Vol. 13 No. 39

THE HACKLED FLY

As a youth, my fly fishing world began with the generosity of an Uncle. I mentioned while sitting at the table with a group of family and friends after a day of trout fishing, that I really wanted to try fly fishing. I was speaking in terms of the local pond that was in walking distance of our house. The next weekend, my uncle arrived with a 7 ½’ Diawa fly rod, adorned with a Pflueger Medalist reel and intermediate line. The line had a metal loop inserted into it for leader attachment. My uncle bait fished, and he had been drifting worms with a fly rod since I had known him. The rod was an old backup in which he felt able to part with. It was a generosity that did not go unnoticed even to a 12yr old kid from Rural Pennsylvania. 

NORTHERNS INFORMATION, TACTICS AND PATTERNS

In North America, Northern Pike and their related species were long regarded as problem species. Around 1960 this attitude started to change. In recent years Northerns have attained the status of a much sought after game fish. As a matter of note Northerns have long enjoyed this same status throughout the rest of the world. For years the bait and plug anglers have held sway in this country, with very few fly anglers actively seeking out these powerful game fish. In 1993, Barry Reynolds & John Berryman of Colorado published their book entitled “PIKE ON THE FLY”. This book caused many fly anglers to actively seek Northerns in their home water.

WHICH TYPE OF FLY

I normally do not spend much time reading the posts on the FAOL bulletin board. I leave that to the Ladyfisher since she loves to pour over the posts. Occasionally, when I am glancing at the headings, something will catch my eye and I will read through the various postings to get the gist discussion. A recent post about the fishing qualities of comparaduns in comparison to other types of dry flies was the topic of discussion. The writer made the following statement: "They float well in the water and catch a lot of fish......can you think of a better pattern to fish....let's hear your feed back and tell why yours works the best."

JADED

Some places are just prettier, well more picturesque than others. Where I just moved from on Hood Canal in Washington State was very photogenic. Water, mountains, green everything everywhere. Driving down the road to the turn-off to our street we saw a pair of mountains, actually the Sisters, poised above the Canal. If it wasn’t raining it was gorgeous. Even though I lived there twenty years, I never got used to the view. The view from my house was nearly as spectacular with the exception of the houses across the street. It truly was a lovely place to live, except for the rain.

SHORT TRIP

It is another day off. I had things that had to go into the garden. Places in the garden needed to be weeded. There were a few other things that needed to be done. These were even things on my list. Fishing was about firth on the list. Hard to believe that, but there are days.

It was 2:30 in the afternoon and all the things were done so its time to scratch the itch. It took ten minutes to get everything changed and all the stuff in the truck and be on the way. I went back to a pond that is near town that I have been to this year.

BROWN REED TROUT!

Life has been somewhat eventful as of late. A new job, lots of cool new projects (still ongoing) at my old job, and Dee up and moving to Montana on me.

I decided some time ago to start learning some of this fly tying, fly fishing stuff that I keep reading about, so I mentioned to Denny that I was thinking of starting to learn to tie flies.  The response I got was nothing short of overwhelming to say the least. Time however has been an enemy (with everything that has been going on). I may have all the materials and implements of destruction, but no free time to actually learn.

THE LAST MOMENT

Why now?

Maybe a third opinion would contradict the other two sentences. Wonder if an appeal to a higher court would do any good? But then, there is no higher court available; is there? Well - there is one if you believe in it.

Those doctors don’t know everything and besides, they’re just estimated guesses on their part anyway.

BADGER BIVISIBLE

“The fly is for the fish… the white face is for the fisherman”

The original bivisible (brown) is attributed to Mr. Edward Hewitt, created in 1926. The Badger Bivisible was created in the 1930’s by Mr. Charles Merrill of Detroit, Michigan. He was called the ‘Dean of Detroit’ fly tiers. He also founded the F.F.F.F. Club. Mr. Merrill died in 1940.