Ausable River Trip [On the River]

Rob and John

Jennings Run flowing to the right and downstream.  Image taken from the property of the "Hungry Trout" resort and restaurant.

One of my favorite sub-surface flies is the Wonder Bug.
Basically a peacock herl woolly worm over 10 wraps of lead,
with 2 turkey biots for a tail and hackle clipped short
(usually shorter than seen here).

When the water was at its highest, most of our fish were caught within about 1-3 feet
of the bank,. Casting upstream with nymph or "hopper-dropper" arrangement
was the most productive.

Looking upstream from bridge.  Jenning's Run

Releasing a decent fish

Jim

Paul contemplating

Picking something big and flashy

John

Rob drifting a hopper-dropper combination.
The "hopper" we found most useful was a rubber legged stimulator.

One of the very few rainbows I caught.

Flume Pool

Moi. Photo by Jim

Some pretty rugged wading

Me again.  Photo by Jim

In the middle of the river, Rob is keeping his line off the water

The browns got bigger in the evening.

I don't think any of us caught anything in this nice run.

Next Post: Flies That Worked

Ausable River Trip [Rainy Day Tuesday Fly Shops]

On our rainy day Tuesday we couldn't stay inside tying flies all day.  We took time out to visit fly shops and explore the river from the car.

Ausable River Two Fly Shop

Jones Outfitters (Orvis)

The Hungry Trout

Note the reference to 6,000 cfs flow.  On this date
the flow averages 500cfs.

Next Post: On the River

Ausable River Trip [Rainy Day Tuesday Fly Tying]

The water level was already quite high when we arrived on Sunday.  It dropped throughout the evening and Monday was as low as we were going to see the river during our week, as it began to rain Monday night and on through Tuesday and Tuesday night.

Our first fishing was Sunday afternoon, June 9.
You can see why we didn't bother to get in the water
on Tuesday, June 11.  We had to pack and leave on June 16.

It was tough to do, but we stayed out of the water on Tuesday and just "cooled our heals".  Jim, Paul and John brought fly tying gear and we had a big dining room table just perfect for rainy day fly tying.  As you will see below, I took quite a few pictures.

A few Cahills.  I'm not sure they were ever used, though
we did see a few light colored mayflies.

Quite a few stimulators were tied with the 200R

A very important stock box for this trip.

Rob doesn't tie flies, but his 10 years as a
fly fishing guide in Colorado was invaluable to us.

20-incher style, but with thorax and abdomen materials reversed.

Next Post: Rainy Day Tuesday Fly Shops

Ausable River Trip [Cast of Characters]

Here's the cast of characters.  It's the only picture I have of the five of us.  We are having breakfast at The Country Bear (web site here), a little breakfast and lunch spot down the road from where we stayed in Wilmington.  As you will see as you schroll down the page, we are having way too much to eat.  We couldn't resist the coffee rolls when we learned they were baked on the premises.

Jim, Paul, Rob, John, and Peter (me)

We treated a bunch of these as "breakfast appetizers"

Next Post: Rainy Day Tuesday Fly Tying

Ausable River trip [Preliminary Plans]

Each year, usually in June, a group of fly fishing friends heads for trout country for a few days or more of fly fishing fun.  Typically the trip is to northern New Hampshire for fishing along the Connecticut River.  Last year the trip was to Colorado, and this year it was to New York’s Ausable River.  My friend Paul says these trips have been going on for over 35 years! I've only been on two of the trips, but am looking forward to many more.

The Ausable is a famous trout fishery.  I know of it because of Fran Betters, famed fly tier and the proprietor of the Adirondack Sport Shop in Wilmington, NY, about 10 miles from Lake Placid. 

In fly tying, Fran is best known for “inventing” the Ausable Wulff, the Haystack, and the Usual.  He’s also authored several books about fly fishing and fly tying.

I met Fran at the Marlboro (Mass.) Fly Fishing show, perhaps in 2006.  I wish I’d bought one of the Wulff’s he was tying.  But I did purchase some “authentic” dubbing for tying the Ausable Wulff.

Fran ran his shop from 1963 to 2009.  He has now passed away, and his former shop building is now a restaurant. Here are several old pictures from www.northcountryfolklore.org

If you decide to fish the Ausable, several fly shops are worth going to are:

http://www.ausablerivertwoflyshop.com/

http://www.hungrytrout.com/

http://www.jonesoutfitters.com/

http://www.wileysflies.com/

There is also available a very nice map identifying all the fishing spots along the main part of the Ausable.  The map takes a little bit of getting used to.  The river runs northeast in a fairly straight line to the western shore of Lake Champlain, but the map is oriented with north facing downward.  It’s easy enough to turn the map around to get north facing the “right” way, but then the text is upside down.  Regardless, it is a map well worth having with you.  It's available on line as a downloadable pdf file.  Here's the link:

http://www.ausablerivertwoflyshop.com/2_Fly_Map.pdf

Next post:  The cast of characters.

Ausable River Trip [Just Back]

This year's June fly fishing trip with friends was to New York's famed Ausable River.  I'm currently reviewing my pictures and working on a series of posts about this trip.  I know my friends who were on the trip will enjoy the pictures; but I am also hoping the pictures and text will be of general interest to others reading my blog.

Right now it looks like nine posts will follow this one. I expect (but don't promise) to "publish" one post per day starting tomorrow.  I hope I can write and pick pictures fast enough to keep up with that pace!

Just to get things started, below are a bunch of images selected randomly.

 

A blue sky was rare

It just rained one day.  But there was plenty of water and
it was usually overcast. This view is from the Trout Hunter.



Late lunch/early dinner.

This fly patch shows signs of lots of experimenting.

 

Quite a find outside the house one morning.

This is what happens when you fish morning, afternoon and evening!

 

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.





Flies With a Story: Bill Long's Dragonfly Nymph

In the prior blog post I commented on Bill Long's realistic dragonfly nymph.  I have now uploaded to fishingwithflies.com Bill's story of this big bad boy.  Included are tying instructions and tips,  fishing tips, and a few pictures including a top view and side view.

The story is indexed at the top of the following page.  It is labeled as story #89:

http://www.fishingwithflies.com/FliesWithaStory.html

Bill Long's Realistic Dragonfly Nymph

A while back (actually, a very long while back) my friend Bill Long from Pennsylvania sent me a sample of a very realistic dragonfly nymph that he has fun tying and fishing. 

I've drafted a page for the "Flies With a Story" section of my Web site and have sent it to Bill to check for any errors or revisions to the recipe. It will include several photos of the sample he sent me, and some tying and fishing tips.

When the page is ready for the Web site I will post a follow up blog to this one, with the link.  In the meantime, below is a single image to give a sense for the size of this beauty.  The nymph is a bit left of the wooden ruler because I pressed the hook point into the end of the ruler, but you can see that it is very close to 2" in length.