Sylvester Nemes changed my fly fishing decades ago with his book The Soft Hackled Fly and Bob Wyatt did the same thing with What Trout Want:The Educated Trout And Other Myths. The Nemes book is appealing because it reduces fly fishing to an elemental form where equipment takes a backseat to presentation while the Wyatt book explodes the BS about the dogma that has enveloped our sport. You don't need the hottest new rod and 10x to catch a fish that will just as soon hit a Blob Fly (don't get me going on this!!)
Wyatt observed something in a rise form that changed everything and that is that trout don't prefer the adult dry but will almost always take the stuck-in-the-film emerger. We've seen it many times: the air is full of mayflies that are in the dun stage and there is a steady parade of hatched mayflies floating downstream BUT we see rises to what appears to be nothing. That's because it is easier for a rising trout to pick off a hapless emerger than a dun because duns can suddenly fly away.
Wyatt developed the SHE (snowshoe hare emerger) to mimic this stage of development. There is no tail on this fly and it uses a Klinkhamer style hook that allows the fly body to ride below the surface while the snowshoe hair floats the front of the fly. The fly above is a Wyatt SHE tied as a size 20. BTW, snowshoe hair floats better than deer hair and floats better and is more durable than CDC. Also you can skip the dainty parachute hackle and just dust this with floatant.
I'll have plenty of these in sizes 18 and 20 when I hit the Millers and the EB this Fall (BWO season!)
The Flows
The Millers is at 1510 as I write which is down about a 1000 cfs in the last 48 hours. Still too high but watch the gauge and watch the forecast which predicts about .8 inches of rain through Wednesday.
The EB has dropped a lot in the last 48 hours from 1200 to 534 cfs and I'm itching to get out there. The predicted rain may not be enough to ruin this river and next weekend should be perfect especially if it gets a Fall stocking as planned.
The Ware is up at 438 cfs and I'd like to see 250 or lower. That may not be out of the question by Thursday.
The Swift - The number of Connecticut plates parked at the Swift this weekend told the tale of what happened to the Farmie. 1200 cfs drove some of those tailwater addicts to the Swift for something resembling "fine and far off" fly fishing. The Swift was true to form at a placid 51 cfs.
Book October
It seems that I book trips about two or so weeks in advance. There will always be some who will book two to three weeks ahead and they always get their day. Others wait until a few days before and seldom get their day. I have good slots open in October. Contact me for a trip!!
An Extra Thought
I have heard that the Blob Fly, which looks like salmon spawn from Saturn, has been banned from fly fishing competitions. I have a better idea. Don't ban the poor dumb fly but instead ban competitive fly fishing!!!!!
Ken
15 comments:
The blob is the latest joke to be added to what used to be a fur and feather sport.Will someone please come up with name other than flyfishermen for those who use these type of things.They denigrate the sport.
On the EB at 6:30 this morning, water was swift so I stuck with streamers. Fooled 2 bows both with a #10 sculpin, collected quite a few fish with this fly in the high water in Sept. now into Oct. but streamer fishing is not my first choice but is has been effective here. No fly fisherman but a spin guy was loose on the river, I don't get it, barbed treble hooks shouldn't be allowed on the C&R sections of the rivers. I know any fish this guy caught he was keeping.
DanT,
I agree!!! Artificial bait fishing comes to mind as another name for what they do. Fly fishing for trout has always been a finesse endeavor, not the crude activity that they call sport!
Gary,
Good to see that you are out there early. The river is coming down and I hope this rain in the forecast doesn't mess things up.
Ken
I couldn't resist and tied a blob fly and tried it out on the Swift last Monday and this past Saturday. It got some looks but no bites. I did however do well with eggs, worms and mop flies. I know it is not real fly fishing but fun and gets me out there. Something about sight fishing with bright big flies, it is just very addictive.
Fly fishing is the sport that I love, and try to treat it as same. Obsessed with it, not quite, but pretty darned close as thoughts wander to what I would rather be doing when I'm working.
One of the things I love about it is what happened tonight. I have been fishing sub surface most of this year. Why? because I have been connecting plenty. Well tonight, there was nothing doing down below so I tied on an Ausable Wulff for a lark and don't you know it, first drift an aggressive hit from a big rainbow. I don't think the Swift has been stocked yet, so I take satisfaction out of that 18" trout brought to net. A couple of casts later a nice 14" one sips the water logged fly as well.
Back to back connections and then it got dark. How those trout could make out those dry flies amongst that bubble line is beyond me, but they sure did and fought like crazy, the big one taking a mighty long run one time. The 5X brought it to net soon afterwards. I don't think I will ever again fish anything lighter than that.
Ken,
I love the look of that SHE BWO emerger. The abdomen is goose biot, I assume? I've seen other recipes that feature a fully dubbed body, both abdomen and thorax. Seems like the biot abdomen would sink below the film better.
Yesterday (Sunday), I fished the Deerfield (first time) and landed two rainbows on a scary looking black streamer with a bit of flash and bulging red eyes. (Lost one and missed a few, too.) The flow was heavy, so I had to do some hard wading to get out to the fish. Today I hit the Green River for a couple of hours. I did not so much as see a single fish, but man, is that a beautiful stream!
Looking forward to learning about the EB with you on Wednesday, as long as the rain gods cooperate. So far it seems like the light (so far!) rain has not had too much of a swelling effect.
Cheers,
David
Jonathan,
A good source told me that a fellow at the Y Pool took 60 trout on a blob one day this past summer. As Wyatt said "trout are not that smart".
David,
No goose biot but just thread. I'm watching that river too!
Sam,
I'm glad that you got some evening dry fly action because we are running out of evenings.
Ken
C&R only areas should be limited to dry fly upstream only! That will keep the riff-raff out of the river.
Anonymous,
I wouldn't go that far!!! What about when I drift a size 18 soft hackle or when I drift a size 22 pinhead just below the surface??
Ken
For sure, Ken, my evening fly fishing is coming to an end. I will grab it when I can get it.
Interesting thing last night with the two dry fly hits I got with the Ausable Wulff. The first hit was a slashing aggressive one when the fly was dry as can be and sitting well on top. The second hit was a little sip with the same water logged fly by now still on.
When I was done fishing I looked at my fly and most of the hackles were missing, mostly only the calf hair wings remained. Sitting in the film with only the calf hair wings holding it top side, that fly must have looked much like an emerger to the second trout. In the darkness I could hardly tell I had a hit, but I pulled up just in case and sure enough the trout was on.
Best, Sam
Sam,
Looks like you created an emerger!
Ken
Ken,
thanks for your tip earlier on finding the Pinhead, but while my search yielded a lot of posts on the Pinhead, I couldn't find the exact recipe. Judging from the picture, it's a straight shank hook, black thread body and silver ribbing (kind of like a Zebra Midge) and a peacock herl thorax ... is that right?
I caught a few bows yesterday on what I think was a Pinhead I had left over.
Thanks, Herm
Herm,
Good to hear from you. Skip the silver ribbing and go with copper and you have it. I used to make the body with stripped peacock but it made no difference.
Ken
Thanks, Ken, for your prompt response. An easy tie for an effective fly.
Herm
At the EB around 7 this morning thinking there will be certain places on the river to fish in the fast water, and there was, but to cast out to where the fish are and keep up with mends and multiple currents well, not to mention that no fish in the river could catch up to any bug I threw. SO off to the MB (15min. away) and a nice bow on the 3rd cast, fooled with a #10 slumpbuster. Now the water was high there but moving slower so wading and positioning were possible. Back to the EB in the morning.
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