I decided to hit a year round selective fishery lake today to avoid the opening weekend crowds. Starting bobber fishing AKA FlyPluncking around 9:00. Got quite a few nice fish using a size 12 brown red butt with a size 12 red v-rib with a white bead dropper.
The fish were in 14' to 16' of water
Around noon, the bomber chironomids started coming off heavily and the fish were keying in on adults on the surface. The bombers were a good 1" plus long with a orangish pink color when they first hatched. The next four hours provided some epic dry fly action.
I only used one pattern, which was a Lasha Raccoon. Red, pink and orange bodies all worked.
All the fish were hard fighting bows with nothing smaller then 14". Biggest fish was around 18" today.
Finally called it a day when I got down to my last remaining Raccoon. All the others had been pretty well thrashed.
Fun day on the water tossing dries. Enjoy summerrun.....

NICE! Thats sweet...water still too cold last weekend for any hatches where I was but figured it might go off today. Cool dry, might have to pick your brain a bit on that one, never used it. Cheers

Spooky!!




"Recipe:
Raccoon: Like a Lady McConnell with no hackle. Pg 25 of Rowley's 'Fly Patterns for Stillwaters'. Pattern by Paul Lasha.
Hook: Dry 12-18
Thread: to match body.
Tail: teal flank feathers or grizzly hackle. (Lady McConnell also has a few strands of white z-lon, but not in the raccoon pattern.)
Butt: White ostrich herl, sparkle yarn, or antron.
Shell back: Elk or dark deer.
Body: SuperFine or rabbit dubbing.
Note: He doesn't give a color. Try peacock for the body, but I assume black, dark olive, etc. to match the emerger."

c/22

SF,
Thanks for another detailed report. Wish I could follow up with a big fish of my own on a dry, but no top water action for me yet. Did hook a big smallie on a leach pattern the other night. He made short work of my trout tippet.

Stonefish,

I think that is what a lot of guys called a "pink lady" hatch. Not the classic pink lady in fly pattern books, but pinkish orange floss body and a palmered ginger hackle. Once knew a guy who fished that hatch at Tanwax Lake for years.

Sg

The LM is a great stillwater midge fly. However, my only complaint is the deer hair seems to rip apart after landing a fish or two. The good side is they are pretty quick to tie.

Sg,
You are correct, those are often referred to as 'pink ladies" due to the color. I just call them bombers due to their large size.

DD,
I switched to a tan or gray foam back with red, pink and orange bodies on the Raccoon's this past weekend. Much more durable and they held up well for multiple fish until they got snapped off...

Foam is making more and more appearances in my fly box these days. I found some caddis patterns that were tied with foam bodies, and they fish great. They float better than the traditional style, and they can also be retrieved with a popping/jumping motion that sometimes draws awesome strikes. Plus, as stonefish noted, they are very durable.

I can attest they worked for SF this past weekend very well. They worked for me and Brad too. Thanks SF. I got one left to copy...

I like the idea of using a foam back on the fly; especially on larger verisons. Have tied and fished similar patterns as small as 24s

A variation that we have used with success was 6/8 crystal flash stands for shuck.

Have also used kevlar thread to provide a ribbing to the fly. Provides a nice segmented look and helps to protect the deer hair.

Tight lines
Curt

Fear the foamback floater..........
Especially @ the business end of that S_F powered Rpl 490


Heck I even brought one to hand on a dry, & had another on that jumped & spit it. & I'm clueless.



c/22

Hey.... You stole my net!

Thats not all...

I got the keys to that big GMC diesel 4x4 too........

c/22

Nice work on the flies. Looks like you got some proof of them working too.