First Days of Spring

Today was the warmest day this spring. I decided to check out the local spring creek and look for early dark stoneflies.

I found the creek in a very nice shape and pretty clear. While getting ready to do some quick exploratory casting, I noticed sporadic stonefly activity. No trout activity was visible, though.

I did not want to make any conclusions before checking out some more productive stretches. Stoneflies tend to be localized on this silty creek, and when I reached my little 'secret' spot, I was greated with the flurry of trout activity. It was getting warm, and I just could not resist putting waders on and getting several trout before a kayaker paddled over a pod of trout and put them down for awhile.

It was nice to be on the water after the long winter and great little wild browns again.

Second Tip for Resava SG Prototype Glass Rod

I wrote about this rod in one of my old posts in Serbian. I built it a couple of years ago utilizing different tip and butt sections of Batson E glass blanks, creating a semi-parabolic staggered ferrule rod (tip 6" longer.)

A couple of months ago I finished another tip section, which now works much better with #5 line (original fine diameter tip was suitable for #4, but worked fine with #5 line for short casts.)

Resava is a small, cascading mountain stream in Eastern Serbia. I used to fish it all the time, many years ago, and it is a perfect water for short rods.

Soft Hackle Flies and Late Night Music

Humpy Flymph

Hook: Daiichi 1640
Thread: Pale olive
Tail: Yellow mallard, 3-4 barbs
Hump: Tan ostrich, paraloop style over thread body
Hackle: Woodcock

Wet Poodle

Hook: TMC 206 BL

Thread: Black or charcoal

Butt: Peacock herl

Hackle: Starling

Photo vs. Scan

It is hard to capture the subtle color and flash blends on baitfish imitations, due to the highly refractive nature of certain fly-tying materials. Often the fly will appear different, depending on the angle it is viewed from.

Even though I don't have/use a dedicated photo studio for taking pictures of my flies, here is the same fly captured with the camera (upper image) and with the scanner (lower image).