I do see circle hooks used for salt water streamer patterns, but I have not seen much use for freshwater patterns. Are there any advantages or negatives re use for freshwater fish? Do the same benefits attach from salt water use?
Midge Emerger with Circle Hook by Albannach Cuileag
Les Nymphes~La Perline by Jean Paul Assaigne
Platte River Ghost Midge by Chad Trout
Itty bitty midge emerger pattern. Judging it to be a size 18 hook, mylar or pearl krystal flash like body counter wrapped with super fine black wire, with perhaps a Peacock Ice Dub (or similar synthetic) thorax, two pearlescent wings of a flashabou like material, a tuft of pearl Ice Dub (or similar sythetic) and a small glass bead. Sorry for the lack of specificity…saw it posted at Life on The Fly and wanted to share.
For those with superior vision or those funny magnifying gizmo’s, Anthony Naples has a nice tutorial for a small parachute pattern for BWO’s or Midge. Check out his entire site. Anthony has been diagnosed as ‘fly fishing obsessive’ so we know he is in need of support for this incurable malady.
Traitor Midge Parachute by Anthony Naples
Do the purists force (via legislation) other fly fishers into a corner with ‘traditional’ techniques only? I for one do not want to be forced into a dry fly only waters situation. The full gamet of top to bottom fly fishing should be maintained and C&R maintained. This country seems hellbent on following all manner of Euro methodology. Don’t give an inch on techniques or access. Carefully monitor preservation decisions to be nothing more than a back door ‘sea kittens’ ploy. If you want to use dry flies have at it. As long as no snagging or flossing is taking place then mind your business not mine. I know several rivers already have these ‘no added weight’ restrictions and that is fine…so far, it is ok to still fish subsurface. Perhaps we could institute ‘blindfold’s only waters’ for those that need an ever increasing challenge while preserving the fishery.
I stand corrected:
Perhaps you missed that the article is aimed only at those waters “currently designated as “Fly Fishing Only” (FFO).”
I don’t care how anyone else fishes – I use many different methods including a worm and bobber on a warm water pond – until the state starts setting aside public fisheries for a particular group, excluding others. At that point we should, as responsible anglers and citizens closely examine the purpose behind such restrictions. When weight was allowed on FFO waters here (in 1992 after 40+ years without weight), the primary conservation benefit (sanctuary) of FFO was lost. The water should have been set to ALO (Artificial Lure Only) as some fine sections of our trout streams have been for years. By going ALO the water would be open to all anglers and would still provide some conservation benefit over general law including bait. Retaining FFO when many of the implements allowed were clearly jigs and other lures is hypocritical at best, don’t you agree?
BTW, the article does not even remotely suggest dry flies only. Unweighted streamers, wet flies, and nymphs have been used effectively on the waters I mentioned since I can recall. I was catching fish on one such water using streamers in 1963 – it just takes patience to bring the fish up to the fly, rather than the fly down to the fish. You don’t catch as many fish, but you appreciate each you catch as a fish not a number.
JMO
Wet Fly~SwittersB (Lose the bead to go lighter)
You are a begining fly fisher and overwhelmed with Dry flies, stillborns, emergers, nymphs, pupa and larva. You glaze over at Rhyacophila, Dicosmoecus, Rhithogena and those are some of the more frequent ones. So my recommendation borne from some experience and some damn good fly fishers I know is go wet. Saves you many hassels of figuring out hatches and dredging the bottom. Tie or buy a simple assortment of wet flies….or ‘flymphs’/soft hackles and cast them precisely, swing them, retrieve them, jerk them back in fits and starts and you will catch fish. While you do that and have reasonable outtings you can still study and observe. But you will relieve yourself of all that thinking. Do you want the thinking? The puzzle? Then keep it simple for awhile: caddis, mayflies, golden stones, dragonflies, damselflies, baitfish or midges. Recognize the difference between a caddis and a mayfly. Recognize when to put on the Elk Hair Caddis or the Adams or small Midge. If you’re fishing subsurface with a nymph then stick to Hare’s Ears and Pheasant Tails. Keep it simple. The Latin can come later if it must. In the meantime, when you walk the shoreline before dinner or after poke that wet fly here and there. Read the water’s different verses and savor each perfect and not so perfect casts. KISS.
http://wcflies.com/blog/2008/10/soft-hackle-materials/
http://wcflies.com/blog/2008/10/pheasant-for-soft-hackles/
http://wcflies.com/blog/2008/10/soft-hackle-demonstration-starling-and-herl/
Creekwalker
Summer in Montana is dry. Being in the heart of the Rocky Mountains, Montana is basically quite rocky. I do not negate the beauty of the Aspen, fir and all the beautiful hues of green that grace the banks of the abundant rivers and streams. More than one of my fishing trips have begun by sliding down a rocky bank, dropping my gear and skinning my knees! You know you have really found a hidden treasure when you have to sit for 20 minutes picking gravel the size of cracked pepper out of the angry, red scratches on your knees. The palms of my hands would sting all day. But alas, it was definitely worth the battle scars!
The Bitterroot Valley has become the destination point for many avid fly fishermen. This famous, blue ribbon river was literally my backyard! When the state began an advertising campaign touting Montana as “The Last Best Place”, I almost became physically ill. I knew what would eventually happen. It hurt my heart to think my “first best place” was about to be ravished. Hungry men… coming from who knows where to step into suspender-style waders, and step into my streams, step into my world. I felt threatened. My way of life was about to change as surely as it had for my mother-in-law. She was a logger, sawed logs by hand and helped her husband haul them down all the switchbacks on a old, rickety 1947 Chevy 3 ton. I would crawl over some big log as I made my way to “the” spot and would wonder if this might be one they had left behind. She is actually the one who wet my excitement to go to Twin Lakes. Anyone who ventures to go there in 2009 has to navigate road that cannot be technically called a road. In Margaret’s day, they rode horse-back over the very trail that Lewis and Clark no doubt blazed for them. I will save my thoughts about Lost Horse for another day however. No… today I will tell you about the Bitterroot River, with its cold water in the high places, right down to the warmer water as it dumps into the Clark Fork at Missoula.
East Fk. Bitterroot R. by Creekwalker
Personally I prefer the high places. The colder water seems to yield trout that are fighters, their flesh firm and their spirit everything a Rainbow or Brown is known for. The Cutthroat are especially plentiful and almost beg to be tantalized with a fly. They don’t care what it looks like most times. Once, when I ran out of worms (yes, bobber, worms, the whole bit), I tied a piece of moss around a hook with a piece of cellophane from my candy wrapper to make wings. I used the string I unraveled from the hem of my denim cutoffs. Fools they are. It got soggy and the cellophane stuck to itself, but I got him. Months later I would find a small metal box in the garage in a box with some old junk (or so I thought). Upon opening it I discovered 3 or 4 flies and black looking worms. It was a treasure I did not yet understand I had in my hands. I would later learn that the Eagle Claw bamboo pole (the one with the number inked on the base), and the Wheatly Simmaloy flybox, were not the “junk” I thought they were! That reel in the leather box was also something (that today, still makes me queasy to think I almost gave it away). The reel had the stamp of H.L Leonard on it. My husband (who before brain surgery had been a fisherman) had gotten them from Margaret’s’ second husband (the first had been killed in a logging accident). . His old waders still hang on a nail, and that wicker creel (its leather handle replaced by a piece of hay bale twine) hangs right atop it. I still have them, and they are still in the garage with my other “junk”. New garage, same old stuff..
Creekwalker
06-21-09.
I like the guy’s t-shirt logo “I handle wildlife for a living. If I’m running, keep up”. A related version: My son was providing safety & security in the vicinity of a small town’s ginormous fireworks display on a floating barge. The operator of the barge came by for a flare. The young firefighters remarked they don’t carry road flares on their boat. The fireworks guy had forgotten the means to activate the fireworks display. He was wearing one of those shirts..”I handle explosives for a living. If I am running, keep up”. The young firefighters backed off their boat a bit from the barge.
This video clip is interesting of how critters adapt to where you would least expect it. Thank goodness it wasn’t a rattler. Did she call this guy the “Skunk Whisperer”? (SMAPP)
Now you see it, now you don’t. Whether you are utilizing a dry fly, emerger, nymph, two fly tandem, swinging a streamer or following the bouncing corkie or strike indicator, you are missing fish. On a stream or river you may not even know this. On a lake you usually will, unless your dry fly is riding the peaks and valleys of rolling waves and is briefly out of sight. I have no solid solution to this beyond once you put the fly on the water, pay attention, don’t ogle the sunbathing beauties passing by on the rafts (ok, go ahead), or watch the cruising eagle above or daydream about all manner of unrelated thoughts distracting your attention. Because most of us are not fortunate enough to have a guide at our shoulder fine tuning our set or strike, we must do this ourselves based upon visuals and feel.
Pick the right strike indicator for the lighting conditions and that is aerodynamic enough to cast, lob or roll cast into the target drift and fish zone. Fine tune the distance between the strike indicator and fly. This reaction to currents, imparted movements and the interruption of the fish is not perfect. We usually cast too far, allow drag on the line, distract ourselves, and second guess our senses…after 20 fruitless strikes the intensity dwindles unless your timing is intuitively perfect and fish after fish comes to hand. There are days like that.
I find that on a multiple day outting, I often adjust the first day and often discard it as a feeling things out. What if you only have the one day or three hours on an afternoon…you know the one where you left work early be you so fortunate. Then optimize the rig, shorten the cast and focus.
Czech nymphing has been so popular because the heavy fly, short cast and dredging technique lends itself to a hookup by sheer current force alone. Proper placement, short casts, line control and a large, weighted pupa pattern reduce time to day dream or second guess the take. Czech Nymphing is labor intensive for you bird watchers.
Traditionally, you see the rise near the surface with a dry or emerger and ‘jerk’ up and back. A problem with this technique is there is a delay caused by the distance traveled to the rear. This rearward set is even more pronounced if you are fishing subsurface with a nymph or streamer. I have noticed, especially with slow-medium action rods, that as you jerk set upward the line often does not move because the rod is caused to arch downward because of the upward force, loading in essence. Once the rod rebounds toward straight or even beyond straight, toward the rear, the line begins to move. This is not as slow motion as I describe it but those split seconds delay the movement of the fy and the hook set.
Yes, many fish hook themselves and it is all moot. But, many fish, I suspect, tweaked your offering and your were barely aware or oblivious. I have come to use a slip strike method. I use it for many offerings and it works standing or sitting on a pontoon boat and to a lesser degree wedged into a float tube. The right hander let say holds the retrieving hand (left) with line in hand somewhat close to the right hand holding the rod. As the fish is sensed or seen, the left hand, while holding the fly line, pulls or strips or retrieves line to the rear while gently raising the right rod hand to create additional tension. The left hand pulling should set the hook and the right hand is raised to increase the tension and add a pop to the set. If the fish runs toward you, the rod is raised higher and line is stripped and stripped to reconnect to the fish and as it runs away the rod is lowered and if need be line is allowed to slip out through the left hand. The size of the fish determines whether you continue to strip line in with the left hand or allow the line to go to the reel and play the fish off the reel.
Now all this is of no consequence if you are like me and the trout keep rising up and smacking my corkie or thingamabobber strike indicators. Hmm?
Per April Vokey’s blog at FlyGal.org she is venturing forth into a television production called Fly Nation. I hope it is a refreshing, novel vehicle to showcase April’s talents and other emerging innovators to the sport. Pujic seems to be dialed in on the medium and prepared to give us the visuals 
to sustain our love of the sport and bring in new blood. The method currently used seems fresh enough for a while longer… My only personal caveat, which counts for nothing, I know…is that comped or partially comped promotional gigs for Nomad type operations is eventually off putting. I mean seriously, it is…well the adjective escapes me, but it is almost hedonistic. Perhaps I am jaded. Perhaps who gives a shit, just show fish porn and we should just sit back and shut up on a Saturday morning and be grateful for April Vokey’s fresh face. Wait and see and know that it is better than the crap out there now that incorporates one promotional insert after another. “Bill Bob would you pass me the Bass Hawg Juice for my Jizzam Bass Plug? Damn, I got some of that Juice on my shirt (with its umpteen sponsors).” The FLW is wearing thin for those with half a wit to discern how pathetic their new version has become. Again best wishes to April and the rest of the crew…
6/20/09, Aside: I once again saw Fly Max’s BC#3 Big Fish, Small Flies clip on WFN. Dear God! A love affair is renewed with BC Lakes, BC Fish, BC Camping by the Lake, and Ms. Vokey in pink camo. If you see that episode and watch the fish launching above the anglers’ heads…seriously, your day will be made to watch that episode, especially if you have experienced BC.
