Waspoodle

I played today with the Poodle fly style of tying and came up with this wasp imitation.

Waspoodle

Hook: curved shank
Abdomen: yellow dubbing ribbed with the black thread
Post and hackle: Orange antron with ginger/brown parachute hackle, front half clipped

Umbrella Hackle Yellow Drake

Umbrella Hackle Yellow Drake

Hook: 10-12 dry fly
Body: yellow and black Superhair strands over pale olive silk
Tail: microfibetts
Dry hackle: ginger saddle clipped on the bottom, four turns
Soft hackle: pale yellow mallard over olive moorhen feather, single turn, reversed/umbrella style

Getting a Grip...

Photo of grip shapes I used on my glass rods (L to R): Full Wells, Superfine, Half-Wells, Garrison, Cigar, Ritz. I sometimes get little bored with the Reversed Half-Wells shape, which is prevalent on contemporary graphite trout models.

Sceptre Rod Testing

After yesterday's snow, I decided to stop by the nearest trout stream and test cast my latest rod. The plan was to check out the stream conditions and the water clarity for the possible weekend outing. I did some test-casting in my backyard last week, but I wanted to try the rod on the water. Amy joined for the ride, too. She is responsible for today's photos of me casting.

I found the stream high and murky, on the blustery March day. Last season I was fishing dry stonefly imitations at this time of the year, and I was pleasantly surprised to find very sporadic scuttling stones with occasional small trout rising. This was by no means a full blown hatch, but it came as a nice surprise, considering the raised water levels and turbidity. The water visibility was about a foot.

I strung the rod with #5 line. Remembering that I tested it in my backyard with this line, I made some casts over an area where I saw a single, lonely rise. While the rod felt slightly underloaded on the shortest casts, it was deft and precise with more line in the air. This will be a very nice line choice for larger water and stealthy long casts with grasshopper imitations in the late summer and fall. The strong wind was a bit too much, so I switched to the DT6 line. I like testing rods in the wind-it is a real fishing situation, while it's so easy to make perfect casts on a windless day. The rod felt sweeter with the heavier line on the shorter 'presentation' casts, punching the loops into the cross-wind. One small trout smacked my dry stonefly, just when Amy got cold enough to get back to the car. After this little fish I had another swift take, before I was too cold to continue. This got my blood working and I can only hope that this wave of unseasonably cold weather will soon disappear. The trout are ready for spring, and so am I!

Speaking about flies-I've been experimenting lately with a moose mane as a body material for dry flies. It proved very easy to work with, and I have yet to test its durability. Here are photos of some flies I tied with it, with different colored backgrounds. Two hairs in contrasting colors create a perfect, flat segmented body.

Sceptre Glass Rod

I finished Sceptre staggered ferrule 7'10" #5/6 glass rod. The wraps are claret with tan single turn accents-depending on the light source, they turn different shades of burgundy. Unfortunately it's too cold to fish today, but I feel it will complement my Lamiglas 8' #5 perfectly. It won't be long and I will be able to test it on some spring creeks and make better comparison.

Reel Extreme

Different fly reels for different applications-extreme sizes (2.5" vs. 4.5" O.D.)