Marshall's
Notebook

Welcome to my notebook. Here is a notebook of fly tying tips, jottings on fishing strategies, trip pictures and stories, new gear and materials reviews. 
 

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                    "Liz"

Client Photos and Articles

Guiding

I have guided some wonderful people on the Kennebec River this season and seasons past. I've seen impressive casters. I've guided a few anglers who have much greater skills as fishermen then I, making me wonder at times if there was anything more I could suggest. I have also guided youngsters and quite a few women, many of  whom had never cast a fly rod. A person's level of fly fishing skill doesn't always match the "necessary requirements" for hooking or landing a Brown or Rainbow Trout or even a Smallmouth when we are faced with difficult fishing conditions on any given day. So, when a dad and daughter come aboard for a full-day drift at Shawmut and the daughter has never caught a fish on a fly rod, I've got to teach a lot in a brief time, especially when the dad, an experienced angler and caster, says to me, "Marshall, I want my daughter to catch one."

It's at times like this that all guides hope for the best fishing conditions. On this day, the outlook was bleak; bright sun, only a few tiny spinners around, high water, weeds galore, no rising fish.  Shawmut's been tough like this for weeks. I hoped the daughter could absorb and execute skill that has taken me years to master. Maybe we'd get lucky.  So Liz and I set to work. She listened, I talked. From the grip to the casting stroke, she took the rod and followed, step by step. We talked about the fish food, the insect's life cycle, the baitfish, the loop, the "how's and whys", she absorbed everything and became more confident and focused. She could cast 20 feet. I was impressed. BUT, the fish were totally uncooperative. They had lockjaw. The pressure mounted. They weren't lying in wait for food. Everywhere I thought they'd be, they weren't. Liz was doing everything right but everything we tried only brought up weeds. It was getting to be 1 PM and we only had gotten a few half-hearted strikes. We need a Smallmouth, a Chub, anything. Even the Bass were inactive.

Finally, I positioned the boat over a few fish who were rising to Olives in a quiet run. The dad wanted a try at them. He made several excellent drifts with a no. 20 B.W.O. Cripple I'd tied on for him, finally landing two recently stocked Browns. As we say, "the stink was finally off the boat". Now the pressure was increasing on me to somehow get a fish on Liz's rod. She was determined, but she was also getting tired. Her cast was losing whatever energy was left and began to fall closer to the boat in tailing loops and she started rubbing her wrist.  We drifted down to Fairfield and I was literally praying for rising fish. I slid over to one of the last spots where I suspected to see  fish. We waited, we nymphed, we streamered, we wooly buggered, we hoppered.  Not a blip on the surface, not a tug on the conehead. Even the domestic Geese on the shore were honking at us! Dismal. The sun still blazing down, we were down to our last hour.  I'd tried everything.

Then, a gift from God. I saw a rise form way below the boat, just above the curl. Several Trout are sipping Mayflies, Ants, Midges. But right away I know that it would take a tournament cast to get a fly over these fish. Even I would have little chance on these fish from this angle and distance! And spooking them was a certainty if I drifted any closer. I knew that to have even the remotest chance, Liz had to let out her line some 100 feet so that the tiny no. 18 Flying Ant would float directly into the feeding lane of the fish. I thought, "What are the chances?" Slim to none. Now the fish changed lanes. She let out the tiny fly again and again. I returned to my seat and hung my head.

Suddenly Liz shrieks, "What's this?" Her rod is pulsing. Her Dad lets out a laugh. "Fish On", I yell, and Liz looks back at me in amazement, a little panic in her eyes. I gave her instructions, anxiously coaching, guiding her to stay connected. Netted and posed, Liz had her first fly-caught Rainbow. I'd guess, 16 inches. "Suicide Fish!" her Dad exclaimed. I knew better. That Rainbow took the fly as a natural drift ant and inhaled it so far down, I bit off the tippet at his jaw so he could expel it rather than to prompt bleeding with probing.

I think that Liz will become a fly angler. This was a day on the river I won't forget either.

(Click on photo to enlarge)

September '04

A Special Floater

Mike stocks some ribbon sheathing material and sheet foam at the shop. I decided that floating smelt can be tied reversed as well as with the head at the eye of the hook. I came to my own conclusion on this well-known tying trick when I failed to hook Salmon on the traditional pattern, wondering if those failed hookups were more a result of the position of the eye on the fly, rather than my own slow hook sets. Lord knows, we all need help with hookups. Fold over the cut foam, secure with light wraps, slide the braided ribbon forward, tie off at the tail, seal with nail polish, paint with markers and more nail polish, glue the eyes on. I used a eyeless hook with this one, adding a snell with a perfection loop. Will the Salmon key their strike to the eyes? Will I hook the fish? Stay tuned.
UPDATE (Sept.5, '04)
I made one cast with the floating fly at Brassua Dam a few days after I wrote the article above. A Salmon struck the fly, became hooked firmly and turned abruptly, snapping off the 3X tippet. The fly below now adorns the Salmon!

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Boston-Based Anglers Love Maine
Jason and Kate Martin of Dedham, Mass. explored the waters of the upper Kennebec River Sept. 2, '04. They learned the 'how to' of gear, casting, bug life, and some finer points as they took in the beautiful scene. Come back and fish with us again! GO SOX!

OFF TO A GOOD START


Mico Faella and friendly Rainbow August 31, '04
Mico cast to, hooked, played and landed her first ever Rainbow Trout on a fly rod while we were fishing in Bingham. As a new fly fisher, Mico learned wading skills, how to nymph, string up a rod, knots, and a little streamside entomology. I think she's off to a good start in this sport!
 
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Shawmut Baitfish August '04
Under water photos of Baitfish. Below, a school of Black Nose Dace, perhaps.

            
                                                                            detail of photo at left              
      <<<<Click on images Bass Fry?