Be sure and visit our Home Page and see where this all started.
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Thursday Review | Comments welcome |
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These articles are for the 2006/2007 season. |
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Thursday Reviews are done until December. But if you're looking for something to read check out the It's a weekly post I do all
season about the
Kennebec River in general and If you click on the Friday
Update link above and it doesn't work just cut and paste this to your
browser. And one last note. I
had intended to post a Thursday Review yesterday (April 5th) but didn't
because I spent the morning (5:30 to almost noon) plowing snow. I like it better when Shawmut looks like this.
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03/29/07 - I carry too much gear. There I’ve
said it – I think this must be how it feels attending your first AA meeting
and saying “My name is Mike and I’m an alcoholic.” So now it’s out there
and I’ve admitted my addiction.
Yep, I could leave that home. I don’t remember the last time I needed a band-aid out on the water. Except that time last summer when the wind caught my Single Spey backcast and the line wrapped around my shoulders and the hook firmly planted itself in my forehead. But that was an odd happenstance. Yep, the first aid kit goes. And my other spare spool pocket just holds my fingerless gloves and of course my spare spool rigged with a sink tip – that’s it – those go too.
But boy am I going to be mad when I get
half-way through a full-day’s fishing and the sun is high and the
Yep, he can go to Argentina, New Zealand, and
Great Britain ANYWHERE with just those two boxes and have
But I’ve gotta get rid of some of this gear.
Man, last fall when Jeremy and I went down into the gorge carrying that 35
pound vest of mine back up out of there was a chore. I thought Jeremy was
going to have to help me I was huffing so badly. I had to stop halfway up
the gorge wall and catch my breath. He
I know. I’ll take everything out of my vest
and switch to a Chest Pac. That’ll work. If I don’t have room for it I
just won’t take it – some sacrifices will have to be made. Yep, only the
essentials will go back in. That way I can stick all the stuff that doesn’t
go into the Chest Pac back into the vest and I’ll just bring the vest along
as a place to keep some of the extra “stuff” in case I need it for that
specific trip. Yep, that’s it the
Yep, that works – it’s so simple - the best of both worlds. Nothing but the essentials in the Chest Pac and all the “like to have” stuff in my vest back in the truck where I can just go get it if I need it. Of course, on special days I could save myself a trip back to the truck by just slipping the vest on along with my Chest Pac.............. Yep, that’s it – that’s how I’ll cut back. Be sure and visit the Forum and share your thoughts on any topic covered or to suggest a topic.
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3/22/07 The question is to move or not to move? And the follow-up is if I move do I go upstream or downstream? Let me say right now I don’t have a hard fast answer. I consider the question to be a parallel too should I reel right-handed or left-handed when I fish. There is no right answer other than reel the way that works best for you. There are some cases where which direction do I move in doesn’t require much thought. For instance if I get to a pool on the river and it is alive with rising fish – well I’m not moving at all. If I’m on a small stream and have to move from wide spot to wide spot I’m moving upstream. My reason for that choice is I have spooked too many fish, on small streams, by moving downstream. But as stream size increases the downstream option begins to have appeal. If a stream is 20 to 30 feet wide I feel I can move downstream and not spook fish on the other bank. And, if I’m really careful I won’t even spook fish working mid-stream. That lets me employ one of my favorite methods of prospecting for fish – the wet fly swing. Or I may move downstream pounding the other bank and ripping a streamer back across the water employing the – escaping baitfish tactic. Which method I use usually depends on my mood more than anything but both let me cover a lot of water fairly quickly and both have brought me too the rising fish I was hoping to find. Moving downstream has a special appeal on new water. I can fish fairly quickly; investigate a goodly length of the waterway and then when I return the knowledge I gained can make me more effective. There are quite a few waters that I “learned” by moving and fishing my way downstream that I now fish upstream. When I get to the waterway I just hike downstream on the bank and fish my way back to the truck. One stream that comes to mind has collapsed banks with many treetops hanging in the water. An upstream approach lets me work the seams and eddies created downstream of the treetops. I can’t work those seams and eddies using a downstream approach without hanging my fly up in the branches. Grand Lake Stream is a waterway that I feel can be fished in either direction. Yet I fish it mostly upstream. Why? Well – my answer has little to do with fishing and a lot to do with the availability of a ride. You see while at camp I can ask one of my brothers to give me a ride downstream to the Picnic area and I can spend the bulk of the day fishing my way back. If I start up by the dam and fish my way down to the Picnic area I’m faced with a long walk back to camp after a full day on the stream – I take the one-way ride. However, as I write this I’m beginning to form an answer to the question do I fish upstream or downstream and it is – do both. Recalling my many trips fishing upstream at GLS reminds me that as I fish my way back to the dam and camp I often use both upstream and downstream tactics. Although my general direction is upstream when I get to some runs I get out of the water – move to the top of the run – get back in the water and fish my way down the run. That way I can work my nymphs and streamers in under the cut banks. Yep, that’s my answer – do both - fish upstream and downstream. That way someone will think you’re doing it wrong but someone else will think you’re doing it right - and you will be. Be sure and visit the Forum and share your thoughts on any topic covered or to suggest a topic.
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03/15/07 “I’m looking to start fly-fishing and I want buy a fly rod” – Music to my ears. I just love to have someone come in and say that. Part of the reason is it usually means a sale but a big part of the reason is I like to help people get into this sport. So I bring people over to our rod display and ask what species they will be targeting. There are a lot of possible answers to that question and answers like – just trout and salmon on moving water or I love little trout ponds – those are easy. The single toughest answer to my question about target species is “I fish for a lot of different stuff and I want an all-around fly rod.” It’s tough because there is no answer for there is no all-around fly rod. The closest I have ever seen was the Orvis 8’3”, 7-weight rod called the “All-Rounder” and they have dropped that rod from the lineup. I still have one and still fish it with streamers. It is a full-flex rod (read soft-tip) with great butt strength and the ability to cast a lot of line or cast short. The rod handles small flies fairly well yet as a 7-weight it can throw small Striper flies and its short length allows use in small streams that have close alder growth. You might wonder why it isn’t still on the market since it did a little bit of everything and that’s a fair question – the answer is it did all of these things but it didn’t do any of them well. It’s like my father used to say “Jack of all trades. Master of none.” The rod did cast small flies but delicate presentation and 7-weight fly lines don’t mix well. The rod also threw a fairly big striper fly but again, as a 7-weight, it struggled with Clousers, especially in the wind. But for the time that rod was on the market I at least had an answer for the all-around fly rod. My answer today is to take people over to the book display and to open Tom Rosenbauer’s “Orvis Fly Fishing Guide” and read them this quote: “Eventually, ever fly fisherman asks: “Can I get one fly rod that will do everything for me?” That depends on what is meant by “everything.” If you will be fishing for, say, trout and nothing else, the answer could be yes. However, if you want to fish for many different kinds of fish on rivers, lakes, ponds and oceans, you will probably need a number of fly rods. The all-purpose fly rod can be likened to an all-purpose golf club. It’s possible to play 18 holes of golf with a putter, but it’s certainly not efficient (and not much fun).” After we read that I generally point them towards a 5-weight or 6-weight rod which give them the ability to fish a variety of waters and throw a good range of fly sizes (leaning strongly towards a 6-weight if they want to fish for Smallies) Often though when people come in to buy a rod they already have one and are ready for another and usually their second rod is something they want to have because they have identified a need. They have found that the type of water (moving vs. still), exposure to wind, obstructions, wading or fishing from a canoe, fishing big flies (attractors and streamers) or always fishing to rising fish, one or more of these conditions have caused them to wish for something other than what they are fishing with. Here are two general categories of trout fishing conditions and the rods I think suit them. Light trout – Small-streams. I want a Full-Flex (what used to be called a slow rod) for this. Say, 6 ½’ to 8’ and matched up with a 1 to 5-weight line. I want slow action because it is slow. Slow or Full-Flex actions are also forgiving of poor casting strokes caused by limited room and they protect light tippets but I like them because they ARE slow. I can actually see my fly heading towards a low hanging branch or other obstacle and I can pull it back – with fast rods by the time I realize my fly is heading towards a tangle its already there. Bigger trout – Mid to Large water. I want a Mid-Flex to Tip-Flex rod for this water. Say, 8’ to 9’ and matched up with a 5 to 8-weight line. I need the extra line weight and line speed of an outfit like this to handle some of the bigger streamers (like a wool-head Sculpin) and I need the rod butt strength to work big fish fast water. Both ends of the line-weights suggested here are going to suffer some. 5-weights struggle with a wool-head and three split-shot and the 8-weight isn’t going to lay out a size 20 dry with much delicacy. And, of course it just goes on from there. There are rods for Pike and Muskie, other setups for Atlantic Salmon, Steelhead, Stripers, Bonefish, Tarpon and let’s not forget the often neglected Panfish & Crappies. I guess the long and short of this topic is just to say – There is no one rod for fly-fishing and to make the selection process more fun and rewarding when you are planning another rod for whatever you pleasure is be sure and consider things like, water type, wind, fly size and your own casting style. Be sure and visit the Forum and share your thoughts on any topic covered or to suggest a topic. |
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Mayflies are trout food nothing more nothing less, at least
that’s what they are to me. Ask an entomologist Mayflies aren’t particularly beneficial or harmful to humans and so their level of importance in the grand scheme of things is low but they do get a lot of study. And like all things that get a lot of study the devil has proved to be in the details. You see, after looking at the details entomologists have determined there are over 600 species in North America alone – over 2,500 species of mayflies worldwide. “How do you know what they are? There are so many of them and they’re all different.” That question and statement are regulars here at the shop. Many people, even those who have been fly fishing for a long time, are at a loss when it comes to identifying mayflies. They are simply overwhelmed.
Yep, that’s the best way to determine what pattern to use – capture a specimen. Use a seine or a long handled bug net, your hats - anything but capture one and “matching the hatch” gets really easy. If you can’t capture one here are some things to keep in mind.
Mayflies don’t come in a lot of sizes or all that many
colors. Olives, Sulfurs, Grays and Mahoganies are the four shades of color
I see most often. I know someone out there is saying what about Light
Cahills; they’re
Olives are generally, fairly small say 16 to 22 with an occasional size 14 thrown in. Sulfurs run a little bigger with a range generally running from 14 to 18. Grays are often bigger and many of our early season hatches like the Quill Gordon or Gray Fox and they will run in size from 12 to 16. That leaves us with the Mahoganies, which range from tan to reddish brown and run in size from 12 to 16. Now if you look back at those sizes you’ll see that each group has some size 14 and size 16 flies and only the Gray’s and Mahoganies have size 12 – that’s a hint. Yep, most mayflies are small.
Be sure and visit the Forum and share your thoughts on any topic covered or to suggest a topic.
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03/01/07 - Happy March - good fishing is just around the corner. Of course "the corner" is a long, slow and winding bend in the road but we're still getting there. Last week's Thursday Review generated a lot of posts and e-mails so I figured a follow-up dealing with Night Fishing might be a good topic. People
mentioned things like the difference between fishing an hour or so after
dusk vs. starting fishing after midnight and catching the morning tide at
3:00am or so. To be sure there are different levels of "Night Fishing"
especially if you throw salt-water into the mix. However, I confine
most of my night fishing to fresh water - there are creatures in the ocean
and I don't like the idea of standing on the beach tempting creatures up
from the depths.
So, for me, standing safely in the fresh water, with no creatures save big Dobson Flies and 4-foot long eels that may wrap around my legs; Night Fishing falls into three or four categories. The first, and a favorite because all I have to do is stay a little late to enjoy it, is the Spinner-Fall. Lots of bugs start laying eggs right at or just after dusk and therein lies the problem. It's hard to tell what the fish are rising for when it's dark out. Which is part of the reason I carry a light and a net with a white mesh bottom. With these items I can seine the water and pick a match to whatever it is I find. Deciding which pattern to fish is a big part of catching fish just after dark but equally important is being at the right place. Seining is the second step of that dusk to full dark fishing effort. The first step is to position myself where there is a good seam below a riffle area. Spinners are completely at the mercy of the current and seams. Spots where several currents meet are good places to be. I'm usually pretty confident I'll be into fish if I'm positioned on a seam where only short casts are required and I've got a light and seine. But if the spinner fall doesn't happen and instead I discover insects are hatching - well - that's a different ballgame. Many of the bugs that hatch at night are big. If not "big" most are at least size 12 so out come the bigger flies and tippets to match. Night fishing generally lets you get away with heavier tippets (handy if you hook into a big trout) as well as shorter leaders. You won't find me fishing a night hatch with 12-foot leaders and 6X tippet. More often I'm fishing a 7 1/2-foot leader at 4X. So if my hoped for Spinner Fall doesn't happen I take to prowling around looking and listening for a hatch. Mostly listening - trout can make a lot of noise while feeding at night. Since I'm out there anyway and planning on staying for awhile if, after listening, I don't hear feeding trout I start prowling and prowling around after dark, for me, means working the shallows. I don't normally expect to find large fish in the shallows, at least, not in the daylight. But at night big fish will move in to shallows looking for baitfish, crayfish and most anything else that might seek refuge on the edges. So I figure if I'm moving around, and then stopping for awhile to listen for feeding activity - why not cast a big, water pushing Muddler or similar fly - just in case there is something else, in the form of a trout, moving around in the shallows. This is really my favorite way of fishing at night. Slow steady wading, with regular stops to listen for feeding trout, in water levels that aren't threatening with the expectation of hooking into a BIG FISH. No you don't have the thrill of seeing the rise and take that comes with daytime dry fly fishing but you will get at least as great a thrill the first time you spook a BIG FISH out of the shallows. And, that's not to mention the thrill you'll get if you're moving slow and casting quietly and hook into that big fish. If all of the above tactics fail for me I move to the pools and rig up with my Streamer Stripper line (5-6-foot sink-tip) and swing wets or streamers, mostly streamers. My after dark streamers are not sleek, imitations fished in the quick darting way of the fleeing baitfish. Instead my streamers of the night often have Muddler style heads (or a wool head) and a large, dark silhouette and they are tied onto my flyline with about 3-feet of 2X tippet. The hits, if they happen, are often hard and broken tippets are common. I don't have a favorite method of fishing streamers at night. Most nights I'll play around with different methods of retrieve until I find one that works. Well, maybe I'll change that. A lazy 45 degree cast followed by a few slack lines mends to allow the fly to sink some and ending with a tightening of the line and a wet fly swing is probably my favorite because it doesn't involve much effort on my part. However, if my
lazy presentation doesn't work I switch to fast retrieves, then maybe a
long, slow strip or perhaps a dead-drift just twitching the fly once in
awhile. One of these usually manages to produce. That is unless
the fish have all left the pool because the spinner fall I had started out
waiting for has started and drawn all of the fish out of the pool and up to
the riffle where I began the evening.
Be sure and visit the Forum and share your thoughts on any topic covered or to suggest a topic.
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02/22/07 - Night Fishing is nearly everybody’s answer to how do I catch a BIG brown trout. Yet even though it is thought to be the answer by so many – so few actually go out and try it. Why? Well, for one thing it is a dangerous thing to do. Another is that, unlike the brown trout, we aren’t nocturnal by nature. I used to think I was nocturnal but then I came to realize that going home from the bar at closing time after a night of drinking and dancing didn’t make you nocturnal it just made you sleep late. If you plan some early evening or late night fishing there are some things you can do to help overcome the fact that we are daytime creatures. One is to acknowledge that we can’t see well in the dark. Get yourself a flashlight. If you get one with a red lens it won’t negate what little night vision you have but a regular white light will do. Just be aware that you will have to allow your eyes to adjust to the darkness each time you use it. Actually, maybe the white light is better as it may help keep you from leaving it on all the time. Even a flashlight won’t help you when you’re casting. It’s amazing how much visual feedback you get without even realizing you’re taking it in. Most people don’t consciously register the rollout of a forward cast but your eye and hand coordination is working full tilt even though you don’t know it. First time night fishers often spend a lot of time undoing tangles. My cure for that – practice night casting. You can do it anytime – just close your eyes. Yep, that’s my recommendation for learning to night cast – get out there on a sunny day and close your eyes and cast. The inevitable tangles will be a lot easier to undo. The most amazing thing about casting with your eyes closed is how much it will improve your overall casting ability. You learn to do without visual feedback and start paying attention to the more subtle feedback of the rod loading and the sound of that fly whizzing past your ear. Another, and perhaps the most important, tip about night fishing is to fish water you know. The dark of night isn’t a time to learn a new river. If I’m on a weekend trip exploring new water and plan on doing a night attack to see how big the fish really are I pick the section that looks best to me and fish it during the daylight before returning after dark. I pick the areas I plan to wade and note the areas I plan to avoid. That way when I return in the dead of night I am confident that if I stick to the areas I’ve scouted I’ll be OK. One important thing about daytime scouting is to plan your exit from the water – your hurried exit should you fall and fill your waders or turn an ankle. My strongest rule about night fishing is to only wade water where if I fall and get swept by the current I’ll be swept into a calm area and not into a quarter mile stretch of class III rapids. The second most important tip about night wading and fishing is to use a wading staff. It’s hard enough to wade without a staff when you can see – wading blind at night without a staff is just plain foolish – in my opinion. I’ve done it but that doesn’t make it any less foolish. And a final note about night fishing is to fish shallow. I’ve taken some large fish at night in water so shallow the fish’s back must have been breaking the surface. Many fish throw caution to the wind during the blackout of night. They just don’t seem to worry about predators. So unless you feel a great need to wade deep or you can hear a lot of noisy rising out towards the middle work the banks and edges. Fish move into the shallow to prowl for baitfish, crayfish and whatever else might be trying to hide among the rocks, weeds and mud along the stream edge. You may as well take advantage of that behavior. So do a little preparation, learn to night cast (35’ is a long cast at night), scout the area, bring your staff and a light and walk into a new world of fly fishing. Be sure and visit the Forum and share your thoughts on any topic covered or to suggest a topic.
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01/11/07 - Winter nymphing is a slow game. Fish still feed in the winter but without the drive and gusto of a fish in 52-degree water. Occasionally one finds them hungry – even rising when the water is 35 to 37 degrees or less but the normal situation is they are not in an “I need food” frame of mind.
But trout adapt. If the weather
and water temperature has been in the same range for three or four days and
we get a forecast saying we will have a warming trend – go fishing. Even a
single bright day with little cloud cover can spur fish into feeding.
Warming water brings on feeding but when the water temperature begins to
fall again they often shut off. So get out there during the warmest part of
the day and fish. My experience has been that it’s better to hit the water
midmorning and fish to mid-afternoon than to get there mid-afternoon and
fish late.
Here are some things to think about before you head out the next time.
Where:
Floating Line or Sink Tip:
Method: Whether you use long leader or sink-tips while winter nymphing you should be hooking bottom – keep that in mind and the best bottom bumping rig I know of is what Larry Tullis calls his Bounce Nymphing rig. To rig this way tie a big surgeon’s loop about three feet up from the end of your tippet and cut the loop open. That gives you a dropper to tie your fly onto and you can add your split shot to the original tippet end. This method puts the split shot right on bottom so if you hang up there is a good chance that if you have to break off all you’ll loose is the split shot.
Casting: Nymphs are cold also. If the current washes them free from the rocks they are slow to get back even if they are swimming nymphs. Winter nymphs should be mended allowing for a dead drift – don’t create a lot of slack with your mends. Mend or feed line by moving your rod tip just enough allow you fly to sink while maintaining your sense of touch with your fly. You can’t over mend and expect the fish to come and take your fly with a hard strike.
Be sure and visit the Forum and share your thoughts on any topic covered or to suggest a topic.
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01/04/07 Wow it seems
funny to type "07". Happy New Year. Last week I got to poking
around in some old Fly Fisherman magazines and thought you might want
to see some of the history of Fly Fishing as told by these old ads.
One ad that struck me right off was the Mustad ad you see on the right.
It was taken from a 1971 issue of Fly Fisherman and to me it drives
home the point (no pun intended) I often make that Mustad is an old friend
and that Mustad has served us well. Back then, in fact way back,
Mustad offered hooks for us the fly fisherman and fly tiers of the world.
Like them or not Mustad was the hook that most of our early flies were tied
on. The rest of those guys may
Another old friend I saw was the CFO. The ad on the left is from 1972 and was the first ad I saw for the CFO. If you click on the ad and expand it you'll see that a 1972 CFO cost around $45.00. They are closer to $200.00 today and the only difference is that the drag is now a disc-drag instead of a Spring and Pawl arrangement. Many argue they like the Spring and Pawl arrangement better than the disc-drag but either way that's a reel that has stood the test of time. The CFO is a Stan Bogden design and perhaps that is part of the secret to its longevity. Stan Bogden's reels are much sought after and have inspired such bumper stickers as "Have You Hugged Your Bogden Today?" Those ads are interesting ones but what really struck me was the advent of the graphite rod. Many people don't remember or weren't around when graphite hit the market. I was and I remember it well. A lot of people back then said graphite would never replace fiberglass. Others said the industry was
going to jump right over graphite and go to boron or some other space age
technology. But Graphite did win out and while some made a run at Boron it
didn't work. Boron proved out to be a poor selection as it couldn't
take the constant flexing and would fatigue and break. Today Boron is
making a showing with the Orvis Zero-Gravity and Winston BX-IIt and Boron
BX-IIx and I think it's here to stay. I love my Zero-Gravity fly rods and it
wasn't easy to get me to put my Superfine, Henry's Fork down to try one but
when I did I couldn't get over how responsive the rod is. I haven't
cast one yet but I suspect the Winston rods also are also magnificent rods
as Winston has always put out a good fly rod. (just don't go out and
buy a Winston - get a Zero-Gravity from me instead
Anyway - back to the ads. Who do you think put the first graphite rod ad in Fly Fisherman - Orvis, Sage or perhaps Winston? Well those are all good guesses but Orvis and Winston didn't have a graphite rod in May of 1974 when the first ad came out and Sage wasn't even a company. No it was Fenwick. Yes, Fenwick and the ad on the right is the first ad I could find for a graphite rod. It was the Fenwick HMG (high modulus graphite) that lead the way and they were great rods. I still have one. It's old and battle scared but can still hold its own on the water. I fish it at least once a season and still enjoy the relaxed (read that slow) casting stroke.
One of the things that attracted me to Orvis rods was this ad copy "The Orvis Graphite Fly Rod fabricated with the longitudinal fiber structure of Tonkin Bamboo. Crafted on the special Orvis tapers for full flex from tip to butt." That ad copy got my interest and then I got to cast one. That sold me.
This two page ad is quite an
eye opener when it comes to rod action. Enlarge the picture of the guy
casting and read the copy. In fine print there it says "Rod flexes
from tip down into corks" Believe it or not that was considered a fast
rod in its day. However, as I said earlier
Fenwick lead the way and there was quite a build up to the announcement of
the first graphite rods. In the June/July issue of Fly Fisherman
Don Phillips gave us our first hint of what was to come with his article
A New Era of Fibers for Fly Rods and later that same year he got
deeper into the subject with his article Another
Those two articles made such a
stir in the fly fishing world that Phil Clock, then president of Fenwick Rod
Company felt compelled to counter the Don Phillips articles with one of his
own titled New! Technical developments in fly rod design
Be sure and visit the Forum and share your thoughts on any topic covered or to suggest a topic.
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12/28/06 Well
Christmas has come and gone and the New Year is creeping up on us.
Let's hope for a little less water next year.
A lot of people think emergers are fairly new to fly fishing, others think that emergers are just wet flies fished near the top and still others think emergers are just nymphs fished near the top. They've all got it a little right. For the ones who think they are new I have to agree because when I look at any of my older books there is little or no mention of emergers. In 1971 Doug
Swisher and Carl Richards wrote Selective Trout (over 150,000 copies
sold and a recent reprint Yep, all those
drown dry flies that used to work so well once they sunk were emergers we
just didn't call them that. More than once I remember guys saying to
me "man, that's such a good fly it even
And those who think Emergers are just wets fished near the top are close to the mark because Soft Hackle Flies like the Partridge and Orange or Partridge and Yellow just won't go away. Year after year those simple OLD, OLD patterns just keep on catching fish. Pete Hidy had it right when he coined the word flymph - a name I wish had stuck. He called his flies that imitated an insect that wasn't quite yet a hatched fly but was no longer a nymph a flymph and a good name it was but emergers seems to be what they will forever be called. And fishing them near the top will forever be a good way to fish them. The flyfishers
who think emergers are just nymphs fished near the top, well they too are
right, but they may be missing an opportunity. You see emergers make pretty
good nymphs if you sink them - in fact - they may be just as effective on
the bottom and rising up (Leisenring Lift) as they are in the surface film.
Especially in a Quill Gordon or similar hatch. One important line in the
emerger paragraphs in Selective Trout is "When tied with short
wings and on heavy hooks, it is an excellent nymphal imitation that can be
fished deep." Yet from the 1971 days of Swisher and Richards the definition
of emerger has tightened up some. In fact Schollmeyer and Leeson say
"the vast majority of emerger patterns can be divided into one of two types:
"flush-floating emergers" ---those that are designed to ride horizontally
with the body of the fly flush against the surface film: and "descending
-body emergers" ---those that are designed to have all, or some portion, of
the abdomen angling down, or curving, or hanging below the surface film."
Somebody give those guys a split-shot.
Anyway, no matter how you fish them emergers work and they should be a part of your fly selection. They are beginning to take over two of my fly boxes and may soon have to be consolidated into just one box all their own.
Be sure and visit the Forum and share your thoughts on any topic covered or to suggest a topic.
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12/21/06 - Well it’s darn near Christmas, the Winter Solstice is tomorrow (day will start getting longer) and shelf ice is beginning to form on the banks of the river. Water temperatures are in the mid-thirties and fishing is slow. It’s just about time for me to put my gear away. Not way back in the closet or down cellar with the screens for the storm doors but I might take my gear bag out of my truck for a month or two. Of course not long after I do I’ll read a weather report that says we are in store for a “January Thaw” and I’ll be heading for the water but in the meantime taking my gear bag out of the truck gives me a chance to do a little maintenance. Maintenance is defined as attempting to keep a functional item in a specified state in which the unit can perform its required functions. Or said another way when you hit the water next spring your dry flies ought to float, your reel should turn smoothly (in and out) and things like your waders should not leak. Here are a few of the magic tricks I’ll be performing to get my gear in shape for next season. Waders – I’ll wash my breathable waders and raincoat with Nikwax Tech Wash and then after drying I’ll spray the outer shell with Nikwax TX-Direct. I was very skeptical of these products until I broke down a month or so ago a washed my breathable Tailwaters wading jacket with them. My wading jacket had slowly gotten to a point where rain saturated the outer shell adding POUNDS to the weight of the jacket and it seemed more and more water was seeping through the breathable fabric soaking my arms and shoulders. The wading jacket is two years old – used a lot and not really cared for – after all gear is to use. However, at $200.00 a jacket I had hoped for another year or so. Well now it’s just like new, at least, from a waterproof point of view. Water beads up on the outer shell and there is no seepage through the waterproof membrane. It worked well enough so that I’ll be doing my waders soon and we are going to start carrying the product here in the store. (Actually I’ll be honest here and admit Linda worked this miracle) Flies – I always have problems with my flies. I carry many patterns and use them all. After a day’s fishing I’ll have thirty flies on my drying patch – then I won’t put them back in the box they came out of – and the next day I’ll add thirty more right on top of them. They get crushed, dulled, and generally look like Ka-Ka after a bit and when I get around to putting them back in their respective boxes I’m often tempted to just throw them out they look so bad. But even if you tie your own flies the cost of just throwing them out gives you pause. Enter the teakettle. Yep, put the teakettle on and steam those flies. I delight in watching a crushed and flattened Royal Wulff rise up into its former glory with its hackle straightening out and looking like it wants to be thrown back on the water to show how well it floats. Take a pair of forceps or tweezers and hold a crushed fly in the steam from the spout – if you’ve never done it you’ll be amazed. This is a good time to check for sharpness and broken hooks and another thing that will help next season is waterproofing you flies now. Get a $4.00 bottle of Water-Shed or some other permanent water proofing agent and soak your flies in it now. You be glad you did come next season. It really does work well – the only problem is telling treated flies from non-treated flies as there in no change in the appearance of the flies. Reels and lines – Now is a good time to clean your lines and lube your reels. There is little to do to the backing on your reels but I’m willing to bet your lines could stand a cleaning. If you have one of the newer style “super-slick coating” lines be sure and use a product like the Orvis “Zip Juice” instead of a silicone line cleaner. Your reels should also be cleaned and lubed with waterproof grease on the spindle and light oil on the other moving parts. I wash reel frames in warm soap and water using an old paintbrush (bristles cut short and stiff) as a scrub brush and then I dry them and lube them up. That’s not much work for the joy I get back from a smooth working reel. Leaders and tippet spools – Why not check them now instead of when you get back on the water. I check my leaders for knots, nicks and length of tippet. Knots I untie (if I can), nicks are a death sentence and tippets are always short it seems. So I tie on new tippet now and coil my leaders up and put them back into my leader wallet instead of leaving them in the pocket I hurriedly stuffed them into the last time I changed leaders. Old tippet spools or ones with little tippet left get replaced and spares are added to my kit bag. Rods – Rods thankfully require little maintenance but that’s no reason to neglect them. I wax my ferrules (often waxing the whole rod – it just looks nice after) and take a Q-tip and rubbing alcohol to the feet of the guides. There often is a build up of crud just where the feet go under the guide wraps and while it’s usually not a problem with freshwater rods it can be an important part of cleaning a saltwater rod. Otherwise that crud can become corrosion and lead to a guide breaking when you’ve got a BIG fish on. Those are the major items but all my gear gets a once over this time of year. I clean off a big area on my workbench and take everything out of my vest – EVERYTHING. Then (don’t’ tell the fish gods) I wash my vest. After washing I put everything back – unless I didn’t use it last season, then it gets thrown out – and that way, at least my first time out I can find stuff. After my first time out all the items in my vest start to migrate to different pockets – sometimes I think the tube of floatant just wants to go visit the split-shot container so it does. At least that’s how is seems because stuff just seems to go from pocket to pocket. Now some to that may seem unnecessary and it may be but it helps pass a long snowy afternoon or evening and keeps my mind on the important things in life – like fishing and planning the next trip. Be sure and visit the Forum and share your thoughts on any topic covered or to suggest a topic.
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12/15/06 - Take a hike - that's my advise. At least if want to fish alone. It's amazing what walking 100 yards will do for seclusion even on a weekend in June at Grand Lake Stream you can often find undisturbed water - water that you can fish alone. You may not have a long stretch of water to call yours but you'll find pockets and runs that haven't been fished all week. The same thing goes for the West Branch of the Penobscot River and other popular waters. Waters like the West Branch with a road running parallel to the river for miles have beaten paths from any wide spot in the road suitable for parking to named and unnamed river runs. A good example is the road section adjacent to Nesowadnehunk Falls. There is room for several vehicles and even with the parking area full I can usually find good water to fish - why? Because when I walk down the path to the river I frequently find people spread out along the pools above and below the falls. Often so close together that they can only cast straight out and retrieve back because if they let their lines swing downstream they might hook the person fishing below them. So where do I find my water? Well, I start walking. That section of river is very close to the road but the road veers away from the river for the next half mile and there's where I find my fishing. Just a short distance below the falls the river narrows and the flow picks up speed sweeping to the right and that water is boulder strewn and well populated with fish. Yep, it's a little hard to get to because of the boulders and the flow is swift but the walk is worth it. And, as soon as I round the bend I've got my own private section of river. The secret - just start walking. But there's more to it than that. If you just start walking you'll find water but a little homework before you go helps. You can often
get an idea of what you'll find when you start walking by looking the
water up in the Appalachian Mountain Club River Guide. It's almost
like cheating. Here's what the river guide says about the water below
Nesowadnehunk Falls. And it says to me that fish will be there. Why? Because I'll be below Nesowadnehunk Falls, a Class IV drop and above Abol Falls, another Class IV drop - if you were a fish wouldn't you want to stay in the three mile long deep, slower section between those two wild stretches of water with Class I rips above and below you for feeding stations and deep protected runs for spending lazy afternoons. Yep, that sounds like good water to me. But even if I hadn't peeked into the River Guide (which stays in my truck all summer long) to get an idea of the type of water I might find when I hit a section of river I'll spend some time walking the shoreline to get away from the most accessible water. It often leads to good fishing and private water. Be sure and visit the Forum and share your thoughts on any topic covered or to suggest a topic.
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12/07/06 - December 7th, 1941 is the day Japan attacked Pearl Harbor. Some things are better forgotten - this isn't one of them. To see a home made video done by Marshall Karp who recorded his fathers first hand report of what happened that day visit this link. It takes a half hour to watch but it's worth the time - just the first 5 minutes is worth watching - I couldn't watch the whole thing when I first found it but had to go back later to watch it all. Now to some fishing. I thought I'd give my take on Spey Casting and what the buzz is all about. What first attracted me to Spey Casting was DISTANCE. I'd heard about the 120' casts made with a single stroke and wanted a piece of that action. That was about 5 years ago and I still haven't made a cast reaching 120'. In fact most of the time I'm fishing distances I could easily fish with a single-handed rod. Usually 70' or less. So why bother with Spey? Well,
I should amend my above statement to read: Learning how to Spey cast has a fairly steep learning curve, at least it was steep for me. I got a video tape made by Jim Vincent (think Rio Products) and I would watch it and then go practice a single cast, then go back and watch the video and go practice a single cast, then go back and watch the video - well, you get the picture. I spent two summers doing that whenever I got some spare time. It was hard to pick up that way but I couldn't locate a Spey Casting Class so I did the video route which for me did finally work. Part of what made it hard was my lack of understanding Spey casting and what it was all about. I was still focused on distance and my rod and line weren't matched. I had an Orvis Spey rod rated for a 7-weight line and a 7-weight double taper Spey line was what I put on it. Mistake number one. Today I cast that same rod with a 9-weight line and it is a great rod and line combination. The root of the problem was
that Orvis rod designers themselves didn't understand Spey. They still
don't if you look at the rods they offer today and the lines Orvis
recommends for them. I'm happy to say that is changing and I'm told
this summer Orvis will be introducing a new Spey series of rods they have
been field testing. I'm also told the line recommendations will match
the rod
All that may be causing you to think you don't want to jump into Spey if you have to buy a new rod, reel and lines to do it. The good news is you don't have to. There's a good chance you can Spey cast with the setup you fished with the last time you were out. Go here to watch a video of me Spey casting with an 8 1/2', 5-weight in a gorge with no backcast room. It's a video Jeremy Cameron of Flies and Fins.Com recorded one day when he and I were fishing. Spey is what let me catch so many fish down in there. He and I made another video you can watch if you follow this link. We're using a double handed rod in this video. We ended up making this one because after watching me in the gorge Jeremy wanted to learn Spey and being the sort of guy he is he had to jump right in and get a two-handed rod. The day he picked up his rod we went to Shawmut for a very quick and way to brief Spey casting lesson. He got a few basics and in typical Jeremy fashion went immediately out to fish his new rod. He caught fish that afternoon on his new rod and he caught them making Spey casts - not good smooth ones but good enough to get the job done. So if you want to try Spey and
get some idea of what the buzz is all about you can try it with the
equipment you already own. Watching the VERY basic videos Jeremy and I
made will give you some idea of the casting strokes, at least enough to get
you into trouble
It takes practice and I'd recommend a class to anyone who dabbles in Spey casting but you can get a taste of it on your own. It is fun and it will open up water you can't now fish. Be sure and visit the Forum and share your thoughts on any topic covered or to suggest a topic.
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11/30/06 -
Well, today most of the extended season stream and ponds closed. And,
since it's like the man said "It ain't over til the fat lady sings." or as I
like to add "or the law says so." I ended up going fishing this morning
instead of coming down here early to write the Thursday Review. So
this first Thursday Review won't cover any techniques or gear instead I'm
going to talk about how even spontaneous, slow starting short durations
trips that start out all wrong can be fun. Some things did go right and that fish on the left is one of those things (enlarge that picture and check out the red spots on that fish - wow). My plan for this morning was to get up at 5:00am, run thorough my normal morning routine and then come down here to the shop and write my Thursday Review. So the alarm went off, I hit the button to stop it and went promptly back to sleep. I woke at 6:05 and already the day wasn't going so well. I got
downstairs and looked at our indoor/outdoor thermometer and it read 46
degrees outside. Worried I was still sleeping I pinched myself and it still
read 46 degrees and all my plans changed. I thought about a stream
that closes today and how I've gotten some good fish there late in the
season and out the door I went. Something made me check my rod tube
before I headed out and sure enough I hadn't put my 5-weight, Zero Gravity
back into my reel on rod pouch tube after Streamer returned it. That
meant I had to stop down here at the shop to pick it up and on the way I
realized I needed to gas up - well - by the time I headed to fish it was
past 7:00 and I had 30 miles to drive. Let's see, it was past 7:00, I
had an hours driving round trip and the store opens at 10:00am - not much
time left for fishing.
So with a Hillman's doughnut
and coffee for the ride I headed out and high water is what I found.
After last season and this season's water levels I've started to get used to
high water so walking submerged paths and fishing fast water just seems
natural these days. So much so that I didn't even add the water level
into the growing list of things that had gone wrong.
An hour and twenty minutes
later with two fish to the net and only one fly lost to low hanging
This stream closed today but
the Kennebec River from Madison down is open and if you haven't put
everything away you might want to take advantage of any warmer days like
this one - it's a long time until spring. I hate to say how long it
has been since I waded Shawmut (although if the flashboards are up I'll be
fishing it this weekend) but I do know Madison is sharing some Browns,
Brookies and Salmon. The reason I know is that's where I was fishing
last Sunday.
The Brookie on the left was kind enough to take my Montreal Whore and so was the Brownie on the right. I got a salmon also (Madison Grand Slam) but that one didn't stick around for a picture. Madison was fairly popular this weekend and everyone that I talked to caught fish. Greg Burchstead, Kenny Clark and Fred Schmidt all hooked up. I think I saw fellow forum poster "Flyfishi" or at least his truck but I haven't gotten to talk to him yet so I can't be sure. Next week I'll do a regular Thursday Review but today I just had to share the results of my spontaneous, slow starting problem filled morning. Yep for a slow start this has turned out to be a fine day. Be sure and visit the Forum and share your thoughts on any topic covered or to suggest a topic. |
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11/24/06 - Welcome one and all.
Thursday Reviews will start on 11/30 please stop back and visit often.
Be sure and visit the Forum and share your thoughts on any topic covered or to suggest a topic.
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(my parent's never should have let me go to the movies
and watch THE BLOB)
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