My boots the creek later in the afternoon, some indecision saw me finally leave for water at 2pm but with warm air temps and daylight savings time I had plenty of light to knock a few fish before the setting sun came. I got on the creek and rigged a #16 Pink Safety fly simply because I wasn’t confident a streamer would move fish and with my limited amount of time I expected the Pink Safety fly to land a few trout quickly. Three drifts in and I watched one fish rise upstream, another drift and another rise upstream. At this point I hadn’t gotten a strike with the fly I was fishing and so I opted to swap to a #20 Griffiths Gnat, I know Carl would have slapped that fly on as soon as he saw the first fish surface. Something about his blind confidence with the dry fly makes him successful, I’ve watching him pull fish up and out when I wouldn’t have expected a trout to rise let alone strike an imitation. His skill with a dry fly is something I need to work towards and so I put on a good stretch of 6x and started letting line fly. Two drifts later I was landing my first fish of the afternoon, moments after that and another was on the end of my line. I continued working each run up to the head with success at every spot, those fish simply wanted a well dressed small dry fly that was riding high. Evolving as an angler, it’s what I’m working on and this day proves that fishing like Carl has it’s place, I need to remember that.

The Beginning:

Slide Show

I’m guilty of jumping the gun. I have the information available to me but with zeal I just sat down and began tying. I’m pleased I found tying these flies more enjoyable, it came a bit easier this time and makes knowing that I have to do it all over again that much more tolerable. According to those in the know my hackle is far to light for these to pass as Dark Hendricksons. I may end up taking a razor blade to them to save the hooks or I may attempt them anyways just to see, maybe the lighter bodied flies will pass as Lt. Hendricksons. They may end up in a box somewhere, I’ll pull them out 10 years from now and exclaim its the “Dumbass Hatch!” Anyways, learn from my mistake as I must. Do your research before you reach for your nice dry fly cape.

Slide Show

The close of trout season in Minnesota is nearing, the leaves are changing colors and beginning to foul up your drift. It’s a good time of the year to hook into trout down here and as usual I’m trying to get near cold water as often as I can. Managed to sneak away between obligations just before the massive rain event that blew most streams out a few days ago. The air temp was in the low 70′s and rain the night before added a bit more stain to already off water. My plan was to swing streamers.

Net in hand, I began with a #8 Hairball. I love this thing. Had a few follows but after 15 minutes I hadn’t hooked in to anything. I gave it a few more passes through a very deep trouty looking run with and on the lift of my rod I managed a twelve inch brown looking rather rotund. I stuck with the Hairball for a bit longer but after a few more non-committing trout I stuck it back in the box. At this point I distinctly recall about a dozen violent rises just upstream, one within 7-8 feet of where I stood. I ignored them thinking I had no visual clue what they were taking and the water was so stained I didn’t think a smaller caddis or general dry fly would be spotted. I swapped to the SMB and kept swinging ignoring the rising upstream.

I managed a couple smaller trout on the SMB but not what I was expecting it was slow going with lighter takes. I landed another couple of browns and a brookie by the time I decided to listen to the trout. I added an 18 inch section of 5x tippet to my leader and tied on a #16 Tan EHC, old faithful. I’ve heard stories of guys who fish only this pattern all year round and do quite well on it. I sometimes have a hard time trusting that the presentation and presence of one fly will attract the response I want. I greased up my fly and my leader and cast upstream through a tight deep run. I could barley see a foot under the surface.

A few passes later and in the blink of an eye a trout snatched my fly, sweet. I managed a nicer rainbow and a few brown trout working the EHC pattern through the murky water. I greased it up a few times and landed a few with a down and across swing over a riffle, I am thinking this is the act of “skittering” a caddis dry fly. After landing four fish the water calmed and nothing rose for a good long while. I decided to swap back to the Hairball and tempt fate: an ugly looking log jam that was likely to result in a lost fly. I let the line slack and the fly sink deep into the cut then stripped it back out quickly which prompted a very nice looking brown to show up. We danced and I sent him on his way back to that deep dark looking hole. I split shortly there after managing about 3 hours on the water. I guess the moral of this story would be to trust and listen to the trout and yourself. Next time when the trout are telling me they want something on the surface I will be taking note.

Slide Show

The night before plans were hatched (interesting I used that particular term). I was set to arrive at 8:45am and with a short hike in Wendy B. and I would be staring at trout water by 9:15am. An initial water temp was taken at the first riffle crossing made, a cool 50 degrees. Rocks were picked and I set up a two fly nymph rig, BWO nymphs were present in higher concentrations so the WD-40 was employed. Before I could drift the rig more than a handful of times through the first spot we arrived at it became clear that nymphs were not going to be needed today.

I had some initial concerns that the stretch of water we chose to tackle today might not have much of a Grey Caddis hatch, those concerns quickly faded. Splashy rises were coming from smaller trout under 10inches within the first hour we were on the water. By 10:30am the stream was coming alive, Caddis were coming and they just kept coming. The larger trout could be spotted just by watching the rises, they were consistently at the head of each pool or run, often holding to one side of the seam in the slightly slower water. They do this to maximize the calorie intake from all those tasty Caddis flies but also to minimize the calories they burn by expelling less energy avoiding the faster current. Wendy B. and I sat on the first run we came to taking back to back Brown trout as we worked our way up to those larger fish at the head of the run. This was shaping up to be a once a year day.

The Grey Caddis just kept coming and by 11:30am they could be seen swarming near rocky structures, near downed trees and any vegetation hanging near the stream. Note: we observed a higher strike rate when we put our flies near structure which in turn had larger concentrations of Caddis swarming near. 90% of the trout I took were taken on a #16 CDC and Elk pattern that I tied rather sparse, it worked wonders. I wish I had tried a hackled pattern to see what if any effect it might have had, skittering a Caddis dry is still a bit of a mystery. We fished, with smiles on our faces in the sun. Glorious, tight lines, back to back, for the next couple of hours.

No count of fish was kept, it would have been a pain to do so. Even pictures kind of slimmed to a minimum, for a while we could do no wrong, just keep the fly in the water and out of the weeds behind you and it was going to get attacked, period. Wendy exhibited more restraint at times and I got over excited forcing me to spend some (but not too much) time picking my fly from the weeds. I fooled around with pull on my CDC and Elk pattern by casting it into slack water, crossing the current with my fly line and waiting for my line to tighten thus pulling the fly, as long as the fly stayed on the surface it was slammed every time after moving only a few inches. I found this particularly effective in certain spots where a traditional upstream approach wasn’t available. Keep this in mind when dealing with Caddis, a traditional drift will work but sometimes not nearly as well, these fish become keyed on that quick moving, darting fly and sometimes they don’t want to see your fly just sitting there. Caddis are not mayflies and they behave in extremely different manners.

We couldn’t argue with rising trout, water temps were pushed to the far reaches of my mind and I didn’t flip another rock for the rest of the day. We moved to each run exhibiting rising fish, worked each until one of us took the largest fish willing to show it’s face, they showed and we won. Wendy managed two really nice fish while standing in a riffle casting downstream to slack water, the marauders. He pulled each upstream through the riffle with the 2wt., that rod puts up for sure man. We progressed upstream and the adult Caddis numbers diminished, we could have continued on but not with dry flies, we chose to split, double back and fish the first few runs for a limit of 10inch fish for the grill.

By this point it was approaching 1:30pm and the adults were everywhere but rising behaviour seemed to drop off a cliff by 2:30pm. We each managed a few fish each before the dry fly drew no responses. To round out the day I chose to swing a streamer to trout with very full bellies, very few struck at my fly, perhaps something to take into consideration. At 3:15pm we made the trek out and by 4pm I was on my way home, what a seriously kick ass day. Minimal wind, nothing but dry flies. I mean I used only two flies all day and landed more fish in a few hours than I had any other day I’ve been fishing for trout. To my surprise the CDC and Elk pattern lasted for a long time (maybe I’m getting better at tying) and even after it came loose from the shank of the hook it still managed one last trout before it had to be retired, got my hook back though, a marvelous end to a dry fly. How often does that happen, to retire a dry fly after so many fish rather than busting it off on a trout, or loosing it to a tree? Hasn’t happened many times for me yet but there are many years of this in my future so I’m sure I’ll see it happen again. Thanks Wendy for another good run.

Other Notes and Observations:

• I wonder if we wouldn’t have taken more fish early if we had tried pupa patterns.
• #14 through a #20 adults were seen, so start large and work smaller and darker if the fish hesitate.
• Seriously considering a voice recorder for notes from now on, wish I had one this day.

Slide Show

On this day I woke with a smile knowing after I took the dogs out for a long run I would have the rest of the day to fish. Sershen took me to a spot of his that he has been frequenting for quite a while I would imagine. South we travelled in my beat up rusty pickup. We arrived at the stream at about 1pm. Upon seeing rising trout I rigged up a #18 BWO dry flythat I tied recently, Sershen rigged a #18 Parachute Adams with a Zugbug trailer. We took turns casting dries to feeding trout and we both came up successful. After about thirty minutes the trout seemed to hold up and stopped rising. Taking an initial water temp of ~50 we waited and watching hoping that as the sun helped raise the water temp that we might catch a few BWO’s coming off.

While we waited for a water temp above 52 we picked rocks and strained the contents. Flipping two small rocks over exposed many Baetis nymphs ready to emerge. We waited and watched enjoying t-shirt weather the entire time. As time passed we stood in the water able to see the shucks from emerging flies floating past. We found a few BWO’s and Hennies as the afternoon progressed. At 3:30pm the water temp was 52.5 degrees making for ideal conditions for hatching BWO’s. Unfortunately we did not see rising trout and so we both decided to switch to streamer patterns. I chose my trusty Marabou Leech and moved from run to hole. After casting a #18 dry fly the streamer seemed clunky but it worked. I pulled a few more brown trout from the depths including a nice 16in trout that fought like a log. 

As we fished we were accompanied by an old beagle that was content just to sit and watch. He followed up the entire length of the stream we fished. As we returned to our original spot we noticed rising trout again, I quickly switched back to my BWO dry fly and on the second cast picked up another brown. I worked my way up the stream but in my haste I think I spooked the trout. I fished until I was confident I wasn’t going to pick up another trout. I really enjoyed studying the water anticipating a hatch. 

The Winona Fly Factory Fly Tying Radio:

1. 30 minutes of Minnesota Public Radio
2. Tommy The Cat: Primus
3. Opiate: Tool
4. Holdin’: Yonder Mountain String Band
5. Walk The Line: Johnny Cash
6. Loser: Beck (Wendy, I laughed)
7. Sin: Nine Inch Nails
8. Daylight: Aesop Rock
9. Bleed the Freak: Alice In Chains
10. General Tso’s Chicken: The Northwoods Band
11. Soul Jacker pt. 1: The Eels
12. Bring It On Home: Led Zeppelin (Awesome)

Thinking to the not to distant future and knowing how long it could take me to complete my task I started the day tying BWO’s to Minnesota Public Radio. I listened to news and then set the ipod to random tunes to finish the afternoon. 

I tied these BWO’s in size 18 with two different types of tails. I personally think the Micro Fibbet tails look better but the hackle fiber tails  take me less time. I am planning on testing both under semi-scientific conditions to determine which I like better, and I guess I will let the trout weigh in on the subject as well.

I must admit I was reluctant to start these due to the fact they arn’t as easy for me but it needed to be done and I’m fairly pleased with the end result. I used a razor blade to demolish an old dozen I didn’t approve of. Keep your hook eyes clear, I did not on my previous attempts.

Things to note: Use the smallest amount of dubbing, I really think its better to add some more after the fact, especially the dry fly dubbing, it tends to clump. Work on tying in your hackle, I find that having it at the correct angle with relation to the hook shank helps keep the fibers neater when palmering. Buy quality hackles…they are worth it.

• Hook: #14 Dry Fly
• Thread: Tan 8/0
• Parachute: Calf Tail
• Tail: Buck Tail
• Body: Hare’s Ear Light/Dark
• Hackle: Grizzly

I tried very hard to tie these well, I took my time and learned much about parachutes during the time I took to tie over a dozen of these flies. For me this was difficult, the hackle can be frustrating and being calm and taking your time can pay off, it did for me. I would make a few suggestions, 1 select all of your hackle feathers in advance so you don’t have to search through your cape to find what you need. 2 Practice hand stacking, for me I felt like I did fairly well hand stacking the buck tail after trying to use a hair stacker and not getting very far. 3 Lift the Hackle, the instructions I read explained that if you wrap the hackle on the bottom the entire time it will force the other wraps up. I found though that if I didn’t lift the hackle fibers when I wrapped a new turn the fibers would go all over the place. This for me was a difficult tie, perhaps in a few years before my sight leaves me it will get easier.