Merry Christmas!

This is what happens when you're wife decides that streamers can be ornaments... I dig it.  Stay fly and Merry Christmas! 

Umpqua Feather Merchants Contest

Image from Umpqua's Facebook Page

Hey yall should check out Umpqua's 10 day contest on their facebook page.  They are giving away their brand new packs to the winners of their daily drawings.  These packs look awesome and Umpqua always makes solid gear in my experience.  Looks like an innovative and high capacity pack.  I'd love to see them up close- get in on the give away and you might be one of the first to fish one.  Check them out!

Streamers, streamers, streamers.

So I don't know if you have seen the "Belly Dancer" type flies that Idylwilde  sells, but I think that the design is both novel and practical.  The beads riding off the belly of the fly make it ride hook-point-up and makes some fish attracting noise to boot.  So, borrowing heavily from this design, I decided to tie some of my own versions. 

These are all on Mustad 80300BR size 2 hooks (not a bad hook but they need some sharpening)- I will probably use an 8089 in the future.  The body is lazer dub in a dubbing loop, the tail is a zonker strip and the head is wool from Umpqua. 

I just used Beadalon for the wire and medium sized metal beads from the hobby store.  Some of these have a glass bead in the middle. Theres also some Umpqua schlappen in a few.

I should probably not have hung the beads down so much, I'll have to see how it swims.

Looking forward to trying these out for bass or trout- probably trout first since its winter and all.

Alpha Male- Looking for Love

Swam a few of these in the bass pond.  No takers (the resident bass are about as big as the fly) but it looks really good.  You cannot beat buck tail for "swimmyness" and the marabou really brings it to life.  Can't wait to try these on some big trout water.  On a related note I got to stop by Bull Shoals tailwater last week.  Fished about an hour and a half with little to show for it.  It was frustrating.  Fish were taking tiny tiny little midges on top and did not seem interested in much else.  That's all i got.  Stay fly.