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.

Panasonic has upgraded its "tough" TS1 compact camera to the TS2

It's been a year since Panasonic came out with its first waterresistant, dustresistant camera, the TS1.  I had hoped to buy a copy of that first version but instead during these past 12 months I bought my first dSLR (by Olympus) and several lenses, and also just before Christmas bought Canon's new top-end compact camera, the S90.  Neither of these have weather seals, however.

The TS1 announcement was the reason for one of my first blog entries, in January of 2009.  Subsequent online reviews helped me be all-the-more certain that this would be the camera for me, as a replacement to my aging Pentax 33WR (WR= water resistent) which for years I have carried with me fishing.  The Pentax's 3.3 megapixels is more than adequate for computer monitor viewing and makes excellent 8x10 prints.  But the LCD on the camera is very small and is nearly impossible to see in the sun.  Like many cameras of its day, it also has a eye-level optocal viewfinder, though perhaps better described as a "peep hole".  But the viewfinder seems to be no longer linked with the zoom lens, so it is really only good for pointing the camera in the right direction when I can't see the LCD (which is whenever I am wearing polarized sunglasses.)  Nevertheless, I may try to go another year with it, as I have always been happy with the results, which you can read about here in an article I wrote five years ago.

 

Here are some features:

• Swim down to 10 meters underwater (so go ahead and fall in the water while wading, as I do about once every two years)
• Drop proof from a height of 2 meters (I had to replace my first Pentax 33WR because it dropped out of one of my stupid velcro-closed fishing vest pockets onto asphalt next to the car)
• Dust proof  (take to the beach)
• Freeze proof (take skiing)
• Take movies (of no interest to me)
• Optical Image Stabilization (very important in my opinion, and this is thought to be improved over last year's model.)
• A very useful zoom lens that ranges from 28mm wide angle to 128mm telephoto
• A very useful zoom macro that focuses at 30cm to infinity
• A less useful wide angle macro that focuses as close as 5cm
• 14 megapixels (A horrible idea, as is 12 or 10 mp.  Three is plenty and 6 is all you need unless you want prints bigger than 15".  More megapixels just reduces image quality for computer viewing or any prints smaller than 15", IMHO).

I think that when the reviews come out on the TS2 (FT2 in some countries), it will come out above all the competition.

Information from Bob Marriott's Flyfishing Store

My little essay the other day (see my prior post) about fly fishing catalogs prompted me to email Bob Marriott's about their hardcopy catalog.  I received a nice email from Steve Oulette who I have talked with from time to time when I placed orders over the last 10 years or so.  He's actually been there for over 14 years, so he's a real fixture at the brick-and-mortar store in Fullerton, California.  (Store front image was copied with permission from Bob Marriott's contact information.)

Steve told me that the poor economy and the cost of printing/mailing are two reasons their last catalog was printed in 2008.  One other complicating factor is that manufacturers and suppliers were fine-tuning their prices even into January, making it difficult for Marriott's to get a catalog out the door before March or April. 

But Steve did say they take great pride in their online catalog.  Prices are current and I can see now that product images are plentiful.  I am told they sell over 40,000 items, with online pictures of everything they carry and SKU numbers listed for everything they sell.  I will miss the catalog (don't we always miss things the most after they are gone!?) because I find catalogs are great when you feel like browsing and dreaming.  But I am impressed with their Web site; I find Web sites are better and faster than catalogs when you know what you want.

January research arriving

At our house the arrival of the new year's fly fishing catalogs is known as "research".  As in, "I'll be a little late to work today because I am at home doing 'research' ". 

It seems I once received more than a dozen catalogs.  But in recent years the number has declined to just a handful.  Likely, the Internet has changed things for some companies as has the cost of publishing a catalog and the cost of postage.  And I also simply don't buy as much fly fishing stuff anymore, especially now that photography has entered the scene as a serious hobby.

This year, like clockwork, catalogs from Cabelas, LL Bean and Orvis arrived on the same day.  I don't buy as much fly fishing stuff as I used to (how many vises do I need?  I have four!), but from these three vendors I at least buy a few clothing items or Christmas gifts each year... enough to keep me on their catalog lists I presume.

Perhaps the most complete catalog is the one from Bob Marriott's, but I haven't received one for a couple of years.  I think the last one I received was nearly an inch thick. It lists tons of products. But because it features very few product pictures, the catalog is best if you know what you want.  On the other hand Bob's Web site has improved greatly so hunting for the products is fairly easy without a catalog.  I like the fact that if you buy $100 worth of goods (easy to do with their inventory) you get free shipping.  Not quite as good as the "old days" when the limit was $50, but still pretty good when compared with, for example, cabelas which is known for its high shipping rates.

I see that last year I received catalogs from Hook & Hackle, Stone River Outfitters, Feather-Craft and The Fly Shop.  So, there's hope that more winter research will arrive.  (I think Dan Bailey has dropped me... and for good reason as I have never purchased anything from them.)

A Friday afternoon trip to the Marlboro Fly Fishing Show

I spent a few hours this afternoon (Friday) at the FF show in Marlboro, checking in on some old friends and meeting a few new people.  I took my new pocket camera (Canon S90) and snapped about 40 random shots inside the building.  If you're interested, I have posted them here:

http://www.peterfraileyphoto.com/flyfishingshowmarlboro2010

Below are five of the 40 images.

Dragonflies as macro subjects

Perhaps this is a bit off-topic as the dragonflies here were not used as fish-bait; nor were they used as inspiration for some new fly pattern.  But, during the last couple of summers I have been having fun taking macro shots of dragonflies and butterflies.  Dragonflies are of course desired food for fish.  When fishing the farm ponds around my home in the summer, the bass often leap out of the water in hopes of catching a passing dragonfly or perhaps one landing on a lily pad. 

I once saw the front half of a dragonfly buzzing on the surface.  I am sure a bass was somewhere nearby enjoying the back half.  And of course, because dragonflies are aquatic insects, fish enjoy the big ugly nymphs that crawl along the rocks underwater and migrate to the waters edge to emerge as dragonflies. 

As reported in a blog post on July 3, 2009, I had the thrill of photographing the half hour process of a dragonfly emerging from its nymphal body.  If you didn't see the post, the sequence is on my photos Web site here: 

http://photos.peterfraileyphoto.com/emergingdragonfly

The two closeup images I am posting here today were actually taken in my back yard during the summer.  They recently scored well in monthly competitions in my local photo club.  Fortunately, dragonflies are relatively easy to photograph.  They stay motionless for long periods, and if you accidentally scare them off, they will often return to the same perch within seconds.

Paul's "Looper" adult Chronomid pattern

My friend Paul has been successfully fishing for trout these last few months, after most of us have put away our gear.  I think the last time I fished was in September, but Paul and our friend Jim have been happily fishing the kettle ponds around Plymouth (south of Boston and north of Cape Cod) right through December.  They have been very sucessful.  Almost always this has meant fishing in the late afternoon for just an hour or two. 

To be perfectly honest, Paul has also pointed out that he feels this year's weather pattern (temperatures, amount of sun, etc.) and perhaps a bumper stocking program might also have been reasons for the fabulous fall fishing.

Paul and I talk frequently by phone, and when he described the fly he was constantly (consistently?) catching fish with I recalled the article he wrote for this Web site on his Chronomid patterns.  I thought the fly he had described was #2 in the article, and Paul confirmed by email yesterday that that fly (posted again here) was indeed the one he's been using.  As he stated in his email: 

This loop-wing adult Chironomid pattern is nothing more than the already famous Griffith's Gnat tied shorter on the front half of the hook with a loop of gray polypropylene yarn to represent the wing, and to add floatation and visibilty to the fly as it sits on the water. This fly is most effective when fished with little or no imparted motion. If the fish are actively feeding on adult chironomids, they will eventually find your fly.

Paul likes it in a size 16, and Jim fishes both 14 and 16.