The Kinky Tickler

Every now and then the right materials combine for naming a fly something silly. An ar-'ticul'-ated pattern with the head of a 'Kinky Muddler' just happened to be my muse the other day. (One of) The double entendre(s) is that it will tickle a trout until it just has to eat. See? There is a safe way to explain to your child or significant other why you are Googling "kinky tickler." Scratch that...don't Google it. Just go tie some flies.

-I.A.

Articulated Flies

For some reason, I've been in the mood to experiment with articulated streamers lately.  They're fun to tie and have lots of sexy, fishy action. The one on the bottom in the lineup below I've nicknamed "The Kitchen Sink," because it includes just about every material I could think of (and the name "Grocery Fly" was already taken).

Enjoy freezing your butt off in these miserable temperatures. 

A Fall Browner than Chrome

Well, it's January--the coldest month on average in my neck of the woods urban midwestern part of the country. That means that the fishing, like the metabolism of the fish around here, has slowed to a crawl. But it's a new year--2013--and that means the Mayan calendar thing didn't result in us being annihilated, and thus Fall 2012 wasn't my last chance at catching lake-run salmonids. Hopefully, 2013 will have even better Spring and Fall steelhead runs than we've seen before. There's at least more precipitation already than I can remember in all of 2012, so that should be a good sign. That's not to say 2012 wasn't good for fishing; in fact, I had 2 really awesome days last Spring where between 3 of us we hooked 50+ steelhead each day! That was phenomenal fishing. But the runs were early and short, meaning most of our hours of effort were not so handsomely rewarded.

So here's to looking forward to more chrome (among other fish) in 2013. *Gulp* Now, let's look at some pics from the past few months chasing salmonids on the Third Coast.

Bring on the chrome, 2013! (But I'll take all the other trouts you got, too)