A few hours creekside

Sunday afternoon after the chores were done I found myself creekside for a few hours of angling.

The mission was to try some short line nymphing with some heavily weighted small scud and midge patterns.  I'm not exactly a French/Spanish/Czech nymphing guy, but I decided to go deep, sans bobber and see what happened.
What happened was this...

I was immediately confronted with rising fish so I tied on a a 24 RS2 emerger and fished dry.  The risers were small, but I sat and watched the pool and the fish before a threw in and promptly blew the first sipper and consequently the whole pool.  To save SOME face, the fish ate and I set up on air... 
I finally got back to the original agenda after stopping at a popular bridge crossing with a deep run on the downstream side.  I reasoned that most of the seasoned anglers would shun such a "wormhole" in favor of deeper haunts AND that anyone attempting to fish it would be an indicator fisherman, who would be unable to ply the depths due to bobber and fast flows.

I cast, my tandem weighted bobberless rig, sunk, drifted and pondered the zen purism of angling deep with out indicator watching for the tell-tale pause, twitch and stop that all of the magazines and nymphing books suggest may be the activities of trout below.  I thought about how difficult and intense the whole operation was.  I craned my neck and squinted to follow the dark olive flyline as it exited the shadows into the full glare of reflected 2pm sunlight that even my $189 polarized glasses couldn't contend with (that blazing orb, afterall, heats our planet from space...best of luck Revo).
...after my 9th rainbow I determined that my heronlike prowess, and kingfisher eyes were successfully helping me land fish that a DNR truck had recently dumped off the bridge.

At my vice, midweek, during the hours that I should be sleeping, I think of fish and hatches, and days, and moments and critical variables like one turn of soft hackle or two.  I ponder color, refractive light, shadow and hook size.  I think of leaders and underhand casts and hope, as I finish 1/2 dozen of this or that size 18 burnt-umber crippled baetis emerger with poly no make that cul de canard, split wingcase, that some wise old brown will find my offer worthy and take a chance on my handiwork.

I never (ever) think of stocked rainbows just off the bridge near town.

So, I set to work and hammered every last one that I could.

For moral highground's sake I will say that I ventured upstream and hooked, on said nymph rig, a solid 15" Brown that hit the sky and popped the faux chironomid in mid air.  The leap was very rainbow-esque but at least it was from a brown that was the offspring of a fish planted 20+ years ago instead of fresh off the chute last week...

Where are the native brookies in this story?  Good question...

Caddis...yum.

Trout Chow?

I spoofed a hatchery fish (at least this one had most of its fins)

Sunday Afternoon

CA and I hit the local creek for an afternoon of angling...despite having fished together in Belize and the Bahamas, we seldom fish trout together on our local trout water.  We caught some fish and had a fine time despite some wind and a few rain drops.

Fishing and Elk Hair Caddis and a dropper...this brown chose the surface.

Nice little bow on my version of a Peeking Caddis

The wind caused this tree to drop just a couple hundred feet from where I was fishing.  The other half of it fell in the woods.  Time to get the saw...

A local critter caught on film...


As seen on the stream April15, 2012 from Sal Mobyfly on Vimeo.

At the vice with new technology

I just recv'd my shipment of Clear Cure Goo.  I think I may be in love.  After years and years and years of trying to find the perfect epoxy for a myriad of patterns, ruining dozens if not hundreds of flies and watching the epoxy turn amber after a season....along comes Clear Cure Goo.  With a few different  in viscosities, it seems that the options are endless.   Once the Goo is in place, simply hit it with the UV light for 5-10 seconds and you are DONE!  No more drying motors!!!!!!!!!

I cranked out a 1/2 doz Deceivers and I was very happy with the outcome (at least the outcome of the heads and eyes, it seems I may needs some new Indian Strung Hackle in white and certainly some new bucktail...).

I also tried something else...By tying in a mono loop in front of the eye and covering with the Goo, it is likely that I have stumbled across a very viable "diving-lip".  I am not sure if anyone else out there has done this yet or if it will even work, but the end results are very, very cool.  Take a look:

I also messed around with some baitfish and all I can say is LIQUID GOLD (just ad UV)!

Salty South - a brief pictorial - Southwest Florida

Fishing the beach

Beach Snook

Sea Trout

Snappers, Ladyfish and Trigger Fish off of the Jetty

First Flounder on the fly

A custom Panga owned by a friend/customer of mine.

I got to fish out of this for a day...nice boat!

Doing a little housekeeping on the new Halsnoy boat

Another day ends - with my oldest daughter.

Pressing "One Fine Little Fly" into action

I arrived streamside today at about 1 pm and rigged up my rod with a fresh leader.  It was one of those days that seemed as if it could go either way - The clouds hung and the sun tried its best to shine through.  I was thinking rain and BWO's but it turned out there was just enough sun to get the caddis energized. 
Along the road, at a spot perfectly visible to anyone driving by, the caddis flitted and the trout rose.  I tied on one of the soft hackles that I wrapped up the other night and started to swing through.  There are days when this simple tactic is rewarded with a fish or two...and then there are days when every fish in the stream wants a taste...today was the latter.  I'm not a counter (usually) so I cannot tell you how many I landed between 1:30 and 5:30 but it was probably closer to 30 than 20.  And, this little stream coughed up a number of different year classes, always a welcome site for a guy who has no plans to move away anytime soon and realizes that 6 becomes 16 in a few years.  I went through 3 flies, one snapped off at some point in my casting and two were lost on savage strikes that had me cursing despite my overall success and the pleasantness of the day. 
It was my close friend TS who turned me onto this fly and this method of trout taking.  Nymphs have their place in the game, but on days like this I give thanks for the luck of stumbling across a guy like TS and wish every strike indicator a long life in its original packaging. 
Today was a treat.

Soft Hackle Brown