What to do? Well, someone decided to tie a small fly to a larger hook and the family of low water or "Reduced" salmon flies was born. The flies were large enough to entice salmo salar and the hooks worked. Now, some might ask why a tiny fly tied on a large hook would not scare the fish. Most of the hook is left bare (imagine a size sixteen wet fly tied onto a size 12 hook) and that should scare them. Well, it doesn't in the same way that a trout isn't scared of that pointed end of the hook, the end that gets him every time! Trout don't seem to give a damn about the sharp point or the exposed shank of the hook, just the junk that we lash onto it.
Check out the reduced black spider above. The body is black thread that covers only the top third of the fly with only one turn of startling. The hook is a size 18 but the "fly" part is a size 22 and it catches fish. "Why don't you just use a size 22 hook" one might ask? I do but there are many who can't tie on a size 22 but can tie on a size 18 hook. Some can only go as small as a 24 hook but can tie on a size 20 hook with a size 24 fly attached. Do you get it??
A few years ago I wrote of catching some Swift browns and brookies with nothing but a bare hook with a brass bead glued to it. I was trying to prove that the bead was everything. Now, I just read an article in a fly fishing catalog of an angler that caught dozens of Christmas Island Bonefish on a bare hook!!!!!
Tie smaller flies on larger hooks. It works!
August
August is cool!! Maybe not at mid day but certainly in the early morning and in the evening. (I'm writing this at 5:45 am and it's 55 degrees). Darkness comes earlier now which speeds up the evening rise which is what real fly fishers want. The Millers is flowing at about 180 cfs which is fine with me. The Swift is at 112cfs but may have additional water released if we don't some rain. At 36 cfs the EB needs some rain. One can still find trout but the spots are becoming few.
It's been a good August fishing wise so far. Weddings, funerals and grandchildren have taken me off the water for a little bit but things look good now.
Book me for August, September, October and November. The last two months are prime brookie months on the Swift, New Englands prime brookie stream!!!
Ken
11 comments:
This is a really cool idea. It really appeals to my weakening vision and general clutziness as a tyer. Speaking of big fish on small flies, I haven't been able to to any trout stream recently, so yesterday evening I decided to get my fix by heading down to the Charles in Watertown Square for an hour. It's five minutes from my house, and I can practice casting a #14 woolly bugger on my 2wt there to 10" smallies and the like. This time, however, to my total shock, I hooked into something (relatively) huge. Turned out to be a 20" striper! What the hell was it doing all the way up there? Landing that thing on a 2wt was an adventure, I can tell you! Of all the days to leave my phone in the car--on purpose, since I had no suitable pockets, and anyway, what would I ever catch the would merit a picture, right?
Cheers,
David P.
Hit the EB for a little bit yesterday. More of a hike than a fishing excursion but found some fish in a holding pool. Got one to hand and had several others slash at the streamer but got my one fish on a nymph trailed behind the meat. It should only get better as long as we get some H2O.
Pat,
Good to see that these trout are surviving this low flow.
Ken
Ken,
Have you ever been through a spell when most every trout you hook is long distance released? I don't really mind it being I'd let them go anyway, but have to wonder what is going on lately.
Bondsville water is still a nice cool 64 degrees by my measurement on Sunday. A group which wanted to cool off swimming found out how cold the water was. They were polite and I fished downstream of them.
Action was pretty slow though with one nice brookie or small brown being the only hit, not sure which being it made its freedom before being netted.
Sam
I tried this about two months ago with 20s to get the 24-26 look and worked really well. Not sure why it stopped with those sizes for me. This is something I’ll delve further into!
Lenny
Sam,
Yes I have and I can't explain it either except the trout that I put in the net were just barely hooked. This situation lasted for about a week and then stopped.
Lenny,
It worked on the Swift yesterday with a size 18 hook/22 fly.
Ken
We know it's terrestrial season around here. Love throwing ants. Just curious...Anyone ever hit a flying ant hatch in these parts? I haven't. Hoping to as i tied up a few yesterday.
mattk,
YES!!! The winged ant swarm goes from the last week in August to the first week in September and it's the same time all over New England. My best swarm was on the Farmington in 2003. A friend told me that their swarm was a day latter in central New Hampshire. I saw a monster swarm on the EB 8-10 years ago at the same time.
When it happens trout go crazy and single minded.
Don't leave home without your ants!!!
Ken
Nice Ken. I will b on the water tomorrow. Hopeingbto run into this flying ant hatch ar least once in my lifetime
Ken,
A couple of hours to fish this evening I decided to drive past Bondsville and fish upstream parts of the Swift. I fished from the duck cage area on down about a hundred yards and I surely enjoyed it. The riffles look non descript until one starts wading them, then pockets and seams become apparent.
Soft hackles placed in those seams brought good action with small brookies. Some high sticked, some on the end of the drift. I didn't take the water temperature, but it was a good 10 degrees colder than down below. It was mighty peaceful and there were no fishermen in my zone which is how I like it.
I will spend more time there and try to learn more about it.
Sam
Sam,
Welcome to the North Country!!
The water temperature has been stuck at 58 degrees for weeks and there's plenty of trout!!
Ken
Post a Comment