I'm planning a June trip entering at Moose River North (entry point 16) and going to Lac La Croix, so I was excited to receive the Winter 2015 issue of the Boundary Waters Journal and see that there is a very nice article about fly fishing (Fly Fishing the Canoe Country Grand Slam by Brent Notbohm). Brent is very high on a fly called the Barr's Meat Whistle. Until recently I lived in Eastern Washington (State) and most of my fishing was for trout in Idaho, so this fly is new to me. I went to my local fly shop (Lund's in River Falls) and looked at one, then found a video of tying instructions on UTube. I've tied up a bunch and they look really good.

Brent also recommends a Dahlberg Diver and a Clouser Minnow. Have others had success with these flies as well ? I'll also take some Wooly Buggers, leeches, and specific crayfish iimitations. Is there anything I'm missing.

Bill

Those are nice. They look like the hare jigs I try to tie for smallmouth when the water is under 40.

Unfortunately the picture quality matches the quality of my tie.

don't forget some surface poppers....you will have a blast if the smallies are on the beds!

Be careful if you Google it. Lol

The Meat Whistle is certainly a good fly....it's bulky and moves some water, I started tying them up a few years ago after seeing an article on them in fly tyer mag.....I tie glass rattles on the hook shank as they suggested in the article.....I also tie up a bunch of bunny strip leeches using "magnum" Zonkers strips, my best colors are chartreuse, olive, purple, and black......I've caught smallies/walleye/northerns on them, the meat whistles/leeches are very durable, but soak up a lot of water and will wear you out casting after a couple of hours.........Another fly I have been tying and taking up is a Murdich Minnow.....It's tied w/all synthetic materials, does not hold water, but is bulky and moves water well, and is very durable......Go to flyfishohio.com and there is a very good vid and/or pic tutorial on how to tie......I tried to upload a picture of a couple of my flies, but this site won't let me from my iPad......If I can figure out how to convert my iPad photos to a jpeg, I will try and upload later.....

Mike

Thanks Mike. I grew up (although some would argue with that) in Ohio (born in Dayton actually) and learned my fly fishing on bass and panfish. I've tied flies for just over 60 years but have mostly used traditional materials. I fooled around with synthetics in the late 70's some but not much. I went to a couple of fly fishing stores today and was overwhemed with the new materials. I did find the web site you pointed me to and looked at the UTube video on the Murdich Minnow. I'm going to give it a try. Thanks again.

Bill

I have found that a Buck hair streamer is my favorite SM fly. I tie mine and use a barbell head for eyes, buck hair and a little peacock feathers. Very easy to tie.

You don't mention what species of fish you are looking for.

The meat whistle is a nice fly, but it is a beast to cast especially if blind casting all day.

I would rather use sink tip line than a 1 lb fly.

My favorite flies for small mouth in June are dear hair poppers (e.g. Whitlock frog) and Clouser swimming leech.

My favorite pike lures are large deceivers and bunny flies.

Walleyes will hit deceivers and the leeches.

Murdich Minnow

Thanks for the picture Mike. Mine look pretty much like those. I've also tied some with cone heads rather than the eyes to use in situations where I want to fish deeper.

Bill

Those are nice looking Meat Whistles. Those are on the docket for me in the next couple weeks. Although just for fun, I might put on a metal propeller to make it a Flying Meat Whistle - for extra shimmer and some rattle. I'll post a pic when I'm done. I've added the props to straight hook bunny leeches and they work great for steelhead.

These are my latest work. I just need to add an epoxy head.

In Sig Olson's book, "Reflections from the North Country" there is reference to an old fly called the "Ambrose Buckstail". It was the only fly that one his clients took on the trips and always produced bass. Maybe tie up a couple of those and let us know how they do...


Ambrose Bucktail

Thanks for the tip on the Ambrose Bucktail. I too read about it in Sig's book several years ago but had never found a good refernece for it. I had the Flick book on my bookshelf all that time. I'll tie up a couple and post a picture here.

Bill