Channeling Sylvester Nemes

As will eventually happen around here, spring arrives.  And it did...just yesterday.   Sensing that 72 degrees and sunshine in April means the best hatch (in my opinion) of the year on the local trout stream, I made arrangements to get up and get after it.  Fish that like caddis flies also like swung soft hackles, a tip taught to me originally by none other than Shox McSteel, back in the days before children and mortgages.  It was also reinforced by a brilliant though highly underrated angler named Sylvester Nemes who wrote the book on this fly and the techniques used to fish it.
The swung fly has become the hip thing to do in some steelhead circles these days but I will take this opportunity to suggest that it is also a very, very deadly approach to spring creek brown trout fishing.  If you ever tire of bobbers and lead and there isn't enough surface activity to warrant the Halfordian approach...tie on a brace of size 16 soft hackles and swing through.  You may be surprised.

The cardinals sang and the midges flew, the sun rose and the morning clouds burned off as I took 2/3 swings per step through all the choice water and even some marginal water.  The browns were awake and looking up and they plucked away at my Hungarian partridge wrapped iron.   A few came up short, but more than my share stuck.  Nothing big, nothing worthy of a real grip and grin, but the catching was hot and the fish continued to peel off their feeding lanes to have a taste.

After fishing my favorite caddis riffle (without ever seeing even a single caddis...or caring) I noticed a fish rising on the outside of a deep slow bend.  Telltale ripples exposed his position every 10-20 seconds as it tilted up for a midge struggling to dry itself before flight.  Leaning my 4 wt. against a box elder tree, I got down in the dirt and dry grass and slithered to the edge of the bank for a closer look.  Less than ten feet away I could make out the spots of a healthy brown trout, high in the water column, having breakfast...or brunch perhaps.  Making myself as comfortable as possible as the blood rushed downhill into my head I watched and snapped pictures for the better part of an hour.  The sun was completely wrong and the light reflection was brutal, but I had front row seats and enjoyed the show until the fish spooked and disappeared...sunlight glinting off the lens perhaps?

I checked my watch and saw that mid-day was fast approaching so I made for my vehicle in order to make my an appointment with my daughter and her soccer team.   I made it to the appointment and even had enough extra time to stop at a local coffee house to bring my wife a small token of my appreciation for mornings like these.  I should confess that as I headed for the vehicle I couldn't help but stop at my favorite caddis riffle and work through it one last time just to cement my satiation.  The fish were still eager and a few larger ones came out to interrupt the easy rhythms of my soft hackle swinging through...Just like Sylvester Nemes suggested they might. 

The day about to unfold.

That's gotta suck.

Soft hackle brunch

Average brown for the morning

A quick pic before release

Add caption

Midge on the menu

Gulp

...and turn

Gulp

...and turn...

...and turn.

Gulp

...and turn

Almost Vertical

The finest background music

Playing Catch Up

Busy, busy....as we all like to say.  I'd have probably let the update slide had I not been prompted by a fellow angler who tore me from my stupor today by emailing me a fish pic. (I'll get to that soon enough).  I've decided to compress the past few weeks into a single post.  The subheadings will be: Brule, Florida, Book and Coasters.

Here goes:

COASTERS
I received an email today from a guy I'll call TP.  TP and I had the pleasure of playing on the same hockey team this past winter (for one game) and spent much of the time discussing steelhead, bonefish, trout, permit etc.  The conversation spilled out of the hockey rink and into the local watering hole and then the discussion included painting...which TP does well.  I've asked him if I could included a link to his gallery website which you will find on the sidebar under "Others of ill repute" and also here:  http://riverblendstudio.com
If you dig talent, fish and/or art check it out.
Anyway, TP sent me an email today with a short note that he caught a coaster shore casting last night.  I'll let the pic speak for itself:














This is pure goodness for a few reasons.
1. It's Lake Superior and it appears that the coasters
    are back...(at least this one is).
2. Standing on the shore of Lake Superior and
    catching a fish is among my top religions see
    previous post
3. I like when good things happen to good people
4. A coaster is a brook trout...look at the pic again.


Thanks TP!

FLORIDA


I sojourned with fam the last week in March to Marco for a week of bliss.  The sun was hot, the beer cold and the flyfishing sucked.  The water was off color and the wind and waves pounded from the south and south west.  I fished a 10wt with an intermediate line and a stripping basket to even have a chance.  I managed a couple of Ladyfish, Jacks and Macks and thought I hit the jackpot one morning when a grab was followed by a 150 yard run and 15 minutes of leaning hard into the big stick.  The leader held and so did the rod.  The fly held too...right in the side of a 30+ lb stingray...I was on the other side of the jetty from the one I foul hooked last year.  Damn it.  I had a snook act just like a bone in the flats of the Tigertail Lagoon and he sucked the fly off the sand like a bone too.  He came unpinned on the first leap.  We did have some fun with a cast net that my buddy Matt picked up from the local hardware store and we ventured out a couple of evenings to catch shrimp which Matt, my father-in-law and my daughter used to their advantage as bait for a host of saline critters.

Me and my daughter...she put on a clinic!

Shrimp/Bait

A jack...one of many that she brought to (my) hand.

An interesting side note:  The rod and reel that my daughter used to wail on the beach fish was a freebie.

I was fishing my flies on a dropping tide in the lagoon and noticed the rod laying in the mud on the tidal flat.  I suspected that some poor angler lost it overboard and that it had spent a few weeks or months on the bottom, exposed everyday at low tide and overlooked because it was both salt crusted/barnacle ridden/filled with sand and 2 miles on foot from the nearest beach access.  I actually walked right past it as I fished the dropping tide.  On my return I decided to check it out and found it to be a 7' Loomis rod and Shimano reel.  I carried it back to the Condo, gave the rod a scrubbing and tore the reel apart, cleaned and rebuilt it with canola oil for lube.  I stole 250 yard of 8 lb test from my father-in-law and it worked like a champ.

BOOK

I was going through some my photos a few weeks back and saw some interesting shots that seemed to want more than a place on my hard drive.  So, I wrote a book.  A photo journal actually, but a nice diversion and a cool thing to have on the shelf.

BRULE

I recently picked up a new St. Croix 11' 8 wt switch rod.  For a couple of reasons.

1. The 13' rod seemed a little too much for my favorite steelhead river.

2. The 10'6" rod seemed a little too short for my favorite steelhead river

3  The 11' 8wt seemed just about right and the $260 tag seemed to be a cool price....AND since the production in Mexico hasn't started yet it's a domestic product..I like to think that some folks in Park Falls, WI are having a nice dinner or perhaps their kids got some shoes outta the deal.

The Skagit line, miracle braid and T8,T11 and T14 are in the mail and the tying desk is gettin busy.

I'm watching the flows and I'm itchin'...

That's all I've got...more later.