I am excited to announce a new fly pattern to be released by Montana Fly Company in 2021! The McCoy’s All Day Isonychia Spinner is very durable, has a very realistic profile, can be fished all day, and is a must have pattern for our Northern Michigan streams. This fly will be available in two sizes, #10 and #12, and will complete the Isonychia lineup in a series of foam based dry flies that I released through MFC in 2019.
The All Day Isonychia Spinner is a great searching pattern and is one of my go to favorites to target rising trout during an Isonychia Spinner fall. Make sure to check with your local fly shops for availability and I expect we will have a limited quantity available here online at Mangled Fly. Read more
https://mangledfly.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/mccoys-all-day-spinner-isonychia.jpg600900Ed McCoyhttps://mangledfly.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/mangled-fly-fishing.jpgEd McCoy2020-12-18 02:27:002020-12-18 10:50:34New Fly Release McCoy's All Day Spinner
Excited to announce a new video series to our YouTube Channel, this past week we focused on tying Brown Drakes. The video series is a 4 part series walking you through the step by step process of tying Ed McCoy’s Boondoggle Spinner Pattern and McCoy’s All Day Dun . To make it easy we created aPlaylist so you can watch all 4 videos in succession, make sure to smash that like button and subscribe to our channel as well. During this quarantine of 2020, have goals of uploading some additional content while also abiding to the social distance requirements.
Cutting Foam
The video series starts off with the simple process of cutting the foam, we filmed this video series back in February 2018 for the sole purpose of brining Montana Fly Company up to speed on how Ed McCoy was tying brown drakes. So not all the details were layout within the videos so please if you have questions about something please leave a comment and we will do our best to get back with you ASAP. Already one question that has been asked is what size foam are you using. The Answer is 2mm foam, so before you start tying Brown Drakes make sure you have the right size foam on hand.
Tying Brown Drakes, Cutting Foam
YouTube
As I mentioned before make sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel as more content is on the way. Also drop us a line and let us know what you might be interested in seeing. In the mean time stay safe, and we will see you on the water here soon. Thanks for following MangledFly.
Jon Ray
https://mangledfly.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/McCoy-Brown-Drake-Thumb-1-1.jpg10801080Jon Rayhttps://mangledfly.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/mangled-fly-fishing.jpgJon Ray2020-04-11 11:29:422020-04-11 15:59:32Tying Brown Drakes
Recently learned that as mayfly nymphs grow, especially March Browns, Cahill’s, and Hex the eyes really get big right before the hatch. A macro shot of a Hex nymph we found in the mud looking for what else is hatching. Based on his eyes, we are not too far away. Want to learn more about bugs in the Mid West make sure to pick up Ann Millers Book.
https://mangledfly.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/bugbook.jpg844601Jon Rayhttps://mangledfly.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/mangled-fly-fishing.jpgJon Ray2018-06-06 12:07:202018-06-06 12:07:20Big Eyes Means they are close
So guiding here in Northern Michigan we have our share of bugs. Especially bugs that like to bite. But this short video showing some of the bugs (especially the ones that bite), the boys encountered on their South America journey. I’m not sure I’m Man enough to handle.
https://mangledfly.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/mangled-fly-fishing.jpg00Jon Rayhttps://mangledfly.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/mangled-fly-fishing.jpgJon Ray2016-07-29 12:45:212016-07-29 12:45:21Man vs Bugs
While fishing Hardy Pond last week, I took a break on the edge of the impoundment. A fly fisherman always loves to see things emerge, and I witnessed one of the coolest things in nature seen in a while. A green darner nymph crawled out of the water onto a rock. As its skin parched in the sun, it suddenly split open and a very large dragon fly was born.
When I showed an image to some friends, one commented that the dragon looked like “the paint on a new sports car”–this is good description.
Using the time lapse function on the camera, this video was made. It is a very short clip that shows in seconds what happened over the course of 45 minutes:
When you spend a lot of time on a river, you begin to feel connected with it. You may start to look at the food sources in the river and start to learn the intricacies of their habitat. The location of these food sources is the grocery store of predator fish. These images reveal fish food in their homes. A wide angle lens was used to capture the food source and surrounding environment.
Most of my time is spent on the Muskegon River system. Though the trout fishing part of the river has very few hex mayflies, the impoundments and slow stretches of the river system has heavy hatches of hexes and other burrowing mayflies such as ephorons. This is especially true as you move upstream in the system into the impoundments. Predator fish such as the bass feed heavily on these insects, as do panfish and other fish species. Above is pictured a hex on on one of the ponds. In this environment, hexes will hatch well into the late summer months and are followed by the white flies.
Sculpins, another common bait fish, prefer clusters of rocks and will seldom be found in individual rocks. This is a sculpin in its domain. Sculpins are home bodies. I will often find a sculpin in the same cluster of rocks day after day all year long. We become friends and then he gets eaten. That’s how it goes.
Crayfish utilize all types of habitat, such as logs, concrete, weeds, gravel, and rocks. They will hang out in isolated pieces of cover. Many of the crayfish that we have in the tailwater stretches of our rivers are invasive rusty crayfish, such as the one pictured above. The fish eat them all the same.
A thick, massive band of mayflies traveling along the Mississippi River created a swarm so intense it became visible on National Weather Service radars on July 20, 2014
https://mangledfly.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/mangled-fly-fishing.jpg00Jon Rayhttps://mangledfly.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/mangled-fly-fishing.jpgJon Ray2014-07-24 12:00:142014-07-24 12:00:14Bugs, Bugs, and More Bugs
Siphloplecton basale Spinner other wise known for me as the Great Speckled Olive caught in a spiders web. When you see this guy you know Sulhur’s are on the menu in a day or two. Hatches are moving forward and temps are really improving. Couple prime open dates in the first part of June. June 6,7,9 shoot me an email or a text message if your interested.
https://mangledfly.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/mangled-fly-fishing.jpg00Jon Rayhttps://mangledfly.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/mangled-fly-fishing.jpgJon Ray2014-05-25 10:44:422014-05-25 10:44:42Great Speckled Olive caught in a Web
Our big rivers are flooded right now, but the smaller creeks have cleared and there is a lot of life above and below the water. A lot of the stoneflies that typically emerge in February and March are just now hatching and the fish and predatory insects love to eat them. This is a water strider eating a tiny winter stonefly, taken March 16.
https://mangledfly.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/mangled-fly-fishing.jpg00Jon Rayhttps://mangledfly.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/mangled-fly-fishing.jpgJon Ray2014-04-18 01:32:042014-04-18 01:32:04A Mangled Stonefly for Mangled Fly
Scuds are tiny crustaceans, close relatives of crayfish and shrimp. As you can see they look most like shrimp. Found this scud along the Manistee River