Egan's Iron Lotus

"The Iron Lotus concept was born after searching for a great Baetis nymph pattern to fool wily western brown trout during the fall of 2006. I needed a fly that was dark, thin, dense, and had fish attracting power. After playing with many different dubbings ribbed with wire, I decided that dubbing over the top of the lead wire body created an abdomen that was too pudgy to properly imitate the diminutive baetis. I had to find something sparse. After many attempts, I concluded that anything added to the thread would create a similar fat abdomen, and quickly realized that thread alone was the perfect solution. To simplify even more, the final pattern ended up with a contrasting color of thread ribbing instead of the standard wire ribbing found on most nymph imitations. Thread ribbing offered a sleek profile while keeping the segmented look. As fall turned into winter, winter to spring and spring to summer, my killer baetis imitation had lost some of its effectiveness. By May 2007, the Trout had switched over to a PMD nymph diet. Although the olive version was taking fish, I knew a rusty/brown version would dominate during the PMD emergence. Thus the brown version was born. Both versions sport the black flashback, simulating a nymph with dark wing pads ready to emerge. Both also have a thread "highlight" behind the bead, yellow on the rusty/brown and red on the olive version. Anyone who's fished for Trout much knows about a Trout's affection for the colors red and yellow. These work as a hot spot on the flies. Often this hot spot helps trigger a strike. The Iron Lotus is extremely dense. The tungsten bead, lead wire underbody and coated thread abdomen make for one heavy fly while keeping the slim profile. This fly is heavy! Dry/dropper and Euro–nymphing junkies will love the fast sink rate and instant contact its density provides. I've had great success with these patterns. The Iron Lotus has several competition successes under its belt. It helped me place top 10 at the 2007 USA National Fly Fishing Championships (Boulder, Colorado), top 25 in the 2008 World Fly Fishing Championships (Rotorua, New Zealand), take the team Gold medal at the 2008 Canadian National Championships (Mont Tremblant, Canada) and recently win the individual gold metal at the 2009 USA National Championships Qualifier (Bend, Oregon)." Fly and Words by Signature Tyer Lance Egan