This week’s Throw Back Thursday Fly is the Krystal Flash Nymph TBT.
I found this fly in a favorite book I used for many years – Hatch Guide for the Lower Deschutes River (1994) by Jim Schollmeyer.
This is a small book and can be used as a stream-side reference. I also own his Hatch Guide for Western Streams and Hatch Guide for Lakes. These books cover the insects you can expect to find and identifies the different aquatic phases of the insect. For each phase, Jim presents three flies to imitate that phase.
I can remember pouring over this book to understand the hatches and tie flies needed to match the hatch before every trip. I used to fish the Lower Deschutes River a lot more, drifting from Trout Creek to Maupin and Max Canyon to the mouth where it meets the Columbia River. Yes, there is whitewater in those sections with rapids names like White Horse, Buckskin Mary, Boxcar, Colorado, and Rattlesnake to name a few. A couple of those are class 4 and can be very exciting to say the least!
I have a few more Schollmeyer books he authored or was a joint-author with Ted Leeson. One of my favorites is The Fly Tier’s Benchside Reference to Techniques and Dressing Styles. This 436 page tome has every technique I ever wanted to learn in it’s pages. If I found a fly I wanted to tie and didn’t know how to use a specific technique, I can pull out this book and find one or two methods to accomplish the task. It’s as relevant today as it was in 1998 when published.
The thing I liked about Jim’s books were the simplicity of the flies. They were something a beginner to intermediate fly tyer could complete and feel like they would fool a fish or two. And they did!
The Krystal Flash Nymph TBT was found in the mayfly section of the book to imitate the Blue-Winged Olive Nymph. I probably still have a couple of these nymphs in an old fly box.
I’m confident the Krystal Flash Nymph TBT would work effectively to catch fish today. Better tie a few up…perhaps you might consider doing the same.
Enjoy…go fish!
