Drizzly Day Fly Fishing

Today is drizzly but warm, so I headed to some ponds for some fishing. The first produced zilch so I just took pics and left. The second gave up a little perch and little redbreast sunfish. I also caught a little Dekay's brownsnake. He was probably on the hunt for a hibernation den. This time of year isn't the best for warm water fishing because, well, no water is warm!

Dry

We need rain here in CT. And in hopes that it will come soon, here are some photos of storms and floods.....

Mr. Chub Bucktail

I got the idea to whip up this little streamer to imitate chubs and minnows in my local waters. It is another simple pattern.
Body: cream floss
Rib: peacock hurl and gold tinsel
Wing: natural bucktail "junk hair".

Stalking Fish and Flies

On Saturday I went out and fished a small stream. I didn't catch anything, and lost 1 decent fish, but I still had a good time. I spent most of the trip watching the stream's wild residents in their spawning activities. I even saw some male brookies with female brown trout on redds! Wild tigers could turn up here soon! I also spent a while observing natural flies: mayfly, stone fly, and caddis nymphs. There were plenty to see, and if you have never bothered looking at what lives in your stream, go do it, you can learn a lot.

Stenonema mayfly nymph.

A free living caddis larva.

Isonychia nymph

Some sort of predatory stonefly, nymph probably from the family Perlidea.

Caddis cases

Couldn't tell but I think it was another Stenomema.

Carp in Dirty Water

In my area, algae blooms color the water nasty green and unless the carp are up shallow, sight fishing just is not possible. I solve such issues with moderate success in at least getting hits.

If you are dealing with muddy or algae filled water, the first line of business is to get your butt off the shore. I fly fish for carp from my kayak. Get out and hunt for areas that show signs of carp habitat. Commons love to hunt for crayfish, so finding areas that they like helps. Big boulders with crevices, sandy shorelines, and gravel bars or sunken wood make good spots. If the spot is shallow, anchor and wait. If a fish is there, look for him tailing or the faint silhouette. Then you can effectively sight fish for them. Otherwise, try to spot bubblers, and cast at those. Fish the fly a bit faster than normal to cover terrain, but still slow enough not to put off the fish.

Some times of the year here berries or seeds will fall out of trees that hang low over the water. This can be darned technical fishing. Cast low and under the branches with a berry pattern if you know a fish is there. If not use a nymph. Even if carp are hunting sunken fruit they will often not shy away from a crayfish, burrower nymph, or leech pattern.

Some flies that I designed for carp:

 Single Berry
-red chenille
-soaked in Dave's Flexament

Cluster Berry
Red Chenille
Dave's Flexament

Carp Nymph
-brown marabou
-olive chenille body
-olive hairs ear dubing
-pheasant tail wingcase
-

-brown v-rib
-rubber legs
-olive died deer hair

crayfish
-Kaufman's Blend Golden Stone
-light elk hair
-rubber legs

Autumn Panfish

(1/30/2018- This post contains examples of very poor fish handling. Use it as an example of what not to do. Thank you, 
R.M. Lytle)

I spent this cold afternoon casting streamers for panfish with some success, getting one fat bluegill and a crappie. In these temperatures it can be helpful to work streamers at a very slow pace. The strip-teaser nymphing method is ideal, as the fish aren't in the most aggressive mood.

Hunting Blue Lines

I am a small stream lover, and know that success often has more to do with the methods used to find a location than those used on the streams themselves. The most important part for me is hunting down a stream to do some recon on. I often find true gems that nobody would have expected. I can't say how many times I have been given a weird look and asked "there are trout... in there?". Fish get in some strange seeming places, but they have good reasons for being there.

The first thing to consider is how fit you are and how willing to do some bushwhacking. If you don't want to do any of that, you must find a stream with easy road and trail access. The second is whether you want to only fish public water. Asking permission from an owner can lead to a killer find and fish that have never seen flies. Once you consider these get on google maps or earth and start on a street map rather then satellite. look within a 15 mile radius of your home for a thin blue line that fits your requirements and appears to be long enough to hold breeding trout populations.

A potentially productive trib in New Hampshire

After looking at the stream 'out of context', switch to satellite view. If it is flowing through woods, good! Swamp, not so good. Determine how you will get to the stream and what it should look like. If it is private, look for an area where you can walk and potentially meet neighbors who could direct you to the owner. Once you find your stream and get out their in the field, don't lose hope from not catching any fish or finding a filthy dead looking stream. Find another! I have been skunked enough that I have learned how to identify potential streams faster just by looking at the satellite view.

Adventures in Kentucky

During August of 2012 a group of buddies and I spent a week at Mammoth Caves National Park in Kentucky. This included some fun though unproductive fishing on the Green River. We stopped on the first night to camp in Somerset PA.

Within the next day both trucks broke down. One broke down in the city limits of Newport Kentucky, where spent hours in a commuter lot chasing skinks and playing frisbee. We ended up having to stay the night in a motel with 3 people to a room and one bed each room! At least the carpet was soft. The morning dawned very rainy and we made our way to the national park. We spent many hours of the next five days on cave tours. I found the caves to be beautiful, but in parts too artificially 'enhanced'. I would rather have seen them without any n-place electric lighting, just as they were found. On one day, we canoed the Green River and I saw many good fishing spots, but had stupidly left the rods at camp.

Finally I had the chance one night to get out and wet a line. I landed one black crappie and several warmouth. I had one smashing hit on a buzz-bait from a musky, but that about summed the fishing up. Fortunately the trip home went soundly with no breakdowns.

A tunnel somewhere in West Virginia

A captured skink

A sign in Newport

The whitetails in the park know you can't hurt them

I decided to take a picture of Frozen Niagara in an angle you don't usually see

Feisty Crappie

Somerset PA flower

Central Ohio. Had some good looking bass lakes!

Past Adventures: Hogs in Plymouth

In past years, I have had the opportunity to fish a good bass pond in Plymouth, CT. It holds some true bucket mouths. This year was particularly productive with a weeks trip producing 60+ largemouth, about 20 being on the fly. I caught one big-headed female who would have gone 8 or 9 pounds pre-spawn or in the fall. The best lure over all was the Heddon Torpedo, the best fly an orange dear hair headed streamer/diver.

Skinny!

The Banana Nut Nymph

I mentioned recently one of my newest patterns, a nymph that I chose to name The Banana Nut Nymph. I did give a recipe, but not a picture of the fly itself. So here it is!

Pickerel

Anyone who fishes with me knows that I LOVE pickerel. I can't see why anyone wouldn't. The are so strong and strike like small sharks. The patterns that adorn their sides are just so beautiful. Also, they keep on feeding aggressively into the winter. Who could resist such a fish? I know so many people that go out of their way to hunt down fish that fight like a pickerel when they could just go down to the local lake.  I dare all of you to get out there and find some of these fish and throw a flashy fly at them. You will not be disappointed.

(the sock is for not being chomped as badly!)

McPhail Emerger

Davie McPhail is a Scottish fly fisher and tier. He has created some beautiful patterns that prove to be absolute killers. One of my favorite flies he has created is the McPhail Emerger, a simple and realistic caddis imitation. His video is here: youtube.com.

Traditional Wet Flies

Traditional wet flies are very good patterns to fish, although many don't bother with them. I keep a lot of them in stock in my boxes. This year I did a lot of wet fly fishing, and I often found myself using them rather than nymphs in many hatch situations.

Banana Nut

In order for a fly fisherman to be on top of his game, he must feed himself well. For me, breakfast means pancakes and bacon. Yesterday I made my favorite type of pancake: banana nut. Normal pancake mix with 1 diced banana and 10 ground walnuts make for a delicious and healthy breakfast.

Today I decided to toss a nymph I christened 'The Banana-Nut Nymph'. It is very simple yet effective.
recipe:
hook-size 12-8
weight- 6-10 wraps .015 lead wire
tail- partridge hackle fibers, natural
rib- fine wool yarn, white or yellow
body- Kaufmann Nymph Blend, Golden Stone
head/legs- loosely dubbed, same as body be\ut worked out with dubbing needle or Velcro

This pattern took one nice brown in the Salmon this afternoon.

I fished a small stream with ants and a tellico wet fly but was unable to hook one of its fine brookies.

The Brookie and the Hopper

Trout Candy

Even in October terrestrials can still provide fantastic action. This was displayed the other night with a brooky that couldn't stand the large surface impression of a foam hopper. Being so dry, I was fishing a friend's private hole on a little spring fed creak.

Perch

Hard Times on the Salmon

Today I spent the whole day fishing at the Salmon River. It was tough, I only landed one fish. I hooked some big trout from atop a retaining wall, but in the time spent trying to find a way to get to them they threw the little nymphs I'd hooked them on.

Fall on the Salmon

(1/30/2018- This post contains examples of very poor fish handling. Use it as an example of what not to do. Thank you, 
R.M. Lytle)

This time of year the Salmon River TMA gets stocked with a new batch of brown trout, and they quickly learn to take advantage of the small mayfly and midges that come off this tie of year. I had luck with some different patterns such as the Adams and Ausable Wulff  last weekend.

Snakes

Being a fisherman, camper, and all around outdoors-man, I have seen my fair share of reptiles.... some venomous. Personally, I love 'um! This year they were particularly plentiful.

Milksnake

Checkered Garter Snake 

Eastern Timber Rattlesnake. No, it's not in captivity

And neither is this copperhead.

Another Checkered