Description: Barry and Cathy Beck
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We are on the Bighorn River in Montana this week and one of our go-to flies is a size 16 rusty spinner. This is a pattern that we have many of in our fly boxes from home in Pennsylvania, and in our western boxes. When you think about it, rusty spinners should have a prominent place in every fly box. This spinner, tied in various sizes and shades represents numerous mayflies found on rivers and streams, both east and west, in this country and in others.
The mayflies that come first to mind that have a rusty-like spinner for the final stage of life are Quill Gordon, Hendrickson, March Brown, Blue Winged Olive, Slate Drake, PMD, and Brown Drake. There is some variation in the size and shade of “rusty” in each of these mayflies but they all fall into the general grouping of rusty, red-brown or mahogany spinners.
Some days are hot and breezy and the hopper fishing can be lots of fun, but there are calm warm days this week and that brings out the PMDs (Pale Morning Duns) and PMD spinners. Today we caught fish on three different shades of rusty and three different hook sizes. Our guide, Clint Krumm, agreed that it is a “go-to” fly for him on the river. Here it represents the pseudocloeon (pseudos), the PMD, and mahogany mayflies. Even when the flies are not hatching and spinners are not on the water, the fish are used