Gifts From Nature



Whitetail doe and her fawn

 Nature provides in so many ways.  Take the white-tailed deer for instance.  This mammal ranges throughout much of North America from desserts to swamps and boreal forests.  For many of us here in the northeast it may be the only large wild animal that one may be lucky enough to encounter (other than the occasional coyote, black bear or moose depending on where you live).  To some,  the white-tailed deer is valuable resource for sport and food.  To others, it is a beautiful creature that provides moments joy when encountered in a wild setting or a suburban backyard (unless you are someone who views them as pests for eating every plant in sight around your house or something to be avoided when zipping down the road at 80 mph).  I have encountered them just about everywhere from Long Island beaches to my backyard when growing up in the Hudson Valley.  I never grow tired of the brief encounters I have with them.  I am always fascinated by the way in which they can move through a dense forest with the ease and gracefulness of a ghost. But white-tailed deer provide yet another gift over looked by most people with the exception of fly fisherman.  Their fur is a great resource for fly tiers.  There are tens of dozens of patterns, dry and wet, that incorporate deer fur into a fly.  A few examples would be, Haystacks, Comparaduns, Clouser Minnows, Deer Hair Caddis, Blondes, and of course Bucktails.  The hair can be easily dyed into a number of colors and it can be spun into fantastic shapes with a little trimming to create some very versatile flies.  Because of it's properties, deer hair can be used for trout in cold water, bass and panfish in warm water and even for a number of salt water gamefish like stripers and bluefish.  I use deer hair in many types of flies that I tie for salt and fresh water and I encourage others to give it a try.  So the next time you come across one of these beautiful animals, realize that they more to offer than meets the eye. 



Haystack



Mickey Finn



Dreaming of Open Water



Just what the doctor ordered

 With possibly another 8" of slushy wet white stuff predicted for today and tomorrow, what else can I do but dream of an open little stream like this one and think about where those beautiful little brookies might be hiding and what fly do I need to get them to come out and play.  Winter is a special time of year with it's own unique attributes.......but for the sake of relieving my acute onset cabin fever lets hope, like a house guest which has overstayed his welcome, it will be on it's way soon.



Peterskill, Minnewaska State Park Preserve, New Paltz, NY



The Hendrickson Sakasa Kebari



The Hendrickson Sakasa Kebari

 Streams and rivers are more than just places to find and catch our favorite types of fish.  They are incredibly diverse, beautiful and complex webs of life.  The life cycles of many stream inhabitants are truly amazing. Most anglers are acutely aware of the life cycles of most of a streams insects and fish.  However, there are far more animals and plants that thrive in and around streams.  Various amphibians, leeches, crayfish, small and large mammals, and birds also depend on streams and rivers for their survival. How all of these organisms interact with one another will determine how my main interest....trout, will behave.  Trout follow the same rules as most other animals, eat, reproduce and avoid being eaten.  One of a trout's main menu items are hendrickson may flies.  I will not go into their biology here.  For those interested, Troutnut.com is a wonderful web site that details much about the aquatic insect life found stream side.  There are also some incredible photos to be found there.  It was after visiting that site I decided to create some more "realistic" sakasa kebari.  I will point out that with Tenkara this kind of fly tying is unnecessary.  For the most part anyone could catch fish with a simple black thread body/hackle fly.  Tenkara is more about an anglers skills and presentation than using the perfect fly.  I have tied this particular fly for fun and a little variety.  I included a orange silk thread head because it reminds me of the large eyes on a hendrickson mayfly and brown thread for the main body.  I also included a gray thread rib to simulate the segmentation in thorax and three moose hair fibers for a tail.  I am not really a "match the hatch" kind of guy, but I don't think a little more realism in my kebari is going to hurt my chances at bringing a trout to hand.  Who knows? it may even help my less than perfect Tenkara skills.

Hendrickson Sakasa Kebari

Hook: Mustad C49S

Hackle: Hungarian partridge

Body: Pearsall's silk, orange for the head and brown for the body

Rib: 6/0 gray uni-thread

Tail: Moose hair



A quiet place to contemplate





Experimental Haystacks



Fran Better's Haystack

 Experimentation is a funny thing.  What characteristic at first seems to be a monstrosity or an oddball could eventually lead to something that becomes quite useful or even supplant the thing that it originally came from.  That's how evolution works (at a simplistic level) and has led to the beautiful diversity of life on this planet.  The same could be said for technology and many aspects of human culture.  It could even be said for the development of flies used in fishing.  Fran Better's Haystack was itself a modification of an earlier fly his father and his friends used.  The Haystack was in turn experimented on to produce the comparadun and sparkle dun.  I bring this up because just recently I was looking at Brk Trout's blog Small Stream Reflections and he has come up with a great new fly....."The Ausable Darter".  This fly is based on many of the same materials used by Fran Better's in his flies that have proved so effective at catching trout.  If you have not checked out his blog, you really should it has become one of my favorites.  This kind of experimentation is not only fun but this may become a very useful fly.



Royal Haystack, light

One of the first flies I learned to tie was a standard Haystack.  It was inexpensive to make and fun to do.  In addition, The Royal Haystack pictured above was not only my first adventure into experimental fly tying but also the first fly I ever caught a fish on.  It was a 5" wild brookie that I will never forget.  It was also my first fish caught on a Tenkara rod.  My point is that a fly that does not fit the expected norm can be weird looking but if it fools a fish who cares? It is now useful.  I have definitely had some flies that didn't fit the norm too.  One of them is at the bottom of this post.  Some of my flies have not worked well at all but it's the experimentation that helps keep excited about tying flies.  I would encourage others out there to do the kind experimentation that Brk Trout displays in his blog.  It's not only good for you but for the rest of us as well.



Royal Haystack, dark or dun



Latest experiment....a Golden Haystack



Front view of the Golden Haystack (golden pheasant tippets for wing and tail)
Will it catch fish?
I guess I'll have to experiment



Tenkara Fly Swap

Ausable Sakasa Kebari, my contribution to the swap

Last night I finally received a package that I have been eagerly waiting for (almost as much as my first Tenkara rod).  The flies from my first fly swap that I participated in just arrived.  I am having a hard time trying to decide whether I will fish them or not.  There are many cool color combinations and they very well tied.  They range in complexity from a simple black thread and hackle feather to the blue poison sakasa kebari and it's intricate parts.  The best part, in using Tenkara, is that all of these flies will catch fish.  I want to thank Erik Ostrander on the TenkaraUSA forum for organizing this fly swap and Daniel Galhardo for introducing Tenkara to the US and providing the forum for Tenkara fishers to be able to converse.  Below is a list of all of the fly swap participants.  I listed their Tenkara USA user names instead of their real names because I either do not know them or am unsure if they want their real names used here.  The pictures are in no particular order and I was unsure if names had been given to the flies or not but I did included them if a name had been provided.

gentlesheperd

jayfisher

wrknapp

CM_Stewart aka TenkaraBum

257 ROBT

masjc1

wupperfischer

ezpickens

goneflyfishing

Daniel@TenkaraUSA

erik.ostrander

1. Blue Poison Sakasa Kebari, goneflyfishing

2. 257 ROBT

3. Daniel @ Tenkara USA

  

4. Tenkara Bum

5. ezpickens

6. wupperfischer

7. wrknapp

8. erik.ostrander

9. gentlesheperd

10. jayfisher

11. masjc1

Freebees

I also want to thank Daniel at Tenkara USA and Chris Stewart at TenkaraBum for the cool extras included with the flies.  I enjoyed doing this and look forward to the opportunity to try this again. In addition, if you go to the forum on TenkaraUSA's website there will be more in depth information about some of the flies pictured here. Great job on all of the flies guys!

I Guess This Means No Fishing?



Millpond in Setauket where I do most of my fishing for bass and bluegills.

 I'm not one to generally complain about snow, but really?  I love hiking in the snow and playing with my kids in it but this storm may have been a little too much.  Alina is twenty months old and loves to go out in the snow but it's just about up to her neck.  How is she or Bella supposed to move around, let alone play in the stuff?  Even trying to fish some of the tidal streams here on Long Island is a no go.  That leaves fly tying (which I love) and indoor games with the kids.  However, I don't like being inside too long, I need the fresh air even if it's in the 20's.


Looking toward the north end of the millpond and the bridge I usually fish from.

I guess all I can do is tie a little, dream of nice little brookies in small mountain streams, and wait till spring.  When the pond finally does open up this spring here are a couple of flies I'm looking forward to trying.



Diawl Bach, copper rib



Diawl Bach, red floss rib

 Diawl Bach's are supposed to be real good to fish in lakes and ponds and they are a cinch to tie.  They have only four materials, thread, brown hackle for a tail and beard, peacock herl for the body and wire or floss for a rib.  If anyone out there has used these successfully I would appreciate any comments.

Fly Tying with Bella



My fly tying partner, Isabella

 One of the great things about being a Dad is the time you get to spend with your kids and the memories that are made.  Last November I posted about my first tying adventure with my little girl, Bella.  There was a very positive response to this post in the blogging community that I had recently joined.  It was nice to know that there were a number of other parents out there who were sharing time with their children and introducing them to outdoor related activities in a positive way.  I have been a Dad now for almost 5 years and if there is one thing that has definitely hit home with me is that the time with them goes very fast.  Before I know it Bella and Alina will be teenagers and then off to college.  I try to keep this in mind and take every opportunity to share everything with them, including my love of the outdoors and all that goes with it.  Recently Bella had another chance to "design a fly" with her daddy. 



The Purple Fuzzy Kebari

The Purple Fuzzy Kebari is Bella's latest sakasa kebari.  I laid out the materials and then she told me how she wanted them placed on the hook.  Then she gave it it's name.  She was eager to go try it out on some bluegills right then and there but I had to explain to her that we would have to wait till spring and the ice to melt before that.  I look forward to that day with great anticipation.  Like Bella's first fly, it doesn't matter if a fish is caught or not, the time together will be what counts.

Purple Fuzzy Kebari

Hook: Mustad C49S

Thread: Pearsall's silk, purple

Hackle: Hungarian partridge

Body: dubbed Australian opossum

Rib: fine gold wire