Tying an Intruder

I've been asked a few times to reveal the steps I use to tie our intruder. The Intruder has become more of a style of fly than a specific pattern. The original was tied by legendary Washington Steelhead guide Ed Ward. This variation of an Intruder is tied on a wadington shank with a small octopus style hook rigged in a loop of slickshooter. This set up enables one to change the hook so as to be always be fishing with a sharp hook. Different sizes and colors can enable you to target trout, Steelhead and Salmon, especially Chinook. We have used this fly with great success in the kenektok river Alaska West for Springs, as well as our west coast Steelhead and Chinook. Smaller patterns in olive are great for Bulltrout as well.

SHANK - Partridge waddington 25-55mm
LOOP - 35# slickshooter
THREAD - black
HOOK - octopus #2
TAIL - Polar bear and Arctic Fox on a dubbing loop
BODY - Guidebrod flat braid
HACKLE - Ostrich or Rhea wrapped over spun white polar bear
COLLAR -Mallard, fake spey or Schlappen hackle
HEAD - finish off with a nice set of machined eyes of your preference

First I Slip a hook on a length of slick shooter. Tie the slickshooter, or whatever your using for trailer line, on the top of the shank. Feed it through the eye of the shank and tie it underneith the shank as well. Make sure there is enough room to remove the hook when you need to change it.


Make a dubbing loop out of thin silver wire and put a bit of polar Bear in it. Colors are up to you. I find the softer and shorter fibers work the best. Twist the loop, wrap the Polar Bear and repeat the steps with normal thread and arctic fox right after.
You can either strip your rhea/ostrich and wrap it similar to hackle, or cut the individual fibers off and tye them in. I prefer wrapping, as it wastes less room and material. Tye in your body material, here I used BlueGuidebrod metallic braid, but use whatever you like...



Repeat the first few steps with more polar bear, Arctic Fox and Rhea tied up front. Like I said, colors are optional, pick a favorite fish catching color and work off of it with different shades and similar colors mixed in. I finished off this fly with Chartruese Amherst tied individually, pearl Krystal flash and black fake spey hackle, but Shlappen and large Mallard feathers work great wrapped up front as well. Finish the head with a set of nice dumbell eyes and zap-a-gap.

Mark's first Kanektok River King(Chinook) Salmon

First off here is a photo of Mark on his first day taken by Alaska West guide Blake McHenry. Mark hit 3 Chinooks with Blake which made for a great start to his trip.I know first hand that Mark was really looking forward to this trip as he was in the fly shop many days prepping his gear and adding to his vast fly collection.

Alaska West Speyfishing day 1

It's just before dinner on day 1 at Alaska West. The weather has been beautiful, the lodge staff amazing and a great group of international guests is making for a fun week on the Kanektok river. I spent most of today helping folks with their speycasting and am happy to report that no ears or eyeballs were hooked.

Fishing has been good with lots of nice Chinooks(King) Salmon hooked as well as chrome bright Chum Salmon, Rainbow Trout, Dolly Varden Char and some tasty Sockeye Salmon. Here is a pic I took of Laurie's first ever Salmon on the two hander, a beauty Chum fresh in from the Bering Sea.



Lots of fresh Chum Salmon in the river right now and they are a tonne of fun on the fly rod. I spent a good part of today with the father and son team of Wright and Jim. These guys managed a limit of nice bright Chum Salmon and made great progress with their spey casting. I also spent some time with Mark and Jon in the Pipeline run and lost track of the number of fish they hooked in between casting practice. Mark hooked some nice King Salmon first thing in the morning down at tidsewater including monster dime bright King that tried to take all of his line. I will try and post a pic of Mark's big King Salmon a bit later in the week but in the meantime here is a picture of Jon and guide Blake with another chrome Kanektok river Chum Salmon.



Here are a couple of King Salmon picures taken by Mike of fish he and Hayden caught with their guide Ben shortly after I fished with them in the morning. These gentlemen have made King Salmon season on the Kanektok an annual event and are pretty much the skagit masters of the UK.







That's it for now I'm off to the Independance day bonfire on the gravel bar in fron of the camp.

Brian

the rebirth of blog ...... Alaska West 2009

Ok so I must admit I have neglected our poor little Whistler Flyfishing blog. I mean we weren't exactly the Moldy Chum or anything but there was a time when regular blog entries were the norm around here. Then I got lazy..........however this my friends is the rebirth of blog.n I am sitting in the Millenium hotel getting ready to meet our crew in the lobby enroute to the Anchorage airport in less than an hour. God willing and through the miracle of modern aviation I should be knee deep in the Kanektok river by this afternoon. I will be supplying frequent updates of our trip via Alaska West's satelitte internet connection. In the meantime be sure to check out Deneki's facebook page for the skinny on what's up on the Kanektok.


Brian