Eagle Canyon Trophy Trout Lakes

Caught this thick rainbow with a slow retrieved black streamer.

We had an awesome day and caught some BIG rainbows,
and this wasn't one of them!
More to come...

Click here on Eagle Canyon Trophy Trout Lakes to book your trip.

Animas River, CO Fly Fishing Report

The Animas is low and cold. Some slush on cold mornings but mid day disappears. Fishing has been fair to good with fish eating midges and caddis nymphs deep in pools and pockets.

San Juan worms and eggs also catching some medium sized fish. Don't forget streamers- bright flashy yellow patterns producing fair to good.

Report courtesy of: http://coloradohuntandfish.blogspot.com/

Bighorn River Fly Fishing Report 11/18/09

Winter weather doesn't stop us. Out here in Montana, we just put on warm clothes, and fish all year round.

Streamer fishing is starting to be the preference for the anglers this week.

Casting toward the bank and stripping it back 20 feet or so. Out in the deeper pools can be exciting letting your streamer sink near the bottom before starting to strip. A light sink tip line is ideal for this style of fishing. There are some blue winged olives starting to appear and the fish are on them through out the day. The bottom tributaries are starting to clear up so the lower river is getting better.


Nick Forresters
Owner of Forrester's Bighorn River Resort

Lake Fork of the Gunnison River, CO Fly Fishing Report

Erik Vail

Tucson, AZ

Lake City, CO

September 2009

Caught this nice Brookie on a pond.

Lake Fork of the Gunnison River, CO Fly Fishing Report

Dan Wallentine

Irvine, CA

Lake Fork of the Gunnison River, CO

September 2009

22" Rainbow

Flies Used: Royal Stimulator, Pheasant Tail Frostbite, and Green Woolly Bugger.

Sculpin pattern

This is the same pattern as in one of my previous posts although this is in different color. I learned this one from a 13-years-old boy at local fishing club. I like the way the hair wing is done. It is soft and stiff at the same time making it better than the Marabou Muddler for fast current as this fly keeps it shape in all fishable currents.

From Fly-patterns

From Fly-patterns

From Fly-patterns

Extremes of Weather

Our climate system seems pretty messed up. After a cold and harsh late fall/early winter that I reported earlier, the weather has now changed from one extreme to another. The snow we had has now melted. Last Sunday it was +7 C or 45 F, so I went fishing. I know that good things rarely last so this was most likely my last trip this year.

I fished for few hours and managed to get one (likely) strike. When I was about to leave, one fish finally made an error by splashing the water. It got pretty excited and took my streamer with a jump. It was a nice 50 cm (just a fraction short of 20 inches) brown trout.

From Trout

Classic flies

Lately I have been tempted by the idea of classic flies. This is somewhat in contrast to my personal view of fly tying. I am very practical and simplistic when it comes to fly patterns.

Below is an example of my streamers. These are Supertinseli patterns. They are easy to tie (about 3-4 minutes per fly), use only artificial materials and they are killers when it comes to effectiveness.

From Fly-patterns

But would it feel better if I would caught a big trout with the Grey Ghost instead? Or how about a classic winged wet fly instead of POPA Caddis?

Fly Tying Tuesdays

While there are other forms of entertainment, for me Tuesday evenings are mainly for fly tying. This time I tied a few X-Caddis patterns and something for the stocked rainbow trout:

From Fly-patterns

PS. This one works also for native brown trout...

The Streamer: Supertinseli

This is the streamer I have been using a lot this season. It is known as Supertinseli and it has lot of variations. One on the bottom row is closest to the original. It is fast and easy to tie and looks more like salt water pattern than traditional freshwater trout stream streamer.


Supertinseli (Hannu Pakarinen, early 1990s)
Hook: Short shank wet fly hook. Originally sizes 6 - 4 but can vary.
Thread: Black.
Under wing: Silver Flashabou, cut or trim to shape.
Wing: Darker shade of flashabou, cut or trim to shape.
Head: Dubbed black Fly-Rite or antron. I usually don't tie head at all for Supertinseli.

One variation has short red or fl. orange dubbing near head of the fly. I use Ice Wing instead of Flashabou.

This pattern can be fished like normal streamer with the downstream swing, but the most effective way is to cast upstream and strip a little bit faster than current.

Night fishing

Well, no big trouts this time. I arrived just after sunset - about 10.30 pm. The hatch was not as good as I excepted but it was there. Some time after midnight most of the fish stopped eating. I left at 1.30 am.

In the picture above, you can see the streamer. Below is another trout still resting about two hours after I released it.

The Streamer

Last night I fished with some dry flies and surface pupa patterns as usual. But again larger trouts accepted a streamer pattern much better. So far I haven't posted anything about this streamer pattern, but it has been best trout fly this year for me.

In Finland it is very common pattern but I don't know if it is known in other countries as well. Let's call it The Streamer for now. Modest name, isn't it? ;)

Caddisfly Hatch

There was heavy caddisfly hatch last night. Mostly egg-laying females I think.

Orange bodied Klinkhämmer worked well, but this trout accepted a streamer.

Nice fishing!