Reece’s Masterpiece Midge
By Bob Reece
From still to moving waters, members of the Chironomidae family abound.
As a result of this, they are frequently found on the dietary menu of trout. Having a diverse selection of imitations for this family of insects can greatly increase your chances of connecting with fish.
Natural Chironomids consistently display a degree of translucency. In an effort to imitate this element, the outer body of the Masterpiece Midge is constructed of clear stretch tubing. In an underlying foundation, Veevus Body Quil is laid down to provide color and a slight degree of reflectivity. The combination of these two materials creates a powerful subsurface effect. When submerged, the clear tubing catches light and returns a glowing mottled coloration reflected from the body quil. In addition to this, the perfect segmentation created by the tubing, accurately imitates the natural while providing a high level of durability.
The wing buds are a prominent feature of a Chironomidae Pupae. In imitation of this, MFC Sexi Floss is applied. This spandex material has a slight degree of reflectivity. Coating this element with UV clear coat creates an accurately translucent and durable imitation.
The bead on this pattern is one size below what is recommended for the hook. This creates
Read More »Think Twice About Your Tippet Size
HAVE YOU EVER MADE THE MISTAKE OF CUTTING OFF YOUR DRY FLY OR NYMPH RIG AND QUICKLY TYING ON A STREAMER TO TARGET A BIG FISH?
You know, when your too lazy or in a hurry to take the time to upsize to the appropriate tippet size generally called for with streamers. I know I have, and it’s resulted in breaking off a big fish on more than one occasion. Big brown trout particularly have razor sharp teeth like a high quality serrated knife. I’ve seen a brown trout literally cut a trout in two after one quick bite. Their teeth ain’t no joke man. If you’re streamer fishing, use fluorocarbon tippet. It’s much better than monofilament for abrasion resistance. Lastly, don’t be shy to go big on your tippet size at first. It could make the difference between you landing or losing that trophy of a lifetime. You can always down size your tippet if you think your not getting bites because the fish are seeing the line.
Read More »Rosa Parks Fished Streamers
Stand up with me here streamer guys, you know what I’m talking about!
First of all I am in no way making light of Ms. Parks courageous acts or life of service. She is on my list of personal heroes and that list is pretty damn short. If you don’t know who she is, you should! That said, like Rosa, I’m getting pretty fucking tired of the back of the bus.
Stand up with me here streamer guys, you know what I’m talking about. Every time I get in a drift boat with a streamer rod I get stuck in the back of the boat. (I’m not picking on you here BW, everybody does it.) There’s always one of your buddies who pipes up with, “I sure would like the chance to catch one on a dry before you scare the hell out of ’em with that thing.”
I have a couple of problems with this horse shit. The first being, streamers do not spook fish. If they do, explain to me why fish eat them. Not just big fish, I routinely catch fish barely bigger than my streamer.
The primary reason that streamers do not spook fish is that fish are not afraid of things that are under water. Ask anyone who has snorkeled. If fish don’t spook at the sight of a person under water a fly isn’t going to phase them. I know one guide on the Snake River who, in the fall, prefers to have a streamer fisherman in the bow and a guy throwing hoppers in the back. His theory is that the streamer gets the fish worked up and ready to eat. It works, too.
I’ll say it again, streamers do not spook fish!
Secondly, it’s just a matter of etiquette. I put my time in on the oars like everybody else. When you get off the sticks, you go to the bow. That’s how it works, that’s your reward.
What the dry fly guy in the bow doesn’t get is that I’m making about ten times as many casts as he is. I’m working with a huge amount of line at my feet, getting hung up in the plugs or around the seat, getting grit all over it from the floor that cuts my fingers when I strip. That deck in the front of the boat was made for streamer fisherman. It’s for holding line, not your beer. Don’t even get me started on trying to get the oarsman to position the boat for a streamer guy. That’s never going to happen.
All that aside, here’s what really chaps my ass. Here’s what’s really going on. It’s not about me spooking fish or etiquette. Just like Rosa, I’m being treated like a second class citizen. I’m fishing from the back of the boat because the dry fly guys think they are better than me. They think that God handed down the #20 Elk Hair Caddis to them and my four inch streamer and I are a perversion and should only be allowed in Massachusetts. They think I’m doing it wrong.
If you’ve been reading my ravings for long, you already know that this kind of snobbery makes me crazy. I don’t know what it is about a fly rod that makes some people feel like they have to tell everyone else how to fish but it happens with amazing regularity. I get it, you’ve put a lot of time in learning how to fish and you feel like you have it figured out but here’s the thing, there’s more than one way to fish and none of them is the “right way.”
I love streamers and I make no apologies for it. The visual aspect of streamer fishing can’t be beat. To me, there is nothing better than watching a big trout rocket out of the shadows to chase down my streamer. I love to watch them come up from behind, then veer off and come back to broadside my fly. I like seeing their
Read More »Dean River Chinook
By Jeff Hickman
IT’S TIME FOR THE BIG BOYS.
With the rapidly increasing popularity of Spey fishing, targeting Chinook salmon has also recently become hot. These large powerful anadromous fish have always been attractive to fly fishers in areas with strong populations. But with modern spey rods and Skagit heads they have become much more accessible to fly anglers. The old myth that they don’t eat flies is far from the truth! These Kings of the river are as good as freshwater gamefish fish get. When they are fresh-from-the-salt and in the mood, they will attack flies every bit as aggressively as steelhead do!
I had heard the old timers’ stories of the good ol’ days when the Chinook were thick in west coast rivers and fly anglers could catch as many as they wanted. While at times we do still have some good Chinook fishing in Oregon, I wanted a full immersion to experience them. So years ago I got a job guiding fly fishing on the Kanektok River for Alaska West and I headed north to cut my teeth on Chinook fishing. I had heard in western Alaska, Chinook were plentiful and they were like Winter steelhead on steroids. It was true and it was there that I fell in love with these leviathans. I spent nine seasons on the Kanektok guiding and swinging flies for Chinook and I learned a lot about them in the process.
The recent scuttlebutt among Chinook anglers is over the emergency Chinook fishing closures in the last two years in Western Alaska. In western Alaska, King salmon stocks are experiencing a period of low productivity. Run forecasts have been too low for ADF&G to allow any commercial or sport Chinook fisheries in the entire Kuskokwim River drainage including all Kuskokwim Bay tributaries. Among the closures again this year are the Kanektok and Goodnews Rivers. Both are legendary rivers for having robust healthy runs of these amazing fish. This is very tough news for everybody that has a connection to this area and these fish. I hope that these robust runs are able to recover quickly to the sustainable fishable levels of the past.
But Alaska isn’t the only destination to catch Chinook on the fly consistently. I now spend the early part of my Summers chasing Chinook in British Columbia. When the two words
Read More »Expressionist Brown
Study the stream bed, brown and green.
Through ripples and reflections, we find rocks and wood, maybe a shining piece of metal someone has left behind. Even the flash of a flake of mica in the sand, no bigger than a fishes scale. How is it that we miss the trout.
Gliding above the mud and stone he is emerald and gold, vermillion and azure, violet and blaze. He is metallic, kinetic, aesthetic. Perfect in his camouflage, he is at once breathtaking and invisible.
Look closer, he is abstract. He is pointillism, he is impressionism, he is surrealism. He is cubist, fauvist, and expressionist, he is Monet, Van Gogh and Miro. He is Blake’s world In a grain of sand. Infinity in the palm of your hand.
He is beauty, and like all beauty, he vanishes into the mundane. It is a failing of the human eye, or maybe of the heart. He is truth, and like all truth he is
Read More »The In-Law’s Bass Pond
“The pond was full of those great lily pads, and I guess that’s where the problem started.”
I guess I should be happy, but I’m not.
Ever since my in-laws moved to South Carolina the compulsory visits have had a silver lining. I discovered a little bass pond just down the road. It’s a sort of neighborhood open space and I’ve seen a few folks fish it but very few. Maybe an acre total, you can fish about sixty percent of it from the bank if you’re a good caster.
I am, SO not a bass fisherman. My brother is quite good at it so I’m well aware of my shortcomings. I have a lot of respect for the guys who can go out on those big lakes and find the channels and structure, temperature changes and whatever else causes bass to find a happy home in, what looks to me, like featureless water. I’ve never been motivated to learn all of that. In part because bass just don’t blow my skirt up.
They’re a cool fish and all, I’m just so in love with the brightly colored trout that bass don’t get a lot of my attention. I also freely admit that I have no interest at all in going seventy miles per hour in a boat. It scares the shit out of me and I bear no shame for that. I find it aesthetically more pleasing to walk to my fish and it’s easier on my nerves. That said, a bass pond is just my speed.
It’s been great, at Christmas, Thanksgiving or Easter, to just sneak off for and hour or two at the end of the day and deposit a little of my stress into a fly line. There is just something terribly satisfying about watching the chug-chug of a bass popper get violently interrupted by a falling bowling ball. It’s not the most challenging fishing but, that’s kind of the point.
This little pond in the South Carolina low country is just beautiful. Enough trees to find some shade but not so many that casting is impossible. A healthy frog population so the popper fishing is great. I’ve had fish bust through the lily pads to eat a popper sitting on top. The pond was full of those great lily pads, and I guess that’s where the problem started.
I don’t know if the alligator was attracted to the lily pads but he certainly liked the bass that hung out around them. Whatever the reason, this gator happily took up residence in the pond and it caused a minor hysteria among the neighbors, my in-laws included. Apparently
Read More »9 Tips for Netting Big Fish on Your Own
ELATION, PANIC AND EPIPHANY. THAT’S THE USUAL ORDER OF EMOTIONS WHEN AN ANGLER LANDS THEIR FIRST BIG TROUT.
I had the pleasure of seeing a dear friend land his first trophy trout recently and I think that’s a pretty fair description. I think it’s pretty common for anglers landing their first plus-size fish to think, “Oh shit! What do I do now?” To the guy who is used to dangling a fish by the tippet, scooping an angry, hook-jawed behemoth with a trout net is daunting. Once you’ve done it a few times it becomes second nature but for those who are struggling (or yet to struggle) with it, here are a few tips.
Timing is everything
Netting a green fish, a fish who isn’t ready, is a losing proposition. On the other hand, playing a fish too long can kill them. Not to mention give them ample opportunity to unbutton. As long as a fish is holding himself upright in the water and keeping his head down, he is not ready for the net. Once he rolls on his side and comes to the surface, it’s time to net him. The first time this happens he may right himself again and make another run. The second time you should be ready to seal the deal.
Net the fish at the surface
As long as a fish has his head submerged he is in control. If you try to scoop a fish below the surface your odds are very poor. He can turn quickly to make his escape and there’s a good chance that you will catch the line with the net and break him off. Lift your rod tip high as you reach for the fish and keep his nose out of the water. As long as his nose is dry he can’t make a break for it.
Net the head
Don’t try to scoop a big fish from behind. You might
Slim Shady Baetis
By Bob Reece
A baetis pattern with a secret.
“Hopper” Juan Ramirez is full time guide on Colorado’s South Platte and Arkansas Rivers. His years of experience on these water have allowed him to build an on-the-water knowledge base that is second to none. One of his recent creations, the Slim Shady Baetis 5.0, is testament to his understanding.
When I asked Juan about his Slim Shady 5.0, he shared the following thoughts with me. “The Slim Shady 5.0 was a pattern that I worked on for several years before I finally found the right material to set it apart from other great patterns that already existed. It took several versions, but I finally settled on a pattern that utilized a “secret” material. “Slim Rib” is a micro stretch material that I use to make a wonderful segmentation on this pattern. No one else is using it and that’s what sets this pattern apart from all the other Mayfly Nymph patterns. The pattern sits on a 200R hook. The 200R is a hook that is 3x long, giving it a wonderful mayfly shape. As the name states, it’s a slim pattern, matching the small mayflies in the Southern Rockies as well as elsewhere. It’s been thoroughly tested on the South Platte, Animas, Piedra, Dolores and Arkansas Rivers and has accounted for some really fine fish for my clients and me. “
While proper presentation is integral on highly pressure water, accuracy of
Read More »12 Smallmouth Bass Patterns For The Fall
Fall is one of the best times of the year for fly anglers wanting to target big smallmouth bass on reservoirs.
Particularly if the lake impoundment has good populations of shad, blueback herring, or other native baitfish. Fly fisherman fishing surface poppers and subsurface baitfish patterns to these schools of bass can be rewarded with big bronzebacks. The fall brings positive changes in fish behavior and fishing conditions from cooler air temperatures and increased rainfall. For the first time in several months, water temperatures drop significantly on reservoirs which triggers an increase in baitfish activity. Smallmouth bass counter offensively by congregating themselves into schools and driving the baitfish into shallow water where they’ll ball the bait up for easing feeding.
Smart anglers will search out smallmouth bass and the baitfish around the same spawning grounds they visited in the spring during the pre-spawn and spawn. The only difference is during the fall smallmouth bass aren’t’ spawning, they’re instead using these shallow areas of the lake to ambush and corral baitfish. Anglers should also concentrate on main lake points and flats located close to deep water, since smallmouth bass will use these areas to feed as well. It’s best to get on the lake early when the topwater bite is hot. Daylight until ten o’clock in the morning is generally the best for breaking fish, but the evening until dusk can be very good as well.
After the sun gets up
Read More »Summer’s Over
HERE’S ONE IMAGE AND AND A BRIEF STORY FROM AN ESSAY I DID FOR HATCH MAGAZINE.
TO SEE THE REST OF THE IMAGES VISIT HATCH. YOU’LL BE GLAD YOU DID.
In August of 2010, at he end of a hectic and exhausting summer, I found myself in western Alaska for a week at the Alaska West Lodge. Frankly I was a little burned out. The weather, which can be a formidable challenge in Alaska, complicated my travel arrangements. From Anchorage I was still two bush planes a bus and a boat ride from the camp which rest on an island in the Kanektok river. I fully expected to be spent by the time I got there. I found quite the opposite. By the time I reached the camp I was recharged with excitement by the place. Western Alaska is quietly beautiful. The travel it’s self had been visceral. I recall flying low over deserted wetlands, looking down and identifying parts of an airplane on the ground below. I remember thinking, “yes, you are in the bush now”.
While the other guests were unpacking, having a snack or smoking a cigar, I was getting into my waders and lining up my rod. I just couldn’t wait to see what this place had in store for me. I waded into the Kanektok and within a few cast my indicator disappeared and I was tight to a big rainbow. There I was in heavy water with no net playing a big fish. Clearly, I had not thought this through. About that time a boat rounded the bend.
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