Wednesday, November 30, 2011

Helping out and why i dont fish TCA

  As anyone who follows my blog, knows that i have been making videos of the Dam removal on the Musconetcong river in Finesville, Nj.   The people at Musconetcong Water Association contacted me about my video. They like them very much and asked if  they could use them. I of coarse said "Yes".  They asked if they could use the movies for a presentation at the NJ Water Quality Summit on December 1&2. I said "yes", and i suggested that i could do a montage of them. They said that would be great. I did the montage up last night and today I met Nancy, and the other wonderful women of the M.W.A.  I presented the video to Nancy and we watched it. She then gave gave me a tour of the building on the musky in Asbury.  The building is totally green. Its very nice and remarkable dedication to environmentalism.  Check out there website M.W.A. site. ( I forgot my camera so no pics! :/)

  Then  I received a call from Mad Man Steve, He was pounding the stockies on the Pequest TCA.  I usually wont fish Tca. I said Id come out and play. So i headed on over.  I got geared up and met the mad man at the spill way.  There was a fellow there that was down stream us upon my arrival.  I stepped into the river and like usual, there were bows at my feet. This is a point I dont like.  Trout at your feet.... Just not right.  Well i tied on the ultra egg and biot miracle. Wasn't long before i was into a bow. Not a very good fight considering the size of bow. Another point that i dont like. Large roll over fish. Now not all the fish do this but a vast majority do.  Within second of releasing the fish, the fellow down stream comes wading up  the middle of the stream and stopped directly across from me out about 10'-15'. He said Hello and then proceeded to throw cast at my feet and into my drifting area. Major point i dont like. I cant stand people who have zero fishing etiquette and crowd you. Completely ridiculous.  I fished  for short time and caught a nice size bow on the biot miracle. I got the hog in and mad man got some pics. 2 of the bows i got, one being the hog put up a pretty good fight.  I released the fish and got out of the water.   We made are way back to our vehicles with my mind thinking of the reminding I got about why i dont fish Tca.   Its just not fly fishing to me.   Thanks for the pics and FUN time Mad Man.
The polite fisherman............

The hog

The hog

Tuesday, November 29, 2011

Take my line, go fishing for a Tuesday

  Well, I got out for some flying today. It was raining a bit when i headed out. The rain got me pretty wet before it stopped. I fished a good stretch of my favorite local spring creek.  The wild browns were very pleased to take the U.V. High Test Hares Ear.  I had a great day, and enjoyed  relearning the changed stream.   With "more than four", I the wet walk back to the car.










A very old stone wall

U.V. High Test hares the days top producer.







The U.V. High Test Hares ear with a black diamond braid wing case

A thin one, Hot spot, And a Pumpkin head

Brook fly fishing and an evening rise.

   Well, Got out a little before noon. I headed to a place that I have been meaning to fish for quite some time. Its a small brook, that's relatively close to me.  I was happy to see all the cloud cover, but once i was geared up and ready to fly, the sun came out.  This made fishing this stream much tougher.   Gin and thin on a sunny day is a tough challenge.
  I fished a good section of the stream. Nymphing the whole thing. The oldie was just a wee to heavy for this brook in many areas, so i went with the high test hares ear, trailed by a top secret
midge. The wild brown were very eager to take the hares ear. All the trout i caught on that brook took the hares ear.
   I certailny spooked more fish than i caught. The ones i caught were taken with a long cast with a long leader, and from a  knelt down casting position.
   With a my shadow casting ahead of me about 15ft, and my stomach growling, I decided to head on back to the car.  With how tough the conditions where i was pleased to got "more than four"



My largest fish of the day, I was quite surprised by the size of trout in this brook.


Can you see the two trout?

After I had a quick lunch, I headed to my favorite spring creek for the last hour of the day. My first fish was on the top secret midge. I moved up into a pool and noticed some trout dimpling and sipping bugs from the film. I gave a quick thought, hmm midge pupa hatching, or spinner fall.  With the sun fading fast, I quickly swapped out my nymphs for a spinner. With a #20 double wing spinner on, I made my first cast drift. Dimple, fish on. I manged to get all four risers rather quickly. With about 5mins worth of light left, I walked back to the car.

Sunday, November 27, 2011

Tying the swap fly, #14 aka The Golden Furnace

 This is what i call swap fly #14 or the golden furnace soft hackle.   I tied it using collins hen saddle hackle  furnace. The neck is furnace and saddle is a great molting to it. The hen sets from collins is great deal.
  The  little ball of dubbin in the thorax is uv high test.

The materials. The collins saddle is from a furnace hen. It has great color depth to it. I really dig it. The thread is pearsalls amber gossamer silk thread. The dubbin is u.v. high test.  Use your favorite wet fly hook. I like daiichi 1550s.  Lets twist one up.




Start the thread and wrap to half way on the shank. Touching turns the whole way.




Wax about 3"-4" of thread. 

Wrap the thread back to just past the barb, touching turns, then spiral wrap it back up to where the thread started

Dub the thorax. Just a small ball. This is for helping the hen hackle to stay of the body.  Its optional.

Select a saddle feather and strip one side like so. If you wrap clockwise strip the left side like shown.

Tie in the feather by the tip, stripped side away from you.

Wrap the hackle. Sweep the fibers back as you turn. Take 1 and 1/12 turns.  Tie it off, going towards the eye, then sweep everything back and wrap the thread back to hackle collar. 

Keep the thread tight, and snap off the butt end of the hackle. 

Half hitch the silk thread and clip it off.

Start the black thread at the eye and wrap back to the hackle collar.

Whip finish.

Give the head a nice coating of your favorite varnish. I like to make all my wetfly heads nice and shiny.



Going small on the ultra egg and the swap fly.

size 20 ultra eggs. Tied on dai-riki 125


I have been twisting up some tiny ultra to fish for on some small streams in my area. I figure the small trout will like them. Who knows, they may see it and  say "awww eggs again!" haha. Not likely. Not because trout dont think like we humans do, but because an egg is just to easy and nutritious of a meal for a trout to pass up.

  When you go small on the ultra just use less yarn and of coarse follow the cardinal rules for tying small flies. Small thread and the least amount of wraps possible.  Follow those two rules and you can tie extremely small, that is if you can see it!  In next couple of months i will show a quite a few midge patterns that i tie small. Some as small as a 28.  I tell ya, there's nothing like landing a 18"+ wild brown on a size 28 hook.   Landing them on size 20 is cake compared to the 28!





 Im in a swap on Pa fly Fish , It's a swap for soft hackles. There is my fly for the swap.   I call it......Swap Fly #14.  As this is my 14 swap i ever did and the fly i tied doesnt have a name. Does it work........You bet your britches it works.  Its tied on a..... well i will do post about it.   I hope to get out in the mid morning as i indicated before. Will do a full report as usual.

Friday, November 25, 2011

Wickham's Fancy and a tutorial

   The Wickham was originally intended as a dry fly for the clear chalk streams of southern England.  This is an old pattern. Dating back to the late 1800's.  Its believed that Dr. T.C. Wickham created the fly. However there are records which disagree with this belief. Records from 1884 state that George Currell was the first professional to have tied it.   I have little doubt that the henryville special was based from this pattern. We all know how deadly the henryville is, But i will attest that the wickhams is equally effective. Its also great fun to tie. I could tie tons of these.  
    The wet fly variation is  a great diving egg laying caddis or sedge pattern.  The hackle will trap air giving the fly a life like shine.  When i tie wickhamss,   I tie them with all different shades of brown.  The one on the left i did with a furnace ginger hen hackles. The hackle is collins "greenwell" hackle. As the name suggests its the right color for greenwell's glory.







Lets twist one up. This one will be the dry version. 
Materials
Hook- Daiichi 1170
Thread- Mtfc black 8/0
Tail- brown/ ginger hackle fibers
Body- Gold tinsel/ Holographic
Body hackle- Brown/ginger saddle hackle palmered
Rib- Gold wire/or French tinsel
Wing- Mallard wing slips
Front hackle- brown/ginger. Neck hackle

Hook in vise, start your thread and lay down a nice even layer of thread, back to just before the barb.

Take 8-12(a small bunch) fibers of hackle for the tail. Tie them on with one turn.

Tie in the tinsel with one turn. This turn should be in front of your last.

Tie in the wire or french tinsel and bring your thread to the eye and back about two hooks length. Be sure to make nice touching turns. You want even body.

Wrap the tinsel, make each turn touch the previous one.  Tie it off and trim the excess.

Tie in the saddle hackle by the butt.

Palmer the hackle back to the rear of the fly.

Catch the hackle with the wire.

Bring the rib up through, tie it off and trim the excess. Break off your hackle .  Roll your fingers over the hackle, stroking it back.

Get your  self two slips of mallard wing. One from the left another from the right.

With the tips lined up, and the "good side" sides of the slips facing out, measure the wing length. It should be just a wee shorter than the tail.

Switch hands, now pinch the slips, be sure they are as close the shank as possible.

Pinch and loop.  Draw the thread down slowly.  Be sure to keep your pinch on the slips. Pinch and loop twice then take a couple of tight turns. Check your wing. You can always go back at this point.

Take a couple more tight tuns and then trim the butts. Nice and close.

Tidey up.

Tie in the hackle by the butt.

Wrap the hackle. Stroking the fibers back with each turn.

Trim the hackle butt and form a neat head.

Whip finish.

Coat the head with your favorite varnish.  You now have a great fish catcher. The Wickham's Fancy.