Scud Buggin'

Left: size 20 SH scud in olive.

The upper East Branch of the Delaware has a great deal of vegetation. Pictures from late spring and summer resemble the weed beds of chalk streams.

I tied these tiny olive scuds with thick thread bodies and translucent synthetic hare's ear dubbing. In the water, these look pretty buggy.

Okay, so in a water glass they look pretty buggy.

I've got more conventional scud and Syl's midges on emerger hooks in 17 and 15. Just in case, I wanted something really tiny and alive for those morning when the trout are laying around not yet having had their first cup of coffee. I wanted something that might remind them that they were always hungry. Sometimes they forget.

Trout in the Driftless love scud. I'm hoping Delaware trout do as well.

I'll use a tiny ball of sticky tungsten putty on my leader-tippet knot if I need to drift this lower in the water column. I plan on fishing it upstream as I would a dry fly quartering the stream and drifting beside weed beds and submerged rock.

I'll start putting camping gear together for the month's end opener here tonight. We'll see what the weather brings. I could use some tent time and a nice morning fry-up.

I can smell the cottage fries simmering in bacon grease already.

Prost.

Well Aware of the Delaware

At left from the Metropolitan Museum of Art: the Emanuel Leutze image of Washington crossing the Delaware River ... which we all know is a complete fabrication.

Oh, George crossed the river on the way to a devastating victory over the Hessians.

George was in a deep funk over the coming battle and certainly wasn't standing the breeze. Some of his troops died of exposure -- and probably pneumonia -- on the ensuing march from the far bank into town.  The winter was brutal. Accounts of the time reveal the whole affair to have been a miserable, horrid endeavor which resulted in an early victory the American revolution desperately needed.

My spring trip is to the Delaware -- east and west branches -- the Beaverkill, and the Neversink.  I just signed up for the trip this week. I said "yes" formally only yesterday.

I'm hoping for better weather than ol' George endured.

My arsenal will be better than his as I'll take a battery of rods for two-handed trout streamers, light-line spring creek brookies, and the usual suspects for four and five weight spring hatches. I'm going for the famed Hendrickson blizzard but will be equally prepared for the disappointment of BWOs (Ha!) or the more traditional spring experience: PTN and Hare's Ear flymphs vacuuming the river bottom as I re-develop my short-line nymphing feel.

It's been a long winter and the ice is off the meadow here. We're due another good snow or two before true spring -- and maybe one in the spring -- but the worst is past.

I've been hiding from my vise only tying socially in Monday night sessions at the Beer Grotto in Dexter. There's nothing remarkable to say of those sessions as I'm just replenishing my soft-hackle inventory.

I've been heads down at the day job cleaning up a couple major projects and discovering that I'm in the wrong band. I'm watching the unchanging momentum of the same ineffectual effort driving disappointing results. Alas, the needed change can only be wrought by broken bones and hurt feelings and that is not the manner in which our little tribe operates.

So, trout.

The trout, the trout, the trout.

I'm interested in the dry-fly pilgrimage to the Catskills more for a hike into the Neversink Unique Area than for the photo-op at the Junction Pool or Mr. Hendrickson's Pool. I will however fish the upper east and west Delaware, the Beaverkill, and trek into the gorge of the Unique Area for a little Neversink brook trout fun.

I haven't been on the water since October.

I'm working up some brook trout plans on the Black River here for the April opener in Michigan.

I'm researching a self-guided trip to  the U.P. featuring the Ontanogon River in the Porcupine Mountains for September after the "deerflies of summer have gone" -- to borrow from Mr. Henley.

It's been a long winter requiring me to get smarter (that hurts a little these days). I've spent a lot of time at the gym trying to run faster and farther because some of my desired fishing excursions are going to require a greater degree of fitness than I've enjoyed these past few years.

RMNP gassed me last year.

There are too many wonderful places that require more than a couple hours' hike to reach. Those are places I want to fish. I'm working on it. There is a series of 5K runs starting here in April through Thanksgiving. They'll put in in good stead for more serious conditioning in 2020.

Alaska, Scotland, B.C., and the golden trout of high altitude pocket lakes are on my list. I'm determined to not be the backcountry coronary guy.  Better endurance for me means more fun.

Hope the fish in your pool start looking up soon.

Prost.

2019 - The Year of Streamers

At left, a palmered-style bead-headed rusty streamer in #10 1 xl. I've had good fortune with these palmer-hackle flies because they are most forgiving to tie: in the water the hackle covers all manner of sins.

The bead-head I feel now is a mistake. Weight interferes with the lifelike action. A weighted leader and an unweighted fly on a loop makes a better presentation. Head-weighted flies are "lumps" at current speeds I fish never twitching or oscillating. They plunge.

I loved fishing my soft hackles. In 2018, my most effective technique in Michigan involved the long drift downstream. I used this technique of a slack drift past cutbanks, in front of downed timber, and in the inner edge (towards the middle of the stream) current flows that come from major obstructions.

My drifts didn't drag exactly but they produced enough irregularity that they simulated life in a struggling invertebrate and drew fish out of concealed lies.

Unfortunately, I fished to too few actual fish in 2018. I have only one note on stalking and taking a feeding trout. I fished to habitat. 

SO, 2019: The Streamer.

I like feeling the take. 

I like fishing micro-streamers imitating various baitfish in #5 down to #16 fry. They cast well using single-handed spey techniques.

I like tying the streamers.

I need to learn a little more. I'll look through my copy of McClane's and dig about online for some Carrie Stevens' patterns. I have Sharon Wright's tremendous Tying Heritage Featherwing Streamers but lack much in the way of hairwings in my personal library. I expect I'll be investing in the writing of Joseph Bates.

I'm looking for solid mid-size fish this year: just the chunky 12" kind. I'm told from my reading that many fish in this league transition from invertebrate diets to more piscivorous pursuits.  I haven't found such references in the academic studies yet. I'll keep looking. I have reason to doubt.

Nevertheless, in the winter sessions I'll be going through bucktail and spun this and that. I'll make generous use of the over-hackle dressing for heads because I am convinced that the hydrodynamics of a prey animal is considered by a predator. 

I'll have fun and in the spring, I'll flip micro-streamers along the banks and under sweepers seeking the hungry ice-out fish.

I'm really looking forward to tying fuzzy-bodied soft-hackle streamers. I'm getting my body taper technique down pretty well. 

I hope the trout appreciate that effort.

Happy 2019.

Prost.

Lacking Data, We Must Assume Success

The image at left is hosted on wikicommons and is used with the very kind permission of D. Sharon Pruitt and Pink Sherbet Photography of Utah. Thanks for the loan of the image!

Blank page.

It is supposed to be full of measurements and figures and the extrapolation of a population model answering questions of fish-per-mile and the overall success of our Mill Creek restoration program.

First, the water was too high for our fall fish shocking. We've had rain.

Fine.

A couple weeks later the intrepid Mill Creek Investigative Team convenes and are defeated by a recalcitrant generator mounted on the shocking barge. How many engineering degrees were clustered around the generator that would do everything but generate?

You really don't want to know but trust me, NASA was jealous.

So, my fall highlight was to be the survival of fish in Mill Creek and hopefully confirmation of natural reproduction.  No news is hardly good news.

Maybe we'll have news later.

I've got a roomful of gear and am plotting outings for next year. This year, I may still get up north for some post-spawn streamer work on the Au Sable. I don't like to trouble the fish until after the spawn.

My local shop is plotting an outing to the Driftless in Wisconsin for spring. That has merit.

I have a memorial to attend for the wife of a great outdoorsman and friend. She'd had quite a health battle this past year or so. I'd only briefly met her once -- our friendship revolves around trout and didn't involve the more domesticated elements of life.

I'm going to make a real effort at getting my friend in the ink. He's an excellent writer and has had a solid career in non-fiction and technical writing. He has all the hallmarks of fiction but for accomplishment. Might be an outlet.

At least, I'm going to try to get him to a library for a couple evenings and let him think about something other  than those things that trouble us through the windshield as we roar down the road. Being alone with our thoughts can require a little direction towards industry from time to time.

Are you working on your thoughts about trout? 

I am. I'm thinking the water is bloody cold.

The beer is closer to room temperature. (I keep my cave cooler than yours, I'm sure. I'm the most part bear.).

Don't let it build up in the pantry. Have some.

Prost.

Pre-Season Jitters

 I call it stress tying. You know: that period between when you really want to be on the water and when the season opens. That's stress tying season.

At left, a highly buoyant Coachman. I've concealed a strip of closed cell foam down his spine.

Yea, looks like it too. Call it a Royal Porkman fly.(well, need some true white and ...)

 My size 17 BWO soft-hackle. Yes, I have  a ton of CDC soft hackles in five (!) colors lined up ... not that I have a clue on the colors. I can't see color so I have no idea why I even bother. Usually, I can remember if I sort my fly box which is where. With five colors all tied on a snowy Saturday in January, I've no chance at all.

Nevertheless, a soft-hackle BWO. Yea, I'll work on it. #17 though. With the right presentation it will work.

 Soft hackle hare's ear flymphy tung-head.

I might need 'em and so I tied 'em. I am not a real fan of contact nymphing. Yes, I can freestyle nymph pretty well. Yes, I'm always rusty on the first outing. Always.

Why is that?

Anyway, I might need something if it is cold and dreary and my fish want something ticking on bottom.

That's not going to be my opener, though.


I've got a bug up my ass about making a couple epic trips this year.

I'm going to Wabakimi and one never knows if it might be my last trip. One of these days, I'll be flying in to spread some of Mike's dad's (also know as Old Guy) ashes in lower Wabi. He stopped going when he turned 80 and couldn't pack his own gear. He didn't need to pack gear at all but you try telling that to one of those old hard as nails bastards. Go ahead. I dare you.

Anyway, one day I'll be flying-in to spread Old Guy's ashes.

Then I'll be flying in to spread Mike's. We've had some of the best days of our lives sitting in aluminum islands on a place damn few people ever go. I love the Ontario wilderness. Stunning.

I fell in love with Wabakimi on my first day there in a boat with Reagan. His last Canadian trip at 78. My first.  Thank you Reagan, where ever you are.

I want the Amber Liquid guys to have this joy. Now, I'm too much of a hard-ass and an asshole-first-class for these fellows to listen to me. Different lives.

Nevertheless, I want them all to know "epic."

Yellowstone offers some of that. I want them to go to Yellowstone.

I want the Lamar. The Yellowstone. The Madison. The Gallatin. The Firehole. Cache creek. Soda Butte creek. Slough creek. The Gardner. There is a decade of fishing there for me.

There's a decade of fun for them. How many evenings around campfires are wasted evenings?

None.

No worries about bears. We share the same temperament. Best to give us both a wide birth.

Opener is next week. I'm building a heavy camp. I'm feeding breakfast. I'm fishing. I'm thinking good thoughts about the fellows who can't make it. Who knows how long any of us might have?

I miss my buddy Dean every week. Maybe I can get Mike to come to Yellowstone, too. I won't let him fish with leeches. I promise.

Prost.

Swing for Trout

For the Baked Goods Illustrated portion of today's entry: blueberry muffins.

George, thinking of you here. I make a respectable cup of tea so if you happen to get over here on this side of the pond, let me know.

I've got berries secreted in the freezer.

Beargirl thought these were so good last Sunday morning ( I  made mini-muffins out of the same batch, too) that I think she's planning on making them for me in the morning. They'll be snow and snow blowing so I'll have muffins after clearing the drive.

Not a bad gig if you can get it.

I've been at the bench. Actually, I've been putting in a great deal of effort on the day job here the past couple of weeks. I've need the stress relief of the vise.

Trout dreams.

Some flies are posted below.

I say that  though really one should read Steve Bird's great pieces on trout spey suitable designs over on the Soft Hackle Journal (link right) and some of Alan's recent numbers at Small Stream Reflections, also linked at the right.

I'm looking forward to more soft hackle swings throughout the water column and less bloody nymphing come ice out. I'm not a fan of nymphing but will, if pressed.. Swing will help my outlook and make me less grizzly on the early water.

On my mind has been the need for a solid selection of soft hackles to use throughout the water column when swinging trout spey and for use with conventional single-hand 5wt, 4wt, and 3wt rods.

Michigan is ideally a 4wt state. 5wt and 6wt outfits are great for serious -- modern Galloup-style --streamer action, mousing, and the great Hex hatch. A twelve inch brown (still above the state average by 4 inches) does well on a 4wt rod.

A 3wt  does fine when the wind is down -- as it is most evenings.

Top Layer: 

Last year at some urging, I tied a few CDC based soft hackles to use in dry-fly season right on the top-water boundary film. These work well. I'll be tying many, many more this year. Dry fly hooks pinched barbless; thread bodies; CDC hackle.

Steve Bird has a class of dabblers he's recently outlined and will be featured in an upcoming article in Swing the Fly (a Magazine I heartily endorse. Get the three-year subscription. It's worth it.) I have to work these up.

Also, there are a class of long-hackled Scottish flies fished dry that are in the same design pattern as wet flies but are finished with soft hackle alone as opposed to Jinglers which seem to have stiff and soft hackles blending our American Catskill dry fly with the traditional loch fly design. I have a Davie McPhail example and will be working it up here in the coming weeks  .

Sub-Surface:

This is the top eight to twelve inches of the stream. Classic soft hackles work great for me here on slightly heavier hooks tied with conventional grouse, pheasant, partridge, India hen neck, and starling hackles. I like lightly dubbed bodies on these flies but "lightly" can take a little work for me. I have to remind myself to use half as much dubbing as I'd want to use on almost every fly.

Mid-Column:

Here I have had some trouble. These are the two-to-four foot depths.

 I've tied lightly weighted soft-hackles (the Coug -- a red floss and herl bodied dun-hackled fly with 4 wraps of non-lead ) with good results for brookies.

I've had less success with browns. I suspect my drift is unduly influenced by the weight. In gin-clear water, the fly clearly moves differently from a natural nymph in the same strata of the water column. Life is insufficiently imitated.

I'm going to  work on managing my "intermediate" drifts more with flouro tippets and light sinking tips. I suspect that "contact drifting" these patterns with just the barest twitch from the twisted-hand retreive will give me the contact necessary to detect subtle takes.

More contact swing from larger size 8/10/12 3xl long flies tied expressly for the swing should also help.

I've used the Gamakatsu T10-6H salmon fly hooks this week to good effect. I like them.

Bottom:

Here, I am going with soft-hackled streamer designs. I'm looking at spade flies (outlined by Steve Bird again) coming from the steelhead side of the house and attached to true sinking tips in seven and ten foot lengths fished on tension.

[New Swing the Fly arrived today specifically discussing the swing under weight from tips. I'll read the article tomorrow morning over coffee. You read the NYT if you want. I'm reading about trout.]

Also, I'm tying soft hackle streamers such as the royal coachman plus a few hairwing patterns I tie so poorly I'm not going to mention them yet.

All in all, I'm satisfied that some techniques such as using dual-hackled heads,  more palmered bodies, and better attention to detail on some adapted Atlantic Salmon hairwing patterns will let me cover the big water and the deep holes.

I'm feeling confident I can relegate nymphing to a secondary effort.

I cannot completely give up the tight-line flymph. Indicator fishing (I like wool tuft indicators) is just not a desired option. I'm done fishing for catfish.

Maybe if I have to fish milkshake waters.

Some flies from this week. These are larger trout spey style flies in size 6, 8 and 10 in 3 xl.

Work to do. Work to do.

Prost.

How Do You Get to Carnegie Hall?

 Practicing for camp.

At left, Jiffy blueberry buckle cake (added cup of frozen blueberries horded from this summer, fresh nutmeg, cinnamon)  whipped up for breakfast here on "forbidden food" weekend.

My wife is in Palm Springs. It's in the desert. No fish. Desert.

Not my kind of place.

That's a 6" anodized baking round.

 Comes out pretty well. Butter knife for scale.

And, blueberries. It's great bear food for camp. Makes too much for one so I might have to share if any of my Michigan native black bears show up in camp. Will however be a camping hit for whoever shows up!

Might have to feed this and some scrambled eggs to Beargirl if I take here camping.

Now ... to talk the Ritz into using their kitchen because that's the sort of "roughing it" my wife likes. No complaints from me.

I love a bar with a selection of 21-year old scotches.

I'm tuning up for season. I pulled the gear out this morning and did an inventory check for trout.

This little 1492 1/2 Medalist has been hanging around for five years, unspooled.

It's a right-hand retrieve only and is the tail-end-charlie of my 3-wt appropriate reels. Cute as a kitten, though.

Well, hello daring!

I have a 3wt 3-piece Fenwick of the new S2 glass. I got it last winter for brookie brush-busting outings and then decided to push through and complete my 12 Streams of Michigan tour. I didn't do much dedicated 3 wt work. My loss.

2018 is my year-of-brookies given that I am going on my Fox and Two-Hearted dash this year.

I have a Galvan Brookie reel that I love on my Trout Bum. That rod is however both special and graphite. It isn't a rod to take dashing down fifty feet of slope. The Fenwick is such a rod.

I'm spooling the 1492 1/2 with about 30 feet of dacron and a  little mono-core running line (maybe 60 feet, maybe 70 ) to use with a 150 grain OPST head. I'll either mount the Galvan Brookie with the 3wt Wulff TT which is wonderful stuff for accurate, delicate presentation or I'll mount this 1492 1/2 with the OPST head for less delicate and longer-reach outings.

I'll admit it: a 4 wt is overkill for most of the fish I catch. There it is.

My big brown of the year was just shy of 14". I caught a bigger brookie as the first fish of the '17 season. Neither of those fish would be unplayable in any sporting sense on this Fenwick 3wt.

Sure, I might not be able to horse a 14" brown out of cover with a glass 3 wt. Better than 50-50 I can. Even if I fail, that's a problem I'll take any day.

I use single-handed Spey techniques for most of my fishing, now. It the mechanism to use when slowing stepping through a "tree-tunnel" and you still want to reach the nice cut alongside the far bank. Adding an OPST head system for my lightweight work is just putting another tool in the tool box.

I'm a wet fly guy most of the time. If I were a dry fly guy most of the time, I'd stick with just the Triangle Taper and my hand-tied leaders.

I'm not.

I'll let you know how spring training goes with the light heads.

I have to go and test my dirty-rice made with smoked turkey sausage.  I'm training for all aspects of the season including the critical "chow time." [ UPDATE: I used a popular box mix for the dirty rice base. Huge mistake. 500 mg of sodium per cup. Tasted like a salt bowl. Low grade dog food .... with added salt. As always, shortcuts usually turn out not to be. ]

Hope your training includes a plan for "tasty."

Prost.

Monday Night Fly

Jim and Brian tying steelhead flies. Lauren in the background talking to another local business owner. Ed is hidden by Brian who is looking at one of his feathers.

We tie on Monday nights at the Beer Grotto in Dexter. It's a way to pass the winter.

Might as well be called the bear grotto.


Wednesday night in the spring will see "casting night" at some local retention ponds. It isn't the fine facilities of the  San Francisco Casting Club but then it's Dexter, Michigan. Snake roll, single spey, the parachute, the steeple. It's a way to get some folks out with rods in their hands and maybe practice some skills that matter in the sorts of places we fish around here.

The all-purpose early-season twin-hackled Jingler.

This Jingler has a sliver of closed-cell foam lashed to its back then wrapped with pheasant tail. Should float all day in dry-dropper rigs.

I tied these Monday night on size 13 and size 15 barbless hooks. This early season version is drab though the rust soft-hackle does a nice job. I'll dub olive and light olive bodied versions here shortly as well as a coachman style afterbody.

We'll see. I tied too few of these last year. I'll tie five dozen this winter.

Show and tell. The is the box of my new 4" Bougle. Nice box.

  The case and reel. Nice leather. I'm going to have Chris Lantzy whip up a utility leather case. The case that came with it is really nice but I want more padding. Chris does a great job with the padding.

Late picture of some of my resident turkey at the "flock block" during Christmas week.

Practicing for season. Hammy-Cheesy biscuits I made for breakfast Sunday. Cathead biscuits with half a cup of shredded Tillamook cheddar and a cup of ham toasted in a skillet added at the final mix.

Even Beargirl thought these were pretty good. At camp, they'll be a huge hit. It's a ham sandwich breakfast style. Goes great with coffee.

Biscuit porn.













Fifty here on Thursday. We'll see if any of the ice on the Huron breaks. My bet is it won't.

Prost.

Sodden

Image at left courtesy Barras as hosted on wikicommons. I believe Bowser there sums up the spring to date here in Michigan.

The South Branch of the Au Sable is back to its tricks of setting forty-nine  year high-flow records.

I'm to get nearly three inches of rain in the next forty-eight hours here on Mill Creek.

The Huron is deep in the trees. The new rain will make it crawl its banks.

I'm ready to throw streamers but high water, high wind, and low temperatures seem a lot closer to fall steelhead than spring Hendrickson trout.

Looks like I'm working as an ink slave this weekend instead of perfecting my dry fly delivery.

It might be time to look at the Douglas SKY 6wt, though. That'd be a good excuse to throw streamers all weekend.

Prost.

Going Boardman and Soft Hackles

At left, the Adams Fly in a nice tie made possible by Mike Cline who granted this photograph copyright-free status as hosted on wikicommons. Thanks, Mike! (Oh, nice tie!).

At left, the Adams. It is in every box. I don't put wings on mine but am prone to include a tiny piece of white Antron as a centerpost so I can see them in the dusk.

The Boardman River in Michigan is where the fly first was developed. I'm going there this weekend on a trout camping outing.

It's spring. It will probably rain. The roads are crap this early before the commission has a chance to get out. No worries. I've a new heavy-duty trout car and no longer do I fear bad terrain. I'm fine with rain, too. Keeps the other anglers at bay.

Will not freeze on the Boardman this week since Monday night. That's a good sign.

I'm a little punchy. My wife says I've gone a bit off. It's the spring. I need to be in the woods. I'm going. You should too.

You've heard of "going bodmin" ... well I'm "going boardman." Just about the same thing.

Some odds and ends below ....

My fly photography drew some catcalls from a couple guys I ran into outside my flyshop. Here's a better image of the BWO Soft Hackle Hare's Ear. The hare is quite dark but I used better light for this photo and it shows up well.

Steel gray SLF and dark hare's mask dubbed together with a touch of possum in there too, Pheasant hen tails, waxed.. Herl. Dun hackle on this one. I use darker hackle early in spring but I grabbed this guy from my box of leftovers from last fall for this shot.

A fully plamered Herl-and-Hackle after Stewart's Spider. This fellow is a plump beast because he also does duty as beetle bait here in later spring. I do occasionally chase bluegills.

This is on a size 13 barbless TMC hook and I probably will end up drifting a few along the bank in brookie country this weekend.

I tied more than a dozen last year and have none left. They work.

A hackled streamer using grizz feathers for tails. Small. I am tossing these next week in the morning on Mill Creek. I'm going to try and fish this sort of streamer by imparting my own action to it instead of the "dead drift."

I saw Jonathan Barnes do so and I want to give it a try. Small stream work with streamers has been pretty weak for me. I think the action of "dancing" the thing has merit.

We'll try.

Outing boxes sorted and ready to go. I need a few more scud for the Driftless but I'm pretty good right now through early June.

I'm a lazy caddis and Partridge-and-Yellow sort of fellow for most of the summer turning to Partridge-and-Orange later towards fall.


I'm all excited in spring but come fall, I'm convinced a stray bit of cork can be presented well enough to catch trout.

My concession to Ed Engle. I read his book last spring and tried to decide on pursuing the 20/20 club. I did so only halfheartedly.

This year I made the effort to tie some very small soft hackles. There are some PTN and some Hare's Ear in here too ... though the Hare's Ear are actually tied with beaver. I like its very smooth texture quality for flies in the film.

 The ant patterns in this Tacky box are tied on #17 hooks.


I'm not Ed Engle but I have wanted for small flies on occasion. I'm going to try and use these extremely small flies this year. I've 7X and an arsenal of several 3 wt rods.

Somebody stop me.

Prost.

Spring Fly Fishing Gear

At left, one of my resident jakes. Not strictly fly fishing gear but I do collect the odd feather from the local turkey activity.

It's snowing sideways. Not even the Thursday fly shop reports could do much this week to put "flurry" spin on the weather. The Mason Tract on the South Branch of the Au Sable is 200% over "drown the bear" stage for my wading.

My local water -- the Huron River which indeed does flow into mighty Lake Huron -- is right at flood stage.  My restoration creek Mill Creek set a new high flow measurement for this date today. It's got a foot to go before "flood" so there's that.

It's spring. High water won't last forever and when it recedes and clears there are some very reachable opportunities for the fly fisherman. The clearer slower water will be close to the banks.

No reason to dredge the horrendous mid-channel flows which make contact nymphing especially tough at "roaring" velocity. Yes, there are fish under those flows in depressions. No, you will not be able to detect a strike unless the fish hooks himself.

Let me correct myself. If you can detect a strike while nymphing mid-stream at three times customary high-water flow, then you are at or near the level of commercial fisherman. You are an adept in the league of the fellows who catch the "usual" trout. I'm excited about any trout and that makes me an aspiring "occasional" angler. I'd like to reliably catch the occasional trout.

I still catch the "infrequent" trout.

Anyway: high water. The edges will harbor fish in surprisingly shallow water where you wouldn't otherwise find them. They'll be a little more spooky and you'll need to fish to habitat instead of fish. However, they'll be more fish in less water than is usual for early season and concentrated fish can be catchable fish.

I'm going to the stream next week early in the mornings. I'll be at the water at first light before the behavioral drift has fully stopped. I'll be fishing bank lines, breaks, and anyplace the current slows to a slow walk or clears to less than milkshake.

I haven't been out enough. Morning before the day gig allows that to happen.

I'll sleep when I'm dead.

New gear. 

A year's supply of barbless hooks. Using the Tiemco this year. I liked the Hends but my local does business with Umpqua and Tiemco so I give them the business. Fine hooks.

They come packaged in paper slips just like unmounted diamonds. Yes, I've spent a lot of time looking at diamonds. I have a jeweler friend who is a rock hound and I've a thing for women I cannot afford. I know diamonds.

The size 13 TMC103BL are especially nice mid-season wet fly hooks. The wire is extra-fine so a dubbed spider can go from sub-surface to dry fly with a slight drop of floatant. That's a nice trick. It works, too.

Also, the hooks while small have an extra-wide gap that really help the hook-ups when your on-river habits involve "screwing with your gear."  When I'm comfortable and in-stride in mid-season, my attention can wander: the pipe; the odd bird on the sweeper branch; that odd looking nymph in the drift, a pattern in my box I should swap out for what is down on the dangle even now ...

UV dubbing in pink because I'm going to the Driftless and, well: Pink Squirrel.

I know I know. Look: pink squirrel. That's all I'm going to say. You can look it up.

Drink the wine. Drink the wine.

I use the Spirit River for this because it says "Pink" in large print right on the package so I know what the color is when tying. You try sorting this stuff when you cannot see color. Labels are selling points.

Tippet. 

A replacement  field watch . My Bertucci from last year had a problem with the second hand and they replaced it and gave me a new band. Great service.

A replacement Swiss Army pocket knife. This one is the "gardener" to replace my "picnicker" of a few years ago. This is a large heavy knife with sheers -- not scissors. I use a Solo bush stove for camp cooking so spend a lot of time processing sticks and such into small bits of wood. The sheers will make that more pleasant than breaking bits by hand for an hour. I tend to process a whole weekend's worth of wood on the first night.

Anvil pruners would work as well but they'd be a single purpose and I despise single purpose tools when I have to pack them in.

A Missouri Meersham pipe for on-the-water use. Mark Twain smoked one. It's a great pipe for a very little folding money. It's a lot more reasonable to carry on the water than a lovely Peterson piece of brier let alone the more expensive Savinelli or Dunhill models. Save those for staged pictures and the campsite. I too shall return.

Scotch. Yes, scotch is indeed classic fly fishing gear. Make your own list.

 A Cuban cigar in a tube. A trout buddy brought that back for me after his three week outing to the island here in March.

A fly box filled with my own spring ties (but for the drakes ... mine aren't very good and so I was given a half-dozen by a better tier than myself here last Christmas.)  This is my early spring resource box. I'll carry it in a high pocket and use it as fallback. I like to carry a very small day box. Sometimes in spring I can be caught short if the day changes.

How about your day? Are you ready for the change? It can go from soup to sun in an afternoon here this time of year.

The most important fly fishing supplies for early spring? A full tank of gas and a spouse who won't mind if you miss a few meals.

An understanding boss helps, too.

Prost.

On Account of Snow

At left, train stuck in snow 29 March, 1881.  Chicago, Milwaukee and Saint Paul Railway. Copyright expired image hosted on wikicommons.

Five to eight inches of snow due tomorrow in Grayling, Michigan on the Au Sable North, mainstream Holy Waters, and South Branch. The Manistee will see the same.

Not the end of the world but Friday is also cold with minimal melt so Saturday will be a slush day when it hits fifty degrees. Sunday too, probably.

All the cold ice water into the streams won't do my efforts too much good, either.

So, no camping this weekend. I don't mind hard snow conditions but camping in the mud and slush is no fun at all.

Probably a recon drive to visit streams, eat a Spikeburger, and come on home. If I'm wrong about the trout action, there'll be a couple rods along in case the rises are irresistible.

I've had enough winter. Maybe if I tie something to handle the Hendrickson hatch in Friday night's session at the vise, I'll drive the weather into spring by force of will.

Hey, spring in Michigan means less snow. It doesn't mean no snow whatsoever.

Prost.

CDC Deer Hair Caddis (DHC) and Spring Dreams

 At left, a snapshot of my shirt-pocket dry box from season's end last year.

Notice the "overstuffed with hope" arrangements in here. There are some soft hackles from the build of spring and summer, a few remaining dark sedges (dark DHC) a few odd searching dry fly patterns, and most of a dozen midge patterns in black and brown on #20 extra long hooks.

I know I'm not alone on the box of hope assortment.

I'll clean them out this week and stock the dry box with Jinglers, CDC DHC as that at left in #16, and traditional soft hackle interpretations.

I make a mess with the coastal deer hair. I use a raspberry patch that I love for the dark varieties, a very blonde variety that I fish most often at day's end, and a lovely natural with a great speckled effect that I use as my all-around.

It's Michigan: caddis required.

I am anxious to get out camping for trout but have a couple weeks. I went to the circus this weekend with Beargirl. I'd never been. Next weekend sees lows below 20 F where I want to fish so that's a bit cool even for me.

Two weeks, then a camp outing. Purple and herl soft hackles lightly weighted will figure. So will swinging weighted Woodcutters ( Soft Hackle Journal Woodcutter here )  under the advice of Steve Bird. They tie-up nicely and will do fine for my buggar substitute this year. I rather like the fly design. I'd call it "sculpin-esque" in its hydrology. Has to help.

I ordered a replacement large Swiss Army camping knife for my pocket. I left my last one with the TSA this winter. Happens.

I use a medium Ka-Bar fixed blade knife when camping but a folding lockback for cutting sausage and cheese is nice on the riverbank, too. It's handy in the camp kitchen and is easier to keep sanitized.

Anyway, anxious. Just like everyone else. Drank camp coffee this morning, even.

I've got it bad and that ain't good. (thanks, Duke).

Prost.

The Wildernizer

At left, public domain image of a turkey as hosted on wikicommons. Thanks Dimus. Nice snap.

It's Monday morning and Lou the foxhound and I are on our own this week. The smell of sausage in the pan fills the air and if I wasn't wandering into the office here in a bit I'd start the woodstove.

The Wildernizer.

I woke up this morning with the sound of spring turkey in my ears and the usual Kate Bush playing on the alarm. Weird dreams. I blame John Gierach.

I thought things had gotten a little soft around here last night as I climbed into bed. 

I was reading a camp cooking article from John Geirach in an issue of Fly Rod & Reel magazine: "Camp Food" (Spring, 2013) which had done a good job of capturing the observational humor of a fly fisherman and his vittles. The recipes which followed were about as urban-ified as to be in pure discord with John's preceding yarn but then, editors.

Gierach mentions a buddy in his article who cooks eggs sunny-side up in a fashion where the tops are raw and greasy and the bottoms so over-cooked as to require a knife to eat them.  With this image in my head, I turned to an adventure yarn and submarines under the polar ice caps reading too long for good measure because tomorrow was in fact Monday and I looked to end the weekend all too well rested unless something changed.

I awoke to the concept of the Wildernizer.

There's too much civilization wandering around this place. Lou and I cooked eggs and sausage on the all-electric range making coffee in a GSI Outdoors brand french press coffee-maker (the Keurig needs de-scaled and I won't do that until the night before Beargirl is due home .... just like laundry).

The Wildernizer is an environmental control app. iPhone certainly. Probably Andriod.

To make coffee in the morning, it requires one to at least light a match. Probably three. The NEST people are in cahoots so your electrical grid access is appropriately filtered for a taste of the wilderness experience.

No sulfur odor, no power to the range. Simple engineering. We've had smoke detectors since '80. Let's put 'em to use for something besides scaring the dog when the battery gets low and they start the occasional blatting business.

Instead of Holst or Vivaldi on the alarm, you get turkey gobbles, chirps, and an occasional sound of wingbeats from a big tom leaving the roost.

Snooze mode, you say? 

Truck door slams at the next campsite over as the virtual  fly fishing buddies leave early to catch the dawn midge hatch. Second snooze and you're rewarded with the Chevy Suburban from '76 that never quite catches on the first start. Big V-8's are like that; but, you'll have forgotten what with your second Prius and all.

The slider lets you adjust the "level" of wilderness in the experience. 

Push it a little to the right and the morning is enhanced by the smell of spring skunk having gone off a couple hundred yards away around 4 AM. Push it a little more to the right and the kitchen trash is knocked over and spread around --- just a bit -- from the virtual raccoon assistant [ probably an upcharge in-app purchase].

There's the "extended" mode which awakens you at 2 AM with the sound of snuffles outside the tent. Not perhaps "snuffles" but more like "SNUFFLES" of a large quadruped. Deer? Elk ? Bear? Newfoundland? [ Apologies to Patrick McManus. Your story stuck with me from the summer of '79 when I read it on an August night hot enough to sweat bacon still in the crisper drawer. ]

Push the slider all the way over and the virtualization of augmented reality kicks-in. That's no longer Cheeto -- your wife's cat -- trying to steal most of the bed all night long but a squirrel with a bad attitude you discover in a caffeine-deprived fog of half-dawn.

Yes, the app moderates the display illumination to ensure your experience is complete stumbling in the twilight of false dawn looking for your camp shoes you were sure you placed in the vestibule of the tent. Where could those have gone? Raccoon, again (definitely in-app purchase).

I haven't figured out quite how to make everything damp with the heavy dew of early spring. Maybe I should just go with frost. Those NEST folks come from the HVAC control world, after all.

Oh, yea. There's a market here. 

Look for it soon in the App Store. It's sure to get by the "approved" app-store filter of those turtle-neck wearing millennials at the Apple spaceship. Well, ...

Perhaps if I get the folks at REI to advertise inside the app it'll be more appealing to the gatekeepers of culture. Pop-up kayak ads? Hmmm. Sounds about annoying enough.

It's been a long winter already and I need to get into the field. So do you.

Prost.

Shaping Up

At left, Bone Valley Trail in the Great Smokey Mountains as photographed by  Brian Stansberry and hosted on wikicommons.

Thanks, Brian. Great snap.

Brain has the key here. Soon season will be upon us with the tales of guide-boat traffic jams on the Madison and accessible spots filled with anglers.

The trick is to be able to cover the ground others will not cover in order to fish water they'll never see.

Your own two legs are the best tools for it.

Are you fit for the day hike?

No, seriously. Are you fit for the day hike with everything you need -- plus contingencies -- on your back?

It's called a gym. There's one within fifteen minutes of you right now. Go there. Sweat.

There is a chance you won't need the stamina. A chance.

Amber liquid guys deal in sure things. Make sure you are in shape for the season. No one wants to pack your lard-ass out to the road when you have a coronary incident.

Yes, I mean you. Your cholesterol practically makes you a solid.

Do some road work. It matters.

Prost.

Bark Eaters

At left, birch tree bark as photographed by Mariah.lobely and hosted on wikicommons. Used here for merely the attribution. Nice photograph Mariah, and thanks!

I'm pretty much a bear.

My doctor -- the vet -- tells me to chew on the bark of a couple birch trees, drink plenty of tea, and hibernate. If I still have a cold in the spring, make another appointment.

Helpful.

I've a cold. I've had this cold long enough now I should name it and buy it a Christmas present.

I want to be on the water.

I've some weighted spiders I tied last spring using the last of some tungsten beads I'd found in a bag. I want to get out and try some upstream contact nymphing while the weather is above freezing in the afternoons.

I've trout to hunt on my local restoration stream and oddly, this is one of my favorite times to really work a piece of water thoroughly.

The fly fishers I talk to this time of year are either fondling new gear or casting streamers. I nymph.

I get possessed by the feeling of a trout on the rod lift.

I like the sudden excitement of the wriggle from down deep at my feet when I've no business expecting anything expressing interest in my offerings. They're never large fish -- for me -- but I like the nymphing in the fall.

I dislike contact nymphing come spring. No good reason for that feeling, either.

I was out three times in November last year on my little Mill Creek stream and was able to really fish a section of water thoroughly. I didn't feel hurried and I had no expectation so I could just wade upstream like a heron and solidly fish the fifteen feet of water in front of me. By the third outing, I was confident in just barely leading my fly downstream and the takes managed to hook themselves on the lift.

"Are you there?"

That's the question Dave Hughes asks of the trout in one of his books. I think it is in Trout From Small Streams. I'm not going to dig for the citation this minute but if I'm wrong, it was a good-natured error and not a slight.

I like that routine. I get a kind of itch to be alone on a stretch of water and try to cover it completely while barely moving. I like asking the trout "are you there?" when I'm not impatient for the warming days to come.

I relax on the water. I know it is late fall my future promises ice. 

The gift of a trout way past "shoulder season"? Almost as good as a Christmas dinner. Almost.

I've had this cold and haven't been out since early November.

I need to eat my bark, get better, then put my feet in a cold stream.  My herons have gone. I don't think I'll have any trouble with their union if I give their routine a try.

I will put hot tea in my thermos with perhaps a little Bushmills for the flavor.

The trout won't mind the Irish one bit, either.

Prost.

Early Season Trout

It is spring. Almost.

At left,  a Partridge and Yellow Spider ( I think it is yellow and not orange ...label fell off thread) soft hackle.

I can't see color so I have to depend on the labels and when they fall off, I'm lost.

Anyway, spring flies. Too early for them here, but I've tied some. I tied the ones I want to fish most in my last sessions this year.

There's a dedicated group of fly tiers who meet on Monday nights at the Beer Grotto through the winter. They start in November and tie through until about now when it is time to work on the grounds and go fishing. It's been great to get together and think of spring trout all through the winter.

We probably won't get together again until fall.

This weekend: bluegill warm-up. There's a small warm water pond downstream from me where the crew teams practice. The river and my local trout stream are high and unpleasant.

Bluegill it is.

The Christmas beagle has appeared at my house - actually it is Lou the foxhound as I rummaged in a particular household cabinet. He's fairly tolerant about wearing a Christmas hat. Has never made it far enough to be the Christmas card, though.

He's tolerant here because I'm holding Tillamook cheese. He howled about five seconds after I took this picture.

I'll howl for cheddar, too.

New field watch I'm trying. Could be a keeper. This is a Bertucci in titanium.

No complications. Quartz. Five year battery. Analogue.

Turns out, it is a little hard to find a basic field watch for a price you might want to pay. There are "cheap" field watches out there; but, they fail. There are overpriced watches with solid outdoor vendors' names that pack plastic watchworks. Be careful of those.

There are some great field-grade watches out there too; but, I'd rather a custom piece of cane for the price.

Omega. Rolex. Breitling. Hamilton. Sinn. Seiko.

Various styles make it or almost make it. Lower end manufacturers push you to the diver's watch for the durability a field watch ought to have. Higher end manufacturers make you choose: trout car or field watch you'd trust.

Bertucci is a little bit of a crap shoot as they're newer to the market but if they hold up: bargain.

The crown won't fall out on this watch - hopefully - as it did in my last Timex stopgap. Even $32 is a lot for something that fails in a month. You go broke on "cheap" that way.

Watches fail at the worst time and this Bertucci has the potential to make it past "the worst time."

The dial is big enough to read without glasses. It tells the time. Screw crown. Solid lugs (no little pins to fall out allowing the band to part). Screw case. Sapphire crystal.

I could use a phone to tell time but then I'd be handling the phone on the stream and that is inherently a bad idea.

I've dropped sandwiches on the stream. If food can slip my paw, a phone surely will.

I wore a 007 Seiko diver's watch for some years. Massive thing. Unbreakable unless I died in the process of its failure. I put it on another guy's wrist who needed it more than I did. Good watches are transient that way, just like good fly rods.

I'm happy with a field watch that costs less than a decent snow tire. 

If I get a few years out of it, I'll be very happy. My outfitter wears one of these and he'll put it through more abuse in a season than I will in a decade. Works for him, should work for me.


I'll take my snow tires off in a couple weeks.

It looks like spring out there but let's not get carried away. I drove through flurries to fish the Au Sable two years ago on the weekend before Memorial Day.

Spring is like the Soviets: trust, but verify.

Prost.

North Country and March Brown

At left, the view out of my library window this morning.

It's April but this is a Michigan March scene.

March and most of April are winter months here. We've been spoiled by a mild March and the hint of spring; but, yesterday it let us know: we're still in winter.

I expect the North Country has a little of this now as well. I'll find out one day. I might have to spend a year or two in that part of the world.

Steelheaders have no idea what I'm talking about with this winter/spring thing. The ice is off and so they're out. The Alaska bound crew should take note. 

I'm working on spring. Maybe if I spend some time getting ready, it'll come sooner.

Here I am fitting a huge Medalist 1498 CJ to my Echo Glass 3wt 10'6" switch.

It is a heavy reel but the effect of the counter-balance keeps me using my lower hand for the power around the lowered c.g of the rod and thus, I don't get excited and "throw" my top hand. I can get away with throwing my top hand on my salmon rod -- which I almost never use -- but this little 3wt is more sensitive to solid technique.

I could use the two-handed tune-up. I never was "good" but merely "okay." I'll settle for "competent" and no blown casts over an entire day on the water. This rod will help me get there.

I've spooled with with a 7wt TT floating line from Wulff and this hits 190 grains right on the button.  It also seems perfect for the 10'6" rod.

The Echo glass will throw a much much heavier line but the recovery is poor in the tip. Echo gives me a solid grain window and this TT 7wt is right in the wheelhouse. I'll be able to cover the waters I want and get better day-by-day for a big fall spey steelhead season.

I got pro advice on the line. Thanks, Steve. I went with the TT over a DT but endgame is nearly the same. I'll be able to cast AND mend all the way to the fly with this line over the previous Ambush head I used for swinging fall streamers.

There's a pile of gear in the corner of the library needing a solid field test. I replaced a Frostline kit-made sleeping bag (goose down) I made years ago then left in a rental cabin last fall. Hey, 30 years and several pieces of duct tape means it is time for a replacement, anyway.

I went synthetic from Marmot. I'm more likely to need the insulating power of a synthetic in wet conditions these days. Shoulder seasons are damp.

I can stand the savings over down, too. I don't have enough days left in me to get "the goody" out of a $350 bag. REI points I've carried forever bought the bag.

New daypack there too (I haven't had one suitable for fly fishing) and a new heavy pack as well. Cookstuff  (Banks fry-bake pan) and new stove (Solo Titan model ... no more dealing with white gas).

I'm old and have more money than brains thus better gear. I've also seen the north country tinder dry and so I'm less inclined to cook over a free-form open fire than I was back in the day. In a dozen years of Ontario fly-ins, I had one dry year. Several trips saw me all but sleeping in rain gear.

It can get dry here in Michigan. The stove is a reasonable provision.

I'm tying. 

I have the excellent volume The North Country Fly: Yorkshire's Soft Hackle Tradition by Robert L. Smith. I purchased the volume here this spring from an independent bookseller. I encourage you to do the same.

AT left, my North Country Spider inspired May Brownie. 

The pattern books are full of some wonderful March Brown versions. However, in reading and studying Mr. Smith's wonderfully comprehensive survey, the herl collar stood out as a prominent feature I have not incorporated into my tying. I tie a herl thorax, but not a collar.  This, this new beast.

March Brown based patterns are solid here in April and May into early June. I'm extending them a little while with a slightly heavier dubbing to cover Hare's Ear flymph territory and will probably tie a dozen with grey-to-black transitional dubbing patterns mixing the two across the wraps and also add a darker hackle - probably black hen - for more work in the summer season. I'm listing my pattern here for the use in spring.

Warning: I tied this beast but haven't proven it's worth through the season. I'm just happy to be doing something so be aware of that lingering winter madness in my reasoning. April in the library is not May on the stream!

May Brownie:

Hook: standard 12, any make. Pinch the barb, please.

Thread: Peasall's silk in orange.

Tail: pheasant hen. This makes a wonderful tail material for soft hackles. I like it better than cock pheasant tail on wet flies.

Abdomen and Thorax: Wotton SLF mixed synthetic hare's ear on a dubbing loop. This fly carries no wire wrapping so the dubbing loop is essential for durability on those occasion where you use it all afternoon.

Hackle: Ginger Hen. (I have a new ginger hen saddle that is butter soft. Thanks to Lauren at the Painted Trout !). Two wraps. My saddle has a nice iridescent quality when wrapped.

Collar: two peacock herl mixed with dubbing loop strand for durability. Small collars are illustrated in the old flies preserved today. Follow their lead: small.

I'm ready to swing.

I'm ready to fish upstream to current seams an arm's length away from my right leg.

I'm ready to find a half-warm PBR in my side bag late in the afternoon.

I'm ready to laugh on the water at jokes I've heard before.

I'm ready. I'm certain you are, too.

Prost.