Caddis Chronicles

After a late morning brunch with family and friends, I headed out on my annual Easter Sunday fishing excursion.  I started this traditional with my oldest daughter Megan sixteen years ago, when she was 10, and I've made it out every year since.  Although my kids no longer join me, they are always with me in spirit when I fish.  That first year, Vinnie and I took Megan to a trout filled lake on a warm, windless Easter after an early dinner that made she and I restless.  She landed 8 trout while Vinnie and I coached her through the process.  I still remember the day like it was yesterday; her ear-to-ear, dimple-cheeked smile as she held up each trout by the leader just after she fought and landed it.  We released each of the fish, much to her delight. Megan was so happy they were going to live....and that she didn't have to touch them.

And today I continued the tradition by heading out to a PA limestone creek for a few hours.  When I arrived I was surprised to see no one else on the stream.  Trout rose freely up and down the river to the tiny, gray-winged Blue-winged Olive duns floating on the steely surface. The chilly, gray skies were spitting, and a fairly good breeze blew the hatching flies at will once they became airborne.  This was perfect weather for Olives; they abhor bright sunlight, preferring conditions many anglers avoid, thus many fishers miss out on good fishing days like today.      

(Click on photos to enlarge)

The fishing was good, and it improved as the rains become steadier and the air temperature dropped.  Before the hatch fizzled out around five, I landed about a dozen wild brown trout.  All of them came to a simple pheasant tail snowshoe rabbit emerger, size #18, fished on a 12 foot leader tapered to 7x.  I started with 6x tippet, but these fish have seen it all and a perfect, drag-free drift, is a requirement on many days when the flies are small and the water is as clear as the vodka that went into my Bloody Mary at brunch this morning.

And finally, here's the fly pattern that brought all of my fish to hand today.  It's a simple fly, and I believe that is part of what makes it so attractive to the trout.  On these creeks the trout see every manner and style of fly, and I think because of this, they soon learn to avoid overdressed facsimiles.  Less is often more, particularly on heavily fished waters.  I used two flies today, the first one I lost early on to a heavy-handed hook set, and this one.  A hook and two materials - the perfect fly most often is the simplest.

Hope you all enjoyed your holidays.    

I wrote a post the other day titled, "The Thin Line...Madness", and a bunch of readers emailed me asking what inspired the post, and why The Thin Line?   Some of you wondered "what the hell the title had to do with the post?" They got the Madness part - but found the rest obtuse.  AND, some of you chided me about the possibility that I was stoned, drunk, or both, when I wrote the post.  None of the aforementioned is true, I was simply writing the stuff that flows down from the gray matter between my ears to my fingers, and onto the screen.  It wasn't so long ago paper would have been the terminus of these thoughts.   

The Thin Line, is the surface of the water.  It is that fine line which separates the air breathing, reasoning (this is open to debate), perceptive angler, from the water breathing, instinctively willed trout.  Our world is as harsh to the trout, as their world is to us.  And it is that which defines the difference between how we approach the act of angling, and how the trout reacts to our approach.  The essence of the thin line is the difference between the thinking being, and the reactive being - cognitive vs. instinctual.  It is a metaphor that can be expressed in many ways, but what really matters is this: The better we can understand the ways trout behave, the better we can adapt our approach to achieve a positive reaction from the fish to our offering.  And finally, isn't it fascinating that for us the thin line - the water surface - reflects our environment back at us, and that it does the same for the trout?  The water surface on both sides is a mirror of our respective worlds.           

With respect to the content of the post, here you go:  I try to work on my book every night, and sometimes I lose the caboose on my train of thought, and head off to another destination.  That post was one of those instances; although I think the caboose managed to stay put in this case, and that is why I posted it.  Other times when I write stuff, my stream of conscientiousness goes all Thom Yorke (Radiohead) on me, and it gets saved in the junk file.  Nothing gets deleted though, because you never know when you might reread it, and find something within the text that brings you to your senses, or maybe even a new one.

I'll explain the Thin Line post later............

We had a wonderful day on the river with friends, rising fish, and the sounds and smells that signal spring is about to bloom, despite the chill pushing back.  You may remember that after the Fly Tying Symposium, I posted some flies tied by a young fly tyer and fly fisherman named Doug.  When I saw him at the Lancaster Fly Fishing Show, I promised I would meet up with him on the water to fish, and today was the day.  He brought along his good friend Ben, who was visiting from Germany for the week, and his mom, who provided support and transportation (and thankfully, extra clothes).  She stayed around to enjoy the day with this bunch of overgrown kids (maybe one) that spent the day standing in a cold stream waving a stick.

It was a typical early spring day where winter just wasn't quite ready to give up its chill.  The thin, gray skies kept the sun at bay, and the air chilly, a slight breeze reminded us continually that we needed to keep our jackets on.  The water was crystal clear, and at a perfect level for early season fishing - my stiff, aching toes told me it was still very cold. But not too cold for the bugs!

Despite plenty of trout rising to a good hatch of blue-winged olives, Doug preferred to fish nymphs, and did well.  The photo above is his first fish of the day, a nice rainbow.  He got a few more after that, all of them on flies he tied himself.  Ben is new to the game, and gave it his all with lots of energy, and a constant smile.  Even a spill at the end of the day that soaked him, didn't change his disposition.

One the best things about being out on the water today, was the sound of the various songbirds all around us urging spring to hurry along.  I could describe it, but the sound on this short video Doug's mom took of Sasquatch today, captures it much better than words ever could.


What could be better than that?  When I was the boys' age, my mom often took me fishing, and a couple of seasoned anglers that fished the same waters shared their knowledge and experience with me.  And today I got to pass it on (honor them), by doing the same for Doug and Ben - truthfully, today the boys didn't need much of my help, they had a grand time on their own.  We will do it again, there's plenty more for each of us to learn.

Tis a gift.    

When you boil it down to its simplest form, fly fishing is hunting – a predator pursuing prey.  Instead of a gun, or an arrow, we present artificial food forms (flies) that are tied to the end of a specialized nylon string, to trout, in an effort to get them to eat our offering.  More precisely, a fly constructed of fur, feathers and hair, bound with thread onto a specially fabricated steel hook, to imitate an insect, fish or some other food form.  And in some cases, the fly we use is something attractive to us, and hopefully, a trout. The Royal Coachman comes to mind.  Either way, our goal is to catch a trout and bring it to net, or hand.  Sometimes the fish is harvested (bummer), or it is released back into its watery world, perhaps to be caught another day, or live out its life a little smarter for the experience. 
  

(Click photo to enlarge)

Here's another tying video by Tim Flagler, showing how he ties Chally Bates' CB Stocker streamer.  Chally has been a fixture at Shannon's Fly Shop for years, and has developed a number of effective patterns for New Jersey streams and beyond.  

For more early season patterns, be sure to check out the Tightline Productions Practical Patterns video page.  There Tim has posted a bunch of videos he has made in recent weeks on how he ties a few different nymphs that will take fish now, and throughout the year. 

 

Tie a few of each up, and good luck when while out on the water.

What’s with some people?   

The other day I received an email from a young man who lives in Pennsylvania that I've had the pleasure of talking with at a couple of the fly fishing shows. He had a few questions for me, and also related an experience he had with another angler while fishing one of the Lehigh Valley limestone creeks. At the time he was teaching his buddy how to fly fish.

He and his friend were fishing fairly close together, which is what you do when you are helping someone learn the finer points of fly fishing. They had the entire run to themselves, as it was very early in the morning, and few anglers were about. Shortly after they started fishing, his friend hooked and landed a nice trout, on a flashback fly that our friend had tied. Awesome right?

It was not till three minutes later that a man walked in-between us (we were ten feet apart) and started fishing with the whole rest of the stream empty. His encroachment resulted in my buddy getting a nasty tangle because he had no room to cast. To their credit, the boys minded their manners, and left after their lines were freed. Soon they were fishing another section of creek.

Ever the persistent one, the man eventually found the boys:  About an hour later we ran into him again, this time about 40 feet ahead of me. He drifted his flies down to around my feet and as he attempted to recast, almost put a hole in my waders. Eventually he crossed lines with me and as I nicely attempted to disentangle the lines, he yanked them out of my hand resulting in a birds nest.

The boys had had enough, and so they had mom take them to fish another stretch well upstream from where the adult model of good behavior was fishing. And fortunately, after a short while, our friend was successful. He took a trout on a fly he tied himself.  It was a good end to a day he said had been aggravating. 

That’s all.  I hope the guy reads this and sees how silly he was acting.  And kudos to the boys for acting more his age, than he did.

It's just fishing.

On Saturday I headed out to PA to fish a couple of limestone creeks in the Lehigh Valley area.  It was a perfect late winter day hurrying spring along after too many gray days, for too many months.   A light, intermittent breeze cooled the mid-fifties air temperature somewhat, but not enough to be chilly.  Bright sunshine cast shadows of bare trees on the still hibernating ocher grasses that filled the fields along the stream.   

 

At the first creek, I met a couple of friends in the morning, and we spent more time bullshitting than we did wetting a line.  No bugs were on the water, and none of us wanted to fish nymphs, so we half-heartedly plied holding water with emergers and dries, to trout that showed zero interest in our offerings.  After a fishless couple of hours, my two companions decided it would be wise to hit a local watering hole for lunch and brew.  I wanted to fish instead, so I headed to another creek I was fairly certain I would see Olives hatching.  By the time I got to my destination, the guys had called to tell me they were well into their first beer, and I was crazy for not joining them.  I prefer to think they were crazy, and after spending a few hours on the stream, I knew they were.

 

When I first started fishing the very clear, even flowing creek, nothing was going on on the surface. But there were signs of activity below - trout flashed and moved in their lies; the white interior of their mouths showing in brief moments, signaling feeding behavior.  I tied a size #22, dark midge pupa onto the end of my 6x tippet, and secured a small split shot about 6 inches above it.  I cast the fly a few feet above a feeding fish and followed its drift with my rod tip, keeping my line and leader just short of  pulling the fly while still maintaining direct contact.  A few casts later, the trout moved to its left, I saw the white of its mouth, and lifted my rod just as the white disappeared.  After a brief, spirited fight, I brought the 12-13 inch brown trout to hand and quickly released it.

Shortly after I landed that fish, I started to see Blue-winged Olives clumsily flying on and just above the water after hatching.  And trout were taking them fairly aggressively in their attempt to grab the flies before the breeze would quickly take them across the currents.  So I quickly tied on new 6x tippet, and a size #20, Improved Baetis Sparkle Dun, and cast it to rising fish.   And they came to my offering, but did not take it.  Refusals, the sure sign that the trout are interested in the fly but something is not quite right.  DRAG!

So I removed the tippet, and then I tied on a 2 foot section of 7x tippet, and the same fly.  The first fish I presented the fly to, took it.  It was a nice, wild 8-inch brown with bright scarlet spots among many black ones on a background of butterscotch brown.  I then walked the stream bank, and as I went, I'd stop and cast my fly whenever a trout showed their eagerness to take a natural off the surface.  Most of them took my fly when I got it to drift drag-free into their feeding lane.  I caught a bunch of browns over the next hour and a half this way, covering a 1/2 mile or so of creek without ever getting my feet wet.

 

On my way back upstream, the fish stopped taking my Sparkle Dun. The rise forms had changed to soft, leisurely sips.  So I changed my fly to a CDC Baetis spinner, and that did the trick.  I took a few more browns, all wild, the biggest being about 12 inches long.  When I got back to where I had started, I broke down my rod and sat on a rock for a bit watching the water, and a pair of red-tail hawks gliding over the willows and hardwoods that lined the opposite bank.

It was just the kind of late winter day that gets your blood warm, and hopes high, for the upcoming spring season.  Crazy?  Maybe. But I think the guys missed more than I did. 

So call me crazy.

Check out this incredible video of a tuna feeding frenzy off of Panama.  One of the guys filming it even goes into the water with the swimming mass of tuna, bait fish, and even porpoise.  I think I even saw a shark in the mix.

 

Via: Moldy Chum

Here's a really nice, short piece about one man's fly tying evolution by Dave Karczynski, I found posted on Midcurrent. He clearly has thought out the process, and along with an artistic bent, he offers some good points that I think every fly fisherman/fly tyer can apply to their own approach.

The only thing I might do differently than Mr. Karczynski, would be my approach to having just one "hot fly of the day" left.  He opines that he would fish the fly tentatively, for fear of losing it.  Conversely, it wouldn't matter to me whether I have ten, or only one, of the fly the trout are taking like candy. I would fish that one fly with the same zeal and abandon I would if I had a boatload of them.  I'd rather give myself every opportunity to catch fish with that one fly, then end the day with that fly still on the end of my tippet, and lost chances in my head.  Besides, if you do lose the fly, it's just another opportunity to learn something.          

And the ramble continues. You didn't think I was done yesterday, did you?  Don't cringe, this one is going to be shorter. I think.

I pretty much covered why I have used the same few rods for many years yesterday, so today I'm off and running on what it is that has me thinking about getting a new stick.  On Sunday morning, friend and fellow show tyer, Al, handed me a Hardy Bros. Zenith fly rod as I walked by the casting pond at the Lancaster Fly Fishing Show.  He said in his usual, this is important half whisper, "Dude, you gotta try this thing!  There's nothin' like it."  So I took the rod from him.

 

I first looked the rod over while Al gave me the particulars on what I was about to cast.  "It's a Hardy Zen-ith!" As in Zen; enlightenment, spiritual, calming.  He continued, while still trying not to speak too loud. Like this was the biggest secret of his adult life, "It's a 9 footer, 4 piece, 5 weight.  IT IS SWEET!"

 

So I started to cast it, thinking; Okay, Al gets excited pretty easily at most things fly fishing.  But I'll give it shot since his eyes are bulging out, he's drooling, and he appears to be sweating and hyperventilating. 

 

I cast the rod.  Gently at first, trying to get a feel for the action and balance between the rod and the line.   As I put more into the cast, the better it performed.  Al could see it in my face, "Dude!  Can you believe this thing!"  I couldn't believe it (see yesterday's post about new rods), it was different, in a good way. 

And then I tried, as best as I could given that this "pond" was only ten feet wide, to do some short casts, puddle casts, roll casts and finally, mending line with the rod.  I also cast out to the 15-inch diameter targets floating at about 60-65 feet out, and landed the poly tuft at the end of the short leader, in or near the target, with more control and less effort than I expected.  Then I smiled and handed the rod back to Al, "I need to think about this one."  I may have been in shock.  I went back to the tying table and pondered the ying and the yang of what had just transpired.   

A few hours later, when things in the hall slowed, I went back to the Hardy Bros. booth and picked up the rod to cast it some more.  I wondered if the rod was actually as nice as I had thought that morning. It was not an illusion.  This rod is a wonder of modern technology, and not just another stick in the mud that casts line like a rocket launcher.

Apparently, I am not alone in this.  I Googled this specific rod, and I found out it won the Yellowstone 5-weight Shootout last year, by a wide margin.  Good to know.

So, after casting various makes and models of 9ft 4pc 5wts over the years in my search to replace my 2 piece model that doesn't travel so well thanks to Osama and friends, I think know I have found a great replacement, and then some.   Cha-ching.

Something to keep in mind: Rod preference is very personal and subjective, and always requires an asterisk, as no two casters are alike.   

End of ramble.

A bunch of readers have emailed me and asked why I haven't bought new rod in 20+ years.  It seems that some readers think that because I am passionate about all things fly fishing, and truthfully the outdoors as well, that I would be passionate about the equipment I use.  Those readers are correct, too.  I am passionate about my equipment, and that's why when I find a rod or reel that suits my style, and that feels right in my hand, I stick with it.  Not only is the rod I primarily use 20+ years old, the reel I prefer is at least that old and no longer made - a Streamline.  

Getting back to the rod question, there are three reasons I have not bought a new rod in years:
 

1.    Simply put, I like the couple of rods I have been using, and nothing has come along in the last 20+ years that suits my fishing sensibilities.  I primarily use a Winston IM6, 8ft 6in 3pc 5 wt, I purchased in 1981 - it is a medium action rod that allows me to cast with little physical and mental effort, which permits me to focus on my fishing.  I know the rod is going to do exactly what I ask without thought, and I can hit my target with my fly most every time........almost.  And when I hook a fish, I can feel everything the fish is doing.  This allows me to get it to hand or my net fairly quickly, and released with a minimum of stress.
    

2.    Over the years I have cast many of each year's latest and greatest rods, and from my perspective, none have broken through the invisible mental barrier that has been established by the rods I currently use.  I'm not a "have to have the latest" rod, reel or waders, etc., kind of guy.  Just about every rod manufacturer comes up with a new marketing ploy every year to sell more rods to mostly people who do not need a new rod, but who get sucked in by wordsmithing and the latest technical bullshit, or even a super-duper "new" finish.
      

3.   In my opinion, in the last 20 year or so, rod design has focused on reducing weight and casting further - witness that every person at the casting pond this weekend worked the rod they were "testing" for distance only.  No one I watched cast it the normal trout average fishing distance  - 25 to 35 feet.  No one I saw tried to roll cast, puddle cast, or mend line with the rod they were putting through the paces.   Sure, I like to see how far a rod will cast, but mostly I like to see how a rod will perform in my hand when doing the things I normally do when fishing.  Isn't that the point?  Placing your size #16 sulphur emerger on the water 20 inches above a rhythmically feeding rainbow trout from 35 feet away is a thrill I'll never tire of.  Especially, when the trout raises up and sips your fly in like it was a natural.

Poetry in Motion!      

That ends my ramble.   Your mileage may vary.           

(Click on image to enlarge) 

And here's an aerial view of one half of Tyers Row - some great fly tyers and good people all around.  I'd show you the other half of the bunch, but my camera skills rival that of a drunk that's blind in one eye, and wears a patch on the other.

And here's my tying table, complete with the latest spool of Danville 6/0 Olive thread winding down (unwinding?) to the end.  You can see the next spool not far away, anxiously awaiting it's turn on the Rite Bobbin.      

Sunday was somewhat quieter, with a smaller crowd, and another good turnout at my presentation.   I cast the new Hardy Zenith rod, a 9ft 4pc 5 wt, and after not buying a new rod for 20 years+, I'm adding this one to my modest collection.  The rod cast with very good line control, and not so much speed that I couldn't forget about my casting stroke and focus on my target.  A very nice fishing rod (as opposed to being just a good casting rod) for medium to big waters.

 

Oh, and Doug, have fun tying the rest of the March Brown on the winged hook I gave you.  I'm looking forward to the result, and posting it here for everyone to see.....