Back in Bend after a very satisfying four-day fishing trip to Sugar Creek Ranch which is about 1/2 hour south of Yreka, California. This is a private fishery with seven lakes/ponds up to five surface acres in size. They are clients of our web design/ marketing company and this was the fourth trip there this year for Linda and I.
The nicest discovery of the trip was that a fly that I purchased at a local G.I. Joes sporting goods store was the star of the trip. I had parameters in mind when looking for spare flies: a terrestrial, black, rubber legs, downwing. I purchased a half dozen in size 6-8. The good news is that it was a super choice; the bad news is that we ran through our supply in two days.
The fly is called Carty's General Terrestrial, and although it is available in green and yellow-bodied varieties, we had our success with black. The Carty's GT was created by Pete Carty, a tyer well-known in New Zealand. In researching the pattern on the web, I noted that the GT was described as legendary for its ability to pull up the big NZ browns off the bottom to smack this dry fly.
And that's what we discovered...it really pulls the biggest trout up for a look-see. The results were remarkable for the numbers of large fish that were hooked. The primary strains at the ranch are Eagle River/ North Coast Steelhead/ Scott River Steelhead, so hooking some big ones was a real event.
The highlight was a monster rainbow, in the 30 inch-10 pound class that Linda hooked in the ranch's South Pond. It is the biggest rainbow I have ever seen in my life, and it ended up jumping about 20 feet from me, so I got a good look at it. Unfortunately for Linda, I was on the opposite side of the lake from her! The rainbow ripped out 105 feet of flyline, 20-yards of backing, jumped three times, then went half way around a 24-ft. diameter island and broke off. Impressive fish!
Until we lost the half-dozen GTs, seeing big heads come up behind the fly and suck it down was the norm. It far outfished the other patterns we were trying, such as various foam flies, rubber-legged patterns, beetles, and the Convertible.
The GT is not an easy pattern to tie. It has a foam body ribbed in hackle that is trimmed off to create a spiral of stubs. The underwing was lime green Krystal Flash, the wing was Shimazake Fly Wing, rubber legs tied Madam-X style, and a deerhair bullet head. A red yarn indicator is tied on top of the fly. The yellow bodied version is recommended when hoppers are out.
So...I went back to the store and bought out their last 14 black GTs. Will try to get good at tying these as well. A note that the flies are marketed by Shamrock, so if you have a store that carries the Shamrock brand, the plastic fly bin might have this fly to look at.
More on the fishing trip in another post.
Wes Wada Bend, Oregon
Carty's General Terrestrial
<img scr="http://www.umpqua.co.nz/flies/Terrestrials/images/ Carty's%20General%20Terrestrial_jpg.jpg">
General Terrestrial pattern recipe
<http://www.mikesfishing.com/flybox/ fly2.asp?Number=70&Name=Carty%27s+GT+Green>
Peter Carty bio <http://www.browntroutheaven.co.nz/flytying.html>
More Carty patterns <http://www.mikesfishing.com/flybox/flybox2.asp?Originator=Pete+Carty>
