Fishing Yellowstone National Park’s famous Slough Creek can be a real test of skill and fly fishing knowledge. The Cutthroat trout are tough to catch and by mid-season have seen most every fly available. Knowing a few key flies and how and when to fish them can make all the difference.
There are a few flies I would not be without on Slough, this is one of them. That’s why my buddy Ben named it as such. Anytime you see a fly with a creeks name, and you are going to fish that creek… You’re going to want some of those.
This spinner pattern is my go to pattern for most any mayfly… I just adjust the hook size and colors of materials.
I enjoy tying this fly even though it has more materials than I like and they can be troublesome to manage.
Here you see wing bundles, each made up of white and dark gray Widow’s Web and 2 strands of Krystal Flask. Turkey rounds of Gray-olive biots are used to wrap the body and moose body hair is spilt to form the tails.
using a size #12-14 dry fly hook with Danville Olive thread, tails formed and a biot at the ready for wrapping…
wrapping the biot forward with the rib exposed…
wings added with figure 8 wraps and thread dubbed with gray dubbing…
wrap the thorax with the dubbed thread using more figure 8’s and then form the head and double whip finish…
a completed Jewell’s Slough Creek Spinner.
I fish this fly in size #12 during the Green Drake hatch and spinner fall. I fish it greased, 12 inches or so behind a EMT Green Drake Emerger as these spinners are tough to see on the water and the EMT acts as my indicator. It’s best fished to slow risers in quieter water. Also, I like to feed them to difficult fish when nothing else seems to work by fishing them as a trailer without floatant as a drowned dun… this usually does the trick.
Great fly and pics, as always; thanks to you for posting and to Ben for the pattern. On the wing, do you mix the WW, stack dark on top of the white, or vice-versa? Reason I’m asking is because if you mix it, Congo Hair comes in a blend of white/charcoal grey which would save me some time blending.
Scott - I stack them as best I can, dark gray over flash over white… Things can get a bit mixed when tying them in and I’m not sure what difference it makes whether mixed or stacked. These are for the shop… But, when tying them for myself I will check out the Congo Hair, thanks for the tip…
