Not The Typical Pair

THE LITERATI CRINGE

The Simple Approach

ice auger's getting workout

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.. There's only a week left before February smashes into West Yellowstone. We're using it to rest up before the onslaught begins.

..We have boxes and boxes of winter flies. We love them all, we cherish them, we even use most of them on occasion: but, time and again we return to just two for most of our winter fishing.
.. The Gold Ribbed Hare's Ear Wet Fly & the Sierra Bright Dot often suffice for every situation above or below the surface. Both can be fished either wet or dry. Both are easy to tie and both stab fish jaws with satisfying regularity.
-- These flies have the additional distinction of being rare today. Neither is sold at the local feather merchants, neither is the latest and greatest, neither is full of fancy hard-to-get synthetic materials, and neither will leave you fishless.

--The "neighbors-of-the-auger," usually have one of these tied to their rig along with maggots or meal worms or bulldog flashing blades. They are a secondary attractor beneath the ice but they are common and will take fish.
.. The NORTH AMERICAN ICE FISHING CIRCUIT is holding it's $21,000 Regional Qualifier on Hebgen Lake February 3-5. The neighbors are on the lake en-mass and dragging in the fish. Practice is essential in this sort of thing.
.. The current midge hatch Between The Lakes is drawing the faithful to the open water. Often times a twin rig with a Prince Nymph and GRHE-W is the weapon of choice.
.. The true and faithful dry fly fishers use a small Sierra Bright Dot. Correctly tied the fly presents the perfect attack: the fore & aft hackle combined with the dark tips of the pheasant seem to entice the starving fish into a frenzy of idiocy. There are three targets with three specular patterns and they are close together. The fish seem mesmerized by the little fly. The red is easy to see, (so too is orange or yellow.)

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