FLYDEA – 2 – the EYES have it

 

I have two big saltwater trips coming up in the next few months.  I think that the pre trip planning, anticipation and dreaming are as important as the trip itself, especially for fly tiers.  There is nothing like thinking that I am re-inventing the wheel (fly) when at my tying desk looking at the newest fly posing for me from my vise.  I am tying flies for deep water fishes and for Giant Trevally (known as GTs from now on), now, as my next trip is to Christmas Island in December, followed in March by a flight to the Indian Ocean to fish Providence Atoll in The Seychelles.  This blog isn’t about the trip, but the flies and tying.

 

I have always hated putting eyes on flies.  I don’t mind putting feathers of a contrasting  or complimentary color in for eyes, but I haven’t liked adding stick-on flat and bulging eyes directly on to material tied in for the head.  They just don’t look right to me.  Plus they are hard for me to get even. 

While tying for these trips I was adding feather eyes and they just didn’t Pop (take a look at the photo above of the 4 flies together).  In fact I didn’t really notice the real difference until I studied the image and realized the fly with the stick on eyes really made a better impression.  Before I took the photo, I was holding up a stick-on eye up against the feather eye on a finished pattern to see the difference.  Then I took a dyed, church-window feather of a pheasant and stuck an eye on it after stripping it down to the size I wanted and held it up against a finished fly.  What a difference!  So then I tied the one you see above.  I am now a convert.  I am working up some variations, now.  Tying flies is something like fishing a river.  There is always a bend in it where you can’t see around it.  You just have to go there and look around the corner to see wha’ sup.  That is the way I tie.  Rarely am I satisfied with a finished pattern.  I may stop “improving” a pattern and move on to another.  But I like to go back and keep at it until I just have to say “STOP!”  When i carve (wood or some other material) I have to tell myself to quit and put it away.  It is finished, but I don’t know it.  I can always take another knife stroke.  I have to force myself to stop.  I don’t dislike this; it is just the way it is.

The pattern is mostly tied with craft fur.  The markings are made with a Pantone pen.  It is approximately 5 inches long on 5/0 hook.  I am experimenting with a finish for the eye on the feather to make them durable.  I think an epoxy finish will be the best, but I’ll look for others.  I am now using a couple of finger nail products.  Bondini and Hard as Nails.  I coat the material behind the feather before I tie it on with the Bondini.  Not the whole area, just from where the rear of the eye is positioned to the thread.  Tie on both sides.  Now coat the outer surface of the feather where the eye will be placed (this leaves the very tips of the feather free and easy, not glued together).  take the eye (either flat or the bulging kind) off of its paper and press it to the feather.  Be careful not to mess up the feather and/or get the super glue all over your fingers or the eye.  I use a pair of big tweezers for this.  It is easier to get the eye lined up because the feather has the stem running right down the middle of the feather.  Now it is a matter of placing the eye on the feather with the stem dissecting the eye.  Judge how much feather is in front of the eye on one side and place the second in the exact same position on the other side.  You’ll see it is much easier.  I coat the thread with a light application of the Bondini.  Let this dry (about 10 – 15 minutes) or until the next fly is done.  Then coat the eye, the feather immediately around the eye (leave the tips “free and easy), the feather just in front of the eye and the head with Hard as Nails.  Let this dry completely and touch with a second coat if necessary.  Wa La !  You’re done. 

But Wait!  What about a larger feather behind the eye-feather and………….

Down Under Fishing

Last summer I was able to fish Carpentaria Bay in North East Australia along the western shore of Cape York.  It was a hosted trip for TFS.  When I visit and fish different destinations for TFS Travel department I write a report of the trip.  If you wish to read reports I and others in the office have written you can go to: www.theflyshop.com and click Travel, then click the reports that interest you.  There you will see the different reports of several trips taken by our travel staff.  You can also check out their blogs from the links on their reports.  If you wish to view just the Austrailian trip report you can get there directly at: http://www.flyfishingtravel.com/Reports/report_carpentaria_marts_08/carpentaria_report.htm .

Be sure to click the photo gallery to see some trip images.

 

 

 

FLYDEA

 

How about a smaller steelhead fly that has a lot of movement, is easy to cast and is tough enough to withstand the occaisional (or in my case frequent) errant spey cast?  I tried small intruder-type flies and they were OK, but not quite what I was looking for.

 

Now, you have to realize that what I am looking for and what a fish is looking for are sometimes and very often, two different things.  But first I need to please me when I look at new patterns or changing old ones.  A lot of the time I like to tie for colors and shapes that just look good to me.  Then, if I really dig it, I’ll fish the hell out of it and maybe get a fish to eat it.  Some of these turn out to be real winners while others give me the short term pleasure of dreaming it, thinking it, tying it and swimming it.

 

Other times I set out to tie a fly of real purpose with specific requirements attached to it.  That is the case of this newest pattern idea.  I’m pretty excited about it, actually.  It is not a totally new concept.  I’ve seen similar techniques used in large saltwater flies, but this use is new to me and those I’ve shown it to.

 

First Thought  -  I like (as many other tiers do) to fish long-flowing-slinky flies for anadromous (not Andromeda) fishes.  So, I have several saddles with varying amounts of dyed hackle attached to them.  When you first check out these saddles in the package they look great.  Then after yanking out the best hackles for several flies you see that a good number of the hackles are perfect except the tips are missing, creating a little “V” at the end.   Where did they come from?  No matter, they’re here, now.  First reaction is to discard them as unusable, but you leave them on the skin not really wanting to toss an otherwise perfect hackle.  In reality, they could easily be used without any adverse consequences except for the nagging thought that while fishing for steelhead only the best (complete) hackles should be used.  What self-respecting tier would use a decapitated feather on a steelhead fly?  Unheard of!  We’ll leave this whole situation, for a while, bouncing around where ideas do that sort of thing.

 

Ever notice (especially you steelheaders) how you hold up flies in front of your mouth with the eye of the fly close to your lips and you blow across the fly like a river current might do?  You can then watch the fur, hair and feathers move so you can imagine it swinging through a run.  I’d just finished a fly with saddle hackles tied on at 10, 2, 4 and 8 around the fly so it would have good movement.  It was a smaller fly (#7 AJ) so just the tips of the hackle feathers were used.  It just wasn’t the same as larger, longer flies.  They were not moving enough.  It seemed too stiff.  I picked up one of those long saddles with the tip out of it.  I was playing with it and stripped some of the fibers off of the stem leaving about a 1/4″ of the “V” at the end of about two inches of stripped stem.  It had kind of a “twangy” action.  Those few fibers at the end of the stem caught the air and moved more than if it were just the whole hackle tip.

 

Second thought – Attach this stripped arrow-looking hackle to the hook in such a way to give it a lot of action while swinging through the currents.  Now since I want a lot of water hitting and moving it, I use materials in front of it that will skinny down to allow this to happen.  I used dub and mixed dubbing (depending upon the color I wanted) for the body ( a little red Ice Dub mixed with black angora)and rabbit fur (red) with the guard hairs dubbed and tied as a collar.  The one in the picture to the right was tied on a size 6 Daiichi #1120.  It seems right for the size of the fly.  Once a pattern idea is established, then I go gcrazy with the colors and even the shape somewhat until I find what I or the fish like best.

The one pictured above is a different variation from the first.  Tied on a number 7 Alec Jackson hook.  The body is much more compact dubbing or you could use yarn and it is ribbed.  The collar is dyed mallard flank tied in by the tipand wrapped a couple of times, then tied and cut..  The wing/tail is one hackle stem on each side.  You can see that on this one I left some fibers at the base of the stem to create a wing.  And then seemingly suspended out back of the fly is the tail.  And who could stop here?

 

This one (above) is shown with 4 arrow tails, a blue dubbed body, black pheasant rump collar behind rabbit hair collar.  One of my favorite steelhead color combinations is black and blue.  Also tied on a Alec Jackson hook.

 

I have already tied up some carp flies using the “Arrow” idea and I am incorporating it into some saltwater patterns.  Bonefish beware!!

Two guys a girl and a bunch of fish

  I ran accross this photo while going through an shoe box full of old snap shots.  It brought back memories of some of my early fly fishing days.  When I brought it into the office the other day, I was told I had no balls if I didn’t post it and tell the story.  I guess because it shows so many dead fish.  But, in 1972 it was a natural fishing photo that raised no eyebrows except for the size of the rainbows.

When I got out of the service in 1970, I was obsessed with fly fishing and fly tying and while looking through a Canadian fishing guide book, I read with interest and curiosity about Shushwap Lake in B.C.  It is a huge lake fed at one place by the Adams River which had one of the largest runs of sockeye salmon of anywhere on earth.  I don’t know if it still does or not.  When the sockeye fry are migrating down the Adams River to the lake (usually in May or early June), there are big hungry rainbows waiting for a greet and eat.  With some research, I found that the Egg and Eye fly was one of the best producers.  I don’t like long shank hooks when I can avoid them, so I decided to tie a tube fly version.  I remember using Q-tips (cutting off the cotton balls at each end).  They were made on a plastic tube then.  By using the tube, I could use a short shank hook.  It worked great!  I’ve used tube flies for all kinds of fish since then from salmon to sailfish.

This photo also reminded me of how my fellings about “catch and release” evolved.  If you’ll notice the date on the side of the picture (1972), you’ll realize that the C & R philosophy was a lot different then.  I first started releasing fish because I couldn’t understand the idea of catching your limit quickly (”got my limit in two hours”) only to quit fishing to clean fish and sit around all day.  It didn’t take long to enjoy releasing fish just for the sake of letting them go.  I didn’t and still don’t feel bad about killing the occaisional fish for a meal as long as I don’t believe it will hurt the fishery.  Most of the time, though, I just don’t like messing with dead fish.  I would not kill a wild steelhead even if it was legal.  I don’t feel it is right.  I have killed two steelhead – both hatchery fish – in the last 26 years because my wife and I wanted to have fresh grilled steelhead for a dinner……..they both tasted like crap.  I don’t know why.  That was 5 years ago.  I would still like to have a grilled steelhead dinner, so I might try another this fall.  But, I am not poistive I’ll do it.

Its funny how a photo can bring on such thougts.  I am not ashamed of killing those fish - we ate them in the next few days.  They were delicious.  In the early 70’s, there were very few anglers fishing the mouth of the Adams.  The few fish that were killed didn’t amount to a hill of beans.  Now, there are just too many anglers who know about it and fishers, now, are very efficient at fooling fish with flies and lures and it makes a big difference in the number of killed fish.

Another jump-out-and-slap-me-in-the-face feature of the photo is the amount of hair in it and how dark it was 36 years ago.  It was fun seeing and hearing the reactions of workmates when they realized it was me on the right.  Kind of a psuedo-hippy.  I worked at REI, Seattle at the time and fishing was a consumptive obsession with me.  I realized how much so at a party one night when I realized the only subject the others who were there thought that the only way to strike up a  conversion with me was to talk fishing.  They were mostly right.   The next day I bought a popular novel (I can’t remember what it was) to read something besides fishing and didn’t read another fishing book all the way through for 20 years.  I would read bits and peices of books and mag articles, but I needed something other than fishing to talk and think about.  Today, I am reading John Adams by David McCullough, John didn’t do much fishing that I can find out, but it is a good read.  And, I am learning way more about US history from it than I ever did in school.  Some would tell me that is wasn’t “history” back when I was in school.  Anyway, this is the way history should have been taught.

I think the importance of Catch and Release fishing is of major importance in most waters, now.  Our population is so mobile that even the fish in remote Russia, Alaska and Brazil need protection from a catch and OVERkill policy.  C & R certainly accounts for a small percentage of fish mortality, but catch and kill is 100%.  There is hardly a system on Earth safe from an extensive catch and kill sport fishery.  Let’s face it, we are just too efficient at catching game fish these days.

I am reminded to keep in touch with old friends as I look at the three of us in the picture.  I am the one on the right.  The beautiful woman in the middle is my wife (of 42 years, now), Judy and on the left is my friend Bill F.  I realize while looking at the photo that I haven’t talked to him for 16 years.  How does that happen?  We used to fish everywhere together.  I moved to a different city, but that is no excuse.  I’ll call him tomorrow.  I know just how I’ll start our conversation;  “Hey Bill, I know it is chilly today, but it’s going to be hot tomale.” Corny, I know……… but it always brought a smile to our lips and a chuckle.  We spent a lot of time in Baja, Mexico and somehow it always seemed appropriate.

Here is the fly we used: an old and new pattern version.  Try them anywhere big fish feed on smaller ones.

EGG AND EYE (the way I remember it):

Thread: Black – 6/0

Tube:  1/8″ o.d. about 1 3/8 -1 1/2″ long finished size.

Body:  Silver mylar tubing, tied off and frayed at the tail.

Throat:  Red Chenile.                                                           VIEW FROM THE SIDE (overall length about 1 3/4″.

Wing:  Natural mallard flank, tied flat over the full length of the fly.

VIEW FROM THE BOTTOM

 

 

 

 

NEW VERSION (minimalist pattern)

Thread:  Black – 6/0

Hook:  size 7 Alec Jackson – silver.

Body:  None.

Throat: Saddle Hackle fibers – Red

Wing:  Mallard Flank – Natural – tied flat.

This pattern has worked well for me in outlet streams from lakes where there is a sockeye run.  Usually in the spring, but I haveto used it year around.  I’ll be honest.  I haven’t fished it in about 10 years.  No reason, just moved on to other patterns.

 

One other thing I wonder about, looking at the picture.  Do you think long hair will ever come back?  How about red Chamois shirts?

Carpin’

I hadn’t even read a blog until we started talking about it in the office (The Fly Shop Travel Department) a few weeks ago, but I’ve heard about them and liked the idea.  Even before I read my fist one, I had already signed up for this.  I like the idea of a sort of “off the cuff” approach to putting out there stories, thoughts, ideas, reports, memories, how to’s and anything else I can think of involving my fishing and fly tying activities and anything that comes up between trips.  That should just about cover anything I want to blog about (now, I’m even using the word as a verb).  Even though this is done through my work, it is a personal venue.  Not meant to sell fly fishing trips to world wide destinations (my normal job description at The Fly Shop – herein known as TFS) both to freshwater and saltwater.  Saltwater destinations are my specialty, but I get to several of our freshwater places each year.

Personally, I like fishing of all kinds.  If it swims, I enjoy developing flies to toss at it to see if I can get one or two fish to at least mouth one of the my new patterns or an old standby.  For whatever reason - food, curiosity, anger, habit, love, hate etc.   I’ve done a lot of trout fishing in my almost 6 decades of fishing, but given a choice, now, I would probably chase any one of a number of saltwater fishes, steelhead or carp.  I will write about my trips taken for TFS as well as my personal trips.  I will throw some new fly patterns out there.  I will pass on anything I think of interest pertaining to fly fishing or fly tying.

Here goes. 

A few weeks ago, my wife, Judy, and I took our vacation to Seattle, Wa, where most of our family still resides.  Both of our moms, my brothers and sister, our son and our grandkids.  We were there for our son’s wedding.  We all had a great time.  I mean a really great time.  We go to Seattle once or twice a year, but our time is mostly spent visiting relatives.  This time our son, Eric,  took us out to sample some of the city’s night spots and to meet some of his friends he works with at Seattle TattooEmporium.  Downtown Seattle has changed since we left in 1991.  It is vibrant, alive, I couldn’t believe the numbers of people (like us)  walking around Belltown, even at 2:00 AM.  Some of our highlights included the Can Can at the Seattle Market, The Lava Lounge where the DJ plays songs of my era (some great jazz and old rock and roll) and where the wedding was performed and the reception party was held at Slim’s Last Chance Saloon (maybe the best Bar-B-Q and stuffed Jalapeno anywhere).  My cousin, in town for the wedding and to visit her kids and grandkids, took us to Anthony’s restaurant in Ballard on the waterfront, where we witnessed one of those too-rare, perfect, Seattle sunsets over Puget Sound and the Olympic Mountains.  The oysters I had for dinner were plentiful and delicious.  It was, maybe the most fun trip we,ve had to Seattle since we left, looking for more sunshine and blue skies.

Eric and our new daughter -in-law, Jaimie,  have a great, eclectic set of friends and workmates, a perfect sense of humor and love each other very much. 

Their wedding was the reason we went to Seattle.  While there, I was only three hours from some of the best carp fishing in the states.  Eastern Washington has several places where you can find sunshine, blue skies, skinny water and nose-down, tail-up carp feeding on the flats.  I called my longtime friend Darc Knobel to see if he wanted to chase fish, smoke a cigar and drink some beer.  He said he would love to chase fish and have a few beers but would pass on the cigar.  That’s perfect.  I’ll have his cigar. 

We met at 8:00 AM on the Columbia River.  The wind was idling down from an all-night blow, so that by the time we got out on the water, the white caps were gone and the surface was a perfect mirror reflection of the cloudless sky above.  Perfect, perfect, perfect.  We stopped at a shallow bar and got out in crystal clear, knee-deep water with a gravel bottom.  Every 50    yds or so we would see some mudding or tailing fish indicating feeding carp.  Flats fishing in every sense of the word.  We got several shots at them.  We hooked three large (10 – 12 pounds) fish casting to tailing and/or feeding fish.  One broke off, one came unpinned and one was landed.  Good morning!

After lunch, the fish were in deeper water in the weeds sort of logged up, some with their heads under a canopy of floating weeds.  Darc was poling and I was on the bow when a BIG fish was spotted doing just that.  There was a small hole in the weeds in front of its face (I couldn’t see it’s head, just the rear half of its body).  Darc is good at the pole and he put me within dapping distance of the the small hole without spooking the fish.  With a fairly big and heavy fly, I would swing and drop it until I got it through the hole and I watched the fish’s tail.  It twitched and moved a few inches forward and it’s body slightly turned.  He took it!  I set the hook! He towed us around – literally.  I would reel it closer; it would take line away and get enmeshed in the weeds.  We would get it untangled;   Repeat again.  We finally landed all 28.1 pounds (digital scale) of it. 

The pictures don’t look it, but it was the biggest carp either of us has witnessed being landed.  Darc got another fish in the 15 – 18 pound range. and we called it a day.  My idea of a good time.

There are a ton of things I can talk about here.  Flies, techniques, cigars, carp, how two grown men act like 12 year old boys when out on the water etc, but I will save that for another time.  I will recruit the assistance of my fellow office workers to help me figure out how to get pictures on this blog and then I will post it.  My first!