Every year I talk about wanting to make a list of my favorite albums of the year, but I never do. I kept this simple, didn't actually write any reviews, just the artist, the album, and tried to find a video of my favorite track. If there wasn't a video, I used the YouTube audio. I also made a Spotify playlist if you would like to listen to these albums, there will be a link at the end of this post.
Saturday morning, Cleo and I went to the Washington Park Pond to test out her Ugly Stik. We found a worm in the leaves and fished under a bobber. We caught no fish, and neither did the other dozen or so people around the pond. Little Cleo sure had fun though.
Later on after dropping Cleo off, I drove down to Lake Michigan with my 9wt to catch some warmwater fish or whatever else. There were a few bass, some pike, many very small hatchery trout, and schools of very large carp. I went for the carp.
I had a hit early on, but most casts toward the schooling carp went unnoticed. The hit was enough to let me know I was on the right track though, so I kept at it. Eventually I put my fly right in front of a carp. As it sank, he dove for it like I had just thrown in a piece of chocolate cake. I set the hook.
My 9wt held up to the fight perfectly but I lost the fish at the shore trying to land it without a net. It counts, right? a long distance release? I caught a little video right before I tried to land the fish.
A video for a quick and effective wet fly. Aside from the black and brown version in the video, I tie a lot of purple and starling wet flies. Just use purple thread and a feather from the breast of a starling skin. Of course there is the classic partrigde and orange wet fly that follows the same pattern.
This little driftless brook trout took a black and brown.
I get out of work at 6:30 AM tomorrow, and we're leaving right after. There may be a stop at the Bass Pro Shops in Gurnee Mills to look at some waders and other gear because I got a gift card for my birthday. I can't wait to fish in West Michigan again, I hope the weather cooperates.
Here is a video for tying the Black Barber that I threw together yesterday. Now that I've fished this pattern and caught my first brook trout on it, I think I can call it a good pattern.
I think all the brown trout in this video were caught in Milwaukee. I see the US Bank Building, the Milwaukee Art Museum, or the Hoen Bridge in most of these shots. We have World Class brown trout fishing here in Milwaukee.
I had recently checked out Essential Trout Flies by David Hughes from the Milwaukee Public Library. There are many nice flies in the book, but I was mostly interested in the Elk Hair Caddis patterns. The book gives great instructions as well as advice on how to present the patterns. I learned that if you plan on fishing calmer waters with the caddis, as opposed to heavy riffles and rapids, you can omit the hackle in a size 16 or smaller fly. Omitting the hackle makes tying a caddis much easier, at least for me. I can tie about ten an hour this way, which is about the same rate I can lose them in streamside vegetation in my backcast! And seriously, you're going to use floatant anyway, right?
What you'll need
Dry fly hooks, size 16 or smaller
Tan thread
Dubbing
Elk hair
I like to use dubbing plus, well, because it's what I have-- and it can be teased out a little to look more like insect legs. Working with elk hair is a little tricky when you're first learning. The trick is learning the "soft loop." What you'll do is hold the tips of the hair tightly in your left hand directly on top of the hook, then wrap one wrap loosely over the bunch and back down under the hook shank. then as you come back over, pull the thread tight and watch as the clipped ends of hair stand out at crazy angles.
I don't have a hair stacker, so I just try to pinch a bunch of hair on the hide and keep the ends fairly even. It's just one more step I can skip to make fly tying that much simpler. And hey, the trees trout probably won't notice anyway.
here is a video of me tying a size 16 elk hair caddis in under five minutes.
A couple pictures of finished flies.
Size 16
Size 16 close up
Size 18
If you're new to tying, click on the "Fly Tying" label on the right, I have some previous posts for fly tying beginners. I'm kind of a n00b myself, I just got the hang of working with the elk hair. It just takes a lot of practice.
Tie one of these with its inventor, Al Troth in mind. Al passed this past August after reaching level 82. You've reached Legendary status in the fly fishing world Al, you will be missed.
If you are only going to learn to tie one fly, it should probably be the Woolly Bugger. I know that I can approach any body of water that holds fish anywhere in the world, tie on a size 10 Woolly Bugger and have a pretty good chance at catching a fish. They are pretty simple to tie, and easy to modify with various materials. Once you learn how to tie a Woolly Bugger, you can easily tie an Egg Sucking Leech, which is a productive fly for steelhead and other anadromous species in the Great Lakes.
Below is an 8 minute video on how to tie a size 10 black bead head Woolly Bugger.
I usually tie a size 10 Woolly Bugger for stream trout and panfish. If I'm going for smallmouth, I usually start with a size 8, if I have a lot of short strikes, I'll go to a 10. I usually tie size 6 Woolly Buggers for largemouth bass and for salmon migrating up the streams.
Sometimes I'll tie black Woolly Buggers with grizzly hackle instead of black. I almost always tie olive Woolly Buggers with grizzly hackle. The olive dye from the marabou will leach into the lighter grizzly hackle and make for an interesting fly. A few strands of Flashabou in the tail of your buggers may increase their attraction.
Here are some Woolly Buggers and variations I've tied this year.
fall 2007, Otter Tail. Biggest smallmouth I've
ever caught
Grizzly hackle bugger, Milwaukee
Milwaukee River smallmouth
Olive and grizzly bugger, Milwaukee
That's a nice Milwaukee River Smallmouth
caught within city limits
Nice rock bass, Milwaukee River
Chinook salmon from the Menomonee
See the Bugger in her mouth?
If I were only going to carry one fly, it would be a black Woolly Bugger, they are just so effective for so many species of fish! They are kind of like the fly fishing version of the Mister Twister curly tail grub.
Today is my last day of work for my seasonal Big Box position. That's okay, because yesterday I accepted a full time phlebotomy position.
I feel like somewhat of a success now.
On another note, it took me three attempts to make a video I was happy with for this blog post, and I'm still not all that happy with it. Below is one of the funnier takes that started bad right away.
Scuds always remind me of GWAR and the first Gulf War. I didn't know that there were tiny shrimp-like creatures called scuds until I started fly fishing. If you click here, you'll see that there are many meanings for the word scud. Anyway, I filmed an instructional video on how to tie a simple, highly effective scud that will work for trout, bass, and panfish.
You can visit an earlier post for a little more instruction if you're new to fly tying. Sorry if it's a little shaky, this is what I'm working with.
In the video, I tied a tan scud. Scuds tend to take on the color of their environment though, so if you're fishing in a silty stream, grey may be a better representation of what the fish are eating. If you're fishing along a weedline, cast an olive colored scud. Those are the three colors I tie, but I've seen pink scuds for sale in shops.
The scud from the video, smaller than
the words "atomic field-circuits."
When fishing in streams with a scud, I let it dead drift through pools, riffles or along cover, sometimes I give little twitches.
I was fishing in Lake Michigan along the rocks near Discovery World early one late spring morning and I caught so many little trout I couldn't believe it! They must have been hatchery trout that were just stocked, but it sure was fun! I would cast almost parallel to the rocks, and strip the scud back.
I fish the same way in the urban ponds that are stocked, cast and strip back.
Here are a few fish I've caught on scuds, they're nothing too exciting though.
Although they are very abundant, widespread and diverse,[2] amphipods do not feature strongly in the public imagination. Thomas Roscoe Rede Stebbing wrote in 1899:[3]
No panegyrist of the Amphipoda has yet been able to evoke anything like popular enthusiasm in their favour. To the generality of observers they are only not repelled because the glance which falls upon them is unarrested, ignores them, is unconscious of their presence. (Source:Wikipedia)
When you first get started fly tying, there are two techniques that are the same for just about every fly, how you start the fly, and how you finish it. Once you know how to do those two things, techniques can be learned on a case by case basis; mostly, it's just wrapping thread around stuff.
Getting the thread started on a hook is way simpler than you could ever imagine. There is no tying involved, just wrapping thread. To try to explain it would make it sound way more complicated than it ever is, so I demonstrate the technique in the following video. Excuse the shaky cam, I literally just set my Nikon L24 on a stack of books on a T.V. tray.
Finishing up the fly is more complicated. The handbook that came with my kit teaches a knot that just does not hold unless cemented with head cement, and a lot of videos on Youtube showed guys tying a knot with a "Whip Finishing Tool." I didn't have this tool, so I found instructions on how to whip finish by hand, but the videos were all done so fast that I couldn't clearly see what was being done. My whip finish kept coming undone until I finally figured out where I was going wrong. Now I whip finish by hand, and my knot holds just fine with no cement. In my opinion, the tool seems to overly complicate things. To try to give written instructions on how to whip finish by hand would be hard to do, and even harder to follow--I know by experience--so here is a demonstrational video.
Ok, now with just those two techniques, some scud hooks, some thread, some chenille and a lighter, you are ready to tie the San Juan Worm. I tried to do some research to find out a little background for this simple-yet-effective fly. I wouldn't call it a streamer, it's not a wet fly, definitely not a dry-- It's more of a nymph than anything else, but it's not even really a nymph. This link gives some interesting background information on the San Juan Worm. I usually tie them with a size 12 or 14 scud hook with a downturned eye. Scud hooks have a curved shank, rather than being straight. Below is a three minute video demonstrating how to tie the San Juan Worm.
When fishing in a stream with a San Juan Worm, I cast to the head of a pool and let it dead drift through the pool. They work well after the rain when worms get washed into the stream, I don't use them a lot, but when I do, I catch smallmouth bass. I've never tried fishing for trout with them, but I don't really get to go trout fishing as often as I'd like to. If you have any questions about tying flies, leave a message, I'll try to answer what I can.
