Alenko Franolic: Fly Fishing & Tying Design

German Fly Fisher and gear designer, Alenko Franolic has some innovative design options for fly reels and fly body components. I enjoy fly reels and definitely resist the urge to acquire them along the way. I like the looks of Franolic’s reels. 

An Alenko Franolic fly reel

Especially appealing are the various sized nymph bodies composed of pliable, elastic tungsten materials. The bodies come in a large variety of shapes and sizes. The nymph bodies are somewhat pliable and take the torque of the tying thread to better bind the materials to the body. 

Alenko Franolic elastic tungsten nymph bodies

I am torn on these types of materials. Innovative, pre-formed components. Tying purists will blanch at the idea of these body parts. I recall a certain shop owner fussing over the intro of bead heads into fly tying in the mid-80′s. But, I just don’t know if it is that bad or blasphemous. Tinsels, flash, iridescence, plastics, molded lead bodies all have infringed on fur, feathers and hair. There’s a place for these material if there is a place for foams, Krystal flash or Zelon. If anyone has used these fly bodies, I would like to hear their critiques.

Condit Dam Removal Project…Boom!

A significant event in the Pacific NW….the removal/breach of a dam on the White Salmon River. Visit the White Salmon River Time Lapse Project.  This is a work in progress, a bit different than the removal of Marmot Dam. Add’l info at Andy Maser’s Blog

Condit Dam/White Salmon River, Washington (Andy Maser)

The Fish Hook: Ranking In History

http://www.mychamplain.net

The staple of our sport…the hook. Quickly we cover it up with all manner of adornments. Well, a group, via Forbes, has poured through various inventions and tools of mankind and come up with their version of a ranking of the worth of tools. Read more here….

Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad

Locomotive’s fireman shovels 5 tons of coal to get to Silverton and back

Durango & Silverton Narrow Gauge Railroad

WALLOWA RIVER STEELHEAD TRAIN

 

Beginning Fly Tying & Fishing: Balanced Fly Patterns

On Stillwaters, the presentations can be vertical, diagonal or horizontal. The Intermediate Clear/Camo line is indispensable for that horizontal presentation. Tonight, I was watching a WFN show (B.C. Outdoors) and Phil Rowley was mentioning a horizontal presentation with a ‘balanced fly’ beneath the slip/strike bobber (floating line). I did a little checking and discovered the fly pattern promotes a horizontal path beneath the bobber, a non-slip loop knot and the hook point riding up.

The combo of the hook eye set back and on top. The bead head and materials should be presented to provide a balanced fly when drifted with a loop knot. Phil Rowley

 The experimentation will be to extend the bead out just far enough beyond the hook eye to achieve a balanced presentation beneath the loop knot/bobber. Query ‘slip strike bobber’ in the search box upper right and you will see several past posts regarding how to rig up the bobber/pin & the ‘non-slip loop knot’. I wonder if some jig heads would achieve this same balanced presentation? Still worth a little experimentation on lakes and wind drifting a pattern beneath a slip strike bobber.

Balanced Leech Pattern by Andy Larkin

ODFW Considering Ranch Purchase…Hearings

“The Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife (ODFW) is considering the purchase of a 1,075-acre cattle ranch in Eastern Oregon to add to their 3,798-acre Riverside Wildlife Area.  In a statement to the press, ODFW said the McDaniel Ranch, which lies 15 miles from Juntura, would be open to the public for hunting, fishing (Malheur River), trapping, and wildlife viewing.”   More….   

Malheur River, near Juntura, Oregon (Oregon State Archives)

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“Once a year, billions of mayflies converge on a lake in Russia’s Primorye province to mate, spawn and die… all on a single day.” The video remarks that a year ago, ‘thousands’ of mayflies laid their eggs over the Primorye lake. That translated into billions of mayflies? So later, how many of those billions were females that laid eggs? I find all these math problems so confusing…kind of like the two trains departing, math problem….always terrible at algebra. 

WILD RUSSIA Episode 7 Mayfly Hatch 

A different Russian Dance of the Mayflies by Sergei Dolmatov...blame it on my Post Op pain meds.

Please Stand By: Testing In Progress

Don’t touch that dial….well, if you do, come back soon. Off for a few days to have some fine tuning done on my chassis. Always check out the blog roll for exceptional efforts.

Technical Difficulties for my C7-T1. A little tweaking and mending is in order. See you soon. SwittersB

Trout Hold Where/Why: Gary Borger

The Spot: Reviewing the Where’s & Why’s by Gary Borger  

http://flyfishingtraditions.blogspot.com

Caddis Patterns: Egg Sac’s Colors

You will see the occasional Caddis pattern, usually a dry pattern vs. a diving caddis pattern (you can add an egg sac here too) with a colorful bump at the rear at the bend of the hook. This addition to the pattern is meant to represent an egg sac, which the female Caddis will be dropping, dabbing or diving to lay the eggs.

What color should the egg sac be? You see patterns with a hot red/orange spot as well as various shades of green, yellow to yellowish orange. The little bit of research I did, suggest the egg sacs for some Caddis is typically a shade of green to yellow. It might be worth a shot to add this touch to you Caddis patterns as you tie away this Winter for next year.

Ausable Queen by Tom Deschaine

Caddis With Green Egg Sac (musicarskikafe.blogspot)

Agent 99 Caddis, Thomas C. Duncan, Sr. (Danica)

Glow in The Ass Caddis, Casters FF

Hotter colors might be used, but I am not sure the pattern doesn’t then swing over into a attractor style vs. the theoretically more life like egg sac. Try them both.   Diving Caddis Patterns Without Egg Sacs…But They Could  Also, see this Mayfly version with an egg sac by Markov