brown hackle at the head, but the way I tie it, I use partridge. It gives it much more movement in the water. The original version of this fly was also said to have the wings (white biots) in the upward position, something very uncommon today. The peacock herl body is extremely fragile, so twisting the herl into a rope before wrapping, and counter ribbing the wire drastically increases the durability. Many variations can be made to this fly. People add larger ribbings, many different color bead heads, tungsten bead heads, flash backs, and even ice dubbing bodies. The possibilities are endless, but this is how I tie it.

Recipe (Materials are listed in order in which they are tied in):

Hook-Standard, 1x, or 2x long nymph hook

Weight-Lead Wire

Thread-Rusty Brown 6/0 or 8/0

Tail-Pair of Brown Goose Biots

Rib-Gold Wire

Abdomen-3-4 Strands of Peacock Herl

Legs-Partridge

Wings-White Goose Biots

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Video-Fly Tying Copper John

Here's a video I made on how to tie the Copper John. I mention it in the video, but I'm just restating that you should have epoxy on the wing-case, although I never do it. Be sure to watch this video in HD, along with subscribe to my channel!

Fly Tying Olive Caddis Larva

This is a really easy pattern to tie, that can be tied in a variety of sizes, weights, and color schemes. Today I am showing the Olive version. Tie them up to a size 8, or down to even an 18. The bigger flies can be used as possibly anchors for your nymph rigs, and the smaller flies as droppers. You can tie these without weight, or heavily weighted using lead tape/wire/beads. This pattern is used to imitate any number of free swimming caddis larva, depending on the color scheme. You can alter the abdomen; Tan and Olive produce well. But I always keep the thorax dark. Here's the recipe:

Hook-Scud 8-18
Weight-Lead Wire/Lead Tape/Bead
Thread-Olive
Shellback-Olive Scud Back 1/8"
Rib-Monofilament
Abdomen-Light Olive Dubbing
Thorax-Spiky Squirrel SLF Dubbing, Dark Brown

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Fly Tying Goldilocks Stone

As we all know, winter is here. And, according to the groundhog, it's here for another 6 weeks. To me, it sure doesn’t feel like winter. There’s no snow at all. But since its winter, it’s time to go to the winter flies. When someone says winter flies, I typically think big stoneflies, or little midges. Here I’m going to show you a pattern I developed. The Goldilocks Stonefly is a golden stonefly representation. Keep in mind, this isn’t just a winter fly, it can be used year round. It incorporates some great realistic and attractive aspects. For example, the use of rubber legs and Australian Possum give the fly superior movement. Typically you want stones to be super heavy. I use a tungsten bead on this fly, along with a great deal of lead (or lead free) wire. This is due to the fact that the abdomen, legs, and thorax is all natural material. As some of you may or may not know some natural furs, like hare’s ear and possum, will decrease the sink rate of a fly. That’s why we balance the fly out with the extreme weighting. Like I said before, the rubber legs (used for tails and antennae) will give the fly great movement, and the fly will breathe great with all the natural materials. The back will give the fly a little contrast and flash, and the thick rib gives a distinct ribbing. The hook I love to use is a Skalka Streamer hook. This hook is super strong, and has a ridiculous point. So first, let’s look at the exact recipe:

Goldilocks Stone
Hook-Skalka Streamer Hook size 6
Bead-Matching Gold Tungsten Bead
Additional Weight-A large portion of lead wraps. Used here is .025. Be as liberal or as stingy as you wish
Thread-Golden Stonefly colored Danville’s Flat Waxed Nylon
Tails and Antennae-Gold or yellow rubber legs. Round or square doesn’t matter. Barring optional.
Rib-Brown, Copper, or Amber colored MEDIUM UTC wire
Abdomen-Australian Possum/Icelandic Sheep Golden Stone Blend
Abdomen Cover-1 strand of wide Mylar tinsel
Thorax- Australian Possum/Icelandic Sheep Golden Stone Blend
Thorax Cover-2 strands of wide Mylar tinsel
Additional Materials-Brown and Black Sharpie

Click Below For the Step-By-Step