Cracklebacks - Who fishes them?

The Crackleback - "Expect near instant success."

I recently wrote something about an evolution of this fly that became a very effective warm water pattern.  Not that there was anything wrong with the original, it just sorted morphed over the years into something else.  But it did get me thinking about the fly, how I came to discover it and the number of trout it has caught over the years.

Many years ago I picked up an old aluminum fly box that contained many examples of one fly, the Crackleback.  The original owner was obviously quite fond of this pattern, he (or she) liked it enough to fill an entire fly box with the same fly!  At some point in time, I fished one of those Cracklebacks and caught a fish.  I caught enough fish with them to start tying the fly myself.  It was one of those patterns that I would tie on the end of my leader when nothing else was working.  I was surprised when they caught fish, but secretly always expected that it would work.  The funny thing is, it was never a pattern I would start off with.  There were always so many other sexier flies to fish.
Why do they work?  Beats me, but work they do.  The fly was developed by Ed Story of Feather-Craft in the 1950's.  His one-liner in the catalogs, "Expect near instant success" always cracked me up, but the pattern does indeed work.  Maybe it is the fly's versatility, it can be fished as a dry, swung like a wet, dredged like a nymph or stripped like a streamer.  At least that is what the originator claimed.  Truth be told I have probably caught fish all using all four methods.  I have had my most success with the pattern during caddis emergences.  On these occasions, I would begin by twitching the fly on the surface, letting hang in the film at the end of the drift, then jerking it under the surface and using a hand twist retrieve bring it up stream for a few feet before picking it up and casting it again.  It would take fish dead drifting, swinging and moving up stream.  One of the best evenings I have ever had on the water was fishing this fly over ravenous rainbows and browns during an evening caddis hatch on the Madison River in Montana.  It took fish on nearly every cast!  My friend Rick enjoyed the same success fishing just downstream of me using an Iris Caddis, so maybe it had nothing to do with the fly.  I like to think it did.

The rainbow ate the Crackleback

Just for the hell of it, I fished it as a nymph last week on my first outing of the year.  While other nymphs were far more productive,  a big rainbow which was one of a few doubles caught that day, fell for its charms.  The fly should not have worked, as all the other fish caught that day were eating small euro style nymphs, but it did!

These flies are simple to tie and can be fished in a variety of ways.  They can be tied in various sizes and colors to imitate nearly anything. There is no reason not to try them.

Cold Weather Bluegills

Things can look a little bleak during the winter months.

Cold weather fly fishing for bluegills and other sunfish is often a tough proposition.  Fish leave their shallow water haunts and will typically move to deeper water near structure to find the most comfortable temperature.  As many an ice fisherman will attest to, they do continue to feed throughout the winter months, but not with the same voracity that they do during warmer weather.  Bluegills will move into shallow water on clear warmer days if the sun can warm the water temperature by a few degrees.  Most of the time however it will be a deepwater game.  The good news is if you find one fish you likely to catch others in very close proximity.  In cold water bluegills will gather in dense schools, often with other fish species.  

Presentations need to be slow and takes may be difficult to detect.   I have the best success with small streamers, nymphs, soft hackles and wet flies.  Soft hackles probably account for more fish due to the alluring movement of the feathers during the painfully slow retrieves.

Cover as much water as possible, searching for fish.  Once you detect a strike or catch a fish, thoroughly fish that area.  Once you locate a single fish you are likely to connect with more in the immediate area.  Experiment with the speed and depth of your retrieve until you dial in on an effective presentation.

To be honest,  I much prefer fishing for bluegills during the warm weather of spring and summer (notice the lack of fish pictures in this post).  But when a mild winter day comes along and there is open water to fish,  it beats sitting around the house suffering from cabin fever.   

Blue Wing Olives

As I mentioned in a previous post, New Jersey has been experiencing a very mild winter.  Normally by this time of year we are in full winter fishing mode.  Days on the water are limited to the few days when the daytime temps creep above freezing and the river is free of ice.  This year we are still seeing water temperatures in the mid to high forties even hitting fifty degrees on some days.  Over the Christmas season we regularly saw daytime temperatures near seventy degrees!  In a nutshell, what this means is the fishing has been better than normal.  Higher water temps mean more active, feeding fish.

This fall and continuing into early winter, one of my go to patterns have been Beatis imitations commonly known as Blue Wing Olives.  These patterns have been producing far longer into the year than normal.  Typically this time of year the only insects we are likely to see are midges.  With all this mild weather I am continuing to see regular Baetis activity, particulary on overcast days.
Although there has been some surface activity, most of my fish have been coming below the film fishing nymph and emerger patterns.  I'm sure all this will finally come to an end with the cooler temperatures in the forecast, but it was good while it lasted.

 I'll leave you with an example of one of the Beatis nymph patterns that produced very well in recent weeks.  I discovered the pattern years ago while fishing the San Juan River in New Mexico.  I liberated it from the jaw of a large rainbow trout, took it home, duplicated it on my vise and have been using it ever since.

Baetis/Blue Winged Olive Nymph

Pattern Recipe: 

Hook:  TMC300R  size 18-24

Tail: 3 Pheasant tail fibers tied short (hook gap in length.

Body: 16/0 Olive Thread

Shellback:  Pheasant tail fibers from tail

Rib:  Olive thread

Thorax:  Black antron fibers

Legs:  Fibers from thorax spit and tied to the sides

"Winter" Fishing Wrap Up

This blog has been far too quiet lately.  My apologies to my regular readers.  Fortunately I have been busy fishing as well as working.  I thought I would share some images from some of my winter trips to the river.  We were blessed with a extremely mild winter this year.  I was able to fish in shirt sleeves or a light jacket for most of the days between December and the present.  Today we have seasonable temperatures in the mid fifties and it feels down right chilly!

The fishing this winter was phenomenal!   Although we experienced extremely high water during the spring, summer and fall, the lack of snow/rain this winter has really brought water levels down,  The low crystal clear water we typical experience in autumn has been with us all winter.  This mild weather has the bugs all confused as well.  Many hatches are several weeks early.  As it looks now we may miss our Hendrickson hatch completely as we suffer through three weeks of closed waters.

I had several months some of the best dry fly fishing I have ever experienced in New Jersey with loads of fish coming to the surface chasing our little black stoneflies.  This hatch has always been hit or miss because of weather and water conditions, but this year we had two solid months of consistent action on stoneflies.

There has been plenty of BIG fish as well.  My best this winter was a twenty six inch brown.  Unfortunately his picture will not be found on this blog because I was without a camera (my friends know that is a regular problem with me), but there are plenty of 22"-24" pictured on this post to make up for it.

Many of these big fish were taken on top but the largest were often taken dredging a nymph on a dark cloudy day.  This spring our rivers were chock full of suckers getting their spawn on.  Unlike some anglers, I have no aversion to matching that particular hatch so I am no stranger to sucker spawn patterns.  If its good enough for a fish to eat, its good enough for me to tie and fish!

When going down low effective patterns were my Yellow Stonefly Nymph, Cased Caddis, Chimarra Caddis and my trusty Pheasant Tail Anchor.  As far as dry flies went your basic black stone fly imitations produced well, the fish were not too picky.  But the biggest fish always seemed to rise to My buddy Lou's CDC Stone.  Water temps were high enough to get some great action on aggressively stripped streamers as well.

The last few days of the open season were the best.  Daytime temps in the seventies brought the water up into the mid fifties.  With temps like that the caddis and mayflies started popping.  I spent the last day of the open season fishing wet flies to very aggressive fish willing to chase down and absolutely smash the fly.  At the end of the day at dark I was treated to a caddis hatch and took several fish on Iris Caddis fished with movement in the film.






















So my apologies again for the lack of posting but a man has to have his priorities.  Fishing will trump writing every time in my book!  I promise things will get back on track and you will hear a lot more from the Jersey Angler in the months to come.

Tight Lines!

Chimarra Caddis Larva

Chimarra Caddis Larva 

This bright orange/yellow caddis larva can be an important food source on some waters in my area during the late winter and early spring months.  As far as caddis larva go it is one of the smallest I will bother to imitate.  I tie them on a 3x short hook in sizes 16 & 18, but I know folks tie them smaller (typically 18-20).  The short shank hook allows me to maintain a good hook gap but still keep the body appropriately sized.

I was able to get out this week and enjoy some of the unseasonable warm weather.  This pattern and small patterns with bright orange hot spots produced well, indicating that the fish may be seeing some of these larva already.

Pattern Recipe:
Hook:  3x short larva hook
Thread:  8/0 Hot or Fire Orange for body/Brown for head
Under Body: Orange thread
Markings:  Black marker on thread before wrapping floss
Abdomen: Yellow floss spiraled up hook shank allowing the underbody to show
Thorax: Brown thread
Legs:  Squirrel dubbing

Tying Instructions:

• Cover the hook shank with orange thread wrapping down the bend of the hook, building up a thicker area over the barb of the hook.  
• Tie in a piece of yellow floss at the bend of the hook and advance the thread to the eye, whip finish and cut off.
• Attach brown thread at the hook eye
• Dot the back of the fly with a black marker a few times
• Advance the floss towards the eye in open spirals allowing the orange underbody to show through and tie off at the hook eye.
• Dub a small about of squirrel fur on thread and create the flies legs by making several wraps, pulling the fibers down after each wrap
• Create a neat thread head, whip finish and cut off thread.
• Apply a small drop of clear cure goo to the top of the thorax and cure with a UV light to keep the fibers pointing downward

Once this pattern gets wet the colors will change closely resembling that of the natural insect.

A healthy winter brown trout taken on a Chimarra larva pattern