water boatman/ backswimmer patterns?

[tbar24]

i was out fishing on sunday on a very interesting lake around here thats surrounded completly by floating bogs and i saw a few what i think ti be boatmens swimming around, i didn't really think we got them on the west coast so either im wrong(about them being boatmen) ar im wrong about the west coast, i ended up landing one cutty on a dragonfly pattern but i think they might of been feeding more heavily on the boatmen. and guess who doesn't have any boatman patterns? so i was just wondering what are your favourtie boatman patters?
pictures, links, or recipies are greatly appreciated
tyler

[johnk]

Without a doubt floating boatmen are superior to sinking patterns to recreate the actions of the naturals. I have a preference for Steve Jennings' Ultimate Boatman which got broke off thirteen times in two days last October. The only probelm with that pattern is it is only available in size 10.

Now the reason for the superiority of floating patterns is that trout go absolutely nuts for them and will chase them into 2' of water or less and the setup consists of a Hi-D sinking line with a 2-4' leader tipped off by a floating pattern. The retrieve is simply a strip-strip-pause repeated.

Where I live the boatmen/backswimmers range from size 16-10 and the season lasts mid-July to mid-October. Once they have risen to the surface they collect a bubble of air on the abdomen and return to the bottom of the lake to deposit eggs. This action can be duplicated nicely with the setup mentioned.

I would definitely carry a selection in your flybox because when they're on them they are REALLY on them and the takes are as powerful as a freight train. Today was a perfect example. I was on one of my home lakes hittin' hogs on bomber chironomids until about 2 o'clock when a small flight of size 16's happened and the trout went totally off the bombers and onto the tiny boatmen.

Spring flights are rare but certain lakes like Lundbom/Marquart have regular springtime flights. I can't really comment on your area but I would think anywhere there is standing freshwater you can find boatmen. Last month we had one in a mud puddle at the plant I work at.

[Maverick]

wouldnt happen to be lost lake. ty that be one of my favorite lakes we got. beautiful trout, as well as great little hotspot around the lake. my dad uncle adn i were there two or three days ago with modearte success on olive wooly bugger and karthouhm killer(maroon). my uncle landed three 13.5 13.5 and a wopper of 16 inches. i had a lost one and my dad landed one. but there weird thing is that they were hitting all nigth long jsut nibbling i guess. hey did you happen to notice that there were next to no surfaces, sure a few but not like cranberry or anything. i think you might be on to something with the water boatman feeding. also a cool tip regarding that lakes water is that it is always dark. even in the sunlight the fish seem to come into the shallower parts of the lake and feed(occasionally on my fly). anyhow i love that lake and if we could figure it out to a science thatd be great. just gotta shoot them beavers. more leach fur anyhow . pm me if you wana hit it.

[SCUD]

Here are 2 of my favorite patterns