Found via the 37signals blog , this beauty would have to make an interesting source of fly tying material, even if its only real use is generating bragging rights.

“Sure, the Underground Midge Pupae is effective using everyday peacock, but the original–and most  effective–version requires albino peacock. Of course, you have some, right?”

Technorati Tags: fly tying, peacock, fly fishing

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That’s the hilarious contention of John McCoy (staff writer for the Charleston Gazette), and I wonder if his employer shouldn’t immediately administer a drug test - lest John suffer another drug-induced flashback.

I gaze at the piles of expensive fly tying materials, expensive hackles, machined HMH vise, chemically sharpened hooks and several-lifetimes-supply of hen necks cluttering my office and wonder what our friend John has been smoking.

My HMH vise. Ticket to savings, or expensive tool of obsession?

He recounts the high price of flies - and his amusing solution:

A relatively inexpensive answer to this problem is to learn to tie flies. Thirty years ago, when I started fly fishing, I couldn’t afford to buy rods and reels and flies too, so I learned to tie. I’ve done it ever since.

It’s difficult to estimate how much money I’ve saved, but I’ll try.

Let me try for you. I’d have to tie flies from now until people started making dinner reservations for their 2999 New Year’s Eve celebration to recoup the investment I’ve made in tools and materials.

And frankly, I’m an underachiever compared to the likes of Noted Pack Rat Dave Roberts, who recently built a whole new extension onto his house so he could warehouse his er…. “extensive” collection of materials.

(When the apocalypse comes and fly tying materials disappear from our nuclear-ravaged landscape, I’m heading right for Dave’s house.)

And there are plenty of people who consider him an underachiever.

So how about it? Is anyone saving money tying their own flies. Or are we spending scads of money for the privilege of getting them exactly the way we want ‘em…?

Technorati Tags: fly tying, hmh, flies, fly fishing

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By Sully, Underground Correspondent in charge of arcana.

EVERYONE has a few Pheasant Tail Nymphs in their box. Frank Sawer’s deceptively simple pattern has developed a worldwide following.

Precious few anglers, though, have even heard of the Sawer Killer Bug. As with the P.T., Sawer chronicled the development, tying and fishing of the Killer Bug in “Nymphs and the Trout”.

First published in 1958, this bountiful book explains how Sawer developed the simple cigar-shaped bug to catch grayling in the upper Avon.

In that role the Killer Bug has achieved almost cult-like status in the British Isles and Europe. In grayling-poor America, however, the fly hasn’t received the recognition it deserves.

The bug was tied to imitate the creature anglers call freshwater shrimp (ammarus pleus in England).

Simple Pattern. Killer Results?

In the profoundly minimalist manner that led Sawer to omit legs from his P.T. Nymph, he left off the antennae, shiny carapace, the multiple legs and leglike appendages (gnathopods and pleopods) that spell “shrimp” to human beings.

It’s like drawing a rabbit without adding the ears. What’s left is a copper wire foundation with wool wrapped over it. That’s it.

Sawer on the obvious, “Once again this is of very simple construction, so simple indeed that anyone looking at it could be forgiven for thinking it could deceive a fish.”

There almost has to be a hitch in something this elegant. There is.

The Killer Yarn

Sawer specified that the body material for the Killer Bug had to be a particular color of mending yarn, a mixture of wool and nylon; Chadwick’s 477. He had extensively experimented and nothing else fished as well.

Nowhere in “Nymphs and the Trout” is there a description of the color of this magical yarn. The tease is that the color of the bug changes completely when wet. According to Sawer, “… it is this that causes its attraction for so many kinds of fish.”

Thanks for raising our hopes, Frank. All a Chadwick-less angler has to do is ascertain the color that’s irresistible to shrimp-eating fish when wrapped around red copper wire and wetted.

Charles Ritz fished with Sawer and became a devote of the Killer Bug. In “A Fly Fisher’s Life” Ritz writes that the bug is tied with “grey wool,” but some subtleties might have been lost in translation from the French.

Other descriptions of the blend have described it as “fawn with a pinkish tinge” and “red, brown and grey.”

Where was the Borger Color System when we needed it?

Help Isn’t on the Way

In 1958 Chadwick’s 477 was, to quote Sawer, “not very easy to obtain”. Naturally Chadwick’s immediately ceased production of the stuff, knowing that flyfishermen as a breed are particularly susceptible to the allure of arcane materials.

From the first time I first read about the Killer Bug I knew that I had to get some Chadwick’s 477.

Sometime in the late 1970’s an obscure advertisement appeared in an early issue of Flyfisherman Magazine. A company identified only by initials located in Ogden, Utah was offering the original Sawer Killer Bug yarn for sale.

The whole setup sounded perfect. An obscure group situated in the middle of the desert would be the logical source for something this arcane and powerful.

I have no idea if anyone else acted on the ad. (Maybe selling discontinued darning wool isn’t a foolproof business plan.) Maybe the illuminati simply moved to a different dimension.

My letter requesting more yarn several years later was returned by the Post Office. After a couple of decades I’m now left with just a few turns of the precious two-strand darning wool.

Substitues? Not Likely

The color? Well, it’s easy to see how Charles Ritz could stop short with the word “grey.” It’s a thatched-roof cottage, gather around a bowl of steaming gruel kind of color. 477 apparently was developed for darning knickers torn on Highland gorse. It’s easy to see why Chadwick’s discontinued the stuff: no one has worn a garment this color since V-2’s stopped raining on London.

My artist wife calls the color “taupe”: a word like “holistic” that contains no substance.

If you are one of the dozens of anglers with access to “Fly-tyer’s Color Guide” by Al Caucci and Bob Nastasi look up 4y2r3b23w. How does gray, with subtle overtones of tan describes the color? That’s the base color to the dry yarn.

When wet it does display a pinkish overtone. To the point; when the yarn is presented to fish over a red copper base it fully merits the name “Killer.”

Who Eats This Stuff?

Scudding fish, sow bug eaters, fish grubbing pre-emergent caddis, heck, fasting fish are all susceptible to the fly. Quite a few years ago a short blurb appeared in Ed Story’s Feather-Craft newsletter. It promised Chadwick’s original 477. Naturally I bit.

When the stuff arrived it was a disappointment. It was much browner that the original yarn. Too “fawny”. But we tied Killer Bugs with it and they worked, too.

Sawer tied the fly in sizes 3 through 10 using the reverse- numbered Kendal nomenclature (comparable to our Redditch sizes 14 through eight) and fished the fly for everything from grayling to, and this is both astonishing and compelling, Atlantic salmon. Locally we stick with smaller sizes, 14 down to 18. The fly is especially effective in the fall.

A few years ago Paul Redfern, the crafty owner of FishOn Fly and Tackle in Butte managed to score a few inches of certified Chadwick’s 477 from an English tier. Sure enough the stuff from Utah was the real deal.

You got some you want to send to Sully?

Technorati Tags: fly fishing, fly tieing

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Of course, I’m not running from anything as much as running towards the BWO hatch, a subject which is generating a lot of e-mails and pictures.

It’s not a well-tied #22 dry, but it’s better than a fly I never got tied…

I’ll plow through it all and get the better bits up shortly. For now, the hell with my readers. I’m off to chase BWOs.

And if you have any doubts about why the Underground posts might be a little slow in coming this week, well…

Technorati Tags: bwo, blue winged olives, fly fishing, fly tying, dry fly

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The world’s simplest, most effective fly? (Hare’s Ear soft hackle)

Is it my subconscious taking a stand for minimalism? The emerging presentationist in me who thinks good casts belie the need for five boxes of flies?

Or just a lazy fly tier looking to dodge the shame of woefully understocked fly boxes?

I’m not the only crazy.

In the November/December issue of Fly Rod & Reel, John Gierach mentioned that his friend Mike Price fished most of a season with only Royal Coachmen and Gray-Hackle Peacock patterns.

Noble, but that was in the context of small, backcountry streams, where the named flies would probably work about as well as anything.

Still, when I mentioned this idea to my friends, some would just nod like they’d had the same idea themselves, but others just looked at me like I’d suggested dynamite as a reasonable alternative to the Adams.

I know what I was thinking with the “soft hackle” idea; it could be fished as a nymph, swung like a soft hackle, and even fished in the film like an emerger.

I didn’t know if adding a cdc loopwing behind the hackle to help it float better (and make it more visible) was cheating or not, but I probably would have made that agonizing moral decision after seeing if it worked.

I might have done it if I could have figured out what to do in pocket water, but at the time, I was pretty sure of a couple of things.

First, at the end of the year I’d probably be as good a soft hackle fishermen as I’d ever be.

And second, I liked my dry flies too much to give ‘em up.

Different Year. Same Madness.

The recent “Best fly tieing book” thread here on the Underground got me thinking about all the flies I had to tie for Fall, and the next thing, I’m off on a “one fly” jag.

This time, I had a better idea; instead of one pattern (a pointless exercise when you sweat it out over more than one body of water), I’d stick to one family of flies made from fly tieing’s equivalent of pine two-by-fours.

Hare’s Ear.

Between the hare’s ear nymph, hare’s ear soft hackle, hare’s ear parachute, some kind of hare’s ear x-caddis and a hare’s ear midge pupae, I’d pretty much have it covered.

A #20 hare’s ear midge pupae. OK, maybe this one’s the simplest to tie…

Actually, I’d have it nowhere near covered, but - despite the insanity of the idea - you can probably also see the beauty of it. Five patterns in a half-dozen different sizes each (and maybe eight different materials) and you’d be out the door and fishing the river without a care.

Would the winter trout mistake a #20 hare’s ear parachute for a baetis? Would they think a #10 was a Green Drake?

Until now, nobody’s been insane enough to find out. And since I’m much better at writing about this kind of thing than doing it, it’ll probably remain a mystery.

Still, is anyone out there tempted by a one-fly season?

Technorati Tags: hares ear, soft hackle

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In the interest of speeding your winter tieing, the Underground’s asking for something never in short supply around here: an opinion. What is your favorite fly tieing book?

This isn’t a “one book on a desert island” kind of question. Instead, we want to hear about the book that altered the way you tied or fished - a book with a point of view or philosophy that worked its way into your fly fishing consciousness.

My pick? Trout Flies: The Tier’s Reference by Dave Hughes. His philosophy emphasizes “buggy” flies over exact imitation, and his approach to fly tieing is to strip away the window dressing, focusing on what actually catches fish.

This book introduced me to the Beetle Bug (Official Attractor Fly of the Trout Underground); unpretentious and clearly written, it’s not a pattern book (though there are plenty of those) but more a philosophy of fly fishing.

Tag. You’re it. Let’s hear it from the Undergrounders.

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Clearly, it’s time someone in the outdoor media stood up and asked the question that others don’t have the guts to ask:

Are all Montana trout smoking crack?

One bad fly pattern could be an anomaly, but given the wholly unproductive “sure thing” patterns offered by other Montana-based Undergrounders, a larger picture begins to emerge.

And it’s an unpretty picture indeed - one of trout so stupid that they’ll eat October Caddis imitations other trout won’t touch. Or even hopper patterns more Dali-esque than duplicative.

Is this proof of excessive drug use among Montana’s trout?

It’s starting to look that way to this reporter.

I’m reminded of a local fly fisher’s quote upon his return from Montana; he was asked about the fishing, and replied “It was about what you’d expect from a place where they mostly fish flies made from foam.”

Revealing. And damming.

Foaming at the Mouth

Everything I’ve said so far could simply be the ramblings of a deranged fly fisher (not that there’s anything wrong with that - it works for most political pundits), but careful examination of the lyrics from Montana’s Official State Song offers incontrovertible proof:

Montana, Montana,
Glory of the West
Of all the states from coast to coast,
You’re easily the best, and your trout are as dumb as rocks.

It’s time to save the Montana trout. By getting them into rehab…

.

.

BREAKING NEWS UPDATE: It’s the expectation of any brilliant (nay, genius) journalist that breaking the big story could mean you’ll experience attacks by those desperate to preserve their dark, dark secrets. Fly Fishing in Yellowstone has launched the first, though his latest “can’t miss” pattern frankly tends to support my theory. (Either that, or Montana’s filled with a lot of fly fishing musicians.) Don’t miss the notes for what might be the funniest fly pattern of the year…

Technorati Tags: montana, October Caddis

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Because I’m going to reveal one of my Secret Fall Patterns.

Bees. Those buzzy, stingy things.

Fishing in the Fall? Dieing bees might be your best “hatch”…

Once the cold weather sets in, the bees start dieing. The male honeybee drones die off after being evicted from the hive and worker bees also succumb to the weather - as do a lot of wasps and and the like, the communities of which typically disband in the fall.

The die-off begins first on the high alpine lakes, and as the cold temperatures work their way downhill, the die-off follows.

I’ve hit the “bee hatch” several times, and fishing a bee pattern can be wild. The trout will gently nudge the fly to see if it’s alive, and if you’ve got the nerves to let it sit, they’ll suck it down.

That’s fun on a stick.

What about the River?

I only rarely fish bee patterns on the Upper Sac in the Fall (typically preferring the PED, BWO and caddis hatches), but the pattern has worked during the late spring and summer, and I’m batting 50% in the fall (OK, that’s writer obfuscation for “I’ve tried it twice and caught fish once”).

Still, last winter I saw dozens of dead bees in the bankside snow, and some of their friends must have ended up in the river.

It’s also worth noting that one of the original Ted Fay “Bomber” nymph patterns replicates a drowned bee, and that several big, big fish have been caught on the bug.

The moral?

Despite its “for kids only” reputation, it’s time to lay your hands on a few bees - a bug I’ve used to catch a lot of fish, especially once they start dieing in the fall. It’s a killer on the lakes, and can work on the river, though success on moving water seems less assured.

See you in the hive, Tom Chandler.

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The Troutnut is just such a site - a compilation of a mind-boggling 2392 stunning photographs of trout food (bugs), and truckloads of information about those same critters. The builder’s also a pretty good landscape photographer, and his underwater pictures are equally interesting.

It’s everything you ever wanted to know about bugs. And way more. Visit it. Bookmark it. Visit it again…

Technorati Tags: troutnut, mayflies, caddis, fly fishing blog

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Under these conditions, even setting the hook is difficult - but you won’t get the chance until you get the drift right. And the odds of that are pretty slim if you can’t see your fly.

Like a lot of others, I use Frog’s Fanny (a white dessicant powder) to revive soaked flies, but it’s also a great “highlighter.”

Frogs Fanny normally works best when used sparingly. Under normal conditions, I blow away excess dust, returning the fly to its normal color. But when I’m after one more fish at dark, I go a different route.

I apply a small amount, work it in, and then apply an extra coat to the top of the fly. It typically won’t float long (AK Best suggests leftover dessicant absorbs water and actually sinks the fly), but for a couple casts, the whitened top of the fly stands out like a beacon.

Cast, drift, bingo. See you at dark, Tom Chandler.

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OK, truth is I’m the Ride Director for the Shasta Summit Century bike ride - a very challenging fundraiser that a few of us conduct each year. For a few days, the job that becomes more than a fulltime endeavor - this year made more so because we were absolutely overrun by riders.

Last year, 475 riders made the trip, but this year we had 630 riding up and down the mountains surrounding Mt. Shasta. Keeping them fed and watered is a challenge, but the payoffs are immense. Last year we granted $6000 to under-supported youth sports in this area, including our championship high school cross-country team and a bunch of others.

I’m proud of the work we do, but I’m also glad it’s over. Tonight, I’m hitting the river! Tomorrow, I’ll be back in the swing here at the Underground. You’ll be reading the same largely fictitious fishing reports, odd fishing links, and general weirdness that comprises life here.

It feels a little like we’re entering the dog days up here, but there’s still a lot of fishing to be done. If anyone’s been fishing, I’d love to hear about it. Post a comment, and I’ll see you on the river, Tom Chandler

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It’s OK; there’s another hatch on the calendar, but rather than count on the passage of time to create more dry fly fishing, I’m going fishing this evening. Staying in and catching up isn’t a bad idea, but the concept of my not catching fish while Raine cavorts on the Henry’s Fork is a little hard to take (you see, living on a good trout river is not protection from an attack of envy).

A 14″ Firehole bow. Fly fishing’s beautiful even when you’re not casting… (Jack Raine photo)

And speaking of Raine, he and Jack had an excellent time on the Firehole (as predicted by the Yellowstone Fly Fish blog) and are on their way back to the Henry’s Fork (or “Fork” if you’re into fly fishing hip). Jack continues to admirably fill the trip photojournalist role with another nice picture.

They’re both enjoying the hell out of themselves (the goal of the trip after all), but they seem to be running into a certain kind of person - fly fishers with logos on their hats, grimness on their faces, and an approach to fly fishing that suggests all kinds of mental pyrotechnics occuring beneath the surface. My advice? Don’t be one of those guys.

The Beetle Bug busts out
Every time I mention the mighty Beetle Bug I get e-mails about the fly. I love the pattern, but no - I wouldn’t necessarily recommend fishing it through a BWO hatch. Still, as far as attractors go, it’s a confidence fly - something I know has worked in the past, will probably work again, and could conceivably work work on the next cast. For those willing to slave over a hot vise, here are some excellent directions for tying the Beetle Bug from the eflytyer site, which is also an interesting online shop specializing in fly tying materials. Given my prediliction for the underdog, I suggest giving this shop a try, if only because they’re not one of the monster retailers.

What am I forgetting in this post? After averaging only a couple hours of sleep a night, I have no earthly idea. At this point, I can amuse myself for hours simply trying to spell my own name, and I wonder what the L&T Nancy is going to find by the time she gets back from her business trip on Sunday. Probably a gibbering idiot. But not tonight. Tonight I fish. See you on the river (literally), Tom Chandler.

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On Monday (yesterday as I write this), I saw only three stoneflies all day (none in the bushes), but fortunately the fish were still on the dry. Dave Roberts, myself, Chris Raine, Mike Luccia and Dave Edmonson pushed away from the launch ramp in a pair of almost-identical Clacka drifters, eyes all glittery and hopeful like small children on their way to a candy store.

Ah, but innocence never lasts long; kids learn there is no Santa, and a random, unnamed fly fisher might make a beautiful slack line cast (complete with puddled leader and aerial mend), only to break off a big fish due to a moronically Bassmaster-esque hookset .

Chris Raine hooked up only a few minutes later, and because he didn’t try to launch his fish into Idaho (like some writer we could name), he landed a gorgeous 21” steelhead, though only after a real fire drill of a fight. At one point, Chris struggled to move the mighty beast upriver against a strong current while Dave Roberts stood by with the net. The fish wasn’t all that happy with any of it, and twice tried to wrap himself up in Roberts’ legs, leading to some amusing moments (at least from my perspective in the drift boat) while the two danced around.

Chris Raine gets his butt handed to him by a big steelhead.


Tango! Roberts and Raine do the two-step with a steelie. The opposable thumbs eventually won out, but just barely (see next picture).

Once the entertainment ended, the fishing settled down to a steady diet of fish intermittently slashing at the big dries. My biggest was 15”-16” with most in the 10”-12” range. Everyone landed fish, the weather was good, the sandwiches were tasty, and a good time was had by all.

Interestingly, the standby Rogue Foam Stone didn’t produce nearly as well as a Shane Stalcup pattern tied by Dave Roberts. Apparently, life moves forward for both fish and fly fishers. I fished a strong Thramer 5wt – discovering that proper leader design really is the key to throwing big, wind-resistant dries on lighter lines. Still, I preferred the comfort of my 6/7 wt Payne Canadian Canoe taper, especially since the next hookset could connect me to a pissed-off steelhead in fast water. Strong is good.

Is the stonefly hatch on the Rogue over? Dave Roberts doesn’t think so, but admits the possibility exists. Expect more news on this critical topic soon.

Because of an unhealthy level of deadline pressures today, only a couple links; The Fly Fishing Yellowstone blog is as current as always, and apparently the stoneflies are making an appearance out there too. And lately I’ve mentioned the rise of rubbery lips in the fly fishing zeitgest; Carp are big, and the Flytimes Blog adds even more informational fuel to the fire.

The Upper Sac is still running over 3,000 cfs, and with deadlines sprouting like weeds, it looks like anything that happens will happen locally (and quickly). See you at the keyboard, Tom Chandler

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The river itself spiked over 8,000 cfs – an astonishing number for this time of year. As the river flows remain at largely unfishable levels, boredom creeps in and drives us to do things we might not normally do. Wayne proved this theory true by fishing the raging Upper Sac for an hour yesterday, actually landing a fish and losing two others.

Others engage in even more desperate behavior, like whipping up a Beetle Bug and photographing it (first fly photo ever) so his readers will know what the hell he’s talking about all the time. I get a couple e-mails every time I mention the oddly mis-named Beetle Bug, and while it’s hardly a magic fly, it is a very effective attractor pattern that’s fast fast fast to tie. This is my rough water parachute tie (I would tie a sparser pattern with a thinner body for slower water), and it’s equally effective as a Catskill tie with white hair wings.

Your basic Beetle Bug; easy, fast, and hot (which - if you think about it - is how most of us like our women)

The basic recipe is Moose body tails, bright red Hares Ear dubbing, turkey flat parachute post (white goat body hair for the Catskill), and Coachman brown hackle (though I use Cree hackle).

That’s all for today. The Lovely & Talented Nancy flies home today from a weeklong business trip, and between the bruised rib, the rampant sickness, and our end-to-end trips, I’m looking forward to actually spending some time with her. With everything running high, there’s no better time… See you, well, you won’t see me… TC.

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