River Junk

Picked up a “new” plug the other day. It was planted firmly in the mouth of this 15 inch Rogue River trout. I removed the front treble hook, and the white plug joins the collection I carry in my drifter. A note on the double treble setup the plug came with. One treble was in the jaw and the other was hooked in the gill plate. Is that really necessary? I change my plugs to single treble. Less snagging up and less damage to the fish.

Kamikaze trout. A plug in the mouth didn’t slow him down.

To replace the front treble, remove it and snap on a opened swivel of near approximate weight.

Drifting on the Rogue River, Oregon

Plug fishing and streamside hiking. Perfect 70°F weather for springtime searching on the Rogue River.

Drifting the river at the foot of the Table Rocks for steelhead and salmon.

Plug Fishing on the Rogue River

Mag Lips 3.5 in the yellow-green color.

Video: How to Tie the Beadhead Prince Nymph and Tips to make it Better

Video: How to Tie the Beadhead Prince Nymph.

Last year the Beadhead Prince Nymph proved it’s worth time and again on Rogue River steelhead. Here is a good video that I found on how to tie one. I will note here the differences in the way I tie the Beadhead Prince Nymph and their significances. First I use red tying thread based on customer request and river success of that color. I don’t weight the fly with anything more than a single gold, brass bead. That is because nearly 99% of the time the small Prince Nymph is fished as the trailer fly off the heavy, larger Carpetbagger Stonefly Nymph. The Carpetbagger Nymph gets the tandem setup of flies down to the river bottom. I like to use silver Lagartun French Tinsel for the rib. I use the Oval X-Strong Small tinsel for size 10 and 12 hooks: and the Oval X-Strong Medium Lagartun for size 8 hooks. I counter wrap the peacock herl body and the tinsel with a strong, thin wire salvaged from an old electrical generator. Even before that step, I wind and twist the peacock herl around the red thread before wrapping it to form the body. I don’t like to use cement to reinforce the body because it is messy. Needless to say, the peacock bodies on my Prince Nymphs are near indestructible and hold up fish after fish.

One other place on the fragile Prince Nymph, that I’ve found that needs some reinforcement is the white biot wings. I’ve found that the wing biots will slip or pull out while fishing when tied in the conventional manner. For that reason I like to tie the whole wing biots on to correct length, and then fold the front excess biot back, to the rear and over itself, secured with more wraps of thread. Thus I’ve bond it down (twice) with the red thread and in such a way that a wing biot cannot slip out. Little extras that I can say keep my flies intact and fishing until they are lost to rock or fish!

Interesting mushroom noticed while accessing the Rogue River the other day. The river is coming on strong with good fishing levels and fly-fishing clarity. One thing to watch out for is the trout are really on the bite now. The Rogue River is closed for trout from March 31 through May 24. Incidental catch of rainbow trout, just like with the cutthroat trout, are to be released unharmed. You’ll do a river good!

Rogue River dropping and really beginning to look good.