Been away for a while

I've been away for awhile and the fishing here is still great. I'm now on Pintrest posting flies and other fishing ideas. look for me @rasczack. There a lot of really great flies on there and I'm really impressed with the new materials that people are using for the flies. I just recently posted a fly that is being used in France. I am looking forward to making a few and seeing how they do here on the Provo and Weber rivers. Let me know how the fishing is doing out there. Remember if you don't have your line in the water you can't catch a fish.

Pheasant feathers

I have just received a whole bunch of pheasant feathers and I can't wait to start experimenting with even more fly patterns made of of this wonderful birds feathers. I think I have about 10 pounds worth of feathers right now from all over the bird. What a great gift from a big pheasant hunter that's a friend of mine.

What a great day to be out fishing

The weather has warmed up and it is a great day to be out fishing. Ants are going to be the go to fly right now. For some reason trout love them. I would also recommend having some unweighted foam beetles. Get out and enjoy this great weather and fishing while it lasts.

Fly of the Week

This week we are going to show a great summertime pattern that I love to use. I have caught more trout on it during the summers here than any other dry fly. I have several sizes that I like to carry. This is the Elk Hair Caddis.
Recipe:
Hook: size 10-20 dry fly
Thread: Tan
Hackle: palmered reddish to dark brown
Wing: cream or bleached elk hair

Fly of Week

It seems like spring has already sprung so I'm pulling out a great fly that works on some really stubborn and pressured trout. Its the grey gnat. It works great for anyplace that has the little grey gnats and mosquitos. It's great for being a dry fly but also can work like a nymph.

Recipe:
Hook: size 24-16 dry fly
Thread: grey
Hackle: grey palmered
Thorax: grey dubbing
Tail: grey hackle fibers
Wing: grey hackle fibers upright and divided
Good luck and tight lines.

Fly of the Week

The Muddler Minnow. A great streamer for trout as it imitates the sculpin a favorite meal of large trout. It can be fished right along the surface and even used like a jig to test the deeper waters.
Recipe:
Hook: streamer sizes 2-14
Thread: 3/0 brown or black
Tail: matched Turkey quill slips
Overwing: matched Turkey quill slips
Body: Gold tinsel
Collar: Natural deer hair

Fly of the Week

This week we going back to a nymph style of fly. This week its the San Juan Worm. It is a great fly that can be used while nymphing or on a drop rig with an attractor.

Recipe:
Hook: scud hook sizes 10-18
Thread: matched to body
Abdomen: Ultra Chenille color of your choice and if you need it weighted some ultra wire coiled around the shank.

Tying tip: make sure you use a lighter to singe the tips so they narrow down to a point and look like a real worm. Don't do it too long though.

Fly of the week

This fly has caught more fish and different types of fish then probably all other flies. This week its the Wooly Bugger. A fly for almost all conditions and waters. The biggest difficulty can be choosing the colors, the size, and the speed that you strip them. I have caught some of my biggest Brown and Rainbow Trout on these.
Recipe:
Hook: 5263BL, sizes 4-16 yes I do tie them that small.
Head:bead; size and color weight of your choice, or none.
Thread: to match abdomen or contrast. You can also add some flash if you want.
Rib: Gold wire if desired
Abdomen: Black chenille, white chenille, Brown chenille
Hackle: black or colored to match abdomen, palmered.

Tips: personally I like the black unweighted version as I can fish it like a leech or a small bait fish. I have also had good luck with a black and pink coloration on it as shown below.

Fly of the week

This is the start of our second month of the fly of the week. I hope you are enjoying them as much or more than I am. This week we have a very special fly that works great all year round. The first of our dry flies, the blue winged olive. A truly great fly that we have hatches of all year long.
Recipe:
Hook: 900bl sizes 14-22
Thread: Olive
Wing: Dark blue dun hackle tips, upright and divided
Tail: Dark blue dun hackle fibers
Abdomen: medium olive to brown olive superfine(adjust to match hatch)
Hackle: Dark blue dunn

The best way to fish these are to just lay them on the surface of the water and watch the fish come up and grab it. There is nothing like the feeling that comes from catching a fish on a fly you made.

Fly of the week

This weeks fly is one that I think is fun to tie. They are quite popular with the fish as well so that makes it even better.
This week it is the Prince nymph. A wonderful fly to use all year long and in all sorts of conditions.
Recipe:
Hook: 5262, 3761bl, or 200rbl sizes 4-16 Thread: black
Tail: brown goose or turkey biot in a V
Abdomen: Peacock hurl
Legs: brown hackle 3-6 turns then tied down
Wing: White goose or turkey biot, tied in a V over the body
Have fun and find some hungry fish.

Fly of the week

This week we going with another great fly for the winter.  we ended running behind on this because I got sick. Not just I don't want get out of bed sick but I want to die sick. I'm getting better now so I'm going to post the fly a day late.
Our fly this week is the hares ear nymph. It is a great time to use these nymphs just remember that the smaller the better right now. Size 20 or smaller is whats working on the rivers here right now.
Recipe
Hook: 5262 or 3761BL sizes 8-24
Thread: Brown Tail: hares ear fur
Rib: gold tinsel or gold wire
Abdomen: blended hares ear
Wing case: white tip turkey tail segment
Thorax: blended hares ear, picked out
Good luck and let's go out and get some fish!

Fly of the week

This is our second fly of the week. As with our last one it is great for fishing right now on our rivers here in Utah. If you have any questions or suggestions please feel free to email me or leave a comment. This week we have chosen to spotlight a fly that can be used as effectively in the summer and the winter. Its a foam beetle. I am going to give a weighted recipe for this one. During the summer I use a floater on the rivers. The weighted beetle simulates the underwater beetles that we don't always think about as being a good trout fly. Nothing could be further from the truth. Trout eat a lot of beetles and beetles are in all the waters that have trout. Recipe: Hook: Daiichi 1180 size 16 String: Black 6/0 Weight: lead wire under body Belly: peacock hurl Legs: wapsi rrm100 Body: black foam Try dead drifting it past a hungry trout and you will love it.

Fly of the week

We are going to start doing a fly of the week. I am hoping to hit some flies that I feel are good for the conditions.

The first fly we are going to feature is the copper John. It can be used as a traditional nymph or stripped like a streamer. It also has both wire and a bead head making it sink without split-shot. Here is the recipe for it: Hook:3761 or 5262, sizes 10-18 weight to suit Head: gold bead Thread: Black Tail: brown turkey biot, V style Abdomen: copper ultra wire Thorax: peacock hurl Legs: brown partridge, tied divided style. Let me know what types of flies you want to see in this. We are going to be doing one a week as well as our other posts about fishing conditions.

Our Facebook Page

Like our Facebook page and tell us your favorite place to fish and we will post the best times to fish for your spot the night before. We want to be your go to source for fishing info. Let us know what we can do to do that. All locations will be posted on Facebook only but other info about sites will be added here about what types of fish and best lures and bait for that time of year.

Provo River

There was a decent hatch of blue winged olives (BWO) on the Provo river. This was a great chance to get out and get those fish. They were rising and taking as many as they could. I hope this isn't the last one before the spring run off makes it better to be bait fishing. With all the snow and moisture we had better be ready for a lot of run off. Let s get out there and get those fish!!!

Stone Flies

This stone fly is made on a woolly bugger Mustatad hook #10 with black thread 0/6, black dubbing, black wire, Goose biots for the wings and antennae. I found it works quite well for stone fly hatches. Hope I get to use them soon on a hatch.
Tomorrow looks like it will be good weather for fishing again and I cant wait to get out there. I was going to go out this past weekend but my son got sick and I was unable to. So now It's time to get ready for tomorrow. Let's Get out and Get fishing!!!

Snow, Rain Go Away Come Again Another Day

As it's raining/snowing (depending on the moment today) I thought I would post another fly that is is fun to make and looks really cool when you make it. This is a frog pattern that works well with fish that regularly eat frogs, like a bedding bass. First you need two colors of 1/8" thickness craft foam of the color of the frogs you are imitating. some rubber leg material, red 0/6 thread or floss. You can also get some sticky eyes to place on it if you don't want to draw them. In order to get the shape right you will need River Road Creations: STP Frog Foam Body Cutter. This ensures that your frog is symmetrical, and in my case recognizable as a frog.  these foam cutters are available at Cabela's or Amazon. I've provided the links for here for both sites on the blog.
I hope the weather breaks soon. Lets get out there and get some fish!!!
Rasczack

Great Streamer for large trout

This Fly is tied on a 0/1 Mustad salt water hook and uses flash marabou through the fur. I used Deer tail hair for the main body. Natural color above and Lighter dyed color below to simulate the natural coloration of a small prey fish.
I love going after the big brown trout using streamers. By nature they more aggressive towards other fish and tend to eat more fish as they get bigger. This makes it so that they will hit a lot of lures that some people think are too big for the water. I have used six inch jointed Rapalas that look like juvenile rainbows and browns and I get huge hits. They also love to hit woolly buggers if you bring them in with an intermittent return.
Now lets get out there and get some fish!!!