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January 13, 2011 
 News from Blue Ribbon Flies
 Fish With The Best
In This Issue
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Greetings!

Welcome to another Blue Ribbon Flies weekly newsletter. Thanks for tuning in. Settle in and we'll tell you what's happening around West Yellowstone and our other favorite spots, show you the fly and the material of the week, and tempt you to plan your next trip with us.

Hope you're enjoying the new year, doing some fishing, tying up some flies, and starting to think about your 2011 trip to Yellowstone country. Take a break from work or play, grab a cup of coffee, and pretend you're leaning on the counter here at Blue Ribbon Flies. We wish you were here, but until you are we'll keep you in the loop. Thanks for stopping by.

 What's New
 What's Happening in Yellowstone Country

We hope your new year is off to a fabulous start. Your Blue Ribbon catalog should be in your mailbox any day now if you haven't seen it already, and your Fly of the Month envelope should be close on its heels. It's that snowy, quiet (except for the wind and the snow plows) time of year when we settle in to some serious tying, some good reading, skiing, and fishing, and getting ready to see you come spring.

I can tell some of us have cabin fever. Too, some anglers living in the warm sunshine are missing Yellowstone country and planning on making the trip here this month. Scotty and Carolyn Heppel are here now from Memphis and Steve and Val Whisler of Nevada are coming next week. Jackie and I look forward to heading into the park and spending a couple nights at Old Faithful's Snow Lodge with the Heppels. There we will watch trout rising on the Firehole River and cross country ski and snowshoe in the geyser basins. The days are getting longer and I think I speak for nearly all here in Yellowstone, it will be great to head into spring. This has been a REAL winter with above normal snow, many wicked wind days and cold since November. 2011 will be a wonderful water year for the west.

The last day to comment on the Native Fish Conservation Plan Environmental Assessment plan is 01/31/2011 at 11:59 PM. So get your comments and thoughts in. Click this link to submit your comments.

As usual in the rest of this newsletter, you'll find fishing news from Yellowstone Country in the weekly Fishing Report. You can see what's hot off the vise in the Fly of the Week, get a sneak peek at some of the best materials on our tying bench in the Fly Tying Material of the Week, and stay up to date with the guide staff and their trips in the Guide Trip of the Week.

You'll be seeing a new email newsletter most every week throughout the winter to keep you tuned in to all things fly fishing and fly tying in the greater Yellowstone area and beyond. Throughout the seasons, we'll keep sending you news of hatches and fishing holes around West Yellowstone. So without further delay, go ahead and jump right into the newsletter. And as always, don't hesitate to give us a call or shoot us an email if you have any questions, or if you just want a little fish talk.

Read more West Yellowstone News... 


 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.

19 January 2011 Blue Ribbon Flies Weekly Report Craig Mathews

So, how about the fishing? It has been great. I am hitting the river after lunch this afternoon. I know midges will be coming off as they do daily this time of year from 10am to 3pm. I'll walk in to the Madison at $3 Bridge, the road is closed to 4 wheel vehicles in winter, and the fishing should be good using flies like #16 red Copper Johns-GM Nymphs and our big chocolate brown rubber leg stones trailing a Slough Creek Midge Larvae or red Rick's Midge. When the trout are rising all I need are Hi Vis and Skittering Zelon Midges although a #22 Adams is sometimes effective too.

On the Gallatin River Bucky and others have been scoring with the same adult midges as above along with GM Nymphs and red $3 Dips. Streamer fishing has been good too with olive wool heads and an M's Streamer is deadly (I'll get in trouble with the guides for mentioning this pattern as it is a favorite of most). You will want to fish streamers dead-drifted like a nymph, straight upstream and hang on!

Stay up-to-date with fishing and more with the Blue Ribbon Flies Blog... 


 Fly of the Week
 Hot off the Vise

A great combination of everything the guides demand in a fly for the Madison River. Zelon, peacock, a visible poly wing and tinted grizzly hackle this is a great fly for searching the waters of not only the Madison, but all other Yellowstone waters as well. Some BRF guides and staff feel it may imitate flying ants, PMD's or Pink Ladies while others think it works for caddis or spruce moths. The deal is it scores lots of fine trout when nothing else seems to bring the fish up, those warm-bright dog days of July-August and September.

Learn how to tie the Madison Guide Cripple by watching this video. 


 Fly Tying Material of the Week
 Unique Materials for Effective Patterns

Blue Grouse Museum Quality Blue Grouse

Our fly tying has reached peak effort now too. All of us from Minori to John, Bucky-Dave-Josh-Steve D. and I have been at G-force effort tying our 100-150 dozen per month, per tyer now. April will come and we will want to spend more and more time on the water then so now is the time to crank our flies full force. We have been playing with some new material lately. You will note in this report our favorite dyed Hun partridge skins we use to tie so many of our soft hackles.

And how about the super Magnum Dusky(formerly called Blue) Grouse we scored last fall these are easily the largest "Museum Quality" grouse skins we have ever taken and, yes we took them with the help of our dogs you see here in the shop. These skins are very limited in number and you must call to get one, we just graded our birds from last fall and these are the best of the best! Another bird skin we just graded and bagged are our Valley (California) Quail skins which are late season birds and feathered out the finest we have seen in 10 years. For tiny dun hackles used in soft hackle flies like Baetis and other BWO emergers this one is hard to beat, and they are natural, not dyed. One last feather I'd like to mention is the mallard flank. This year we have bagged up large bags of flank feathers in dyed and natural colors for patterns like the Sheep Creek, soft hackle streamers and so many others.

 


 New Patagonia Waders
 Rio Gallegos Waders From Patagonia

For several months now I have had to hold out talking about the incredible waders and wading shoes Patagonia has just come out with. We have been testing the waders for a year and have to say that when Patagonia tells us they set out to build the fines waders know to man they have succeeded in our opinion. These waders are tough, comfortable and easier to use than any other we have ever tried the Ultimate Wader! A couple features I like to mention, ones that we helped test and design follow: the Merino wool grid booties have been redesigned and offer a better fit while wicking moisture and keeping your feet warm in cold water while keep you cool on long hikes in summer. The sliding adjustable suspension system converts very easily to waist height or any other height you'd want and allows us older guys quick "relief" without having to remove outer wear and struggle with balky zipper access. I am proud to say we had a huge part in awesome removable kneepads these waders come with. I fish a lot from my knees, sometimes walking on them to get as close to working fish as I can. This allows me to keep track of my fly, defeat drag, watch trout behavior as my fly approaches and makes the game that much more interesting and rewarding.

These waders offer much-much more than I've mentioned above and you can see all details and specs on our web site as well as all the latest-greatest from Patagonia plus, if you make your purchases through us you can be assured knowing that 2% of your purchase goes to conservation through our 1% for the Planet program 1% from us and 1% from Patagonia. You talk about conservation bang for your buck!

Keep up with us on the BRF Blog... 


 Guide Trip of the Week
 Nobody Does It Better

Craig releasing a nice rainbow O'Dell Creek

All of us have been fishing with the mini-Chinook we are now experiencing. The trout have been good to us and we have all had wonderful fishing on the Madison and Gallatin River. Some of us have been thinking of summer fishing. Seth Allen called the other day and booked his day on our Odell Creek beats. Nick Lyons immortalized this water in his wonderful book, Spring Creek. In 2011 we will offer our exclusive guided trips to this spring creek beginning in mid-June about the time the PMD's and green drakes begin to emerge as well as evening caddis. Last year no one fished the evening caddis rise, the time when all large trout come out and feed on this unbelievable water. We hope anglers will take advantage of the evening fishing this summer as well as the late summer, August and September, grasshopper action. Call us soon to book you date(s) for this stream. We limit the days we fish the creek as well as the number of anglers each day; 3 days a week (Mon-Wed and Friday) with 4 rods max per day.

Fish with the Best!... Book your 2011O'Dell creek trip today... 


 For Your Tying Desk
 Not Just Another Doo Dad

Stacker One of the essential tools at our vises. With two different sized tubes, this is a versatile stacker allowing the tyer to stack a range of hair sizes. A hair stacker is used to align the tips of hair cut from a hide. The double hair stacker has a alum base and 2 brass barrels. One is 1 3/4 long with an inside dia. of about 1/2". The other brass barrel is 1 1/2" long with an inside dia of just over 1/4". These barrels are smooth to allow the hair to slide easily The aluminum base has a rubber pad to protect the table.

These come in standard and Midge sizes.

Check out the Renzetti stacker. 


Until next week, give us a call or drop an email and let's talk fishing and fly tying, products and anything else! We love to hear from you. Oh ya, our world famous sparkle dun, X Caddis, stimie deer and elk hair is coming in daily from our tannery so now it the time to order to keep you in the game of having the BEST hair known to the fly tying world!

Thanks for spending time with us. We'll see you soon!

Sun Dogs
Craig took this shot. What a beautiful evening on the Madison River. Hope yours is the same.
The Gang at Blue Ribbon Flies

phone: 406.646.7642
fax: 406.646.9045