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April 12, 2012 
 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.

We've got a lot to show you and tell you about this week, so settle down in a comfy chair and dig in. 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 hope to see you soon, right here in West Yellowstone, but until then we wish you happy and healthy fishing and fly tying. All our best to each of you. 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

patrick daigle photo Patrick Daigle Photo

Cam and Craig want to thank the Stonefly Society of Salt Lake City, Utah for their kind hospitality they showed us during our time with their Wasatch Fly Fishing Expo last weekend in Sandy, Utah. This club knows how to throw an expo and arrange a fundraising banquet and all that goes with the program. While they were in Salt Lake Yellowstone country saw a huge dump of snow we returned to nearly 2 feet of new snow in the Madison Valley. But, spring has returned and the snows are melting and the spring fishing has been very good. It is spring streamer time in Yellowstone country. Our guides are having banner days on the Madison, Bighorn and Yellowstone Rivers with our favorite streamers like Shelia Sculpin in rust and our Rusty Slump Buster. Drew and Tommy say, "it's a sin how well both these streamers are working" on these great rivers this spring! Bucky has been on a streamer kick of late also tying up some great new patterns using articulated shanks incorporating Jailhouse Marabou in classic black/white, tan/black and chartreuse/black. He is very high on the Fish Skull weighted heads for his new streamer flies and maintains once a tier uses this great product he or she will never use lead or non-lead wire again when tying sculpin and other streamer flies.

As usual in the rest of this issue, 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 fall and 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 from Blue Ribbon Flies... 


 Fishing Report
 Weekly Conditions and Tips

patrick daigle photo Photo by Patrick Daigle

By Craig Mathews

My friends are fishing small rivers like the Ruby with their new Tenkara 11 foot Iwana model rods and are having the time of the fly fishing lives. It is so much fun watching anglers who once maintained, "that's like fishing a cane pole" fully embrace the Tenkara method! Once you fish Tenakra you will do it time and again just ask my fishing buddies like Yvon and Micro.

The fishing on the Madison is awesome now on stretches like between the lakes and downstream of Varney Bridge. Lots of nymph and streamer action with some very fine dry fly fishing thrown in on selected spots. Look for midges to bring trout to the surface along with a few Baetis. The forecast calls for a chance of rain during the next several days so we will see more and more Baetis emerge during the afternoon hours. Presenting a PMX or Stimulator a big orange Goddard Caddis will work on bright days as all these patterns will be taken for Skwala stones which are still emerging along the river. Watch now too for March Brown mayflies to emerge during the early afternoon hours.

The Gallatin has fished well although the water downstream of Taylor Fork might be off-color with warmer temps. Bucky has had some great fishing with big rubber legs and the above mentioned streamers below Big Sky. Last week he took the largest brown he has ever seen on this river using one of our special rubber legs.

The Henry's Fork has been good during Baetis and midge times. John has had some very good dry fly fishing lately when trout rise to both insects.

Our guides, Drew, Dan and Tommy have had some great fishing on the Yellowstone and Bighorn when midges and Baetis are active and during non-hatch times with the streamers we talked about above. On the Yellowstone March Browns can come off too.

The Boulder and Stillwater are just now fishing well during midge and Baetis times and you will want to be prepared to fish March Browns on both too.

The Ruby has had some good fishing as had the Beaverhead during Baetis and midge times too. Make sure you pay attention to flows on both of these rivers before heading to them as flows can change daily.

For midge times make sure you have a Slough Creek Midge Larva for subsurface action when fish are taking larva and pupa. When fish are working the surface I like to present flies like Zelon Midge, Peacock Griffith's Gnat Emergers and Micro-Wulff Cripples. For Baetis have Split Case Baetis and Micro-Madison Baetis Nymphs . When Baetis emerge make sure you have our Baetis Foam Energer and Sparkle Duns. March Brown times require our March Brown Sparkle Dun and Macro-Madison Mayfly Nymph.

I get so excited writing about all the fishing opportunities in Yellowstone country I want to leave work early and head to the river which I will do today! Hope to see you on the water or here at the shop! I'm gone fishing!

 


 Fly of the Week.
 Shelia's Sculpin (Rust)

It's Streamer week here at Blue Ribbon Flies! With spring coming along in full force we've been getting ready by tying some streamers. In this weeks newsletter you'll notice a few items just for tying streamers.

With over 750 different species of sculpins you can't go wrong by tying one of these on the end of your line. Big predatory fish find that they cannot help themselves from taking a Sculpin imitation.

For This and other great patterns check here! 


 Fly Tying Material of the Week
 JailHouse Marabou

Spirit River's Jailhouse Marabou is an all-natural marabou dyed bright colors and heavily barred to pack extra punch in your marabou fly patterns. The barbules are long and flexible making this material a breeze to work with. Jailhouse Marabou will add great movement to Wooly Buggers, British Columbian and Kamchatkan steelhead patterns, Alaskan salmon flies, and nymphs. Even emergers can benefit from this innovative material. Spirit River Jailhouse Marabou is available in red/orange, pink/purple, olive/black, chartreuse/orange, brown/black, and black/white colors. String up your favorite marabou flies and let 'em loose!

For this and other fine materials check here! 


 Articulated Shanks
 Bring your Streamers to Life!

The Articulated Shank is an innovative, new fly tying material designed to simplify the tying of articulated flies. It can be used as a simple component in different styles of articulated flies such as single-hook and two-hook articulated streamers, poppers and sliders. It is also used for streamers that use a free-swinging stinger hook such as Intruder-style salmon and steelhead flies. Easy-and-fast tying process. Increases tail action. Increases the overall fly length. Reduces the leverage a hooked fish typically places on a fly. Eliminates the need to "sacrifice a hook" to make a shank.

3 Shank lengths (20mm, 35mm and 55mm) 20 Shanks per pack Typically for streamer flies 3″ (7.5cm) and longer Wire diameter fits hook sizes starting from about #4 up to 3/0 Will fit the Fish-Skull (SM, M and L sizes) and the Fish-Skull Sculpin Helmet The high strength, stainless spring steel shank can be used in saltwater.

 


 Guide Trip of the Week.
 Fish with the Best!

2012 Horse Trips

We still have some availability on two of the horse trips we are offering this summer. Slough Creek August 1st-4th and Lamar August 21st-27th.

Space is limited on both of these trips and time is running out, so don't wait any longer to treat yourself to an exciting fishing trip in Yellowstone's back country!

All of the trip info is on our website which you can get to by clicking on the photo above. The price for the Slough Creek trip is $1799.00 Per Person. The Price for the Lamar Trip is $2999.00 per person. For more information please call us @ (406)646-9365 or email [email protected]

Blue Ribbon Guides, fish with the best! 


 Fly Sale!!
 Orange Goddard Caddis.

In trying to keep up with our promise we made at the beginning of the winter, we have yet another fly sale for you.

Orange Goddard Caddis

This is a great fly for October Caddis and as a indicator fly!

Once again we will let this fly go for only $1.00 a piece or until we run out.

Check out our blog... 


 Fish Skulls
 Finishing off your streamer

Quick-and-simple to tie, this latest innovation in fly tying offers fly fishermen an exciting alternative to using old-style dumbbells or cones to weight their flies. The Fish-Skull has unique design features making it a very versatile platform for tying a wide variety of realistic, weighted streamer patterns using natural or synthetic fly tying materials.

 


 It's Our Dam Water!
 Something you may not be aware of.

Sportsman for the Green have banned together In order to counter the threat the Million Pipeline project poses to the world-class fishing in Flaming Gorge Reservoir and the Green River below Flaming Gorge Dam, they need your help. Take action now to make sure this project is rejected, not just by the local residents of the area, but by regulatory agencies, state officials, and by concerned sportsmen and women across the West. To learn more either click the link below or the photo above.

For more information click here. 


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.

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