Bouncing Nymph Rig

Some individuals have asked if I ever fish Nymphs and like many of us I perferr drys, but when fishing nymphs I generally use the Bouncing Nymph Rig or trail a Shop Vac Nymph as a dropper.  I posted this bouncing rig drawing for those of you who maybe interested in this setup.

1.  Start with about 4 – 6 feet heavy leader or the butt end section of a tapered leader.

2.  Attach about 3 – 4 feet of 2X – 3X tippet depending upon depth of water.  

3.  Create 2 tags that are 2 to 5 inch long and spaced 6 to 12 inches apart (Note in some areas you may be able to use more tags legally)

4.  Tags should be made from smaller tippet if possible with the top fly being the large fly.

5.  Use as few weights as possible as long as they are not too large (Non-lead is always better).

6.  Use one good size BB or several small BB weights vs. a large weight. The idea is to have the weights slide over the bottom and hang up less. You are less likely to lose everything if the rig does hang up.  Hopefully you will only loose only one or two BB weights.

7.  Set the indicator so the distance between bubble and weight is at least 1½ times the depth of the stream.  The indicator should bounce along the bottom. Any quick movement sideways or down is probably a strike.  If the rig is not bouncing, you are not reaching the bottom and are not fishing deep enough. Move the indicator to fish deeper and/or add more weight.

**  Recommended easy to adjust indicator – ¾ to 1” Airflo Airlock Indicator or Thingamabobber Strike Indicator

BWO - Emerger - Tying Mayflys

Recently I found a great article in Flyfishing & Tying Journal (Summer 2015) by Boots Allen titled Better Buoyancy for Your Mayfly Emergers.  While the article content is outstanding and I'm a believer in the use of foam, the application of Heat Shrink tubing can create a Ever Float Emerger that will out perform any emerger you have ever tied or used.  

The materials used are as follows;

Hook - Size 16 Sproat Bend
Thread - 6/0 Olive
Body - Heat Shrink (HS) 1/8 Inch Clear - Colored with Olive Alcohol Ink
Ribbing - Gold Thread
Hackle - Grizzly
Wing - Polypropylene Hair
Tail/Suck - Tail Mono Green or Suck Gray Polypropylene Hair

HS  Before Coloring - Hook - HS After Coloring - HS Ready For Hook

The fly above has a tail and no suck.  To add a suck replace the 3 green mono with a thin grouping of light gray polypropylene hair.  This HS Emerger will float better than one tied using foam because of the air trapped inside and the fact polypropylene is used as the wing.  HS can be used to tie any Mayfly - if you want to tie smaller than size 16 you will have to use smaller diameter HS.

Hybrid Imitator

This fly is a cross between a Royal Wulff, Royal Trude, Parachute Adams or Humpy, Spinner, and my own Wonder Bug.  I tied it for the dog days of summer and it works well to bring larger fish to the surface.  Out performs a Royal Wulff I believe because of the great silhouette it presents in the water – to see what I mean look at it from the underside with a light above as shown in the last picture above.

Hook:    Any brand 4X long size 6 to 16 with a fine wire, having as wide a gape as possible or a Mustad 3261

Thread: Black6/0 (70 denier) or larger
  Tail:       Golden pheasant tippets

Body:    (Traditional Materials) Peacock Herl/Red Floss/ Peacock Herl – (Non-Traditional Materials) Black foam or Floss/Red Heat Shrink/Black Foam Floss(as presented)

Legs:    Medium to fine speckled white rubber centipede leg material

Wing:    White material made with heat-n-bond and netting

Post:     White Polypropylene Yarn

  Hackle: Tied parachute style Grizzly and Brown mixed.

Articulating Dry Flies and Nymphs

Articulating flies have been part of streamers for some time and a gentleman named Dave Hise started appling this principle to nymphs and dry flies.. A couple of months ago before I knew Mr. Hise was out there I started tying such flies in sizes 6 to 18 using both my unsinkable method as will as more conventional materials . The first fly I tied and fished was a red ant which I call my Fire Articulating Ant.  

To test any new fly I generally take it to a spot on my local river that gets pounded by drift boats as well as walk in anglers.  I don't always have success at such a place, but if I can catch fish here, I figure I can catch them anywhere.  To my amazement the articulating ant was an outstanding success.  This is what made me apply this articulating style to other flies both dry and wet as shown below.   These flies have a catch rate that would make most any angler happy.

To tie such a fly use two hooks and tie the back half of the fly first.  Then using a small section of something like Spiderwire (Braided Cord) in at least 15 pound test attach the back half of the fly to the forward hook that will become the front of the fly (See Below). 

After wrapping the front hook shaft with your thread (shown in yellow) fold the Spiderwire back and wrap again to insure the attaching line will not separate under hookup conditions. Once the hooks are connected you can finish tying the front half of the fly. The pictures below show the actual attachment method.  The last picture in the series the excess braided cord being clipped off prior to tying the front half of the fly.   

The two most successful flies I have tied to date are a salmon fly nymph and my own creation the Wonder Bug shown below.

Making Fly Wing Material - Fly Tying

Making wing material that floats is a fairly simple process. To start you need the following items:
1. A pressing table
2. Iron (Hobby or regular pressing iron)
3. Scissors
4. Heat-n-Bond
5. Netting or Polypropylene (PP) Hair
6. Polyethylene foam sheeting
7. Alcohol ink for additional coloring
8. Teflon Pressing Pad

The next step in the process is to determine the color of the wing material to be produced. The wing material can be colored with alcohol ink or just the use colored netting or hair. If ink is to be used it is best to apply it to polyethylene foam sheeting or in some cases directly to the Heat-n-bond material. If ink is used color the entire sheet of material to be used.

After coloring whatever material you are using cut a sheet of Heat-n-bond twice the size of the wing material to be made and lay it out with the colored sheet on top. Then add the netting or PP hair. In this sample the colored sheet is red and black netting is laying on the bottom half with PP black hair on the top half laid out in a random pattern. The Heat-n-Bond is now ready for folding after application of a second colored polyethylene sheet.

With the second sheet applied fold the Heat-n-Bond over to form a sandwich. The two sheets of foam, netting, and hair are all inside the folded Heat-n-Bond. The iron has been set on the hottest setting and the sandwich placed on a Teflon pressing pad to avoid sticking of the over lapping edges of the Heat-n-Bond.

Using the iron press the Heat-n-Bond from the fold to the outer edge until one side is completely flattened. Then turn the sandwich over and press the other side making sure that all edges on both sides are covered. Set the pressed sandwich aside and let it cool completely.

After the sandwich has cooled completely peal back one side of the Heat-n-Bond. Then peal the other side from the fold to remove the backing from the now completed wing material.

The finished material will look like these other examples we have made. If you do not use the polyethylene sheeting, as we did above, you should add another sandwich layer of Heat-n-bond to provide sufficient strength and prevent the wing material from tearing. It should be noted that you can also add glitter, flash, tinsel, or other attractor materials to make the finished wings more luminous.

7 Killer Unsinkable Dry Flies

Red Eye PMD - Skwala - Stonefly







Mige Size 18 - Linneweh - Golden Stone

Black Caddis


These patterns are very effective

Rubber Tubing

Natural Latex Rubber Tubing is another material that can be used to tie "Unsinkable Dry Flies." The material comes in sizes with an inside diameter of 1/16" to 1" with the most useful sizes being 1/16", 1/32", 1/8", and 3/32." The best wall thickness is 1/16" to 1/32." The tubing has specific gravity of less than one and will float even without an air bubble trapped inside. Colored tubing is available but is expensive compared to the natural color shown here. The tubing can be colored with permanent marking pens or inside with the use of alcohol based ink. It also works extremely well to tie nymphs. An example is shown to the left -- simply wrap the hook shank with lead and slide the tubing over the wrapped shank -- Then add skin, legs, antenna, etc.