Realistic Worm Pattern and a fly giveaway contest

The idea for this pattern came to me on Sunday. I was fishing for some SUPER SPOOKY stocked rainbows in the creek behind my house. There's about 4 of them left and they dart under a bridge into slack water that's impossible to catch a drift though as soon as they see you.

I crept up and waited the 15 minutes for them to get unspooked and then started drifting eggs and san juans in front of them. I hooked in to a couple on eggs, but didn't get solid hook sets. After that, I was literally bouncing flies off their lips and they weren't taking them. I then tried caddis larva, mayfly nymphs, midges, and even some buggers with no luck.

I was about to pack it in when some guy sets up immediately across from me with a spinning rod and a container of drift worms. First cast and SMACK!, a rainbow takes the worm. He lands the fish (and kudos to him for releasing it) and casts again. Second cast, same thing. He hooks and lands the biggest of the 4 fish, also released.

This made me realize that maybe coming up with a realistic worm wouldnt be such a bad idea. I was at Dave's in Doylestown earlier in the day digging through their clearance bin, and I found a pack of Orvis bright red nymph skin with glitter flakes in it for $1. I bought it thinking I could maybe use it on some steelhead patterns.

Well, something made me try it tonight. I took a 4X streamer hook and bent it, Vladi worm-style. I made a fat clitelum with some .30 lead wire and built the body with some 3/0 monocord. I tied in a strip of the nymph skin and some 5X mono tippet. I made loose wraps with the nymph skin, and then ribbed it with the mono. After whip finishing, I colored it up with a brown Prismacolor marker, and hit the fattest part with some bright orange. Then I slapped on a coat of Hard as Nails and that's it. I think I need to find maybe a lighter colored tan marker instead of the dark brown, but I think this fly is gonna work.



Now I just need a name for it, so here's the deal. Post your name suggestions in the comments and I'll mail out 3 of these patterns (and some bonus surprise flies) to the person who came up with my favorite suggestion. I'll let this run for a week before announcing the winner.

So yeah, back to Sunday. I didn't catch anything, but my god, it was a gorgeous day on the water. I walked away with some nice pictures.

Well, I won't need to tie eggs or worms for a while

Just stocking up for the season. Tons of size 18 eggs, and resupplying some of the san juan colors that were running low.

Holy cow, I tied a lot of flies tonight.

tiny worms

It's now stopped freezing rain and is just straight up pouring outside. There's going to be runoff, and the streams will get high quick. I'm planning in hitting undercut banks with some worms. I remembered a guy at Somerset tying these tiny san juans on a 22. You need micro chenille, because the regular stuff is way too thick. Luckily, I have tons of it.

These are sloppy as hell because I'm just knocking out a quick few and leaving.
And yes, that's two on the vise. Trying to cut down on the photos I have to upload.



Just to give you an idea of how small they are, here's a photo of them side by side with a typical size 16 pattern you'd find in a fly shop.


I'll let you know how they work.

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.