News from Blue Ribbon Flies

Fishing Report
Weekly Conditions and Tips

As the seasons change, we will continue to do our best to provide a journal entry from some of our latest tying and fishing. We invite you to call and ask us what we've been up to if you get to wondering. We always have plenty of stories to tell.

Here's one: Patrick Daigle floated the Madison on the last day weather permitted such a thing in 2010. Cheers to a great last year, and to an even greater New Year of fishing adventures!

12 January 2011
Blue Ribbon Flies Weekly Report

Craig Mathews

This morning I left for work at 7am. I made it about 150 yards down our driveway before planting my truck in a 4 foot snowdrift, high centering it with all 4 wheels off the ground. An hour later I'd dug it free and drove the rest of the way down the hill. I parked the truck there, still over 2 miles from the highway, and decided to walk back up the hill and home to regroup. It is the first time in the 8 winters we've lived here that I got the truck stuck going downhill. Our plow guy arrived a short time after I got home and with the help of the 4WD New Holland Tractor and double front end blower the drive is clear all the way to the highway. It has been that kind of winter. The highway over the Madison River coming into Ennis has been closed on and off this past week due to the gorging of the river causing it to back up and flow over the highway. Two days ago a semi tractor trailer drove through the ice flows there and its wheels locked up blocking traffic. The drifts on the highway one mile north of Palisade Recreation turnoff reach over the tops of semi trailers. This morning as I shoveled the truck out a bull moose ran by and attempted to head south to Horse Creek. He made a run at clearing the drifts blowing off the hay fields above our place but he could not climb the solid snow banks which now reach nearly vertical over 30 feet deep.

Needless to say, we should have a great water year coming up.

Last Friday, as promised, Phil and I filmed fishing Tenkara's Iwana Rod on the Madison near here. The footage is soon to be released by Patagonia and we should have some clips too. We succeeded in landing 4 nice trout, one an 18" rainbow, using the rod with no reel and 18 feet of fixed length line. This is fly fishing at its simplest, a most rewarding and pleasant way to fish. We are pleased to offer the Iwana on our website and catalogue store. Since we've introduced the Tenkara method at BRF we have received many wonderful reports from experts to beginners on how much fun fishing the Tenkara way is. More on this in future reports. One last thing here is in all the times I have used Tenkara's Iwana on the Madison, Gallatin, Gardner and other rivers I have never busted off my fly. Granted, the largest trout I have taken was the 18 incher I took last Friday, but I have hooked and landed dozens of trout and have yet to bust one off fishing without a reel and with only 18-24 feet of line.. ..kind of Zen-like fishing!

Because of the lull in fishing due to the weather I'd like to give you some idea of what we do this time of the year, when we aren't fishing, skiing, etc. During the past week our catalogue has gone out and we have had a couple blog posts. We are keeping very busy tying flies for the catalogue and upcoming season. Bucky and Cam remind me we have just received "the BEST X Caddis hair we have ever had." We are sorting it for size #16 and larger, as well as smaller size flies #18 and under. Along with the natural hair we have rolled up our sleeves and bleached some for use on light color caddis like our White Millers, have dyed some dun for Brachycentrus sp like the Mother's Day Caddis and other darker species, and dyed some yellow for the prolific Yellow Sally emergences on the Madison, Firehole and Henry's Fork.

Another new tying product is our dyed peacock eye feathers. I finally have a material I can tie a house fly with as well as beetles for the Lamar and Soda Butte. The dyed black peacock has just the right iridescence for this. I am using the dyed purple eyes for tying up some Purple Haze and purple Stimies. And the yellow and brown eyes make some of the nicest looking PMD, BWO and stonefly nymphs you can imagine.

While on the subject of fly tying you will want to look at our Bead Assortments which just came in along with Bead Nabbers. The Nabbers are for those of us with large fingers who can't seem to get a grip on beads when attempting to slip them on the hook shank when tying bead head flies. This handy little tool makes handling beads easier so they don't slip from your fingers and bounce around on the floor below your tying desk. The next time you hear from the missing bead is when it makes the whining sound as it is sucked up in your vacuum cleaner. And, how about our bead assortments that not only save money, but make tying with beads easier as they are easy to locate and deal with in their handy container.

Finally, the Tach It. This little magnetized stand with a great background has been a standard on our tying benches at the shop and at home. You have all seen us put finished flies on our personal Tach It as well as hooks we will tie with at any given time. The flies and hooks stay put and are easily located and secure. Years ago the inventor of this wonderful tool informed us after an initial run that he was going to discontinue them. We talked him out of it and years later he is still going strong!

OK, let's look at our fishing. The places nearby are limited due to snow and weather but hey, February is just around the corner. The days are getting longer now and our boxes are chock full of the right midge patterns and other small nymphs as well as big stone nymphs which our past fishing logs tell us will become very important to the fish and fishermen next month and for the following several months.

The Madison and Gallatin are your best bets. The Gallatin has been very good using (still) GM Nymphs, Rick's Red Dip and Skittering Zelon Midges. This river is best downstream of Big Sky and especially good near Deer Creek Bridge where you can always find a few risers right Mike G.?

The Madison has not been fished much. I have not seen a soul on the river below Hebgen Dam since Mr. Lancaster left 2 weeks ago for California. The fishing will be great if you can clear the 4 feet of snow to the river. I'd fish GMs and egg patterns along with Princes and Red Copper Johns. The same for the river around Raynolds Bridge but have Skittering and standard Zelon Midges too.

The forecasts calls for temps in the low to mid 30s for the next 3 days so check in on our blog for current reports. Make sure you check you mailbox daily for our 2011 BRF catalogue which will be delivered to you in the next few days. And, always go to www.blueribbonflies.com for our catalogue and much-much more online. It changes daily with new products, reports, stories and information.

A reminder here too, your comments are due by month's end on the Yellowstone Native Trout Management plan. Click the link below to read more about it and weigh in.

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