Won’t be all that long before adult skwalas start showing up on a lot of freestone cricks in this neck of the woods.
Last year, the FEB Skwala did quite well on my home water in Northern Idaho.
To further test the pattern, I tied it in a variety of colors, and did quite well with different color combinations.
For example, the Candy Cane version …
… and friend …
… and an orange and brown version …
… shown off by one of its fans …
But I do tend to stick to the colors of the original pattern …
John
Thought I should add the materials list and tying sequence information ( what is often referred to as an SBS ).
Follow the link to the Fly of the Week article on the FEB Skwala …
http://www.flyanglersonline.com/fotw/2012/fotw20120521.php
John
… the past few days. Tied up a couple fresh FEB Skwalas and headed for a side channel just down the road.
Found a few rising fishies, taking midges best I could tell, which were very plentiful this afternoon. But today was about the skwala pattern. One fishy took a close look at it here …
… and passed on it. But on the next cast, either he or his look-alike cousin came back and ate it …
In the very low, slow, clear water, one good tussle was all it took to put several other trouts down. So I wandered on down the side channel 'til I got to where the mainstem dumped into it …
… and where there was a decent sized pod of fishies actively rising to midge emergers and occasionally to an adult midge.
Very tempted to change out to a midge pattern, but stuck with the skwala. Had several rise to and take a close look at it but refuse it. Finally had one just kind of sip it down without hardly leaving sign of his rise, but he took his leave long distance, thank you.
A while later, one 'bow got excited about the goings on and absolutely exploded on the skwala …
… sticking himself quite solidly …
Good for him.
Good start on the Bitterroot skwala thing. May have to spend a bit more time on that crick than I have the past couple years.
John
John.
Thanks for the insight to the Skwala. I’m going to tie up some and try them out on the Clark Fork and Lightning Creek
after the run-off. I’ll let you know how things worked out. Don’t think I will get the chance to visit the waters where
you fish this year.
Crunchy
… Outdoors Section today was on the Skwala Season on the Bitterroot. Guess that makes it official. So …
… drifted an FEB skwala over this water …
… and got a hit that didn’t take. Drifted it right back over the same spot and …
I did feel bad for this guy, with all the blood, but best I could tell it was from the tongue area and not the gill and he seemed pretty peppy when I finally let him go.
Got a couple more hits while I worked my way down to this place …
… which seemed to me to be the best test for a pattern - nice soft, deep water where the fly just waffles around waiting for a fishy to come up and eat it - like this one …
Felt bad for this guy, too, what with the old hook scar and all.
On that soft patch of water, waffling the fly near the seam between the current and the soft water, on the soft water side, had a total of six fishies come up and hit the fly. Missed several of them, but hooked and tussled with one that looked to be around 18". He went bye-bye racing down stream with the fly.
Last year this fly did really well fishing for all those nearsighted, colorblind, dumb and starving cutthroat trout on my home water.
Nice to get the dry fly season off to a good start with these highly educated Bitterroot rainbows, which also seem to be nearsighted, colorblind, and starving, emphasis on the starving. :shock:
John