Intruders

Intruders.  I love them.  They are fish-catching machines.  They are fun, complex, and time consuming flies to tie - what else can you ask for?  While the pictured intruders are destined to swim in midwestern streams, they share some of the traits of their pacific-northwest cousins.  Some of them use waddington shanks ("WS"), some of them use cut long-shank hooks (9xl in some cases - my favorite).  Personally, I prefer to use long shank hooks cut at the bend.  They are cheaper and I like building from a slimmer base.  That being said, when I want a heavier fly for swinging slow and deep I go with the WS.

The most attractive element of all intruder flies is the hook.  The hook hangs off the back of the fly towards the tail and, as such, it sits right in the face of the steelhead - no short strikes with these flies.  However, this design creates a problem - Hook Hang Down.  Frankly, I don't know if it truly is a problem.  I don't know if it turns fish away or causes hook penetration issues.  But if you look at the fly in the water and the hook dangles below the fly, the profile appears unnatural.  Steelhead are hard enough, why give them a reason to turn down the fly. To combat this I've used a number of different materials: wire, fireline, mono. I find the best material is beadalon wire (found at craft stores).   Also, adding weight to the front of the fly balances the hook and allows the fly to maintain a natural profile in the water.

I can't think of a better fly design when swinging for steelhead.

Tight lines.

Sweet Video from Jeff Hubbard of Outfitters North

I cant wait to get the two-hander out again . . . work is really bringing me down - videos like this don't help.

Golden Age of Fly Tying

                    

With the first serious blanket of snow upon us here in Chicago, it seems fitting for a good ramble on fly tying.  Last weekend I was watching Midnight in Paris with my girl (you gotta do what you gotta do).  The main character, Gil, was a writer who found himself lost, wishing is was born in the 20s - a Golden Age of literature and art.  He spent his nights at Parisian bars sharing ideas with great minds lost to time such as Hemingway, Fitzgerald, and Dali. Of course, my mind quickly drifted to all things fly fishing, in this case, fly tying.  I wondered, are we living in the Golden Age of Fly Tying?  

By way of example, see the fly pictured above. It is my first attempt at the the fly, which is dubbed the fur trader (pun intended).  It is a modern articulated streamer first made public by Matt Grajewski.  I came across it on the internet.  It appears pretty standard for today's industry - but think about what it is? It is made, almost entirely, of synthetic materials (craft fur).  It is articulated using wire, beads, and epoxy. It's head is made of a craft fur dubbing brush.  It is designed for trout!

At one time, the size 8 wooly bugger was the modern trout streamer.  Tyers were limited by available materials and hooks and tied for fishing rather than tying for itself.  As more materials became available, the wooly bugger evolved into flies like the circus peanut, sex dungeon, sculpzilla and of course the fur trader.  These streamers are articulated, covered in rubber or plastic or synthetic fur that maximize motion with out requiring a lot of movement and swim as if they were born and raised in the river.  The one inch wooly bugger has matured into a 9 inch monstrosity - pretty amazing.  What's more amazing is the speed at which the evolution has occurred and the evolution seems to be just getting started.  Each year (or season) we have rattles, uv curing  glues, glowing materials, lure lipps - what's next? 

The wooly bugger's evolution exemplifies the fact that we have entered into or are firmly entrenched in the Golden Age of Fly Tying.  Thanks in large part to the internet, the seemingly never ending supply of new and creative materials, and the rapid infusion of young, creative fly fishing minds that have taken hold of the possibilities and quickly shared, altered and adapted flies and techniques with amazing speed.  The moment a fly pattern hits a blog or forum it begins to grow, evolve, change to fit different species or environments all over the world. Oh, and I say young only because I believe the older generations of the sport, as with everything, get stuck in comfort zones or concepts.  For instance, when I show my Grandfather the modern trout streamers in my box he laughs and tells me "only pike or bass will eat those!"  That being said, a creative mind is not bound by age or time and fly fishermen are a particularly creative lot. I can only expect this Golden Age of Fly Tying to continue. 

Naturally, this begs the question - are we in the Golden Age of Fly Fishing?  Maybe, maybe not.  I, like Gil, find myself in wandering nights sharing water with anglers like Ted Williams, Joe Brooks and yes Ernest Hemingway. At night, I cast a line with those pioneers of the sport who fished when fisheries were new, undeveloped and untouched; when fly fishing in saltwater was cutting edge, when boat ramps weren't crowded or didn't exist. Now, we can fish for Golden Dorado in Bolivia or Tigerfish in Tanzania and are only limited by the all powerful dollar.  Can we be in a Golden Age where waters are being depleted, rivers crowded, runs diminishing?  As I said, anyone can travel into the wild and may do so not because of a passion for the sport or the fish but only because they can afford trip. Sure, today's average fly fishermen can cast farther, more accurately, reach greater depths and distances, but has fly fishing lost the greatness of old, the mystery?

I have to develop that proposition further but, for now, back to the vice to take advantage of our Golden Age.

Tight lines.

Fly Tying Video

Interesting fly, great folding technique.



Never really use hellgramite flies.  Maybe they are worth a try.

Bulls On Top

Saw this at moldychum.com.  If it doesn't get your blood pumping I don't know what will.  Reds seem to get pushed down the saltwater rankings and clips like this one make wonder why.

BULLS ON TOP from SHALLOW WATER EXPEDITIONS on Vimeo.

Michigan Steel!!

Last weekend, Dad and I made our annual fall trip to northwestern Michigan tribs.  Western Michigan received significant rain fall at the beginning of last week and we didn't know whether the rain would be beneficial or a problem - the rain was beneficial.  The river we fished looked beautiful.

We went into the weekend set on swinging up some fresh steelhead that came in with the higher flows. Saturday morning the water looked great but seemed cold.  Saturday morning marked the end of a brief cold front.  And like the temperatures, the fishing needed some time to heat up.  Nevertheless, we persevered and picked up a great buck and a hooked another.  Also, we got a couple of nice brown trout,one which was caught on the swing.  However, despite the favorable looking water conditions, we had to deal with lots of people and, in the afternoon, high, warm, blue-bird skies - not your best steelhead conditions.

To our benefit, Saturday night stayed warm.  On Sunday, we got to the water well before sunrise (still weren't the first boat at the launch) and started to hit the swinging runs.  The air and water temperatures were warm (the water ticked up a couple degrees over night).  Thankfully, the skies were overcast - conditions seemed promising.  Then, as my juicy leech pattern started swinging through a sweet little run I felt a bump, followed by another, then a weighty pull.  I waited to set the hook (unlike usual) and when I lifted the rod and a big dime bright-hen freaked out.  My personal best on the swing (see below).

Dad followed suit with another beautiful hen and decided why stop there? A hole or two later - wham! A hot buck crushed him on the swing and took off down stream causing all of us to give chase.

That Sunday we went 3 for 3 on the swing.  On that river you can't expect much more and with steelies the hook/land ratio is more than can be expected.

As always, Jeff Hubbard of Outfitters North worked hard for us, put us on fish (in less than favorable conditions at times) and taught us a few things that made us better fishermen.  I, being relatively new to the spey game, am totally captivated by the casting (and the flies).  Jeff reminded me that spey casting is just a piece of spey fishing.  While a perfect circle-c with a sweet loop is something to strive for, this fishing is all about the swing - if a simple roll cast will set you up for a perfect swing then a simple roll cast is the cast to make.  Better yet, he clued us in on how to read a run and and set up a proper swing, which is all about positioning.  And, as always, he was right.  See the results below.

Feds OK Christo's canopy over river in Colorado

This is the most ridiculous thing I have heard in a long time.  The artist Christo got the go-ahead to  temporarily hang a canopy of silvery, translucent fabric above a stretch of the Arkansas River in Colorado.

All the narcissism aside, you don't need add art to that part of the world.  Hey Christo, just head on out there and take a look around, mother nature did the work already. 

This "art" is equivalent to someone walking into the MET and painting over a Monet or editing "to be or not to be" out of William Shakespeare's Hamlet.  

The article quotes Christo as saying "[a]ny artist who paints, makes sculptures, the only thing he or she likes is that the artwork makes people think."  If the goal is to make people think, then I'll tell you what - mission accomplished.  People have thought long and hard.  Job well done.  Now, abandon the idea before true beauty is defaced and everybody wins, including the environment for once.