You can contact Dennis at: DSmith7136@msn.com

 

    

     God only knows how many “new” fly patterns are introduced every year - hundreds probably, but very few of them ever go on to achieve the kind of universal recognition, and long term commercial success of venerable patterns like say, the Gold Ribbed Hare’s Ear, Pheasant Tail nymph or Royal Wulff. It takes a long time - and a lot of hooked fish - for a new fly pattern to rise to the top of the heap.

     Even fewer are what you could honestly call original creations. Concocted from the various components of other established patterns - the abdomen from one, thorax from another, the wings of yet another - these mutations are affectionately referred to as “Frankenstein flies” after the famous monster pieced together from an assembly of “borrowed” body parts. Just such a fly came to my attention recently, and it may well have the potential to become a winner.

     A true Frankenstein fly, the Gunslinger is essentially a pheasant tail nymph tied on a curved, caddis larvae hook with a tungsten bead head, a dubbed hare’s ear thorax, a synthetic wing case and two pairs of crystal flash legs. Christened the “Gunslinger,” by its creator, Steve Smith of Rivers Wild Flies in Utah, the fly combines the proven fish attracting properties of pheasant tail fibers and hare’s ear fur, with the provocative profile of an emerger pattern and the weighted, thoracic flash of a Copper John nymph. Steve told me that’s exactly what he had in mind when he put his little monster together. 

     I spent three hours fishing one of Smith’s (no relation, honest) Gunslingers up on the Big T a few days ago, and while one experience with a new fly doesn’t prove a thing, I can honestly tell you I caught a dozen fish on it in less than hour while waiting for a midge hatch to come off.

     Once the midges started popping, though, I switched to tiny dry flies and hooked half a dozen more fish, but then, out of curiosity, switched back to Smith’s Gunslinger just to see if the trout would still eat the thing. They did. And they were surprisingly aggressive about it. I’m not certain what the Gunslinger mimics specifically, though if I had to guess I’d say it could be taken for a tiny baetis nymph or a midge pupa. Whatever, it definitely draws strikes.

     Steve told me he’s tested it on the Henry’s Fork, Madison, and Green Rivers as well as a number of small creeks in Utah with similar results. When I asked how he came up with the name Gunslinger, he said got it from an ESPN sports announcer who referred to quarterbacks as Gunslingers during a TV special on football one night while he was tying his fly. “Bam!” He said. “There’s the name.”  I guess you could say he borrowed that too.

- Dennis

Dennis Smith is an Outdoor Writer and Photographer. His articles and photos have appeared in numerous outdoor publications, catalogs and newspapers. Dennis can be reached at (970) 669-6074. Want to know more about Dennis?

Return to Trout Tales main page