San Juan River Staples: The Red Larvae and the Pig Sticker

First up, the Red Larvae. For this tie, I’ve got a Daichi 1273 in the vise and I’m using UTC 70 Denier thread. I’ll uncord the thread and start about half an eye length behind the eye, letting that uncorked thread spin. After trimming the tag, I’ll wrap the thread right back to where the barb is on this Daichi 1273, size 16 hook.

This time of year, the midge larvae on the San Juan tend to be a bit darker, more of a blood red, based on my stomach samples. So, I’m using Brown micro tubing. It’s crucial to use the brown micro tubing because it’s hollow and will stretch unlike the Midge tubing. I’ll carefully catch the micro tubing in my scissors, pull down to create a little hypodermic needle-like point for a clean tie-in. I’ll tie that in and advance my thread right back to where I started my thread wraps. You can use the rotary feature on your vise, but I’m just going to pull on that first wrap to really get it seated, then adjust the tension as I wrap the tubing forward. I don’t really like the ribs to be too pronounced, but by backing off the tension as you crank it, you can make them more so. Count your wraps if you like, but I haven’t noticed a huge difference.

Right when we get to the bare part of the hook, I’ll drop my thread over, catch the tubing with two wraps, lift it up, and trim. Build a little thread head right behind the eye, whip finish, and we’re almost done. The final touch is some Solarez Super Fine (I say super dry – Bone Dry Solarez). Just touch that resin so you can see the ribs pop through when I hit it with the light. And there you have it – your Midge Larva. That brown rib just helps darken up the overall color when we cure it with the resin.

Now, for fly number two, we’re moving on to the Pig Sticker. I have a Daichi 1870 in the vise, and this entire fly is going to be tied with Glo-Brite shade number three. I’ll put that right behind the eye and uncord the thread, giving it about four wraps right there behind the eye before trimming the tag. Now I have this Glo-Brite uncorded, and some of the strands might flare out. You can just push them together with your finger. The trick here is big, touching wraps as I move past the barb to the back of the hook. It’s okay if it flares out; just get in there with your finger. The key is those touching wraps, which will cord the thread back up as you tie. You’ll want to continuously spin that thread to open it back up so it lays nice and wide. I’m going to wrap this just past the barb where the hook starts to bend.

Once I have that nice base, I’ll spin the thread clockwise to tighten it up. We’ll use this to make the rib. The tighter it spins, the more pronounced that rib will be, and it will tighten as you wrap. Then, I’ll do wide wraps to create segmentation. When I come back to the head – and don’t worry about those little spots where the brass of the hook sticks through; we’ll cover it all with resin – right where the head is, open the thread back up. Then, I’ll whip finish right behind the eye with a two or three-turn whip finish. This is where the magic happens. We’re going to use Solarez Bone Dry again. Glo-Brite isn’t very durable, and it only takes a couple of fish teeth to really rip it to shreds. You just want a real thin layer so those ribs really poke through. If you have any extra resin, just touch it with your finger (remember to wipe it off). Now you can really see those ribs protruding through. Just touch it in the back, then hit it with the light. You can tie this worm in a variety of different colors and sizes, but this is a great one, a great size to fish on the San Juan.

Alright, there you go – two awesome patterns to have in your fly box, twelve months of the year. They’ll work every day. Just believe it, conceive it, achieve it! Let me know if these patterns work out on the river for you, if you fish them before, if you’ve had success on these styles of flies outside of the San Juan.

Thank you so much everybody for watching, and I’ll see you guys on the next video. One love.