or however that dang word is written! : ) Use this forum to discuss those things that are related to, directly, or indirectly, fly fishing, i.e., tackle, catalogs, single malt scotch, cigar preferences, pipes, camera gear, etc. This is sort of an off topic area but one related to bamboo and fly fishing.
Well, it turned out to be bust yesterday... I was glad i brought a rope to climb back up the steep cliffs. I am not as young as I used to be so the rope was a good decision.
I think the 2016 1000 year flood has really hurt this section of the creek. Never ticked a trout, never saw even a minnow. Amazing to see the devastation from the major flood.
The only bright spot are the huge colonies of caddis larva on the bottom of every rock in the creek. I found only a few small mayflies.
This 1" long free-living caddis larva was a surprise to me in this section.
Thanks for the report John. When I didn't see a fish last fall, I wondered about the effect of the flood. Obviously a lot of water was rushing through that valley. Good to see bugs are coming back anyway. Hopefully the fish will follow.
When I was a kid, I remember reading about using a fin from a brook trout to catch brook trout. Well, I just Googled it and there's even a fly called the trout fin!
Patriot or Royal Wulff, Iris Caddis, cripple caddis, various colored parachutes and of course ants and beetles. For deeper holes the Blow Torch is very effective.
Webfly wrote:When I was a kid, I remember reading about using a fin from a brook trout to catch brook trout. Well, I just Googled it and there's even a fly called the trout fin!
I love flies like that but try as I might I just cannot get the married feathers to work for me. I'd love to be able to tie one of those and also a Parmachene Belle. Beautiful flies with married wings.
We have roaring floods when we get huge Pacific storms after dry years. Debris piles could taller than a 6’ angler...and they are up on banks. But we have pockets where the trout somehow hide and survive. I hope your brookies make it back.
A number 16 Renegade, or Royal Renegade. Fish either of them as a dry fly, and when they sink, strip them in a couple of times before picking up the fly to re cast. I've caught lots of fish that way when the fly was underwater.
Jeremy: I'm trying to figure out what WOULDN'T work on remote brookies. I once did a brookie vacation in the Upper Peninsula. They can't resist a small muddler, fished in any manner you care to do. Elk Hair Caddis goes without saying. Hoppers during hopper time. Royal Wulff in #16 and #18. Beetles. Or the Joe Humphries "beetle" where you cut the tail off a black humpy. I like the view in the pics.
John... most of the wild brook trout fishing I do is done here in the Catskills, during summer months on headwater creeks that stay cold, while lower elevation freestone streams warm up a tad... I find the primary hatch, if there is any hatch, consists of Yellow Sally Stone Flies... thus my favorite size fly is a #16... and most often I'll use a Yellow Stimulator, or my Elk Hair Stonefly, and sometimes a Lime Trude... I also like adding a #12 Partridge & Orange soft-hackle dropper, some 6" below the dry fly, as often there are a fair number of caddis about...
Although, my wild brookies dont seem to be all that picky...
PS... when I fish the headwaters of Ed Hewitt's Neversink, of course I use a #14 Brown Bivisible in his memory... plus a #14 Ausable Bomber causes it catches brookies, but as Corlay noted, brookies don't seem to be picky--- most of the time...
This month usually a #14 Light Cahill or a Woodchuck Caddis. There was one day about two weeks ago where anything I tied on caught fish. Last October, November and December all I used was a Brown Bivisible. I have an original Yellow Stone Fly pattern that may be my exclusive fly for the next couple of months. The Brook Trout where I fish are usually not too picky.
This is a romantic posting. Makes me want to get back to the Wisconsin brookie streams. Standard Adams, Pass Lake, Partridge and Hare's Ear, Chuck's Caddis Varient, and the go-to killer: Muddler-sz 14 to 10. Loaded for bear.
