It only says "Shop" (plus a sexy stonefly pattern)

First off, I apologize for the lack of recent updates. I've been swamped with getting caught up at work, and I'm still pretty sick. Antibiotics aren't working. I have a super-cold.

Even though I wasn't feeling well, I needed some time on the water after a stressful work week. We got 3 inches of snow yesterday, and another 2.5 inches today but I still managed to get out to the water in between bouts of snowblowing. When I got to the stream, it was just the way I like it, a ghost town.



I only saw one other fisherman on the water on the whole stretch I fished. I love when it's like that. The fish aren't pressured, and you can get some peace and quiet. I realized today that I do all of a sudden miss the Little Lehigh Fly Shop. I fish there often in the winter, especially when it's really cold. It was a nice place to go in and warm up with a cup of coffee for a few minutes. Plus, the fish were actively feeding on midges nonstop both on the bottom and on the top. Having 7x or 8x tippet would have been nice. I unfortunately forgot to throw some in my chestpack and I can't just stop in the fly shop anymore to pick some up. I walked by the shop and the reality of no longer having a convenient fly shop sunk in. It used to say "Little Lehigh Fly Shop" above the door and the majority of the letters were scraped off. We're now stuck with "Shop".



As for the fishing, the fish would'nt even look at midges on 6x so I was forced to change flies every 20 casts until I got some action. I saw a ton of suckers with trout tailing behind them, and I got lucky on a pink sucker spawn. I wound up with 4 or 5 fish, almost all of them were cookie cutter stocked bows around 12 inches, and this one brown.



I'm not complaining about small fish. At least I was catching something and avoided driving home to skunkville.

In other news, the stonefly tying has been progressing nicely. I've been working on a stone that will get me down in the water column FAST without the use of a ton of lead. I love fishing for steelhead but I hate chucking and ducking and I'm not patient enough for swinging flies. This one is full of lead on the underbody and has a big tung bead. It could sink a cruise ship. The 6 legs were a pain to get right, and they could still use some work.

Overall, I'm really happy with this fly and I think I'm going to knock out some more, but feedback or suggestions are much appreciated.

3XL Umpqua Stonefly Hook size 10
Tungsten circle bead - black
.015mm lead underbody
6/0 Uni-Thread - black
Black goose biots
UTC copper and black wire, wrapped together
Wingcase - black raffia
Steelhead Ice Dubbing - black
5 minute epoxy

Stoneflies and Fan Mail

It's definitely been stonefly party time at the vise this week. I listened to a pretty bad podcast today while stuck in traffic on the turnpike and they had a guy (can't remember his name) talking about how prince nymphs are killer steelhead patterns and how they like the peacock herl. That motivated me to sit down and knock out a green and black stonefly pattern with a peacock thorax. I tried one with biots and one with rubber legs. I weighted the hell out of these with wire and added a tungsten bead to get them down to the chrome with a quickness. Thoughts?

Peacock Stone
3xl Orvis curved nymph hook
black tungsten bead
black goose biots or medium rubber round legs
6/0 black unithread (also used for the body
.015 lead wire.
UTC ultra wire, olive (sm)
Strung Peacock Herl
Black craft store raffia (wingcase) coated with Zap-A-Gap







In other news, I received a kind message the other day from a prominent member of one of my favorite fishing websites. I found it to be awesome that someone actually looks forward to reading this thing and doesn't spend all of their spare internet time at work watching THE WEBSITE IS DOWN over and over again.

Mike,

First...Love reading your Blog. Never read a blog before and yours is great...!
Just looked at yor McFly Foam entry. I have been using that for a while and it really is great.
I don't throw eggs much at all, but let me tell you what I found. At the Salmon River the BLUE Mcfly Foam tied as sucker spawn works extremely well for Steel Head. So, tried it on Trout and it works well on them also.
I don't do well with the strike indicator/bobber and egg...I end up with a tangled mess more often than not. That is just my poor casting skills I'm sure. That is why I don't throw them much.
Next, really like the look of your red head pheasant tails. I never would have thought of them and will tie some up after I send this PM.
Lastly, Thanks for the blog. I have learned a lot from it since I don't get out much. I check it two or three times a day to see what is new. I am on the PC all day while working.

Wishing you and yours a great, healthy and prosperous New Year.

**name witheld**

Thank you for the kind words sir. I greatly appreciate it. Also, I'm going to take your advice and place some of it in my flybox.