Tying the “Red Ass Bug” in Dawson City, Yukon
January 21, 2007 at 8:30 pm
The following story was originally published in Whats Up Yukon
My introduction to Gerry Couture was due to some unforeseen snowmobile trouble while hunting on the Dempster Highway. My friend Graham suggested we stop by his house on the way back to Dawson City to both visit and ask for assistance.
As we pulled into his dimly lit and long driveway, I could see a figure hunched over a table concentrating on something directly in front of him. Perhaps it was fatigue from struggling out on the land all day, but he looked rather like a mad scientist hunched over a secret experiment.
Welcoming us into his home, I noticed immediately he was merely hard at work tying flies. In front of him, a glass of wine and his fly tying vice amidst a well-organized inventory of feathers, hooks, furs and threads.
In complete silence and with great interest, I watched him effortlessly tie a winged dry fly. Watching this man tie was like watching an artist covering a canvas. Gerry Couture is a well known personality in the Klondike with his history as a long-time commercial fisherman, trapper, conservationist and member of the Yukon Salmon Committee. While he won’t admit it, he is an incredible fly tier as well. I have since been out to visit Gerry a few times and we always get into some great discussions about fly tying and his fly fishing adventures with his young granddaughter.
One of his most interesting fly tying projects is the Yukon’s “Red Ass Bug”. Gerry tells the story of fishing with a friend who was having success with a particular fly pattern. Gerry asked him what it was and the friend replied “just some red ass bug”. It has been his goal to perfect and bring to market the Yukon’s Red Ass Bug. I have seen some prototypes, but not good enough for the perfectionist in Gerry.
Personally, I have always been drawn to tying flies. I find it incredibly relaxing, creative and a challenge to get a fish to bite on something made of feathers. Fly tying requires a vice, tools, hooks and a decent starting inventory of materials. It is also as simple or complicated as you would like to make it. Simple flies like the woolly bugger, egg sucking leech or red tag require minimal materials, a few minutes and can actually catch virtually any fish in the Yukon.
Flies are generally categorized as imitators (to look like real bugs and trick the fish) or attractors (mainly flashy and unrealistic designed to trigger a predator or aggressive strike). They are also fished either dry (on the surface) or wet (below the surface). Basic knowledge of entomology helps in replicating the many stages of such insects as mayflies and caddisflies.
I suspect that the Yukon’s “Red Ass Bug” does not directly mimic any stage of a Yukon aquatic insect. It is probably just another project this accomplished Yukoner enjoys in preparation for the next great adventure with his grand daughter.
Parts of this article seemed vaguely familiar. Then I checked my book Fly Patterns of Alaska (Revised and Enlarged Edition, 1993, Frank Amato Publications), and it has a photo and tying instructions for a Redass Bug. The history of the fly is also described as follows: The original was described by Ken Nieland of the Alaska Department of Fish and Game after he was given one of the flies by an unknown fly fisherman on the banks of Lower Talarik Creek in 1972. When asked what it imitated, the response was the descriptive title used above.
Seems like quite a coincidence.
Fly fisher from afar on January 27, 2007 at 10:58 am
Hey thanks for the research and your post, I guess youll have to ask Gerry for clarification yourself. I am perfectly happy going along with Gerry on this one. Wherever the story came from, I told it as I heard it and it was a good one. I guess that it the great thing about fishing stories is that they get passed down from person to person.
I know that during my time in the arctic we almost fished exclusively for grayling with the red tag. Never referred to it as a red ass bug, but it sure did look like one.
Hi Fly Fisher from afar on January 30, 2007 at 9:55 pm
I dont know Gerry, but I gather that he has fished a lot and read plenty about fishing. For some, what they have read and what they have done often blend together or simply get mixed up, despite ones best efforts to separate the two. I suspect that is what has happened here. Does he check out this web site?
Fly fisher from afar on February 02, 2007 at 10:05 pm
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