January 5, 2019 - Tightlines Fly Fishing - Tying Class

This coming January 5th, Saturday, I will be at Tightlines Fly Fishing Shop in Parsippany, New Jersey teaching a fly tying class from 11:00am until 2:00pm.

The tying class is titled "Matt Grobert's Favorite Mayfly & Caddis Emergers".  We will go over not only how to tie them, but also why we use the materials we do and I'll show you some tricks for getting the patterns to look and fish as they should.   In addition to tying the flies, we will go over presentation/recognizing when to use the patterns and how to fish them as well as the leader system I use for fishing emergers and dry flies. The cost is $30/person and you can sign up by contacting the shop here Tightlines Fly Fishing. 

You will need to bring your tying vise, tools and light.

Missing Link Caddis

Sharpen your hooks.

Merry Christmas Everyone!

 Bryson Carey (2) and Henley Carpenter (5)

And Peace and Happiness in the New Year! 

We Won't Be Fishing...Again, But We Still Can Tie Flies.

This has been the story of our Autumn fishing in the Northeast this year.  It seems like every weekend we have gotten blown out by late week rains and this weekend is no exception.  Of course, last weekend when we couldn't find the time to fish, the river was in good shape.

This weekend you can always head to Shannon's Fly Shop in Califon, NJ and have some fun tying flies.  On Saturday morning Len Ruggia will be instructing the beginner's fly tying class at 9:30AM.  And on Sunday at 9:30AM, Tim Flagler will be there demonstrating how he ties some of his favorite flies.   Both of these classes are free to all - just bring your vise and tying tools.

Sharpen your hooks.

Tying the Gallagher Special

After a rain filled Autumn in which we did little fishing thanks to swollen rivers throughout most of the period, we did manage to sit down in front of Tim Flagler's camera and tie up a little known fly whose origins go back to before I was born.  The Gallagher Special was first published in J. Edson Leonard's book, Flies, in 1950.  This is the same man who originated the Dark and Light Edson Tiger streamers, that are better known than his other patterns.  I was first introduced to the Gallagher Special several decades ago and it has been in my fly box ever since.  Like most peacock-bodied patterns, this one produces well throughout the year.

There's no question there are other similar patterns out there and whether this one predates any of them is anyone's guess.  All I know is that it is easy to tie, and it works great.  I fish it by swinging it, and also dead-drift down deep. 

Sharpen your hooks.

2018 International Fly Tying Symposium - This Weekend Nov. 17 & 18

This coming weekend the 28th annual International Fly Tying Symposium is being held at the Sheraton Parsippany Hotel in Parsippany, New Jersey.  This will be my 28th year of tying and presenting at the show, and this year my son Hunt will again be sharing the tying table with me.  He tells me he's been tying a lot lately and should be in fine form this weekend.  It's hard to believe that he was two years old when the first tying show was held.  Time flies!

The show will be open on Saturday 9:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m. and on Sunday 9:00 a.m.-4:30 p.m. and will feature seminars, tying demos, vendors, and all things related to fly tying.

I'll be doing one seminar on Sunday at 2:15 PM - “Dry Flies - Tying and Matching the Hatch for Trout” This is a power point presentation on the flies I use to match common Northeastern hatches and specifics on tying them, along with how to fish them.

LINK: 2018 International Fly Tying Symposium

Hope to see you there.

Autumn on the Water

We've managed to get out on the water a few times in the last couple of weeks with mixed results thanks to the frequent rains and resulting changeable water levels and clarity.  We fished a small creek in Pennsylvania and managed a bunch of small wild browns in a few hours of fishing.  The river was up but clear, and a good drift with deep nymph was the ticket.  Like a lot of PA waters, the top fly was a plain old Walt's worm.  I also took a few on Galloup's Improved BWO nymph.  This little nymph has become a fairly consistent fish producer for me everywhere I fish it.

 Lehigh Valley freestone steam.

Galloup's Improved Blue-winged Olive nymph.

Locally, the South Branch of the Raritan River has fished well.  The water levels have been as good as we've seen this time of the year, in many years.  Most of the fish we've taken have come on Iris caddis fished deep, Walt's worms, Vinnie's Isonychia nymph and black woolly buggers.  The majority of fish have been rainbows in the 12-14 inch range, with a few smaller wild browns.

Yesterday when I arrived at the river mid-afternoon a steady light breeze carried the distinct odors of Autumn - drying corn fields, wood fires, and decaying plant matter along the stream bank.  There were quite a few dot-winged caddis in the air.  These are Autumn's most reliable hatch caddis in these parts; its a medium sized, tannish-brown clumsy flier that on breezy, windy days like yesterday often gets blown on to the water surface where eager trout will grab them confidently.  The river was at a perfect level and clear.  I tied on a 30 inch section of 5X tippet to the end of my leader and then knotted a size #16 tannish-brown caribou caddis to the end of it.

I fishing a fast riffle where two currents joined below an island and spread out over a rocky bottom. The far bank has a mature maple tree about halfway down the riffle whose lower branches reach out over the broken water leaving about 5 feet of shaded space.  Beginning at the top of the riffle I cast my fly randomly onto the riffle and follow its path with my rod tip, mending my line as needed to get a long, drag-free drift.  Sure enough after a few drifts a wild brown of about 8 inches grabbed my quickly moving fly and shortly thereafter I netted it.

South Branch of the Raritan River wild brown trout.

Depending on who you ask you will get a different answer from each person as to what flies are most productive in the fall. My first answer is, use the flies you have the most confidence in.  If you often do well fishing a beadhead pheasant tail nymph with a smaller zebra off the bend as a dropper, fish that.  If you have confidence in a hare's ear nymph or a prince nymph, fish that.  For me, if nothing is rising, in the autumn months I tie on a pheasant tail nymph, Vinnie's isonychia nymph, Walt's worm, iris caddis or lately Galloup's Improved BWO nymph.  In fast pocket water or deep runs, I also like to fish a serendipity or $3 dip.  I rarely fish more than one fly, preferring to fish just one with focus.  If those flies fail me, I tie on a black wooly bugger, which usually will at least get fish to chase it.

If you see fish rising, your choices should be fairly straightforward.  Most of the caddis you will see are tannish-brown and sizes #16-18, although early in the am I fish a size #10 or 12 October caddis imitation right along the banks where these large caddis hatch just before daybreak.  Often in the mid-afternoon blue-winged olives will hatch, they are generally small, sizes 20-22, and quite dark.  Slate drakes are still showing, too, but that hatch is waning here in NJ.  And don't forget midges; they may show on any given day and in any weather.  I fish my Matt's Gnat or Simple Snowshoe Emerger for these diminutive two-winged insects.

Bottom line - if you have even an hour, get out and fish, the rivers are in great shape, there are few anglers about, and its great for the soul.

Sharpen your hooks.      

NJ Trout Unlimited 9th Annual Fly Fisherman of the Year Event 11/3/18

New Jersey Trout Unlimited 9th Annual NJ Fly Fisherman of the Year event will be taking place on Saturday November 3 on Shannon’s Private Waters at the Raritan Inn Bed & Breakfast, Califon, NJ. As in past year's, during the day an angler from each of the NJ Trout Unlimited Chapters will fish in the event in a one-fly style format.  The fishing is then followed by a banquet, silent auction and awards presentation. A fully restored 1850’s barn will house displays and dinner. The event is sponsored by The Raritan Inn, Shannon’s Fly and Tackle and co-hosted with the NJ State Council of Trout Unlimited.  

Each NJ Trout Unlimited chapter is invited to select one (1) member each to participate in the event. There is no cost to enter and the day will include events such as rod demos, fly tying and fly casting demonstrations. The day’s events will be followed by a pre-registration only dinner @ $60.00, silent auction, and an awards presentation immediately following the "competition".  Here's a video of the 2015 event produced by Tim Flagler.

Arrival and sign in will begin at 7:00 AM with an orientation at 8:00 a.m. and the start of fishing scheduled for 9:00 AM to 11:45 a.m. Initial contestants will be cut to three finalists competing from 1:30 to 3:00, followed by the banquet at 5:30. Dinner registration is available by stopping by Shannon's Fly Shop or on line HERE - click on the EVENTS tab. Presentations and awards at 7:00 pm will finish out the fun filled day.  Shannon's Fly Shop 908-832-5736.

The event is a lot of fun, and aside from the fishing, is open to anyone that would like to attend - TU membership is not required.

The Second Season - Fall Stocking

Here in New Jersey we have what might be called a second trout season that begins with the annual fall stocking of trout in our rivers, streams and lakes. This year, unlike recent low-water years, we are fortunate to have very good water levels, so the fish will have plenty of room to spread out.  All of the fish will be rainbow trout in the 14"-18" range.  Stocking begins on October 9th with rivers and streams getting their allotment that week, followed by lakes and ponds the week of October 15th.  If you prefer the solitude of and rewards of catching wild trout, all of New Jersey's wild trout streams are in good condition and are open to angling year-'round.    

LINK: NJ Fall Trout Stocking Information

I'll post some information on my favorite fall flies in the next couple of days. 

Sharpen your hooks, and get out and fish!

Charles Meck R.I.P.

Charlie was a noted author and fly fishing expert. He wrote 15 books on fly fishing, as well as numerous magazine articles. He loved teaching others the sport of fly fishing and the appreciation of the beauty of the natural world.

Link: Charles Meck Obituary

Montana Part 2 - Madison River & Henry's Fork

I wrote this several weeks ago (a month) but being the easily distracted person that I am, I didn't realize it didn't get posted, so here is the rest of the story.......   

It's no secret I love the Madison River and everything about it. Sure, fishing it is a joy, but it also offers a variety of flows that can and will challenge the fly fisher from where it is born at the confluence of the Firehole and Gibbon Rivers, to the wide, even flowing expanses below Bear Trap Canyon - the lower Madison- and of course the 50 mile riffle that flows from Quake Lake to the braids above Ennis Lake. My favorite section is the long riffle that winds its way through a beautiful valley that fans out in benches to high mountains on either side that shelter all kinds of wild animals. 

Halfway through our trip we landed in the Madison Valley and as is always the case, I felt like I was home again. The river was higher than it has been in the last 20 years or so in July and its currents were loud and wild, music to my ears. I got there about mid-day, threw my stuff in the cabin and was on the water in 20 minutes. In 21 minutes I was into my first trout, a nice rainbow that took my brown serendipity like it was candy. The high, bright sun and warm air temps were no issue as I was wet wading and there was just enough of a breeze to keep things comfortable. The truth is, I rarely stepped in the water except to move up river and cool off. Most of the time I was on right on the bank working my way upriver, casting my fly straight up stream fishing it just off the bank to about 6-8 feet out. And the fish came often on that simple, size 16 brown midge pattern.

After about an hour or so I went back to the cabin to wait for the others and unpack my things. As soon as they arrived, I told them the river was ready and waiting, so Paul grabbed his rod and was off to his favorite nearby pool. It wasn’t long before he was hooked up to a nice wild fish that was hiding in a slow eddy along a very fast, heavy riffle that the fish did everything in its power to get to and use the current to its advantage. 

That evening, after having a bite to eat and tying a few flies, we headed down river to a stretch that seems to fish well every time we hit it. When we got there the only anglers in sight were on the opposite bank so we had the long stretch all to ourselves. We spread out over a quarter mile or so of bank and after a slow start, as the sun dropped in the sky fish began to rise steadily from the edges of the river out to just along the really fast currents. If there was a rock, pocket, or seam, a fish or two worked the surface. With all the caddis in the air, I tied on an Iris Caddis and took several dozen fish over the next two plus hours, mostly rainbows, before it was too dark to see my fly.

I spent the entire next day fishing the Madison while Paul and Steve went over to the Henry’s Fork to drift with a guide. I hit a whole bunch of spots on the river during the day and all of them fished well. Again, the top fly was a #16 brown serendipity fished alone with varying amounts of split shot placed above it about 6-8 inches. As long as I got it down near the bottom, fish took it. Late in the day I went to a public boat ramp and fish up river. There were caddis hatching, Little Western Green Drakes or “Flavs” duns and spinners in the air and on the water, and rusty spinners. The fish were finicky, with no single insect on the menu so I was continually changing flies to match what a particular fish was feeding on. I took quite a few fish, but had to work much harder for them than the night before. Shortly after I got back to the cabin, Paul and Steve returned with big smiles having each having caught a single big rainbow, 22-23 inches, on hoppers. 

The next morning we were all up early and after breakfast Paul and Steve headed back to the Henry’s Fork for a hoped for repeat performance sans a guide and drift boat, and I followed them over the pass. We got to the upper ranch parking lot around 9:30AM, and after gearing up proceeded to walk the bank down river. It was still cool with muted sunlight through high thin clouds and barely a breeze. Tricos danced in the air over the water and along the bank. Early on, small fish rose everywhere one looked across the broad expanse of flowing water – the river on the ranch is a wide, uniform depth of flowing cool water whose surface is continually changing from the thick grasses undulating below in the current. 

After walking for some time I stopped to watch the water while the others kept going. There were a bunch of anglers down river and since there were plenty of fish rising where I was and no one within a couple hundred yards up or down river, I stepped into the river and began watching and looking for larger rising fish. By now there were pale morning duns and also a few flavs hatching.

I tied a #22 trico spinner to the end of my 15 foot leader, the last of which was 30 inches of 5X tippet. I spotted what looked to be a decent fish rising in a long seam formed by a submerged rock and slowly worked my way out to where I was within a safe casting distance down and across from the feeding trout. After making a short cast to make sure my leader and fly landed on the water properly, I made a few rod strokes to let out enough line and then dropped the fly above the fish. It drifted to its right and went untouched. I made a few more casts over the fish, and it kept rising to everything but my fly. 

I reeled in my line and quickly changed my fly to a pattern #16 pmd/flav snowshoe pattern and began working out line before dropping the size #16 PMD imitation above the fish. The fly drifted a foot or so and then a nose poked the water surface and sucked it in. After a brief battle with the fish and accompanying weeds, I netted a nice 14 inch rainbow. At the same time I thought to myself, “I hope this isn’t going to be one of those first-cast-with-a- new-fly jinxes, where that’s it for the rest of the day.” 

Fortunately, that was not to be, as over the next 3 hours or so fish rose throughout the river. Literally everywhere you looked, up, down and across the river there were sips, and splashes and tell-tale rings from trout feeding on top. Most of the fish were small, maybe 6-8 inches long, which were easy to make out by their quick, splashy rises. Other rises were slow, nose-dorsal-tail rises, while others, the largest fish, poked their noses out and opened wide, shut, and then disappeared in a split second leaving a series of ever widening concentric circles. The trick was finding one of these larger fish and getting close enough to cast without putting them down. Your first cast had to be good, too, or a second chance was out of the question. 

I not only managed to get close and make enough good casts to catch about 15 fish. They ranged in size from 8 inches to about 16 inches. The smaller fish were so aggressive at times that they would dart up take the fly as it hit the water above a larger fish that my fly was intended for. I also lost quite a few after hooking up as the weeds are thick that once a fish managed to get tangled up in them you couldn’t turn their heads and then the end of the line would stop shaking.  I’d wade over to retrieve my fly only to find it stuck in the stem of a frond of grass and the fish long gone. All of the fish I took came on the pmd/flav snowshoe pattern and although I didn’t hook any monsters, it was a very good day wet wading in the big river taking in all that it has to offer.

Sharpen your hooks!

Tying Walter Wiese's GFA Hopper

When we were in Montana and Idaho a few weeks ago, the hoppers were just getting started and now we hear this year has been one of the best in many years.  On the Henry's Fork they were everywhere, jumping and flying in all directions as we walked the grassy banks on the Harriman Ranch in search of heads.   And the fish were on them, big fish, with Paul taking a 23" fat rainbow on a hopper, the biggest fish for any of us on the Henry's Fork this trip.

Here Tim Flagler ties Walter Wiese's (Park's Fly Shop) GFA Hopper.  With all the complicated hopper patterns out there, this one is a effective pattern that Tim as shows can be tied with a minimum of hair loss.  Fish it alone, or add a dropper to the bend to cover more water.

    

Tie some up and sharpen your hooks!

Montana Part 1 - Missouri River

Its hard to believe we have been back from Montana for over a week already.  We started the trip this year up on the Missouri River where we rented a cabin that was up in a canyon just outside of Deerborn.  There were only three of us this year and the 1933 two-room cabin was just fine nestled away up on Oak Creek where the neighbors kept a couple of wolves for pets.  The weather when we arrived that first afternoon was hot and dry, with barely  a breeze.  The river level was higher than we normally see this time of the year thanks to a good winter snow pack and frequent spring rains in the upper watershed.

After unpacking we headed up river to a spot we like that's a short drive up from the Wolf Creek bridge.  Paul and Steve went down river, and I decided to work up the left bank where being a right handed caster I could work my way up and the hit bank side risers.  Trout sit right very close to the edge here as the high, steep bank offers protection and there is deep, dark water just a short swim to the right if they do feel threatened.   I waded up the bank slowly where a fish rose steadily to what appeared to be pale evening duns.  The caddis, flavs and spinners that were also in the drift were ignored, so I tied a #16 PED cripple to the end of my 5X tippet off a leader that was roughly 15 feet long.  After I made a couple of short test casts to my right to make sure my leader and fly were doing what i wanted, I cast the fly about a foot and a half just to the right of where the fish was rising and as it came within its sight, it lifted its nose and took my offering. After a spirited battle I netted a nice 17-18 inch rainbow.

Before the sun dropped below the mountains I took a couple of more smaller rainbows on the same cripple and then headed back to the car as I couldn't see my fly and what it was doing.  It was a good start to the trip.

Pale Evening Dun CDC Cripple

The next day we rented a drift boat and put in below Holter dam where a carousel of a dozen boats with guides and their clients took turns fishing the long eddy just off the boat ramp.   In the short time we were there we saw lots of bent rods and happy fishermen as they fished nymphs off of bright indicators in the deep, cold currents fed by the dam.  We weren't interested in fishing nymphs, so we headed down river where tricos filled the air and fish rose to them as they dropped from the sky.  When the river is higher than normal as it was then, the first half mile of river below the dam is covered with eddies and seams that constantly change direction, which made it near impossible to get a good drift to any of the hundreds of trout rising to fallen trico spinners, even from a drift boat.

 

We kept moving and soon reached a riffle that had rising fish and was about mid-thigh in depth, so we anchored the boat and spread out below the working trout.  By now the pale morning duns had started to rise and the fish were taking them.  The wind had also picked up, blowing upstream which made it fairly easy to get our flies on the working fish.  We took a few nice fish, browns that moved quickly to take my sparkle dun, and then the wind kicked up a notch and the bugs disappeared and with that, the fish stopped as well.

To make a long day short, that was it for the day.  By noon the wind was blowing a constant 25+ mph straight up river.  The river actually had white caps where the current was strong, and casting was next to impossible.  It took 5 hours to row to Craig, with Paul doing the lions share, and me finishing up the last mile or so.  If we stopped rowing, the boat would get pushed upstream.

The next couple of days we wade fished, and did fairly well, with a few nice fish taken along with many 12-15 inch fish when the weather cooperated.  The hatches during the day were sporadic, and we often had to take cover from fierce thunder storms and heavy rains that book-ended brief bright, sun filled skies.   It was a mixed bag as is often said.   The last hour of light each day did bring good hatches of caddis and with that plenty of targets along the banks to cast to with some good fish landed to round out the day.  All things considered, it was an enjoyable few days on the Mighty Mo.

Rainbow taken on an Iris Caddis as the sun was setting. 

Sharpen your hooks.

American Museum of Fly Fishing Annual Festival Tomorrow - August 11

The 11th annual AMFF Fly Fishing Festival returns to beautiful Manchester, VT on August 11th this year from 10 am until 4 pm. This is our signature event of the summer—a growing event that showcases the joy of fly fishing with vendors, demonstrations, and a gathering of people who are all equally enthused about the sport. Come enjoy fly tying and casting demonstrations, try your hand at casting vintage rods, learn how to tie a saltwater fly, and mingle with like-minded people as you share the taste and joy of the great outdoors.  Admission is free. 

Stop by and celebrate their 50th anniversary. 

For more information and details click here: American Museum of Fly Fishing Annual Festival

Sharpen your hooks!

Art Lee, Fly-Fishing Virtuoso and Writer, Dies at 76

Art Lee, a writer and guide who described the sylvan joys — and the slyest tricks — of fly-fishing to generations of trout and salmon anglers, died on July 25 at a hospital in Middletown, N.Y. He was 76.

 Photo Kris Lee

LINK: NYT - Art Lee, Fly-Fishing Virtuoso and Writer, Dies at 76

I still refer to Art's first book, Fly Fishing for Trout on Rivers and Streams, as it continues to influence my approach to trout fishing.  If you haven't read it, I recommend you do as Art offers many thoughtful and practical ideas and techniques that will improve the way you think and approach the stream no matter where you angle for trout.  I've had the pleasure of meeting Art a number of times on the Beaverkill over the years, and it was he who introduced me to snowshoe rabbit foot for dry flies way back in 1983.

R.I.P. Art 

More on Mercer's Missing Link From the Man Himself

Here's a link to a recent Fly Fisherman Magazine article by Mike Mercer on the Missing Link caddis as a follow up to my last post; thanks to an unknown reader.

LINK: Fly Fisherman Magazine / Fly-tying / Mercer's Missing Link 

I'm off to Montana, see you on the return.  Look for reports on my Instagram account - @mattgrobert

And sharpen your hooks!

Tips on Tying the Missing Link Caddis

I posted a couple of  photos recently on Instagram of Mercer's Missing Link Caddis and afterwards I got a bunch of emails and messages from folks that are having trouble tying it - specifically getting the hackle wrapped cleanly.  Here's how I do it and it works quite well - pardon my photography skills.

The trick here is to leave the wings - both the spent and the elk hair wing materials long until the hackle is completely wound and tied off.

Spent wings - wrap tight to a ball of dubbing to flare them.  

Elk Hair - Tie in on top of a nice even platform formed when tying in the spent wings.

Hackle - Tie in in front of the elk hair butts and wrap counter-clockwise looking from above for a right handed tyer, and tie off behind the hook eye.  The longer wing materials will allow you to wrap the hackle over the spent wings and around the base of the elk hair wing and butts without catching it. Make the spent wings about 2X the hook shank length, and cut the elk hair right at the skin so you have plenty of length.    

The finished fly from angle above.

Side view.

And here's the video we did with Tim Flagler on tying it from start to finish. 

Hope that helps!

We're headed to Montana in a couple of days, so we hope to have some posts from Big Sky country when we return since the computer is staying home.  We'll try to post stuff from the trip daily to Instagram though - @mattgrobert 

Sharpen your hooks.

Tying the Bluegill Belly Bean

With our local trout streams at their usual summer levels and warm temperatures, we turn our attention to warm water species - bass, bluegills and, sunnies.  Here's a great video with Tim Flagler tying our friend Paul Beel's Bluegill Belly Bean pattern.   We recently featured another of Paul's patterns here - his FrankenFrog. This is a fairly simple pattern to tie and by all accounts it's a fish getter.  Tie some up!
       

Sharpen your hooks!

The Green Drake - Sweden

The Green Drake, or the Ephemera danica, is the largest mayfly in Sweden. When it hatches, a short period in late May to early June, the trout goes crazy. Even the biggest trout come out and feed on the juicy insects, and when that happens the fly fisherman should be on the river bank.

Sharpen your hooks.

Tying Flies for Montana

It has been many years since I first went to Montana for the first time with a good friend, Don, to fish the Madison River and the surrounding trout waters, and I still get just as excited today as I did then.  This year I'm going with the usual crowd, albeit without my son and a couple of the others.  We going to be spending half the trip on the Madison River, and the other half up on the Missouri River.  In preparation, I'm tying all the flies I typically use when on those waters in late July.  

Here's my Sawyer's Pheasant Tail nymph.  For me, this is a must have fly as it aptly imitates the PMD nymphs so common and available just about anywhere in Montana in July.  I typically fish it by itself on the end of a long leader casting it straight upstream at the heads of pools and in the riffles; depending on the water depth and speed, I may put a split shot or two on the leader above it.  It works great.       

This is Kelly Galloup's Improved Blue-winged Olive nymph, which is a variation on the Sawyer Pheasant Tail nymph.  It has a peacock herl thorax and gills of a white, sparse dubbing material.  I used Senyo's Laser Dub here.  This fly has been very effective for me the last few years both here in the East and in Montana.    

Here's the Iris Caddis, which as you may know is one of my very favorite patterns.  It was introduced to me that first year I went to Montana by Don, and like many of you, it took a few years for me to recognize its full potential.  I tied the thorax with touch-dubbed hare's mask, but the original is tied with the hare's mask just dubbed on the thread.  I like the touch-dub method because it give the fly a buggier look and the wax helps improve the way the fly floats without the use of floatant.    

Here's a Pale Morning Dun snowshoe rabbit dry.  The body here is dubbed with a mixture of yellow and light olive beaver fur mixed 50/50.  The lighting in the photo makes it appear bright yellow/olive, but its really a paler yellow/olive.  I like beaver because its a natural fur that holds its color very well even when wet.  

Here's a PMD sparkle dun side and front view.  Make sure you are using a high quality deer comparadun hair for the wing - short black intact tips like you see in the front view. If the hair tips are broken or long, don't use it, it is likely dried out and brittle or won't float very well.    

Front view of PMD sparkle dun.

Here's a fairly good photo of the colors I mix for the PMD dun for reference.

Sharpen your hooks!

The FrankenFrog

Our Friend from Indiana, Paul Beel aka FrankenFly, has come up with a great looking frog imitation that I want to share with you all.  Paul is a fellow fly tyer/fly fisherman who has developed a number of trout and warm water flies and shares our passion for improving fly designs to overcome tough fishing situations and hatches.

One of the primary reasons you might design a fly is to solve a particular problem. Many times, as a fly designer, there are various products that may give you an idea for a fly that you may not have thought of otherwise.

Through the years I have tried many times to design a frog fly. I was really trying to solve a problem which is to have a top water fly that resembled a frog, so bass would go crazy over it. I never was happy with what I designed for this type of fly or it didn’t swim or pop to my liking. Eventually I abandoned the thought of designing a frog and any time I wanted to fish this type of fly, I would just throw a larger popper.

Read the whole story on how Paul developed this pattern on his blog: FrankenFly

You can purchase this fly as well as his others here: FrankenFly Fly Shop

Nice job, Paul!

Happy Father's Day

Happy Father's Day to all of the dads out there!

I had an early Father's Day last weekend with my son, Hunt, who came down from Boston to fish with me and some of our friends in the Catskills.  Hunt worked until 5 before driving down so Friday evening I fished with Steve on the East Branch of the Delaware River.  It was a beautiful time to be on the river with barely a breeze, warm at first, and clear.  As the dusk settled in, the air cooled and sulphurs, isonychias, gray fox, green drakes and caddis hatched sporadically but the fish didn't cooperate beyond a bunch of one-and-done rises that were little more than a tease.  When the sun dropped below the mountains, the sky above us filled with march brown spinners.  The spinners hadn't dropped to the water by the time darkness set in so we packed it in and went to get some dinner and get back to the cabin before Hunt arrived.

(Click image to enlarge)

Here's a march brown spinners that greeted us under the cabin lights.  Check out the length of those tails! 

We were also greeted by this giant cream pattern-wing sedge - Hydatophylax sp. These are very large caddisflies - this one is a good 1.5 inches long! Over 2" including antennae.

Saturday we fished in the morning hitting many pools on the Beaverkill, but the bugs were sparse and with that very few fish were rising.  Being June, we had no interest in fishing nymphs so by early afternoon we called it quits and went back to the cabin to tie some flies for the evening and catch up with Hunt on the last few months in Boston and his new job.

Saturday evening the bugs really didn't get going until dusk, but when they did the fish responded and we took a few nice browns on Iris Caddis fished in the film.

On Sunday morning we fished a bugless Beavekill.  We hit a bunch of pools and all were pretty quiet.  We saw very few anglers as a result.  In the early afternoon though, we noticed a couple of fish working right off the far bank of a wide, flat pool and Hunt decided to see if he could reach them with a biot body/cdc wing cornuta spinner.  He worked hard, making 50' + casts, and over about 20 minutes or so managed to get a couple of soft takes but no hook ups.  Determined, he changed position to get above the fish a little more and after a short while he got a solid hook up that he brought to net to finish up a great weekend.

The only thing missing were Hunt's two sisters, Megan and Leigh, who are always with us in spirit when we fish.

Hunt, Leigh, Captain, Michael and Megan

Have a great day everyone!

It's Green Drake Time

It's hatch time all over the Northeast and our buddy Vinnie got in on the action Saturday catching a couple of nice browns on a green drake emerger while fishing the Upper Delaware River system.

Sharpen your hooks.

It's Dry Fly Time!

Sorry for the lack of posts here in recent weeks - lots of working, fishing, social crap and tying, but not much time for blogging, although I'd rather be writing than doing the social thing. Not that I don't like people, I just prefer them in small quantities and doses.  And besides, I would much rather listen to the chatter of the birds mixed with the sounds of  the river with no one in sight.   

Locally, things have warmed up nicely and the rivers are at good levels and clear.  The sulphurs have been hatching great this past week with evening spinner falls that rival those of memories past.  There are also good numbers of caddis about, including the egg laying grannoms mixed in with the sulphurs at dusk. Most of the sulphurs are a size 16 and and 18, with some of the larger size 14 mixed in. Here's a great shot of an orange sulphur or pink lady, Epeorus vitreus taken by our friend John Collins, aka Electric Tyer.  This fly looks very much like the pink cahill (Stenacron interpunctatum) that also hatches around now, both a size #14, but with the cahill the fore-wings have distinct dark markings/mottling along the forward edge, and the wings have a pale creamy-yellow cast to them.  For the angler, the pink cahill covers both flies nicely.  

During the day the sulphur nymphs are very active before they begin hatching and fishing a pheasant tail nymph or sulphur nymph can be very productive before hatching begins typically in the early evening.  With all the different caddis hatching right now, an iris caddis fished wet during the day, and as a dry in the film in the evening if nothing else is hatching, can also be very effective.  This fly has become one of my most productive flies over the years fished wet or dry.  I highly recommend it.

Up in the Catskills and in the Poconos, the rivers are fairly high but clear with all kinds of bugs hatching.  The march browns are showing along with the ever present blue-winged olives, particularly on overcast or showery days.  The little dark grannoms (#18) and the lighter of the species, the apple caddis, have been hatching well.  Lighter tan caddis (#14-16) are also about in good numbers.  In the evening be prepared with some egg laying caddis near dusk as some evenings the fish will take them over all the other bugs floating over their heads. AND if you are on any river in the region make sure you have rusty spinners in #12-16 as there have been lots of them showing on the calmer evenings.

The walk to a lesser known pool in the Catskills in a soft rain.

Sharpen your hooks!

The Catskills

Last weekend we went up to the Catskills again and fished the Beaverkill River both Friday and Saturday before a steady cold rain chased us off the river.  The fishing was good and the hatches mixed; at times there were a half dozen different insects hatching.  When I say the fishing was good, it wasn't easy, just rewarding with some good sized fish brought to net.  On Friday there were Hendricksons, and Blue Quills, Early Brown Stoneflies, Dark Grannoms and Apple Caddis hatching.  Like the previous weekend, it was almost like the trout took turns rising, and I rarely had more than two fish rising within casting distance.  The rises varied; some were splashy and quick (taking caddis), while others were very subtle, barely breaking the surface (taking emergers).  I took a few nice fish on my Apple Caddis emerger, and a few on a Hendrickson Sparkle Dun.

Matt's Apple Caddis Emerger

The Apple Caddis emerger can be fished wet swinging it as you would a soft hackle fly, or as an emerger/dry right in the surface film.  I took the brown above fishing it in the film over a quick, splashy rise in a seam along a fast riffle.

On Saturday we woke to light rain and chilly air temperatures.  After tying a bunch of flies and then having breakfast with the others, I headed back to the river about midday, while the other guys stayed back in the comfort of the cabin.  Hardly anyone was on the river as a steady rain fell.  When I got to the river bank after gearing up I walked up to the head of pool where I had the river all to myself. I few Blue-winged Olives were hatching and after my eyes adjusted to the light and conditions on the water, I saw fish rise above me as I waded out from the bank.  I tied on a BWO sparkle emerger and after a couple of casts over the fish it took the fly.  I landed the nice brown and released it quickly.

Within a short while, depsite the steady rain and chill, there were Hendricksons, and Blue Quills, Early Brown Stoneflies, Dark Grannoms, Quill Gordons and Blue-winged Olives hatching.  The Olives were the most abundant, but after observing different rising fish, it was evident the fish were taking whatever insect happened to drift over them when they were ready to eat.  My olive emerger was soaked so I tied on a Hendrickson sparkle dun and when I looked up I saw a head-dorsal-tail rise of a nice fish about 30 feet out in a slick.  I made a couple of tests casts and once I saw my fly was riding as I wanted, I made a cast to the top of the slick.  The fish rose, I set, and it took my line half way across the river in a flash.  I then got control and gained line on the beast before it made a shorter run.  We did this dance a few more times before I netted the fish you see below.

I managed to bring an other ten fish or so to net before I was thoroughly soaked and my hands stiff from the cold.  The rain was falling harder by now and I had a good day on the water, so i called it quits.  When I got back to the cabin the others had already left, so I packed my things and headed home knowing the forecast called for rain the rest of the day.

Sharpen your hooks.            

First Trip of the Year to the Catskills

This past Friday afternoon my friend Paul and I headed up to Roscoe, NY to meet up with a few other friends and get in a few days fishing the Hendrickson hatch.   When we got to the Beaverkill River late in the afternoon the bugs had stopped hatching and the wind was kicking up.  The guys that got there earlier said the hatch was good but the fish weren't looking up.  With the wind blowing fairly hard and nothing on the water, we wound up hanging out at the truck with the others catching up and sipping a beer.  We never got geared up; the water surface was rippled from the wind and after an hour or so we didn't see a single bug or rise.  By the time we got dinner it was just getting dark and a wicked storm moved through with high winds blowing the rain sideways. 

Beaverkill cut stone culvert along the old railroad bed.

Saturday morning arrived with bright sun and cool temperatures. A few high clouds drifted by casting shadows that moved across the tops of the bare trees lining the hillsides along the river corridor. After a hearty breakfast, the 8 of us split up; a few guys took the drift boat to float the Delaware, two went to wade fish the West Branch of the Delaware; and Paul, Steve and I stayed on the Beaverkill hoping to hit the Hendrickson hatch that afternoon. 

As the day turned from morning to afternoon, the bright sun was muted by high thin clouds and the air warmed to comfortable temps.  Around 2:00 PM a few olives and blue quills hatched but the trout laid low, ignoring the surface and ignoring our subsurface efforts as well.  I did hook a nice rainbow on a baetis nymph, but after a brief tussle my tippet separated from the my leader setting the fish free except for the fly in its jaw and a thin wisp of monofilament that hopefully with come free in short order.

Around 2:30 or so the hendricksons and red quills started to hatch along with blue quills, dark grannoms and a few quill gordons.  By 3:00 there were quite a few flies on the water which brought a few trout up, but surprisingly most came up only once and then didn't show again.  This went on for a while so finding a target wasn't easy.  Then like someone flipped a switch just after 4:00, quite a few fish began rising steadily.  I picked out what appeared to be a nice brown that was taking hendricksons in a slick alongside a large submerged boulder and after a few casts got a good drift and the fish sipped in the hendrickson sparkle dun like it was one of the naturals.  The hook-jawed brown fought hard and didn't come to net without a few good runs that made my drag sing.
         

The hatch continued and the fish kept rising.  Over the 45 minutes I took another five browns on the same hendrickson sparkle dun that took the first one.  One of the fish was a little bigger than the first while the others were around 14 inches or so.  And then just as quickly as the feeding started it stopped just as suddenly a little before five o'clock.  The insect kept hatching, but the fish made other plans leaving us to scratch our heads wondering what just happened.  The weather didn't change, the river didn't appear to have changed, but something made the fish change their behavior despite plenty of food in and on the water.  We stayed on the water for another hour hoping things would turn back on, but that wasn't to be so we packed it in and got some dinner. 

Here's a hendrickson sparkle dun before and after the fish got done with it.       

There's nothing like a well-chewed fly.

Sharpen your hooks!

The Day Spring Arrived

Sunday morning arrived like no other day we have had so far this year.  It was warm, the cloudless sky was deep blue, and the air had the unmistakable smell of fresh blooms and trees beginning to bud. Daffodils, tulips and forsythia were in full flower while robins, cardinals and other songbirds brought their chorus to the proceedings.  Even better, we met my son Matt and his girlfriend Kelly for brunch and spent a couple of hours catching up and hearing about his new life in Boston.  It was a wonderful time, too short, but they had a long drive home and he had to go to work at 2:00AM.

Fast forward to mid-afternoon Sunday.  When I got to the river around 3:00 PM, the sun was bright through a cloudless sky and a light breeze cooled the warm air.  The water was near perfect; clear with a strong spring flow, and in the low 50's F.   I was a little hyped up after seeing all those hendricksons the day before on the river, and the kid in me was enjoying every moment.  After rigging up my rod, I sat on the bank and watched the water for bugs and risers while I peeled and ate a clementine.  The river was quiet, but it was still early, and my expectations were high.

After a short while of watching and not seeing anything on the water, I tied a #12 soft hackle pheasant tail to the end of my 5X tippet and added some shot about 8" above the fly - this is my go-to  hendrickson emerger.  I waded out and began dead drifting the fly up and across before letting it swing below me in the current so it would rise to the surface as the line tightened.  After a few casts I stepped upstream some and cast above a seam on the far side of the river.  It took a few drifts to get the fly to drop into the pocket, but once I figured it out I took two stocked rainbows a few minutes apart.  One of the fish I thought was a koi at first, but it was this mutant instead.

As the time passed I began to notice some hendricksons drifting my me as well as some dark grannoms in the air.  Nothing rose to the hendricksons despite what seemed to me to be perfect conditions.  The insects were riding the water surface for long periods before taking flight giving the trout plenty of time to rise up and sip the in.  I didn't see a single rise though in the first hour or so of fishing.

Experience has taught me that often when flies are the water and trout are not rising to them in one stretch, another stretch may have actively feeding fish.  So I climbed the bank and walked upstream through the brush and over dead falls to a couple of pools that I thought might have some action.  When I got to the edge of the water I stood and watched the water in the pool in front of me, and the lower end of the one above.  After a few minutes, a trout rose in the tail of the pool above where I was right where the water transitions into the pool I was standing next to.  A short count later it rose again, so I took the shot of my leader, checked my knot at the fly and made sure the hook point was sharp before slowly stepping up the bank to where I could get a good cast above the target. This fish was hungry.  My first cast landed about 2 feet above the fish and it didn't hesitate.  It moved to the fly and took it in a splashy rise, I lifted the rod, and was tight to what turned out to be a nice rainbow trout.

Over the next hour and a half hendricksons hatched sporadically and those that took their time getting off the water where summarily taken from below.  Although the hatch was waning, there were enough to elicit takes, thus I had enough targets to keep things interesting.  I took 6 more trout, all on the same soft hackle emerger fished in the film.  My leader was 12-13 feet long, with the tippet being about 3 feet of 5X, and even without wading over my ankles (which helps a lot on this river), none of my casts were over 30 feet or so.

Sharpen your hooks.