Alaska Trout Flies Session 4: How To Tie The Fish Skull Sculpin

As my preparation for a another season in Alaska comes to an end, I have one more trout fly to share, the fish skull sculpin. Most sculpin species are found in saltwater, but the freshwater sculpins can be found in river systems searching the bottoms for whatever they can find to eat. For the most part, a sculpin is consider a bait for larger game fish such as trout and stripped bass.

My favorite sculpin patterns are large and heavy. Their bulk and weight will not fair kindly to beginner fly casters. It is good to have a some sculpin patterns in your box when you come to Alaska looking for trout because they can be effective. I use an olive color and a tan color. In dirty water I will use the tan ones and in the clearer water, I use the olive ones. So let us get tying.

Materials list: 1. Danville's thread 120 in olive or tan
                     2. Gamakatsu BS10 stinger hook, size 2
                     3. Fish skull articulated shank 35mm
                     4. Barred zonker cut rabbit strip olive or tan
                     5. Cross cut rabbit in olive or tan
                     6. Grizzly mini marabou olive or tan
                     7. Barred crazy legs in olive
                     8. Enrico Puglisi streamer brush with micro legs in olive or tan.
                     9. Fish skull sculpin helmut in olive or brown size large
                    10. Super glue or head cement

1. Start thread and wrap a piece of barred olive rabbit strip facing down, leave about a 1/4 inch from the eye of the hook. Stop at the the hook bend and tie in a piece of Krystal Flash so that it lays down on both sides.

2. Tie in a piece of cross cut olive rabbit strip and bring the thread to the front leaving about a 1/4 of an inch from the eye of the hook. Then add super glue and wrap the the cross cut to the front still leaving room from the eye of the hook, secure in place with a dozen wraps or so.

3. Turn the fly over, or if you have a rotating vise, rotate, tie in two grizzly mini marabou feathers on the top, secure. Then tie in two barred crazy legs and pull them towards the back and secure with lots of wraps. Trim the legs to about the length of the mini marabou feathers.

4. Insert the articulated shank into the eye of the hook and wrap the thread to close the gap in the shank and make 20 or more wraps to cover the exposed gap. Tie in a piece of cross cut rabbit and then bring the thread to the front leaving about a 1/4 to 1/2 inch.

5. Just like on the tail section of the fly, tie two grizzly mini marabou fathers on the top and then tie in two barred crazy legs, pull them towards the back  and secure with a dozen thread wraps. Trim the legs to about the length of articulated shank.

6. Tie in a piece of  Enrico Puglisi streamer brush with micro legs and wrap the streamer brush several times pulling the fibers out and towards the hook so that in builds a good head of the fly, secure with half a dozen thread wraps, and whip finish.

     

7. Add super glue and the fish skull sculpin helmut.

                                                                                                                                                                              

Oobi Checking Out Fairhope Peir

Who or what is Oobi? Well, Oobi contains a message to another human on the hollow inside of his paper mache exterior. He was given to me by a friend who found him on a bench in Everglades National Park.








Oobi will join me in Alaska this summer where I will share some adventures with him and then send him on his way to New Mexico. Before we head out to Alaska though I wanted to show him some of Fairhope Alabama's best.

I took him on a bike ride to Fairhope Pier where Oobi swam in the fountain to cool off from the bike ride, and then we looked out over Mobile Bay. The sun was bright and the breeze was soft to keep us refreshed.



For more info about Oobi visit www.newoobi.webs.com

Alaska Trout Flies Session 3: How To Tie An Articulated Flesh Fly

When salmon spawn out, reaching the end of their life cycle, they still have not completed their full purpose. Salmon spawn and die right? These dead salmon provide nutrients for an entire ecosystem, including trout. Trout in Alaska have a limited feeding period of about six months. They are very opportunistic when it comes to food, and one of the opportunities a trout has to feed on is flesh from dead salmon. As a salmon carcass breaks up in the water, pieces of the rotting flesh float down stream becoming food for other animals, including trout. It sounds gruesome, but it really is not. If you can get a flesh fly in front of a trout, I bet you it will eat it.

Today I will show you how to tie one of my favorite flesh fly patterns. It is the articulated flesh fly. There are many variations to this fly. I try to have a few different kinds of flesh patterns. Which one I use will depend on what salmon species are in the area. Bristol Bay boasts the largest sockeye salmon run on earth, so naturally there are lots of them around. So I will tie the pattern I use when rotting sockeye are around. When Sockeyes enter freshwater both males and females begin to go through a chemical change that takes weeks to play out, but the first sign of change is they begin to turn red. This is the color they will be until the end. So my flesh fly will have a reddish/white piece of bunny strip, some orange marabou, and tan cross cut bunny strip. Let's get started...

Materials List: 1. Gamakatsu BS10 stinger hooks size 2 or 4
                      2. Danvielle's 210 pink thread
                      3. Fish skulls articulated shank 35mm
                      4. Two tone rabbit strip, fleshy pink
                      5. Orange or pink marabou 2 or 3 feathers
                      6. Cream cross-cut rabbit strip
                      7. Flashabou tinsel flash, ice pearl blue or pearl
                      8. DNA's holo flash, shrimp color
                      9. Lead wire .035
                     10. Super glue

                 

1. Run the thread down the hook shank and stop when you are even with the point of the hook. Tie in a tail section of two tone rabbit strip about 2 inches long, and secure in place. Wrap the thread to the eye, add super glue to the shank, wrap the rabbit to the eye and tie in and secure.

2. Tie in a few pieces of flashabou, making sure that it runs down both sides of the fly about the same length as the fly. Secure in place, whip finish, and add head cement or super glue.

3.. Insert the fish skull articulated shank into the eye of the hook. Put the fish skull shank into the vice and wrap the thread to the back and close the gap on the shank making lots of wraps.









4. Tie in a finger full section of DNA's holo flash, halfway down the tail section. Try to tie half on top, then pull the other half to the bottom and wrap, securing it and holding it towards the back of fly.




















4.Tie in the marabou, turn the fly over and tie in another piece of marabou and secure.

4. Flip the fly back over, wrap lead wire almost to the eye of the shank, tie in the cross cut cream colored rabbit, wrap the thread to the front, securing the lead wire, add super glue, and wrap the rabbit to the front and secure with a dozen wraps or so.

5. Tie in a finger full group of DNA's holo flash, try and spread it out on all sides, secure with many wraps to form a nice head, whip finish, and add cement or super glue. All done.

Alaska Trout Flies Session 2: How To Tie A Smolt Pattern

The next fly I'm going to tie as I get myself ready for the upcoming season is a smolt pattern. The smolt pattern is an early season trout fly. In late spring the juvenile salmon (smolt) leave their nesting areas in large schools to follow the same path their parents did to the saltwater where they will grow to adults and then make the return trip to spawn and die. A life cycle that is usually 3 to 5 years. To make it to the sea, the schools of smolt have to survive the assault from winter hungry trout. If you are lucky to catch this early season smolt migration it is good to have some smolt patterns in your fly box. I am going to share my favorite smolt pattern with you but really this pattern is a universal bait fish pattern. It is quick and simple.

Materials list: 1. Gamakatsu BS10 stinger hooks size 4 or 2
                     2. Danville's 210 thread in white
                     3. Fish Skull head medium size
                     4. Enrico Puglisi EP-Fibers white
                     5. Enrico Puglisi EP-Fibers 3-D ocean blue
                     6. DNA's Holo Fusion silver grey
                     7. Krystal Flash
                     8. DNA's Holo Fusion red
                     9. Super glue

1. Run the thread about mid way down the hook shank and tie in a section of the white Enrico Puglisi EP-Fiber about a quarter of an inch think and two and a half inches long. Make half a dozen raps of thread to secure it in place.

2. Next tie in a nice finger full group of DNA's Holo Fusion silver grey to match the length of the EP-Fibers. Secure it with half a dozen thread raps.

3. Take a piece of Krystal Flash twice the length of the existing fly and tie it in at the halfway point of the Krystal Flash. Make three raps and then fold the remaining half of the Krystal Flash down towards the tail section and make half a dozen raps or so to secure into place.

4. Tie in a section of the ocean blue EP-Fibers less than a quarter inch thick or not as thick as the white section of EP-Fibers; make it just a little longer than all the fibers you have tied in. Make a dozen raps or so, flip the fly over and tie in a half a dozen DNA's Holo Fusion in red, secure with lots of raps and whip finish. This gives the fly a gill plate flash and the impression of a bleeding or injured smolt making it an easy target.

5. Glue the Fish Skull head into place (I like to glue the eyes on prior to gluing the head into place but you can do it either way). I fill the gaps behind the head with a clear cure goo but you don't have to. The final step is to make a thread damn at the front of head so that it doesn't slide off. Make enough thread raps so that it forms a large enough thread damn to secure the head into place then whip finish and cut the thread. All done.

Alaska Trout Flies Session 1: How To Tie The Purple Egg Sucking Leech

As you know, it is May, and May means one thing for me. Time to prepare for another Alaska Summer. I have ordered all of my new gear and gathered all of my existing gear. As part of my prep, I tie flies. The month of May I want to showcase some of my favorite Alaska trout flies. So I will start with the first fly I go to 60% of the time when trout fishing in Alaska, the purple egg sucking leech. I like a variation of the purple leach. I like to use purple marabou and black flashabou as the tail section, cross cut rabbit in purple for the body, and finally I use black saddle hackle for the head of the fly. The saddle hackle will give the tail section more movement because it acts as a wall creating a hydrodynamic pocket, kind of like an aerodynamic draft when you get behind an eighteen wheeler on the interstate. Anyway, back to the subject at hand.

List of materials: 1. Daiichi 2441 2/0 or 2151 sz 1 hook.
                         2. Danville's 210 thread in black or purple.
                         3. Lead wire .035 about a three inch section
                         4. Purple marabou (3 feathers)
                         5. Black flashabou
                         6. Cross cut bunny in purple
                         7. Black saddle hackle (1 feather)
                         8. Super glue
                         9. Size 8mm trout bead in pink, orange, or any variation of the two

1. Run the thread on the hook shank towards the bend of the hook and stop when you get to the point of the hook. Tie in 3 marabou feathers so that they are about the length of the hook shank (maybe just a bit longer). Trim the excess. I use three feathers because I want my tail fluffy so that it expands nicely in the water when the fly is idle.

2. Next tie in a good size portion of black flashabou to the same length of the marabou. The flashabou gives the fly a little shine. Make some thread raps so that it looks clean, then rap lead wire up the hook shank leaving room to tie off the rabbit and add the hackle.

3. Tie in the cross cut bunny strip just in front of the flashabou and marabou and bring the tread near the eye making sure you rap the lead wire with the thread to secure it in place. Then cover the exposed shank with super glue and begin to rap the bunny strip slightly overlapping each rap. Tie it off and secure it near the eye of the hook leaving just enough room to tie in the saddle hackle.

4. Finally, tie in the tip of the hackle feather and rap towards the eye making at least three raps then tie it off, whip finish, and cement the head. Instead of tying an egg in to complete the egg sucking leech, I use a bead in front of the fly(pictured below). Slide the bead onto the leader prior to tying the fly on and the egg will ride in front of the leech. Boom. Purple Egg Sucking Leech.

Baaack Off!

I was thumbing through some of my Colorado pictures the other day and I stumbled across a few that mad me laugh. It was late September, and the end of the 2010 season at the 4UR Ranch was winding down. I decided to head into town for reasons that have slipped my mind. It must not have been important. I wasn't even a mile from the entrance to the ranch and traffic suddenly had stopped both ways. It was soon clear why. A herd of sheep were being herded down from the national forest to their winter grounds in the valley. The shepherds use the roads because it is the fastest way to herd them. You have no choice but to stop because the sheep are blocking the road. It made for a good time to snap some pictures. It was something you don't see everyday, that's for sure.