January Endevors

Other than the occasional outing into the cold or taking advantage of a break in the weather, winter often means replenishing supplies, looking back on the past seasons, and preparing for the warmer days ahead. Lately I've begun to replenish my fly boxes, although they weren't quite as empty as they have been in years past. Either I'm not fishing enough or I'm not losing as many flies, it's hard to say for sure what it is.

One pattern that I was almost out of though was the Mickey Finn Streamer. I've read more than one report by other fly fishermen saying they hadn't had much luck with the pattern, but my experiences with this fly are completely different. It's rare that it lets me down when I tie it on, so I always make sure to have some along when I'm out.

I always like to use materials from the hunt and I came up with this streamer that I call The Squirrel & Grouse. I think it will work for those mountain brookies.

Another streamer that I've dubbed the Little Mo Special. There's not much to it, but it's a deadly pattern. A mini-Deciever if you will.

I've been on an estaz kick too, pumping out estaz buggers and estaz caddis.

Aside from tying flies,  I mounted the antlers from my archery buck with a Mountain Mike's Record Keeper Kit, just for something different. It takes some patience to do but I think it turned out decent and I'm happy with the results. Hopefully I'll have some chances to get out in the coming weeks and try out some of my new ties.