Posts from the ‘Flies’ Category
Schmidt's Madonna
Ray Schmidt’s fly box is featured today at Midcurrent as part of their “Inside the Box Series.” Unsurprisingly, it is a box full of BIG streamer flies — the sort that are tied on BIG hooks to fool and catch BIG trout. Ray notes in the accompanying interview that he regularly fishes with a group of big streamer nuts, and of course his own personal fly designs are right outta that school, too.
If you’re unfamiliar with Midcurrent’s “Inside the Box” series, then it is worth looking at some of the other featured boxes, too. I’m particularly impressed with Craig Mathews‘ box, along with the box of Diana Rudolph and, though a bit predictable, that of writer and bonefish angler Carl Hiaasen.
At the end of the accompanying interview Hiaasen’s remarks that “Bonefish have been around for a couple of million years. Human beings are just blips on the screen for them. They’ll probably outlast us, despite the fact that we seem to be doing everything we can to destroy their habitat. Meanwhile, I’m going to catch as many as I can.”"
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Buzz
As we get the 2010 fly angling season underway (looks like an early spring is on the way this year!), keep in mind that it is banquet-and-show season throughout the watershed. Here are some important upcoming events to get your mind back on trout and flies:
Photo Copyright 2004 by Chris Campbell.
37TH ANNUAL OUTDOORAMA: Feb. 25th to 28th at Rock Financial Showplace in Novi. More than 150 booths will feature fishing boats, pontoons, canoes, kayaks deck boats, runabouts and ski and wakeboard boats. MUCC’s “Big Buck Night,” “Wildlife Encounters,” a daily Fish Fry, Trout Pond for kids, and Milt Wilcox’s “Ultimate Air Dogs” are among many features. Hours: 2-9:30 p.m. Feb. 25-26; 10 a.m.-9 p.m. Feb. 27; 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Feb. 28. Admission: $10, $4 for 6-14, free for 5-and-younger. Information: www.Outdoorama.com or (800) 328-6550.
RED CEDAR FLY FISHERS ANNUAL BANQUET: Feb. 26th at the Brookshire Inn and Country Club, 205 W. Church St. in Williamston. Chuck Hawkins of Hawkins Outfitters will speak on “Big Trout Fishing in Michigan.” Cocktails start at 6 p.m. with dinner at 7. Admission is $30. The event will also feature a general raffle, bucket raffles, card raffles and door prizes. Tickets are available at Nomad Anglers in Okemos. For information, call Brad Reynolds at 333-9258.
2ND ANNUAL CELEBRATION OF FLY TYING: Feb. 27th; 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Knights of Columbus Hall, 5830 Clyde Park Ave. SW in Grand Rapids. Presentations from some of the best tiers in the Midwest. Demonstrations and instruction, with lunch and snacks available. $10 for adults, $5 for youth aged 12 to 17, and admission free for those under 12. For more information contact Dennis Potter at ausable1@gmail.com at (616) 363-4966.
MIDWEST FLYFISHING EXPO: Dave Hughes, Joe Humphreys, Bob Jacklin and Jeff “Bear” Andrews headline this year’s Expo, scheduled for March 13th and 14th at the Macomb Community College Sports and Expo Center in Warren. Hours: 9 a.m.-6 p.m. March 13; 10 a.m.-4 p.m. March 14. Admission: $10, free for 16-and-younger: www.mffc.org.
65TH ANNUAL ULTIMATE SPORT SHOW: March 18th to the 21st at DeVos Place, 303 Monroe Ave. NW in Grand Rapids. Hours: 3-9:30 p.m. March 18, 11 a.m.-9:30 p.m. March 19, 9 a.m.-9 p.m. March 20, 10 a.m.-5 p.m. March 21. Admission: $9, $4 6-14, free for 5-and-younger. Information: www.GRFish.com or (800) 328-6550.
NOTE: If you would like True North Trout to Spread the Love about your upcoming fly fishing, fly tying, or conservation event, drop us a line!
By now almost everyone pretty much knows the deal with parachute-style dry flies. They float with their bodies flush in the surface film with the hackle fibers splayed in a circle around the body (hence “parachute”), imitating very closely
The Finished Fly
the attitude of natural mayflies as they drift downstream. The wing post around which the hackle is wound can be made of some highly visible color, making them easier for us middle-aged types to spot on the water. They are far more likely than their collar-hackled cousins to land in the correct upright position on the water when they are cast. Finally, because the hackle doesn’t actually float the fly, they don’t have to be tied with the most expensive genetic dry fly hackle to work properly. Effective, user-friendly, and cost-efficient—a no-brainer, right?
Well, yes…once they’re tied. Getting to that point can present a problem for some fly tiers. The tail and body of the fly don’t present that much difficulty, as they are identical in their proportions and construction to those found on a traditional collar-hackled dry fly. It’s the creation of the wing post that serves as the base for the parachute hackle that seems to intimidate a lot of tiers. There is a way to do this, however that is not only quite easy, but that substantially improves the performance of the fly, and it all has to do with materials.
My strong encouragement to you, especially if you’re just learning to tie parachutes, is to stay away from natural materials like calf tail and turkey t-base feathers and the like. They look great, but they’re hard to handle without a lot of practice. What I suggest instead is a synthetic material. There are many to choose from, marketed under various names—Float-Vis™ is a favorite of mine—but they’re all basically the same stuff. I like the synthetics for several reasons: it comes in literally every color you can think of, it’s far easier to handle than natural materials, it’s more
The Finished Post
waterproof and therefore adds floatation to the fly, and, because its fibers allow air to pass through them easily, it is less likely to resist the wind, causing the fly to spin and twist the leader during false casting. It can also be mounted in a way that adds virtually no bulk to the body of the fly, allowing for a trimmer, more natural-looking finished product.
- Cut off a hank of winging material about 1 ½ -2 inches long and tie it in at its middle point on top of the hook shank.
- Once it’s secured, let the thread hang and grab the two ends of the hank of yarn, and tug them out to the sides of the hook shank, as if you were trying to fashion the spent wings of a mayfly spinner.
- Take up the thread again and make a few “figure-8” or “X” wraps over the tie in point, securing the yarn in this position. Now drop the thread again and this time tug the two ends straight up over the top of the hook shank. Hold them there with one hand while you take 4-6 turns of thread around the yarn only—not the hook shank! This will bind the two ends of the hank of yarn into a solid wing post, and it will provide a solid base around which to wind the parachute hackle later.
- Trim the post to the desired length.
With the wing thus in place, you can create the rest of the fly as desired. The parachute hackle mounts just behind the wing post and is wound around it rather than the hook shank. The hackle can be tied off either just in front of the wing post on the shank or on the wing post itself.
By the way, informal research has shown me that the fish don’t much mind what color the wing post is—it’s more the silhouette they’re interested in. I have tied posts in blaze orange, hot pink, and screaming chartreuse and caught good fish on all of them. A black post is a great help on gloomy, overcast days, as well.
Once you’ve mastered parachute wings with synthetics, you can transfer your skills to the world of natural winging materials. Until then, this technique will get you on the water with these highly versatile and extremely effective patterns.
Tie quill bodies on your hooks to make much more realistic mayflies!
Winter, especially in Michigan, can be a dread prospect for the ardent fly fisher. There are those few intrepid souls who continue to go out and court hypothermia on the frigid rivers for winter Steelhead or the occasional dazed and listless trout, but for most of us winter is by necessity a season of forgetting—about actual fishing anyway. Some move on to skiing, snowmobiling, or other winter sports. Others take advantage of the good cuddling weather to seek out and renew relations with their long-lost fishing widows with a view toward creating future fishing companions, but for those of us who simply must do something fishing-related regardless of the weather, winter is better-known as the fly-tying season.
For many fly tiers, winter is an excellent time to experiment with patterns and techniques that are new or unfamiliar to them. Often these are things that they’ve wanted to master for a long time but have avoided due to either real or perceived difficulty. With that in mind, this article will be the first of several focusing on some tying techniques that are tricky to varying degrees, but which pay off by resulting in flies that are more realistic (or just neater-looking) and are therefore more effective on-stream.
This series will focus on dry fly tying techniques, for the simple reason that dry flies are the patterns that most depend on correct construction and proportioning in order to function correctly. Future series will look at wet fly, nymph, and streamer-tying techniques.
Perhaps the most often-avoided dry fly tying technique is the construction of the quill body. This is unfortunate, as, when applied properly, a wrapped quill creates a smooth, segmented body that much more closely imitates the abdomen of a natural mayfly than does a dubbed body.
Prep the Quill
The first step in this process is to select and prepare the quill for mounting. The best quills for wrapping bodies do not, happily, come from your expensive dry fly hackle feathers. Instead, select a 6-8” strung Chinese neck or saddle hackle. Select a single feather from the strung bundle, and, starting as near the tip as you can, grasp the hackle fibers on one side and strip them from the quill. Repeat this process on the opposite side of the quill.
The most commonly-cited difficulty with this technique is the tendency of the quill to crack and/or split when it is being wound onto the hook shank, and this indubitably can happen, but it is also fairly easily avoided by simply soaking the quill in water for fifteen minutes or so prior to tying.
The Underbody
While the quill is soaking, mount the hook in the vise and tie in the tail of the fly using the material of your choice. Be sure to create a smooth, level underbody of thread from the tail tie-in point to the point where your dry-fly hackle will eventually be tied in. Do not taper the underbody as you would when creating a dubbed-body dry fly. The increasing diameter of the quill body will provide the tapered body profile of the finished fly.
Now it is time to mount the quill. Tie in the quill by its tip roughly 1/3 of the length of the hook shank behind the eye—this should be the point at which you will eventually tie in your dry-fly hackle. Position the quill next to the side of the hook shank nearest you and begin wrapping thread over it rearward toward the bend. The pressure of the thread should roll the quill away from you as you wrap and secure it to the top of the hook shank. Continue wrapping to the beginning of the tail.
Segmentation!
The quill is now mounted and ready to wrap. Advance the thread to the quill tie-in point. Take up the quill in your hackle pliers (the rubber-tipped variety are best for this job) and wrap it forward in even, adjacent turns until you reach the hanging thread. Holding the quill directly above the hook shank, take up the bobbin and take several firm turns of thread over the quill, locking it into place on the far side of the shank. Trim the excess quill and continue with the rest of the fly as desired.
Quill-bodied flies were among some of the first dry fly patterns ever tied for use on American trout streams, and they’ve stuck around this long for good reasons: they fool wary trout with their realistic sheen and segmentation, they are fun to tie, and besides that they just plain look classy in your fly box. What could be better?
The Au Sable in Winter, Photo Copyright 2009 by Nina Asunto
The days are getting shorter, a little cooler, and the fishing remains good for both steelhead and trout. Remember last year at this time when we already had two weeks of solid snow?
The Big Manistee is running at good levels with water temps hanging in the low 40s – odd for this time of year. It’s running relatively clear and there are some new steelhead that are coming into the river but not huge numbers of fresh recruits to join the fish already in the system. Look for the bite to come on both nymphs and eggs. On the gray, overcast days look for the brighter egg patterns to work with pale color when the sun is out. Nymphs that have been working include some of the old standbys: black stones, caddis and hex. This is also a good time to swing flies with that two-handed rod.
The trout fishing below Tippy Dam continues to be a pleasant surprise this fall with lots of fish coming to streamers and nymphs fished under an indicator. The bigger fish have been coming on streamers, but not exclusively. Baitfish patterns like T&A Bunkers, Mummy Chubs and C&F Baitfish have been working well but daily color preferences can make the difference. The biggest common denominator has been white. Nymphs include small, natural pale eggs, scuds and BWO/pheasant tails.
The Upper Manistee is offering up some good fishing, too, now that the browns are done with their annual spawning ritual. This time of year, with water temperatures being cool, fish a shorter sink-tip and retrieve it a little slower than normal. Lately, I have found that fish are following streamers and are eating them when the retrieve is paused longer than normal – something that is usually a no-no when streamer fishing. Make sure your pattern has movement when paused. Mix it up and identify what the fish want – we do spoil them.
The Betsie and Platte both have some steelhead in them but what would really improve things is some more rain. With the Firearm Deer Season beyond us, we can get rid of that blaze orange hat and take advantage of stealthy approaches to our favorite runs and holes. Look for the fish to be in the deeper, slower holes and slots since the temperatures continuing to drop.
Ted Kraimer is a professional guide and fly tier, owner of Current Works Guide Service, and field editor for True North Trout. His fishing reports will continue to appear in T|N|T and on his website.
Ed. Note: Check out the latest fly tying article on Ted’s website — he has a nice piece on tying and fishing the “Fin Clip,” which is a great pattern for imitating those little stocker rainbows that the DNR drops in many of our rivers each year. It’s a cool tie and is indicative of a style of fly that can be used to successfully fish the shorelines of the big lakes as well.
Years ago when I was living in the Mount Pleasant area I often fished the Chippewa River for smallies, and in that case the hatchery truck would hit the river near the end of May. The DNR stocked the Chippewa with trout, though I never found trout anywhere in the upper system with the exception of some cold spring-fed feeders way up in the system. I heard that steelhead were occasionally caught in the upper waters, but most of those trout became food for the resident bass and, lower in the system, walleye and pike. In any event, fishing patterns that mimic those stockers can really work out well.
Ready to Tie! Photo copyright 2009 by Alan Creech
It looks like the BRNC Fly Tying Circle at the Boardman River Nature Center will be a ‘go.’
I heard from Colleen Masterson-Bzdok this afternoon — she is the Education Director for the Grand Traverse Conservation District. She is excited about the program and has some other volunteers on board to help get the program going.
1. The current plan is to have the Circle meet twice per month for the months of January, February, and March. Colleen is open to having the Center available more frequently (weekly, for example) or less frequently (perhaps only monthly). She wants to know what the participants are most interested in seeing happen.
2. She is also open about the time. We discussed scheduling some time for either an evening during the week (6 to 9 PM?) or perhaps a weekend afternoon time like Saturday (from 1 to 4 PM?). She can make the Center available to us whenever it would be most helpful, and needs some guidance about when that might be.
3. The initial concept is for a Circle that taps older youth and adults for membership. She is also interested in seeing a separate “Fly Tying for Kids” program get off the ground down the road. The concept behind the Circle is to give local area tiers a place to go to tie with others a few times per month. It is not meant as a traditional fly tying class, though of course tiers are always showing each other various tricks and tips. True North Trout will be happy to provide coffee and snacks, and assist in coordinating the venue usage.
4. It might be fun to plan a simple tying schedule — like small dry flies one night, and terrestrials another night, etc. Or perhaps it would be more fun to just bring your vice and know that there is a place where you can crank-out a dozen hare’s ears without making a mess on the living room carpet.
What I could use is some feedback that I can share with Colleen fairly soon. Would you rather see a weekend time reserved? An evening during the week? Are you happy with a program that was scheduled for twice per month through the winter? Would you prefer more or less frequency? Would you like to see a somewhat more structured program of ties (perhaps with a demonstration tie done by a veteran tier), or do you prefer the free-for-all approach and just want to know that free donuts are available for tiers of any skill level?
Send me your thoughts by clicking on “Editorial|Contact” in the Masthead and shoot me an email on the contact form!
A Heavily-Hackled Adams Dry Fly
This is the time of the year in Michigan when many of us start getting serious again about making time for tying flies. If you’re like me, though, even being away from the bench for a few months leaves me feeling like a total novice when I get back at the work in the fall. It takes a few dozens of a couple of old standby patterns to get back in the grove.
The last few years I’ve started back on standard streamer patterns first, then switched over to tying a few batches of standard nymph patterns before getting back to dry flies. And I hate to admit it, but getting my manual dexterity back is really only half the problem — the other half is that as I get older my vision isn’t what it once was when it comes to doing detail work on flies down the the #18s I eventually need to tie to fill up a season’s set of boxes.
In any event, I have found one thing to be especially valuable these last couple of years at the start of the season, and that is watching tying videos on a regular basis. I usually learn something new, but I also find that watching a few tying videos helps me to remember lots of the little tricks that I’ve picked-up here and there over the years.
I do buy a tying video every now and then (I just re-watched Feenstra and Darkes’ Guide Patterns for Steelhead Streamers, for example — a video I picked-up on eBay a few years back).But another great spot for quality tying videos is actually the Internet.
If you haven’t checked it out yet, point your browser over to my favorite tying spot on the web — The Weekly Fly. What I find particularly nice about this site is the production quality of the videos. The lighting, closeup work, and the audio quality are are excellent, and in fact I think in many cases are better than the video and audio quality in many of the commercial tying instruction videos that I’ve watched. Another nice thing is that The Weekly Fly folks are featuring really excellent “big name” tiers alongside promising new names in the sport as well. The content of the site is really amazing, and you get a chance to see some really interesting new flies being tied with some of the newest materials in the fly shops. Cool stuff.
As a related aside, I’m meeting with Colleen Masterson-Bzdok (Education Director) in early November at the Boardman River Nature Center in Traverse City to discuss the formation of a winter tying circle for folks who live in the greater Grand Traverse region and want to get together one night a week at the Center to tie flies and swap patterns. If you’re interested in participating in something like that, drop me a line. We’ll get you on the list.
Ted Kraimer is a professional guide and fly tier, owner of Current Works Guide Service, and field editor for True|North|Trout. This article appeared originally on his website. Ted still has some spots available for the fall salmon experience, and he is also booking for steelhead fishing. He is a reliable, experienced, friendly and knowledgeable guide — a real professional.
“Matching the hatch” is often associated with trout fishing but not necessarily with steelhead fishing. Imitating the specific natural insects fish key in on is important to the success of the trout angler however this same approach should be used by steelhead anglers looking to imitate their prey’s primary food source – eggs.
A box of steelie flies, ready to see some action.
Egg flies have been used for decades not only because they are easy to tie, inexpensive to buy, but more importantly because they are effective. With increased angling pressure, water conditions, as well as factors only known by the steelhead themselves, they often become selective on size and color. My goal is to provide you with a better understanding of what egg to use, and when. Of course it’s not guaranteed, but put others’ experience in your corner to optimize your steelhead fishing, and hopefully a well-earned steelhead into your net.
“Matching the Hatch”
Regardless of when you fish steelhead and what egg you are trying to imitate, know that the eggs themselves change. After being in the water – free drifting or trapped in a selected gravel bed – eggs become less colorful, a bit translucent and eventually opaque. Depending on the timing of your fishing trip in relation to the “egg drop”, color plays a large factor and there are two ways to determine what is ideal:
- Experience. Fishing and having certain successes or failures can help you define color combos for particular times. Keeping notes in a journal can help keep track of what can easily be forgotten between seasons and a few beers.
- When fishing rivers that have a respectable trout population, use their selectiveness as an indication of the right color and size. Catching trout? Proceed. Not catching tout? Change your egg pattern.
When fishing for steelhead in the fall directly behind spawning salmon – color and size becomes more important and is where “matching the hatch” is key. In this case, the eggs are often fresh, having a more realistic color to them. Want to know what a real salmon egg looks like? Look on the ground at access sites or near fish cleaning stations to match your egg patterns – its not that much different than catching a mayfly out of the air and matching it to a fly in your box when trout fishing. The same holds true in the spring when imitating natural steelhead eggs.
Fall Steelhead
There are many theories as to “Why do steelhead enter our rivers in the fall?”, but there is no clear, general accepted theory. Some think curious steelhead follow the salmon as they run up the river to spawn, others hypothesize that they are genetically programmed to enter rivers at that time of year. While these might be partially or absolutely correct, I prescribe to the theory that fall weather and wind conditions bring steelhead close to river mouths, and the scent of pheromones and millions of salmon eggs drifting down the river triggers them to follow a gravy train of protein.
With this in mind, I like fishing for fall steelhead, the majority of the time with two egg flies; one larger, brighter pattern as an attractor and a second, smaller, more realistic pattern imitating what is coming down the river. Often the top positioned fly is a multicolored pattern like a Clown or two-colored Rag Egg, if not a Nuke Egg.
I saw my first clown egg while fishing steelhead in Alaska in the mid-1990s and thought it was a joke – it was about the size of a quarter and included more colors than a small package of Crayola crayons. But with time, understanding, and some luck, I have learned that this multi-color configuration and approach can be significant to my success fishing for steelhead right here in Michigan. It’s a good idea to run this egg pattern in a large size when the water is full of leaves when a smaller pattern could easily be lost in all of the drifting debris.
Most anyone fishing steelhead in Michigan recognizes the Nuke Egg as an effective pattern that is an improvement over the original GloBug. The Nuke can be tied as an attractor or natural imitator depending on size and color. One of its key attributes is the veil or shroud of yarn that covers the nucleus of the pattern giving it a natural, transparent look when wet. The advantage of the Nuke Egg is its exacting nature to imitate the natural eggs drifting down the river. Some of these color combinations include: Egg over Sockeye, Pink Lady over Shrimp Pink, Apricot Supreme over Steelhead Orange, Salmon Egg over Chartreuse or everyone’s favorite – spring or fall: Oregon Cheese over Steelhead Orange. Worthy attractor colors are Chartreuse over Flame, or Flame over Cerise.
Ted Kraimer
Ted Kraimer
Spring Steelhead
Steelhead in the Great Lakes perform their annual spawning each year during the spring. The largest numbers of fish are in the river sometime in March and April depending on water levels and temperatures. During this time period, the river is also used by walleyes, resident rainbow trout, suckers and carp (typically in that order with steelhead spawning the same time as rainbow trout) as their spawning area. As a result, millions of eggs drift down the river becoming a significant food source for all fish in the river, notably steelhead. The successful angler is often fishing with an egg pattern best imitating the natural egg – its color and shape in addition to how it relates to water conditions.
Spring water conditions are often found to have a stain or be quite high and dirty. When this is the case, I have found patterns larger than naturals to be the most effective. Egg patterns like Rags, Nukes and Glo Bugs tied in various colors and almost as big as a dime, I think, do a better job of grabbing a fish’s attention rather than imitate the food source. But those times of the spring when the absence of rains and thaws leave the water with good clarity, size and color becomes significant. Patterns like sucker spawn in pale yellow imitate that of both suckers and walleye, where the natural characteristics of Nuke Eggs and Glo Bug in various colors and hues can be identical to those of natural steelhead eggs drifting down the river.
Conclusion
A well stocked fly box for trout fishing is important to success and it’s no different for steelhead. Learn your favorite river, the spawning times of the various species, and what works in particular conditions and key in on what steelhead are eating. Having egg patterns in various sizes, colors and shapes and learning when to use them and why can be the difference between catching steelhead on a consistent basis and catching a steelhead.
Editor’s Note: Tying instructions for the egg flies that Ted discusses are available at his website. Click here for the Clown Rag Egg, here for the Mc Fly Foam Egg, here for the Nuke Egg, and here for the Sucker Spawn.
