3 Flies for the Week: September 24
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Time to read 3 min
Hello everyone, it’s good to be back with a 3 flies for the week! Although it is still warm on the front range, the mountains are quickly cooling off and fishing is really turning on. I would anticipate the dry fly bite to be much slower, but the streamer bite has been great as brown trout are in their pre-spawn stage where they’re very territorial and eager to put on some weight before the spawn.
Since it’s about that time of the year, we have to warn everyone that spawning beds, known as redds, will be appearing very soon and it’s our responsibility to leave these alone. This goes for both redds that have fish actively spawning, and those that don’t alike. Trout eggs are very delicate and we cannot be walking around or on them to prevent smashing or suffocating the eggs. Most of the time redds are in shallower water and this is where we typically choose to cross the water. It’s still ok to walk in shallow water, but be very vigilant of redds and choose to only walk downstream of them.
Now that’s out of the way, let’s get to this week's flies!
#1: Articulated Sparkle Yummy - Sunburst Yellow sz1/0 (In-Store Only)
The articulated sparkle yummy is the flashiest articulated streamer on the market and we like that. Flash gets the attention of fish very well, but also creates a more realistic presentation to your fly over dull ones. Reason being is that fish in the water have a shimmer to them, you see this throughout fighting a fish. The flash coming from the fish is particularly presented when they turn or move an erratic motion, which is exactly what we’re trying to do when presenting our streamers. With that being said, it’s clear why we like to fish this fly! This fly also has a fair amount of rubber legs on it that also helps its “huntability” since it can activate a trout’s lateral line and help get their attention on the fly, even when they can’t see it. Slap a large sized tungsten cone on the front, and you have an absolute fish hunter!
Pro tip: due to the size of this fly (4.5 - 5”) we recommend throwing this fly with a minimum of a 7wt.
#2: Tungsten BH Pheasant Tail - sz18
A classic that seems to always catch fish, the pheasant tail can be fished practically year-round just changing the size. Right now the freestones and tailwaters alike are seeing the first stages of the fall-BWO hatch, and if you know anything about trout and BWO’s you’d know that they love this hatch. Although the fall-BWO is much smaller than the spring version (typically a size 22 to 26) this fly still does wonders during the hatch. Plus, due to this flies' simple design, it can resemble just a regular ole bug and nothing else, and because of that fish are still confident in eating it.
Pro tip: during the fall migratory run of the Dream Stream there’s a common misconception that the brown trout will only eat smaller offerings being that they’re swimming into a tailwater. Although it can be incredibly effective throwing small bugs, it’s smart to remember that these fish are coming out of a lake where they’re generally eating much larger food items. So it’s not a bad idea to throw larger stuff, however, many people like to do this and these fish wise up to the pointy, big bugs that stab their mouth very quickly. To meet somewhere in the middle, we like to throw bugs that are in that size 16-20 range in order to have a better landing ratio than we would with tailwater bugs, not scare fish like we would with larger size 10-14 offerings, and help differentiate us from everyone else’s rig. A perfect bug for this is a sz18 pheasant tail!
#3: Jig Frenchie - Original sz14 3.3mm
A very simple fly, the frenchie is another all-time classic and a favorite in the shop day-in, day-out. The simple design keeps the fish from overthinking the details of your fly, and keeps them confident in eating your fly. Much like other jig patterns, we like to fish this fly in a multitude of manners. Hopper-dropper, euro, indicator, stillwater, you name it we use it. If you’re using this on the tailwaters right now we advise using this fly as a point of a euro rig, or as a lead fly on an indicator rig. For freestones that are low and clear we advise fishing the same, but in bigger waters like the Colorado, Roaring Fork, lower Arkansas, and beyond, we typically fish this second on our rig behind a bigger offering.
Best of luck on the water this week and we hope these flies catch a fish or two for ya. Two out of the three flies are available on our website and all are available in the shop.
Xavier Puls
If you have any questions or concerns, feel free to reach out to Xavier on email at xavier@goldenflyshop.com, or call the shop at 303-330-1292. Thank you!