Sunday, December 21, 2008
Saturday, September 06, 2008
Anatomy of a hatch.
Anatomy of a Hatch
by Rick Hafele
photos by Chico Fernández
Understanding the mysteries of emergence behavior is the key to success.
Not all aquatic insects hatch in the water. Like stoneflies, damselflies crawl out of the water — climbing up weed stalks, bushes, or dock pilings — before emerging from the nymphal shell. photo by Dave Hughes
THERE ARE FEW PHENOMENA on a river that excite fly anglers more than a strong hatch. In fact, many fishermen describe their trips to the water more in terms of the insects than the fish. Consider a trip I made to the Missouri River last summer. When someone asked how the fishing was, I inevitably described it by saying, “Well, the morning started with an awesome hatch of tricos. A few PMD’s came off in the early afternoon, and the evening caddis hatch was amazing.” For many of us, the quality of the hatch has as much to do with our feeling about a day’s fishing as do the number and size of fish. Given that this is such a central part of the fly-fishing experience, we should clearly understand what a hatch is and what takes place.
First, the term “hatch” is a bit of a misnomer as used by fly fishers. Webster’s dictionary—and most people—define a hatch as something emerging from an egg. Even entomologists use the term to refer to the moment when the young insect escapes from its egg. Entomologists also have a technical term for this: eclosion.
Fly fishermen, however, use the term “hatch” to describe the moment when adult insects pop up on the water’s surface and fly off. This occurs after they emerge from a nymph or pupa rather than an egg. The term “emergence” is also commonly used to describe that event. Among fly fishers, hatch and emergence are used interchangeably.
In most cases, the hatch happens on or just below the surface. But there are exceptions, and it is important to understand the different hatch behavior exhibited by different aquatic insects. This is the factor that determines what patterns and tactics you should use.
The Pregame Show
Before adult emergence begins, a period known as the “pre-hatch” often occurs. This phase is signaled by changes in nymphal or pupal behavior. For example, the pre-hatch of many stonefly nymphs takes place a few days to a week or more before emergence. During this stage, mature stonefly nymphs migrate from mid-channel areas toward the shoreline, where they wait until just the right moment to hatch.
Some mayfly nymphs also exhibit pre-hatch migration within a stream or lake. For example, gray drakes (Siphlonurus sp.) and many mahogany duns (Paraleptophlebia sp.) move from moderately fast currents to shallower and slower areas near shore shortly before hatching.
There are many styles of flies that imitate emerging insects. Clockwise from upper left: a floating mayfly emerger, a Flymph, a CDC Caddis Pupa, and mayfly surface emerger.photo by David Klausmeyer
For other species, such as blue-winged olives or the pupal stages of many caddisflies and midges, the pre-hatch does not involve moving to a different habitat. Instead, it simply means an increase in activity. Mature blue-winged olive nymphs drift more frequently in the current. Caddisfly and midge pupae often drift along the stream bottom for several minutes to an hour or more before beginning to rise up to the surface.
Specific pre-hatch activity varies considerably between different species, but in most cases it involves behavior that increases the insects’ exposure to feeding fish. For this reason, fly fishers should be aware of the pre-hatch and try to take advantage of it. This most often means fishing nymph or pupa patterns along the bottom several hours to several days before you expect the adults to appear. While many fly fishers may not find this as exciting as fishing surface flies during the hatch, the number of fish caught by imitating this pre-hatch activity will convince most anglers to pay attention to it.
Once the pre-hatch ends, the true hatch begins. At that point, there are three main types of behavior to be aware of: terrestrial emergence, sub-surface emergence, and surface emergence.
Land Lubbers
Terrestrial hatches occur when the mature nymph or pupa crawls out of the water so that the adult can emerge on land rather than in the water. Obviously, the adults are not readily available to feeding fish. But the nymphs or pupae crawling towards shore offer a target to hungry fish. Stoneflies best represent this type of hatch behavior.
As noted above, stonefly nymphs migrate from mid-channel to near shore several days to a week or more before crawling out of the water for adult emergence. Nymphs are more exposed to feeding fish during these shoreward migrations and provide some excellent nymph-fishing opportunities. Dragonfly and damselfly nymphs also crawl or swim to shore and then wriggle out of the water before the adults hatch. Trout target the migrating nymphs just like they do stoneflies.
Alderflies and hellgrammites add another twist to terrestrial emergence. These insects, both in the order Megaloptera, go through a pupal stage prior to adult emergence. The pupae of most aquatic insects develop underwater. Not so for Megaloptera. In their case, mature larvae crawl out of the water, dig into the soil along the bank, and pupate on land. When the pupae are mature, the adults crawl out of their pupal cells and fly away without ever touching the water. Many aquatic beetle species have similar behavior, which allows the pupa and adult stages to completely avoid swimming predators.
Underwater Emergence
Subsurface hatch behavior means that the adult hatches from the nymph or pupa underwater. The adult rises through the water column, breaks through the surface film, and then drifts on the water’s surface until its wings harden and it can fly off. The underwater adults are usually buoyed to the surface by gas bubbles trapped under their exoskeleton, and they are very vulnerable to feeding fish. Numerous species of mayflies, especially in the family Ephemerellidae (pale morning duns and western green drakes, for example), are good examples of this type of emergence.
Because of the vulnerable nature of adults exhibiting this behavior, they are an excellent stage to imitate with sub-surface emerger patterns, such as soft-hackles or Flymphs. In this situation, the patterns are best fished with little action. Cast up and across and let the fly sink. If necessary, mend your line so your fly drifts with little or no drag downstream through likely holding water or areas where there appear to be rising fish. Often, such rises are made by fish feeding just below the surface on the helpless adults.
As your fly drifts, you can gently raise your rod tip so the fly swings towards the surface. This gentle rising action often results in a solid take. But strikes can also be subtle, and because the fly is underwater you can’t always see the bite. Watch your leader carefully for any unusual movement. At the slightest hint, lift your rod to tighten the leader. If there is a fish on, you will be able to quickly set the hook. If there is not a fish on you can drop your rod tip and continue fishing. This technique works wherever insects with this behavior are hatching, including in riffles, runs, flats, and even lakes.
Finally, because the adult (or the dun in the case of mayflies) is rising to the surface, your fly patterns should be tied to match the color and size of the adult, not the nymph or pupa. There can be a considerable difference in color between these stages, so this is an important point to remember.
Reaching the Surface
The surface hatch of aquatic insects is such a situation. Surface hatches begin when mature nymphs or pupae leave the relative safety of the stream or lake bottom and swim to the surface. Swimming ability varies considerably among different species, but even the fastest are no match for a trout. During a surface hatch, the first stage you should imitate is the nymphs or pupae swimming up through the water column. Once at the water’s surface, the nymph or pupa hangs in the film while its exoskeleton splits open. At this point, the winged adult wiggles free and pops out on the surface where it floats briefly before flying away. From the moment the nymph or pupa reaches the surface to the time the adult flies away may take a few seconds to more than a minute, depending on the species and weather conditions. During this time, no matter how brief, the nymphs and pupae below the surface and the adults on the surface are sitting ducks for trout. This process seems much better designed to feed fish than to get the adults safely from water to land. For fly fishers, such behavior provides the best opportunity to take fish with dry flies.
Surface hatches occur in all major aquatic-insect groups except stoneflies and Odonata (dragonflies and damselflies). The most important are mayflies, caddisflies, and midges. Within these three groups, dozens of species provide fly fishers the opportunity to see and catch fish feeding with abandon on the surface. But not all the activity is surface feeding. What appears to be surface feeding is just as often fish hunting nymphs or pupae below the surface. Or the fish may be chasing insects in the surface film that are in the midst of emerging from nymph or pupa to adult.
In the latter situation, the insect has characteristics of both nymph or pupa and adult. There are hundreds of patterns designed to imitate the subsurface stage, as well as the transitional stage from nymph or pupa to winged adult. One of the best sources of information about such emerger patterns is the aptly titled Tying Emergers by Jim Schollmeyer and Ted Leeson (Amato Books, 2004).
Those individuals not eaten while swimming upwards or while hanging in the film finally become adults on the surface. When fish turn their attention to this stage, it is finally time to get out your dry flies. Again, there are lots of patterns that imitate myriad species of aquatic insects in various types of water.
For example, different patterns may be called for when you’re fishing in a fast riffle section versus fishing the same hatch on a smooth, flat glide. Fly-flotation requirements, along with how well the fish can see the fly, influence what patterns will prove most effective. In all cases, make sure your patterns closely match the size of the naturals you are imitating and that you are presenting your flies naturally. Most of the time this will be a “dead drift.” But some species, especially adult caddisflies, run or skate across the surface, and your presentation should match their behavior.
The next time you encounter a good hatch, stop to consider what type of hatch behavior is occurring. Are they crawling out of the water, hatching below the surface, or hatching on the surface? How and where are the fish feeding? What size, shape, and color are the naturals? If you can answer these questions, you’ll likely have more to talk about than just a good hatch.
Rick Hafele is a professional aquatic entomologist who has studied the aquatic insects in all of the states and provinces from Alaska to California, and from the Pacific Coast through the Rocky Mountains. He is the co-author of An Angler’s Guide to Aquatic Insects and Their Imitations (with Scott Roederer, Johnson Books, 1995), The Complete Book of Western Hatches (with Dave Hughes, Amato Publications, 1981), and most recently Western Mayfly Hatches (with Dave Hughes, Amato Publications, 2004). He is also the long-time Entomology columnist for American Angler, in which this article first appeared.In 2003 Rick completed a four series set of fly fishing videos titled Fly Fishing Large Western Rivers. For more information, visit Rick's Web site at www.laughingrivers.com.
by Rick Hafele
photos by Chico Fernández
Understanding the mysteries of emergence behavior is the key to success.
Not all aquatic insects hatch in the water. Like stoneflies, damselflies crawl out of the water — climbing up weed stalks, bushes, or dock pilings — before emerging from the nymphal shell. photo by Dave Hughes
THERE ARE FEW PHENOMENA on a river that excite fly anglers more than a strong hatch. In fact, many fishermen describe their trips to the water more in terms of the insects than the fish. Consider a trip I made to the Missouri River last summer. When someone asked how the fishing was, I inevitably described it by saying, “Well, the morning started with an awesome hatch of tricos. A few PMD’s came off in the early afternoon, and the evening caddis hatch was amazing.” For many of us, the quality of the hatch has as much to do with our feeling about a day’s fishing as do the number and size of fish. Given that this is such a central part of the fly-fishing experience, we should clearly understand what a hatch is and what takes place.
First, the term “hatch” is a bit of a misnomer as used by fly fishers. Webster’s dictionary—and most people—define a hatch as something emerging from an egg. Even entomologists use the term to refer to the moment when the young insect escapes from its egg. Entomologists also have a technical term for this: eclosion.
Fly fishermen, however, use the term “hatch” to describe the moment when adult insects pop up on the water’s surface and fly off. This occurs after they emerge from a nymph or pupa rather than an egg. The term “emergence” is also commonly used to describe that event. Among fly fishers, hatch and emergence are used interchangeably.
In most cases, the hatch happens on or just below the surface. But there are exceptions, and it is important to understand the different hatch behavior exhibited by different aquatic insects. This is the factor that determines what patterns and tactics you should use.
The Pregame Show
Before adult emergence begins, a period known as the “pre-hatch” often occurs. This phase is signaled by changes in nymphal or pupal behavior. For example, the pre-hatch of many stonefly nymphs takes place a few days to a week or more before emergence. During this stage, mature stonefly nymphs migrate from mid-channel areas toward the shoreline, where they wait until just the right moment to hatch.
Some mayfly nymphs also exhibit pre-hatch migration within a stream or lake. For example, gray drakes (Siphlonurus sp.) and many mahogany duns (Paraleptophlebia sp.) move from moderately fast currents to shallower and slower areas near shore shortly before hatching.
There are many styles of flies that imitate emerging insects. Clockwise from upper left: a floating mayfly emerger, a Flymph, a CDC Caddis Pupa, and mayfly surface emerger.photo by David Klausmeyer
For other species, such as blue-winged olives or the pupal stages of many caddisflies and midges, the pre-hatch does not involve moving to a different habitat. Instead, it simply means an increase in activity. Mature blue-winged olive nymphs drift more frequently in the current. Caddisfly and midge pupae often drift along the stream bottom for several minutes to an hour or more before beginning to rise up to the surface.
Specific pre-hatch activity varies considerably between different species, but in most cases it involves behavior that increases the insects’ exposure to feeding fish. For this reason, fly fishers should be aware of the pre-hatch and try to take advantage of it. This most often means fishing nymph or pupa patterns along the bottom several hours to several days before you expect the adults to appear. While many fly fishers may not find this as exciting as fishing surface flies during the hatch, the number of fish caught by imitating this pre-hatch activity will convince most anglers to pay attention to it.
Once the pre-hatch ends, the true hatch begins. At that point, there are three main types of behavior to be aware of: terrestrial emergence, sub-surface emergence, and surface emergence.
Land Lubbers
Terrestrial hatches occur when the mature nymph or pupa crawls out of the water so that the adult can emerge on land rather than in the water. Obviously, the adults are not readily available to feeding fish. But the nymphs or pupae crawling towards shore offer a target to hungry fish. Stoneflies best represent this type of hatch behavior.
As noted above, stonefly nymphs migrate from mid-channel to near shore several days to a week or more before crawling out of the water for adult emergence. Nymphs are more exposed to feeding fish during these shoreward migrations and provide some excellent nymph-fishing opportunities. Dragonfly and damselfly nymphs also crawl or swim to shore and then wriggle out of the water before the adults hatch. Trout target the migrating nymphs just like they do stoneflies.
Alderflies and hellgrammites add another twist to terrestrial emergence. These insects, both in the order Megaloptera, go through a pupal stage prior to adult emergence. The pupae of most aquatic insects develop underwater. Not so for Megaloptera. In their case, mature larvae crawl out of the water, dig into the soil along the bank, and pupate on land. When the pupae are mature, the adults crawl out of their pupal cells and fly away without ever touching the water. Many aquatic beetle species have similar behavior, which allows the pupa and adult stages to completely avoid swimming predators.
Underwater Emergence
Subsurface hatch behavior means that the adult hatches from the nymph or pupa underwater. The adult rises through the water column, breaks through the surface film, and then drifts on the water’s surface until its wings harden and it can fly off. The underwater adults are usually buoyed to the surface by gas bubbles trapped under their exoskeleton, and they are very vulnerable to feeding fish. Numerous species of mayflies, especially in the family Ephemerellidae (pale morning duns and western green drakes, for example), are good examples of this type of emergence.
Because of the vulnerable nature of adults exhibiting this behavior, they are an excellent stage to imitate with sub-surface emerger patterns, such as soft-hackles or Flymphs. In this situation, the patterns are best fished with little action. Cast up and across and let the fly sink. If necessary, mend your line so your fly drifts with little or no drag downstream through likely holding water or areas where there appear to be rising fish. Often, such rises are made by fish feeding just below the surface on the helpless adults.
As your fly drifts, you can gently raise your rod tip so the fly swings towards the surface. This gentle rising action often results in a solid take. But strikes can also be subtle, and because the fly is underwater you can’t always see the bite. Watch your leader carefully for any unusual movement. At the slightest hint, lift your rod to tighten the leader. If there is a fish on, you will be able to quickly set the hook. If there is not a fish on you can drop your rod tip and continue fishing. This technique works wherever insects with this behavior are hatching, including in riffles, runs, flats, and even lakes.
Finally, because the adult (or the dun in the case of mayflies) is rising to the surface, your fly patterns should be tied to match the color and size of the adult, not the nymph or pupa. There can be a considerable difference in color between these stages, so this is an important point to remember.
Reaching the Surface
The surface hatch of aquatic insects is such a situation. Surface hatches begin when mature nymphs or pupae leave the relative safety of the stream or lake bottom and swim to the surface. Swimming ability varies considerably among different species, but even the fastest are no match for a trout. During a surface hatch, the first stage you should imitate is the nymphs or pupae swimming up through the water column. Once at the water’s surface, the nymph or pupa hangs in the film while its exoskeleton splits open. At this point, the winged adult wiggles free and pops out on the surface where it floats briefly before flying away. From the moment the nymph or pupa reaches the surface to the time the adult flies away may take a few seconds to more than a minute, depending on the species and weather conditions. During this time, no matter how brief, the nymphs and pupae below the surface and the adults on the surface are sitting ducks for trout. This process seems much better designed to feed fish than to get the adults safely from water to land. For fly fishers, such behavior provides the best opportunity to take fish with dry flies.
Surface hatches occur in all major aquatic-insect groups except stoneflies and Odonata (dragonflies and damselflies). The most important are mayflies, caddisflies, and midges. Within these three groups, dozens of species provide fly fishers the opportunity to see and catch fish feeding with abandon on the surface. But not all the activity is surface feeding. What appears to be surface feeding is just as often fish hunting nymphs or pupae below the surface. Or the fish may be chasing insects in the surface film that are in the midst of emerging from nymph or pupa to adult.
In the latter situation, the insect has characteristics of both nymph or pupa and adult. There are hundreds of patterns designed to imitate the subsurface stage, as well as the transitional stage from nymph or pupa to winged adult. One of the best sources of information about such emerger patterns is the aptly titled Tying Emergers by Jim Schollmeyer and Ted Leeson (Amato Books, 2004).
Those individuals not eaten while swimming upwards or while hanging in the film finally become adults on the surface. When fish turn their attention to this stage, it is finally time to get out your dry flies. Again, there are lots of patterns that imitate myriad species of aquatic insects in various types of water.
For example, different patterns may be called for when you’re fishing in a fast riffle section versus fishing the same hatch on a smooth, flat glide. Fly-flotation requirements, along with how well the fish can see the fly, influence what patterns will prove most effective. In all cases, make sure your patterns closely match the size of the naturals you are imitating and that you are presenting your flies naturally. Most of the time this will be a “dead drift.” But some species, especially adult caddisflies, run or skate across the surface, and your presentation should match their behavior.
The next time you encounter a good hatch, stop to consider what type of hatch behavior is occurring. Are they crawling out of the water, hatching below the surface, or hatching on the surface? How and where are the fish feeding? What size, shape, and color are the naturals? If you can answer these questions, you’ll likely have more to talk about than just a good hatch.
Rick Hafele is a professional aquatic entomologist who has studied the aquatic insects in all of the states and provinces from Alaska to California, and from the Pacific Coast through the Rocky Mountains. He is the co-author of An Angler’s Guide to Aquatic Insects and Their Imitations (with Scott Roederer, Johnson Books, 1995), The Complete Book of Western Hatches (with Dave Hughes, Amato Publications, 1981), and most recently Western Mayfly Hatches (with Dave Hughes, Amato Publications, 2004). He is also the long-time Entomology columnist for American Angler, in which this article first appeared.In 2003 Rick completed a four series set of fly fishing videos titled Fly Fishing Large Western Rivers. For more information, visit Rick's Web site at www.laughingrivers.com.
Saturday, December 29, 2007
How to macro photograph your fly tying.
http://homepage.mac.com/riverwader/tying/Personal24.html
Building and Using Your Fly Studio
More people are shooting pictures of their flies with the proliferation of self-published web sites and digital cameras. The same precision developed in tying flies is also an asset in photograph Flies are a difficult subject to photograph for a couple of reasons. First is the small size of the subject. Next the combination of reflective and translucent materials that is a lighting challenge under studio conditions can terrorize hobbyist photographer.Close-up, or macro, photography carries its own inherent problems and a photographer of flies must face all of them: depth of field, magnification of flaws and pinpoint lighting requirements.However, with a few household items I have designed a simple lighting apparatus with which anyone with the camera equipment suitable for close-up photography can take high quality photographs of his or her flies and display them with pride. While I describe my own views on lighting in this article you may not agree with my ascetic choices. Regardless of the ascetic the Fly Studio will allow you to shoot macro fly photos with control of multiple lighting angles with a single light source. There is no need for several different lights surrounding your fly the Studio allows you to get those same results (if not better) with a single overhead bulb or even sunlight.MATERIALS NEEDED*A white semi-transparent plastic bottle. I chose a 2 qt ammonia bottle, but there are other possibilities.*Heavy gage, but pliable metal wire. I suggest Bonsai wire from the local garden shop.*Two pieces of silver foil card stock (3"x4"), or small mirrors would also work.*Five-minute epoxy.BUILDING YOUR FLY STUDIO-Cut the ends off the plastic bottle leaving a 4" long cylinder. Cut an "X" in the middle of the cylinder to fit snugly over your vice head. (A full rotary vice might be difficult to thread. In that case a wood dowel with some picture hanging putty or hot glue on the end could be placed in the vice and threaded through the cylinder.)-Cut two holes the diameter of your flexible wire near each end of the cylinder below the hole for the vice. Thread a piece of wire through the two holes, leaving about 12 inches beyond each end.-Epoxy the wire to the cylinder at the holes and tape the silver cards to the wire ends. -For more lighting control you can double the fill cards by putting two in front and two in back.-The instructions above will give you a basic version (as pictured above) that will work well but if you want a more substantial studio you can refer to the new version I show in the slide showUSING YOUR FLY STUDIOClamp the vise on a stable structure. Use a strong, color balanced light source overhead: the sun, strobe or tungsten photo lamp. You can place colored mat boards behind the studio, or position it with a natural background, but be aware the limits of your depth of field will throw any background out of focus.The light coming through the cylinder (bottle) lights the fly fairly evenly with only a slight shadow on the underside but the photo will seem lifeless.Peer into the cylinder from the camera's point of view and adjust the rear reflector to reflect the key light into the back of the cylinder until the edges of the fly are backlit. This technique is called "rim lighting." Rim lighting defines the edges of the fly and brings a bit of life to the translucent materials.Once you are satisfied with the rim lighting, position the front reflector to kick light onto the front of the fly. This will remove the shadows and highlight the reflective materials. Be sure and view the final composition through the viewfinder, checking to make sure the fill cards are out of view.SEPARATE THE SUBJECT AND BACKGROUNDJust as there is no substitute for time spent on the water or at the vice to improve fishing or fly tying skill, your ability to recognize correct lighting for translation to film and digital storage improves with practice. Time spent experimenting with lighting will develop your eye for the amount of contrast you want for the transfer to final print or digital image. Sometimes even a slight shift of the reflecting card will vastly change the effect, so watch the fly closely while you move the cards.Take notes when experimenting with lighting techniques. It not only helps you remember what you did, but it sharpens your own focus.Without rim lighting techniques the color of backgrounds need to be adjusted to the particular flies being photographed. By using the rear card for rim lighting you should be able to use almost any color background (with modest contrast to the flies) for a variety of flies. The highlights on the edges of the fly's details will make the fly seem to pop off of the background. The continuity of using one background color will also benefit any multiple fly presentations.
Building and Using Your Fly Studio
More people are shooting pictures of their flies with the proliferation of self-published web sites and digital cameras. The same precision developed in tying flies is also an asset in photograph Flies are a difficult subject to photograph for a couple of reasons. First is the small size of the subject. Next the combination of reflective and translucent materials that is a lighting challenge under studio conditions can terrorize hobbyist photographer.Close-up, or macro, photography carries its own inherent problems and a photographer of flies must face all of them: depth of field, magnification of flaws and pinpoint lighting requirements.However, with a few household items I have designed a simple lighting apparatus with which anyone with the camera equipment suitable for close-up photography can take high quality photographs of his or her flies and display them with pride. While I describe my own views on lighting in this article you may not agree with my ascetic choices. Regardless of the ascetic the Fly Studio will allow you to shoot macro fly photos with control of multiple lighting angles with a single light source. There is no need for several different lights surrounding your fly the Studio allows you to get those same results (if not better) with a single overhead bulb or even sunlight.MATERIALS NEEDED*A white semi-transparent plastic bottle. I chose a 2 qt ammonia bottle, but there are other possibilities.*Heavy gage, but pliable metal wire. I suggest Bonsai wire from the local garden shop.*Two pieces of silver foil card stock (3"x4"), or small mirrors would also work.*Five-minute epoxy.BUILDING YOUR FLY STUDIO-Cut the ends off the plastic bottle leaving a 4" long cylinder. Cut an "X" in the middle of the cylinder to fit snugly over your vice head. (A full rotary vice might be difficult to thread. In that case a wood dowel with some picture hanging putty or hot glue on the end could be placed in the vice and threaded through the cylinder.)-Cut two holes the diameter of your flexible wire near each end of the cylinder below the hole for the vice. Thread a piece of wire through the two holes, leaving about 12 inches beyond each end.-Epoxy the wire to the cylinder at the holes and tape the silver cards to the wire ends. -For more lighting control you can double the fill cards by putting two in front and two in back.-The instructions above will give you a basic version (as pictured above) that will work well but if you want a more substantial studio you can refer to the new version I show in the slide showUSING YOUR FLY STUDIOClamp the vise on a stable structure. Use a strong, color balanced light source overhead: the sun, strobe or tungsten photo lamp. You can place colored mat boards behind the studio, or position it with a natural background, but be aware the limits of your depth of field will throw any background out of focus.The light coming through the cylinder (bottle) lights the fly fairly evenly with only a slight shadow on the underside but the photo will seem lifeless.Peer into the cylinder from the camera's point of view and adjust the rear reflector to reflect the key light into the back of the cylinder until the edges of the fly are backlit. This technique is called "rim lighting." Rim lighting defines the edges of the fly and brings a bit of life to the translucent materials.Once you are satisfied with the rim lighting, position the front reflector to kick light onto the front of the fly. This will remove the shadows and highlight the reflective materials. Be sure and view the final composition through the viewfinder, checking to make sure the fill cards are out of view.SEPARATE THE SUBJECT AND BACKGROUNDJust as there is no substitute for time spent on the water or at the vice to improve fishing or fly tying skill, your ability to recognize correct lighting for translation to film and digital storage improves with practice. Time spent experimenting with lighting will develop your eye for the amount of contrast you want for the transfer to final print or digital image. Sometimes even a slight shift of the reflecting card will vastly change the effect, so watch the fly closely while you move the cards.Take notes when experimenting with lighting techniques. It not only helps you remember what you did, but it sharpens your own focus.Without rim lighting techniques the color of backgrounds need to be adjusted to the particular flies being photographed. By using the rear card for rim lighting you should be able to use almost any color background (with modest contrast to the flies) for a variety of flies. The highlights on the edges of the fly's details will make the fly seem to pop off of the background. The continuity of using one background color will also benefit any multiple fly presentations.
Monday, December 03, 2007
Fresh run fish.
The question is the fresh run trout and steelhead that run the Erie tributary's.
The fresh run fish if not the table fair should be return safely to the creek or mouth but full grow
fish with a little wear should and can be harvested only if you will consume this very short resource with out question if you can not use the fish than by all means release is very desired.
With that in mind if you will be catch and release then it is necessary that the fish be brought to net and not fought as to weekend the fish.
A stout tackle to bring the fish to net is called for and a hands free approach will be needed to keep the chemistry of the scales and gills from any damage.
If the fish is not responsive then a few runs of water though the gills will bring oxygen and revive the fish enough to let it swim off to fight another day,
Thursday, June 07, 2007
Flyfisherman sping hatch.
Spring hatches and the best places to meet them.Ted Fauceglia At about the same time each year that basketball junkies freak out on March Madness, a similar affliction consumes another equally avid group. It's known as "Mayfly Madness," a passion that consumes Eastern fly fishers. The madness is about the advent of a season--the Eastern spring mayfly season--and the arrival of the "First Four" major mayfly hatches in the region.
Blue-winged Olives (Baetis) provide some of the best spring dry-fly fishing across the country.
In Pennsylvania, the First Four begins with the appearance of the Blue-winged Olives (Baetis tricaudatus), which emerge around the middle of March. The Blue Quill (Paraleptophlebia adoptiva) hatches follow and usually start in the third or fourth week of April. Then come the Quill Gordons (Epeorus pleuralis), which also begin in mid-April. Finally, the Hendrickson(Ephemerella subvaria) duns surface, typically around the third or fourth week of April, ending in the first week of May. Each of the four hatches lasts about two weeks, but various species of Olives are present on many Eastern waters throughout the year because they have multiple broods.
Assigning specific times and dates to hatches is futile; they vary with the locality and weather. As a general rule, the colder the temperature, the later the hatch. For example, hatches in the northern part of Pennsylvania occur about two to three weeks later than the hatches in the central and southern parts of the state. Hatch dates vary from New England south through the mid-Atlantic states, and throughout the Midwest.
Blue Quills begin hatching in late April.
Unfortunately, due to the decline in water quality in many of our Eastern and Midwestern trout streams, the Hendrickson and Quill Gordon hatches have declined or disappeared. Of the four hatches, the Olives and the Blue Quills have proved to be the most hardy and widespread. In the East and Midwest, both insects continue to provide fishable and predictable hatches on most major trout streams, as well as on many of the lesser-known, smaller tributaries.
Perhaps no other stream demonstrates the complexities associatedwith Eastern spring hatches better than Fishing Creek, near State College in central Pennsylvania. Let's use it as an example of how to solve the spring hatch puzzle: How to get hungry spring trout to eat your imitations when the fish don't obey the rules?
Blue-winged Olives begin hatching in mid-April.
There are many puzzling aspects of trout behavior, but perhaps the most mystifying is the fish's selectivity during these spring hatches. Logic convinces me that after a long winter, without abundant food available, both native and freshly stocked trout should have ravenous appetites and aggressively take every available, edible morsel in sight. But they don't. In fact, they react to the spring hatches just as cautiously as late-season trout react to midges. My answer is to fish the spring hatches with as much preparation as I do when fishing low-water summer and fall hatches.
Fishing Creek EnvironmentThe 5-mile Fishing Creek trophy-trout section from the Tylersville Fish Hatchery down to the bridge at the Lamar Fish Hatchery provides an ideal, relatively stable and nutrient-rich habitat for wild browns and rainbows and for many aquatic insects. It also offers a variety of water types. The section known as the Narrows, located below Tylersville, contains some fast-moving freestone water and flourishing populations of Olives and Blue Quills.
Under normal spring conditions (water temperatures of around 55 degrees F.), Olives appear on Fishing Creek any time from early March to early April and Blue Quills appear in April. Both insects often occur in large numbers concurrently. Duns of both species start appearing between 9:30 and 10:30 A.M.
Much of the Narrows structure consists of moderate to heavy riffles followed by relatively long, smooth pools. The nymphs of both species prefer the moderate riffles, which is where emergence takes place. The duns emerge there, but as their wings fill with fluid, they are rapidly swept downstream with the current into the calmer sections, where they drift for long distances before taking wing. If your home water lies within the range of Olives or Blue Quills, you should expect to find them in this type of stream habitat.
ImitationsFishing to a single emergence presents problems, because each has its peculiarities. But two or more hatches occurring simultaneously compounds the problem, and it happens often in spring on Fishing Creek. Then the trout have multiple choices: They can eat submerged nymphs, floating nymphs, emerging nymphs, nymph/dun combinations, and duns. Multiply those choices by the number of hatches occurring at the same time and you're in the middle of a giant puzzle. And you don't have all day to figure it out; spring hatches last about an hour and a half at the most. The solution? Fish only nymphs and duns.
I've had the good fortune to fish Fishing Creek with Dave Rothrock several times over the past few years. Dave understands the central Pennsylvania waters; he guides there, and he knows the aquatic insects and their imitations. He says that emerging and floating-nymph patterns are not necessary on spring hatches in his area. "Don't bother tying them," he advises. "During the emergence, trout will take the dun or the nymph."
This is good advice, for it reduces the number of patterns required to fish either emergence effectively to two--a nymph and a dun. If you expect to hit both hatches concurrently, simply tie a nymph and a dun for each hatch.
Nymphs. Various species of Olives and Blue Quills hatch throughout the season. As the season progresses, their body and wing colors change, usually becoming darker. Fishing Creek spring Olive nymphs are medium-olive with a slightly brown cast and measure about a #20, 1X-long nymph hook. Blue Quill nymphs are reddish-brown with a subtle tan cast and are about a #18, 1X-long nymph hook.
I use Tiemco 3761 heavy-wire hooks for both patterns, and I don't weight them. Lead deadens fly movement. The more freely they move with the current, the more natural they look and act.
It's important to keep in mind that both Olive and Blue Quill body and wing colors will vary from region to region, and in some cases from watershed to watershed. Their coloration also varies throughout the season. Use a small dip net on your home waters to check on these color differences and vary your imitations to match them.
Olive Dun
Hook: #20-22 Tiemco 100.Thread: Medium brown 8/0.Tails: Bronze blue dun hackle fibers.Abdomen: Mixture of 3/4 olive and 1/4 brown dubbing.Wings: Gray/brown poly yarn.Thorax: Same as abdomen.Hackle: Bronze blue dun.
Duns. A trout's selectivity reaches its most critical point when the fish is taking duns. The more realistic the pattern, the better the results. Unlike generic nymph patterns, which will take trout, generic dun imitations seldom work. I've fished generic nymphs (the Pheasant Tail, for instance) during both Olive and Blue Quill hatches and have had reasonably good success with them. But when the duns are on the water, generic patterns are useless, especially after the hatch has been on for several days.
Many anglers swear by the Adams for matching these hatches. They argue that in the right size, and with the right presentation, the fly works just as well as realistic imitations. I agree that presentation is important, but both Rothrock and I find that accurate imitation is most important, especially when fishing to slow-water trout. I imitate every aspect of the natural--color, size, and design.
Rothrock says, "Many of the streams in central Pennsylvania have wild trout, and the waters are heavily fished. The trout see a lot of flies and it heightens their selectivity. I use cut-wing duns exclusively for this fishing. Of course, good presentations are also important."
Other expert anglers (Caucci/Nastasi, Hatches I and II [The Lyons Press, 1997], and Swisher/Richards, Selective Trout [The Lyons Press, 1989]) prefer no-hackle imitations for these hatches, especially when they occur on flat water, where trout get a good look at the fly and have become extremely selective.
No-hackle patterns work fine, but I prefer my own patterns with a poly-yarn parachute-style wing because they work on the waters I fish, and they perform well in both flat and riffle water without a fly change. (Tie the fly with four wraps of hackle and grease it well.)
The poly-yarn parachute wing serves as my standard pattern for all my mayfly dun patterns tied in sizes ranging from #14-#28. The poly wing offers a realistic profile that's durable and easy to tie. And if I tie it correctly and thoroughly treat it with floatant, it floats like a Humpy in both fast and slow water. The pattern has worked well on both pocketwater and slow-water risers. With slight variations in color, I use the pattern for Blue Quill and Olive hatches all season long.
Fishing Creek spring Olive duns have medium olive-brown bodies with medium dun-colored tails and wings. They are about a #20 hook. Fishing Creek spring Blue Quill duns have tannish-red bodies with light-dun wings and tails. I tie both imitations on Tiemco 100 hooks: Olives (#20-#22), and Blue Quills (#16-#18).
Two-fly TacticsChanging flies is time consuming. To reduce the number of fly changes, I fish a combination of two flies, which gives me several options. If two hatches are on at the same time, I can fish a dry pattern of one species and a nymph of the other. If the nymph fails, I switch to two dun patterns, one of each species. If the fish are only taking Olive duns, I fish two Olive dun imitations. And if they're only taking Blue Quills, I fish two Blue Quill patterns.
Prior to the start of any hatch, I fish two nymphs. The two patterns might be two sizes of the same style and imitation of the same species. Or I might fish two different imitations of one species in the same size. There are many options, but essentially it's an organized effort to test what the trout respond to, and find the right fly.
My favorite leader setup consists of a 10-footer tapered to 5X or 6X to which I tie my first fly. I then tie a minimum of 24 inches of 6X tippet to the first fly (hook eye or bend) and tie another fly (the point fly) to this dropper.
If I'm fishing two nymphs and I need weight, I attach split-shot from 8 to 12 inches above the first fly. The amount of weight depends on the depth and speed of the current. I don't use split-shot if I'm fishing a dry as the first fly and a nymph on the point; I treat the dry with floatant, but not the nymph at the point.
The patterns that I have designed for my Olive and Blue Quill imitations are based on my impressions of insects that I've collected and photographed and on my own observations of trout behavior toward the insects. But the patterns that have produced the most consistent results on specific streams and rivers are based on the advice that I've received from the locals in the area.
Whether it's the Bighorn River in Montana, the Au Sable in Michigan, the Battenkill in Vermont, the Grand in Canada, or Fishing Creek in Pennsylvania, locally designed patterns work best. Make sure you sample the Olives and Blue Quills on your stream and design your imitations to match them. Tight lines!
Ted Fauceglia is a photographer and writer from Sharpsville, Pennsylvania.
Blue-winged Olives (Baetis) provide some of the best spring dry-fly fishing across the country.
In Pennsylvania, the First Four begins with the appearance of the Blue-winged Olives (Baetis tricaudatus), which emerge around the middle of March. The Blue Quill (Paraleptophlebia adoptiva) hatches follow and usually start in the third or fourth week of April. Then come the Quill Gordons (Epeorus pleuralis), which also begin in mid-April. Finally, the Hendrickson(Ephemerella subvaria) duns surface, typically around the third or fourth week of April, ending in the first week of May. Each of the four hatches lasts about two weeks, but various species of Olives are present on many Eastern waters throughout the year because they have multiple broods.
Assigning specific times and dates to hatches is futile; they vary with the locality and weather. As a general rule, the colder the temperature, the later the hatch. For example, hatches in the northern part of Pennsylvania occur about two to three weeks later than the hatches in the central and southern parts of the state. Hatch dates vary from New England south through the mid-Atlantic states, and throughout the Midwest.
Blue Quills begin hatching in late April.
Unfortunately, due to the decline in water quality in many of our Eastern and Midwestern trout streams, the Hendrickson and Quill Gordon hatches have declined or disappeared. Of the four hatches, the Olives and the Blue Quills have proved to be the most hardy and widespread. In the East and Midwest, both insects continue to provide fishable and predictable hatches on most major trout streams, as well as on many of the lesser-known, smaller tributaries.
Perhaps no other stream demonstrates the complexities associatedwith Eastern spring hatches better than Fishing Creek, near State College in central Pennsylvania. Let's use it as an example of how to solve the spring hatch puzzle: How to get hungry spring trout to eat your imitations when the fish don't obey the rules?
Blue-winged Olives begin hatching in mid-April.
There are many puzzling aspects of trout behavior, but perhaps the most mystifying is the fish's selectivity during these spring hatches. Logic convinces me that after a long winter, without abundant food available, both native and freshly stocked trout should have ravenous appetites and aggressively take every available, edible morsel in sight. But they don't. In fact, they react to the spring hatches just as cautiously as late-season trout react to midges. My answer is to fish the spring hatches with as much preparation as I do when fishing low-water summer and fall hatches.
Fishing Creek EnvironmentThe 5-mile Fishing Creek trophy-trout section from the Tylersville Fish Hatchery down to the bridge at the Lamar Fish Hatchery provides an ideal, relatively stable and nutrient-rich habitat for wild browns and rainbows and for many aquatic insects. It also offers a variety of water types. The section known as the Narrows, located below Tylersville, contains some fast-moving freestone water and flourishing populations of Olives and Blue Quills.
Under normal spring conditions (water temperatures of around 55 degrees F.), Olives appear on Fishing Creek any time from early March to early April and Blue Quills appear in April. Both insects often occur in large numbers concurrently. Duns of both species start appearing between 9:30 and 10:30 A.M.
Much of the Narrows structure consists of moderate to heavy riffles followed by relatively long, smooth pools. The nymphs of both species prefer the moderate riffles, which is where emergence takes place. The duns emerge there, but as their wings fill with fluid, they are rapidly swept downstream with the current into the calmer sections, where they drift for long distances before taking wing. If your home water lies within the range of Olives or Blue Quills, you should expect to find them in this type of stream habitat.
ImitationsFishing to a single emergence presents problems, because each has its peculiarities. But two or more hatches occurring simultaneously compounds the problem, and it happens often in spring on Fishing Creek. Then the trout have multiple choices: They can eat submerged nymphs, floating nymphs, emerging nymphs, nymph/dun combinations, and duns. Multiply those choices by the number of hatches occurring at the same time and you're in the middle of a giant puzzle. And you don't have all day to figure it out; spring hatches last about an hour and a half at the most. The solution? Fish only nymphs and duns.
I've had the good fortune to fish Fishing Creek with Dave Rothrock several times over the past few years. Dave understands the central Pennsylvania waters; he guides there, and he knows the aquatic insects and their imitations. He says that emerging and floating-nymph patterns are not necessary on spring hatches in his area. "Don't bother tying them," he advises. "During the emergence, trout will take the dun or the nymph."
This is good advice, for it reduces the number of patterns required to fish either emergence effectively to two--a nymph and a dun. If you expect to hit both hatches concurrently, simply tie a nymph and a dun for each hatch.
Nymphs. Various species of Olives and Blue Quills hatch throughout the season. As the season progresses, their body and wing colors change, usually becoming darker. Fishing Creek spring Olive nymphs are medium-olive with a slightly brown cast and measure about a #20, 1X-long nymph hook. Blue Quill nymphs are reddish-brown with a subtle tan cast and are about a #18, 1X-long nymph hook.
I use Tiemco 3761 heavy-wire hooks for both patterns, and I don't weight them. Lead deadens fly movement. The more freely they move with the current, the more natural they look and act.
It's important to keep in mind that both Olive and Blue Quill body and wing colors will vary from region to region, and in some cases from watershed to watershed. Their coloration also varies throughout the season. Use a small dip net on your home waters to check on these color differences and vary your imitations to match them.
Olive Dun
Hook: #20-22 Tiemco 100.Thread: Medium brown 8/0.Tails: Bronze blue dun hackle fibers.Abdomen: Mixture of 3/4 olive and 1/4 brown dubbing.Wings: Gray/brown poly yarn.Thorax: Same as abdomen.Hackle: Bronze blue dun.
Duns. A trout's selectivity reaches its most critical point when the fish is taking duns. The more realistic the pattern, the better the results. Unlike generic nymph patterns, which will take trout, generic dun imitations seldom work. I've fished generic nymphs (the Pheasant Tail, for instance) during both Olive and Blue Quill hatches and have had reasonably good success with them. But when the duns are on the water, generic patterns are useless, especially after the hatch has been on for several days.
Many anglers swear by the Adams for matching these hatches. They argue that in the right size, and with the right presentation, the fly works just as well as realistic imitations. I agree that presentation is important, but both Rothrock and I find that accurate imitation is most important, especially when fishing to slow-water trout. I imitate every aspect of the natural--color, size, and design.
Rothrock says, "Many of the streams in central Pennsylvania have wild trout, and the waters are heavily fished. The trout see a lot of flies and it heightens their selectivity. I use cut-wing duns exclusively for this fishing. Of course, good presentations are also important."
Other expert anglers (Caucci/Nastasi, Hatches I and II [The Lyons Press, 1997], and Swisher/Richards, Selective Trout [The Lyons Press, 1989]) prefer no-hackle imitations for these hatches, especially when they occur on flat water, where trout get a good look at the fly and have become extremely selective.
No-hackle patterns work fine, but I prefer my own patterns with a poly-yarn parachute-style wing because they work on the waters I fish, and they perform well in both flat and riffle water without a fly change. (Tie the fly with four wraps of hackle and grease it well.)
The poly-yarn parachute wing serves as my standard pattern for all my mayfly dun patterns tied in sizes ranging from #14-#28. The poly wing offers a realistic profile that's durable and easy to tie. And if I tie it correctly and thoroughly treat it with floatant, it floats like a Humpy in both fast and slow water. The pattern has worked well on both pocketwater and slow-water risers. With slight variations in color, I use the pattern for Blue Quill and Olive hatches all season long.
Fishing Creek spring Olive duns have medium olive-brown bodies with medium dun-colored tails and wings. They are about a #20 hook. Fishing Creek spring Blue Quill duns have tannish-red bodies with light-dun wings and tails. I tie both imitations on Tiemco 100 hooks: Olives (#20-#22), and Blue Quills (#16-#18).
Two-fly TacticsChanging flies is time consuming. To reduce the number of fly changes, I fish a combination of two flies, which gives me several options. If two hatches are on at the same time, I can fish a dry pattern of one species and a nymph of the other. If the nymph fails, I switch to two dun patterns, one of each species. If the fish are only taking Olive duns, I fish two Olive dun imitations. And if they're only taking Blue Quills, I fish two Blue Quill patterns.
Prior to the start of any hatch, I fish two nymphs. The two patterns might be two sizes of the same style and imitation of the same species. Or I might fish two different imitations of one species in the same size. There are many options, but essentially it's an organized effort to test what the trout respond to, and find the right fly.
My favorite leader setup consists of a 10-footer tapered to 5X or 6X to which I tie my first fly. I then tie a minimum of 24 inches of 6X tippet to the first fly (hook eye or bend) and tie another fly (the point fly) to this dropper.
If I'm fishing two nymphs and I need weight, I attach split-shot from 8 to 12 inches above the first fly. The amount of weight depends on the depth and speed of the current. I don't use split-shot if I'm fishing a dry as the first fly and a nymph on the point; I treat the dry with floatant, but not the nymph at the point.
The patterns that I have designed for my Olive and Blue Quill imitations are based on my impressions of insects that I've collected and photographed and on my own observations of trout behavior toward the insects. But the patterns that have produced the most consistent results on specific streams and rivers are based on the advice that I've received from the locals in the area.
Whether it's the Bighorn River in Montana, the Au Sable in Michigan, the Battenkill in Vermont, the Grand in Canada, or Fishing Creek in Pennsylvania, locally designed patterns work best. Make sure you sample the Olives and Blue Quills on your stream and design your imitations to match them. Tight lines!
Ted Fauceglia is a photographer and writer from Sharpsville, Pennsylvania.
Sunday, May 06, 2007
Twenty five tackle tips from Field and stream.
25 Tips for Tackle Socks for your reel, bells for your rod, and safety pins for everything else. by Old socks make terrific soft protectors for fishing reels that might otherwise get dinged in your tackle bag. Just stuff a reel in the toe of a sock, roll it up, and stow it.
Get Glue Here's the single best trick I've learned in 50 years of fly tying, which also applies to making hair jigs for bass. Instead of struggling with complicated thread knots to finish the fly or lure's head, use superglue. Dab a very small drop of glue on the outstretched thread just before you finish winding it.
What Colors and Styles to Use What styles and colors of spinnerbaits should you use? In clear water, use silver-bladed baits with white skirts. In stained water, use gold blades with yellow or chartreuse skirts. Round Colorado blades work best with slow retrieves when fishing deep. Narrow, willowleaf styles work best for faster retrieves near the surface.
Worms Gone Too Soft? If largemouths start refusing your soft-plastic worms, here's a trick that will add action and turn them on. Before rigging a worm, twist it hard several times around your fingers. The resulting bend in the worm body will cause the worm to twist and spiral wildly in the water when twitched.
When There Is Wind When the wind is tearing up your favorite bass lake, you may have to change lures. Cupped-face surface poppers, for example, dig and hold better on the choppy surface than walk-the-dog-type surface baits and will help reduce the amount of wind-blown slack line during a retrieve. The substantial line tension created by a deeply fished, heavy spinnerbait solves the problem in a similar way when high winds make slowly fishing a lightly weighted plastic worm impossible.
For Ultralong Casts If you routinely need to make ultralong casts with spinning tackle -- in big Southern tailwaters, for example, or shore-casting for Great Lakes salmon -- a long, heavy leader ahead of a light spinning line will allow more casting force and distance. For example, try a 14-pound-test monofilament leader 3 feet longer than your rod, attached to your main 8-pound-test line with a blood knot. That means there will be about three wraps of heavy line on your spool to better absorb severe force when you cast.
Two Flies are Often Better When fishing nymphs deep in lakes or rivers for trout, two flies are often better than one. Tie one nymph as you normally would to the end of your leader. Tie an 18-inch section of fine leader material (using an improved clinch knot) to the hook bend of your first nymph. Then tie a second small fly to the end of the second leader section. This tangles less often in casting than more conventional dropper rigs.
Quick Measuring Device Everybody needs a quick measuring device for checking things like fish length or leader specs. The handiest such device is your own hand. Measure -- and memorize -- the number of inches spanned by your widespread fingers and thumb, for example, and then use that dimension to accurately estimate length.
Ultralight Spinning If you're new at ultralight spinning, use 4-pound-test mono. Most 6-pound-test lines are too stiff and large in diameter to cast well with midget spinning reels. Two-pound-test twists easily and can be hard to handle.
Small Split Shot Use two (or more, as needed) small split shot instead of a single large one for added weight when you need to spincast with light lures or bait. Spacing the smaller shot about a foot apart above your lure will nearly eliminate casting tangles. A single large shot, on the other hand, will whirl around your lure when you cast, tying knots in your line.
All Black Spinnerbaits All-black spinnerbaits -- including black blades -- are hard to find in most stores and catalogs, apparently because most anglers think bright blades are essential. But that's not true. Take a black-skirted spinnerbait and paint the blades flat black. They will still make the bait vibrate when retrieved, but the flash will be gone. Sometimes that's the answer for fussy fish.
When Done Fishing When done fishing, don't hook your lure into one of the lower guides on your rod. The hooks damage and displace the rod guide's smooth inner ring, especially when the rigged rod is bounced around in transport. Hook your lure into the guide's external metal frame instead, and you'll do much less damage.
Safety Pins Combining low cost and high utility, safety pins could be the world's best fishing tools. Use the point to untangle knots or backlashes, or clear the paint-clogged eyes of jigs. In a pinch, use pliers and tape to turn the pin's wire into an emergency rod guide. Fasten pins to your fishing vest or tackle bag so you'll always have one when you need it.
Hook More Perch Yellow perch tend to peck quickly at a lure instead of just making a grab. You'll hook more perch by selecting perch jigs with short, rather than long, tails. Jigs with tails that end near the hook bend will take more of these short-striking fish.
Royal Wulff Dries Royal Wulff dries are perennial bestsellers among the world's trout fishermen. They don't imitate anything in particular but look sufficiently buggy to often interest trout. Most important are the fly's large white wings that make it so easy to see on the water. Keep a range of sizes in your vest, and fish them to rest your eyes and catch some trout at the same time.
Versatile Tube Lure Make a soft-plastic tube lure more versatile by stuffing bits of dense foam packing material into the lure's body cavity, making it float upward when fished deep on a Carolina rig. Or try adding bits of scent-soaked sponge inside the lure.
Give Your Trailer More Action Pork frogs (frog-shaped, brine-cured pork rind) are commonly used as trailers on bass jigs. Give your trailer more action by slicing away some of the thick, fatty portion with a knife. While you're at it, score the trailing legs as shown below. The added wiggle will put more bass in your live well.
Tying a Small Bell The Christmas inventory of most department stores offers catfishermen an important accessory: small bells. Tying a small bell to your rod tip when you set out baits at night allows you to kick back in a lawn chair, knowing you'll hear a biting fish when the rod wiggles.
Replacing Treble Hooks Replacing treble hooks with singles on some lures will allow you to release fish more easily without dropping your hooking percentage. A Siwash single hook on the back of a spoon is a classic example. You can also make some (but not all) crankbaits dig deeper by replacing the rear treble with a lighter single hook, causing the plug to tip a little farther forward when retrieved.
Soft Plastic Worm Colors There are literally hundreds of soft-plastic worm colors available to bass fishermen, but you don't need them all. Black and purple (grape) are two all-time standards. Beyond those basics, try translucent colors like smoke or pale blue in clear water. Use darker, more opaque colors like junebug or motor oil in murky or muddy water. For floating worms at the surface, don't forget to try shockingly bright colors like bubblegum.
Royal Wulff Dries Royal Wulff dries are perennial bestsellers among the world's trout fishermen. They don't imitate anything in particular but look sufficiently buggy to often interest trout. Most important are the fly's large white wings that make it so easy to see on the water. Keep a range of sizes in your vest, and fish them to rest your eyes and catch some trout at the same time.
Close-Faced Spincasting Reel When you start a retrieve with a closed-face spincasting reel the internal line-pickup doesn't always work immediately. When you first crank the reel after a cast, raise the rod tip sharply at the same time. This pulls the line against the line-pickup pin and allows your retrieve to start quickly.
Improve Your Fly Tackle The best and least expensive thing you can do to improve your fly tackle this spring might be to clean your line before a new season starts. Fill a small tub or sink with lukewarm water, add dishwashing liquid, and unspool the entire line into the tub. Scrub it gently with a soft, nonabrasive sponge, and then rinse in lukewarm water and wipe dry with a soft cloth before putting it back on your reel. The improvement in castability will amaze you.
Terrific Soft Protectors Old socks make terrific soft protectors for fishing reels that might otherwise get dinged in your tackle bag. Just stuff a reel in the toe of a sock, roll it up, and stow it.
Small Bait Fragment The addition of a small bait fragment can "sweeten" many artificial lures. Adding the tail section cut from a fresh minnow to a walleye jig is one common example. Recently, some freshwater anglers have turned to a common saltwater bait: Small strips cut from squid, then added to a jig, work as well for freshwater perch and crappies as they do for saltwater striped bass. See the frozen-food section of your local market.
Woolly Buggers on the Blank Jigs Flyfishermen who target trout rely on Woolly Bugger streamers as an all-purpose fly. Now spinfishermen can do the same. Buy some blank (crappie-size) jigheads in 1/16- and 1/8-ounce sizes and tie up some Woolly Buggers on the blank jigs. Can't tie your own? Find a local fly tyer through an area tackle shop. These lures are inexpensive, and they work great.
Get Glue Here's the single best trick I've learned in 50 years of fly tying, which also applies to making hair jigs for bass. Instead of struggling with complicated thread knots to finish the fly or lure's head, use superglue. Dab a very small drop of glue on the outstretched thread just before you finish winding it.
What Colors and Styles to Use What styles and colors of spinnerbaits should you use? In clear water, use silver-bladed baits with white skirts. In stained water, use gold blades with yellow or chartreuse skirts. Round Colorado blades work best with slow retrieves when fishing deep. Narrow, willowleaf styles work best for faster retrieves near the surface.
Worms Gone Too Soft? If largemouths start refusing your soft-plastic worms, here's a trick that will add action and turn them on. Before rigging a worm, twist it hard several times around your fingers. The resulting bend in the worm body will cause the worm to twist and spiral wildly in the water when twitched.
When There Is Wind When the wind is tearing up your favorite bass lake, you may have to change lures. Cupped-face surface poppers, for example, dig and hold better on the choppy surface than walk-the-dog-type surface baits and will help reduce the amount of wind-blown slack line during a retrieve. The substantial line tension created by a deeply fished, heavy spinnerbait solves the problem in a similar way when high winds make slowly fishing a lightly weighted plastic worm impossible.
For Ultralong Casts If you routinely need to make ultralong casts with spinning tackle -- in big Southern tailwaters, for example, or shore-casting for Great Lakes salmon -- a long, heavy leader ahead of a light spinning line will allow more casting force and distance. For example, try a 14-pound-test monofilament leader 3 feet longer than your rod, attached to your main 8-pound-test line with a blood knot. That means there will be about three wraps of heavy line on your spool to better absorb severe force when you cast.
Two Flies are Often Better When fishing nymphs deep in lakes or rivers for trout, two flies are often better than one. Tie one nymph as you normally would to the end of your leader. Tie an 18-inch section of fine leader material (using an improved clinch knot) to the hook bend of your first nymph. Then tie a second small fly to the end of the second leader section. This tangles less often in casting than more conventional dropper rigs.
Quick Measuring Device Everybody needs a quick measuring device for checking things like fish length or leader specs. The handiest such device is your own hand. Measure -- and memorize -- the number of inches spanned by your widespread fingers and thumb, for example, and then use that dimension to accurately estimate length.
Ultralight Spinning If you're new at ultralight spinning, use 4-pound-test mono. Most 6-pound-test lines are too stiff and large in diameter to cast well with midget spinning reels. Two-pound-test twists easily and can be hard to handle.
Small Split Shot Use two (or more, as needed) small split shot instead of a single large one for added weight when you need to spincast with light lures or bait. Spacing the smaller shot about a foot apart above your lure will nearly eliminate casting tangles. A single large shot, on the other hand, will whirl around your lure when you cast, tying knots in your line.
All Black Spinnerbaits All-black spinnerbaits -- including black blades -- are hard to find in most stores and catalogs, apparently because most anglers think bright blades are essential. But that's not true. Take a black-skirted spinnerbait and paint the blades flat black. They will still make the bait vibrate when retrieved, but the flash will be gone. Sometimes that's the answer for fussy fish.
When Done Fishing When done fishing, don't hook your lure into one of the lower guides on your rod. The hooks damage and displace the rod guide's smooth inner ring, especially when the rigged rod is bounced around in transport. Hook your lure into the guide's external metal frame instead, and you'll do much less damage.
Safety Pins Combining low cost and high utility, safety pins could be the world's best fishing tools. Use the point to untangle knots or backlashes, or clear the paint-clogged eyes of jigs. In a pinch, use pliers and tape to turn the pin's wire into an emergency rod guide. Fasten pins to your fishing vest or tackle bag so you'll always have one when you need it.
Hook More Perch Yellow perch tend to peck quickly at a lure instead of just making a grab. You'll hook more perch by selecting perch jigs with short, rather than long, tails. Jigs with tails that end near the hook bend will take more of these short-striking fish.
Royal Wulff Dries Royal Wulff dries are perennial bestsellers among the world's trout fishermen. They don't imitate anything in particular but look sufficiently buggy to often interest trout. Most important are the fly's large white wings that make it so easy to see on the water. Keep a range of sizes in your vest, and fish them to rest your eyes and catch some trout at the same time.
Versatile Tube Lure Make a soft-plastic tube lure more versatile by stuffing bits of dense foam packing material into the lure's body cavity, making it float upward when fished deep on a Carolina rig. Or try adding bits of scent-soaked sponge inside the lure.
Give Your Trailer More Action Pork frogs (frog-shaped, brine-cured pork rind) are commonly used as trailers on bass jigs. Give your trailer more action by slicing away some of the thick, fatty portion with a knife. While you're at it, score the trailing legs as shown below. The added wiggle will put more bass in your live well.
Tying a Small Bell The Christmas inventory of most department stores offers catfishermen an important accessory: small bells. Tying a small bell to your rod tip when you set out baits at night allows you to kick back in a lawn chair, knowing you'll hear a biting fish when the rod wiggles.
Replacing Treble Hooks Replacing treble hooks with singles on some lures will allow you to release fish more easily without dropping your hooking percentage. A Siwash single hook on the back of a spoon is a classic example. You can also make some (but not all) crankbaits dig deeper by replacing the rear treble with a lighter single hook, causing the plug to tip a little farther forward when retrieved.
Soft Plastic Worm Colors There are literally hundreds of soft-plastic worm colors available to bass fishermen, but you don't need them all. Black and purple (grape) are two all-time standards. Beyond those basics, try translucent colors like smoke or pale blue in clear water. Use darker, more opaque colors like junebug or motor oil in murky or muddy water. For floating worms at the surface, don't forget to try shockingly bright colors like bubblegum.
Royal Wulff Dries Royal Wulff dries are perennial bestsellers among the world's trout fishermen. They don't imitate anything in particular but look sufficiently buggy to often interest trout. Most important are the fly's large white wings that make it so easy to see on the water. Keep a range of sizes in your vest, and fish them to rest your eyes and catch some trout at the same time.
Close-Faced Spincasting Reel When you start a retrieve with a closed-face spincasting reel the internal line-pickup doesn't always work immediately. When you first crank the reel after a cast, raise the rod tip sharply at the same time. This pulls the line against the line-pickup pin and allows your retrieve to start quickly.
Improve Your Fly Tackle The best and least expensive thing you can do to improve your fly tackle this spring might be to clean your line before a new season starts. Fill a small tub or sink with lukewarm water, add dishwashing liquid, and unspool the entire line into the tub. Scrub it gently with a soft, nonabrasive sponge, and then rinse in lukewarm water and wipe dry with a soft cloth before putting it back on your reel. The improvement in castability will amaze you.
Terrific Soft Protectors Old socks make terrific soft protectors for fishing reels that might otherwise get dinged in your tackle bag. Just stuff a reel in the toe of a sock, roll it up, and stow it.
Small Bait Fragment The addition of a small bait fragment can "sweeten" many artificial lures. Adding the tail section cut from a fresh minnow to a walleye jig is one common example. Recently, some freshwater anglers have turned to a common saltwater bait: Small strips cut from squid, then added to a jig, work as well for freshwater perch and crappies as they do for saltwater striped bass. See the frozen-food section of your local market.
Woolly Buggers on the Blank Jigs Flyfishermen who target trout rely on Woolly Bugger streamers as an all-purpose fly. Now spinfishermen can do the same. Buy some blank (crappie-size) jigheads in 1/16- and 1/8-ounce sizes and tie up some Woolly Buggers on the blank jigs. Can't tie your own? Find a local fly tyer through an area tackle shop. These lures are inexpensive, and they work great.
Steelhead trout
Average Weight: 4.8 lb. - 11.2 lb.
Peak Weight: 48.0 lb.
IGFA Record: 67.4 lb.
An excellent fighter and highly regarded gamefish, the steelhead trout is the migratory form of the rainbow trout--meaning it’s a rainbow that hatches in a stream or river, migrates to the sea (or in some cases a large lake) where it lives, feeds, and grows, then migrates back to the original river to spawn. Unlike Pacific salmon, a percentage of these fish survive the spawn and may make this migration several times in a lifetime. When a steelhead first enters a river to spawn, it has silvery sides, a few dark spots near the tail, and a cold, steel-blue back, from which it gets it’s name. The longer a steelhead is in a river before and during spawning, the more it resembles the nonmigratory rainbow. Steelhead are found in numerous streams and rivers that empty into the Pacific Ocean, from northern California to Alaska, as well as in the Great Lakes and its tributaries (and some other freshwater lakes and rivers) where they provide good sport for inland anglers. Although steelhead may enter rivers to spawn at any time of the year, their runs are generally separated into two categories: the summer run, which might start as early as April or as late as August; and the winter run wich might begin in October and last Until March or later. Summer runs occur on fewer rivers and streams and the fish thereof average between 3 and 7 pounds. Winter-run fish are more common and are bigger, often weighing between 15 and 20 pounds and sometimes going 30 or more. The all-tackle world-record steelhead was caught in Alaska at Bell Island in 1970 and weighed 42 pounds, 2 ounces.
Most seasons for steelhead fishing are long, and on rivers where there is a winter run of fish, neither sleet nor snow can keep a dedicated steelhead fisherman off the water when fish are present. Steelhead can be difficult to locate and catch, and in the fast-tumbling rivers where they are often found, they can also be difficult to land. In any water, they are excellent fighters that run hard, leap often, and generally offer plenty of challange to novice and expert alike.
Peak Weight: 48.0 lb.
IGFA Record: 67.4 lb.
An excellent fighter and highly regarded gamefish, the steelhead trout is the migratory form of the rainbow trout--meaning it’s a rainbow that hatches in a stream or river, migrates to the sea (or in some cases a large lake) where it lives, feeds, and grows, then migrates back to the original river to spawn. Unlike Pacific salmon, a percentage of these fish survive the spawn and may make this migration several times in a lifetime. When a steelhead first enters a river to spawn, it has silvery sides, a few dark spots near the tail, and a cold, steel-blue back, from which it gets it’s name. The longer a steelhead is in a river before and during spawning, the more it resembles the nonmigratory rainbow. Steelhead are found in numerous streams and rivers that empty into the Pacific Ocean, from northern California to Alaska, as well as in the Great Lakes and its tributaries (and some other freshwater lakes and rivers) where they provide good sport for inland anglers. Although steelhead may enter rivers to spawn at any time of the year, their runs are generally separated into two categories: the summer run, which might start as early as April or as late as August; and the winter run wich might begin in October and last Until March or later. Summer runs occur on fewer rivers and streams and the fish thereof average between 3 and 7 pounds. Winter-run fish are more common and are bigger, often weighing between 15 and 20 pounds and sometimes going 30 or more. The all-tackle world-record steelhead was caught in Alaska at Bell Island in 1970 and weighed 42 pounds, 2 ounces.
Most seasons for steelhead fishing are long, and on rivers where there is a winter run of fish, neither sleet nor snow can keep a dedicated steelhead fisherman off the water when fish are present. Steelhead can be difficult to locate and catch, and in the fast-tumbling rivers where they are often found, they can also be difficult to land. In any water, they are excellent fighters that run hard, leap often, and generally offer plenty of challange to novice and expert alike.
Saturday, April 28, 2007
Tube flys and coneheads no not a SNL skit.
There is a new way of tying and the advent of European anglers from at least fifty years a new
tactic is reborn. Please follow this link and find more information on this exciting way to fish.
http://www.eumer.com/malliperhoja.htm
tactic is reborn. Please follow this link and find more information on this exciting way to fish.
http://www.eumer.com/malliperhoja.htm
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