mattpreat

I've been tying some spinners too lately, I don't know why I haven't tried them earlier. Next I'll try a few with that foam back, looks good

$75 on 4

Yep, just this season one of my boots started coming apart just like that, same situation with not much glue on them. I used some jb weld to patch it back together and its been alright for the past few trips but we will see if it continues to hold up

Nothing wrong with the fish skulls whatsoever, I love them for more basic streamer patterns. Both have their use for sure!

I've found I really like to use the fish skull sculpin helmets instead for patterns where you want the hook pointing up. The common reason I have seen for wanting the hook this way is to imitate sculpins that reside near the bottom of the stream, which require the hook up to avoid snags rather than being just for looks. Instead of the normal fish skulls your using, the fish skull sculpin helmets seem to be better at imitating this and have a lot more weight on them to force the hook point up, along with getting the fly down where you want it. If you give these a try I'm sure you'll be impressed with the results over the regular fish skulls

I've seen a few salmonflys on Prairie and some huge nymph casings that must've been salmonflys on the Cearwater as well. If you don't mind sharing, what patterns do you like to use to imitate these Lornce? I've been searching for a pattern that's a little more specific than just a big stimulator but haven't really found anything I like a whole lot

More: Soon after this great solo trip close to home, came a trip to the Livingstone area with my Dad, guided by Maxwell Robinson. Awesome trip! Back to around home again, Another good trip with my dad and Max, except on the bow this time. Not as many fish caught this trip, but I still got this nice bow Since the Bow didn’t produce any browns for us, I went and caught some of my own! Overall the best day of the year in terms of fish, I couldn’t quite keep track of how many I caught and the average size was fantastic. After that, I decided to spend a day hanging out with the old guys at Beaver Lake. Awesome company and learned lots this day! The fishing was good as well And that day led me to think it was a good idea to buy a bamboo rod from Don, and I’m glad I did! Best rod I could ask for, and it proved itself through the last few weeks of fishing for the year And for one of the last fishing trips I ended up taking a few pictures of, this was a slow day but amazing none the less And shortly after I was fishing again, except this time I had to deal with the ice

Hey guys, I thought now would be a good time to post up all my pictures I took last summer. I ended up having plenty of time throughout the summer and got out fishing every chance I got. Tons of great fish were caught and I saw some amazing area over the year, and now I feel this coming summer will be even better now that I know a lot more. Anyways here’s the pictures! One of the many way too early mornings out fishing for cutties Worth it! Stoneflies were out, but the fish just didn’t seem interested in anything after the early morning rush

Great ties ggp! Always love seeing your posts on here. As for me, I've just been finishing up on streamers lately

Articulated Barely Legal. Not sure what I plan on catching with it yet, but I just love the way this pattern looks.

I've yet to experience this, but I was just reading an article on salmonfly hatches that described that sometimes the actual hatch wont be the greatest fishing since the fish have filled up on the big nymphs before. It said in this case the best course of action was to fish the same flys you would during the hatch, except a few days after since the fish will still have the bugs in their memory. Could this possibly be what was happening here?

I started using 40lb flouro leader material last year tied to a heavy leader with a uni to uni knot and its held up to countless pike so far, no need to switch the fluoro out yet. I haven't landed any monsters with it though, max size was maybe 15lbs. Just make absolute sure you get fluorocarbon leader material, just regular line wont work near the same. The leader material is tough stuff. I also noticed quite a pretty decent difference in strikes when I switched to fluoro, the pike did seem to care a bit about it when I got out last year

Thanks for the info Terry, I never could quite get the hang of extended bodies but that explained it perfectly! Looks like I'll be tying a few of those green drakes up also

A few Woolly Buggers for the early season browns, a little messy but I'm sure the fish wont mind

Starting the day off with an awesome summer pattern I discovered last year, the Stoneflopper. Just curious, what is everyone's favorite colors for hoppers? My fly box now consists of a lot of tans and brown as they worked well last year, but I think I need to expand a bit. The whole batch so far:

I love my Willliams Joseph reel. I haven't compared it to anything else besides cheap ones, but so far its been excellent all around. Seems to be really good quality and does everything I would want from a reel really. No clue about the rods though, but I would expect the good quality would carry on to them as well

I got them at Sportsmens den in Red Deer. I originally went through it with the guy I always talk to there and it turned out to be much cheaper to buy those rather than the other ones where you have to put the stickers for the eyes on yourself. I'm not sure where else you could find them

Seen a video for this fly on my facebook feed and went ahead and tied it up, but instead used dumbell eyes rather than the gold bead they used. I thought it looked pretty neat and may work well

Ive always liked flymart. They have a pretty good selection and have awesome customer service. Shipping has always been fast and not too pricey either for larger orders.

I was actually tying these two flies before this weeks challenge. Figured I would post them up quickly First is an articulated sculpin. Only materials used are the fish skull sculpin helmet and cross cut zonker strips. The grey ones didnt turn out quite as great because the strips were thinner, although the body worked out fine still. This one is an Irresistible Griffiths Gnat. Only black deer belly hair and grizzly hackle used.

might have to try that strike indicator since it sounds pretty good. also if anyone wants can you please give me a good list of small nymphs i should use on the north raven? im going to be making an order at ickyflyworks.ca so i want to make sure i get the right ones that have a good chance of working.so far i think ill be getting the smallest side of bead head and normal hairs ear and a beadhead and normal pheasent tail and thats all i got so far since i know those two work. gonna keep looking but if anyone could give me some pointers itd be great!

damn guys you got me excited there about being able to use a hook i know how to use and catch fish with! i got a feeling though that once i get the smaller hooks i might actualy catch fish. also ive started tying some 16 san juan worms on the size 16 dry fly hooks that have been sitting around and they look pretty good and they might actualy work to. next time i go itll pretty much just be experimenting with hooks till i catch a fish. ill also read the book i got on fly fishing in alberta again, that should help me out a whole lot to.

next time i go ill try out a size 12 or 10 stimulator since thats usualy what works in the summer for me at other creeks. makes sence why it would work and like you say its definately worth a few casts. so far i think i might have much better luck at the north raven on friday with all these tips then the first time i went there!

are u sure size 20 is ok?? my size 18 Griffiths Gnats seem already pretty small and i dont even think i could manage to tie a nymph on a size 20 hook! for the movement on my indicator, i see none at all. im going to try and get smaller nymphs and try and be more sneaky since me seeing them and them seeing me could have alot to do with the problem. hopefully i can get those small hooks by friday so i can try and catch a fish or two. you guys got any tips on how to find such small of hooks? when i look for flies i never see any really small nymphs but im just looking in small stores that have fly fishing gear but im gonna look before i go out. thanks for the help guys!

i never did try and change my leader size, as i dont use a tippet since i prefer to just tie on fluorocarbon line, dont know what diffrence it makes but it works good for me. at the time i was using a 9 foot leader so they cant see my fly line. next time i go i will try that and i wont use a strike indicator at all as i did notice it scared a couple fish away. i wasnt using a split shot because my flys had a bead head so they sunk pretty good on there own. ive been using size 14 flys now, dont know if thats a good size or not but it seems pretty small so i think its good. this is actualy only my second time going fly fishing on a stream so i geuss i still need alot of practice to get things right. and it could also have been a off day for the trout since none were rising and they were using just hiding. going to try again friday if its nice and see if i have any luck then. if i dont get anything friday i will probably try and find somebody who can teach me since itd probably help me a whole lot. thanks for the replies!