Tenkara Nymphing

A few weeks ago we tried to do a little early season nymphing using Tenkara rods. The stream we fished has some very good sized fish swimming in it and we questioned how these light flexible rods would handle heavy nymph rigs and good sized fish. The results...

Ok so we could get the flies to the fish but what would happen if we connected with a good sized fish. Moments after the above video was shot my buddy Rick hooks up with that big brown. The fish ran about the tail of the pool as I tried to find my camera. It promptly ran out of the pool into the fast water below. Rick manages to hold on to him and get out onto some of the boulders to continue follow the fish. In the end it is fish one tenkara zero.

Finally we are able to get a fish to hand. Not a big fish but a strong one in fairly fast water.

Tenkara techniques definately hold promise, I look forward to some more experimentation.

Inspired by Roughfisher - The Possie Bugger

The official start of trout season is less than two weeks away but I spent the weekend tying flies to fill one of my warm water boxes for one of my favorite species to target with a fly rod...Carp.
I first learned of the Possie Bugger through Roughfisher's Blog. I really liked the way the pattern looked so I turned out a few in different sizes and shades. The pattern looks like it should produce well. I took a few tied on a size 12 hook out to a local pond this afternoon and they tore up the bluegill population.
The Possie Bugger (my version)
Hook: 2x long nymph hook
Weight: Flat lead tape
Tail: Australian Possum hair
Ribbing: Copper wire
Body: Mixture of rabbit and possum with a little flash added in tones of tan to grey
Hackle: Partridge
Head: Synthetic peacock dubbing

Fly Tying on the 40th Floor

I'm away on a business trip and I originally thought I would be away from from the vice for a whole week.  With the season opener two weeks away I still have a lot of tying to do.  Then I remembered the Marco Polo kit.

    I snagged one of these off of e-bay a few months back and threw it in a drawer with intentions of using it on fishing trips away from home.  I threw some thread on that triple spooled bobbin and filled the hook pallet up and dumped it in my luggage.  I had a small bag packed with miscellaneous materials from a fly tying class I was teaching and dumped that in as well.  This afternoon I spent a few enjoyable hours looking out over the storm filled skyline of Atlantic City tying flies.  It sure beat pissing away money in the casinos.  I should have spent some time putting together the materials needed for the flies I was hoping to tie, but I am getting by with the odds and ends I had already packed.  Its a little hard to come by a fly shop in this town.  I wonder what kind of materials one could get off a seagull...

Hare's Ear Whisper

I finally got out on the water a few times but I could not record the trips because I lost the charger to my camera.  I'm back in business now and I thought I would share what's been working this winter.  This first fly is actually a grayling pattern from Great Britain.  It is a little wisp of nothing tied on the first third of the hook shank.  It looks like a half finished fly but the trout were stupid over it.  I fished this fly off a dropper on my standard Czech nymph set-up and it out fished my favorite patterns 3:1.

Hare's Ear Whisper
Hook:  size 14 light wire standard length nymph hook
Abdomen:  brown 8/0 thread (on first third of the hook shank only)
Rib: x-fine gold or brass wire
Thorax:  brownish black hare's mask fur

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Micro Nymph Jig

I am slowly but surely getting hooked on these european jig fly hooks.  I mainly use them for the depth charges.  Heavy flies designed to bring a multiple fly rig down into the "zone".  By design these flies will ride hook point up there by reducing (but not eliminating) hang ups.  I recently discovered some of these hooks in size 16 and 18, and got to work tying some micro nymphs on them.

Micro-nymph Jig Fly

Recipe:

Hook:  size 18 jig hook

Bead:  Gold tungsten

Thread:  8/0 black

Tail:  Brown CDC fibers

Body:  Brown fly-rite dubbing

Rib:  Extra small gold or copper wire

Thorax:  Peacock Ice Dub