Eat the worm(s)

I know a lot of fly fishing purists despise them, but I find myself a frequent user of what many people refer to as "junk flies." This includes eggs, worms, and about 10 million steelhead flies. It's basically anything that doesn't "hatch".

When nothing else is working, I can usually get a hookup on a San Juan worm. I often use eggs as an attracter pattern above a nymph. The way I see it, fly fishing is having fun. If you need to have an exact imitation of a size 24 midge larve to do that, more power to you. I just like to get on the water and catch fish.

While bargain shopping the closing sale at the Little Lehigh Fly Shop, I came across a ton of chenille for like $.70 a package. My SJ worm collection was getting low, so I stocked up. I was reading Mid Current the other day, and saw a pattern for a looped San Juan worm. I never thought about trying it before, but damn, it looks sweet and I think it will work. Here's a size 12 in pink. I also knocked out some in red, brown, and orange.


If the rain starts Saturday evening, Sunday should be a good day to test them out.

In other worm-related news, there is one pattern that from what I've read is mostly only used in PA, more specifically on the Little Lehigh. That pattern is the honeybug inchworm. I've read quite a few forum posts with people asking about them, where to find the material, and how to tie them. The material is called cotton chenille, and apparently hard to come by in fly shops. The original pattern is tied in a lime green, but I found some of it at the LL fly shop in white, so off I went to tie some. It's such an easy fly to tie. It only takes about 45 seconds from start to finish. I knocked out some white ones, and I used my Prismacolors (BTW if you tie flies, you NEED these things. They are great for coloring patterns and have extremely vibrant color)to make a few look like mutant caddis larva.







And before I go off to get to the worm at this bottle of Tequila, I want to give a shout out to Troutrageous for showing us some love on his blog.

Most of you probably got here from his link, but if not, definitely check it out. I've been a fan for half a year now.

Enjoy your Cuervo.