Fly of the Week #8

My fly photos are slowly getting better. I still have a ways to go until I'm happy with how they come out, but at least I'm making progress.

"Blue Bead Dry / Soft Hackle" - Size 12
(click for larger picture)

Here is another fly where I combined dry fly and wet fly hackle together. The dry stiffer hackle behind the blue glass bead and the partridge hackle in front. The whole thing is tied with unwaxed brown thread. Although untested at this point, I'd imagine it would do pretty well given the buggy look of it. Similar flies have done well on the Lower Stan.

Fly of the Week #7

This has been a rather busy week and as a result, I did not have time to tie anything new. So, it was a trip to the computer to find a previously photographed fly to post here. This one was used on the North Fork of the Stanislaus last week and did well. It produced a few bites and one trout that stayed on for only a minute while trying to bring him to hand. At least we know that they were interested in it.

Golden Stone Soft Hackle - Size 12
(click for larger picture)

This guy was tied on a size 12 hook with creme colored unwaxed thread. Very light golden stone dubbing and Hungarian partridge hackle. Since I had no tinsel laying around, I used some copper wire for ribbing. Two wires were braided together before tied around the body for something a little different.

I've got about a half dozen flies lying around that haven't been photographed yet. I hope to get on the ball and do that shortly. The plan is to spend more time figuring out how to get those crystal clear photographs that some people are capable of. Hopefully I'll be successful and we no longer have to look at blurry images.

Trip Report: North Fork - Stanislaus

I was able to sneak out for some fishing on Saturday. This time around, I visited the North Fork of the Stanislaus. Initially, I tried to find a road called “Ramsey” that, according to Google maps, looked to move down right next to the river. Unfortunately, I never found it and ended up going back to my standby: the Sourgrass Recreational Area.

I was out of the car and in the river by 9am. The weather was overcast and a brisk 40 degrees. I wrapped up complete with fingerless gloves and took off upstream of the parking lot. It was my goal to get a little bit away from where the crowds normally fish. So, I stopped only briefly until I got about ¼ or ½ mile up river. The water level was lower than my previous trip, so it made it easier to move along. There were still some really tough spots that caused a few close calls as I scrambled on some very slippery boulders. Felt sole wader boots can be treacherous. Luckily nothing happened except for a few scares.

The setup started out as a three rig system consisting of a size 12 Hare’s Ear Soft Hackle as the anchor, my “brown mess” soft hackle size 14 as the middle, and a blue wing olive wet size 14 as the top fly.

The river was crystal clear and I could see a few fish. However, there weren’t nearly as many as I expected. The number of bites reflected this observation. I was able to catch a small 10 inch rainbow on the Hare’s Ear within about an hour of tries. The river level was perfect for wading or simply casting from shore. Plenty of room for back casts. The low level also made for less flow. My first experience with this river was that it was a very fast and almost dangerous current. Not so much this time.

Incredibly enough, I was the only one fishing this Saturday, I’m not sure if it was because of the cold weather or the coming rain/snow storm. Whatever the case, I was all alone.

As the day wore on and the bites were few, flies were swapped often. I went through many of the ones I’ve tied and many that I bought. At the end of the day, one was caught on that Hare’s Ear; the other three were caught on the ones I tied (the successful flies that I tied and caught fish with are pictured in this post).

All in all, I traveled probably ¾ of a mile upstream and caught a total of 4 wild rainbows. All of them were less than 10 inches. It was incredibly beautiful out with the falling leaves and peace and quiet. The river was clear and accessible. The chilly weather made the experience much different than the hot Summer days that I’ve become accustomed too. Unfortunately, the number of fish was a bit of a disappointment.

Even with only four caught, this was a great day. Stunningly beautiful as the leaves were falling on me throughout the day and the smell of a coming storm filled the air. As the rain started to fall and the sun was setting, I packed up and headed back to reality.

Fish Count: 4 Rainbows

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Fly of the Week #6

This one is made from unwaxed green thread, a glass bead for the thorax, and partridge feathers for the hackle. The whole thing is tied on size 12 hook.

"Green Thread / Glass Bead Soft Hackle" - size 12
(click for larger picture)

Note: I had a chance to fish this fly a few days ago (report coming soon) and it attracted quite a bit of attention. Unfortunately, it didn't lead to a trout up to my hand.

Three Rig Wet Fly System

Want to increase your chance of catching trout? Try multiple flies at once. I will often fish three at a time to quickly see what they are interested on that day. By mixing different sizes and patterns, you'll know really fast what will work. The method I use is a three fly rig.

There are no real rules to this method, except for maybe one. Put the heaviest fly as the anchor fly, the fly that is furthest from the fly line. As suggested by someone else, this may also be the place to put an attractor pattern. When I'm searching, I'll often put a larger size 10 winged wet as the anchor that may have some brighter colors, a soft hackle size 12 or smaller as the middle fly, and another soft hackle or perhaps a winged wet size 12 or smaller as the top.

Building the rig can't be easier. Cut three pieces of two foot long tippet material (you pick the size), take two of those pieces and overlap the two ends by 7 or so inches, place your thumb at this spot and knot them with a double overhand. Refer to the diagram for a little better explanation. After the two are knotted, then add the third in the same overlapping fashion. The end of the rig is tied to a leader or you can simply use longer tippet material and tie it directly to the fly line. Having an actual tapered leader is not necessary. The basic idea is to have each fly approximately separated by the same amount of space when in the water. The top and middle position hanging off about 6-7 inches of line.

You would fish the three rig the same way you fish a single fly. Dead drift, up and across, across, down and across, or directly down. It doesn't really matter. The idea is to get the flies in the feeding lane and keep it there as long as possible. Dead drift is my favorite, but swinging it is fine. If you do swing it, try and slow it down a little with line mends. Before casting back upstream, be sure to let it dangle below you for a while and maybe go as far as dancing it around. You'll catch fish here as it rises and falls.

If you see one fly is getting most of the attention, you can swap your other flies for the similar working patterns.

Fly of the Week #5

This week, I've decided to upload a few images. I'm still playing around with the camera settings to get the best image quality possible. Unfortunately, I haven't quite got it figured out yet.

As always, you can click on the images to get a higher resolution version.

"Brown Mess #1 Soft Hackle" - Size 14

Golden stone dubbing with Hungarian Partridge (died brown) for the hackle. Brown thread holding it all together.

"Blue and Yellow Soft Hackle" - Size 14

Creme colored thread on the head ties down the partridge hackle. Yellow thread on the body holds both yellow and blue embroidery floss. The body has a light coating of "Hard as Nails" to give it some shine.

"Blue Soft Hackle" - Size 12

This one is simply thread and hackle. The unwaxed thread was not taken back very far to keep it minimal. Next time, I'd like to use even less hackle.

A slow down in fly fishing trips.

I had hope that I would get a chance to fish the Lower Stanislaus before the closure on October 31st. It just wasn't in the cards. Work has been busier than expected and my usual weekday trips aren't possible and weekends are currently too busy with everything I couldn't do during the week.

Cherry Creek - August 14th, 2007

When this current project ends, my wife and I are expecting a baby, so I'm not sure when I'll be able to get out to a river. Needless to say, actual fly fishing will be temporarily set aside. I'll still continue with posts as I can always find time to tie flies or write about something other than river trips.

Basically, it comes down to the near future being more fly tying and technique posts rather than actual trip reports.