Bigmouth Buffalo

My first year living on the La Salle was a mixed bag with many fish caught but desired fish missing. I was determined to unlock the secrets to large rock bass and bluegills which the river holds but apparently determination just isn't enough. Bluegills were entirely elusive and rock bass catches were sporadic and the fish small. Success came unexpectedly from crappie and carp with many crappie over 12" and carp up to 28". Other species caught were walleye, sauger, pike, perch, drum, channel cats, mooneye and several species of sucker.

Fast forward to my second year and the news is disastrous. The river winter killed and dead fish littered the banks and eddies. Most of the floaters were carp with the odd channel cat, walleye and crappie in the mix. In normal years, river reaches between dams and weirs can be replenished when spring flows allow fish to move upstream from the Red River but with the low flows of this spring that recovery is unlikely.

Yesterday I drove down to fish near the confluence of the Red and La Salle rivers and hooked two fish. One, a pike, bit me off almost immediately and this bigmouth buffalo. The buffalo is only the second I've caught on a fly and the first on the La Salle.

The Briminator or some of my favorite flies.

The warming temperatures and earlier sun are diverting fishing dreams from ice to open water again, a seemingly seasonal occurrence. Fly tying material boxes are being opened and forgotten treasures rediscovered. Already over three dozen recently tied flies are sitting on the fly tying table, awaiting their storage boxes and books, both old and new, are being examined for other possible fly patterns or new ideas.

Last year I fished three patterns, when they were working, almost exclusively; two newer patterns that I discovered in Texas and an old local standby, the leech. Since the two patterns from Texas seem to be unknown up here I thought I'd share the instructions for tying and fishing them. The first I'll describe is called the briminator and is mainly used as a sunfish fly down south. I've caught many different species with it here in Manitoba, including some pretty big trout. The fly is very buggy looking, requires only one feather and generally imitates a number of different forms of fish prey.

I used a #8 Mustad 3906B hook and tied on bead chain eyes about 1/4 shank length back. The eyes are tied on with a figure 8 pattern and fixed in place with some CA glue. A portion of  quill fluff taken from a pheasant cathedral window feather was tied in as a tail.

Using the rest of the fluff from the feather, a dubbing loop was formed and the material twisted into a material "rope".

The resultant fluff noodle was then wound down the hook shank until it rested against the eyes. The end was then tied in with a few turns and the tag cut off.

The cathedral feather, minus all the fluff, was tied in just behind the chain bead eyes, concave side down.

Using hackle pliers, two turns of the feather were made behind the bead eyes and then tied off .

Using the fingers pull back the feathers and lay down a couple of "soft" turns to keep the fibers facing backward. Then move the thread forward, using normal tension to hold the thread.

I like to add some ice dubbing using an appropriate color to the thread to form a neck and head.

Using a toothbrush or a velcro brush, comb back the head, feather and body fluff into an interconnected mass of fibers.









I've tied this fly in several sizes, usually in the range of #8 to #12. I've also used different feathers, usually ruffed grouse or gray partridge. The size of the bead eyes should be varied to reflect the size of the hook.

It can be fished any way you like. My preferred method is to fish it like a dragon fly nymph or small crayfish near the bottom by giving it short, quick pulls followed by a rest.

In my next post I'll describe the other fly, an un-named emerger pattern that really works well when the fish are looking for something smaller. The fly was shown to me over lunch by a gentleman whose name I've forgotten but to whom I've been extremely grateful since tying up a few of these. Stay tuned.