Fly Fishing Edmonton
Your Stillwater Information Centre
The X-mas Chronie
The red butt section of this midge pupa pattern represents the remaining hemoglobin you may see in some chironomids from their larva stage. The bright sheen from the holographic tinsel used in this pattern works both as an attractor as well as representing the trapped air used by the pupa to travel upwards to the surface where it will turn into and adult midge. The X-Mas Chronie has been very successful in any stillwater fishery I've encountered; I hope you have the same results.
RECIPE
HOOK: Sizes 8 to 24 C49S Mustad
THREAD: Black
RIB: Fine gold
wire.
BODY: Red holographic tinsel and green holographic tinsel
THORAX: Peacock herl.
HEAD: Silver bead.
GILLS: White calf tail or Stillwater Solutions 'Midge
Gill' (optional).
Step 1
Pinch the barb and place on a size 3/32 silver bead. The bead should be placed on the hook with the smaller opening first so that it faces the eye of the hook. I prefer sizes 14-10 but it can be tied in sizes 24-8 depending on the size of chironomids you see in the water you're fishing.
Step 2
Tie in some fine gold wire along the side of the hook from the beadhead down to the bend of the hook.
Step 3
Now tie in some small, red, mylar, holographic tinsel at the bend. Wrap the tinsel about 1/4 the way up the hook, tie off and snip the remainder.
Step 5
Wrap your thread forward just behind the bead and then wrap your green tinsel forward keeping good tension and tie off. Remove remaining tinsel with scissors.
Step 6
Now wrap the fine gold wire forward and tie off just behind the bead. Clip the remaining tag end of the wire or remove with a twisting motion while placing tension on your thread.
Fishing the X-Mas Chronie
This attractor pattern has worked very well for me fished both under an indicator or fished naked. When fishing under an indicator, I like to fish this fly right off the bottom and change depths in increments of one foot until I find the depth the trout are holding at. Fished naked, count down until you feel you're close to your desired depth and retrieve as slowly as humanly possible. You'll need to experiment with your countdown until you find success.
The Star Scud
I came up with this pattern in 2005 after a day of fishing at Star Lake. After I came in, I decided to cast from the shore until dark and once dark was upon me I inspected the shoreline to see what nocturnal creatures were active. What I saw were thousands of scuds. Upon closer inspection in front of my headlights I noticed the color of the scuds being a tan color. I chose the rainbow scud dubbing for it's high sparkle qualities in hopes it would attract more trout. It worked and is currently my favorite scud pattern for any stillwaters I fish.
RECIPE
HOOK: Sizes 12 to 16 C49S Mustad
WEIGHT: Lead wire
THREAD: Tan 8/O
RIB: Fine gold
wire.
BODY: H&H Rainbow sow scud dubbing
SHELL BACK: Stillwater Solutions calibaetis midge flex 1/8"
Step 1
I prefer the C-49S signature series hook by Mustad in sizes 16-12 but if your waters have scuds in other sizes then by all means match the hook size to your native scuds.
Step 2
We start with lead wire for added weight. I start the wrap just past half way on the hook and wrap forward. Make sure to leave room at the eye to tie off your material.
Step 3
We first tie in the thread at the eye and work our way back to the lead wire making a taper in front of the wire so it doesn't move forward.
Step 4
We then wrap the thread over the lead wire in a criss cross pattern to hold the wire in place and wrap enough thread behind the wire so it can't slide back on the hook.
Step 5
Now we're going to tie in the gold wire that we use for the segmentation. We tie it in on the side of the hook right behind the lead wire and wrap our thread back.
Step 6
Now we twist the dubbing onto the thread . Don't be afraid to put a little more dubbing on than you would with other patterns as we need a decent amount of dubbing for the legs.
Step 7
Wrap the dubbing forward to just in front of the eye of the hook. Notice how much dubbing I've used here?
Step 8
Now we cut a piece of midge flex and tie off at the eye. Keep the thread loose here so you can manipulate the midge flex so it sits straight on the back of the hook then tighten up the thread.
Step 9
With just a small amount tension, pull the midge flex over the back of the hook and wrap the gold wire forward over the midge flex leaving equal space between wraps. Tie off the wire at the hook eye and then twist the wire off while applying some pressure to the thread. By twisting the wire off instead of cutting it, no wire tag will be left sticking out of the head of the fly. Now pull the front tag of midge flex tight away from the the fly and trim with your scissors. By pulling it tight before clipping, the tag will disappear under the thread.
Step 10
Now with just slight tension, hold the tag end of the midge flex and clip leaving a very short tag end that sits just past where the thread ends.
Step 11
Using your bodkin, pull down the dubbing to represent the legs.
This what the dubbing should look like.
Step 13
With your scissors, trim the dubbing so it's even with the point of the hook. This is what the final product should look like.
Fishing the Star Scud
Scuds move quickly through the water taking many breaks. My favorite way to fish this fly is with a strike indicator and the scud tied on my floating line as a dropper under a midge pupa pattern. Let it sit for long periods and then give it a few quick but very short strips. Another method I use is with a sinking line; four quick short strips then pause for four seconds and repeat. Scuds are an important food source for trout and work at any time of year but during low light and in the heat of summer work incredibly well. I hope you have as much luck with this pattern as I have.