Well it is officially cold outside on a regular basis and Philip and myself have been pretty busy with work, so the fly fishing adventures have been put on a halt. Even though the fishing isn’t being done the flies in our boxes are sure getting stocked up. Now is the perfect time to sit down at the tying vise and go to town on your favorite patterns for the spring.
My favorite patterns for the spring are basically big nymphs and streamers. When I say big I mean like size 12 or 14 nymphs and size 8 to 10 streamers. Most of you reading this will think that’s not that big, but to myself that’s about the largest I tie and it seems to work great. In the nymph category I’d have to say tie a mess of pheasant tails, hares ears, and San Juan worms, at least here in south central PA that’s the trouts hors d’oeuvre. Now in the streamer category I’d go with the woolly bugger, sculpins, and muddler patterns. Try tying all these flies in a variety of sizes and colors and mix and match until you find your best arsenal. Some people might try other patterns, which is fine, but I have had the best experience with the one mentioned above. Also, you can tie flies larger if you like, remember it’s what works for you. So I hope this advice helped a few people. just have fun with the sport and I know some very rewarding memories will come your way.
So let me begin with saying that if you are waiting for a hatch, your missing out. My favorite type of fishing is nymphing. The reason I enjoy nymphing so much is that at least 80% of the trouts feeding is subsurface. Don’t get me wrong, everyone enjoys seeing that strike on the surface to a neatly placed dry that rewards you with a few fish, but when the hatch isn’t present a good bet is nymphing.
Their are many ways of nymphing, whether it is with one fly or a tandem setup. Highsticking is a great way to get you into trout in all types of water, especially pocket water. When deciding on a nymph to fish, some may try an attractor pattern with a second fly dropper, this is a very effective way to cover water. My favorite setup for any nymphing situation is probably a pheasant tail, hare’s ear, or caddis larva. My reason for these specific nymphs are because the abundant range of water they inhabit, they are practically everywhere.
First off you want to make sure that you have enough weight on to get you fly to the bottom where the majority if fish feed. Now, experiment with different flies or presentations until you get a strike or pick up a fish. You can pretty much depend on further activity after that because you now know what they are interested in. Well it’s not that easy. Most fish will feed on a well presented nymph, but understanding why that fish took the nymph on that specific drift is the real question. Was it at the right depth? Was it the right size? Or could it be that maybe a hatch could be starting? We don’t have the luxury of knowing that for sure, but trying to understand why the fish took is a big plus when fishing nymphs.
Basically what I’m saying is that when your dry fly fishing it can be a blast, but it’s pretty self explanatory, match the hatch and make a good drift. While nymphing is similar, you can’t see you fly so you have to rely on your ability to nymph effectively, and the only way to get good at it is to tie on a nymph. I think that if you give nymphing a honest chance, then several fish will visit you net.
My good friend Philip is a good nymph fisherman. He can pick up several trout when other around us are getting shut out. Philip and I have been fishing together for about fifteen years now and I think we both fish very similar. We usually have about the same luck when we fish together for some weird reason. Probably because we fish the same setup most of the time, but whatever it is, the one thing that’s always a given, is that it’s fun. We enjoy our time on the stream, especially if we’re nymphing.
Watching the water is something I truly enjoy. Perched high on a rock mid stream focused on a seam filled with all manor of debris can be a very educational way to take a break from the casting and high sticking. Taking time out to watch the water can pay dividends too.
Such was the case yesterday on a Western Pa tailwater. Rusty and I started early at day break to find the river smoking and fog filling the valley. We found a nice spot with great flow and perfect depth for nymphing. I started with my huge golden stone by itself and Rusty started pitching some smaller nymphs that I can’t recall.
We fished hard for a good 2 hours with no fish between the two of us. I had gone from my stonefly to a #16 then #18 pheasant tail, then an egg pattern, and finally pitching streamers. Nothing was working. As the day progressed, we moved through different water, and not so much as a bump.
This is that time when you wonder what you’ve done wrong and all sorts of things start running through your head. Mind you, this river for some reason has been running extremely warm! In the 60’s to be exact (locals should know what river this was by now) and has been running at around 60-64 for the last few weeks. This is tolerable water for bows and browns though, and they should’ve been used to it by now. We even discussed moving to another stream nearby, but we knew it was too low to safely fish.
We pressed on, and just after lunch, were rewarded with the first fish of the day. A tiger trout I managed on a white streamer. We fished that section hard for a good hour until we decided to explore further down river. As we were walking down to a section that I wanted to fish, we stumbled on a beautiful hole. We decided to start pitching streamers there. As we did, my mind seemed to be playing tricks on me. I swore I saw several fish rise in the head of this pool, but aside from some midges and the occasional brown/tan caddis, nothing seemed to be hatching.
We fished for a while more until it became apparent that they were starting to take pretty heavily on top. Then we saw them. What looked to be black caddis, but upon closer inspection revealed that they weren’t. I’m no entomologist, so I have to research after the fact. I’ve seen plenty of black caddis in my day, and this most certainly wasn’t a black caddis. It’s wings were laid flat on it’s back, vs the “tent” wing configuration of a caddis. The other glaring difference was the absence of the signature caddis antennae.
Of course, after seeing this, I re-rigged my rod to fish dries, and my first obvious choice was a black caddis dry to match the black caddis cousins littering the water. My first few passes over fish produced nothing. I’ve been doing this long enough to know that if a fish that’s feeding regularly ignores a seemingly perfect imitation on a perfect drift on water that receives little pressure, that they’re taking something else.
That’s when I stopped to observe. It only took a few moments to realize that the takes were subtle and the dorsal was more evident than the head, so they were obviously taking emergers. Keeping with the black flies, I used a black soft hackle with a green abdomen (though the black flies had black abdomens) and sunk it just below the surface film. The first cast produced a strike by a bruiser who broke my 6x tippet cleanly. I would’ve liked to have seen that fish!
For the next hour or so, it was just fun. It embodied why we fly fish. That moment in time made the whole trip worth while. We didn’t “slay” fish by any means, but to figure it out was just as much fun. A later long cast into the head of a pool resulted in a beautiful rainbow breaking the surface gently with his back and a perfect hook up. The fish put on some acrobatics for us and I got him to the net.
I don’t know how many fish I missed, or how many I actually netted, but that window of opportunity made the whole trip worth while. I would’ve liked to have been into fish in the early morning, and what caused the fish to shut off is still a mystery. Maybe they wanted black nymphs earlier, a practice both Rusty and I avoid. Maybe it was the sauna like conditions of the river. Maybe the old “you can’t catch fish when there’s fog on the water” thing was true.
Regardless of reason, the fact is that they weren’t feeding early morning, then something happened that turned them on. More than likely it was the hatch, and they wouldn’t have fed all day if it didn’t happen. I’ll never know, and I’m fine with that. The few fish that I managed, and the breath taking scenery made it all worth while.
Well it is now cooling off and the trout are starting to feed on some very interesting flies. Some people will do well on the tradition egg pattern, some will stick to the old stand by, the San Juan worm (Philip), and others will hopefully find the magic of the soft hackle.
The soft hackle to some people looks like a sparsely tied nothing, and I agree, but how the fish look at it is another story. This time of year a lot of the trout are taking some odd presentations, and I’m about to tell you another one that works great for all eastern trout. The traditional way to fish a soft hackle is on or just beneath the surface film, well pinch on some split shot and start to dredge. Yes, I know it doesn’t sound right, but a soft hackle drifted deep and slow can pick up some large trout this time of year.
Now all you need to do is pick a natural and productive color from the past and give it a shot. The best way to tie a soft hackle is with partridge, but various other birds will work as well, like starling and chukar. The abdomen of the fly should be thin and not to bushy because the soft hackle on the fly will give off plenty of movement in the water. Just remember when tying a soft hackle that it doesn’t have to look appealing to you, but to the trout. It’s pretty simple, fish them like you would fish any of your favorite nymphs and I believe you’ll be surprised by the results.
