… are all in the near future on the freestone streams and rivers I fish in the Intermountain West and Northern Rockies.
For the past several years, an FEB Golden Stone / Hopper …
… has been a staple on cricks with golden stones and few, if any, hoppers, on cricks with hoppers and few, if any, golden stones, and cricks with a nice mix of the two over the summer months.
This grayling came from a SW Montana stream that has no golden stones at all …
… and this 20" Yellowstone cutt came from a small backcountry Montana river that sees little hopper activity …
Last summer, on my home water in Northern Idaho, the fly accounted for a 19.5" West Slope cutt …
… the biggest one I’ve caught there over the past four years. Got to say that when I saw this fishy coming to the fly from 5-6’ down and away it was quite an intense time waiting for the eat and the hook set.
Follow the link for a “step by step” in the guise of a FOTW article.
If you scroll through my posts on the sticky thread at the top of the Tenkara Forum, you will find a good number of pix of and references to fishing this pattern with a Tenkara rod.
This is a Tenkara Ayu on the same creek where I caught the Yellowstone cutt shown in the opening post …
… on a different day but again with an FEB Golden Stone / Hopper. Had a good number of fishies eat it that day …
A few weeks after I caught the 20" Yellowstone cutt with the hopper, I caught him again, with an FEB October Caddis fished off the Tenkara Ayu. That was really cool.
Had about 20 fishies on the golden stone and about another 20 on the salmonfly version.
The golden stone season on my home water lasts most of the summer and overlaps / runs concurrently with hoppers later in the summer. One fly for both those “hatches.” Almost seems like cheating.
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