Today is April 20th - some people I know have a penchant for celebrating this particular day.
This morning I asked one of my friends (and a mentor) what he thought I should tie today. He responded almost immediately with I had to tie something up that would resonate with those who are celebrating today.
A quick conversation gave me a couple of ideas and we were off to the races.
A few weeks ago I was fishing the Green River below Flaming Gorge with my dad. It was a great trip. One of the days I was walking along a rocky section of river and saw an hook that had the remains of a bead head squirmy worm. I picked up the gooey hook and bead and stuck it in a spare section of my fly box to keep someone from inadvertently stepping on it. When I got home I looked at the hook and realized the hook and bead were in great condition even though the squirmy material had melted and gotten gross.
A few minutes of pulling off slime, cutting some thread and general cleaning I was able to get the hook to be a happy clean and useable hook again. The conversation I had this morning lead me to know that I had to use the hook and bead for this fly.
I quickly tied down some ribbing wire in olive, created a dubbing loop and added some MFC Phoenix Dubbing, and wrapped up the bug. A pinch more of dubbing for the collar and a whip finish and the fly was finished.
