Every Day in May Bloggers Challenge: Hatching is More Than Matching

EVERY DAY IN MAY OUTDOOR BLOGGERS WRITING CHALLENGE: TODAY’S TOPIC…’HATCHING’…SEE THE OTHERS HERE

Well, I guess the obvious must be written about ‘hatching’ and how it relates to fly fishing and fly tying. I imagine you understand the other possibilities…one of which I had never read about (hatching while drawing) and also in writing…

“Betsy said all this, and, at the same time, from her good-humored, shrewd glance, Anna felt that she partly guessed her plight, and was hatching something for her benefit”. Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy 

Did you know that closely spaced lines in drawing are used to create shape, depth and texture…it’s called Hatching.

No, hatching in my world is not about hen’s eggs, hatching plots and plans or certainly about drawings. It is confined to fly fishing. “What’s hatching?” or “what’s coming off” (the water’s surface) or simply “what are they eating?” is all about solving the momentary or future, on the water, puzzle in order to fool a fish with a fly. It is part of a greater puzzle that gives enjoyment to the endeavor. 

It’s why fly fishing is one of the more, dare I say it, intellectual efforts in fishing. Let’s see Earl “will I have to think harder if I have to choose my favorite color of Power Bait…or whether to use Red Wigglers or ‘crawlers’ or whether that is Blue Winged Olive, PMD or PED”.

Personally, I have always been partial to Rainbow.

No offense intended boys. Just sit right back down in that folding chair and sip your Pabst Blue Ribbon. Remember my previous post? I have fished all manner of ways….so, I can ruminate about such questions.

Learning a little about entomology’s cycles of life in a stream or lake and what comes of it to feed the fish is enjoyable. It adds some structure to solving the puzzle. You think, you observe, you plan (this can be reading, tying your own flies or selecting the flies at a shop or ordering them online…I strongly recommend taking classes and tying your own).

Truly fly tying is the icing on the cake. You learn to tie flies to mimic the food sources that fish eat. What could be better? Artistic meets Creative meets Thinker. The created fly is presented to the fish to ‘match’ the hatching (whew…I finally got back to the word!) insects that are coming to life and energizing those secretive, hiding fish.

Whether the hatch is a ‘blizzard’ hatch (in your mouth, in your ears, up your nose, inside your sunglasses type) or the infrequent, short lived 15 minute blurb you better be watching for and ready for…you have to study, plan, observe and react to it. At least you should if you want to derive the most enjoyment from fly fishing.

Tomorrow’s Every Day in May Topic is: Grinning & Laughing

Fly Tying: Keep It Simple Perhaps?

There is a simple, practical elegance to an ‘ancient’ wet fly. Malcolm Greenhalgh at Fly Fishing & Fly Tying writes on the use of flies in general and about the Ancients….

“For 25 years I wandered the length and breadth of Great Britain yattering with either pictures or my fly-tying kit to fly-fishing clubs….. The interesting thing is that, in youth and early middle age, most of us love to ‘invent’ new flies or modify older flies, the new or modified being (we tell ourselves) better than the old or unmodified. Then, in later middle age, I think that most of us have flies that we can tie easily and, the most ingredient of any good fly, flies that we confidence in.”

A few 'Ancient' wet fly patterns from Malcolm Green

There should be a few such patterns in your boxes…simply think Partridge and thread (vary the colors) or Starling and thread. Throw in a rib or a tiny thorax if you must, but keep it simple and believe.

Fly Tying: Loop & Pinch Keeps Materials on Top

The beginning of the pinch loop. The technique will greatly assist you in keeping the material atop the hook shank and prevent it from rolling to the far side.

The Limp Cobra provides a good tutorial on this fly tying technique that will greatly improve the application of materials to the top of the hook. This is particularly important on tying in tail or wing materials. As always, there is nothing stopping you from unwrapping and starting over if at first you start caddywhompus  (a seldom used Irish fly tying term )

 

 

Fly Tying: Suggestive Dubbing

Is this a perfect pattern for a beginning fly tier? A dubbed green abdomen and the teased out darker thorax on this little gem makes for a productive emerger/pupa pattern. FlyMagazinecComBr   Dubbing for the Beginner

Fly Tying: In The Film, Emergers

The Orb Callibaetis Emerger, SwittersB

I haven’t been able to get out much this Spring/Summer to fish due to family health issues. I am looking forward to getting out onto a lake soon and experimenting with assorted patterns. It is a part of fly tying/fishing that I enjoy…the experimenting with patterns that you know just have to be successful….but sometimes fizzle. All fun and often amazing. The Orb was hugely successful the past two seasons on lakes as an emerging Callibaetis Mayfly. Fished in the top foot or so of water, with a ‘greased’ leader or beneath a strike indicator (bobber or supportive dry fly)  it rocked. Others tie a similar pattern with a deer hair wing canted forward, plus the bead. I have not tried that…but this simpler version works also.  

Fly Tying: Wet Fly (Oversized Hackle Barbs for Wing)

USING OVERSIZED HACKLE ON SMALLER HOOK FOR WET FLY

Pulling hackle barbs off of a larger hackle and tying them in over the eye of the hook, then after creating a body, pulling them back over the body. Key: make the barbs only the length of the hook shank (not longer or shorter). 

Oversized Barbs Used Here and Pulled Back Over Peacock Herl Body (SwittersB)

Fly Fishing: Fly Shop Gauntlet?

Cigar Box Pleasing to My Eye

Fly Shop Etiquette from Colorado FF Reports

I have posted here, for the beginner, before about how to approach other fly fishers & gear fishermen on streams and lakes. I have written about the attitudes one encounters in fly shops that are both discourteous and not helpful in overcoming the perceptions that fly fishing is an elitist endeavor. These are important considerations for enjoying the mental benefits of the sport. In the above linked post, the author reminds us that how you enter a fly shop and conduct yourself is important too.

A lot of mental, social machinations, it seems, to enjoy a pleasant, sometimes solitary pursuit. Yet, it is the reality in fly shops (hardware stores, the workplace, taverns, gyms, back yard BBQ’s). Ego’s, impatience, innocence combine where men (and some women) gather. Many don’t have a nearby fly shop(s) to visit, support or ignore. Some would say you are lucky, while others would say you are missing out on an enjoyable, social aspect of the whole experience. 

So, consider stream/lake etiquette, shop etiquette and if nothing else recognize the dynamics. Then try to place yourself as far from the maddening crowds as possible to avoid conflicts and receive the sustaining benefits of fly fishing. (The comments banter in the above link are worth a read also as they show the variety of perceptions re etiquette and customer service) (Excellent here to  at  Singlebarbed On Support Your Shops? Always read the comments too)

Fly Fishing: Hi-Jinx’ed (Midges Flush)

Hi-Jinx Midge Emerger (SwittersB)

Stillwater, conventional, fly fishing wisdom is to present your chironomid/midge pattern in a vertical posture from the muck to the surface. I agree with this. There are always exceptions. I can recall  moving from one part of a lake to another and trolling along a midge pupa, that had to be bobbing between vertical to horizontal as I rowed, and getting nailed. But, a stationary, vertical presentation toward the surface is predominantly called for.

That said, I have had excellent results with a horizontal presentation for midge emergers in the film. Retrieved back, twitched or wind drifting, a pattern tied and presented in a horizontal path does provide positive results on top.

Now I am talking stillwaters, re that maneuver. On the slower tailouts of rivers, a drag free, dry fly presentation is appropriate. A light wire hook is better on a river to maintain a mostly horizontal position for the fly. The rear end of the fly will cant downward because of the lack of a tail to prop the fly up in the surface, or pattern design.

With the Hi-Jinx pattern above, the fly is tied smaller on a size 16 hook. This is not a bad idea for some patterns: still go somewhat small for the hook size and then reduce further the pattern size on the shank of the hook. The positives of the pattern will overcome the perceived negatives of the exposed hook. Pattern + Presentation will usually overcome most negatives.   

Fly Tying & Fishing: Mother’s Day (and beyond) Caddis

RICK HAFELE ON THE BRACHYCENTRUS OCCIDENTALIS CADDIS

Fly Tying: Recap ~ Lil’ Grey Emerger

Some times a drought of thought or ideas (life, fishing, tying, blogging), calls for revisiting the past and reconnecting to the tried and true: I have high lighted this little gem before and I think it is a great beginner’s pattern, for the tier, especially for still waters. In the film and just subsurface it is very successful. Equally so working up from the depths. I know, I know..even out of a beginning fly tying class or from a book out of the shop, you can tie more complex patterns…yes, yes. But….

Review the simple tying steps, maintain the sparse profile, study the pics, rib it or not and believe.

The Lil’ Grey can be tied with different shades of Anron/Zelon (I wouldn’t use the kwinkle synthetics). These patterns were tied size 18. I tied size 14-18 to follow the seasonal mayfly progression of larger to smaller sizes. This makes a dandy in the surface Chrionomid emerger. Try it. Idon’t guarantee to much here, because that is the way of fly fishing. I headge a bit re this pattern. 

Lil’ Grey                              Lil Grey 2