mike63
Well-known member
Landon Mayer was at the Peak Fly Shop here in Colorado Springs yesterday and gave a 1 hour lecture on "Fishing the Four Seasons" here in CO. He emphasized the winter season especially given the time of year and did a fly tying demo of the Tube Midge, his top winter midge (available through Umpqua).
I thought I would distill some of his advice here on flies.
Winter: Rojo Midge, Tube Midge (red or black), JuJe Bee and high-vis Griffith's Gnat are his go to flies this time of year. He emphasized not going smaller than 22. The bigger fish just don't get hooked easily on smaller flies. He likes a size 20.
Spring/Summer: His favorite dry fly: The Barr's Vis-a-Dun. The beauty of it is you can vary the colors of the body to imitate a BWO, PMD, Trico, Red Quill, etc. He says never to be without a BWO emerger in Jun/Jul. His favorite nymph is also my favorite fly, the Bead Head Flashback Pheasant Tail which he claims is simply a consistent "go to" producer most of time anywhere in CO.
Fall: Copper John's and swear's by red. Favorite Streamer is a natural looking olive woolly bugger, small black Moorish Mouse and his absolute favorite hopper fly is the Fat Albert in different body colors but with red legs. Floats like a cork. Likes the Amy's ant too.
He offered a lot of techniques on how to fish these flies too, along with some great videos of live action. His basic nymph set up is a Fluorocarbon 9 ft leader with a triple surgeons knot tailing 18 inches of fluoro tippet to the first fly and 24 inches to the second. He likes the weighted fly to be forward in thinner water, trailing in deeper. 12 noon to dark is best time to fish here in winter especially on an overcast day where there is a 40-50 degree thermal effect. Avoids split shot and indicators in winter in preference of weighted midges.
Probably nothing overly revealing here but though I would share his comments. After all he is a Zen Master guiding 200 days per year and catches monster trout.
I thought I would distill some of his advice here on flies.
Winter: Rojo Midge, Tube Midge (red or black), JuJe Bee and high-vis Griffith's Gnat are his go to flies this time of year. He emphasized not going smaller than 22. The bigger fish just don't get hooked easily on smaller flies. He likes a size 20.
Spring/Summer: His favorite dry fly: The Barr's Vis-a-Dun. The beauty of it is you can vary the colors of the body to imitate a BWO, PMD, Trico, Red Quill, etc. He says never to be without a BWO emerger in Jun/Jul. His favorite nymph is also my favorite fly, the Bead Head Flashback Pheasant Tail which he claims is simply a consistent "go to" producer most of time anywhere in CO.
Fall: Copper John's and swear's by red. Favorite Streamer is a natural looking olive woolly bugger, small black Moorish Mouse and his absolute favorite hopper fly is the Fat Albert in different body colors but with red legs. Floats like a cork. Likes the Amy's ant too.
He offered a lot of techniques on how to fish these flies too, along with some great videos of live action. His basic nymph set up is a Fluorocarbon 9 ft leader with a triple surgeons knot tailing 18 inches of fluoro tippet to the first fly and 24 inches to the second. He likes the weighted fly to be forward in thinner water, trailing in deeper. 12 noon to dark is best time to fish here in winter especially on an overcast day where there is a 40-50 degree thermal effect. Avoids split shot and indicators in winter in preference of weighted midges.
Probably nothing overly revealing here but though I would share his comments. After all he is a Zen Master guiding 200 days per year and catches monster trout.
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