I've added a "fly with a story" from Phil L. of Germany

Last year I received a nice email from Germany from Phil.  He was excited about the Hare & Herl Bugger pattern and sent me a few pictures of a successful outing using this fly.

He also sent me a sample of his version of the fly.  I have uploaded the story and his pictures, and a photo I took a few days ago of his version on this effective pattern.

You can check it all out here: http://www.fishingwithflies.com/HareandHerlBuggerPhil.htm

A strategy for finicky panfish during the "dog days of summer"

I heard on the evening news last night that this has been the warmest first six months of the year (overall, for the entire country) in history.  Since we don't have central air-conditioning at our house, we have been suffering these last few weeks.  I don't think the fish like it either.

Locally there's not a chance that I will fish for trout.  Some will find underground springs to help them holdover, but my guess is that a lot will die off. 

So, I fished again today from my floattube for bass and panfish.  But the fishing on my favorite farm pond was as slow as I have ever seen it.  I fished the first 30 minutes without any action, trying topwater poppers and hoppers and gradually fishing deeper and deeper.   Nothing.

Thinking about what other strategy I could try, I felt a need to fish something smaller and deeper.  If I had some really heavily weighted small nymphs I would have tried them. Something like a Copper John would have been excellent. But, sometimes the best strategy for getting small nymphs down deep without adding more weight is to make adjustments to your leader.

I was fishing my standard panfish leader:  A 6 foot tapered leader with about 2 feet of tippet added.  That usually means a 3x tippet as that nicely turns over the poppers and buggers.  To get deeper, I added about 3 feet of 5x tippet to the 2 feet of 3x tippet to create a 10 1/2 foot leader.  I attached a beadhead and went to work.  The 5x tippet material helped the beadhead sink because its thinner diameter sliced and sank through the water better.  It also placed the fly further from the end of the floating fly line. Once the fly is down deep, it is important to move the beadhead only slightly because when you strip the line the beadhead will move up in the water column, and away from the fish.

This worked great.  I kept the line barely taught and waited for the subtle "tap, tap, tap".  The first beadhead was a size 12 herl body nymph with a short tail of rabbit fur.  Basically, my "Hare & Herl Bugger" without the hackle.  I managed to catch some big bluegills, and I also managed to loose a couple of fish that got wrapped around lily pads or underwater structures.  With 3x I can usually coax them toward me, but 5x is a different story.

I then moved to an even smaller nymph.  Probably a 14, but it had no tail.  Just a bead head, white wool body and a couple of wraps of white hackle tied aft, rather than in front.  Little white grubs like this work well for me during the summer.  I find this interesting because usually I find dark colors better.  To really change things up, try a white grub on a scud hook.  This gives the nymph a little wiggle.  Unfortunately, the scud hook grub was another fly I was without today.  I would have tried it next.

Below is a picture of what was perhaps the largest (almost 10")  bluegill of the day, followed by the largest (and only) Pumpkinseed.  Pumpkinseeds don't get quite as large as bluegills.  At nearly 9" this was a big one.

First outing at the "Land of the Nuclear Sunfish"

Every year I look forward to my first day on a local farm pond my brother calls "The land of the Nuclear Sunfish".  That's because the sunfish are very large here, especially for New England.

On this first outing of the year I caught more small ones than usual, but nevertheless most measured an honest 8.5" to 9.5" in length.  The largemouth bass here are big too, and I do catch a fair bunch of smaller ones (under 14"); but mostly the big ones are there for the baitcasters who can stand in their boats and yank them out of the weeds.  We're all helped by the fact that this is a catch-and-release fishery.

This is a float tube pond.  Wetlands surround the pond and the lily pads around the circumference is dense.  Fortunately there's a dock that I can use to get myself in and out of the water.  From here I usually take about 3 hours to circle the pond once, in counterclockwise fashion, then I go home.

The yellow gurgle-pop popper has always been my favorite for surface play.  These sunfish like big flies, so I tie my foam poppers on a size 6 barbless (Cabela's) dry fly hook.  The size of the hook may be one reason I catch the bigger sunfish (and why I catch generally the smaller bass). I often fish an entire outing with nothing but this size 6 yellow foam popper.

But this day I had a new experience.  Half way through my morning I lost the third and last guggle-pop in my box, when a very large (I presume) bass broke me off around lily pads. 

Searching my box for anything foam, I spied in the corner two samples of a foam hopper pattern I had first tied when "razor foam" was a new product. I hadn't fished this pattern for a while.  And, when I last used it, it was probably on a smallmouth river.

Long story short, the fished loved this fly.  It's thinner than my poppers and due to the bullet head it will not "pop".  Maybe this, or the black body, are the features the fish were attracted to!  The sad news is that I lost both of these foam hoppers before I finished fishing; but the good news is that the second one was lost just minutes before reaching the dock to go home!

It's been a while since I have tied flies, but now I will have to: Gurgle-pops and foam hoppers!

_____________

Additional Image

Not caught with a foam popper or hopper, I did catch a few on a streamer early in the day when the water was coolest.  This bluegill is nearly 10" long.  It was the catch of the day.

My annual day-trip to Vermont

Last week I took my annual trip to Vermont with my friend Paul. Paul enjoys frequent day-treks north to Vermont and New Hampshire from his home south of Boston. It's a heck of a lot of sitting for a day trip, even with Paul doing all the driving, so generally two or three one-day trips per season is just the right amount for me.

Paul has been fishing small streams in Vermont for nearly 40 years, so he's a great guide. He's currently working on a small stream fly fishing book, which will be published by the folks from the magazine On the Water. I'm flattered that he's asked me to supply some photographs. I'll keep you posted on his project.

On this particular trip it was just Paul and me. But frequently we squeeze three people (driver plus two) into Paul's Suburu Forrester. Talking is the main activity in the car. Lot's of good conversation. (I remember when we were lost driving backroads in Vermont at night two years ago, we had a rather long and indepth conversation about ice cream.) We normally reach Warren, NH off of Rt.89 around 9 am for breakfast at the Foothills. On weekends there's a hefty waiting line, but on Friday after 9 am we had the place to ourselves.

Then its on toward White River Junction where we cross the Connecticut River and enter Vermont.

Today's trek was going to be a long one. Paul wanted to show me the Lamoille River, north of Burlington in what is known as the Northeast Kingdom. I don't know exactly where we were but it was near the covered bridge shown below, when we started fishing. Generally, the plan is to get one or two hours of fishing before a late lunch of sandwiches, chips and fruit from the cooler. Then a few more hours of fishing until dinner. And finally an evening of fishing the hatch, until dark. Getting home at midnight is typical.

This day we made a couple of stops before we started fishing. Though my breakfast of scrambled eggs, sausage, and homemade wheat bread had been perfectly adequate, I decided I needed to partake in another cup of coffee and a fresh apple cider donut from the Cold Hollow Cider Mill. Paul stops there whenever he is near, to buy a dozen doughnuts or two to take home to his family.

We also stop at local fly shops to find out more about water conditions. In this case it was Green Mountain Troutfitters. Unfortunately we were to find out that the water was a bit high and discolored due to rain the prior night. I was very impressed with the completeness of this little fly shop and guide service. Paul bought some waders.

As good as the water looked on the Lamoille, neither of us were able to turn a single fish during a couple of hours of trying. We covered a lot of water with Paul going upstream and me going downstream, but nothing was moving. So, we got out of our waders and drove east toward St. Johnsbury and then south along the NH/VT border.

We finally settled in on a small stream on which Paul has never seen another angler. Here we had some luck. Nothing to really brag about but I think we were both happy to hook 7-8 native brook trout apiece. By then it was about 5:30 and together we decided that it was unlikely that there'd be an evening hatch, that we'd had a great day, and that we'd take a slow drive home. I got home about 9pm. Not a lot of fish for a long day, but the more I fish the more I realize that (for me at least) it's not about the fish. It's about the day.

_______________

Additional Images

Native brookie takes my parachute.

This is my favorite dry fly for small streams.  It's a bit bushy and this sample is definitely not "exhibition" quality.  But the bushy parachute post really helps me follow the fly as it is landing and as it drifts in and out of shadows on water that is usually a bit frothy or bubbley.  Difficult to tell because the body is wet, but it is made with 3 or 4 stands of peacock herl, wrapped around the shank.  This one lasted the entire day and I never switched flies. It caught 7-8 brookies and an equal number of low-lying tree limbs.

Lenstip.com does a nice thorough review of 5 water-resistant cameras

I am a huge fan of water-resistant compact cameras.  I even have a dedicated outside pocket in my fly fishing vest for my old Pentax 33WR.  This is the camera I use for most of my fishing shots, and was the basis of my own camera review several years ago, here.

Lenstip.com has done a very thorough review of the current crop of weather-proof cameras.  Because I have been eyeing the Panasonic since it came out with a nice range zoom (28mm to 105mm, equivalent field of view) and image stabilization, I was pleased to see that it gets top billing at Lenstip. The movie capability is not important to me, so I didn't study the test results for this feature.

The picture below is the group being reviewed by Lenstip, and is from their Web site. I have no financial connection with them.

With any of these I would miss an eye level viewfinder, which I have in my old Pentax.  But the little optical viewfinder that used to be on all cameras is hard to find these days.  On the other hand the LCD viewfinders are getting better (viewing in bright light is the problem).  Unfortunately, they are next to impossible to view with polarized sun glasses!

If you are interested in adding a water-resistent, weather-resistent, extra-sturdy camera to you list of toys, check out the article on Lenstip.com, here:

http://www.lenstip.com/125.1-article-Underwater_cameras_test_2010_.html

Photos taken while fishing [Souhegan River]

I spent a couple of hours on the Souhegan early on Friday morning.  No trout pictures unfortunately; but I did catch two small (native?) brookies about 6-7" on the fly shown in one of the images below.  It's a peacock herl-body parachute designed to be bright so I can see it.  The white puffy stuff in the parachute picture is the reflection of the clouds.

The black and fl. green dragonfly is a variety that I have only seen on a couple of my local streams (the Souhegan and especially on the Squannacock).  The one pictured here was the only specimen I saw Friday.

There's a lot to see when you go fishing

An interest in photography is teachng me to keep my eyes open for the next good "capture".  But not everyone would agree that taking a camera with you when fishing is a good idea. I remember one Internet friend, a professional photographer, saying he didn't take a camera while fishing because if he were armed with both a flyrod and a camera he wouldn't be good at using either one.

I think he is right, but I don't mind trying to do both, even if means compromise. Yes, perhaps I have missed a strike or two while trying to locate the sound of a hawk, or while thinking about whether those rhododendrons in the woods are wild. On more than one occasion I have put down my flyrod to photograph a wild flower or dragonfly.

Today was such a day.  While fishing for trout in the Souhegan River, I decided to stop and photograph (see images below) a few wildflowers along the river bank and the "cotton" seeds coming off the cottonwood trees which sometime fill the air with what looks like summer snow.  Back in the water, a real treat was looking down at my feet just in time to avoid 'ol Mr. Snapper who was completely stationary under water waiting for fish or mallard duck to swim past.

Since my primary purpose for being in the Souhegan with waders and a flyrod was to catch fish, I was pleased to catch a few!  I brought "to hand" three healthy brown trout on a dry fly in a serious section of the river.  Below are a few pictures that tell this part of the story. (The dry fly is not too pretty, but it worked!  The chartreuse calf-tail wing is for my eyes)

Green dragonflies hatching along the river

I took Friday to go fishing on the Miller's River in central Massachusetts.  The smallies are becoming a bit more active and I caught a bunch especially behind exposed boulders.  I also managed to land four rainbows, all on the simple beadhead shown below, while casting upstream under a foam strike-indicator.  Coming back down-river I swung and stripped a number of bugger style flies and only picked up one smallie with this tactic.

It was a warm sunny day and the green dragonflies were flitting around in the grass on the two small islands in the middle of the river.  This brought my attention to the water's edge, and in one three-foot section I saw a half-dozen or so dragonflies simultaneously emerging from their nymphal skins.  Here are a few images:

The fly I used is a simple fly.  Other than the hook and beadhead the only ingredient is one pheasant rump feather! Smaller ones can be tied with a rump feather from a quail or partridge.  On my skins, the quail feathers are slightly larger than those on the partridge.  This gives me three sizes of these fluffy beadheads: 8, 10, 12 usually tied on 2xl hooks. I hope to show a step-by-step sequence soon, as this is the sub-surface fly I've used the most over the last few seasons. 

Without the tail this fly it is about the same size as dragonfly nymphs. With the tail it is very close in size to stonefly nymphs.  Below are pictures of the fly I used Friday, first wet and then after it dried on the car dashboard. 

A few flies from Bob Erickson

Bob sent me a few of his favorite rough water dry flies last year.  I finally got around to setting up my macro camera kit, and took a few shots today.  These are basically a combination of a Royal Wulff pattern and a Royal Coachman pattern.  If you tie Wulffs, just replace the hair wing with a quill wing.  If you fish Coachmans, just replace the golden pheasant tippet feather tail with a hair tail.  Red floss for the abdomen is traditonal, but go ahead and use any color you have a hankering for.

Spring has a long way to go... No Gurgle-pop Poppers for me today!

Laurie and I played hooky on Friday and went looking for Bald Eagles along the Merrimac River in Newburyport, MA near the river mouth.  This is on the north shore of Massachusetts.  The day was sunny, cold and beautiful, but we saw no eagles.  (But we did find a couple of good local restaurants!) 

Our first stop was Deer Island, a known eagle hangout, which can be accessed via Chain Bridge from the southern shore in Newburyport, or by a second bridge from the north shore in Amesbury.  From here the river pours into the Atlantic just a few miles downriver.

I am standing on Deer Island in the photo below looking downstream at a couple of pine trees. The sound of slowly moving and grinding ice was a reminder that it is still winter here.  But, I decided to post this image after receiving a facebook message from Robin Rhyne (from Texas) about the success he's having (as we speak) with the Gurgle-pop Popper. 

I can't even imagine casting a warm water popper to a fish this time of year, here in New England.

Though this next image might look like the beach on a warm summer day, it too was taken on Friday, with a good stiff breeze and an air temp of about 20F.  This is a section of Salisbury Beach, about 100 years north of where the Merrimac enters the sea.  Salisbury Beach State Preservation (with an excellent boat landing) is north of the river mouth and Plum Island is to the south.  In season, the Striped Bass fishing is excellent here.