BWO Pattern

[George Cleveland]

http://www.myfishingpictures.com/img/034852.jpg


The above fly, my version of the Fuzzball (#22 in the picture) , is
the fly I expect I'll use most on my last day on the River this year
(tomorrow). A truly simple tie.

Tail (optional)- Couple strands micro fibbets, hackle fibers or zelon.

Body- Olive thread or Olive Uni-Stretch

Wing- Dun Snowshoe Hare


Tie in the tails. Wrap body. Tie in with a couple thread wraps a tuft
of grey snowshoe hare foot fur with tips just reaching the start of
the hook bend. Then double the remainder of the tuft back over the the
body and the wing. Tie down and finish head. Trim the doubled over
wing to the same length as the bottom part of the wing (i.e. to the
start of the hook bend.) Soak with Watershed or similiar over night or
just dope it up with floatant on stream and go fishing. Works dry but
can be retrieved back "damp".

g.c.

[Gary M]

George Cleveland wrote:
> http://www.myfishingpictures.com/img/034852.jpg
>
>
> The above fly, my version of the Fuzzball (#22 in the picture) , is
> the fly I expect I'll use most on my last day on the River this year
> (tomorrow). A truly simple tie.
>
> Tail (optional)- Couple strands micro fibbets, hackle fibers or zelon.
>
> Body- Olive thread or Olive Uni-Stretch
>
> Wing- Dun Snowshoe Hare
>
>

George that looks like very productive pattern, but I am wondering why
you relate it to BWO family? It certainly could not be due to the blue
wings ;).

[Willi & Sue]

Gary M wrote:

> George Cleveland wrote:
>
>> http://www.myfishingpictures.com/img/034852.jpg
>>
>>
>> The above fly, my version of the Fuzzball (#22 in the picture) , is
>> the fly I expect I'll use most on my last day on the River this year
>> (tomorrow). A truly simple tie.
>>
>> Tail (optional)- Couple strands micro fibbets, hackle fibers or zelon.
>>
>> Body- Olive thread or Olive Uni-Stretch
>>
>> Wing- Dun Snowshoe Hare
>>
>>
>
> George that looks like very productive pattern, but I am wondering why
> you relate it to BWO family? It certainly could not be due to the blue
> wings ;).


BWO's (at least out West) aren't a "family" in the scientific sense.
There are many different insects that are referred to as Blue Winged
Olives. They vary in size (usually small), color and other
characteristics. Many BWO's aren't blue or olive. To my eyes, most are
varied shades of gray.

In my part of Colorado, they range from a size 18 down to about a 26. I
have lots of effective patterns for the insects that are 18 and 20 but
when the natural insect gets below a 20, the effectiveness of the many
patterns I've tried goes way down. When the 18's are hatching, I can
fish the same fly and go from one rising fish to the next, sometimes
getting takes from each fish I present to. As the size of the natural
drops, patterns seem to become less effective (or the difficulty in
presenting them well goes up).

There's a very tiny one hatching right now on my home river. I can
generally get a fish out of each pod of feeding fish. It doesn't seem to
matter what pattern I'm using, I can even use a fly that's a couple sizes
too big. After the first fish is taken, it seems that the fish become
alerted. Although they continue to readily feed on naturals, I can see
frequents turns of fish to look at my fly that end in refusals when they
get about 6 inches to a foot away. After a single fish refuses a given fly,
they usually just ignore it in the future, not even turning to look at it
when it passes. A fly change will provoke renewed interest and with
about one out of four fly changes, resulting in a take. Then back to
ignoring.

Part of the problem, I know, is presentation. The fish are fairly hefty
and I don't like going below 6X. 7 or 8X would make for a better
presentation and result in more takes. However my experience is that
when trout are rising to tiny Mayflies or midges, of all the patterns
I've used, none are as effective as the patterns we use to represent
larger insects. Although a given pattern will take an occasional fish,
it's unusual to find a pattern that most of the feeding fish will take.
I think that when our patterns go below a size twenty, the materials we
use are
too "gross" for a good representation. Our saving grace when fishing the
small stuff, is that the trout have to eat ALOT of the insects to get a
meal and with some many feedings, the chances that they'll make a
mistake goes up.

Willi

[Willi & Sue]

Gary M wrote:

> George Cleveland wrote:
>
>> http://www.myfishingpictures.com/img/034852.jpg
>>
>>
>> The above fly, my version of the Fuzzball (#22 in the picture) , is
>> the fly I expect I'll use most on my last day on the River this year
>> (tomorrow). A truly simple tie.
>>
>> Tail (optional)- Couple strands micro fibbets, hackle fibers or zelon.
>>
>> Body- Olive thread or Olive Uni-Stretch
>>
>> Wing- Dun Snowshoe Hare
>>
>>
>
> George that looks like very productive pattern, but I am wondering why
> you relate it to BWO family? It certainly could not be due to the blue
> wings ;).


BWO's (at least out West) aren't a "family" in the scientific sense.
There are many different insects that are referred to as Blue Winged
Olives. They vary in size (usually small), color and other
characteristics. Many BWO's aren't blue or olive. To my eyes, most are
varied shades of gray.

In my part of Colorado, they range from a size 18 down to about a 26. I
have lots of effective patterns for the insects that are 18 and 20 but
when the natural insect gets below a 20, the effectiveness of the many
patterns I've tried goes way down. When the 18's are hatching, I can
fish the same fly and go from one rising fish to the next, sometimes
getting takes from each fish I present to. As the size of the natural
drops, patterns seem to become less effective (or the difficulty in
presenting them well goes up).

There's a very tiny one hatching right now on my home river. I can
generally get a fish out of each pod of feeding fish. It doesn't seem to
matter what pattern I'm using, I can even use a fly that's a couple sizes
too big. After the first fish is taken, it seems that the fish become
alerted. Although they continue to readily feed on naturals, I can see
frequents turns of fish to look at my fly that end in refusals when they
get about 6 inches to a foot away. After a single fish refuses a given fly,
they usually just ignore it in the future, not even turning to look at it
when it passes. A fly change will provoke renewed interest and with
about one out of four fly changes, resulting in a take. Then back to
ignoring.

Part of the problem, I know, is presentation. The fish are fairly hefty
and I don't like going below 6X. 7 or 8X would make for a better
presentation and result in more takes. However my experience is that
when trout are rising to tiny Mayflies or midges, of all the patterns
I've used, none are as effective as the patterns we use to represent
larger insects. Although a given pattern will take an occasional fish,
it's unusual to find a pattern that most of the feeding fish will take.
I think that when our patterns go below a size twenty, the materials we
use are
too "gross" for a good representation. Our saving grace when fishing the
small stuff, is that the trout have to eat ALOT of the insects to get a
meal and with some many feedings, the chances that they'll make a
mistake goes up.

Willi

[GaryM]

Willi & Sue > wrote in
:

> BWO's (at least out West) aren't a "family" in the scientific
> sense. There are many different insects that are referred to as
> Blue Winged Olives. They vary in size (usually small), color and
> other characteristics. Many BWO's aren't blue or olive. To my
> eyes, most are varied shades of gray.
>
<snipped interesting stuff>

Good info Willi. Local rivers here in the Northeast do exhibit the
same variety in size for Olives, but they do all have blue to slate
colored wings and are all olive, at least on the bottom of the
abdomen (trico duns also have olive bodies making the BWO a good
choice early in the hatch before the fish focus on the spinner fall).

There are large olives in the Spring and smaller varieties as the
season progress. The waters I fish don't see the pods of feeders you
refer to, but when there is a decent hatch going it will usually be
the choice pattern over all else on the water. Cloudy days in Vermont
about this time of year are wonderful for both olive and caddis
hatches and one of my favorite times to fish. The scenery is not too
shabby either!

[Svend Tang-Petersen]

Ive done reasonably well with a similar fly, but using biots and CDC for
the wing. Blue CDC for BWOs and white for trico females.

George Cleveland wrote:

> http://www.myfishingpictures.com/img/034852.jpg
>
> The above fly, my version of the Fuzzball (#22 in the picture) , is
> the fly I expect I'll use most on my last day on the River this year
> (tomorrow). A truly simple tie.
>
> Tail (optional)- Couple strands micro fibbets, hackle fibers or zelon.
>
> Body- Olive thread or Olive Uni-Stretch
>
> Wing- Dun Snowshoe Hare
>
> Tie in the tails. Wrap body. Tie in with a couple thread wraps a tuft
> of grey snowshoe hare foot fur with tips just reaching the start of
> the hook bend. Then double the remainder of the tuft back over the the
> body and the wing. Tie down and finish head. Trim the doubled over
> wing to the same length as the bottom part of the wing (i.e. to the
> start of the hook bend.) Soak with Watershed or similiar over night or
> just dope it up with floatant on stream and go fishing. Works dry but
> can be retrieved back "damp".
>
> g.c.

--

Svend

************************************************** ***************
Svend Tang-Petersen, MSc Email: svend AT sgi.com
SGI Pager: svend_p AT pager.sgi.com
1500 Crittenden Lane Phone: (+1) 650 933 3618
Mountain View
California 94043
USA
MS 30-2-526
************************************************** ***************