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February 21, 2013 
 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

Photo by Patrick Daigle Photo by Patrick Daigle

I'd like to thank the Missouri River Fly Fishers in Great Falls, Mt and Ozark Fly Fishers in St. Louis, Mo. for their kind hospitality during my presentations to their clubs the past 2 weeks. We had a great time tying flies and putting on conservation and fly fishing presentations. I will be at Montana Troutfitters in Bozeman this Saturday, February 23, to do a fly thing demonstration. Hope to see you there!

Blue Ribbon Flies has always been known for our innovative fly patterns and tying materials, it has been that way now for over 33 years. This newsletter our first special fly tying news featuring materials, flies and much more. We hope you enjoy this issue!

Make sure you check our special section of Soft Hackle Materials. We've added Premium Partridge in several colors as well as rare English Grouse. Our mini-grouse skins, valley quail, chucker and starling are all prime quality and tie some of the most effective and beautiful soft hackles!

We have the best selection of our tying hair in now too. Just in from our tannery we have a fresh stock of elk hair for x caddis to deer hair for sparkle duns and stimulators our hair is the finest available to fly tiers there is. Same with our moose hair. Now is the time to get your hair supply!

We hope you enjoy this first ever Special Fly Tying Newsletter! And, we hope to see you soon in Yellowstone country. If a guided fishing trip is in your plans keep in mind that some July dates are booked so call soon to avoid disappointment!

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 summer and fall 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

Fishing Report By Craig Mathews

Keep in mind the Madison, which is still a great bet, is open all year between the lakes as well as the McAtee bridge to Ennis stretch along with the river downstream of Ennis Dam. The river from Earthquake Lake to McAtee remains open through 28 February. After that it will close to protect spawning rainbow trout. Midges are bringing up lots of fish and February is the best month to fish midge times. Zelon and Skittering Midges will be your go-to flies when fish key on single emerging midges. Around noon you should see mating clumps form and big trout then key on mating clumps of adults so a Griffiths Gnat #16-20 should work then. Nymphing anglers are doing very well with Dips, Wired Dips and GM's. The Gallatin River will fish too near Deer Creek and Big Sky with the same patterns.

 


 Fly Tying Yellowstone Hatches Vol II
 Now Only 19.99

Hatches II DVD In celebration we are offering our volume 2 of Fly Tying Yellowstone Hatches for only $19.99. This award winning DVD normally sells for $29.99. Now is the time to get tying flies for this season and our DVD can help providing valuable instructions on tying our best flies along with a history of the flies and much more.

 


 Dubbing Dispensers
 From UV2 to Super Fine

Dubbing Dispensers have been a great item, especially for those of us who have a hard time keeping all of our tying materials organized. Each type of these organizers feature the most popular colors of that particular dubbing. These dispensers are perfect for the bench or for the Fly Tier that travels. New to the dispenser line up is the new UV2 Fine & Dry with 12 colors of premium dubbing.

To make these dispensers easier to find we gave them their own category on our website so check it out.

To see our entire dubbing selection click here. 


 Mini Grouse Skins, Valley Quail and Chuckar
 

These smaller sized or Mini Grouse skins are perfect for tying smaller soft hackles and still maintain the colors and markings of the larger skins. For the price as well as quality, these skins have been very popular with our professional fly tiers.

We have just received a new shipment of Valley Quail from one of our local hunters who has been drying these skins for many many weeks now. Valley Quail has become a staple for us here at Blue Ribbon and one of the main reasons for this has been the use of the entire skin. Throughout the skin we have tied flies from #22 up to size #10 and it's perfect shades of medium to light dun allow for uses in many different patterns.

The barred flank feathers showing white, black and chestnut red make great cheeks on streamers and salmon flies. The Chuckar skin also makes for great legs and tails on many nymph patterns. If your wanting to give your soft hackles just a little different look try this brown, black, tan, cream and rusty ginger colored skin.

More Bird Skins and Feathers. 


 Alec Jackson Hooks
 The Perfect Soft Hackle Hook

Bucky wanted to mention Alec Jackson North Country Hooks. We feel this is the finest hook, certainly the sharpest, for tying soft hackles. We even offer it in size #13! We like it for our soft hackle patterns, especially those tied with silk floss, as the floss bodies tied on this hook will stay bright and not dull since the hook is silver. Too, flies tied on this great hook are always proportioned perfectly.

We have begun carrying 25 packages of TMC's famous 100 and 206BL hooks as for now we only have a limited size range in these hooks and are considering expanding our selection of TMC 25 packs. Still the same great quality hook just in a smaller quantity.

For our entire hook selection click here. 


 Lightning Strike Hook Assorments
 

Speaking more on hooks our hook assortments are all back in stock with every hook needed to tie dry flies or nymphs in one handy to use magnetic box!

The highest quality fly tying hooks made 180 hook assortment packaged in a 12-compartment magnetic hook box A tremendous value. The Nymph/Wet Lightning Strike Assortment contains 15 each of models NW1 and NW3 hooks in sizes 8, 10, 12, 14, 16, and 18. NW1 and NW3 Compare to TMC 3769 and TMC 3761 respectfully. The Dry Fly Lightning Strike Assortment contains 15 each of models DF1 and DF3 hooks in sizes 10-20. DF1 and DF3 Compare to TMC 100 and TMC 101 Respectively.

 


 Premium Partridge
 Hand Plucked.

Don't need a full Hungarian Partridge skin? Need a variety of colors? Look no further. We've got a great selection of these fine feathers in a multitude of colors. Choose from Brown Olive, Olive, Sulphur Orange, Yellow, Caddis Green, Dark Olive, Natural, Bleached, Brown and Medium Dun.

 


 English Grouse and Bulk CDC
 

A full 3 Grams of prime CDC feathers. Great for our CDC sparkle duns and CDC Caddis. This is a SUPER value at only $7.50.

Finally!! English Grouse feathers have come back to Blue Ribbon Flies!

A tighter barring than partridge and a rounded feather with a black, brown, and rust barring make this the classic material for larger soft hackle collars. Superb fly tying hackle feathers for nymph legs and tails.

 


 Hard to Find Items
 Golden Pheasant, Lady Amherst, Blue Peacock

Hard-to-find Lady Amherst and golden pheasant capes are in stock as are blue peacock feathers. These are beautiful feathers. Golden pheasant tippets will provide excellent color and attraction qualities to a host of dry fly patterns while Lady Amherst Center tail tippet fibers make beautiful tails and wings. Blue Peacock feathers are a really nice irridecsent blue feather cannot be duplicated by synthetic material and is great for tying cheeks and collars.

 


 Fox Tails
 Artic, Silver and Red

Artic, silver and red foxtails have just arrived from our trappers. We like to tie our Clouser Minnows using the fur from these winter-furred tails as they give the best movement in the water.

 


 Vises
 This is where it all starts!

Pictured are the vises that Bucky and Craig tie on. These vises have been used for thousands of dozens of flies.

The first thing, the very foundation on which a well -proportioned and durable fly is built on is a quality vise. Both Bucky and Phil, our video guru, like their Renzetti 3000 for tying small flies. Both find the small jaws best for tying patterns from midges to hoppers. Too both like the rotary feature for checking out the underside of their flies. And, they like the "looks" of the vise. I have used my Regal Stainless now since they came out years ago. I like the way it holds small as well as large hooks. I tie everything from tiny Zelon Midges to huge Black Death Tarpon flies on mine and have for years, maintenance free! Dr. Slick's Razor Scissors are our favorite for tying all flies. The Renzetti hair stackers can't be beat and Bucky would never give up his Rite Bobbins since they can be adjusted to fit any tension for tying with any spool of tying threads.

 


 Fly Sale
 Attract Ant Black/Yellow

Ants are the most numerous of all terrestrials and serious trout food.

These are size #16 and we are letting these flies go for only a buck per fly. The sale will run for only one week or until we run out, so jump online and stock up while you still can!

 


 Veevues Thread
 A must have.

Veevus threads should be on your list of "must haves" for fly tying this season if you have not tried these incredibly tiny yet strong threads. Sure to be your go-to tying thread for small flies this 16/0 thread comes in great colors. The white and black are perfect for tying Tricos, olive/dun is our favorite for tiny blue-winged olive Baetis patterns and the light cahill color has become our pick when tying Slough Creek Baetis and small PMD's for late season flies on the Henry's Fork.

 


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!


Unitl next week! Have a great weekend.
The Gang at Blue Ribbon

phone: 406.646.7642
fax: 406.646.9045