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March 10, 2011 
 News from Blue Ribbon Flies
 Fish With The Best
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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

ice sculpture We thought we'd start this week with a little winter humor. This was sent to us from Richard Arambula he said it brought a tear to his eye it sure did ours. So we bring this to you almost exactly as we received it. Thanks Richard! What can one add to this? It's soooooo poetic.

It's winter in Montana And the gentle breezes blow, 70 miles per hour at 52 below! Oh, how I love Montana When the snow's up to your butt; You take a breath of winter air And your nose is frozen shut. Yes, the weather here is wonderful, You may think I'm a fool. I could never leave Montana Cause I'm frozen to the stool.

Thank you Henry's Fork Foundation for the fun time last Friday and Saturday at your party! We know we raised some serious conservation capital for the Fork to continue their fine conservation work on this great river system. This week Craig will be in Bozeman on the 9th to do an evening presentation for the Madison-Gallatin Chapter of Trout Unlimited at the N 7th St Holiday Inn. On the 12th and 13th I will be in Kansas City, Mo doing presentations there for Heart of America Fly Fishers.

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.

 


 Fishing Report
 Weekly Conditions and Tips

By Craig Mathews

The Madison continues to fish well. We like the lower river downstream of Ennis during midge times. The river between Hebgen and Earthquake Lakes is doing well too. While the lower river is seeing fine midge activity the water below the dam is pretty much a nymphing proposition. The Henry's Fork has fished well near Ashton and St. Anthony, Idaho too. And, the Gallatin continues to surprise some with the size of the trout near Big Sky and downstream to the mouth of the canyon. It seems the same flies will work as we have reported the past several weeks. Zelon and Skittering Midges, Miracle and Slough Creek Midges, WD40's and $3 Dips will all work well. On the Madison you might want to have a big stone along, same with the Gallatin as trout are looking for them in mid-afternoon hours. It is always best to stop in or call for a current, up-to-the-minute fishing report before making the drive. Heck, its always recommended to stop in, get your new 2011 fishing licenses and a couple flies and fill up with our free coffee and then head to the river we love to see and visit with you!

You can see we've been busy here. And yet, we have still found some time to fish and below is our report and forecast for the week ahead. One river we do not recommend is the Yellowstone due to ice flows continuing to hamper access and angling.

 


 Fly of the Week
 Hot off the Vise!!

Griffith's Knat Emerger

The Griffith's Gnat Emerger is one of our favorite emerging, impaired-crippled midge patterns. We came up with this easy to tie pattern one spring day fishing over ultra-selective trout on spring creeks as they sipped midge pupae in the surface film, trapped in their pupal shucks. Dipping our insect sampling nets in the film, as the trout fed just a few feet upstream, we were amazed at the number of impaired midges struggling to escape their shucks with legs or wings trapped in the still attached shuck. A simple zelon shuck with thread wraps over to form a thin abdomen followed by a dubbed or peacock herl thorax and hackle to imitate the distinct legs of a midge combine to make a most killing pattern, one that is easy to tie, durable and visible and takes fish!

Check Out All Of Our Flies! 


 Fly Tying Material of the Week
 Unique Materials for Effective Patterns

pheasnat Pheasant Skins

Craig's buddy and wildlife biologist, Dale, sent us several pheasants he shot in eastern Montana this past December and January. You might recall we had some of these last year and ran out due to limited supply. You can't believe the winter plumage on these museum quality birds. This year he sent some late season sharp tail grouse which we have in stock in limited quantity too. Craig begged Dale to take some late season prairie grouse and he came through this year! One of each will last most tyers several years, they are so pretty you probably won't want to use them!

Valley Quail are back in stock. This popular bird has become a staple for tying our Baetis Soft Hackles and we ran out earlier this winter. The late season birds we now have are feathered to the hilt and can tie soft hackles from #22's to large, #10-12, BWO's.

During the past couple weeks we have spent many hours in the dye shed. We have worked out, by much trial and error, a new Baetis Olive Crinkled Zelon and FINALLY have our Improved Micro-Zelon back in stock having dyed all colors to specs. This takes so much time but we are pleased with our results even though I ruined 2 shirts and a pair of shoes by spilling dye on them!

 


 Heading out to do a little Salt Water Fishing?
 Bone Fishing the Flats.

If you are planning a trip in the near future this DVD is a must see. It will prepare you for anything that you will run into on the flats.

Jackie and Craig have been watching our Bonefishing the Flats DVD for the past few nights since we are not going south this winter to fish. Instead, we sent Cam to lead Blue Ribbon's bonefishing trips, we might have to re-think this next year! Matter-of-fact, we already did and have made 2 weeks reservation for March 2012! More on these trips in future reports but I'll say now if you are interested you might want to check with us as we have already signed 10 anglers for our weeks next March!

Keep up with us on the BRF Blog... 


 Guide Trip of the Week
 Nobody does it better!!

clay vines Clay Vines

We'd like to feature this week one of our newest guides, Clay Vines. Clay is a second generation fishing guide, many of you may remember has father Lance Vines who guided here for many many years.

Clay has been with us now for 3 years and has already shown a few of the veteran guides a thing or two. His enthusiastic quiet manner is hard to match. Clay is a Montanan through and through. When Clay isn't guiding or fishing on his own you can usually find him at the local rodeo in the team roping event.

One of Clay favorite trips is to float the Madison exploring every little part in search of hungry trout. Clay has also become a huge Hebgen lake fan and loves to fish for Gulpers in August and September.

Fish WIth The Best! 


 It's time to get ready to fish! We need some Serious Flies!
 Some essential products to get you ready for the 2011 season.

Chernobly Tapered Cutter Set

This week we've been working on some foam fly patterns here at the shop. Bucky likes to tie Slough Creek Crickets and while I really do not like to tie foam patterns we needed some foam hoppers and a couple salmon flies so I had no choice! Montana Fly Company's new Chernobly Tapered Cutter Set makes cutting the foam bodies so easy. I can't believe we used to cut the bodies with scissors! These sets are low priced at $19.99 and come with 3 cutters set in their wooden stand to protect the razor sharp cutting edges. A rubber cutting pad is provided that increases the cleanness of your cut and ensures a long life to the cutting blades. These fine butters are designed to give tyers an easy, cost effective way to create uniform bodies and wings. You will find sets of them on all our tying desks.

This Chernobyl Wing Cutter Set comes with three (3) cutters, in sizes Small, Medium, and Large. Recomended usage: the Small cutter for flies # 12-14, Medium cutter for flies #8-10, and the Large cutter for # 2-6. Easy and cost effective way to create perfectly uniform wings and bodies if you're a beginner or professional. The cutters are hand made, precision crafted tools and are razor sharp. Just rock the cutter back and forth into the desired wing material and your wings are cut and ready to use.

For this and many fine other products click here! 


 In the Ring of the Rise
 Vince Marinaro

Vince Marinaro in his classic book, "In the Ring of the Rise", wrote a short story about "a game of nods" where he watched trout selectively taking house flies off the surface of his favorite spring creek. I read this over 30 years ago, storing his house fly pattern in the back of my mind until last season. I was fishing a small spring creek in the park and was not having any success fooling a few small trout rising in a slow bend. I belly-crawled to within 6 feet of the risers, not one of them was over 9 inches long, and all 4 of them beautifully colored browns. I watched them for over 10 minute taking deer flies off the surface. I thought to myself, where were these spent deer flies on the surface coming from? How did they get on the water, and why? From time-to-time the water would muddy, and around the next bend upstream a short distance the answer came to me, bison were rolling in volcanic dust next to the stream bank and killing-knocking off the flies as they rolled in the dirt sending some into the water. In the past I'd seen trout rising a foot or 2 away from bison as they crossed the Firehole River and noted the fish coming up to buffalo gnats as the beasts waded in the river and the insects landed on the surface of the water near the animals. You can see a fly we designed to imitate deer and house flies as well as buffalo gnats on an attached video with this report. using some of the zelon we dyed along with dyed peacock herl in black or brown to imitate deer and house flies as well as the pesky gnats bodies this fly works!

 


Hope you enjoy the latest issue. We'll keep 'em coming, keeping you up to date on the best fishing water, tips, and gear we can get our hands on. Let us know how you're fishing, and what you're up to. Keep those pictures and fish stories coming!

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


Until next week!
The Gang at Blue Ribbon Flies

phone: 406.646.7642
fax: 406.646.9045