It's good to be back.

Good morning folks, hope all is well.

We just returned from a week in one of the most beautiful regions in our country. Reports will come soon. Right now I'll try to come down to earth. I'll start to catch up on my blog reading, as well as try to resume normal daily activities. "Happy Fathers Day"

The "Stayner Ducktail" and more.

The Stayner Ducktail is a streamer created by Ruel Stayner of Idaho. It was originally designed to be fished in lakes, which it does very well. But over the years this fly has been sized down and was introduced to rivers targeting trout. Again the fly out did itself. The Stayner Ducktail has quite a following in other places throughout the world. New Zealand comes to mind, the Ducktail has taken some memorable fish.

I have fished this fly a few times since first tying it about 10 days ago and have been successful catching trout each time. I have tied it in size 10, because I fish small streams and that seems to be the perfect size. The fly presents a perfect silhouette of a forage fish when wet. More about the Stayner Ducktail can be found at Mel Moore's blog "The Pond Stalker"

If you want to tie one here's the recipe...........Hook, any good streamer hook, size 10....Tail, orange saddle hackle fibers....Body....the original called for olive chenille but I used olive yarn which worked just fine....Rib, flat gold tinsel....Throat, orange hackle fibers....Wing, mallard flank feather.

Allen Fly Fishing has some wonderful items for the fly tyer and fly angler. I have purchased these items and I'm putting the test to them. The hooks I've not used yet, but the fly line and the furled leaders have been great.

The leaders turn over very well, the best I've seen.

This is their lowest priced fly line. The Compass series. It's a WF, Floating 3wt. It has a welded front loop, very slick and moves through the guides easily. There is almost no line memory and I use a English Battenkill conventional reel. It comes in a peach color similar to the old Cortland lines.

Umpqua "UPG"

I have been looking for a new fly box for a while. Being in the market for one that is small but still has room for the flies I wish to carry. I spotted this box while in LL Bean and I liked it.

It's the Umpqua "UPG" small box. It's made of very sturdy plastic. It features double sided see through lids with slotted foam that holds the flies securely. It has the capacity to hold 274 flies, more than enough for a day on a small stream. I like the rounded corners, no catching on clothing pockets, as well as the foam slots that allow you to place the flies from either side. The lids close easily, and securely while not creating a bump that can snag. The box measures 3.5 x 4 by 1.5. I think this will my main fly carrier for some time.

The "UPG" comes in three colors. This color is "graphite". The price of the box is 25.00 which is not to steep for such a well designed and functional box.

As you can see it handles dry flies as well as wets and streamers. It does not crush the hackles on the dry flies.

Sometime, one wild one will do.........

As the days of late Spring start to fade and the Summer temps start to rise I alter my fishing times to better take advantage of the trouts feeding habits, as well as cooler temps. Normally I like to start my day on a stream around 9, but these days the sun is up pretty good and so are the temps. Fishing for 4 hours or so brings me to early afternoon and that's not good. So I have two choices, one fish early, 5am or so for starting, this brings me to 9am. Or I sometimes choose to fish the late afternoon into the evening.

Yesterday I chose to fish a stream early. I was casting my first fly before 6. There were some pretty dark spots along the way the spots where wild browns like to feed. There were some insects scattered about some light ones and some dark ones. The streamer was not working, nor was the wet fly. I feel that if a trout does not show interest in the first few pools, I need to try something else. Looking into the fly box I selected a nice meal, for a trout that is. I tied on a Gray Wulff, size 12 and started working. A the fly drifted along a sunken log a trout rose, unfortunately he missed. It was some time, and a lot of misses before pay dirt was reached.

In a deep eddy the trout struck. Soon this handsome wild brown was at hand.

I was to fish for several hours without another fish to hand. I was content to know that the many rises to the fly and although there were no hookups this was to be a fine day.

As the morning moved along and the time to leave was near. I had noticed some sulpurs about. Sulphurs are a pretty little mayfly, and I had a parachute version that has done well for me in the past, and so it did for me today.

A sulphur and a brown. This guy had been hooked before, as evidenced by his healed jaw.

Lupine. This field is a few days from being totally in bloom.

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