Description
I have been developing this fly around 15 years. It absolutely kills in 3 scenarios: crystal clear water, during a caddis hatch, and with stockies. but, it pretty much works everywhere all the time. it’s my goto fly. It is a must have fly for the Upper Kern River where the big kern river rainbows cannot resist the flash in crystal clear water. but, all those 24″+ monsters i have nailed in the Blue River in Colorado succumbed to this fly also. It fishes well all year long in many conditions because it is an attractor, yet looks like a rock worm and a caddis nymph.
The story behind this fly goes back about 20 years. i purposely took a speaking gig at a small msft user group in meeting billings, MT. no one else wanted to do it. because, i had never fished the bighorn. in the audience was a fly fisherman named Brad Pascoe. i mentioned to the Montana audience that i had ulterior motives and that i planned to fly fish the big horn the next morning. Brad introduced himself after my tech presentation and offered to take me. We hit the river to his favorite wading spot. He was killing; i was not. he said, “let me switch you to this fly”. it was this green wired nymph and then I started killing with it too. but, this is long before i had studied water born bugs so for years i called it the “Pascoe Montana Midge”. It wasn’t until years later that i said to myself, “wait a minute…that’s not a midge…it’s a caddis nymph imitation.
Over the years i have developed a variation with it to include a holographic wing case and i also tie it will holographic stunted wings to imitate a cripple. it has UV dubbing in it too. it basically glows under water and under sunny skies the fish just don’t miss it going by.
Ronnie Swafford –
I use this fly as a dropper in all the major Colorado Rivers. From winter and spring fishing in the Arkansas to summer on the blue, this fly is always with me and usually sees action every trip. I use it as a go to fly under terrestrials in the summer and it never fails me. It’s green color lends itself to fishing caddis hatches but I’ve caught many, many fish on this fly when the caddis were no where to be found.