Coffin's Tailwater Flies 07Dec15

These are my six most productive Colorado tailwaters flies other than a "weight fly" or an RS2… three BWO mayflies and 3 midges. All of them are fished “wet” and intended to dead drift or dynamic drift at the level of feeding fish. These flies have taken the most and the largest fish from the Arkansas, So Platte, Blue, and Williams Fork rivers for me this year. These are all my custom designs, though all are variants of stuff tied by Colorado guides and tiers.

Awesome Midge
This unusual midge is made mostly from materials often tossed. Tied #22-26 this is my most prolific producer on the PT and is a variant of a tie I learned from Smethurst. It’s made from rusty brown thread, a body of stripped peacock herl coated with Hard As Nails, “wings” of pearl Krystal Flash and thorax of a blend of grizzly hackle duff and peacock herl fibers (dubbed on with Loon super tacky wax). The thorax is so natural and “swishy” in the water and peacock herl is perfectly grey-brown and segmented.
Blood Midge
This is not the classic bought in stores or online. Tied on the #18-22 TMC202R hook, my three key variants are a mirrored red XS glass bead, an underlayer of pearl mylar below the red D-Rib and gills of Medora thread protruding from the front of the bead. Whether an attractor or THE bug big fish are seeking, the translucent segmented red ribbing with underlying flash and front gills are irresistible.
Jimi’s Axe Midge
Renamed from Blessing’s Purple Haze due to my size and materials changes, I tie this in #20-#22 and use smaller ones as the season moves on. It’s really either a mayfly with flash tail or more likely a midge with trailing shuck. I use root bear midge Krystal Flash as shuck, purple & blue holographic mylar for body, a custom blend of purple & black UV ice dub for the thorax, and either black hen hackle tips or raven tips for the hackle-tied legs (material must be NOT stiff). Fish it in a bit faster water and light will sparkle off the purple and fish will inhale it.
Cheeseman Emerger Mayfly
Chris Ramos’s design for Cheeseman Canyon is a micro-mayfly for super-technical waters. It is a perfect, easily tied, fast-sinking fly for most tailwaters… a smidge better in spring when the BWOs are more olive-ish but paradoxically, it’s smaller than most BWOs hatching then. I tie #22-#24 with a black-nickel tungsten bead, olive thread body with pearl Krystal Flash tail and flashback, small white Antron wing and custom blend of olive superfine and peacock ice dubbing. Simple and perfect.
DRC’s Fly of Destiny (FOD) Mayfly
Tied initially by O’Grady of the Drift Fly Shop in Pueblo, this has quickly risen as a go-to BWO pattern for me alongside my mercury bead RS2 Medora emergers. I tie it almost exclusively in #22 though I will likely add larger versions for springtime. I tie it using gray-brown thread and a gun-metal blue XS glass bead; the tail is 8 pheasant tail fibers (which are carried forward and make the wing casing and legs/wings too). The body is simply thread with XS copper ultrawire ribbing. The thorax is callebetis (gray & lavender) UV ice dub. Not a crawler or emerger… or is it either, or both.
Silver Surfer Mayfly
This is an Kingrey-derived all-flash mayfly emerger. It is intended for days when the water is off-color and visibility is low. It has produced beyond my expectations in these conditions. I tie it #18-#22. I use grey wet hackle fibers for the tail and tips of same for the hackle/legs. The body is silver holographic mylar overwrapped with blue S ultrawire, and the thorax is silver ice dub. The colors don’t occur in nature so I am unsure why it works so well but I sure know it does.