The brown trout are fat and healthy, but greedier than ever. This season has started out rather well for me, and I’m excited to try continue trying new water to see what Arizona holds. Fly fishing in Arizona truly can be a rollcoaster ride, with ups and many downs. One thing that I have learned by  fly fishing Arizona is to always adapt, try new patterns, and patience, lots of patience.

The post Fly Fishing Arizona: The White Mountains appeared first on Arizona Wanderings.

It’s been raining in the high country and the creeks are in pristine condition. From even a week ago, everything is very green and the water looks healthy. Due to the storms the night before and the sky threatening more of the same, the fishing was very slow in the morning. Antonio and I both hooked a few fish, but nothing like we were catching the previous few weeks. We putzed around for a while and killed some time, waiting for the sun to move off the water, and in the end, we were glad we were patient. The evening bite certainly redeemed the day, and fish were actively cruising and looking to eat. We both pulled a couple of nice fish and I was pleasantly surprised to wrangle in healthy fish in the 15 inch range. We fished until the fading light pushed us out of the canyon and were happy with how the day unfolded.

The post Fly Fishing Arizona: Backcountry Brown Trout appeared first on Arizona Wanderings.

Looks like there is going to be some serious pockets of hoppers across the west this summer. I like thinking that those dark red spots in AZ are right over the Rim creeks. Make sure to stock your fly box with a fistful of Mini-Hoppers (aka the “ultimate small stream dry fly”)

Mini-Hoppers – Available in the Arizona Wanderings Shop

The post Grasshopper Forecast 2012: Do you have your mini-hoppers? appeared first on Arizona Wanderings.

I’ll be tying flies from 10-2 at the first annual ALCS Recreational Expo up in Cottonwood. Should be a great time up there so swing on by, pull up a chair, and say hello. See you there.

The post ALCS Recreational Expo: See you tomorrow… appeared first on Arizona Wanderings.

Last day on the giveaway. Make sure that if you liked AZW on Facebook,you give yourself a second comment on the giveaway post. I would love to hit that hundred mark on Facebook, so head on over and click that “like” button.

I’ll let it run till midnight and then post the winners in the morning on Thursday. Best of luck to everyone and thanks for all the kind words and suggestions. It really is amazing what this site has turned in to, and I look forward to many years to come.

The post Last Day on the Giveaway… appeared first on Arizona Wanderings.

This pattern was one of the bugs that I was messing around with on the Deschutes River in the middle of a some serious golden stone and salmonfly hatches. I tied them up in orange and yellow and had success with  both. The poor fly did not really have a name, but after Eric landed a really nice fish, I yelled over to him and asked him what he caught it on. His response, “That big splashy-thing…” Fun to tie and when the big insects our out, a ton of fun to fish. Enjoy…

If you would like to purchase this pattern, head on over to the Arizona Wanderings Shop and check out the Splashything Stonefly.

(Material List at the bottom)

Pierce a 1/4″ wide piece of 2mm thick foam onto the hook.

With the foam rotating freely at the front of the shank, tie in two goose biots for the tail of the fly.

When the biots are thoroughly tied down slide the foam back over the tied down portion of the biots.

Secure the foam with several wraps.

Tie forward about 1/2 or 3/4 of the way up the hook creating segmented sections of foam. Clip back section of foam.

Wrap thread back to roughly the center of the hook.

Tie in back legs.

Clip front portion of legs off.

Dab of superglue.

Tie in front section of foam.

Tie in hair. (I prefer deer, but elk will work fine.)

Dub all the way forward but work your way back to roughly where you tied in the hair. Tie in legs. Add a drop of glue on top of all the dubbing .

Secure foam.

Secure top indicator foam if desired. Whip finish.

I tied up several variations with different colored foam and dubbing and found that all seemed to do the trick. I think the fish on the Deschutes were more interested in the splash and silhouette of the fly rather than the actual colors.

Materials:

– #4 Terrestrial Hook (but any size will do)

– 2mm foam in yellow (or orange) and brown

– 6/0 Brown Uni Thread

– Dubbing (I used the Haretron Golden Stone, but many colors will work…)

– Sili Legs

– Deer Hair (but elk will work)

– Goose Biots

– Superglue

The post Fly Tying: Splashything Stonefly Pattern appeared first on Arizona Wanderings.

Over the past 6 months, much to the surprise of my wife and myself, my flies and t-shirts have been finding their way all across the county and even across the oceans. In honor of some of those who have been rocking the mini-hoppers and Arizona Wanderings t-shirts, this post is for you.

First, Greg Madrigal from over at Sierra Nets has been rocking his Arizona Wanderings shirt and tearing it up on the streams and ponds of California. Greg is a great guy who has a true gift and fashions some of the most spectacular nets I have ever seen. Make sure to check out his site and check out the monster catfish he caught on one of the illustrious Simi-Seal Buggers.

My good buddy Mike  from over at “of Dry Flies and Fat Tires,” spent some time on the Rio Grande giving the mini-hoppers some playing time. The minis rose to the occasion and pricked a few fish. Full story here…

Another longtime blog friend, Mike, from “Troutrageous” picked up one of the new Arizona Wanderings t-shirts and found that it had a bit of fishing mojo. More on Mike’s day fishing here…

Another great fishing partner and friend is Eric Davis of Hooked Up Films. On my recent trip up to Oregon, Eric made the magic happen in an Arizona Wanderings T-shirt and showed me how to fish the mighty Deschutes. I owe Eric a great deal, not only because he put me up in Oregon and allowed me to fish with him, but because he has been one of the supportive voices in the evolution of my site. Thanks Eric.

Another success story involves my buddy JohnMark, who I took fly fishing for the first time last fall. He was moving to Colorado, so I convinced him he needed to buy a fly rod, gave him how-to book, and tied him an Altoids tin full of flies and sent him on his way. He finally got a little time and landed his first “all by himself” fish. Beautiful brown JM. Strong work.

Lastly, a big thanks to Tom Chandler over at the Trout Underground where he gave a great review of the mini-hopper as a possible candidate for “the ultimate small stream fly.” Ever since I stumbled into fly fishing, I have been reading Chandler’s thoughts and ramblings. To have him say such kind things about the mini on his site was a little bit surreal, not to mention the subsequent mini-hopper sales. I will be busy tying for some time. Thanks for the kind words Tom.

A big thank you to everyone who has supported Arizona Wanderings by either buying flies, shirts, or both. I never imagined that I would get the kind of response that I did and the kind words and support have been extremely appreciated. If you have bought flies or shirts and have a camera handy, take some photos of them in action and email them on over so I can put them up on the site.

If you have not picked up a t-shirt…what are you waiting for.

I am back in AZ for the rest of the summer and am tying lots of mini-hoppers, so if you have been waiting to place an order, now is the time.

Thanks again for the support.

Ben

The post Arizona Wanderings: Wall of Fame appeared first on Arizona Wanderings.

The morning sun broke the brisk chill that hung in the canyon and we sat in the sun trying to get warm. After thawing out we headed to the water to see if we could bring some of those trout back out from the depths, I missed to fish after about an hour and a half of fishing and Jake had a monster break him off after taking his dry fly. Around that time as if someone had turned a switch the wind started picking up and within 15 minutes it was impossible to cast.

We made the hard decision and decided to pack up our gear and hike out of the canyon. Even though we had another day and a half planned to stay, there was no point if the wind was going to blow and possibility that we might run into other anglers was not especially appealing. The hike out was rugged and the truck never looked so good. We took the washboard road back to civilization and after a little bit of strategizing decided to hit some water that would be a little bit more sheltered than the canyon streams that are so typical in Arizona

As if to validate our decision to switch water, a beautifully colored brown took a parachute adams on my second cast to the dark side of the first pool. The upper portion of this creek is dominated by rainbows but the occasional brown does find his way into the swift plunge pools.

The foliage is nice as it breaks up the wind, but it can make for some casting issues. Roll casts and side loops are the name of the game.

If we played our cards right and dropped soft enough flies, wild rainbows would eagerly take parachutes out of the film. The creek was skinny but healthy and the mayflies, terrestrials, and midges were out in full force.

Jake and I both stuck with a parachute for the bottom part of the stream and had great success in fooling fish. We continued to hike and fish higher and the water kept getting smaller and smaller, but the rainbows kept getting hungrier and hungrier.

This creek started to get very shady the farther up we fished and I switched back to a bright orange mini-hopper in order to follow the fly in the fast plunge pools. Another brown showed up to play.

Losing count of fish numbers is always a good thing. It seemed that each fish was unique in its colors and spots. A good day, all in all, out of the wind with not a soul in sight. Bushwhacking through brambles and over downed trees had us working hard to access the small upper reaches of this stream.

We wound up back at the truck with a little bit of daylight so opted to hit up one of the local places for dinner. Potato skins with bacon and onions always tastes better after a day or two with only Clif bars and Easy Mac. With a burger in my gullet and a couple of hard miles on my feet, I was out in no time and slept hard through the night. One more day in store chasing wild trout in the Arizona high country…

The post Arizona Fly Fishing: Spring Backpacking (Day 2) appeared first on Arizona Wanderings.

Received the final product of the local hopper swap and I am very excited to go and put some of these on some moving water. Thanks to all the guys who tied.

The post Hopper Swap: Completion appeared first on Arizona Wanderings.

The original Hopper Juan fly was developed by Juan Ramirez from Colorado Springs. When I first started thinking about getting into fly tying, there were two flies that really got me excited to learn, the parachute Adams and the Hopper Juan. Juan’s pattern can be found on his site, the Hopper Juan, with a detailed recipe and material list. I really like this pattern and have had great success with it. I recently tied up a batch for a fly swap on a local forum and was asked for the recipe. The bugs I tied were a variation of the original Hopper Juan. Here is my variation:

1. Foam – 2-3 colors – bottom, top, indicator (the 2mm stuff from the craft store works just fine)

2. Thread – I like the thread to match the top layer and I really like to use 6/0 Uni-Thread

3. Dubbing – I prefer the Hare-Tron Dubbin, but anything will work

4. Deer Hair

5. Super Glue

6. Leg material

7. Something sparkly for the underwing – I use Krystal Flash because that is what I have…

Take your bottom piece of foam cut in a 1/4 inch wide strip. Pierce it onto the hook shank.

Tie on thread and secure the bottom layer of foam to at the back of the hook. Add a drop of superglue right on the thread and foam.

Tie in top foam with 3-4 wraps.

Open those two pieces of foam up and wind thread forward. This takes some forward thinking because ultimately you are going to have three body segments ahead of you. Make sure you space it evenly so that all the segments are the same size.

Secure bottom layer of foam with a couple of wraps and drop a dab of superglue in the cup-like area that you just created. Then tie in the top layer.

Repeat until you reach just behind the eye of the hook. Firmly secure the bottom layer of foam.

Carefully and as close as you can, cut the bottom layer of foam and cover the extra foam with thread wraps.

Tie in the top layer but do not cut it.

Wrap back to the last body segment with one cross wrap. this is usually the best time to trim the tail. (I have no idea if the tail should be cut like this, but I think it makes it look nice…)

Note: At this point, all the rest of your material will be tied in at this point. Try to limit the amount of wraps because it will get bulky real quick.

Tie in Krystal Flash (or whatever other flash material you have).

Tie in deer hair.

Trim and had dubbing. (Dubbing hides a multitude of sins…)

Add your legs. Right here I add one more drop of glue in the dubbing and on the exposed foam.

Bring back your top layer of foam and secure with 1-2 wraps then add in a very thin piece of bright foam as your indicator. You can whip finish right there in the foam or you can take the thread back up to the eye of the hook. I think the whip finish in the foam works just fine. Trim foam.

What you have is a bullet-proof bug that will float all day, catch fish, and act as an indicator for any dropper you throw underneath it. A quality fly created by a quality tier. I have tied up a bunch and look forward to throwing these on the Deschutes during my upcoming trip. Thanks Juan for a great bug.

The post The Easy Hopper Juan: My variation and tutorial appeared first on Arizona Wanderings.