Monday, January 9, 2017

Wyoming Cutthroat Slam, a Special Presentation by Karen Vanderwater


This was a trip that was inspired by our friend Leon Buckles. Leon is from the Inland Empire Fly Fishing Club. Over the last several years, Karen and I have spent several days on the water with Leon! Leon has crossed the world many times with both work and pleasure. He has many a great story to tell and he does!


Karen Vanderwater


We had 31 fly tyers come to Karen's presentation on the Wyoming Cutthroat Slam!


A picture of concentration!

Leon invited Karen and I to join him in Wyoming. Our goal was to catch the 4 different pure strain cutthroats that call Wyoming home! Leon was our leader and he already knew where to set up and to fly fish. It was a 15 hour drive from Red Deer. We left early and we were at our camp spot on the Grey River by supper time. It was the third week in July. It was a long drive but our adventure was well on its way.

Well you can read more about our trip right here:


and the 4 blog posts right after the above post!

Karen did a great job catching all of the subspecies of cutthroat that exist in Wyoming using a Bastard Adams dry fly. 

A few weeks later, Leon was in Alberta fly fishing some of our home waters. Leon showed us that his "go to" cutthroat dry fly was an older more traditional fly called a Renegade. Well Karen used Renegades with a great deal of success on our local cutthroat streams. 

That is why we spent tonight tying Renegades, Royal Renegades and Bastard Adams flies.
Here is a little information on the Renegade. It was originated by Taylor "Beartracks" Williams of Sun Valley Idaho.  The first reference that Leon found was June 4, 1966.  This was said about it:  No angler in his right mind would fish for cutthroat without a few Renegade flies in his pocket.  The Renegade is a dry fly.  Besides a top cutthroat and brook fly, it is a blessing to anglers with poor eyesight.  The double hackle, fore and aft, make it float high and dry with the white hackle in the front it is very easy to see.  It is tied on hooks #8 through #16.

The original was tied with a gold tag.  Now you see them with gold or silver tags.  A variation was tied for the St Joe River (a premiere cutthroat stream in Idaho) with two white hackles in the front to float it in heavier water.

In Flies of the Northwest, a book published by the Inland Empire Fly Club in 1998,  it had this to say.  "The Renegade, which is nearly as popular as the Adams and the Royal Coachman, is a "must have" pattern for anyone who fishes for cutthroat in the Northwest's lakes and streams.  Other species of trout like it too.  It is highly visible and because it is "symmetrical," it looks good from any angle.   If fish don't take it dry, try fishing it subsurface."

I have added some pictures of the flies and trip highlights below! Thank you Leon for all the information and, of course, for the wonderful company while fishing!

Next week, our guest tyer is Bernie Peet! I am sure that Bernie will have some neat fly patterns for us to tie!

Remember that the all day Philip Rowley Workshop is on February 4th. The cost is $40. The theme is attractor flies. We have 21 signed up so far. We hope to get at least 25 for the workshop. Drop me a note to sign up:

bob.vanderwater@rdpsd.ab.ca


Leon Buckles






































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