You're supposed to go through a series of transitions. At first you just want a fish, and since this is a complicated sport requiring some skill, landing the first one isn't always a snap. Once you're past that, you'll want lots of fish, then big ones, and then you'll want something like the difficult or the interesting or the beautiful fish, or maybe the fish that swim on the other side of the world.
Finally, you're supposed to see that the goal of wanting is to STOP wanting altogether, so you just go to the water out of curiosity and gratefully take whatever it gives you. John Gierach
One gets a real sense of satisfaction in creating something that fools a trout!!
There is only one time in the last 40 years where I purchased trout flies and that was on the Farmington two summers ago when I left my box of freshly minted Needhami's at home and I JUST HAD TO FISH THEM. That necessitated a quick trip to UpCountry to fill that hole!!!
Late Season Hatches
The nymph shown above is an Isonychia and it is very common on many of our pocket water rivers. This fly will hatch throughout the Summer but it appears to like that late August through September season.
And it's a weird one because it likes to act like a stonefly by crawling up on exposed rocks and hatching mainly under the cover of darkness. Thomas Ames has seen these critters hatching at noon in the Fall but I haven't. The photo below shows the spent casings for this fly.
We still have the general misconception out there that Fall is the time for tiny flies. It is if you frequent tailwaters but that's not the case with freestones. The biggest stoneflies of the year are on the EB in September and October.
Buy Some Flies
Need some soft hackles for this Fall? Look no further. I have what you need for the Swift and the other rivers that I write about.
11 comments:
Tying flies is an addiction! A good one!!
Anonymous,
It certainly is!!!!!
Ken
I like tying flies too, Ken, and always will. Nothing like the satisfaction of tying a good one, let alone a trout liking it too!
A brief time to fish this evening, no trout liked my flies. For the first time in a good while I was changing flies plenty, but nothing doing.
Best, Sam
Two of the best Jack Garside for his simple but very effect patterns and ties And R.Flaggs for his unbelievable lifelike creations. Works of art that sometime u wouldn't want to fish. I saw a mouse pattern once in flags shop to this day I though it was a real mouse it was on a back shelf area. Like other hobbies the hours of enjoyment to make works of art is a true gift that hopefully can be passed on to the next generation.
Sam and tincup,
There are two elements of fly fishing that are true art - the building of a bamboo rod (splitting the bamboo culms and then planing the strips followed by the finishing out of the rod) and the tying of a fly so that it represents an insect and not a ball of dryer lint. Yes, Rodney is an old school flytier, the last of a breed. It is safe to assume that every time I entered his shop over the years he was tying unless he was with a customer. A true Master of the craft.
Ken
Nothing like catching your first fish on a fly you made!
Don,
My first trout caught on a fly that I made was caught on a size 12 light cahill DRY FLY on Phillips Brook in Ashburnham Ma. I still remember the RISE!!!
Ken
I started tying flies about a year before actually fishing. I was about 12 and looking for something to do other than weed the garden so I looked at one of my dad's fly fisherman mags and was captivated by the cover picture and then looked inside and there was an article on fly tying that looked so cool to me-I asked my dad to teach me. He wasnt great at it but showed me how to wind some thread on a hook and some basics and gave me a couple books including Trout and some fly tying book he had purchased years before. He had a small stash of materials and we made a few trips over to Orvis in Wayland to fill in what I needed. It was summer and I spent every night until bed time teaching myself - I was obsessed and have been ever since. I got a rod at Spag's and a reel and line at Kukonen's the next spring. My first fly caught fish was brookie on the Swift.
BobT,
The classic start to fly fishing and tying!!!! I was about 12 years old one February day when I came down with the flu. My father brought home a hook & bullet magazine that was devoted to Spring fly fishing and excerpts from a new book called "Trout Madness" by Robert Traver. I got over the flu but not trout madness. That's incurable!!!
Ken
Ken
I owe my newfound, totally addicted to flyfishing craze to tying a few flies at a UFT meeting. My friend invited me to a meeting two years ago and I am hooked.
Learning to tie flies has made me a better fly fisherman ten fold, I would recommend it to anyone starting out.
I get the same satisfaction from tying as I do on the water catching a trout and knowing you tied the fly yourself makes it even better.
Mike
Mike,
I've told many clients that if I couldn't flyfish any longer I would still tie flies.
Ken
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