Fly Tied
By:
Nathan Gubbins
Originated By:
Nathan Gubbins
Story By: Nathan Gubbins
Home: Coon Rapids, MN
E-mail: ngubbs@hotmail.com
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Nate has been
obsessed with fly-fishing and tying since age 13. He's
currently a student at a local community college. Next year
he hopes to head out to Billings, Montana to work for a
degree in Medical Chemistry… and fish for the browns and
‘bows of the Bighorn. |
I really didn't have any faith in the day when
I looked over the bridge and saw nothing but chocolate milk.
But I was there, and decided to walk upstream a bit and give
it a try.
A friend once told me that when things are
looking bad, try making it better by overcoming what hinders
you. Well, in chocolate milk, all a guy can do is have a
visible fly. So I knotted this fly on the end of my leader:
an ugly thing consisting of ten feet of ten-pound Trilene,
to which was knotted a foot of 4X, with four (yes, 4) split
shot above the knot. I hoped it would get me down to where I
needed to be. It did.
I was fishing as I would for steelhead- let the shot hit
bottom, then just let it drift in the current, occasionally
tapping the bottom in its drift. I believe it was on the
fourth drift, when a side current pulled my rig closer to my
feet, that the rig stopped cold. Figuring it was some
Wisconsin real estate, I yanked straight up, expecting to
have a fly with some moss on it shoot out of the water less
than a yard in front of me.
It didn't happen that way. It just came up real slow and
heavy, and I remember my thought being, "Phooey, another
stick." Then it shook its head, and went over 50 feet
downstream to just shy of the bridge, in less than 3
seconds. Like a typical big trout, it shot straight over to
the other bank and bull-dogged a bit, slowly working
upstream with heavy headshakes interspersed. It tried to
bury itself in a stand of sunken timbers, but I managed to
pull it out of them and brought it across the river, almost
to my feet. I had leader in my guides when all the stops
were pulled out. It just went downstream. And kept going. I
was under the bridge with water coming in under my left
armpit and my fly line shooting down river with backing
trailing after it when… all went slack. I cranked up what I
had left only to find the scourge of knot-tiers: a knot that
broke at the hook eye.
Now all I have to say is
this: I've hooked and landed a few 18-inchers before, some
in heavy current. This was much, much stronger and heavier.
I can't say exactly how much, because I never saw the fish,
its tail or even a boil. Still drives me crazy when I
think about it.
--Nate Gubbins
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Four-shot Scud
as designed and tied by
Nate Gubbins |
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Photo by Peter
Frailey
Order of Ingredients:
Hook: Size
10 or 12, TMC 900BL or 2457
Antennae: 6 pound
monofilament, tied in before
beadhead is slipped into place
Beadhead: Gold, large for
hook size
Tail:
Filoplume fibers trimmed short
Rib: Black 6/0 thread
Back: Clear plastic
sheeting (from a Ziploc plastic bag)
over a few strands of
pearl
Flashabou
Body:
Fox squirrel, dubbed heavily and
picked out
Remarks:
This fly was
tied as a joke, given the huge gold
bead at the front of an already
large fly. However, it is
responsible for the largest hookup
I've ever had on a trout stream, or
any stream for that matter.
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