New Website!

Our web address is still www.jumpcreekflies.com, but you will notice our design is changed.  This page will now serve as a blog on which I will post trip reports, information about our flies, new products, or various fly fishing tips.  Keep following us here on the blog, and make sure and check out www.jumpcreekflies.com for more information on specials, and to make purchases from our fly shop. 

You will see we are offering a Grand Opening Special on the website through the end of November.  Any order from the website of a dozen or more flies will get 6 additional flies of their choice free.  A great chance to stock up that fly box for next year.  

Thanks to all of our great customers!

Fall Special - THE BAETIS BUNDLE!!

Here I sit at my desk looking out the window at a gray day in the Treasure Valley.  It's mid morning and the temperature is hovering in the low 50s.  Where do I wish I was right now?  On the river, no question.  I can only sit here and imagine the little mayflies we fly fishermen often affectionately refer to as Blue Wing Olives popping up on the surface of the river in numbers that virtually blanket the water.  The little sailboat profiles bobbing along, then *slurp* disappearing under the dark snout of a trout.  Only a slight ripple, and a small bubble remain.

 Torture.  That's what this is.  I need to get out of the office.  I hope many of you get the opportunity this fall to fish, especially days like today, when the action can be virtually non stop.  The only problem is that when baetis are hatching in numbers that they often do on days such as this, and the trout are up on them, the fish can afford to be incredibly picky, and they often are.  So it all comes down to having the right pattern in your fly box. So why don't you try one, or better yet, all three of these.  At some point in a BWO hatch each of these three patterns will catch a lot of fish.

BWO Bubble Emerger

 This little pattern is always a fish catcher.  Fish can't seem to say no to a fly caught in this vulnerable position as it is attempting to emerge.  Fish take this early in the hatch as the majority of bugs are on the surface working to free themselves of the nymphal shuck, in the midst of the hatch as fish key again on the insects that are struggling with the emerging process, and late or even after the hatch when a few fish are up snacking on the scraps left over in concentrated lies.  Places like soft edges or eddies where these scraps will collect as they are at the mercy of the current.

For me this pattern is the all purpose fly during a hatch.  It seems to catch fish at any and all times.  It is also surprisingly easy to see on the water.  When I first tied this pattern I thought visibility would be it's down side, but the bubble rides nice on the water and is not that hard to pick up.
 

CDC Wing Sparkle Emerger

This is my newest member of the BWO line of flies.  I started tying it up last year, and it has been a fish catcher.  Like the bubble emerger it seems to work at almost any point in the hatch.  They body of the fly rides extremely low in the water, but the high floating wing gives a nice profile of the mayfly wing.  It really does a superb job of imitating a mayfly that has more completely emerged than the bubble emerger, but one that is still caught in the vulnerable position of being caught within the shuck.  Fish love an easy meal, and they know this bug isn't going anywhere.  They rise confidently to this fly.  

In the past year, in my testing, I have caught more fish with this fly than with any other fly in my fly box.  It's a keeper.

BWO Biot Duck Butt Dun

Finally we come to the fly that started it all for me.  The first fly I ever sold on this website was this pattern.  This fly has been around in my fly box for as long as I have been stalking late season baetis hatches.  While it specializes in being a bit of a later stage fly it too works in many different situations.  I have the best luck with this fly when I see fish sipping duns off the surface, but it will work as an emerger and I have even modified it on stream in a pinch by pushing the wing down and to the side when fish were taking spinners.  It's a versitile pattern, and if floats like a cork.  With the CDC fibers for the tail, biot body, and deer hair wing, it can't help but float.

A Summer on the Water

It's been a busy summer, filling orders left and right, and then trying to get a little fishing in between.  I hope everyone out there has had a good summer of fishing as well.  I haven't fished as much this summer as in years past, but that is only because the demand for Jump Creek Flies has increased quite a bit this past year.  I won't complain about being busy tying up bugs for happy customers though.  So thanks for keeping me busy.

I did get a few outings on my local "home river" this summer as usual.  Then sprinkled in a few drift boat trips to a great Rainbow Trout fishery that lies a couple hours east of me.  Those two waters usually get most of my attention, but I do like to branch out a bit and try new things.  This year I spent a little time up North on the Lochsa River and then found myself doing a little stillwater fishing in NE Oregon.  It's been a good summer, and Fall is just around the corner.  Football season is in the air, as is my favorite time of year to fish.  So as we enter into Labor Day weekend I wanted to pause and look back at another great summer spent waving a fly rod around.  Enjoy a few pics, and have a great weekend everyone.

New Patterns in the Catalog!

An armada of WC CDC Rusty Spinners ready to be shipped out to a river near you.

This is a great Spinner pattern because the White CDC is pulled over the back of the fly making this pattern much more visible on the water than most spinner patterns.  And it flat out fishes great. 

PMD CDC Wing Sparkle Dun

  And here is the PMD version of the CDC Wing Sparkle Dun that became one of my go to patterns this last fall and spring in BWO colors.  I am guessing the PMD version is going to be equally as effective this summer.  It does a great job of imitating a low riding dun having trouble getting off the surface, and the fish just lap it up.

With PMD season just around the corner, these are both excellent patterns to make sure you are stocked up on!

PMD's on the mind

Stocking up on PMD's

I have been holed up in my bat cave now for the last few weeks hunched over the vise and churning out PMD's like no body's business.  Right now I only have 2 specific PMD patterns in the catalog, but I did work up two more patterns that will soon be joining them.  Let's review what I do have available here and how I like to fish them.

First, my favorite, and old standby PMD Duck Butt Dun.  I like this pattern because it is so adaptable, and I can cover a wide range of hatch stages with one pattern.  The body floats down in the film so unless fish are taking very high floating duns, they will be all over this fly.  It works as a late stage emerger, cripple, and if I really grease it up as a dun as well.  In a pinch I have even taken fish eating spinners by pulling the deer hair wing down to the sides, and clipping out the middle.  Maybe not the most efficient way to make a spinner, but having a pattern that can substitute for another in a pinch is nice.  This has been my top producing mayfly pattern for several years running now.

Next is the PMD Bubble Emerger.  This is a great pattern I use early in the hatch when the bugs are just starting to emerge on the surface, and fish are grabbing those emergers on the surface.  The fly is designed so just CDC bubble rides on the surface while the back of the fly hangs in the film.  Fish love this easy meal.

Coming soon!

I am going to be adding two PMD patterns to the catalog very soon.  The first is a PMD version of what has become one of my favorite BWO patterns this spring, and the second is a cripple pattern I have had very good luck with, especially on windy days.  I will post here on the blog when those have been added.

The BWO CDC Wing Sparkle Dun is coming soon in PMD!