NOW SHIPPING! Kevin Feenstra’s New Book:  Matching Warmwater Baitfish:  

Soon after my previous book, Matching Baitfish, was written, I started working on another book.    Though similar in some ways, it is geared toward totally different gamefish and some new genres of bait fishes.   The book is called Matching Warmwater Baitfish.  Here is a summary of the book: 

Matching Warmwater Baitfish is 248 pages in length, and includes 330 images.    If you enjoyed photography in the steelhead book, you should really like this book too.   The book details the warm water predator fish, such as well know species such as smallmouth bass, largemouth bass, musky, and northern pike.   It also covers overlooked species such as bowfin, gar, freshwater drum, and others. 

After describing the predators, the book details quite a few baitfish species.   In addition to baitfish, this book also covers other common large forms of prey, such as frogs and hellgrammites.    Equipment and reading the water are also components of the book. 

One of the strengths of the book is its fly tying section.     There is a section of step by step patterns of my guide flies.   These flies are straightforward guide flies that I use day to day in my guiding.  This section is followed by a section of patterns by some of the guides and anglers that I have come to know.  I have deep respect for these people  and wanted to highlight their contributions to fly fishing for warm water fish.    These include Russ Maddin, Ed McCoy, Mike Schultz, Matt Zudweg, and several others.  

I hope that this book is something that anyone who wants to learn about baitfish in our warm water fisheries can enjoy.     If you would like to purchase Matching Warmwater Baitfish, it is now shipping,  and can be purchased here.   

Here is a taste of some of the photos in the book, just use the arrows on the side to navigate: 

Our guides spend a lot of time plying the waters for warm water species, and warm water guide trips are available through the spring, summer, and fall for smallmouth and largemouth bass and northern pike.     To learn more about our guides, click here. 

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We have several upcoming speaking events with our staff and would love to see you at these events!

January 11, 2025:   Joni Murray will be giving a presentation at the Red Cedar Fly Fishers. 

January 18, 2025:   We will have a booth at the Heartland Fly Fishing Festival in Lebanon, Indiana.     Kevin Feenstra will be giving a presentation on Smallmouth Bass fishing, Matt Zudweg is a featured tier at this event. 

January 21, 2025:    Kevin Feenstra will be giving a fly tying demonstration at Nomad Anglers in Grand Rapids, Michigan.  

February 1:   Some of our guides will be fly tying at the Bobbin the Hood event at Schultz Outfitters. 

February 4:  Matt Zudweg will be giving a fly tying demonstration at Nomad Anglers.

February 6:   Kodie Kowitz will be giving a fly tying demonstration at Nomad Anglers. 

February 8:    Kevin will be on hand at the Three Rivers Fly Fishing show near Fort Wayne, Indiana. 

February 20:   Drew Rosema will be demonstrating at Nomad Anglers. 

February 20:   Kevin will be giving a presentation at the Ohio Central Basin Steelheaders. 

March 1:   Kevin will be presenting at the North Coast Fly Fishers Expo, near Cleveland, Ohio.   

March 5:  Kevin will be demonstrating at the Northern Angler in Traverse City, Michigan. 

March 8-9:   We will have booth space and Kevin will be presenting at the Midwest Fly Fishing Expo.   Additionally, Matt Zudweg will be a featured tier at that event. 

March 12:   Kevin will be presenting at the Indianapolis Fly Casters. 

March 15:   Kevin will be presenting at the Charles Fellows TU Chapter. 

The post Winter 2025 Fly Fishing Events appeared first on FEENSTRA GUIDE SERVICE.

This was a very unusual fall, as they all seem to be lately.   Many of the steelhead were initially small, and the water was very low and extremely clear.     We also had a ton of leaves this fall and a lot of sunshine.   These were a lot of challenges with the fishing conditions.  

For quite a few years, I have been using perch colored flashabou on sunny and leafy days.     For whatever reason, the perch flashabou, which is a combination of red, yellow, and green flash, was a top producer in these tough conditions long after the leaves were gone.  

This Perch and Orange is a simple fly pattern that is great way to utilize perch flashabou.   I really like the hot orange kraken dubbing used on the front of the fly.    

Perch and Orange Pattern:   

Shank:  Short, 25-35mm of your choice.  This fly can also be tied on a size 1 Daiichi 2461 if you prefer a traditional hook

Tail:   Damsel colored marabou or dark olive rabbit strip

Tail Flash:   (Optional)  A strand of red saltwater flashabou

Body:   Green and yellow dubbing of your choice

Flash:  1/69 orange holosheen

Flash 2:   Perch flashabou or magnum perch holographic flashabou

Flash 3:  Optional aqua polar flash or other green flash

Eyes:  Bead chain or lead eyes, tied 1/3 of the way back from the eye

Head:   Hot Pink and Hot orange Kraken dubbing.   I also have tied this fly in larger sizes with Hot orange and Hot Pink Marabou and that has also been successful. 

Usually when I find a good color combination, that works on a particular year, I convert it to the various formats of flies that I like to use, to suit the conditions.    This includes spey flies, sculpins, and baitfish profiles.   

If you would like to see more fly patterns, please see our fly page.   Also, if you are in Michigan on February 3 and 4, check out the Bobbin the Hood event at Schultz Outfitters.   At this event, you will get to see many of the best fly tiers in the region.   

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I hope you’ll give this fly a try at your vise and on the water this year. Enjoy! – Zuddy

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This is a very simple fly but it can be very effective as a swung fly tied on a shank or as a nymph tied on a hook.

When I first started fishing the Muskegon for steelhead, my fly selection was pretty limited. Back then if you looked in my box you would see a variety of eggs, ice minnows, small sculpins, and peacock buggers. That’s about it! Depending on the time of year, one or the other of those options would usually get it done. One fly outshined the rest of them. No matter what time of the year it was, I always had confidence when there was a peacock bugger on the end of my line. Not much has changed since then. Whether you are swinging flies, or nymphing this simple twist on the old classic is a great option to have in your box.

Steelhead can often leave you scratching your head. Throughout the season there are periods when they seem to bite anything that comes into view, and periods when its hard to buy a bite. Over the years, in the the tough times I have riffled through my boxes in search of something to peak their interest. Often if I pick a peacock bugger it gets the job done.

I think the reason that woolly buggers work so well is that the can represent a wide variety of different things. Add a color combo that is well proven in the Muskegon, and you have a great fly. A bugger swung or drifted around the gravel in the fall can look like a leech. They can imitate baitfish and helgramites. On days in the spring when the stonefly nymphs are really swimming, it’s a great bet to have a small peacock bugger on your line. 

When you think of good swinging flies for steelhead you might typically think of big, bright, and flashy patterns. Well those flies do catch plenty of fish, there are periods of the season when i have been leaning towards smaller and sparser flies. When the fish are seeing a lot of pressure and traffic on the water. Or when the water is very clear, I typically will lean towards flies like these.

This year we had a long period of ultra clear water. I had been guiding swung fly trips every day, and had been really working hard to get fish to bite. I had one day of nymph fishing in between all of the swinging trips. I hadn’t nymph fished in close to two months, so I was a little out of the loop on which flies would produce. The first thing in the morning I put some flies on I thought would be productive. We fished till lunch with only a few trout to hand. After lunch I decided to tie on the old standard peacock bugger. Throughout the afternoon we hooked fish in most of the spots we tried. They all were on the peacock bugger. I knew after that one day of nymphing I was back to swinging flies for the next few weeks. So that night I tied a handful of copper peacock buggers on shanks for swinging. The next day we hooked a fish on one of the first few casts on a shank style peacock bugger. 

This fly worked well for me for the rest of the late fall/early winter. Hopefully having a few in your box will help you find a fish on the tough days.

Peacock Bugger Materials List:

Hook: 1″ Shank or 2X Strong Wet Fly Hook Size 4-8

Loop: 40-50lb Braid tied about the same length as the shank.

Optional Weight: Tungsten or Brass Cone depending on water levels. This fly is just as effective when it is tied unweighted. I typically use unweighted flies when I tie them on a hook and use them for nymphing.

Tail: 3/4″ Piece of Black Rabbit Strip, or Black Marabou. When I need to tie a bunch of these I like to pre-cut a bunch of tails out of rabbit strips.

Flash: A few strands of copper Flashabou is most effective for me but don’t be afraid to experiment with other flashes.

Hackle: Brown Schlappen or Strung Saddle Hackle palmered through the body.

Body: Peacock Ice Dubbing

Kevin shot this great photo of a fish that was recently caught on a Peacock Bugger

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January 9, 2023: Kevin Feenstra will give a fly fishing presentation at the Grand River Fly Tiers. This will be a program and a fly tying event. It will include a slide show section on winter and early spring fishing, as well as a fly tying portion.  

January 17: Kevin will be giving a program at the Duneland Fly Fishers in Valparaiso, Indiana

January 18: Kevin will give a fly fishing presentations at the St. Joe River Valley Fly Fishers, in Elkhart, Indiana 

January 19: Kevin will be speaking at Kalamazoo Valley Trout Unlimited.

January 21 and 22: We will have a booth at the Heartland Fly Fishing Festival in Lebanon, Indiana 

January 25: Kevin will be tying flies at the Northern Angler in Traverse City, MI.  

January 26: Drew Rosema gives a fly tying demonstration for Nomad AnglersAdded: 

February 4, 2023: Kevin, Drew, and Matt will have fly tying demonstrations with Schultz Outfitters at the Bobbin the Hood event. This should be a very fun one to attend!  

February 10, 2023: Kevin will be doing a couple of fly fishing presentations at the Mershon Chapter of Trout Unlimited

February 11, 2023: We will have a booth at the 3 Rivers Fly Fishing Show in Ft. Wayne, Indiana 

February 16, 2023: Kevin will be presenting for the 3 Rivers Fly Fishing Club at their monthly meeting.

February 23, 2023: Kevin Feenstra will be speaking for the Ohio Central Basin Steelheader’s club.

February 27, 2023: Kevin will be speaking for the Grand Rapids Audubon club. This will be a program focused on birds and wildlife.

March 4, 2023: Kevin is a featured fly tier at the North Coast Fly Fishers Expo in the Cleveland area. 

March 11 &12: Feenstra Guide Service will have a booth at the Midwest Fly Fishing Expo.

May 20, 2023: Kevin will be teaching a fly tying class at the Newaygo Public Library

We hope to see you at one or more of our events! 

For more info on any of our guides, click here.

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Shank: 3/4” Shank with a loop of Braid.

Eyes: Gold Plastic Bead Chain.

Tail: Grey Olive Craft Fur.

Wing: Light Olive Barred Soft Hackle tied to lay flat over the Craft Fur.

Body: A large clump of Dark Olive Creepy Crawly Ice Dub tied in as clump and folded back so the loose ends face backwards.

Flash: A small amount of Holographic Brown Flashabou.

Head: Light Olive Ice Dub tied in as a clump.

The post Baitfish Pattern appeared first on FEENSTRA GUIDE SERVICE.

Late last winter I realized that there was a new Ice Dub color I had been overlooking, Kingfisher Blue. It caught my eye and I threw together this fly for a guide trip the next day. After hooking a few fish the sun came out and we stopped getting bites. I remembered I had a couple of these to experiment with and it looked great in the bright sun. Within a few cast a steelhead decided it looked ok too and I was a believer. As it turns out this fly continued to produce throughout the late winter/spring. It became one of the go to flies for me, especially on sunny days. It has already been useful this year and hopefully it will continue! Over the past week larger blue flies have proven to be one of the better color choices in the high and muddy water. Hopefully as the water drops this fly will come back into play.

Hook: 2x Strong Streamer hook in size 4 or 6, or short shank for a swung fly version.

Eyes: Gold Plastic Bead Chain or you can substitute for lead eyes to get the fly down a little dealer while swinging.

Tail: Originally I used an olive partridge feather curved downward and that worked great. I recently ran out of those and have been using a light olive marabou feather with the same results.

Body: Kingfisher Blue Ice Dub dubbed onto thread lightly.

Hackle: Firey Brown hackle tied in by the tip and palmered through the body.

Flash: Holographic Yellow Flashabou, Copper also is a good choice.

Head: A clump of Kingfisher Blue Ice Dub tied in behind eyes.

I hope this fly helps you find a few fish this spring!

Thanks

Drew Rosema

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The Skeleton Leech is a quick and simple variation of a Halloween Leech

This fall has been challenging with limited numbers of steelhead.    The good new is that the quality of the fish has been great. Because numbers are low, we are constantly trying new color combinations, trying to find something that will take an extra fish or two.     Some of the best flies we have found have been when the fishing is not great.   Difficult conditions forces us to try new things.

In September, I received some of flashabou’s new white color flash.   I could not find a good use for it at first.    I decided to incorporate it into some leech patterns this fall.   I really did not expect it to work, but the first time we used it we caught a fish.    This became a regular occurrence, and this fly has saved some days that would have been unproductive.  I have not found a substitute for this new material.   The white flashaou is necessary for this fly to work.

The fly is very easy to tie, here are the materials:

Shank:   25-45 mm of your choice, with a loop of your choice of braid or beadalon

Eyes:  Lead or bead chain eyes to suit conditions

Tail:   Black Marabou

Wing:   White flashabou #6947 (https://www.hedroninc.com/products/flashabou/flashabou-original)

Wing 2:  Black magnum flashabou, clear grizzly flashabou, or black holographic flashabou

Wing 3:  (Optional) On cloudy days, a strand of copper magnum flashabou;  on sunny days, a strand of magnum holographic flashabou

Head:   Orange ice dub covered with hot orange ice dub or Hot orange over pink, or hot orange over chartreuse.

Fish this fly deep with a heavy sink tip and you won’t be disappointed!

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Eyes: Large dumbell eyes tied in the middle of the shank

Tail: Copper Flashabou

Body: Large clump of rusty brown Ice Dub tied in behind lead eyes

Collar: Copper Polar Chenille

Wing: Grape Flashabou tied in on the top and bottom of fly covered by Holographic Black Flashabou

Head: Large clump of Peacock Eye Ice Dub tied in front of eyes and followed by a clump of Orange Ice Dub.

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