I’m always looking for flies I can fish for multiple species on and the Krystowski Minnow looks like it will definitely do the job. I am going to give this fly a try for some smallmouth bass and chain pickerel next year and see what kind of action I get.

I will start by tying it as it is in the video and then I also want to change a couple of colours to red and white as I have a great amount of luck using flies and lures with those colours.

Tying The Krystowski Minnow

Tying The Krystowski Minnow

The Story Behind The Krystowski Minnow

“The Krystowski Minnow is one of my early original fly designs. I began tying this fly long before I was part of the fly fishing industry and a contract fly designer. It was at a point in my life when I had very limited time to spend behind a vise and, more influentially, when I had very little money to spend on tying material. I needed an all-purpose baitfish streamer that I could use for every occasion. I could not afford to have multiple fly boxes for every species of fish, but I was fishing everywhere and often. I needed a fly for river smallmouth, farm pond largemouth, Spring steelhead, Fall browns, wiper, walleye and northern pike. If I had a handful of Krystowski Minnows in my box I was all set. The fly needed to be cheap to tie, fast to tie and never fall apart…even after being chewed on by northern pike. I have old fishing buddies back in my home town who fish this fly over everything else. The fly is named after a family in northern Ohio who owned a small bass pond and would let me fish and invite me in for dinner. The earliest prototypes of this fly were fished in their pond” — Jay Zimmerman (Colorado Fly Fishing Reports )

Krystowski Minnow Tying Instructions

Hook: Gamakatsu B10S #2
Thread: Black 6/0 UNI-Thread
Wing: (Bottom) White Icelandic Sheep Hair, (Middle) Chartreuse Icelandic Sheep Hair, (Top) Black Icelandic Sheep Hair.
Eye: Extra Small White Painted Lead Eyes

Step 1 : Begin with Gamakatsu B10S #2 hook. Create a ¼ inch thread base of black 6/0 UNI-Thread behind the hook eye.

Step 2 : Tie in a clump of white Icelandic Sheep to “bottom” of hook shank.

Step 3 : Tie in a clump of chartreuse Icelandic Sheep on “top” side of hook shank.

Step 4 : Securely mount ex-small white painted lead dumbbell eyes to “bottom” of hook shank. It is important that you wait until this point to tie in the lead eyes. Because the eyes are ex-small (this fly fishes best as a light-weight streamer) it is crucial there be distance between the arbor of the lead eyes and the hook shank. This ensures the fly swims hook point up.

Step 5 : Tie in a clump of black Icelandic Sheep on top. Be sure to leave several inches of the black sheep hair extending out past the hook eye.

Step 6 : Take the black sheep hair clump that you left extending past the hook eye and part it evenly. Be sure to leave the thread at the rear of the fly head.

Step 7 : Wrap each piece of the black sheep hair back separately (being sure to cross between the lead eyes) and tie off and trim.

Step 8 : Wrap black tying thread thoroughly over entire head of fly, being sure to secure any loose sheep hair and give the entire head an overall tightening. Then whip finish twice for durability and trim thread.

Step 9 : Cut fly down to 2 ½ inches long (trim up the end nice and tapered). Then apply multiple coats of head cement over entire head, to include the painted lead eyes. I prefer at least five coats of Hard-as-Hull.

I love to get out fishing from my float tube. It’s so relaxing and at the same time exciting. Back when I had a canoe and a boat I had a nice little Humminbird portable fish-finder but found it too big for my float tube so I sold it with my boat.

I have looked for a nice portable fish finder since but never saw anything that I really liked, until this morning.

It’s getting close to Christmas so I was looking through Amazon to see what was there and found this cool little wrist mounted fish finder, perfect for float tube fishing adventures.

Humminbird Smartcast Wrist Mount

I remember fishing Lake George New Brunswick, along with a few other larger lakes in the area, from both my canoe and boat. It was nice to have a fishfinder so we could located active spots we could come back to. We must have fished Lake George a hundred times and always seemed to hook into a lot of smallmouth bass.

I’d say it was mostly because of the Humminbird fishfinder keeping us on the right locations.

I remember so many times I wished I had a fishfinder for my float tube so I could find those great spots again.

Here are a few specs for the Humminbird Smartcast RF 35 fish-finder.

First, Humminbird is using wireless technologies to the Smartcaster rf35 so you don’t require a wire going to the sensor. Just attach a length of fishing line and give it a toss out on the water and you’re ready to go fish finding.

The Remote Sonar Sensor has a separate, lithium battery that is non-replaceable , that has a lifespan of three years and will work for somewhere around five-hundred hours in the water.

Note: It’s always good advice to clean your equipment after a day on the water and it goes the same for your remote sensor. Keep it cleaned and it will keep going on keeping on.

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The Adams dry fly is meant to sit on the water’s surface so it’s important to get the wing, hackle and tail proportions just right.

The tail should be the length of the hook shank and the hackle should be one and half times the gap of the hook. Also the wing should be about 20% longer than the hackle. Get this right and it should sit pretty for the fish.

It’s always advisable to use stiff hackle when making a dry fly like the Adams as it will help to keep it floating higher on the water’s surface.

?I enjoy using the Adams on  most of the trout streams and brooks here in New Brunswick. I find that I have great luck with dry flies that are made using brown hackles like the colour in this fly.

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Tying a Beaded Micro Leech Pattern

Note: To tie in the bead to start this fly you can slide the bead over the hook barb and up the shank of the hook. At that point you can use your thread to place the bead exactly where you want it. Use wraps of thread on the front to secure it’s location and then put thread at that back to keep it from sliding around while you tie your fly.

A Simple Leech Pattern

This pattern is quick and easy and really tricks the trout into striking. In a larger pattern it’s great for bass and pike as well. I have always preferred the black leech but we also see leeches that are brown so those patterns work as well.

Learn How to Tie a Cahill Dry Fly

I love watching people tie flies, especially when they actually explain the steps.

Here is a list of what you will need to tie the Cahill.

Name: Cahill

Hook: #12 Dry Fly

Thread: Black 6/0

Tail: Furnace Hackle

Body: Blue Dun Superfine Dubbing (needs to repel water.)

Wing: Imitation Wookduck Flank

Hackle: Brown Neck Hackle

Using The Whip Finisher To Tie Off Your Fly:

Not comfortable with the whip finisher yet. It took me a long time before I stopped using my fingers to whip finish a fly. Here is a video that will show you how to use the Whip Finisher.

I looked at a few whip finisher videos on Youtube and chose the following because it has audio and is easy to see the process.

I love fly fishing for Atlantic salmon, just never get enough of it, and I also love using the Atlantic salmon pattern known as The Green Machine on most of our salmon rivers here in New Brunswick Canada.

My understanding of the Green Machine is that it was first used here in New Brunswick. No wonder both I and the Atlantic salmon love it.

The following video was created by William at www.FlySpoke.com. Thanks for the great video William.

You can watch the video and I will make a list for you with the materials you will need to successfully duplicate this awesome salmon fly.

Atlantic Salmon Fly: The Green Machine

Pattern: The White Calf Tail Green Machine, a slight variation of the original Green Machine.

• Mustad Hook: 3582 – Size 8 – Down Eye Double Hook
• Tail: White Calf Tail
• Hackle: Size 12 Dry Fly Hackle (Brown or Ginger)
• Body: Deer Body Hair (Green)

Note: Using blue deer hair and you will create a smurf to catch Atlantic salmon.

Feel free to change up the tail colour and see how you do on your salmon water.

If you’re new to deer hair spinning it’s not a problem. I found this little deer hair spinning video, enjoy.

My wife is from Campbellton New Brunswick, definitely the Atlantic salmon capital of the Maritimes. I have been fly fishing there for both big brook trout and of course the Atlantic salmon. I thought you would like to see a video of an Atlantic salmon fly tied right here in New Brunswick. I wonder if I would have married her if she wasn’t from a salmon fishing background? Okay, just kidding.

Somewhere about 1935 Joseph Clovis Arsenault was asked by Joseph Pulitizer to replicate a worn out Black R.A.T. that had the under body showing through. This better with age and well used fly was the birth of one of the most famous of all Canadian hair wing flies. The Rusty Rat is as good today as any fly for fishing the world famous Restigouche River.

This video not only shows you step by step how to tie the Rusty Rat but as he is tying he tells a great story of the history. Well worth your time viewing.

Most fishers have confidence baits and the same thing goes for salmon flies. I have my favourites and they tend to be all I use most of the time. The Rusty Rat is a salmon fly I have never tried but after watching this video it’s one that I have to learn to tie for myself and give it a try next year. Looking forward to it already.

I am sure, we as fishers, all have our confidence baits. I have confidence baits for any species I have fished regularly and it also applies to my fly fishing trips.

About a month ago a friend took me out fly fishing for some brook trout here in New Brunswick. It was close to Sussex but he would shoot me if I said exactly where. Well he might not actually kill me but he might never take me fly fishing again and that surely would kill me. So I’ll keep tight lipped on this one.

When he told me where we would be going I prepared the confidence flies and put them all into one fly box and I put my favourite dry fly on before I ever left the house.

We had a great day and landed many brook trout. All of which we promptly released as it’s a catch and release area only.

Here is a little video that I watched on Youtube this morning and thought you might like to see some of the trout flies I love to have with me.

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Ever have trouble getting the head of your fly tied just perfect? Well I have. I used my fingers as part of my fly tying equipment but eventually I started to use the whip finisher I’ve had for 20 years or more. How about you, are you still using your fingers to finish off your fly head?

For me personally it seemed to take longer to finish off the head of my fly than it took to tie the thing, so now my speed has picked up considerable and I have more time on the water than on the fly tying bench.

It took me a few tries to get the whip finisher to do what it’s meant to do but with a little practice it works fine and much faster than just using my fingers.

Here’s a short fly tying equipment, the whip finisher, video that will help you master it in a few minutes. I took extra time because all I had was a few drawings showing me how. I learn much faster by example.

I hope this helps you tie flies in record time now. Maybe you can even start making some money selling your flies on places like eBay.ca and Kijji.ca or directly from your web site.

The Royal Coachman fly comes in a few different patterns depending on how you like to fish it. Personally I love to fish clear water, stone bottom brooks and streams for brook trout but I have also used them to attract and catch Atlantic salmon.

A few times I have used them in a lake but never really had much luck using them there. Of course I don’t fish lakes much for trout so I don’t have a lot of experience at it and for me it’s all about using confidence baits when I fish so I have a tendency to switch flies before giving them a good testing. If you have luck with Royal Coachman flies in trout lakes take a minute and leave a tip about how to fish them as a comment.

Here are a couple of videos that will teach you how to tie different Royal Coachman patterns.

Tying the Royal Coachman SoftHackle by Davie McPhail

For those of you that like the Royal Coachman pattern and would like a streamer pattern based on the Royal Coachman then this next video, actually two videos, part one and two. I am thinking this pattern may be the pattern for me to use in some of the trout lakes and ponds I fish. Maybe I will have better luck and find a new confidence fly for lakes. As it is I tend to use my Woolly Bugger most of the time as it makes a great leech pattern and attracts a lot of hungry trout. They are great for bass as well. Anyways, back to the pattern at hand, the Royal Coachman.

This first video will even give you the background of the Royal Coachman, which I had never heard before, enjoy.