Fly Fishing: April’s New Site

Just in case you have been tucked away in a bat cave sans Wi Fi? I think in some parts (many parts) of the fly fishing arena you could say April and have the same knowing awareness as Oprah (tsk tsk)

April & Flygal Up

Fly Tying: Definitive Dubbing

 

Dubbing Tools (SwittersB)

 

Over the last few years, dubbing nymphs (abdomen/thorax) has given way to more segmented, leaner abdomens with the thorax having some dubbing behind the ubiquitous bead head. That said, a bristly, impressionistic nymph/emerger pattern still holds my imagination. True, segmentation does suggest a realistic, recognizable image for the fish. But, that movement of fibers and hairs encased in bubbles speaks to a succulent morsel as well.

Whether one twists dubbing onto a single strand of tying thread, splits the thread and inserts dubbing, creates a dubbing loop (with the above tools) or builds your own dubbing brushes, the dubbed nymph body is suggestive of life.

It is easy to build, in some instances, too thick of a body. It is necessary to study the four types of mayfly nymphs (swimmer, crawler, clinger, burrower) and see how they relate to the nymphs you will try to copy. Match the thickness of the abdomen and thorax as appropriate to the type of mayfly nymphs.

Study the Caddis pupa’s, the Stonefly Nymphs, the Dragon Fly Nymphs, Scuds and Sculpins. How could dubbing provide the suggestion of life beneath the surface, in the surface or on the surface (Ultra Fine dubbing for dry flies too).

I have highlighted this UK Fly Dressing Dubbing piece before. I reviewed it again and it is a lot of effort put forth and is still relevent. There are a few other sites that discuss dubbing, but none that I have found so far as comprehensively as ScotFly’s Effort (here too).

Dubbed Caddis Pupa (SwittersB)

Fly Tying by Oar Whore: BWO Sipper Emerger

Oar Whore: BWO Sipper Emerger

This pattern tutorial by Oar Whore, has some good explanations on tying in a deer hair wing in reverse fashion, a trailing shuck, a goose biot body and how to finish the fly off. And here is an excellent piece by OW (need to learn his name Daniel Palmer) on how to get in and out of a drift boat.

Speaking of the Sandy River: EEK!!! Flooding 2011

FLOODING FLOODING FLOODING

I recall working near the Sandy River in 1996. I witnessed devastation akin to the Christmas 1964 Flood.

I recall the woman I talked to in the afternoon. I strongly suggested she and her husband vacate their home at once. She agreed. The husband balked. I left. They stayed. In the night, the home was washed away, the wife and husband inside their home, into the Sandy R.. The husband grasped for her outstretched hand as the house (decapitated after it had passed beneath 3 bridges) passed out into the Columbia R. The tug boat crewman pulled on the husband as the husband pulled on his wife. The wife let go and sunk below into the remnants of the home as the Columbia R. claimed the house and the woman. She was never seen again.

Today, I went out and checked out my unofficial gage (the Troutdale RR Bridge & the Columbia R. Hwy. as it curves right below the bridge). The water has receded several feet below where it had reached. The skies are black to the East. I do hope that no more warm rain falls over the West slopes of the Cascades.

Fly Tying: Classic Dry Fly Proportions

You strive for these proportions. Not just for tradition and appearances sake, but for functionality also. I borrowed this graphic from Rosen’s Fly Fishing Blog, an excellent Bulgarian FF resource.

Classic Dry Fly Proportions @ Rosen's FF Blog (SB)

Proportion Matching

D = G = Е = 2 x C = 2/3 B

F = H = 1 1/2 x C

Excellent Fly Tying, Step by Step Tutorials

Fly Tying & Fishing Woolly Buggers

MIDCURRENT ARTICLE BY Gary Soucie re Woolly Bugger’s Workings

Many of us solely fish Buggers on stillwaters and even more of us do little more to impart life than kicking about in a tube or rowing one behind the pontoon boat. I have enormous faith in the pattern’s worth, in a variety of color combinations. I have vowed, this coming year, to fish more streamer patterns. I have a large hole in my repertoire of presentations when it comes to fishing streamers in rivers. I really wasted a lot of time last year prospecting over quiet waters with a dry. Laziness and short windowns of opportunity. Combo’s of Woolly Buggers will fit nicely into my Streamer arsenal along with Sculpin patterns I am experimenting with.

Soucie highlights excerpts from his book on how to use a stalwart pattern.

Fly Tying: Red Eyed Damsel ‘Nymph’

 

Damsel Fly Picture by Fred Steynberg @ The Spirit of Fly Fishing

THE SPIRIT OF FLY FISHING~How to tie and fish the red eyed damsel nymph

Pong Mania Extraordinaire

“An intelligent man is sometimes forced to be drunk to spend time with his fools.” E. Hemingway

PONG MANIA

PONG MANIA

Fly Fishing: Trout’s Color Perceptions

Jerry at Trout U~Fish Smarter writes a thought provoking piece re a trout’s color perceptions relative to water clarity. Worth a look see and an experiment or two.

1. Trout do indeed have color vision, but it is limited to relatively clear, shallow, water and short distances, so at close range, the trout can see the full detail of color.
2. Trout can discern differences in shades with the highest in blue, then red and then green shades.
3. The color red appears brighter than it does to humans, but quickly becomes black at greater distance.
4. The ability to detect color is greatly impaired and completely eliminated within 12 feet.
5. Impurities in the water or stained water makes colors less significant, but under these conditions, white will remain the best.
6. In the low light conditions of dawn or dusk, trout can not distinguish color. Black, then, becomes the most visible.

I highlighted a similar piece in April of 2008 that is equally interesting entitled Trout’s Vision…The Ultralight Factor.

The Universe’s Spectrum and the place of Green…interesting too.

Fly Fishing & Tying: In for a little…in for a lot

Darrell Pendergrass writes a humorous piece re the downward spiral of Fly Tying’s Hoarding gene….

“When I fell in for fly-fishing I went in deep. Along with purchasing a couple-a-three fly-rods, a vest, several pairs of waders, fly-boxes and bugs, along with an assortment of bells and whistles that go along with the sport, I also bought a fly-tying kit. You know, I wanted to not only catch trout with dry and wet flies, I also wanted to make the flies by hand; myself. I have problems making toast, so it’s unbelievable to me 10 years later that I ever thought I could do this. There should be a one-day waiting period on the purchase of a fly-tying kit so an angler can rethink his actions.” (more)

Would Be Nice To Be Organized Someday