Rusty Spinner

Hook: Dry Fly 12-16
Thread: Rusty Brown 70 Denier
Tail: Wood duck fibers
Body: Superfine Waterproof Dubbing - Rusty Brown
Wings: Kiptail

Grizzly Crazy 8

This is a bit of an experiment that I worked on over the weekend. I used some traditional techniques and materials, modern poly yarn, and what I think is a new or at least odd-ball hackling technique to come up with what you see above. I tied the fly with two different hackling techniques (comparisons below). For my first tie, I wrapped the hackle in figure 8s around the poly wings creating an unruly ball of hackle, reminiscent of a hackle stacker, but above and below the hook. On my second fly, I posted both poly wings and wrapped the hackle parachute-style around each wing separately. 

Hook: #12 standard dry

Thread: white 70 denier

Tail: 3 black-barred white Hareline Mayfly Tails (micro fibbets)

Body: stripped grizzly hackle quill, laquered with Loon UV resin

Wings: white poly yard tied spent

Hackle: #12 grizzly hackle tied figure 8 (or double parachute)

Double-parachue

Figure 8

Figure 8s on left, parchutes on right

West Branch Report

After several sunny days in a row, the water levels have dropped quite a bit on the Upper West Branch to ~325 cfs at Walton and the water temperature has risen a bit as well. At around 5:30 it was breezy with little to no insect activity and a few intermittent rises on the surface. That all changed as the even went on. The wind calmed and a huge spinner fall (either red quills or march browns I think) made for a fun evening.

The PFD rusty spinner in size 14 proved a killer landing nearly a dozen fish on the evening. To be fair, most were chubs, and of the brown trout I caught, the larges was 13 inches. Still, it was a lot of fun just casting to rising fish and being rewarded time and again.

PFD Rusty Spinner

Hook: 14-18 Dry

Thread: rusty brown 8/0

Tail: brown-olive micro-fibbets (Hareline Tinted Mayfly Tails)

Body: tapered tying thread

Wing: white poly yarn

Wing case/PFD: white craft foam

West Branch Report

Last night down in Walton, NY the water was high and stained at ~1000 cfs, but somewhat wade-able in certain areas. Despite the turbidity, there was decent insect activity starting at around 5:30 and continuing on into dark and there were fish feeding at the surface in certain areas.

I had a solid evening of fishing with 5 hook-ups, though I only managed to land 3. I'm not sure what my deal was, but knot failure accounted for two lost fish. This is the first time I've had issue with the Davy knot, but I still find it quicker and more reliable than the clinch.

I began the evening with a light Hendrickson dry as a dropper and a MGC (brown body, dun wing & hackle) as the point to test the waters. The Hendrickson landed me a small brown and drew a strike from a second fish who unfortunately made off with it and the MGC. I tied on a second Hendrickson but didn't have any luck. After one particularly loud refusal, I switched to a PFD Rusty brown spinner which landed me two nice fish (14" and 15" browns) and hooked a third who ended up with some lip jewelry.

I'm surprised to find that I haven't posted the PFD Rusty Brown Spinner pattern, but I'll tie a few more up and post a pattern shortly. It's a great pattern for dusk fishing because it has a nice silhouette that the fish seem to key in on and is fairly visible giving you have a decent chance of tracking it in low light. (EDIT: Here's a PFD Rusty Brown Spinner pattern)

CDC Blue Wing Olive

Pattern: 

Hook: Dry Fly (14 or 16)
Thread: Olive
Tail: Dark Dun Ultra Fibbets
Body: Olive Super Fine Dubbin
Wing: Dark Dun CDC  

Instructions:

1. Begin thread at eye and wind back to tail tie in.  Do not trim tag end of thread!
2. Measure fibbets (slightly longer than body) and tie in with two pinch wraps.
3. Bring tag end up and through fibbets and pull forward along shank to split tail.
4. Tie in tag end with fibbets and trim.
5. Advance thread to wing position.
6. Tie in two CDC feathers, first on far side, second on near side.
7. Trim butts and tie down, bring thread to tail.
8. Create tapered dubbin noodle and wrap body.
9. Using dubbin noodle, wrap in front of wings to lift them to vertical, then use dubbin to split wings with x-wraps.  
10. Neaten up head with thread wraps.
11. Whip finish & cement.

For an excellent demonstration, check out Jim Misiura's video.  The fly is billed as a dun, but the profile looks rather spinner-like to me so I'll be fishing both ways.

CDC BWOs from different angles: