FOAM HOPPERS AND PANFISH

My baseball season finished this week. The small pond by the baseball fields has a lot of panfish, a few bass and some stocked trout. I always take a rod to my games so I can fish for a while after the game is over. The green sunfish love foam hoppers. I have been fishing a variation of Bill Logan's really cool foam hopper pattern and they just eat it up like crazy.

Here is my variation of Bill Logan's foam hopper pattern. It is just as fun to tie as it is to fish it!

This nice green sunfish like the way the hopper looked.

Here is a close up of a green sunfish's head. It is neat to see all the colors and spots that different fish have when you look real close!

TYLER'S FAKEY NYMPH STEP-BY-STEP FLY TYING TUTORIAL

Go check out the Fly Tying Tutorial page on my site to see the latest step-by-step tying tutorial I have posted. It is one of my favorite flies, the "Tyler's Fakey Nymph". This is a fun pattern to tie and the fish love it! Tie some fish them on a dry-dropper set up or fish them deep below an indicator. I look forward to hearing back from you with your fishing report after trying this fly. This is one of my fly designs that is produced and sold by Umpqua Feather Merchants. This pattern can be purchased from fly shops that sell Umpqua flies.

Check out this monster big rainbow I caught last fall on the upper Gunnison River using a Fakey Nymph!

Fly Fishing Small Streams in Summer!

Yesterday I fished two small streams that are in the headwaters of the Gunnison River. First, my dad and I left our house at 5:30 in the morning. We drove almost three hours, first on paved roads then on dirt roads which turned into just two tracks through the mountains until the road ended! After we parked and loaded our packs we hiked down the mountainside to the stream. When we drove through the town of Gunnison there were a few hot air balloons just going up.

The long trip and hike was well worth it when we finally reached the stream. These small creeks are so much fun to fish, especially when they are full of wild trout that are just beautiful.

I fished a size #12 Lime Trude pattern with a small Copper John on a dropper. The fish liked it a lot and I hooked up almost right away on a nice health brown trout.

Here is another very pretty brown trout. Look at the difference in the spots on these two fish.

A little after we ate lunch a storm started to move in so we hiked back to our truck and drove to a different spot and hiked into another small stream that was loaded with beaver ponds like this one.

The beaver ponds were loaded with brook trout!

The small creek was very brushy. To fish it I mostly just got close to a small pool and reached my rod over it so i could drop the flies onto the water. It was almost impossible to cast because there was some much brush. There were usually fish in every spot I thought might have fish living in it.

I was hoping to catch some small cutthroat. I never did find them but did catch some colorful brook trout and brown trout like this one.

FORTH OF JULY DAMSEL FLY HATCHES, TROUT, SMALL STREAMS AND ELK!

Today I fished some small lakes on a private ranch. There are some really big fish in the lakes. The damsel flies were hatching like crazy and the trout were very hungry for them. Even though I did not catch any of the really big ones I still caught some nice rainbows. They raise elk on this ranch and we got to see some of the bull elk. It was a lot of fun. I also got to fish a small stream that runs through another ranch near the Grand Mesa. The stream was suppose to have brook trout in it but I did not catch anything! It is a pretty stream that I can't wait to go fish again sometime soon.

This rainbow liked my olive damsel nymph!

Check out this huge bull elk!

Exploring a new small stream is always an adventure.

COMING SOON.... A New Fly Tying Book By Tyler Befus "A Kid's Guide to Fly Tying" !!!

I am happy to report that I have sent the finished manuscript and all the photographs (and there are a bunch of them!) for my new fly tying book "A Kid's Guide to Fly Tying" to my publisher last week. They have received everything and are beginning the layout and design process to get it ready to print. The book will have hundreds of full color, step-by-step fly tying photos for all the different flies I cover in the book. The book will be out later this fall. I will keep everyone updated on the release date as soon as I have more information from my publisher. Keep checking back!

Baseball Practice and Green Sunfish on a Fly!

There is a small pond next to the baseball fields that has some bass, trout, bluegill and green sunfish in it. When I was done with my practice tonight I was walking with my dad to go to our truck when I saw some good sized green sunfish swimming close the bank. I just happened to have my rod and reel along with a few flies in my bag with all my baseball equipment. I quickly rigged things up, made a few casts with a bead head Woolly Bugger that has some rubber legs on it. I caught a couple of nice sized fish on it and had a pretty good bass follow it but did not eat it. Then I hooked up with what I thought was a small bass but when I got it in closer it was a BIG green sunfish! It has to be one of the biggest ones I have ever caught. Maybe the biggest! My dad took a couple of pictures and I put it back into the water to be released. It pays off to always have your rod and a few flies close by because you just never know when you will have a chance to fish. I only fished for about 20 minutes but had one of the funnest time because of that one fish.

I think this might be my best green sunfish ever!

More New Fly Pattern Images Added To My Photo Gallery

Check out the Fly Pattern page of my gallery. I just added 20 more fly pattern images to the gallery. Some are of flies I tied as well as flies from other fly tiers from all over the world. I really like to collect flies and I want to share pictures of some of the amazing flies. I like looking at different flies and see how the different fly tiers use different materials. It makes me think about new ways I can use materials to to make my flies better. That is one of the best things I like about fly tying, there are no limits and it brings out each tiers artistic side. Visit http://www.tylerbefus.com/photogallery/ to see the new images.

One of the new pattern images I posted is Tyler's Secret Weapon in a rusty brown color. This is the color I have been using to catch all kinds of panfish, bass and carp this spring. Visit the fly tying tutorial page of my site for complete tying instructions for this fly pattern http://www.tylerbefus.com/flies/

Tyler's Secret Weapon - Rusty Brown Color.

Fly Fishing Chipeta Lake, Montrose, Colorado

This morning I fished Chipeta Lake for bass and bluegill. It was a beautiful morning and I caught a few fish. The bluegill and green sunfish really liked the Bead Head Prince nymph I was fishing. I saw a couple of nice largemouth bass but could not get them to take the flies I was showing them. It will be fun to go back and try for them again in a couple of days.

Fly Fishing at Chipeta Lake, Montrose, Colorado.

Here is one of the bluegill that ate my Bead Head Prince nymph.

Green sunfish can have so many colors on them. These are one of my favorite fish to catch.

Boys Fly Fishing & Faith Adventure (Montrose, Colorado)

Today I participated in the Boys Fly Fishing and Faith Adventure. I was a mentor to other kids to help them catch fish on a fly rod. For many of these it was their first time fly fishing and catching a fish! We fished some private ponds in Montrose that had rainbows, crappie, bass and green sunfish. All the boys and the mentors had a really great time. Below are some pictures of the day.

Boys Fly Fishing & Faith Adventure!

Some of the boys and their mentors fishing one of the ponds.

Here is one of the boys with his very first fly caught rainbow trout.

Here is a crappie I caught. These fish are so neat.

Here is a nice rainbow I caught on a rust colored Secret Weapon.

I also caught a couple of Green Sunfish today. It was exciting to catch three different types of fish!

Check out the amazing spots and coloration of the crappie!

Fly Fishing The Uncompahgre River At Ridgway State Park

My family and I camped at Ridgway State Park over Memorial Day weekend. We fished the Uncompahgre River at Pa-Co-Chu-Puk below Ridgway Reservoir. There are always some nice fish to be caught here but we were lucky that they had just stocked some Colorado River Cutthroats in this stretch of the river before the holiday weekend. I did really well fishing my dad's Wired Stone pattern in a size #10-12 with a red Copper John, size #14-16, trailing below it. Brassies also worked really good in pink, red, copper and white (see the step by step fly tying tutorial on the tutorial page of my site). The cutthroat were not huge but they were very beautiful and lots of fun to catch!

Check out the amazing colors on this Colorado River Cutthroat!

The Uncompahgre River below Ridgway Reservoir.

My sister with one of the cutthroat she caught.

Here is one of the beautiful cutthroat I caught. These are amazing fish.

It is neat to see the different colors and spot patterns that make every trout unique.

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