Mayflies of Spring

I fished the western Wisconsin twice last week and spent the Saturday fishing NE Iowa, while visiting my in-laws. With three outings in a week, I finally feel like I am catching up with my fishing. The weather was gloomy for the most part of the week-I even got soaked on Rush river on Thursday. However, this type of weather is the greatest for fishing, and all three days were truly magnificent, with double digit catches on each outing.

Both Wisconsin trips started in similar fashion... I would drift buggers or weighted nymphs during the morning, occasionally switching to size 22 midges for bank sippers. Baetis hatch would start little after 11am, and fish would turn on. There were still some little stoneflies around, and I spotted very few Dark Hendricksons and a single black caddis. The river was slightly off color and little high.

On both days I found pools below riffles where stacked fish would gulp little olives. The feeding on rainy Thursday was so intense, that the churned surface full of swirls and boils reminded me of blitzing stripers on the NE coast...I don't think I ever saw that many trout feeding at the same time. While half emerged duns caught plenty of fish on Monday, PT nymphs and Starling & Pheasant wets took fish consistently on both days. It was greased line fishing in classic style: switch and single spey cast down and across, mend the line, follow the swing, and allow enough slack in the system to hook the fish successfully. Each cast would often bring a hungry trout. I didn't get any giants, but all trout were well conditioned and feisty fighters (notice the footprints of another "fisherman" next to the trout, photo above.)

Iowa creeks were not in the greatest shape, due to the heavy downpours during the week. Waterloo was murky and high, but I decided to fish it, since it can produce big browns when the water is slightly off-color. The visibility ranged from 6 to 12 inches-not great but still fishable.

I started the day with Waterloo Leeches, Siliclone Sculpins and the super-fast polyleader. Size 2 sculpin didn't prove too big for average Waterloo browns, fished off the bottom in slower pools.

Around noon, a heavy hatch of Baetis materialized, followed by Dark Hendricksons. The unfavorable water conditions were responsible for the lack of intense surface activity, but in quiet eddies there were enough surface feeders to satisfy a dry fly purist. I fished my new Sceptre glass for the most part of the week, and it proved again to be very versatile stick. I switched from polyleader to furled thread leader and Hendrickson CDC Cripple dry. Wild browns from Waterloo, just like their Rush river cousins, were in excellent shape and hungry. The fish keyed on Hendricksons (title photo) after the Baetis (left) hatch tapered off. The egg laying spinners hovered over the riffles, while the duns were still emerging, often intercepted by red-winged blackbirds in the mid-air. Hendrickson umbrella duns with moorhen front hackle worked like a charm on selective feeders.

I had to leave around 5pm so I wouldn't miss the family dinner... Fish were still rising along the rocky bank, enjoying the mayflies of spring.

Small Wild Browns

I often fish this beautiful spring creek in early season... known for its cold water and smaller fish. Its upper reaches are kind of a place where you will use every casting technique you know. Tall dry grass, leafless branches and gusts of early spring wind play a wild dance with the fly line. You are using every bit of concentration to throw a pretty loop through the trees. The water feels like a melted ice and the fish are sluggish.

Suddenly, the sun is breaking through the clouds and the fish are lined up in sandy shallows like little soldiers. They are taking something from the surface-swirls and splashes are everywhere. Looking closely at the water, I see a tiny regatta of Baetis duns and midges skimming nervously across the water surface. It is midges they are after! Fish like my little emerging pupa, with banded body and CDC wing. The activity ceases as abruptly as it started. Little later, I watch early dark stoneflies near the faster, rocky stretch upstream, doing their egg laying routine. Little trout are going wild again, and a couple of them smack my bushy fly.

The sun is playing hide and seek and it finally disappears. The shadows deepen, while I take one more glance at my favorite open stretch. The wind picks up and I can feel the cold seeping through my waders. It is time to go...

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.)

Sceptre Handle & Soft-Hackled Suspender

I have just finished the handle on my Sceptre blank. It is a Ritz style cork grip combined with Struble D3 seat with imbuya insert. I am hoping to have the rod finished by the weekend.

I must admit I haven't been in the 'tying mode' lately... Last week I tied some variations on soft-hackled olive emergers. The folded strip of packing foam will allow the fly to swim half-submerged, suspended in the surface film. Can't wait for spring hatches to give it a go...

Old Fly Reels

"The more things change, the more they remain the same," says an old French proverb. What kind of a reel a fly fisher needs for an average spring creek trout? In spite of all "modern developments" in fly reel design-LA concept is certainly not new, very little has changed in reels' functionality.

For spring creek fishing I like the simplicity of a click and pawl reel and the subtle counterpoint of a glass rod. Older reels have a special charisma, and they balance glass and cane rods perfectly.

Poodle

Poodle-a nice parachute atractor fly/terrestrial imitation.

Sceptre Glass Blank

I have just received my Hardy made Sceptre glass blank. It is a 8'6" model rated for lines #5-8. The blank is a classic Hardy with white spigot and brown patterned glass. I will probably end up shortening it somewhat, since it is little too long and powerful for my needs.

Nature's Art And The Lonely Mayfly

January was as eventful as I could ever imagine. My sister Sonja came to visit and we spent an incredible time in the Twin Cities, Chicago and Iowa with friends and family. The picture on the left titled The Global Warming (with Sonja, our friend Cheri and myself) is just one of many photos taken during past several weeks.

January has been incredibly cold. This is my third winter in MN, and it is definitely the coldest one so far. My thoughts would often wander from my piano or computer desk, to the glass of Laphroaig or Glen Garioch, to the frosty windows of our apartment. Surrounded by the art of nature- the icy window arabesques, which remind me of lavish 'rose and scroll' engravings found on fine English shotguns, I dream of mayflies. The large Ephemera drakes on the tranquil limestone stream will tempt the largest and wariest of trout.

The fly on the picture is based on the pattern known as Duncan's Mayfly, but it has some modifications.

Hook: dry fly;
Tail: 3-5 moose body hairs, the butts form the wing veins;
Body and wing: caribou hair-tips are tied by the tail and butts form the wing;
Rib: pale yellow waxed thread and fine gold wire (counter-ribbed);
Hackle: grizzly, wound through the hair butts.

Trim the wing to form the desired shape.

Small Flies

Small flies for selective trout-midges, ants, PT's... The largest fly pictured is a size 22 Pheasant Tail.

Happy Holidays!!!

(The picture from the book titled "An Album of the Chalk Streams" by E. A. Barton. Barton was a fly fisherman, physician and an amateur photographer, who published his photographs of English chalk streams in 1946.)

Pink Bear Trout Streamer

I like sparseness in tying hairwing streamers for trout. Hair of a black bear is a great material for salmon hairwings, but I like it a lot for trout streamers instead of bucktail.

Thirteen Diawl Bach nymphs for Fiberglassflyrodders fly swap are done, and ready for mailing.

Holmfridur Streamer

I found out about this Icelandic streamer in 1991, and it has found a place in my fly box ever since. It is a great warmwater and coldwater streamer, and a super easy fly to tie.

Body: No body! Instead, tie a small bulb of red tying silk or estaz (pictured) to help offset the wing;

Wing: Brown over yellow marabou;

Beard: Red or orange hackle fibers mixed with flashabou.

Woodcock Feathers

The wing feathers of European Woodcock (Scolopax rusticola) have a stunning combination of brown, rust, tan and grey tones. Known for centuries as a traditional fly tying material, they are somewhat similar to snipe covert feathers. They are indispensable for classic wet flies, but can also be useful for various dries and emergers. I've been playing around with several variations on the familiar theme (see previous blog entries)...


Woodcock & CDC Flymph

Tail: Lemon wood duck
Body: Wrapped CDC feather
Collar: Woodcock covert feather


Soggy CDC Caddis (Freshly Hatched Caddis)

Body: Cream opossum
Wing: Ginger CDC
Support hackle: Grizzly-brown rooster, clipped on the bottom
Front hackle: Woodcock covert feather (single turn), slightly oversized

March Brown Dry (Triple Hackle)

A high floating dry fly for freestone streams, this March brown imitation utilizes three kinds of hackle: undersized badger hackle (body), grizzly-brown (support hackle), and reverse tied woodcock soft hackle in the front.

Waterhen Soft Hackles

Feathers of water birds are fascinating... I have just received some waterhen (moorhen, Gallinula chloropus) feathers. The close up shows beautiful olive colored covert feathers, while feathers found under wings are drab grey. The texture of barbules is superb for both wet and emerging dry soft hackles.


Waterhen Bloa (traditional)

Body: Yellow silk dusted with mole dubbing
Wing: Grey feather from under wing of waterhen


Large Olive Soggy Dun (V. M.)

Tail: Microfibetts
Body: Olive silk dusted with mole dubbing
Support dry hackle: Badger clipped on the bottom
Front hackle: Waterhen olive covert feather tied in reverse