Hendrickson Nymph

It is Hendrickson time here in New Jersey.  The hatch is a few weeks early due to the mild winter we have experienced here in the north east.  We are all hoping that the bugs stay around long enough for the season opener.  If you want to fish this hatch you can still get out on our trout conservation waters which are open year round, though they are likely to be crowded.  There have been no real prolific hatches report yet but there have been some sightings which mean the bugs are on the move.

Although I fish a number of emerger and dun patterns, I only fish on nymph pattern for this hatch.  I first found this fly in the book Flies for Trout by Dick Stewart and Farrow Allen.  I have been fishing the fly since the early nineties when the book first came out and I have never needed another pattern.  The grey band of dubbing in the center of the fly is essential to the pattern as the naturals often have a lighter coloration mid-abdomen.  I prefer the fly as shown (minus the crazy long guard hard that need to be plucked out!), though you can also add a bead if that's the way you roll.

Recipe:

Hook:  2x long nymph hook size 12 or 14
Thread:  Brown 6/0
Tail:  Well marked wood duck flank barbs
Abdomen: Reddish brown fur with a band of grey fur behind the thorax or in the mid section (look at your local nymphs)
Ribbing:  Copper wire (not in the original pattern)
Thorax: Reddish brown fur
Wing Case: Black section of turkey tail
Legs: Well marked wood duck flank or partridge barbs

These nymphs are active swimmers when emerging so subtle twitches and lift techniques are often productive when fishing this pattern.

"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

The Fly Fishing Show

The Fly Fishing Show opens its doors tomorrow at 10:00am. The show which is being held in Somerset, NJ will run Friday through Sunday. I plan on being there all three days to check out the show and provide free labor, staffing the CJTU booth. I will also be attending the International Fly Fishing Film Festival which takes place immediately following the show on Friday night. If you are in the area and have never attended this event it is well worth it. A lot of folks travel significant distances to attend this show every year. It is one of the largest, if not the largest, fly fishing events held.

If you going to be there drop me a line, send a tweet, whatever... I love to put some faces to the names of the folks I talk with on a regular basis.





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An Evenings Work

Over the holiday break I got together with Lou from Fly and Fin, for an evening of fly tying, chili eating and bourbon swilling.  I refilled a couple holes in my nymph box, but it was not the most productive tying session.  I had to keep putting my scissors down to pick up the bourbon glass, which slowed things down, but at least I did not stab myself in the forehead.  That's a story for another time!

Merry Christmas

2011 NJ Fly Fisherman of the Year Wrap Up

Tightline Productions has just released a short video that summarized this year's Fly Fisherman of the Year One Fly Tournament.  The video does an excellent job capturing the true essence of the event.  Take a look at it when you get a chance, especially if your a NJ angler and would like to get involved next year!

Happy Thanksgiving!

New Book Announcement

I ran into my good friend Don Bastian at the Fly Tying Symposium over the weekend.  He was excited to announce that he was working on a new book highlighting 19th century fly patterns. The exact publishing date has not been announced yet, but I am looking forward to this one.

Some info on the new book from Don's website Don Bastian Wet Flies   ...

Nov22

Don Bastian

And

The Whitefish Press

Have entered into a contract to publish a book on 19^th Century Fly Patterns titled:

The Favorite Flies of

Mary Orvis Marbury

All 291 of the fly patterns from Marbury’s 1892 book will be replicated in a fly tier-

friendly volume including tying recipes.

Featuring:

Hackles, Salmon Flies, Lake Flies, Trout Flies, and Bass Flies –

Dressed by:

Eric Austin, Tom Baltz, Don Bastian, Dave Benoit, Scott Bleiler, John “CJ” Bonasera, Austin Clayton, Matt Crompton, Chris Del Plato, Ronn Lucas, Mike Martinek, Stanley Miller, Ed Muzeroll, Ted Patlen, Bob Petti, Roger Plourde, Paul Rossman, Dave Schmezer, Mike Schmidt, Bill Shuck, Leigh Shuman, Royce Stearns, Kat Rollin, Rick Whorwood, and Sharon Wright.

I would like to personally thank each of these contributing fly tiers. Their individual and diverse fly tying talents will enrich and enhance this project.

This book will present high-resolution photographs of the actual antique flies from all 32 of the original 1892 Orvis Fly Plates used for the painted lithographs in Marbury’s book,Favorite Flies and Their Histories, plus close to 100 additional 19^th Century fly pattern recipes. For this privilege, a special acknowledgement and huge thank-you goes out to Catherine Comar, Executive Director, and Yoshi Akiyama, Deputy Director of the American Museum of Fly Fishing in Manchester, Vermont, for their permission, assistance, and cooperation of The Museum.

This book will include an instructional chapter and notes on pattern origins.

The Favorite Flies of Mary Orvis Marbury

by

Don Bastian

The Whitefish Press

Publisher

The Favorite Flies of Mary Orvis Marbury will present replications of all 291 of the historic 19^th Century fly patterns from Mary Orvis Marbury’s 1892 book, including written and in some instances, updated dressings in a fly tier-friendly format. This combination of photographs and tying recipes will be available to the public for the first time since the publication of Forgotten Flies in 1999.

Exact publication date for The Favorite Flies of Mary Orvis Marbury is not yet determined. However, to reserve your copy of the Limited Edition, please contact:

The Whitefish Press

whitefishpress@yahoo.com – or by writing:

The Whitefish Press,

4240 Minmor Drive

Cincinnati, OH 45217

Tightline Productions

I recently discovered what I think are some of the best fly tying videos being shown on the web these days.  These videos are being produced by Tim and Joan Flagler of Tightline Productions.  It just so happens that this is also a local company which makes it kind of cool.  I was introduced to Tim and Joan as well as their fly tying videos at the NJ Fly Fisherman of the Year event.  My jar dropped when I saw the quality of the HD tying video being displayed on a large TV at the event.  I have bumped into Tim and Joan a few times since then and recently asked them for permission to share one of their videos (which they were more than happy to oblige, in fact they encouraged it).  Many of you may already be familiar with their work, since it has been featured on MidCurrent and other blogs like Matt Grobert's Caddis Chronicles.

I love this scud pattern.  Its simple, effective and very similar to a pattern I tie and use myself.  Enjoy the clip and check out some of their other videos on Vimeo