After learning two new patterns at the Annual Saco Valley Trout meeting at Hobbs’s Brewery, Bridget and I tied up a few.
But having the correct material made all the difference.
Small Streamers
Fly Tying
Squirrel and Herl Bugger
Tying up some streamers tonight. I hope to swing some of these through some of the deeper holes in the Saco River. Until now, I would have needed snowshoes to get to the river. Warmer temps and some rain are doing a good job melting the snow.
This is the Squirrel and Herl Bugger. It is basically a wooly bugger with a pine squirrel zonker strip wing in place of the marabou tail. This is a size 8, 3x long streamer hook, peacock herl, and an olive-dyed grizzly hackle. I use an olive-dyed pine squirrel zonker strip for the wing. you could use a natural-colored strip as well. The squirrel strip has just the right length fibers for this size fly. This is an easy fly-to-tie so you can tie up quite a few before you finish your beer.
I think this should look like the sculpin and minnows that swim around the rocking bottom of the Saco. Wish me luck.
Parachute Adams
The Adams dry fly is a very popular dry fly. As a matter of fact, it is the best-selling fly worldwide. The parachute version is a few percentage points higher in popularity. It is considered a general imitation of an adult mayfly, flying caddis, or midge. It can be used to imitate a lot of different bugs by changing up the size. The parachute fly sits lower in the water than the traditional hackled tie. To a hungry trout, it looks like an easy meal stuck in the surface film of the water.
I find this style fly a bit difficult to tie. Probably because I don’t tie it often. I find it cumbersome to make the wing post. These are size 16 with a combination of brown and badger hackles for the parachute and tail. All these flies will fish. As you can see none of these will be mounted in a shadow box frame and displayed on my office wall. I tie to fish, not decorate so it’s all good.
Damsels Flies
I like tying simple flies. I lose a lot of flies when I fish. So spending more than a few minutes tying a fly and then losing it on my first cast is just too frustrating.
I was very happy that Steve Anger from North Country Angler, taught this simple and fast damsel fly dry last night at “Bugs and Brews”. Two materials some craft foam and a large grizzly hackle.
The pictured flies are a size 14 for brook trout in the local mountain ponds. I think if I vary the sizes, They will work for brook trout in small sizes and larger sizes for Bass.
Game Changer
At the Monday Night “Bugs and Brews” at Ledge Brewery here in Intervale, we learn to tie a fly pattern based on the “Game Changer” Justin Laffin a local guide in southern New Hampshire, walked us through his version of the pattern. It is a complicated fly only because there are so many sections and steps. However, the steps are just repeated so once you know the routine it’s not that difficult. I don’t know whether I’ll tie this fly on a regular basis but it certainly was fun to learn to tie it.
The original “Game Changer” was first tied by Blane Chocklett. It is an articulating streamer pattern. Basically, when you tie this pattern it’s four separate flies hooked together with shank sections. Two hooks and two shank sections. It has become more of a style of fly rather than a single pattern. My example here is a bit rough but I got the idea. In a mini version in olive and brown should match the small bait fish in my local mountain streams.
Just filling my boxes.
What to do on a cold winter afternoon. Well, I tie flies. I need to fill up the fly boxes for spring. Today I am tying some traditional Gold ribbed hares ear nymphs. In a size 16. I stick to the original recipe except that I use gold wire in place of gold fine tinsel. You do see the wire much until the fly gets wet, but I think it is more durable. I will tie a few of these then maybe a few Prince nymphs or Zug bugs.
Winter Flies
One of the first flies you will see on a trout stream in winter is little black stoneflies. They will crawl out of the water onto a streamside rock in the frigid air. Their dark bodies will absorb heat from the sun and allow this little bug to shed their juvenile skin. Sometimes you can see the small adult stone flies walking around on the white snow. Trout don’t pay much attention to the adults as they are never in the water. The tiny nymph gets the hungry trout’s attention as they migrate along the stream bottom to the streamside rocks. Getting knocked free and tumbling in the current.
Here is a pattern I like to tie to use this time of year. Tim Flagler’s Little Black Stonefly in size 18. Simple to tie and effective.
Filling Boxes
What do you do on a chilly winter night? Why you fill your fly boxes.
What better to do on a snow day?
It started snowing this morning. Marylynn, Bridget, and I are all home. I thought what better way to stay out of the way than to tie some flies.
This is a South Branch Chub. Originally tied by Bob Jacklin to fish the South Branch Of the Raritan River in New Jersey. I did really well with this pattern on The Ammonoosuc River in Bretton Woods New Hampshire. I am going to fill my streamer box for next spring. I have used imitation jungle cock cheeks here. I think it will look better with a natural jungle cock. In this article https://www.flyanglersonline.com/flytying/fotw/101998fotw.php , Bob stated that he wanted to call it the Little Brook Trout, but the name was taken. I guess that is why it has worked so well here in New Hampshire. He also said the pattern will work well in ponds I will be giving that a try as well.
Can’t fish! Chores were the order of the day.
Marylynn and I took advantage of a warm November day and got the Christmas lights up. Certainly better than other years when we could not feel our fingers. Cleaned the garage so that we could fit a car in. Then took a run to the dump before the rain. Then spent the afternoon and evening sorting and cataloging fly-tying material. Of course, I enjoyed a local beer. All in all, not a bad day, but I would rather be fishing.
Tap 'n' Trout 