Back in March I published an article on Killer Flies for Pike in which I described the Go Go Ray fly pattern. I have been using this fly for a few years now and after another summer of pike fly fishing, it’s time for a few improvements to the pattern. The more I fish this fly, and another fly I created, the Iron Butterfly Minnow, the more information I can gather and put towards building a better fly.

This summer provided me a few days of stark contrast. One relatively calm day I was standing on the back of my boat casting the Iron Butterfly Minnow in the hopes of hooking a few pike.

Another boat trolled by and ask me what I was doing and if fly fishing actually caught fish. I told them fly fishing was my secret weapon, when spoons and jigs aren’t working, I pull out the fly rod. Just then, Wham!, a pike hits the fly and the rod bends. Timely proof delivered on cue. However my proof was short lived, lost the fish 10 feet from the boat. That was followed by a few more episodes of the same thing, a strike, pull, head shake, fish gone. I knew the fly pattern was good, I was getting fish to bite aggressively, but landing none. I switched to the Go Go Ray fly, one tied a few years ago that had a few battle scars.

Next hit from a pike, hooked up, netted, landed, released. Again, hooked, netted, landed. I fished for another hour, caught a few more, until the poor Go Go Ray pike fly was battered and torn apart. I retired the fly and with the sun already set, headed in for the evening.

The following weekend I was back out with one of my sons, a newly tied Go Go Ray on the fly rod. The next 5 pike strikes, back to the old pattern, a strong hit, a strong pull, a head shake, and the fish was gone. The saving grace of that evening of fishing was landing a nice walleye on the Go Go Ray.

After close inspection, I have a pretty good idea of why i have gone through streaks of losing fish and streaks of landing fish. Last summer I recall that I had a few short streaks of losing fish I felt I had well hooked. At that time, the Go Go Ray and the Iron Butterfly patterns were tied with two hooks, one facing downward, one facing upward. Still I was losing fish. So for 2020, the pike flies I tied had just one hook. Based on results, seems like a bad idea. Examining the beat up Go Go Ray fly that was my most successful fly of 2020, I noticed that although it was the two hook version which means it would have been tied in 2019. But more importantly, one of the hooks had been rotated 90 degrees, so I had a downward facing hook and a sideways facing hook. Think of a treble hook with only two hooks. My theory is that the single and double hooks were somehow laying flat in the mouth of a pike and pulling free without hooking in when the pike did the head shake.

The solution was simple for those flied with two hooks, simply grab one hook with one set up pliers and use another to rotate the other hook 90 degrees.

For flies I tied in early 2020, they flies with the highest lost fish ratio, I have taken them back to the tying vice and added a second hook, turned at 90 degrees.

One more trip out on the water this coming weekend will be the test.

I’ve been tying flies for pike fishing for about 10 years now. Some have not caught anything, others have been very successful. About 5 years ago I started tying a variation of the clouser minnow, using crystal flash. I cast that into a very pike infested bay and hooked pike after pike. The color combination that worked best was a red “bloody cheek”, white underbody and blue upper body.

In the years since I have come up with a couple of my own fly patterns that work really well for pike so I gave them names. My top two go to flies are the Go Go Ray and the Iron Butterfly Minnow. The Go Go Ray is named after a drummer in a blues band. Not because they look alike, but I did give the fly a set of “drumsticks”. The Iron Butterfly Minnow is named for the band, Iron Butterfly, of “Ina-Godda-Da-Vida” fame. Me and my fishing buddy snuck in to a bar in the mid-80’s to see them live.

Today I’m going to tell you about the newest of my flies for pike, the Double Bass Go Go Ray. This fly features lead wire wound around the length of the shaft, making it heavy enough to sink to deeper waters in the heat of summer. The ingredients include (in order of appearance):

• 3XH/7XL streamer hooks
• black thread
• lead wire
• red crystal flash
• black crystal antron chenile
• white crystal flash
• Semperfli predator fibre baitfish olive
• dumbbell eyes
• head cement

Even thought that’s a lot of ingredients, it’s at most a 2 out of 5 for tying difficulty. Remember this is a fly for pike fishing so if in doubt, add a few more wraps of thread and an extra of glue.

Pinch off the barb and put the hook in the vice. Wind on the thread near the head and catch in the lead wire.

Wrap the lead wire all the way back the shank to a point opposite the point and then snip it off. Overwrap the thread all the way back over the lead wire. Add enough wraps of thread to secure the tag end of the lead wire. You can add some head cement here for extra hold.

Over wrap back up the to just short of the eye and catch in the “bloody cheek” section of red crystal flash. Normally I will keep this to about an inch long. I went a little longer on this fly.

Cut about 2 inches of chenile for the “drum sticks”. I usually use olive chenile for this but only had black in my stock pile. Fold in half and lay over the hook, about a 1/4 inch behind the eye. You want these to dangle downwards. Wrap it in. Add some head cement.

Cut some white crystal flash, about 2-1/2″ long. Lay it on the top of the hook and wrap over with about 10 tight turns. Add a few drop of cement. Cut the olive Semperfli predator fibre slightly longer than the white crystal flash. Lay it on top of the white and wrap it in with another 10 wraps and add some more cement.

Wrap forward with the black thread to just behind the eye and wrap in the dumbbell eyes. Add another 5 or 6 wraps behind the hook eye and tie it off, adding some more cement atop the dumbbell eyes and the final wraps.

I would rather catch a fish, any fish, on a fly rod. A big pike, head shaking, pulling line, is tons of fun on a spin cast rod and reel. Catch the same pike on a fly rod (pic below) and it feels completely different.  The pull is different, the fight is different, and of course the technique of casting and hooking a fish is very different.  I like to fly fish for pike from my boat, either anchoring or drifting through pike waters.

But now let’s talk about fly fishing for Perch.  Most people associate fly fishing with casting dry flies on a river for trout.  It’s also a great way of fishing for trout in lakes.  But fly fishing is also a tremendous way to catch Perch, lots and lots of Perch.  So I have decided to compare fly fishing for trout in still water (lakes and reservoirs) with fly fishing for Perch on a lake.

First of all, like any fishing, go where the fish are likely to be.  Perch will hang out in weed structure and under the shadows of above water structure, such as docks and fallen trees so these are great areas to target.  If you have access to a dock on a lake in the southern half of Saskatchewan, you probably have Perch around.  Where there is one Perch, there are likely many.

I have realized, but trying every method I could think of, that you can catch Perch as long you put something attractive in front of them with some movement.  I have had success with all of the following fishing techniques:

• by wading out into the water and casting back to the weeds
• casting from a dock over weed structure
• casting from a boat back over weeds
• from a kayak positioned to cast along the edge of the weeds or beside the shady edge of a dock
• from a belly boat beyond the weeds, casting back to shore

So, just about any method that let’s you get a fly to the weeds, within a couple feet of where the fish are.

Fly’s that work:

• Mickey Finn
• Caddis Fly
• Egg Sucking Leach
• Bead Head Nymph
• Muddler Minnow

When I fly fish for trout and they are actively rising to feed at the surface, I will try to cast to the rise, bringing the same fish back up to the surface for another bite.  While that has worked with rainbow trout on lakes, ponds, and rivers, it’s rarely successful with Perch.  But a similar technique will work, cast beyond the rise and strip line to pull the fly back over where the rise occurred.  When doing this, I have often seen Perch nipping at my fly line, right at the tip where I have my fly line looped and secured with black thread.  I think the Perch are mistaking the black thread for a leach or other small black worm.  So when I then drag my leader followed by an egg sucking leach across the same spot, I often have a bite.

Perch are very aggressive feeders and because they hand around in schools of many fish, it’s quite common to see fish moving in small groups of anywhere from 2 to 10 fish at once, chasing a fly.  There is competition among the fish in the group to take a run at the fly/food so if one misses, it’s often followed by another. So because I’m often casting beyond the rise, it’s not critical to land the fly softly (which you MUST do fishing to the rise with trout).  But it is important not to let the fly line slap the water, or you will spook away the whole group of Perch at the spot of the rise.

Now for the best part, catching a Perch on a fly rod makes them feel bigger.  I catch Perch off my dock (boat, kayak, belly boat), from sun up to sun down, as many as 30 in an hour.  Most of them are small, less than half a pound (and smaller) but I use a 4 weight fly rod with very light tippet so when I hook the little Perch, they actually can put a little bend in the rod and a one pounder can strip line from the reel.  Perch don’t really run much but they shake constantly when hooked so if you let up on the line tension, they are going to shake themselves off.  So it’s not the fight, it’s the thrill of the hook set, and the release, that make Perch on the fly a lot of fun.

Last year I tested all the flies from an Outdoor Canada article titled 7 Easy to Tie Flies That Will Catch Fish Anywhere in Canada.  I tied and tried them all, taking pictures, and writing my own experiences in a series of articles on PrairieOutdoors.com titled, 7 Flies That Catch Fish in Canada.

This year I plan to do the same, with a similar but more relevant Outdoor Canada article from this year, The 7 must-have flies for trout anglers in the West.

So this year the series of 7 Trout Flies for Western Canada will be written based my newest summer obsession, testing these 7 flies.  Watch for the follow up articles of 7 Trout flies for Western Canada as I post the tying and trying results.  Special bonus, I know some of these flies are also well suited for other species across the Prairie’s so expect some perch, walleye, pike and maybe some goldeye to be included in the stories.

This year’s line up of flies includes:

1. Adams
2. Catatonic Leech
3. Elk Hair Caddis
4. Hares Ear Nymph
5.  

   Letort Hopper

6. San Juan Worm
7. Zebra Chironomid

In one version or another I have fished all these flies in the past.  The Adams is a great dry fly that can be used almost anytime there are winged bugs of any type hatching, and it’s a pretty easy fly to tie.  Just have plenty of size variations to match size to what is floating on the surface.  The Catatonic Leech is like a Woolly Bugger, minus the hackle wrapping, so it’s even simpler, but just as effective.  The Elk Hair Caddis is probably my #2 Go To fly in my fly box.  i will tie on the Hare’s Ear Nymph anytime the trout are not rising.  Often I will use this fly in tandem with another larger heavier nymph to get deeper quicker.  The Letort Hopper is new to me.  i have fished other hoppers and they are fantastic for a windy sunny day when natural hoppers are getting blown off the tall grass next to the bank.  The San Juan Worm is responsible for the best Brown Trout of my life, on the Bow River a number of years ago.  I’ve also found that it works well for a few other species.  Lastly, the Zebra Chironomid is a great fly for mid-summer lake fishing.  It takes a bit of trial and error to get the tying process right.

The fishing season is open in parts of Alberta and will soon be open in Saskatchewan and Manitoba as well so my fly tying efforts over the next few weeks will focus on early season species and I’m looking for a reason to get out on the water.  Any reason, any excuse.  See you on the water!

If I have my Fly Tying Bible on my fly tying table in my office, do I need to genuflect every time I pass it on my way into or out of my office?

At the very beginning of summer, literally, I did a fly-in trip to Dead Lake in northern Saskatchewan. The float plane dropped us off at the dock about 10 PM on the evening of June 20th. I had never been to this lake before so when in doubt I brought whatever gear I thought i carry.  The other 4 member of the fishing party had been here before so i knew from their stories that there were definitely fish to be caught. The evening was a true northern Saskatchewan experience.  We started a campfire and decided to “sip” some rum and whiskey until it got dark.  Between refills, I walked down to the dock and tossed an old time favorite spoon into the water, the Len Thompson 5 of Diamonds.  6 pike later and I knew I had my morning plan.  I eased off the rum mixture knowing I was going to have an early start.  Also, knowing how far north we were, staying up until it got dark doesn’t really happen, as you can see from the midnight picture below.

So about 2 AM I went for a nap while others promised to take up the slack on the rum for me.  It was a quick but necessary few hours of sleep.  When the sun was up a bright, and the lake was like glass that next morning, it was time to pull out the fly rod and test some of the patterns I had tied the past spring, tied in anticipation of morning just like this.

So out came the 8 weight fly rod and the box of streamers.  I pushed out one of the 6 aluminum fishing boats and paddled out about 100 feet from shore.  The previous evening I had hooked 3 or 4 pike in the same spot from the dock and now I was in position to cast back to that spot, from the other side of it.  The Clouser Minnow was the first fly of choice.  i had tied some variations including some with longer streamers with pike in mind.  It was about cast #5 or #6 when I saw a wake headed towards my fly followed by an aggressive splash.  Pike on the fly!  This became my morning routine for the rest of the trip.

Throughout the mornings I continued to switch out flies, alternating between Clouser Minnows, Bucktails (aka Mickey Finns), and Wooley Buggers.  While all three of these fly patterns did catch pike, the Clouser Minnow was the clear winner.  In fact the red and white Clouser Minnow, shown below, was by far the best fly of the trip.  The bucktails were the #2 fly and the both the pure black Wooley Bugger and read headed Wooley Bugger intended to look like an egg sucking leach caught a few fish.

I often like to experiment when fishing, after catching a few fish on one fly, I will change to another to see if it will produce fish as well as the other.  But, this trip, I had time switching away from the red and white Clouser Minnow.  When you are catching a pike on a fly rod with great regularity, why swap your fly?  What I did experiment somewhat with was the color of the fly.  Other combinations included a blue and white, a green and white, and the second best colour combination green, red and white.

The great fun of fishing for pike in shallow water with a fly is that often you can see the streak of the fish as it accelerates towards and attacks your fly.  These aggressive fish always give you a head-shaking fight when hooked as they try to dislodge the fly.

What I did not get the thrill of catching on a fly rod was a net filling pike like the one below.  This one, and many other 36″ and larger pike were caught with spinning gear on jig heads, spoons and walley divers.  i did pull in a 30+ inch pike on a fly rod, on a solo morning float just out in front of the cabins but nothing to compare to the 15 pounders that were also caught on the trip.

I have some more pike on the fly action planned for late August on a different lake.  The Clouser Minnow is definitely going to be the featured fly.

Fly #6 in the Series

The X-Caddis.  Is it better than the traditional and classic Elk Hair Caddis?  Now that I have tied a few of both, we are soon to find out.  I will say this, the X-Caddis is a few degrees of difficulty easier than the traditional fly pattern.  Less materials and easier to finish.

Tying the X-Caddis

This fly was left to one of the last to tie in the series as most dry flies are summer time flies, as is no exception with the caddis.  As June turns into July, success with the caddis fly is prime time.

Difficulty Level: 2 out of 5.  The Fly Tying Bible rates the Elk Hair Caddis as a 3 out of 5 for tying difficulty.  With a couple fewer materials, this version of the caddis is pretty easy to tie.  Probably the trickiest part is tying off after you fasten in the elk hair for the wing.  You need to leave a fairly large loop of thread to get over the butt end of the elk hair the protrudes forward over the hook eye.

Materials:

• wet fly hooks, from #8 to #12
• black or brown thread
• hare’s fur dubbing, brown or grey
• elk hair

Place the hook in the vise and wind on the thread beginning at the eye and winding in tight turns until opposite the hook point.  I prefer caddis flies in size 8 to 12, although some guides recommend down to a size 14 hook.

Catch in some Antron, Z-lon or similar yarn for the tail.  I didn’t have any so i substituted a somewhat darker small bunch of the elk hair.  I actually like using this darker hair material for this purpose.  If you let the hair twist around the shank as you catch it in, the butt ends will dangle forward like legs.

Roll on some dubbing onto your thread and wind it forward, stopping behind the eye.

Once you reach the eye, pull off any extra dubbing and wind the thread back to the point opposite the hook point, in widely spaced turns, and then forward again, widely spaced, to hold the dubbing in place.  Otherwise the first good fight with a trout will pull off all your dubbing.

Cut off a stack of elk hair and pinch together.  Catch in tightly slightly behind the hook eye, allowing the butt end of the hair fibres to protrude forward just past the hook eye.  Wrap the thread tightly 5 0r 6 times, and then tie off, using large loops to fit over the elk hair butt ends.  Add some glue and you are finished.

For those who like the traditional caddis pattern, you can easily add the hackle component.  After catching in the tail fibres, use a couple more loops of thread and catch in a hackle feather.  Then add your dubbing to the thread and wind on the dubbing body forward.  Follow the dubbing with winding the hackle forward.

Leave the hackle pliers attached and hanging while you attach the elk hair wing.  Add 5 or 6 wraps of thread to hold the dubbing, hackle feather, and wing fibres.  Then tie everything off and add glue.

I tied 2 of these X-Caddis flies (the 2 on the left) on a #8 dry fly hook and the other 4 on a #12 hook.  The #8 flies look a little large, but trout start slurping up hoppers in August, you can often get them to bite at a big caddis as well.

The Fly Box

We are nearly complete with our 6 of our 7 flies for Canada tied.

Actually, it’s 7 out of the 8.  I’ve added the Super Jumbo Mosquito fly to the box, lower right side.  If you are fishing still water for trout, especially in the evening / sunset, you will love this fly.  So with the dry fly X-Caddis added to the box, we are pretty well set for most fishing situations.  Just the Egg Fly left, which is primarily a pattern for streams and rivers.

Well, the sun is up, the article is finished, the X-Caddis flies are dry, so it’s off to the ‘ole fishin’ hole!