Just updated my Hoppers page with two patterns from Adrian Pop

I first saw these two patterns on Adrian's fly page on Hans Weilenmann's site.  Adrian and I communicated by email (Adrian lives in Romania) and sometime in June he mailed to me these two samples.  I must appologize to Adrian for being so tardy in getting these patterns posted.

The pattern instructions can be found by going to my Hoppers page.  They are listed alphabetically under "A" so are at the top of the page.  Photos are there too, and also below:

Hopper #1

 

Hopper #2

A picture of the one that got away!

Earlier this week I received an email from my friend Chris, who had spent some time "out west" fishing the Henry's Fork of the Snake.  He sent along the photo below of one trout that got away... sort of. 

Chris reported that he was fishing a PMD spinner on a 5-weight and that getting this trout to the boat was an "enjoyable battle".  Seems there was a bit more fight left in this one.  Nice fish!

It just occurred to me: I'm curious as to what size spinner and tippet Chris was using... I'll email him and update this post when I get the answer.

Based on the exif file embedded in the jpeg (as it is in all jpegs) this shot was taken at about 1:30 on July 3rd.  It amazes me that there is some blur in the trout's tail, as this was shot at a shutter speed of 1/1250th of a second.





I am happy with yesterday's pictures... trout, flies and bears

I am getting very much behind on some of the stuff I want to post here on the blog, including pictures of a marathon trout fishing day last month and several fly photos.  I also have some equipment I have been happily using for ten or more years, that I want to comment about.

Even with this backlog of ideas,  I nevertheless decided this morning to post photos from yesterday.... mostly because I want my fishing buddy Paul to be able to show the bear pictures to his young granddaughters this morning. 

Through my bleary eyes (it was near midnight when I got back from the day trip) I think the pictures came out as well as can be expected (the bear pictures, that is) because I really did not want to get any closer.  In fact it was very comforting to have a few human bodies between me and the bear.

There is a Part II to the story.  About an hour later and a couple of miles from the original bear siting, the same bear walked across the stream about 100 feet from where we were fishing.  It was a little after 8pm.  We fish here often.  It is my guess that the same or different bears pass through all the time... and we just don't seem them.

IMAGES IN CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER

We traditionally start our fishing with a restaurant breakfast (with all the stuff we shouldn't be eating!) and a stop at North Country Angler to talk about water and fishing conditions.  NCA is in North Conway, New Hampshire

We thought for sure these cumulus clouds would develop into rain clouds.  Fortunately we had no rain until 8:30 pm on the drive home.  These next three images are of remote areas of the Ellis River.

We didn't see many bugs in the air, but obviously they are around.  This is a stonefly shuck on a rock at the edge of the stream.

Typical native brook trout.  Only a few of the probably 100 that we caught were any bigger.  Most were smaller... some only 4".



The dry fly of choice for me is a herl body pink-post parachute.  Most often I tie it with a tail of hackle fibers but it works just as well without at tail.  The pink is for me, not the fish.  Size 12 is used wherever it works.  I've never gone smaller than 16.  These fish are opportunistic hunters most of the time.

Paul is a big Elk Hair Caddis fan.  But to add some visibility he concocted a bunch of these pink post low riding caddis, first used by him on this trip.  They worked nicely.  We both use a lot of peacock herl in our flies.  This caddis was tied with a herl body.



This was our dinner spot, eating sandwiches and snacks at one of the picnic tables.  It is across from Bretton Woods ski area, and is where we first saw the bear.  To be honest I felt a bit more comfortable seeing the bear here than an hour later when he crossed the river downstream from where we were fishing.





Interesting sign

Yesterday, as we drove into one of our prime fishing spots along the Ellis River in New Hampshire I felt a little disappointed when I spied this new sign.  On other hand, I found some comfort in it.  The property had always been labeled "private property" though I knew fishing was allowed.  Nevertheless, until I saw this sign yesterday I had always felt a little uneasy fishing there... even though "private property" does not necessarily man "no trespassing"...

Trusted Review, a British photography site, has review of 6 waterproof cameras

Trusted Review is one of the many photography sites I have in my feed reader. Last week I received an update notice about its three-page review of six point-and-shoot waterproof cameras.  The first page reviews two budget priced cameras; the second page reviews two mid-priced cameras; and the third page reviews two "premium" cameras. 

My favorite is the Panasonic Lumix.  Though the review says image quality is "so so", both the Lumix and the Sony (both reviewed as "premium" cameras) were nevertheless the best of the group with image quality scores of 8 of 10.

On the other hand, if you already have a good camera and just want something to stuff in your vest to take pictures of the "fish that didn't get away", perhaps one of  the budget options would be worth considering.

If you are in the market for a waterproof camera to take fly fishing, here's the link:

http://www.trustedreviews.com/opinions/the-best-waterproof-shockproof-and-dustproof-tough-cameras-of-2011

Have you ever forgotten your waders? Part II

Though my fishing trip (fortunately it was only going to be a half-day trip) ended as soon as I found out that I had forgotten my waders, I quickly developed a "Plan B".  I always have a small waterproof camera in my vest, but I realized that I also had one of my "pretty decent" cameras in the glove box. It's not a dSLR, but a high-performance compact camera I would happy to be my sole camera on vacation.

So, not wanting to go home right away, I decided I would enjoy a couple of hours along the river taking photos.  If I couldn't capture any fish, perhaps I could catch a "keeper" of a photo!

A beautiful building in Millers Falls.  It was completely vacant.

I found myself spending more time looking at the old mills and bridges than ever before. At this point today's post might be a bit OT (off topic) as mill town architecture and fly fishing don't exactly fit together.  But both deal with the life of the river.



Before the mills and dams, the Millers was filled with Atlantic salmon during their spawning runs.  The salmon would swim upstream from the Atlantic Ocean into the Connecticut River, which travels north through Connecticut, bisecting Massachusetts and then becoming the border between Vermont and New Hampshire.  Its flow starts in northern New Hampshire, in what are called the Connecticut Lakes.  The Millers River and the Deerfield River are the two biggest tributaries in Massachusetts.

The history here along the Millers is old and the towns were once filled with the economy of the paper mills and tanneries.  The water was polluted then, of course, just as it was in other areas of the country where raw waste was dumped into the river.  The water is "clean" now, but PCBs still exist in the bottom sediment.  Though the fish seem healthy, it is not wise to eat them as PCBs work their way up the food chain.

The three photos below were taken in Orange, MA.

I have caught every species of warm water fish imaginable below the dam to the left.  The trout fishery is quite a bit downstream (and also far upstream) from here.

Viewing upstream toward the dam.  (For those into photography, I took three identical photos at different exposures and combined them in photoshop to get this image, as I wanted a reasonable exposure of the dark buildings without overexposing the beautiful blue sky and puffy clouds.)

Have you ever forgotten your waders? Part I

After my day of panfishing earlier this week (see the previous blog post) I decided today was the day to get out to the Millers River to find a few rainbows.  As usual, I packed the car and then ran through my mental checklist, starting with my feet and working up my body.  Here's how the routine checklist goes: boots, socks, waders, wader belt with wading stiff attached, fishing shirt, vest, raincoat, sunglasses, hat with flip-down focals.  I also have a bag with an extra set of clothes. 

I can't believe I mentally checked off "waders" and merrily drove off for the one hour trip to the river.

The only problem was that my waders were hanging in the garage where I'd left them to dry after the last trip.  And there was no way I was going to wet-wade with nylon cargo pants and Teva sandals. My trip ended as soon as I arrived.

So, am I the only idiot out there?  I hope others have done this.  Or, something similar.

I actually forgave myself fairly quickly because this sort of thing (for me) is bound to happen.  It seems I do something like this every five years or so. 

The last time it was my fishing reel.  But my friend Paul always has extras of everything in his car (he drove) and he came to the rescue with a reel and spool of the exact line weight to match my rod.

The time before that I left my boots at home. That was maybe 10 years ago.  But that trip was saved by a pair of sneakers in the back of my van.

Tomorrow is Fathers Day.  Perhaps it will be easy for me to get to the river.  The van is packed (I didn't take anything out of it) and my waders are in a pile by the front door with my keys on top of them... but I think I will put them in the van as soon as I hit the "publish" button on this post, just to be safe.

First day of panfishing this seasn felt a bit weird... plus a few pictures

I spent Thursday morning fishing one of my favorite ponds for sunfish and bass.  Though it is usually during the last two weeks of June that I get in my first day of float-tubing for panfish, this year nevertheless felt a bit weird. 

That's because by now I typically have logged in multiple days of trout fishing on at least two of my favorite trout rivers.  High water is periodically a problem on rivers and streams, and this year was no exception.  Not only does high water make wading difficult, but it interferes with the stocking program. 

It also seemed that whenever I had time to fish, there were threats of thunderstorms (not my favorite thing), torrential rains, or tornado warnings. (You may have heard about the record-breaking tornadoes we had in Massachusetts, in May.)

Then, when the fishing looked good I had family commitments and then a long weekend at a college reunion (I'm not complaining about the family commitments and the reunion... they were far more important than fishing!). 

The bottom line:  I haven't been out much this year.  So, fishing today made me feel that I've missed a big part of the season.  Well.... that's life.

Below are a few images:

This is the first bluegill of the year.  A real 8.5" beauty.

Above is my first sunfish of the year.  A real beauty 8.5 inches long.  I measured every large and every small fish I caught, which I do from time to time to get a sense of the fishery.  I caught about 50 sunfish though I only found them in bunches along two 30-foot sections of the shoreline.  The circumference of the pond is about one mile.  Anyway, the smallest was 8" and the largest (pictured below) was 9.5".  This is typical.  If I didn't know any better I would say sunfish are born 8" long!  I wish I knew the biology of this.  Where are the small fish?  I can only speculate that the large ones are more aggressive, or that the small ones are taught to wait in line (LOL).  Perhaps it is because I use big flies, the one used today being 1.5" long on a size 8 hook.

This was the largest, at 9.5"



Nearly void of color.  Post spawn?

The fly of the day was a brown Conehead Combo on a size 6, 2xl hook.
Here's the recipe: http://www.fishingwithflies.com/MyFavoriteFliesTheConeheadCombo.htm

Held in water, you can see how nicely soft hackles like mallard and marabou display themselves.  I used three of these. The first two remain in submerged logs.

 

I also catch the occasional bass.  Just two today.  Now, if I were willing to fish with spinning gear and shiners I would have a ton of big bass to show you!  But I will leave that kind of fishing to others.

Are flies still packaged this way?

My dad found this Grey Ghost from LL Bean in his stuff the other day.  He doesn't know where it came from.  He doesn't (nor did he) fish, so its a quandary.  But I love the old packaging and can't remember the last time I saw a streamer packaged this way. 

It seems that all the shops I visit now have the little wooden bins all set out in a grid. On the other hand, I don't buy flies, so maybe in some shops (even LL Bean?) they still come packaged up like this. 



Switching to simple flies: The "One Feather Fly"

Over the years I have switched more and more to simple flies. It gives me a thrill to catch fish on a fly that is made with just one or a few simple and easy-to-find materials. To be sure, if I felt that such flies compromised my fishing success I would not use them. But I am convinced that most of the time the fly chosen makes very little difference.  As long as it is presented effectively (eg. action, depth, speed) by the flyfisher, I believe that most of the time the fly chosen is perhaps only 10% of the success equation. I say "most of the time"; there are of course times when the fish are very selective and fly selection is correspondingly more important. Such selectivity is experienced when "fishing the hatch".

But most of the time I would say that the fisherman's skill is 80% of the formula, the equipment is 10% and the fly is the final 10%. The fly is just part of the "tool kit". It is up to the fisherman to know how to present the fly and "work it".

This is why over the years I have worked to reduce the number of flies I carry (though I always have a few "experimentals" along). Instead I am concentrating on a smaller selection of flies. By doing this I have become more confident in the flies I am fishing.

A couple of the the subsurface flies I have concentrated on in recent years are the Conehead Combo (clickable for recipe and pictures) which I now carry only in olive and only in two sizes, and the Hare and Herl Bugger (clickable for recipe and pictures) which I carry weighted with 10 wraps of lead and in only one hook size.

There are two other simple subsurface flies that I have enjoyed fishing that I have not yet reported on. The first one is tied with just one feather. The second pattern requires two feathers. 

I plan to follow up this post first with step-by-step instructions and photos for the "One Feather Fly". But until I do, pictured below are the simple materials required: 5/32" beadhead, sizes 8 Tiemco 1xl hook, and one rump feather from a ring neck pheasant.

If you had to tie a fly with only these materials, what would it look like?



Directions for the One Feather Fly