First day out on the water

The weather here in New England has been absolutely gorgeous.  We need rain, but with day time temps in the mid-60s and nights in the upper-30's I am really happy. It's nearly the end of April, and the April showers never arrived.

It was a good ski season with more than the average amount of snow, so I am surprised to see water levels low along some of my favorite trout rivers and streams.

So... this week the skis went down into the basement and the fishing bag and gear got thrown into the back of my van. As I mentally went through my mental check list, I recalled how a couple of years ago I did the same thing; but I forgot either my waders or my boots.  Ever do that?

As it turned out I did much better this year for my first day out... I only forgot my wading staff.  Thankfully, the water was very manageable.  Attached to the wading staff is the holster and web belt.  So those items was forgotten at home, too.  But the leather belt in my blue jeans provided a satisfactory alternative.

Sunday was to be the day, so on Saturday I checked the water flow on the Miller's River one more time.  It was nearly perfect.



I fished my favorite section, a spot way downstream, nearly to where the Millers flows into the Connecticut River.  As has been the case for years, there were no fly fisherman there... though I did chat with a spin fisherman.  I managed to catch four hungry rainbows.  I wondered if they were holdovers, as they just seemed too thin for recent stockers.


One of my favorite sections.

This season's first trout, a thin, perhaps 11" rainbow.
Caught on a clipped peacock Woolly Worm, size 12.  It is also called a Wonder Bug.
The tippet is thick, at 3x, because it was very windy.

Clipped hackle peacock Woolly Worm, also called a Wonder Bug, with tail of turkey biots.
An underbody of 10 wraps of lead wire helped get this down deep, as did
casting upstream.  Yes, I do use a strike indicator.

I fished for about 3 hours, after which I decided to drive upstream and hang out at a couple of the bridges with access to the River, in search of conversation.

From the bridge in the center of Erving.
Do you see the fly fisher at the edge of the pool?
Just above the run in the foreground?

Also taken from the bridge in Erving.
Personally, I'd be nymphing in the fast water.



This final picture was taken from the bridge by Orcutt pool.  It was fun to lean over it and converse with a couple of fisherman, neither of which had had any luck. 

Taken from the bridge by Orcutt Pool.





The Wonder Bug, the Anytime-Anywhere Nymph and the C.K. Nymph

After posting an image and tying sequence for the Wonder Bug sample (go to http://www.fishingwithflies.com/WonderBug.htm)  sent to me by Fred Bridge of Pennsylvannia, another friend of mine from Pennsylvannia, Bill Long, wrote (see comments on my previous blog post) that it reminded him of a similarly tied "clipped hackle" fly called the Anytime, Anywhere Nymph.  It too, he wrote, was an old pattern.

Perhaps these two patterns are related, and perhaps they are not.  The patterns are simple enough to have been "invented" by many tiers.  After all, they are both essentially woolly worms with clipped hackle. 

I thought I would investigate further.

Referring to my copy of Gary Soucie's Woolly Wisdom (copyrighted 2005), I found a section on Clipped Hackle Woolly Worms (pp. 51-61).  The Anytime, Anywhere Nymph is included.  It is tied essentially like the Wonder Bug, except that instead of a herl body it has a black chenille body.

Using Google I found two other descriptions of the Anytime-Anywhere Nymph; one with a body of black wool and the other with a body of black dubbing.  So, a black body is a key feature.

Interestingly one site indicated that the Anytime-Anywhere nymph was originated by Charles Knight.  The sample shown was labeled the "C.K. Nymph". (http://retiredguysworld.com/Flies.aspx)

This is where I become confused.  Gary's book also has a "C.K. Nymph".  The C.K. Nymph is on the opposing page (p. 57) to the "Anytime, Anywhere Nymph" (p. 56).  Gary suggests that perhaps the later is a variation of the former. 

At this point in my research I assumed that C.K. stood for Charles Knight. However, Gary's interview with a couple of flyfishers, who remember the C.K. Nymph from their early days, place its introduction in the late 1940s or early 1950s, along the "C.K. Williams stretch" of the Bushkill Creek in Pennsylvannia. C.K. Williams was the name of an old pigment production plant situated near the creek.

Do any of my Pennsylvania friends have any additional insights or information about the origins of this simple fly?  Of course, you don't have to be from Pennsylvania to post a comment *grin*.

Just Posted: The Wonder Bug as tied by Fred Bridge

In my previous blog post I mentioned a few flies I'd received from my friend from Pennsylvannia, Fred Bridge.  I've posted a closeup photo and the tying sequence for one of these flies, the Wonder Bug. 

If I could pick only two materials with which to tie nymphs, I would pick (1) lead and (2) peacock herl.  Add some hackle and you've got the Wonderbug.

Check it out here: http://www.fishingwithflies.com/WonderBug.htm

I received a nice package in the mail from Fred Bridge last week

Fred has been a friend for years and sent me some of the first flies that I featured in the Flies With a Story page on fishingwithflies.com some 10 years ago.  [The 80+ stories I've collected over the years are listed here.]

So Fred emailed me a couple of weeks ago and asked if I might be interested in a couple of nice nymphs he'd been enjoying.  (Just to make it clear, the nymphs I'm talking about here are fishing flies *grin*.)  I've fished with Fred and he's one fantastic trout fisherman... so when he says a fly is good, I listen.  He sent them along and they look great and, importantly to me, easy to tie. 

I will take a few closeup pictures of them and get the images and directions onto the Web site soon. 

He also threw in a nice Hornberg.  Fred ties his Hornbergs complete with jungle cock eyes and he lacquers (head cement or "hard as nails") the wings.  I plan to use this sample for another project of mine, which will be a topic for a future post.