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May 12, 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

The Following comes directly from the Madison River Foundations' Newsletter we thought it to be important enough to include in ours as well.

"A spectacular painting of the Madison River by internationally renowned Western artist Larry Zabel has gone up for auction on-line. The epic 70 X 34 painting entitled "Scouting the Madison" depicts an historic scene from the summer of 1877. A group of Nez Perces scouts are shown crossing the Madison near Three Dollar Bridge as the tribe fled units of the U.S. Cavalry. The detail of the painting shown above hardly does justice to this magnificent work of art."

Larry is generously donating half of the auction proceeds to the Foundation. The painting is on display at First Madison Valley Bank in Ennis. In the photo below Foundation Director and Secretary Dave Bricker (right) and Larry show off the beautifully framed painting in the bank lobby.For complete information and to bid on the painting go toMRF Benefit Auction. The online auction will run until July 8th. This auction on the worldwide web is a first for the Foundation. By conducting the auction online we have opened it to bidders and collectors across the nation and indeed around the world! The site on the Madison depicted in the painting is no doubt familiar to longtime anglers. It's just downstream from the Three Dollar Bridge area. In addition to presenting an awesome view of the Madison, the painting captures one of the most celebrated episodes on the history of the West and Montana -- the flight of the Nez Perces under Chief Joseph. This is a truly remarkable work!"

Our rivers and streams are coming into run-off now as temps warm and nighttime lows stay above freezing which makes for lots of thawing snow. Our fly fishing options will no doubt become limited in the weeks ahead so stay tuned here for our current, up-to-the-minute updates on fishing conditions.

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 spring and summer 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

As we write this report we have been informed that the Caddis are as thick as they can be from Varney to Ennis. The water is still in great shape down there and we expect that the fish are keying in on this spectacular hatch! If you are in the area you may want to go check this out.

Our snowpack is melting and with it comes some high water on our local rivers. The Madison is still your best bet for clear water and rising trout. The Gallatin, Missouri and Yellowstone are all coming up daily as is the Henry's Fork.

The Madison below Hebgen Dam is fishing very well. While most anglers have great luck fishing nymphs like our GM and Rick's Red Blood Beadhead there are fish rising to midge and Baetis activity every afternoon from 1-2pm to dark in selected places along the river. If Cabin Creek cooperates and doesn't blow out the river downstream of its junction with the main river you can find lots of risers below the first set of islands just below Campfire Lodge. Cabin creek can be very fickle this time of the year. If night time temps dip below freezing and daytime highs don't warm much above 50 degrees this stream can remain relatively clear and not muddy the river downstream.

The Madison below McAtte is fishing well. Baetis are emerging and I look for Mothers' Day Caddis around Varney this week. March Browns continue to spit off all along this stretch and I use an Improved March Brown Sparkle Dun for a searching pattern when no insects are emerging or fish rising. The river in the Beartrap has fished well during Baetis times. If the Mothers' Day hatch is to come off here it will have to do so this week. So far we have seen very few caddis but we remain optimistic for their emergence to begin any minute now! You will want #14 olive X and X2 caddis as well as our #14 olive Soft Hackle Caddis Emerger.

Earthquake Lake's ice cover is off now all the way to the boat launch and this lake will fish well with dragon fly nymphs and small streamers. Baetis will spill off on the upper end of the lake as well as the area around Beaver Creek's juncture with the lake so be ready for this activity which is always strongest on overcast-rainy-snowy (God forbid) days.

Hebgen Lake is still ice covered for the most part but there is some open water on the Madison, South, and Grayling Arms as well as a few select spots along the north shoreline. I have not fished it yet and neither has anyone else I know of but we will in the next few days and for the following several weeks as spring midges become important and the huge cruisers come into shore for them as well as to chase bait fish. All of us here at the shop look forward to ice-out fishing on this lake which always gives up some monster trout! Look for John to begin pitching streamers on the north shore this weekend. Woolheads and Bow Buggers are your best bet, in olive for sure!

The Montana opener will be Saturday May 21st and the following week on the 28th will be the opener for Yellowstone Park. We are looking forward to this after a long, long winter. The fish are hungry and the weather continues to get nicer what a great combination!

 


 Fly of the Week
 Hot off the Vise!!

PMD Split Case

Joe Mitchell came up with this pattern a few years ago and it has been a hit in our neck of the woods! Our guides have been using this pattern on the Madison, Beaverhead, Firehole and Gallatin rivers as well as on the lakes around the area. The Pattern was so deadly on the lakes in fact that the guides were hiding these flies so we didn't run out! We have reason to believe that Joe has been working on a similar Callibaetis nymph, we will look forward to seeing this.

Patrick Daigle is our featured fly tyer this week as he ties one of his famous PMD Split Case Nymphs. You can see the YouTube link by clicking the photo. He has also been working on some Small Western Green Drake (Flav) Sparkle Duns along with Gray Drake Sparkle Duns using our dyed dun deer hair. Lynn has cranked out some very nice Goofus Bugs/Humpies with the "Humpy Hair" we are featuring and we find it works great for Stimulators and stone flies too.

Split Case PMD 


 Fly Tying Material of the Week
 Unique Materials for Effective Patterns

Humpy Hair

The Humpy is an old favorite here at Blue Ribbon. The older generation of guides here still rely on this pattern day in and day out. The Humpy has been one of the most used patterns for rough water over the years. One of the problems we find that people run into when tying this pattern is they do not have the right hair. As with all of our hair we have culled through many, many hides to find the perfect Humpy hair. This hair is very bouyant deer hair due to it's hollow feature. We have this hair in both natural $3.99 and bleached $5.50.

Craig spent this morning dying peacock eye feathers. We scored some incredibly bronze- iridescent eyes and by dying them with our special black dye they turn even more iridescent. Craig used herl from these on all his spring midge patterns; Zelon, Scotty's, Micro-Wulffs, and Griffths' Gnats and they give a look I don't believe the fish have seen before since they jumped all over my midges! I have been tying our Madison Guide Cripple and some Iris Caddis using this herl for bodies and I think the fish are going to love them.

For this and many other hard to find materials click here! 


 Getting ready for a trip to Yellowstone Country?
 Here are a few books you don't want to be without.

A mention about books is that both "Modern Midges" and our own best seller "Fly Patterns of Yellowstone" volume 2 are back in stock. "Wolfer" is on the way too having been a sellout this winter for those wanting to know the real story behind the wolf re-introduction. All are MUST READS for those fishing, fly tying and visiting Yellowstone country!

Yellowstone Resources, let these publications guide the way. 


 Tenkara in The Beartrap!
 Perhaps not only for small fish?

Daniel from Tenkara sent us this little blurb on his trip to the Bear Trap last week. Looks like they had a lot of fun and caught some nice fish.

Hey Craig, Thought you may want to know I had another terrific trip to Montana. So, as planned, Ryan and I went backpacking on the Bear Trap part of the Madison. It was a fantastic trip, with great fishing, decent weather and an epic ending. The highlight of the trip were the 2 largest browns I have caught to date (with any type of gear). On each of the 2 days I caught one 19" brown, and plenty other fish of respectable size. There were lots of midges hatching, size 22, and some mayflies, and even the occasional caddis fly were seen. Regardless, I stuck with using one tenkara fly, mostly in size 12, a couple of times in 16, and a few in size 8. The browns were caught on the size 12 tenkara flies, chosen with no respect to the hatches, but worked with different tenkara techniques. The epic ending was due to our plan of packrafting down the stream back to the car. As we started preparing we were hit with a massive hail storm. This was followed by a heavy snowstorm that stayed with us as we paddled down the river.

Don't forget about the Tenkara Summit at the end of August right here in West Yellowstone. If you are in the area this will give you a great opportunity to learn more about this style of fishing first hand.

 


 Looking for a New Rod?
 NOW may be the best time to get a fantastic deal.

orvis rods Many of you called us up last week and took advantage of this great deal and we think this is such a good deal that we decided to run it again this week. Remember this offer expires May 31st, so if you are riding the fence on this you don't have a lot of time left.

If a new rod and reel are in your plans you could not have picked a better time to make your purchase. May is BRF's Rod and Reel Promo Month and this month we are featuring a free reel with the purchase of some of our favorite Orvis Rods. You can have your choice of an Access Mid Arbor, old style Battenkill Mid Arbor or Large Arbor, or BBS reel with a Helios, Hydros, Access or Superfine Touch rod purchase. BRF guides like Tommy, Nick and Bucky love these rods and use them much of the season. You cannot pass up this awesome deal! And, you can put the purchase on our famous rod payment plan to boot! Another thing that makes this purchase so special is for a limited time we throw in a BRF waterproof fly box with 24 flies, (our choice), an additional $55.00 value. Offer starts immediately and will run through May 31st. You may want to call today!

 


 Simms New Rivertec Boa Boots.
 No More Broken Laces!

Often times, the laces on your wading boot can be the most frustrating feature of the boot. The RiverTek® with the M3 BOA® lacing system eliminates all of those issues and means these boots are easy-on, easy-off. We have these boots in a large array of sizes ranging from 7 to 14. This may be one of those products that it hard to find once the season gets going.

New products are coming in daily and it is sometimes a struggle walking around the shop with all the boxes of waders, boots, shirts, packs and so much more lying in the way as we unpack and shelf the new stuff. I think you will be as excited as we have been with so much fine new gear to check out this year.

 


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!