The GIE and Flashback Pheasant Tail. Ready to Rock.
I used to tie a lot of flies. These days I buy a few or get them sent to me to test. Got two little ones running around the house so those donations fit my lifestyle. But, when fall rolls around (spring for that matter, too), I sit down and bang out about a hundred GIE’s, an acronym for Greg’s Incredible Egg.
This is the ugliest fly in existence, takes about 25 seconds to tie. So what’s the deal? Rocks the browns and rainbows this time of year and, as evidence, I hooked nine fish on nine casts on the Madison last Saturday, all scarfin’ down on the GIE. In the end, I bet I hooked 20 fish on Saturday, which is saying something because I was casting with one hand and dragging a driftboat behind me, with two girls in it, with the other. It wasn’t like I got to fish the way I wanted to. And that was fine. Tate and Myka were mostly a blast, although Myka ran to the back of the boat every time we netted a fish. She was especially terrified of the massive whitefish Tate caught.
Ok, doesn’t matter if you are going to fish the upper Madison, the lower Madison, the Big Hole, Beaverhead, Jefferson, Bitterroot, Rock Creek, South Fork Snake, Henry’s Fork or Big Wood this fall — the GIE should take good care of you. As a trailer I always drop a Flashback Pheasant Tail behind the GIE. That covers fish that might not eat the egg but will smack a Baetis nymph, which is what the Flashback Pheasant Tail Nymph imitates. No bead, ok.
Get out there, fish the GIE off 3X tippet and drop the PT behind the egg with a 16-inch length of 4X. Place a split shot or two above the GIE. Put a cork on your leader. Get the camera ready. Prepare to slay.