S. L. T.

Fly Patterns
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21

John -

Already got pretty close, if you consider using the tag end of the body material for the wing / parchute post the same as forming a “loop wing”. I personally think of a loop wing as something distinctly different than a wing / post, but others might consider them the same.

Follow the link …

http://www.flyanglersonline.com/bb/showthread.php?48526-J.-A.-Y.-Thing-…

… and it would be very easy to tie this fly as an FEB rather than as shown ( with the material wrapped around the hook shank ). When you make the FEB, just leave some of the antron strand free of one clip, and, after a turn or two, position that freestanding material at about center of the FEB. When ready to furl the FEB, just pull at the point where the freestanding material separates from the FEB and you will have an FEB with a trailing shuck.

John

22

Here are a few I tied. Split wing.

SLT 2.jpg
SLT 2.jpg1515×1133 79.1 KB
SLT 1.jpg
SLT 1.jpg1405×1051 75.9 KB
SLT 3.jpg
SLT 3.jpg1344×1006 80 KB

23

The SLT has proven itself a worthy addition to my collection of sedge flies - as in simple, effective, durable, good enough.

The simplicity was obvious from the get go. But since I first fished it on October 2, I’ve gotten in about half a dozen more days of field testing. A couple of those days presented very weak hatches, but several of them produced lots of rising fishies for a couple hours in the mid afternoon.

Every day that I had occasion to fish the SLT, it has proven very effective, consistently taking trouts wherever they were rising. It has also proven very durable. Yesterday, for example, I had at least a dozen …

… on one size 18 in PMD colors before I switched to a fresh fly. The first fly was still in very good shape and fishable, but it was waterlogged to the extent it didn’t float long enough for the drifts I wanted to make. It will go back to fishing, with a fresh application of floatant, next time out, assuming the hatch continues later this week.

Yep, it’s good enough.

John

P.S. In the for what it is worth category - I fish this off a thread furled leader which submerges but doesn’t sink either the size 20 or size 18 versions. However, the submerged leader may be a factor in the fly not floating satisfactorily after the best part of an hour on the water and a dozen fishies sliming it up.

Also, clearly any number of appropriately sized and properly presented flies would most likely work as well, and maybe better, for this hatch. But the fact is, this one got the job done.

P.P.S. One thing I have noticed with the size 20 - it gets a lot of attention but the hook up ratio is much lower than with the size 18. Part of that may be that the 9DH hackling either gets in the way or makes the fly prone to move away from the fishy when it hits the fly. The same basic fly may be more dependable in size 20 with a standard parachute.

24

I really like the sedge fly idea. As fly tiers, I think we sometimes are seduced into the quest for a more precise imitation. However more often than not, a simple fly is “good enough” to get the job done if we provide a good presentation.

25

Spent about an hour and a half before the hatch got started yesterday stripping another s.e.d.g.e. - the Pine Squirrel Cheater, which, for those not familiar with it, consists of a strip of pine squirrel zonker tied to a hook in a particular way.

Something like 15 cutthroat trouts thought it was “good enough”. And two …

[](http://s273.photobucket.com/user/jfs_photo/media/Lochsa 2013/PA250002_edited_zps1819b8c1.jpg.html)

[](http://s273.photobucket.com/user/jfs_photo/media/Lochsa 2013/PA250006_edited_zps6b40e4f5.jpg.html)

… bull trouts took it back to back, although they were separated by a couple miles of river. The first one was the last fish I caught on one stretch and the second one was the first fish I caught on the next place I fished. Got to say that those bull trout are very interesting fishies. Don’t catch many of them, but it always strikes me that they are much slimmer than cutthroat trout, they are noticeably heavier for their length than a cutt would be, and they are much stronger inch for inch and fight harder and longer than the cutts.

Anyway, the hatch did come off again right on time. Fished a new piece of water that was really interesting - lots of mixed currents that presented some real presentation challenges and lots of fishies rising way out across unwadeable water. Got about a dozen …

[](http://s273.photobucket.com/user/jfs_photo/media/Lochsa 2013/PA250014_edited_zps0f7db295.jpg.html)

… in the first hour plus at that spot …

[](http://s273.photobucket.com/user/jfs_photo/media/Lochsa 2013/SLT_zps67daca51.jpg.html)

… on the SLT.

Headed on downstream a way and fished to a bunch more rising fishies. Got another eight or nine there, the last five on a fly that I used last outing. Then it was time to head for home. So that fly went back in the box for the next outing, probably tomorrow.

John

P.S. For those who need a “stream porn” fix, here are a couple bonus pix …

[](http://s273.photobucket.com/user/jfs_photo/media/Lochsa 2013/PA250004_edited_zpsf3a5c6ca.jpg.html)

[](http://s273.photobucket.com/user/jfs_photo/media/Lochsa 2013/PA250016_edited_zpscb5f3340.jpg.html)

26

John, I thought PMD’s were a summer hatch - what are they doing on your stream in October? I sure like your sedge flies. Tried one in a 22 on the San Juan and it took fish. If only my presentation was better, I’m sure I’d catch more.

27

Karen -

Somewhere in the past few weeks I saw the phrase “summer of uncertain hatches”. Can’t remember where, but the phrase certainly applies to my home water.

To start with, there was a great PMD ( infrequens ) hatch in early April - and they were a HUGE PMD. Then there was a solid salmonfly hatch for a couple months. And practically no golden stones. And only an occasional single green drake or two here and there once in a while over the summer, and never a consistent hatch with fishies up on them. And no caddis around at all, except for a very weak October Caddis hatch. Haven’t tied or fished a small caddis pattern all year. And no summer PMDs to speak of. And what happened to the March Browns and the Mahogany Duns ??? Not to mention BWOs, which have hardly shown at all.

So to top it off, there’s been a very, very small PMD around most of October, and the past week or so there has been another significant hatch of something on the upper stretches of the river in the early evening, about the time I’m headed for home, so I haven’t stopped to see what it is. Probably a caddis.

Uncertain for sure. The river took a beating this year with the really low flows and persistent high temps, which is probably the reason, or one of the reasons, for the weird hatches and / or lack thereof. So it has been a matter of observing and adjusting, much more so than most years. Makes it challenging, and interesting. And has resulted in coming up with a few new patterns that I didn’t need in prior years.

John

28

The variation is simply using CDL fibers for the tailing and wing / post instead of mallard flank feather.

The new s.e.d.g.e. is better called a Silly Little Thing consisting of one material - CDC. Tied in a single feather with the tip overhanging the bend for a shuck. Wrapped the thread forward binding down the feather to about the 2/3 point. Wound a couple layers of thread to bulk up the abdomen and then wrapped the thread forward ahead of the CDC to just behind the eye of the hook. Pulled the CDC feather forward to form a loop wing and secured it.

The variation is to get a little different look, and to experiment with the basic pattern in a different material.

The new fly was kind of a knee jerk response to a comment I heard on a fly tying video that was very negative about CDC - to the point that it is only good for one fish before it needs to be changed out. My experience is very different than that, so this morning I decided to do the simple, silly little thing using only CDC and then go see how many fishies it would stand up to.

Fished them both today. The hatch was a bit later, and by happenstance I ended up looking upstream …

[](http://s273.photobucket.com/user/jfs_photo/media/Lochsa 2013/PA270017_edited_zps850bdc5e.jpg.html)

… and downstream …

[](http://s273.photobucket.com/user/jfs_photo/media/Lochsa 2013/PA270018_edited_zps4b63e839.jpg.html)

… on some water that I’ve only fished once before, just about the time hatch got going.

The silly little thing got seven or eight …

[](http://s273.photobucket.com/user/jfs_photo/media/Lochsa 2013/PA270010_edited_zps84e39e46.jpg.html)

… before it needed to be changed out. The second one got lost in some foliage after only a couple more takers. So much for good quality CDC being a “one fish” material.

The CDL variation also did quite nicely, taking the biggest dry fly fish of the day …

[](http://s273.photobucket.com/user/jfs_photo/media/Lochsa 2013/PA270015_edited_zps7bc86e72.jpg.html)

… at just under 17". I had one that was close to 18" before the hatch got started and a way downstream on that s.e.d.g.e. streamer, the PSC.

Along with a bunch more fish on the CDL variation, an original SLT got in on the action for its share of fun. Unfortunately, it didn’t occur to me to get out the one I fished the last two outings to complete the durability test. Oh well …

The catching was so good ( easy ) today, that I actually wrapped up before the hatch wound down. Not sure that says more about the fishies or the flies.

John

29

Glad I got to see that country once, John, the pictures just take my breath away. You deserve to be getting some “simple” fishing after the summer that was there.

30

… for several hours yesterday before a very light and short lived hatch came off.

The PSC accounted for …

[](http://s273.photobucket.com/user/jfs_photo/media/Lochsa 2013/PB010007_edited_zpsa1f9b405.jpg.html)

… this 22" bull trout, along with about a dozen cutthroats. Most of the cutts were in the 12-15" bracket but there were several up in the 16-17" range.

The hatch only lasted about half an hour, but the SLT was good enough for half a dozen cutts, about half of the fishies actually rising within casting distance. The rest of the fishies were really keyed in on stuff high in the water column and just wouldn’t come up to the surface to feed.

Over four weeks now with good results on the SLT. Wondering how much longer it will last as a menu item for the local fishies.

John

P.S. As soon as that bull trout pulled, there was no doubt what he was and that he was big. The only question was how big. I wasn’t at all surprised that he went 22". I’m disappointed with the pic, but I wanted to get him back in the crick so I didn’t take the time to get a back up pic. :sad:

31

Great fish! He’s not real fat, is he? Is that the nature of the bulls?

32

Karen -

I don’t have a lot of experience with bull trouts. For all the time I’ve spent on my home water the past four years, I’ve only caught about half a dozen - a couple this past spring and four in the past month or so.

This guy …

[](http://s273.photobucket.com/user/jfs_photo/media/Lochsa 2013/P4030005_edited_zps8512aea8.jpg.html)

… from last spring, has a bit more heft to him than the others, but even he is on the slim side compared to the cutts in the system in the same time.

At least as to my home water and the few bull trout that I’ve landed, they have consistently been quite trim.

A couple things that might be of interest to some folks - we are nearing the end of the bull trout spawning season which generally runs from late August through early November. And this is the time of year when there are a lot of chinook salmon fry in the system, just starting their trip from the headwater spawning cricks down to the Pacific.

Which are factors, I believe, in incidentally hooking up with bull trouts while streamer fishing for cutthroat trout. The bull trout I’ve been hooking up recently are almost certainly migratory spawners, which are only higher up in the system for a couple months out of the year. The PSC is a really good imitation for size, shape, action, and color for all those salmon fry, which just happen to be a staple for bulls while they ( the fry ) are in the system ( and most likely a delight to the cutthroat trouts, also ).

Started fishing the PSC a few weeks ago when conditions ( light, water, and wind ) just weren’t at all good for dry fly fishing, and stayed with it because it was a nice change of pace to swing / strip a streamer and because the fishies were really getting on it. Kind of a serendipity thing - haven’t streamer fished there in four years and all of a sudden … Bingo !!

John