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