Innovative stillwater damsel pattern by Wes Wada
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Archive for the 'fishing' Category
28
May
12
Wes Wada Damsel Fly Pattern
Well, of course, the photograph is a distraction…right? Beautiful fish quickly brought in and released. The fish can be over taxed with long runs and thrashing about once netted or in the shallows. This Rainbow Trout was taken on a Green Cope’s Damsel. Below are two links: one is to Tony Bishop’s piece on how to play & land a fish and the other is to video by Jerry Criss re a Damsel pattern utilizing Arctic Fox. Both pieces have very useful information.
BISH FISH: HOW TO PLAY and LAND TROUT CORRECTLY
JERRY CRISS & THE DAMSEL FLY NYMPH AT THE WEEKLY FLY
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EVERY DAY IN MAY CHALLENGE TOPICS DAY BY DAY
GALVESTON, TEXAS ‘SHORELINE’
The ‘Shoreline’, the Sea Shore, the changing edge by the water…the water that rises and falls, scours, churns, smothers then recedes to reveal the new look….the new shoreline, like above (post hurricane).
But, the above shoreline is not as familiar to me as the river’s edge, the lake’s edge. These are the places I stand to assess the where, the if, the how….the maybe’s. The rocks, boulders, tall grass, the sand, the ice, the insects, the trees. Poison Oak, snakes, thistles, log jams, reeds and cat tails…all along the lapping water. Woody debris, twigs, mossy rocks, leaves collected in the trees and bushes at eye level from past freshets. The launch point, the take out. The shore lunch, the nap.
The shoreline…the ‘bank’. It is sometimes the place of comings and goings, where those pesky slips, trips and falls take place. I’d rather intentionally sit on my terms and smoke my briar or a fine cigar. Sometimes it is the best vantage point to study what is going on out there.
In this instance, I was at a perfect place. Close to the water’s edge, but sitting on a selcouth find….a bench.
TOMORROW’S EVERY DAY IN MAY WRITING TOPIC: LESSONS LEARNED
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Just a week ago, I was wading wet on an early morning with daytime temps in the high 80′s. This morning, the pile is on and temps are in the low 50′s. My skinny legs would need the pile pants and waders this time around.
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EVERY DAY IN MAY CHALLENGE TOPICS DAY BY DAY
Leaves Up Into the Trees: http://floradoragardens.blogspot.com
RUNOFF: I suppose I typically associate that with snow melt and the Spring time, early Summer runoff that scours out rivers and keeps bank anglers and river runners waiting for better fishing conditions. Of course, kayakers, rafters and thrill seekers are ecstatic.
I watch the river gages to see when some of my favorite rivers will drop into shape. Much of time, I am not dealing with the typical Spring time, snow melt, high water scenario. Rather, I more often am dealing with Winter time heavy rains and surface runoff that pushes rivers well up into the trees and makes wading forbidden. Then it is the waiting game. Which rivers drop into shape sooner than others. Do I know at what height the river is getting fishable and is the water clarity closer to “steelhead green” rather than chocolate latte?
One learns the minimum levels to consider fishing on say the Deschutes River (Oregon). Risk takers will ignore this, of course, and some will perish. I am to risk avoidant to wade in waters that are like walking on bowling balls with less than a foot of clarity. “Flows can fluctuate in May. High but steady or decreasing flows are fishable, but once you get above 6500 cfs or so (Madras gage), it’s hard to find good spots to fish. When flows are high, you should look for the same TYPE of water that you usually fish, but it may be in a different place. And there won’t be as many places to fish as there are at lower flows.” (Westfly)
River gages, when available are a valuable resource in deciding whether the timing is right to drive an hour or more to a river to fish, especially in the Winter. I can drive a short distance and look at the Sandy River for color and flow and decide if it is worth driving up to Oxbow or higher, but gages help too. Watching weather predictions, river forecasts and dam releases will help in your decisions to travel or not travel. In the Spring, the ‘runoff’ is hopeful for the long term as snows melt and temperatures warm…hope springs eternal that months lie ahead of decent fishing. Not so predictable in the Winter.
Tomorrow’s Every Day in May Writing Challenge Topic: Safety First
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I was up early to start a fire, the morning air was chilly. I went out onto the porch because the morning blazed red to the East. The lake was fairly calm, but the wind was rustling the chattering leaves of a nearby Aspen.
The old saying came to mind:
Red sky at morning, sailors take warning; Red sky at night, sailors delight.
or
Red sky at night, shepherds delight; Red sky in morning, shepherds’ warning.
To my right, I gazed out at a quiet back cove, surrounded by cat tails and reeds on three sides. Sheltered from the Westerly wind, I watched the sporadic start of a feeding fest by large trout dining on chironomids. This feeding escalated for several hours (I took the pictures at about 0445 hours) and peaked around 0900 hours when a powerful wind tore into the area from the West. The wind blew hard all day. No moisture came, but the daytime temperatures dropped from the previous 80′s into the 60 degree range. By the time night time came the temps were much colder yet. As a pontoon skipper, of sorts, I took warning. Fortunately, I found some safe spots to wait out the winds.
By the dawn’s early light, I could see the swirls of fish working just below the surface to emerging midges.
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“Since the mid-1970s, large increases in hatchery programs in the U.S., Canada, Russia and Japan have released billions of fish into the water. And the increasing global demand for salmon has resulted in calls to further expand hatchery production, especially in Russia and Alaska. In a 2010 open letter to Alaska hatcheries, seafood processors proposed increasing pink salmon hatchery returns by 25%-115% over the next five years. Similarly, Russian hatchery managers stated in 2010 that Russia is planning to build 23 new hatcheries that would increase the country’s hatchery production by 66% or 680 million fish.
“The scale and magnitude of our current hatchery production system is enormous,” says Rand. “Five billion juvenile salmon are released each year worldwide, and the prospect of additional increases in hatchery production is worrisome for the long-term survival of wild salmon.” (more at Science Blog)
JAY NICHOLAS HAS SOME GREAT INFO
This a very complex issue for this C Average Student. Dams, Irrigation, Logging, Hatcheries, Commercial Fishing, Pollution, oh and Sea Lions, on and on contributing factors go. And, the propensity is to substitute one man made management style over the top of the previous one. We mucked it up and the mean time, the Put ‘n Take Crowd wants their damn fish! I am glad others are taking on this puzzle and that they put it in terms I can understand…Cliff Notes so to speak.
All the good intentions aside, it does come down to prior investments, jobs, business versus a probable crisis in maintaining/restoring the original wild strains. As much as everyone readily paints business interests as inherently bad and the problem, I at first will always point to government management or mismanagement as a greater culprit in messing things up…then poor stewardship by businesses…and the oblivious ‘I want mine’ by the ‘put in take’ crowd helps perpetuate the whole mess.
While it feels good to quote some Native American slogan about preserving some resource, I wonder how Oregon and Washington…two states that have had overwhelming Democrat power bases for decades….two very liberal/progressive states…two very eco conscious states have made such a mess of the fisheries. All those Democrat Governors have been silent and void of leadership on these issues. Of course, I’m only a C Student…so what do I know?
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Oh my, these topics really bring out my weaknesses don’t they? The leader, the skinny little ‘tapered’ link to the fly and hopefully the fish. I do care about that nail knot securing the mono butt section to the end of the line. I do try for a taper toward the fly. Sometimes I invest in a pack of 3 tapered leaders, either 7′ or 9′ to a 4# end. I rebuild from there with the tippet piece. I try, I really do, for a 50, 25 25 (%) or 60, 20, 20 (%) ratio of materials.
But it isn’t until the fish trail off, that I notice I’m fishing with a 7′ leader with 10# married to 3.5# by a gnarly surgeons knot. Do you notice I never use the 5x or 6x designations. I flunked math for a reason: part memory, part befuddlement. I stay in the #’s like my old gear days. I do try to pay attention to length, but as you read, I am sometimes behind on that standard.
All of it (precise leader construction) doesn’t make much of a difference for me/to me. Of course, maybe it would if I always fished gin clear spring creeks, but short of the Metolius River or Fall River…I don’t.
The best addition of leader material for me has been fluorocarbon leader. No, I don’t have trouble with knots or joining mono to fluoro. I’ve use it far and wide and it has improved the takes…just my impression. See how non-techno I am? Such randomness would never fly in certain circles, but I’m not building a rocket or a bridge. I am simply fishing.
Tomorrow’s Every Day in May Challenge Topic: Fly
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Every Day in May Outdoor Blogger’s Writing Challenge: Rod
The Rod. Bet you can’t buy just one. My original rod was a metal telescoping fly rod my Uncle gave me in the late 50′s. I never really used that, but by the early 60′s I had a Sears & Roebuck setup…a Ted Williams model rod and reel. A fiberglass rod, it had a sliding sleeve on the cork handle that allowed it to be a fly rod or a spinning rod. I still have it. The set up lasted me for many years. It was a magic wand, a devining rod more often than not.
“Some Sorcerers do boast they have a Rod, Gather’d with Vowes and Sacrifice, And (borne about) will strangely nod To hidden Treasure where it lies; Mankind is (sure) that Rod divine, For to the Wealthiest (ever) they incline.” Sam Sheppard
In my early twenties I ventured away to drift gear (level winds and spinning rods) and spent a majority of the time fishing the terminal gear. But, then providence struck in Sisters, Oregon. I walked into the Fly Fisher’s Place on the first day it opened. Harry and Dee Teel greeted my family, dirty and disheveled after a long camping trip. I looked about the shop and noticed the beautiful fly rods and reels. Most were way out of my price range and I said as much. I was use to inexpensive Lamiglas and Eagle Claw rods.
Harry took me aside and showed me a rod and reel that was tucked away. A loss leader of sorts, a rod that was a prototype from Japan. His kindness and easy style paved the way for me to buy the setup (rod, reel and line plus some leader materials, flies and a box) for $300.00 I used that set up for 13 years. It (I) caught a ton of fish on that prototype, 5 wt. rod. All was good and the beat rolled on.
Then one day I stopped by a fly shop and they were having a casting clinic and just coincidentally they had some Sage and St. Croix rods strung up. I played around with an Sage XP and a St. Croix Ultra Legend. Things changed that day. I still am not really certain it was for the best. The faster Sage and St. Croix rods were amazing to cast. My slower action prototype rod seemed flabby and tired.
I sprung for both because of a rare windfall. The old, oddly blue colored, prototype rod became a backup to the newly purchased Sage XP 5 wt. and the St. Croix Ultra 3 wt. Both have caught a bunch of fish too. But, I have a sentimental attachment to the slower prototype rod.
Along the way three sons decided to try fly fishing. Orvis, TFO’s, St. Croix, Fetha Styx, Loomis, Echo and Sage rods came into the family rod vault. All have caught fish, all are acceptable rods and some for the price are an excellent value. More costly is not necessarily better. The industry has done better to provide rods at a much cheaper price that the ordinary fly fisher can afford.
That old, prototype rod does deserve to come out of the rod tube for a tour now and then. I’m not a rod snob, but I do have one thing about poles and rods. It is probably the one underlying hitch in my giddy up that perhaps reveals: the rods and poles thing.
Tomorrow’s Every Day in May Challenge Topic: Line
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EVERY DAY IN MAY CHALLENGE FOR BLOGGERS: WADERS
The best purchase I have ever made in all my years of fly fishing. No rod, no reel, no vest, no pack, nothing equals the purchase of my Gore Tex waders quite a few years ago. Closely associated are the best possible boots to go with them. Getting out of those old, foul, smelly, tight, ugly neoprene waders, a supposed improvement over the old rubberized wader of old, was the best thing I ever did.
Dirtied, soiled, stained…’rode hard and put away wet’ my Simms waders (you can pick your own non-neoprene, Gore Tex brand of waders). Well worth the investment. Nothing worse than trying to shimmy out of those old, wet neo’s on a sub freezing Winter day. Did I mention I hated those old neoprene waders?
Tomorrow’s Every Day in May Topic: ‘Something Completely Different’
