Itchin' for a Scratch

I've been thinking about trout lately, and how I'd like to see and maybe even catch a few. I ate some salmon flesh tonight, and that only further stoked the flame. It's been bleeping cold lately, but I'm sensing a warm up. I made a tying to-do list, and I started on it recently... today I tied ~20 flies I'd guess - all for SE MN trout. The one in the yellow light is from a while ago - that one could double as a carp fly.

I call most flies "deadly lethal killers" but these dark blue hares ears really are the genuine DLKs. This would win the "one fly" contest in SE MN... this or maybe the Pink Squirrel. I have at all times at least 20 of these and 20 Pink Sq. in my nymph box. I love this fly. If you walk around in streams and turn over rocks, you will find that many of the bugs you see look like this - approx this size, shape and color. I like to think that that is why it is so effective (see old pic of fly on buggy rock from 2006 fishing tour)... but it could also be because it is a really flashy little devil too - gold bead and plenty of ice dub. Either way - easy tie, beautiful fly, gets to the bottom to bounce around, eagerly taken by salmo trutta et al...

Check out the detail provided by the macro feature of the Pentax Optio. You can even see the individual fibers of the fibers of the pheasant tail feathers.