January's Trout

The month of January can be checked off the list thanks to some meaty, articulated streamers.

TPO's Triple Threat

Aaron Jasper shows us how to tie up the Triple Threat fly.  Keep an eye on the TPO Youtube page for the next fly of the month pattern.

How to Tie Al's Rat

Al's Rat is a fly originally tied by Al Miller, who frequently fished the Little Lehigh and created a bunch of patterns that fool fish there, as well as any where else I have fished them.  This is a great midge imitation and I fish it all different times of the year and at all levels of the water column.  This fly works great as a dropper off a bigger nymph pattern, in tandem with another midge pattern, as a dropper off a dry fly, or any other way you can think to fish it.

Hook: I'm using a size 24 Tiemco 100
Thread: 6/0 brown
Dubbing: Muskrat underfur

Step 1: Start the thread and wrap back to on the shank to a point even with the barb of the hook

Step 2: Wrap back up to the eye of the hook

 

Step 3: Wrap back down the shank, but stop short of where you wrapped down to the first time

Step 4: Wrap back up almost to the eye of the hook

Step 5: Pick out the underfur from the muskrat and spin onto your thread

Step 6: Dub a thorax

Step 7: Whip finish and cut the thread

Addicted to Vise

Do you enjoy looking at classic flies, full dress salmon flies, and wet flies that look like museum quality pieces rather than something you should keep in a fly box? 

Then check out Addicted to Vise.  I've added it to my blogroll over there on the left.  Eunan is a superb tier who has the patience and skills to crank out beautiful pieces of art. 

Check out his blog, and if you get the chance to see him tie in person, go do it!

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night!

 

Credit to About Flyfishing.com for the picture.

2013 Goals

Well the end of another year is rapidly approaching.  Looking back on 2012, I had a pretty good year of fishing.  This was a year where I focused more on saltwater fishing, both in building up my gear selection and the time I spent fishing.  Made many trips out for flounder and was successful most all of the time.  Hit the sand a few times and had more success than I had expected.  I have my eye on a few more trips yet before the calendar flips to 2013, provided the Mayans just needed to buy a new calendar and tomorrow isn't the end of the world.

With an eye towards 2013, I want to set a few goals for myself to give me something to strive to achieve.

1.  Catch a trout on the fly in every month of the year.  I have never reached this milestone and trying to accomplish this goal will get me on the water much more.

2.  Catch a striper off the sand.  Extra bonus points for catching a striper off the sand with the fly rod.  This will make me think about my gear choices when on the beach and not always reaching for the "easy way out" with the spinning gear.

3.  Get my daughter out fishing more.  She'll be 5 in February and I need to make sure we are spending quality time on the water together.  Even if she gets bored and throws rocks in the water, I want fishing to be something she enjoys and wants to do, not something that she's forced to do by her dad.

4.  Fish some new water, both in my immediate area and hopefully in other areas of the country.

Let's check back in on this post at the end of 2013 to see how I did.  Hopefully I can go 4 for 4!

Whatever you celebrate here at the end of the year, enjoy yourself, spend time with your family, and get outside some.

RIP Pap

Saturday, November 24, 2012 my grandfather passed away.  He had been suffering from cancer in his abdomen that had ravaged his organs before it was discovered.  I am thankful that in the grand scheme of things he didn't suffer too much.  I am also thankful that during his last month I was able to get up and visit with him several times and be with him on his last day alive. 

My Pap was a great grandfather to me who taught me so much during our time together.  He took me fishing and passed on all his secrets.  I started out with spinning gear and he showed me how to rig up to bounce nightcrawlers, and powerbait when it came out, along the bottom of the stream for trout.  Thanks Pap.  I still use this method today when I decided to break out the spinning gear.  He taught me how to read the stream and find those barely visible back eddies that trout love to hang out in.  And most importantly we just went fishing.  We'd get up early in the morning or head out after school (and eventually work) and fish.  He taught me how to fish spinners and gave me his deadly Panther Martin with a wooden body (try finding those now) and I slayed the trout with it until I got it stuck on a log and it broke off.  If that happened now, I probably would swim out and retrieve that spinner, but I was 10 and I had to just let it go.

My Pap and I took fly fishing lessons together at the Little Lehigh Fly Shop.  Over a series of lessons, we learned about stream entomology, casting, the fly setup, and it eventually all culminated with us catching trout on tricos during a prolific hatch when they still went off like that.  I was hooked.  We put away the spin rods and focused on fly fishing and trying to catch trout like that.  It wasn't long and I was interested in tying my own flies. Pap got me the tools I needed to get started and made me a deal: he would buy me the materials I needed to tie flies as long as I kept him supplied with flies.  I can live with that deal.  Once I started working and making my own money, I bought my own supplies but I kept Pap stocked with flies up until the day he passed away.  Thanks Pap.

Pap, thanks for taking me out to fish.  Thanks for spending time with me.  Thanks for getting me started with fly fishing.  It is a lifelong pursuit for me now and I'm not sure I'd ever get to this point if it wasn't for you.  Thank you for going to all the fly fishing shows with me and showing me the true worth of those shows is all the included seminars.  They can't take your education away from and never stop learning were two phrases he uttered often.

Thanks Pap.