55 on the fly

What a day! I took this big male coyote at 7:30 ..... and this fine buck in the afternoon...

Had a great time hunting with friends this week. The three of us all took birds, 4 total...... here are my two. Bird #1 - Bearded hen, some people might balk at taking a hen in the spring..... But, I consider a bearded hen a rare trophy. We hardly ever shoot hens on the property even in the fall. This is the second one I've taken in 40 years of turkey hunting.  Bird #2 - Gobbler  my buddy Jim (left) and I with my gobbler.... tools of the trade - Richard Hudson Hen Box (the turkey's love this call) and my own homemade Ebony Trumpet Call.... Jim's bow killed gobbler...

Hi folks - turned this turpin style trumpet today. Ebony horn with an ivory spacer, copper ferrule and Delrin mouth piece. thanks for checking it out, Doug.

Hi folks - it's been a while since I last posted but it's good to be back at the lathe turning a call. I've been looking forward to hunting season and taking a bird to supply more tail-feathers for tying my turkey tail stone fly nymphs. These nymph's are very active in early spring and a sure bet in our local streams, the trout love them. Korn's Wire Head Turkey-tail Nymph I made this simple, clean lined osage call yesterday for a little lathe practice. The trumpet has a delrin mouth piece that I turned and is 8-1/4" overall. My thanks for giving it a look.

My son Scott and I hunted down in Cherry Creek, NY this weekend..... Scott shot this big old field gobbler on Saturday.   Nothing like a hunt with your son, quality time in the woods and the bonus of some good eating..... 8 inch beard, 3/4 inch spurs and one very, very wet turkey  ;-) Even though it rained non-stop all weekend we saw several more birds and a bunch of deer as well. 

Today was an excellent morning to be out in the woods.  I harvested several squirrels, both red and gray's for fly tying dubbing and the tails. My old 22 LR did the job. There's nothing like a little lunch in the woods.

I've been tying dozens of these: Korn's Tinsel Caddis

step-by-step- Bubble Back Nymph - BWO Here’s a great nymph to use in the film or slightly sub-surface.  I say that because the fly starts out as a trailer nymph up in the film, but after the first few fish beat it up it rides a bit lower in the water column.  It behaves very much like a Pogo Nymph, another favorite of mine in that when it swims in the water column it bounces and bobs-n-weaves all over the place and drives the trout "to the take"...  Tie some up in the Mayfly colors you need to match the hatch. This is my version of this nymph.  I've seen many nymphs featuring some kind of foam used as a shellback. But mine differs slightly, because it also uses the foam to form the head and the eyes of the nymph providing a little bit more floatation especially in the bigger fly sizes. Materials list: Bubble wrap for electronics:  This is the thin, tightly packed, small bubble wrap in Tan/Gray/Dun really nice stuff... cut a pie...

I just recently bought a new set of Jvice Pro-jaws with the Salmon Head and Goose Neck the other day. The new head design and tension adjustment is machined from white Ertalyte.  It's more stream line than the original head and it looks good too... But the proofs in the pudding, right?  So the last few days I've been just playing around tying some flies and enjoying this new vise and the pro-jaws.   these Pro-jaws will be great for tying smaller fly sizes... Here's a close up of the Pro-jaws and the Salmon Head. If your looking to upgrade your current fly tying vise and want the very best available today. IMHO y ou can't go wrong with a Jvice, they are top quality and precision made.  I've tied well over 20,000 flies on my Original Goose Neck Jvice with the standard jaws without a single failure or problem of any kind.  Jay also stands behind everything they make and you won't find better customer service if you ever do have a problem.   ...

My friend Dave had lots of luck on Soda Butte Creek in YNP using an unknown blue mylar backed nymph.  It looked similar to my Wire Head Stone fly nymphs, so I just added the Mylar backing and a rib to that pattern.  I think it looks great and the nice thing is you can make them any color Sharpie you've got!  Yellow and Amber make nice Yellow Sally's and Golden Stonefly nymphs others include; olive, tan, black, purple, etc. Thread: Danville 6/0 olive brown Hook: Nymph 2xl #14 (#12-18) Bead: gold 3.0 mm or Wire Head. Rib: gold wire 24 gauge (med.) Tail: and body: Turkey Tail Shellback and wing case: Uni-Mylar 3/64" in Pearl and colored with blue Sharpie marker on both sides of the Mylar. After tying I brush super glue on the shellback and wing case to bring out the color even more. Note: try other color markers too...

Wow - time sure flies when you're having fun and our trip is drawing to a close... Today Dave and I fished Soda Butte Creek.  We had a great time. The canyon had willing fish and the water was clear and cold.  We found that various caddis patterns and a black and blue nymph that Dave had worked very well. Tomorrow (Saturday) we will be packing up and then heading home on Sunday.  It's been great to see all our friends here in Montana and to fish and spend time with them. The Yellowstone area has much to offer and Michelle and I enjoyed it all --- "On the Fly". Here's Dave doing a little rock hopping in the canyon section. Fishing pocket water like this is one of my favorite things to do... The further up the canyon you go the smaller the fish.  We each caught a dozen or more of the beautiful Cutthroat Trout. I fished my Winston Binney Para 15 bamboo - 8' - 5wt. today, what a sweet casting fly rod.  

A friend of mine, David is in town this week.  He was looking for a hike and a new place to wet a line with me.  So, we hatched this plan to bushwhack to the Yellowstone River via Geode Creek.  I had been on this mission once before in 2011, looking to catch some West-slope Cutthroat's and fish the Yellowstone but never made it because I sprained my ankle just before reaching the first meadow.  Even so, I caught some Cutt's but had to turn back because of the pain and never made it to the River. You can read all about that trip here:  http://55onthefly.blogspot.com/2011/08/exploring-creek-paying-price.html the meadow at Geode Creek far below... I met David at 7:30 am. and off we went to the pull-out to hike in.  We skirted the meadow at Geode Creek and headed towards a small lake.  When we got to the lake we had to find the drainage off of it as this would lead us to Geode Creek and we would then follow it down to the Yellowstone River. ...