A little late is better than never, with that in mind here is how I tied my recent batch of Stimulators. I should note that I did glue the head of every fly but when tying 60 of these flies I waited until the entire batch was done before busting out the glue to finish each fly. Peace.

-the w.f.f.

I tie alot of flies and I tend to tie dozens of the same pattern, due to this fact I’ve run across a problem at my bench that is solved with a Chip Clip, a few inches of 1/4in weather stripping and a piece of Velcro. When I’m tying Scuds, the Black Wet Fly or any other pattern that requires several strands of a material to remain together and preferably the same length such as with the flash tail on a scud or the over body formed by a dozen or more strands of flash, I used to have to try and peel up the strands of material from my bench and either waste some to even the length out to tie it in correctly or I’d end up wasting time trying to even the length by hand all this provided I remembered to drop the stands of flash in the same spot each time. After a bit of annoyance I raided the junk drawer we keep in the kitchen and came up with a simple solution that I use often and is one of the hidden treasures on my bench, the C.C. Tool.

Simply this is a chip clip with padding added to the jaws to keep your materials safe and secure. I added a spot Velcro on the back and have it stuck to a good spot on my bench and now when I go to tie a dozen Scuds I even the lengths of three strands of Krystal Flash place them in the C.C. Tool and hang them from my bench. Each time I need that material I remove it from the clip, tie it in and when I clip it free the ends are even and I place it back in the clip maintaining the even length. My working area stays cleaner because I don’t have strands of flash laying everywhere and the don’t  lose the even length (you waste less and have a cleaner looking fly). Placing the Velcro on the clip allows me to train my brain to reach for the same spot time and time again to retrieve the materials, this will save you time especially if you don’t have to go searching for that third strand of flash that got away from you after you placed it on your bench. I estimate the cost of this bad boy to be approx. $.50. A package of chip clips from the dollar store, 3 for $1.00+$.10 of Velcro and about the same amount of weather stripping and your in business.

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Thanks George…

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Went out for a few short hours knowing the conditions are rough, weeded up water with minimal casting lanes and places to catch a decent drift. With that said I checked out this spot to see if the rains had shifted any of the obstructions around or if it removed enough of the instream vegetation to open a hole or two. I rigged a #8 Sprinkle Me Baby (Black) and left the added splitshot aside banking that the trout would come up to me. Most deeper water was so weeded it was difficult to get your fly in for even a second or two. I stuck to the edges fishing broken water that was maybe 6-18 inches deep. I got a few nice responses one of which saw a brown leaping completely out of the water in pursuit of the SMB but the weeds complicated things and I ended up not landing a single fish in three hours. Not a big deal though, I enjoyed the time in the sun taking in everything around me. Ho-humming it as it were. As I was heading out I ran into a group of deer, just one of many cool things around the stream, more than just the trout around here.

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Notes and Observations:

• Size and Prep ALL Dry Fly Hackle Before Tying!
• Be Weary of Elk/Deer Hair that contains Broken/Damaged Hair. It is a pain.
• Practice, Practice, Practice.

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Recent rain events from the last two weeks have kept most area water off, stained or muddy and a bit higher than normal for quite a while now. Clean water can almost always be found but it sometimes takes a bit of research to locate the best potential streams. Get to know a few shorter systems that are maybe difficult to fish when water levels are low and gin clear, it is after rain events that these spots pay off. If it stays gin clear 90 percent of the time it will likely fair well and will be in good condition for fishing after rain events, slightly higher and a bit stained makes it a bit easier to sneak a cast in to weary trout. I hit such a stream not long ago, enjoyed my time. Most streams I’ve seen in the last week suffered some amount of flooding. Debris and in some cases large trees were moved and re-deposited. This cycle that nature has worked out for itself by protecting one spot with a tree for a year or two then moving that tree downstream to the next hole only to protect and cover the fish there for the next year is one reason I love fishing streams. They change and evolve providing opportunity one day and stripping it away the next, just one more reason to be out as much as possible to take it all in. I fished four streams on the 29th, first was a tiny creek that was slightly stained and fished well. Browns were picking off a #18 Orange Scud. The second stream was muddy and high. I fished it for about 15-20 minutes and decided little would come of my efforts. Third was a short stop off to see a few rainbows and despite my efforts few were having anything from a #18 Orange Scud to a #14 EHC to a #6 SMB nothing was working so I blew out. Last spot saw the close of the day, the recent rain had caused a log jam but also up rooted a good portion of the instream vegetation making drifting a fly a bit easier in places. Saw Long-Horned Sedges on stream at about 7:45pm, beautiful Caddisflies with the longest antennae. Very cool, hard to catch. Home around 9:30pm.

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For me trout addiction isn’t a problem just a reality, ok it gets me in hot water every now and again but it also gets me out of the house and takes me to far off lands where the animals live and few men travel. Trout addiction has gotten the best of me. Case in point: 8am trout stream in-sight. Looking for brookies I decided to head to the headwaters of a typical S.E. MN stream. How far would this rabbit hole go? What is through the woods? Trout addiction. I knew before I left that I might find nothing but I needed to see for myself. Water was cold (~52) degrees and gin clear, despite the recent rain this section looked as if none had fallen. I had heard a report that otters have become well established here causing the trout population to decrease, including the brookies, maybe especially the brookies? I saw one scoot away from me as I started, shortly afterwards I cam upon a whitish matter floating in the stream, looked to me like flesh maybe from a trout.

Didn’t touch a brook trout today, should have but none were to be had. Traveling upstream staying in the 2ft wide path of stream that wasn’t covered in water cress I moved upstream.  I kept trudging until I found the first trouty looking spot that offered a decent casting lane and drift. I picked a Stimulator I tied recently just for the Brookies and got to swinging. Little did I know not much was holding under the root wad hanging off the edge. A few poor casts and I thought it was over but then a flash, there was something holding in there. One more cast without the poor drift and that fish came up, a smaller brown trout. Not a brookie. Moving on I kept going further upstream, the water seemed to get smaller around each turn but then it would plateau and open into a wider section each of which was pretty shallow and those that weren’t had a tree or a few trees right on top and were un-fishable with a fly. I continued further upstream…trout addiction.

After an hour of hiking I rounded a bend and watched the stream open up but I couldn’t see it? Covered 100% by water cress. This is the first point when I questioned turning back for something more realistic but I saw a hole cut through the cress further upstream and decided I had to see. I could hear the sound of a waterfall but I couldn’t see it? Covered in water cress, during this time I counted at least six springs flowing into what I had been wading through. I followed the main flow further until I came to a flat shallow section blocked by weeds and logs.  To pass I climbed up and on top of several tree limbs blocking my way, as I stood on top looking out I realised I was standing on a log jam that had been covered in so much foliage I couldn’t see the massive amount of debris in front of me. Looking above I saw what you see here and decided I had gone far enough in search of the magical trout hole hidden in the deep jungle, Indiana Jones style, this is my trout addiction.

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