Last Day

The sun finally broke for the last day of skiing before heading back to the Pacific Northwest.  Today did not suck.

First Day

Couldn't have picked a better day for the first turns of the year.

Tomorrow

Tomorrow is looking good.

Leaving...

Heading out of town on a non-fishing vacation.  Looking forward to the mountains and hopefully, lots of deep snow.

Thanks for the Ideas

I believe that tying flies is an important part of fly fishing.  I do not tie as much as I know I should and usually spend too many nights before trips in a rush at the vise.

For some, the art of creating beautiful masterpieces is the primary goal.  The fact that these beautiful creations also catch fish only adds to the allure.  Some tie realistic insect or baitfish patterns while others tie ornate creations for Atlantic Salmon or Steelhead who's only constraint is the tier's imagination.  Others tie for more practical purposes, where function or speed of tying is important.

I fall into the latter category.  I am not a creative tier.  I look towards the creativity of others and use their lessons to tie flies that function how I want the fly to function.  Whether it is the illusion of bulk of intruders or the ease of tying of clouser minnows I am a tying mimic.

One pattern I used for fishing the surface while guiding offshore for coho salmon and bottomfish illustrates this perfectly.

First, I had to choose a color.  My favorite color of fly for saltwater is chartreuse and white, mainly from the success of fishing clousers with this color combination.  Flash is almost always an attractor for coho so almost all the flies I tie incorporate quite a bit of flash.

Second, I had to find the popper head I wanted.  This might seem easy with the amount of foam heads available, but few I knew were fishing poppers offshore.  There was the Miyawaki Popper that continues to be popular and successful for all saltwater species, but I wanted a popper that not only acted as a slider but could also make a huge commotion often needed for black rockfish.  The answer came from the opposite coast in Bob's Banger created by Bob Popovics for striped bass on the Atlantic coast.  The flat face combined with the hole dead center allowed the fly to track and slide perfectly with a steady two handed retrieve but could also make a ton of noise if stripped back in a traditional manner.

The topwater fly I fish most of the time for silvers at Neah Bay did not come to me while sitting at the vise.  It happened on the water.  A client had left a pattern on the boat after a day of fishing.  It was a clouser type fly but over the course of the day the eyes had come off his fly and it got left on the rear console on my boat.  He tied it with a trailing hook and used unraveled mylar tubing as the flash.  I had been fishing the original Bob's Bangers throughout the season and had a box of the foam heads on the boat.  I was out fishing a day or two later and there were some fish working near the surface and I saw the old fly and the Banger heads and I had that little "ah-hah" moment and pushed the foam head onto the old fly and started fishing it.  It worked and I started tying them for myself.  The only change in the original pattern was cutting the point off the front hook.

It turned out to be a Bob's Banger with a bit more flash and a trailing hook.  It is a truly all-purpose fly that works great for silvers and rockfish.

To the innovators, I thank you for creating the flies and techniques that we can then tinker with for our own particular fisheries.

Here's the fly

Here it is in action

If Only We Had Taken Their Advice

I know I shouldn't but I cannot help but read the comment section below the stories in our local newspaper.  The comments on any story involving the Elwha Dams are full of insight (comedy gems.) 

Check out the comments to these articles:

Glines Canyon Dam removal on a one-month hold — and sediment amount in former Elwha lakes was underestimated 

Sediment, debris clog equipment at Elwha treatment plant

If only all the scientists and engineers had talked to these commentators there would be no problems.  From knowing about the poor survey in 1917 to building the water treatment plant the true experts are these fine citizens commentators. 

Of course there is a good drinking game to be had from these comments.  You have to take a drink for every misspelling and grammatical error.  You are already drunk at this point but it gets worse.  You have to finish your drink if Al Gore, Benghazi, or any major right-wing story that has nothing to do with fish or the Elwha gets mentioned.

I apologize in advance for the hangover.

Blackmouth Quest - Day 3

I talked about hooking rocks in an earlier blackmouth post and thought I would post a picture of one of my recent catches.

I did get out for a about an hour today.  Birds were working and I marked some bait on the sounder.  No fish to hand but only made about three drifts through the spot during a ripping ebb current.  It was nice to get out on a day with no wind.  The peace and quiet of drifting with the engines off is a nice change of pace from the past few trips where I needed to use the kicker to back into the drift.

I fished the Mushmouth pattern and it looked good in the water.  I'm going to attempt to incorporate some weight into the pattern without changing the look of it too much.

Every chance on the water is another opportunity to learn something new.  The lack of fish can be trying, but I still have faith.