Posts tagged ‘Kelly Galloup’
Galloup's Zoo Cougar
The Zoo Cougar has become a staple fly for Northern Michigan big game fly fishing. I tie and fish the Zoo Cougar when I’m chasing large brown trout on the trophy water on the Au Sable below Mio and can report that it is a fly that can move large fish even in the middle of the afternoon. As Kelly makes clear in his book on fishing streamers for trophy trout, the actual tie is really only half the game — the other half is learning how to fish it effectively, as the issue of casting and retrieving technique is just as important as the fly itself.
Because the fly is unweighted, Kelly advocates fishing it on a sinking line with a short leader. The fact that the fly is unweighted (among other things) means that it flutters and ungulates as it stripped through the water in a more natural way — more in motion — than it would if it were a heavy fly tied with a lead tape or lead-wrapped body. By casting the fly right to where fish are likely to be holding, and then stripping it fast like a bait fish that wants to get the hell outta there, is key to getting larger predators to chase and hit it. Kelly rightly notes again and again the importance of understanding that large fish are predatory meat eaters, and that, as alpha fish, are tuned-in to opportunities to kill and eat wounded and confused baitfish.
In this week’s episode of The Weekly Fly, Kelly teaches how to tie and fish this effective fly for catching large trout. It is worth a look.
Once you master the intricacies of the Zoo Cougar, check out the articulated version — a real monster in the water that also has the potential to catch monster trout — Kelly calls it the “Heifer Groomer.” It is an absolute beast. Watch your backcast!
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Galloup's Ant-Acid
Featured now at The Weekly Fly (which, by the way, is a simply great website) is a wonderful short video of Kelly Galloup tying his Ant-Acid. The fly is available through Rainy’s Flies and Supplies, along with a number of his other more famous ties.
Kelly is a Traverse City native who for many years owned The Troutsman fly shop over on East Bay. He and his wife now own the Slide Inn on the Madison River, just West of Yellowstone National Park.
In the video Kelly not only takes you through the intricacies of tying the Ant-Acid, but also spends a little time demonstrating a technique for handling the application of deer and elk hair to dry flies like the elk-hair caddis. He also explains in a very clear way the difference between quality deer and elk hair, and less desirable patches that you might find hanging in a shop. If you’re a serious tier, it is worth watching that segment alone.
The Ant-Acid is a durable, high-floating ant pattern that will take a little extra time to tie right, but should make an excellent imitation for both regular ants and flying ants throughout the summer season. I’ve had great luck with ant patterns on windy days along the upper Manistee River, in particular.
Best's Fly Box
In last Sunday’s edition, Macomb Daily Columnist Terry Drinkwine shares his thoughts on fly tying and design after attending the Michigan Fly Fishing Club’s annual banquet. As he relates in his column, the featured speaker this year was A.K. Best, production tier and familiar name to anyone who reads John Gierach’s books and essays.
Based on what Terry relates in his article, Best apparently gave quite the talk, illustraed with detailed slides, and focusing on the intricacies of more realistic fly design and the fact that there is a world of difference between just tying flies that sell in shops (or follow the pattern sin books) and tying flies that really catch more fish. Given the remarkable number of flies that Best has tied and sold over the years, he is certainly in a position to speak with authority when it comes to distinctions such as this.
“A.K. showed slide after slide of mayflies and made it a point to ask why on earth we use dubbing to create a mayfly body when we can see in every photograph that the mayfly body is a smooth-looking segmented part of the fly. I thought about it for a minute then realized he was right. I’ve never seen a hairy non-segmented mayfly, so why do I tie them otherwise? The answer is, of course, that’s what the patterns call for and every fly shop sells them that way and we catch fish with them. The question is, could we be more productive if we tied them using quill segments or some flat material instead?” – Terry Drinkwine
Terry notes in his article that A.K.’s theories on fly design go back many years to the time that he (meaning Best) was living in Alpena — which of course sent me to the Internet for some kind of confirmation and, yes, it turns out that A.K. is a native Michigander, though of course he has made his home in Colorado for the majority of his life.
This is the second time in recent memory I got this sort of surprise as it was only recently that I came to learn that fly-tier Craig Matthews of West Yellowstone’s Blue Ribbon Flies is also a native of the Great Lakes State. I’m a big fan of his work, too, and can report that his shop in West Yellowstone is a first-class joint. Add to this list Traverse City’s Kelly Galloup and Michigan seems to have a habit of producing outstanding tiers who at some point move West.
