Catch of the Day

Sea Dog, Not Hair of the Dog

That salty air on the way back from Maine may have infected me with an urge to go striper fishing! Busted out my gear: 9wt., 9ft. rod, box of clousers, deceivers, poppers, sand eel patterns, shiners and other sundry flies. Leaders so dry and worn that Carmens dozen would break off, one rod still has scales from the last bluefish I caught (maybe ten years ago). Yes its been that long, well I've been busy! In a few more weeks fishing in the Carmens will end and I do need something to do.

Patience, Patience

Art is back from the rocky coast of Maine. Aside from the tourist destinations, public parks I found access a little difficult. For example, LLBean has a paddling center. So foolish me decided to pull in and see what adventure awaited. A stern young man greeted me and before I could say hello, he stated " this is private property". Mmmm, I thought a paddling center and a private one at that. Silly me thinking that they were a nice family business rather than another corporation out to make as many bucks as possible.

I did find a nice pull off by the Portland headlight (no fee), a nice public park in Cape Elizabeth (no fee) and a beautiful spot in East Boothbay ( a beach that the locals allow public access). That was a really nice spot! The grumpy guy at the state park charged extra for out of stater's and to really go fishing it seems that you should have been here last week or come back in September the so and so will be running.

The morale of the story is don't believe what you read on the internet ('cept me of course), when booking a hotel it will always be dirtier than the pictures in the ads. Best part of Maine, that guy at the lighthouse selling lobster  (lobstah) rolls and blueberry pop. He was from Boston ! Oh, OK, maybe the scenery, the quiet walks in the woods, the dusk on Casco Bay, and the friendly people me meet on the way.

Mark Twain

I found a Twainism on the web awhile back and it has come to mind more than once lately.

"Never argue with stupid people, they will drag you down to their level, then beat you with experience"
How true!

Anyway, Art is taking a well deserved vacation and when he returns hopefully he will have some new tales, flies, fish stories and pictures to share.

Pheasant Tailed

Another weekend and more fishing! It's July and getting late in the season. Fishing has been tough, with the trout looking over every morsel of food carefully. Again the winner is the pheasant tail nymph. No matter how your fish it, comes through every time. The fly of this year  has to be the good old reliable pheasant tail.

Got his vote!

The Perfect Fly

Like a lot of things tough to define. Perfect rod, perfect cast all open to opinion. What's perfect today may be a dog tomorrow. But tying flies we try for perfection, which we can only base on does it catch fish. If it doesn't out of the fly box never to be used again.That's what I thought about Barr's emerger and the Six X. Tied a bunch, used them a couple of times and no dice. Put them in the back of the box until one day out of desperation tied one on and pow fish on! So why carry a bunch of unproductive patterns? The first reason maybe its how your presenting them; too deep, too shallow, dead drift. And secondly that magic moment hadn't arrived. So keep experimenting and keep trying new patterns, adjust how your fishing them and have some fun.

Catch and Release

Caught, then over handled and tossed back in to die? Oh no another lecture on angling ethics! Not really just trying to provoke some thoughts and actions. Is it wrong to take the occasional fish to eat? Or strict catch and release areas, tossing back injured fish just to die! Rules and regulations by definition tend to be rigid and inflexible. Just as saying native fish only! Let's get rid of all the brook and lake trout out west and no browns and rainbows back east! Inflexible! Some of the native fish had very limited habitat and ranges. PreColumbia America was a far different place than today. Eastern rivers had runs of Salmon, Shad and Striped Bass. Brown Trout is found as sea runs in most of Europe, were they once trans-Atlantic and native Americans and colonial actions squeezed them into extinction? Who's to say? What I think is to keep an open mind and not become inflexible in doctrine and actions.

Realistic or Impressionistic

Comparing a Monet to a Rembrandt sometimes doesn't work with flies and fly tying. Some of the best flies are impressionistic and far from the real thing. Having never fished a realistic fly for any amount of time, I am at a loss to really say what works best. Some of the great Catskill tie flies are far from realistic and even thorax and parachute designs are not very realistic!

Thin Clear Water

Yes, its summer and the fish are on vacation. I find them sunning themselves in deep clear pools wasting away the hours slowly and I mean agonizingly slowly finning back and forth inspecting every food morsel that floats by. Painful as I stand there offering every variation of whatever is on the water at the time. I had an ant on my arm, looking at him/her, it was very small, very distinct in its form and black, more like a graphite. I could see immediately that nothing in my box was close. Not color, not form, not size, no wonder did the fish snub me. I was throwing hot dogs and they were looking at breakfast sausages.  The long and short of it was only two fish released and an incredible 10 straight misses and refusals. Time to regroup, rethink and rearm for the coming battle.

Travels and Tribulations

I hate to drive and driving every day back and forth and round and round I have too much time to think! There lies the danger, thinking! Is my leader too short? What if I made those wings out of old tea bags? I need smaller flies? I need larger flies? Am I too noisy? Studs on my wader boots? Soup or salad?
So after much thought (driving around doing my daily chores, jobs and other stuff), I came to the conclusion that too much thinking is dangerous! Need a new hobby? 

BWO

No, not that airport in Baltimore (it is a nice airport having spent some time waiting for connecting flights, Blue wing olives. A favorite in most parts ranging from small to microscopic, imitations range from Catskill tied dries to CDC emerger, thorax and parachute dries. Most small Nymph patterns cover them, some of the best are; pheasant tails, 6X and Barr's emerger (more of a nymph than an emerger). Come summer, regular hatches occur till fall and even then during warm spells you still see action. Aside from midges probably the most prolific insect on the surface and subsurface in my opinion.

Beetle Juice!

That time of year has arrived, ants, beetles and other terrestrials! Fishing the hatches can be fun, come summer and no real hatches aside from the dependable BWO's, ants and beetles can bring some good fishing. Did well with ants on the holiday and yesterday they came thru (for some) again. Made a bunch of ants  up and last night made a bunch more only smaller! Good chance I'll make some more up even smaller tonight. Easy to tie, only need: hook, thread, foam (black or brown) and hackle (brown, black or grizzly dyed or natural).

4th of July Hiatus

Gone Fishing!

Fish Ladder Follies

Seems there may be hope after all, could large sea run trout be lurking about and about to change the opinion of this old flyslinger! Possible that the fish I lost last week that muscled his way around that tiny pool before snapping off was something special. Not the first time that's happened and with any amount of luck many more to come.

Photo by Rich Haimes

Beetles

No not those beetles, but those bugs that invade your garden and drop into the stream that occasionally get gobbled up by foolish fish looking for a snack. The best tee shirt I ever saw was in a fly shop in Killarney, Ireland it had a picture of a trout and under it said something about if you kept your mouth shut you won't get caught!

Well, trout are eating machines constantly looking at the goodies floating by and grabbing the best stuff. Sometimes they lay there just looking and waiting, maybe they have a little heartburn from too many Olives or red ants. I never had much success with beetles, ants yes, but beetles no. So now I'm thinking that my beetle imitations really suck and i need to find something that looks good and is an easy tie. Too many steps and I get antsy and sloppy, and some patterns are just boring. No wonder the fish don't take them their just as bored as I am.