Hotspot flies are nothing new. They have been circulating in fly fishing circles for more than a decade, originating in Europe. Hotspots on flies are typically a bright synthetic material (like ice dubbing) that attracts fish in dirty water, but fish really key in on them in all conditions. If you’re fishing during the salmon spawn, orange otpots will be very successful on flies as the trout already will be keeping an eye out for orange eggs floating by (yellow, pink, and purple do very well in addition to orange). Stoneflies are extremely widespread in Vancouver Island streams. They also have a very long nymphal stage (1 to 3 years), meaning that there are a lot of them in the river at varying sizes all year round.
Essentially you don’t have to be very picky with sizes so anywhere from a 1-to 6-cm fly can be effective all year round.
Hook: Size 8 nymph
Thread: White 1/0
Weight: 4.5 mm gold tungsten bead
Body: Yellow stonefly dubbing
Casing: Brown goose biot
Wire: Medium copper wire
Hackle: Black Fino Skin
Legs: Chartreuse barred rubber legs
Dubbing: Ice Dub Hot Yellow
Another great hookset on this ’bow while Euro-nymphingFor more fly fishing and tying, click here.
This article appeared in Island Fisherman magazine. Never miss another issue—subscribe today!
