Fly Fishing: Entomology & The Cat

I left the house at 7pm intending to run an errand. I noticed a big, beautiful mayfly dun on my other car. I snapped a few pics and departed, figuring it would be gone when I returned. And, so it was, kind of. I returned to find the shuck in place of the dun. Now, I didn’t get a good enough look at the time to see what was totally going on when I originally left. So now, I gently secured the shuck with the intent of photographing it. I went to the front door and opened it and out jets Penelope the House Cat. Shoot it was 0845pm and almost dark. I chased after the cat and eventually removed her from beneath my rig. Hmmm….the shuck was destroyed in the pursuit of the cat! So much for my entomological studies…at least for tonight. What is very fascinating, for me, is that there is only the smallest little spring behind my house. So, was I watching a Dun prior to the emergence of a Spinner or…….

Fly Fishing: Bug Catcher

Common Garden/Cross Spider (Araneus diadematus) SwittersB

To me, there is nothing seemingly ‘common’ about this spider. It was a long ways from any garden as well. As I explored along the rocky shoreline of the Clackamas River, I came across this sizable spider working away on a web. A steady up river breeze ushered along hatches of assorted Caddis, PMD’s and midges. Remnants of a sizable Stonefly emergence littered the moss covered boulders. This busy spider prepared to intercept some portion of the shore bound insects. Once he was done, he tucked himself beneath some mossy growth attached to a boulder that supported his fly catcher. You are exactly right: the fishing was less than stellar on the Clack/Collawash R., so I passed off the time looking about the shoreline for this and that.

Cross Spider Hiding and Waiting for a trapped morsel (SwittersB)

Mt. Hood National Forest Proposes Decommissioning 255 miles of Collawash River Drainage Roads

Fly Fishing & Stomach Pumps

Stomach Pump

Personally, I think stomach pumps should be the last thing any self respecting fly shop or on line fly fishing resource should offer to the fly fisher. Oh, the sampling can be most enlightening, but more often than not (no I don’t have any statistical data) I would imagine the device is misused and causes harm to the fish.

Stomach Pump Sampling (Brian Chan)

I mean just look at that stillwater sampling of mega chironomids, damsel fly and mayfly nymphs. How much easier now to tie on the correct size and color of an imitation. But, seriously, you want it that easy? While potentially doing harm to the fish? I will say this is one thing (the only thing probably) in which, I think Brian Chan errors. A fishery biologist, such as he, knows how to use a simple, crude device as a stomach pump and has a theoretical need to study food samples from fish and the health of a lake or river. The rest of us can study up and forgo the pump. I don’t believe I have seen a presentation by Mr. Chan in which the pump is not presented and demonstrated at least on lakes. He takes great care to use cradles to land fish and is obviously respectful of the fish. Others, I am not so sure of.   

Is there available written data on the hatches/aquatic life of the body of water you intend to fish? What patterns imitate those food sources? Where are they likely living, emerging, drifting, etc. in that lake or river? At what time of day do they provide the best food source for the fish? What months are they best available? What do other fly fishers tell you? What techniques are you seeing successfully used and where on the body of water?  

When you get to this body of water, what do you see? Are there visible hatches? Are birds feeding above the water? How are the rise forms of the fish (sub surface slashes, porpoising, sips, engulfing wallops, airborne projectiles)? What do you see on the water’s surface, nearby vegetation, on the rocks? What is possibly protruding from the fish’s mouth you are about to release.

Stomach pumps may provide that extra reassurance of what to use, but given the probable harm you will cause (if catching and releasing), forgo the pump and use your brain and power of observation more often. Unless you are Brian Chan and/or a fishery’s biologist?

Fly Tying & Fishing: Short, stubby, ‘skimmer’ Dragon

"Skimmer" Libellulinae (Libellulidae) Dragon Nymph

I won’t overload you with Bug terminology. I would only be borrowing from more accomplished researchers. You can find plenty of excellent work by Rick Hafele, Arlen Thomason, Troutnut.com……. You do the research on the several varieties and shapes of dragon fly nymphs in the (Anisoptera > Aeshnidae (darners) > Libellulidae (sprawlers)) world. 

Many fly fishing dragon patterns will be longer, size 6-8 patters (more the darner variety). But there is a place for the smaller size 10-12, shorter and rounder patterns that slowly move about the bottom in the vegetation and muck and only rarely jet forward. A slow and low presentation is appropriate for stillwaters and quite backwaters of streams (some varieties of Dragons do inhabit slow moving stretches of rivers). 

The above pattern was tied on a size 10, 2xl nymph hook. I dubbed and spun marabou fibers stripped from the stem. Once the density is developed for each color then the marabou is trimmed to shape the bulbous rear, tapering toward the front. At the front of the abdomen, I dubbed in some deer hair and then wound the hen hackle. The head is comprised of red dumbbell eyes (melted red Amnesia mono for eyes) the wingcase is a small piece of fuzzy foam tied in at the front the eyes. The head is dubbed to form a nice round head. Then the fuzzy foam wing case is pulled over the top of the head and tied off to form a slight gap between head/thorax and the abdomen.

The presentation of the dragon fly nymph along the edges and drops of a lake should be more thoughtful than kicking along in a tube trolling a Woolly Bugger or Dragon nymph imitation. This is the primary reason you should study how insects move in their world. Study the predatory ways and movements of insects and then attempt to visualize this and match this with retrieves and assorted fly line densities. Most often dragons will crawl up vegetation, rocks and debris to emerge above the water. Some are poor climbers (squatty little gomphids) and crawl into shore.

This isn’t like trying to match the Stonefly hatches where you fish nymphs and then post emergence, fish dries. Dragon fly dries are seldom used. You want to focus on where dragon fly nymphs reside and then go there and present hunting nymphs and nymphs working toward structure to emerge.  

Honey Bees: Those Eusocial Bees Sacrifice

Interesting, if slightly technical looking at the social structure of bees and the ‘eusocial’ patterns of behavior (no I don’t totally get it after the first four paragraphs); and more importantly where are the honey bees going? “…figures released in spring 2010 show that, during the winter of 2010, the U.S. lost 34%, or just over a third of its managed honeybee colonies. Jeff Pettis: What’s unusual is that they’re dying in such high numbers and so rapidly, so it’s just this dramatic depopulation.

sridharsimplysaid

Pollination determines the life of flowers, fruits and crops. It is estimated that every third morsel we consume is a result of pollination. The honey bee is among the most effective pollinators. 90 per cent of pollination in cross-pollinated crops like oil-seeds, vegetables, fruits and cereals is aided by honey bees alone.   Shridharsimplysaid

Fly Tying & Fishing Instruction

I was stuck in beautiful Eugene, Oregon and ended up in a Borders book store. There were, surprisingly, a scant dozen or so books of fishing. Surprising because Eugene sets amongst several excellent fishing venues within minutes of town.

I came upon a nice book by John Barr entitled Barr Flies. It is a glossy, large sized book with great visuals and a bit spendy. I liked the S-B-S tutorials on several nymph patterns and  I bought the book. I couldn’t fish, so I perused the Barr book and planned my tying to incorporate some of Barr’s patterns.

Another excellent book is Rick Hafele’s Nymph Fishing Rivers & Streams. Hafele provides a gazillion interesting facts about insects that trout eat and how to fish them.

Fly Fishing & The Bugs (Bug Water)

This fine book by Arlen Thomason has been out for awhile and already reviewed by many. I came across it at the Back Country Fly Shop in Corvallis, Oregon. I can only say what everyone else has said: fabulous, amazing details, painstaking photography, new understandings, great effort, well done. I have really enjoyed this book! Buy it.

Also, as a fellow Oregonian, I like the fact that Thomason lives by the McKenzie River in Walterville, Oregon. Don’t you wonder, when you hear those town names, who Walter was?

“Walterville post office was established in 1875 and named by the first postmaster and prominent Central Oregon rancher, George Millican, for his son Walter”    Wiki

Fly Tying: What If’s & Anticipation

Part of the joy of fly tying is experimenting in a ‘what if’ sort of way. It is part fanciful and also practical to consider ‘what if’s’. Often, I most probably deviate away from any realistic entomological standard that probably would or does (if someone happens by here) drive some tiers/fly fishers bonkers. “What in the hell is he thinking?”  I have this dominant tying gene that keeps going to stimulation, ‘excitor’, provocation. Movement, glimmer, life….something to stimulate a sip, galump, smack. On a spring creek with discerning trout, I would most probably be humbled. But, because I don’t get to fish such waters, I am lucky to not be humbled more than I already am………

Beads, ribbings, wavy synthetics, iridescent natural materials are a contrast to the perfection of crisp, clean, etched patterns that are probably in a trout’s mind “out of my way, lunch is ready”.

The above pattern on a size 18 hook was tied with focus on the bead and tail. I over tweaked/processed the pic here to bring attention to the bead and tail. The wing is Starling and supple enough to bend beneath the fly, in the surface and beneath, but to open the gape of the hook a bit more, I could trim out a few more barbs underneath the fly, I suppose. The bead is a bit over sized, but again….it was all about the bead’s coloration and a little bit of movement from the hackle and tail and that nice glow of Peacock herl in the thorax. I may initiate a SwittersB’s ugly fly series soon. Fly tying is, like many creative endeavors good for the imagination, relaxing (it should be relaxing) and provide a constant glimmer of ‘what if’s’ and anticipation.

Dragonflies and more Dragonflies…………..

My attachment to Dragons and Damsels is almost superstitious. I have expressed it here before. When out on stillwaters, they appear, especially the dragons, in a most aggressive way. My mind needs to attach some significance to this beyond ‘hey, dragons, you should put on a dragon fly nymph’. No, I have this sense they are a sign of good fortune and have come to wish me well. I knooooow! Bonkers. And, equally bonkers over Dragons and Damsels and for entirely more scientific reasons are the folks at the British Dragonfly Society.

Igor Siwanowicz’s Marco Work on Alien Insects

Igor Siwanowicz

Igor Siwanowicz Alien Insects & Macro Work

VISIT GOOGLE IMAGES FOR ADDITIONAL MACRO WORK BY IGOR