Refreshing My Fly Boxes

We’re slowly getting back to the river and I thought about refreshing my fly boxes. As you might recall, we had to cut our annual fly fishing road trip short because Dancingtrout ended up suffering two strokes while we were camping just outside of Ennis, MT. I wrote about it in My Ongoing Tribute to Dancingtrout. Thanks for all the well-wishes. I’m very happy to report she is back to normal. In fact, you’d never know she had a stroke at all! Both of us are very thankful.

My boxes were all set for a month of fishing Caddis and Mayfly hatches in Montana and Wyoming. Once we returned home and made sure Karen was okay, it was August before we got to the river. I call it the dog days of summer because I don’t see as many hatches during the month. Don’t get me wrong, there are still hatches, just different ones that don’t hatch when we typically go to the river.

The box above is what is known as a ‘garbage dump’. I’ll share my hatch specific boxes below, so this has everything else I think might come in handy on the river. You’ll notice Beetle Baileys, ants, a few hopper and October Caddis patterns. It’s also where I keep a few parachute flies like the Purple Haze.

The next fly box holds my PMD and similar size Mayflies in different colors. You’ll notice a few Pheasant Tail Soft Hackles as well. I’ve been tying Sparkle Dun PMDs for the provider box and need to fill a couple of holes in this box with them. I usually carry them in sizes 16 and 18.

Here is my Blue Wing Olive fly box. You’ll see very similar fly patterns from the PMD box above. As I tell new fly fishers, just change the size and color of successful flies to imitate similar hatches. A size 16 dun IOBO worked for me recently on the river.

The Caddis fly box is next. I had it pretty well stocked in anticipation of fishing the tan Caddis hatch on the Madison. I’ll have to wait for next year. Caddis hatch on the Metolius as well, we just haven’t been there in the evenings for the hatch.

The Green Drake fly box was in my pack, but I can remove it for a month before the fall Drakes start again.

I should note there are some size 14 Sparkle Dun Caudatella flies that worked recently as well. The image below shows them in sizes 16 to 12.

I threw this box in a couple weeks ago because I tried my luck on the upper river, hoping I might coax a fish to eat a Golden Stone fly pattern.

Here is the last fly box I just added to my pack. It stores all my smallest flies, generally sizes 18 to 24. I thought I might run into a fish or two just sipping something, but not the normal PMD or BWO. I plan to carry it a little while longer to see if I need it.

I should carry my 8-weight fly rod and try my luck for Bull Trout. We noticed 5 or 6 recently hiding under a log. I’ve had good luck with this Dolly Llama streamer. It’s the time of year they’ve migrated into the river to spawn. I won’t be surprised if I hook a Rainbow and end up with a Bull Trout on my line!

Here is a link where I demonstrate how to tie the fly on my RiverKeeper Flies YouTube channel.

Enjoy…go fish!