What is a Kype?
A kype is a hook that forms on the lower jaw of a male trout, salmon or steelhead, during spawning periods. This is their badge of power and dominance, that is unique to only these species—a sign of a warrior. From this mark of strength comes the title of our magazine, KYPE.
Kype Magazine VOLUME 5 ISSUE 1, 2014
Kype Magazine Boise, Idaho lane.aileen@yahoo.com
www.KypeMagazine.com Kype Staff Publisher: Aileen Lane & George Douglas
COPYRIGHT Kype Magazine Copyright © 2014 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. May no part of this publication be copied or reproduced in any way without written permission from the publisher.
Douglas Says Farewell.................................................4 Letter From the Publisher............................................6 A Journey of Fly Fishing and Photography.......................8 Ted Williams, The Legend............................................. 12 The Kings of Chrome....................................................16 Bead Fishing in Alaska.................................................20 Kype Vise...................................................................22 Float Fishing Jigs........................................................24 Every Day is a Spey Day..............................................26 What Trout Really Eat.................................................28 Eyes on Tubes.............................................................32 Curse of the Perfect Season........................................36 Kype Vise...................................................................40
After a long day chasing trout throughout the many streams and rivers of the Eastern Sierra one late winter/early spring, I happened to witness this surreal light show and took this selfportrait image, which I have titled “Barbed Wire and Debarbed Hooks.” This image is by the Upper Owens River, which gets a spectacular run of Rainbows and Browns coming up from Crowley Lake every Winter. —Story and Photo by Joey Guzman
Farewell Kype is in Good Hands! by George Douglas
Bio: Author of The Fishing Gods Ohio & N.Y. Fishing Guide Fishing Hall of Fame Inductee Type of Fishing: Fly, Spey, Spin, Pin & Plug
S
tanding there at the river’s edge, with a rod in hand and a backpack full of camera gear, I look through the woods. Each step she sinks up to her thighs in the harsh snow covered terrain. “This is not going to work.” Taking the pack off and leaning the rod up against the icy bank, I start to go into the tree-line to help her, and perhaps call off the day of filming, but suddenly a loud sound stops me in my tracks—a huge burst of water, perhaps from a restless steelhead. The foggy polarized sunglasses are crudely wiped with a half-frozen rag. I put them back on and walk to the river’s edge only to see a pod of steelhead holding directly in front of me— the absolute perfect scenario to add a little sizzle to this film. I quickly grab my rod and start checking my rig, “Wait...my wife...the camera gear!” I run back realizing my only option to capture this magnificent adventure on film is to piggy-back her to the water's edge. “Hurry, they're stacked in here!” She tries to smile, tries to look excited, but the fifteen degree wind chill has already taken it’s toll on her. I now realize with these conditions, I've got less than an hour to catch as many steelhead as I can to complete the film shoot.
It was moments like this that were challenging, but exciting, as we traveled all over the country from fishery to fishery. Kype provided us with a life we came to love, even through some of the toughest of times. That freezing day on a Lake Erie tributary was just one page in the book, but it signified our commitment and illustrated how we were often rewarded by the Fishing Gods—a day where I landed several steelhead in about an hours time. Five years of publishing and film shoots has taken us from Alaska to Yellowstone, to the Great Lakes tributaries to the Yukon, from Pennsylvania trout streams to the Pacific North West—and everything in between—these journeys are branded into my heart and will remain there forever. However, all good things come to an end, and, at this time, I'm being pulled in a different direction as my publishing career has led me to new horizons and sparked the creation of microcerpt.com—a social community that connects authors and readers.
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THE FISHING GODS Read Free at: www.thefishinggods.com
A special thanks to our many writers, photographers, advertisers and our entire readership for making Kype the success it has been throughout the years! It was all of you and your undying support that made it all possible. At this time, I'd like to introduce the new Publisher and Owner of Kype Magazine, Aileen Lane. Aileen is a world-class fly-tyer who has an intense passion for the sport. It has been a pleasure working with her, and I'm truly impressed and excited about her enthusiasm and her new ideas to bring Kype Fishing Magazine to even greater heights. I'd like to extend my gratitude to all of you in advance for welcoming Aileen and for your contin-
ued support of Kype Magazine. I am confident you'll enjoy the exciting changes that will be introduced starting with the fall issue—a new layout with the full focus on fly fishing. Aileen and I collectively produced this season's new issue together—The BEST OF Kype. It was actually a difficult process as we were limited to fifty pages. Aileen selected a couple of her favorite articles, and I chose the rest, including one of my personal favorites that I had written, The Curse of the Perfect Season. Kype Magazine has been a great and wonderful part of my life! Many thanks to all of you who made this dream of mine a truly fulfilling reality—and I'm looking forward to seeing y'all on the river! KYPE
CALIFORNIA
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“Ah Ha” Moments by Aileen Lane
New Kype Publisher
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Bio: Publisher of Kype Magazine Fly Tier & Owner of MKFlies 1/3 of the Trifecta of Fly Fishing Ventures Pro Staff Tier for Deer Creek UK Type of Fishing: Fly Fishing Location: Boise, Idaho Websites: KypeMagazine.com MKFlies.com Flyfishingv.com Contact Info: KypeMagazing.com
Fly tied by MKFlies Photo by Rich Schaaff
think for most people, their “ah ha” moment happened the first time they hooked a fish on a fly. My “ah ha” moment happened the first time I tied a fly on a vise. I was fascinated, and still am, with how one can create a beautiful fly from all the fur and feathers...in awe with how a few turns of a single feather can transform a hook into something else. This changed my whole perspective of a river. Yes, the river is surrounded by such beauty - but the real beauty lay beneath each stone in the water. I was eager to see with my own eyes, the amazing aquatic insects that lived in the waters. I wanted to replicate each life cycle on my vise. It's a story of life and death. All this happened before I even learned to cast a fly rod. Since then, I have learned – and still learning more, how to fly fish, and that passion continues to drive through me. Through my tying, I developed a friendship with the late, Rich Schaaff – a talented photographer and fly fisher. To me, he was Opie, my brother from a different mother. Rich used many of my flies as props for his work. And I was eager to keep tying as many different kinds of flies for Opie. In 2010, Rich asked me if I would put together a step by step fly tying tutorial for George Douglas' Kype Magazine since the original tyer was not able to make the deadline. This was my first introduction to George and my first tutorial in print was for that issue in Kype (Volume 2, Issue 2, 2010). What made that issue very special to me was that I was part of Kype that displayed Rich's photography on the cover. Rich passed away not too long after that. Kype was the final work we did together. Since then, Kype Magazine has held a very special place in my heart and I feel honored to be the next publisher. My mission is to continue gathering and sharing the knowledge, beauty and passion of fly fishing that continues to bring us all back to the waters and vise. This issue celebrates Kype Magazine’s fifth year anniversay. George and I have included what we felt were the “Best Of” from past issues. I like to think of this as a celebration of Kype’s past and future. Will you do the honor and join me on the River? KYPE WASHINGTON
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Photos by Mike Mainhart
A Journey of Fly Fishing and Photography by Kirk Werner
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ust before dusk on his first trip to Montana in 1984, Rich Schaaff found himself sprinting downstream along the banks of the Madison River. A widening grin spread across his face as he fought to keep his line tight with one hand while trying to prevent his waders from falling around his ankles with the other. Increasingly farther downstream a big rainbow continued to rip line from his reel.
Bio: Kirk Werner is a freelance graphic artist, keeper of the Unaccomplished Angler blog and author of a series of children’s fly fishing books: Olive the Little Woolly Bugger, Olive and The Big Stream, and Olive Goes for a Wild Ride Type of fishing: Trout and steelhead in moving water Location: Wet side of Washington (the state) Contact: Unaccomplishedangler@gmail.com
The scene played out within view of Three Dollar Bridge, and Schaaff can still hear the echo of uncontrollable laughter from his fishing buddy as the trout attempted to make short work of the man on the other end of the line. That night as the two compadres reclined on the grass next to the river, looking up at stars he never knew existed, Schaaff acknowledged, “It doesn’t get any better than this.” When he returned to his home in Chicago, Schaaff knew that there was something very special about the West. He knew that he would come back again some day. A fly fisherman for most of his life, Rich grew up in Chicago and chased trout on small streams in Michigan and Wisconsin. He fondly recalls the day from his childhood when he caught his first fish on a fly: it was in ankle deep water on a small spring creek, and the brown trout wasn’t much bigger than the fly it had inhaled. “I went running down the bank with that poor little fish squeezed tightly in my hand, screaming to
my brother,” Schaaff recalls. He still feels a twinge of guilt that the little brown “sacrificed its own life in order to bring me such fulfillment.” In addition to fishing closer to home, Rich would often make the 11 hour, non-stop drive to the White River in Arkansas with his brother, who had previously worked there as a fly fishing guide. His brother knew the river well, and the two regularly fished for long weekends. Though the White was teeming with trout, Schaaff acknowledges that after the ’84 trip to Montana everything else paled by comparison. “It was the West that I longed for.” His trip to Montana had apparently ruined him. While he grew up fishing, photography was a hobby that didn’t come along until Schaaff moved to New York City in 1994. To hear Rich tell it, “God only knows why I ever moved to NYC in the first place.” As he reflects back on that period of his life, however, it becomes obvious that his years spent living in Manhattan were good for something. Mesmerized by the lifestyle and architecture that surrounded him, Schaaff purchased a Nikon camera and spent his
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days off “schlepping around the streets of Manhattan shooting roll after roll of black and white film.” The dramatic urban settings provided endless opportunities to study composition and the play of light. He didn’t realize it at the time, but the Manhattan project was preparing Rich for what lie ahead, further to the West. Schaaff refers to his time spent in NYC as “the lost years of fly fishing.” He regrets that probably one of the biggest mistakes while living in Manhattan was not taking advantage of the great Eastern fisheries. “I think I was too busy trying to absorb and balance all the craziness of that lifestyle,” he says. In 1999 he snapped back to his senses. “Go West, young man.” Such was the advice of an Indiana newspaper writer by the name of John Soule, who in 1851 wrote the words that would become a mantra for nineteenth century Americans pursuing their dreams of a new life in a new, unsettled territory. 148 years after those words were first published, Rich Schaaff answered that call to action and headed about as far West as he possible could, settling in the Pacific Northwest near Portland, Oregon. Rich admits that he’d grown weary of wading in a mass of humanity and left New York City “to avoid seeing people talking to themselves on the streets.” He still wades, but now he does so amongst rocks and water. He still sees people talking to themselves on occasion, but the difference is that now these people are usually harmless fly anglers, blurting out a few choice words when a fish throws their hook. The slower pace of life on the West coast suited Schaaff perfectly and allowed him to fully immerse himself in two of his
passions: fly fishing and photography. Exactly when the two hit head-on isn’t clear, but one thing is: “When they came together, I knew I was a goner.” He also knew he was a goner when he met “a wonderful Oregonian gal named Julie” who would become his better half. There was plenty of fishing to be done out West, and those fishing trips soon included a camera as part of the requisite tackle. “I began spending more time taking photos than actually fishing,” Schaaff says without a hint of remorse. He began to see fly fishing differently through the camera’s lens, and a good fishing trip began to be measured not in the number of fish caught, but in how many quality shots he was able to capture. “Two good shots make the trip,” he adds. The more Rich fished, the more photos he took as he immersed himself in his passions. Soon it became clear that his photography hobby deserved an identity, and thus was born East Fork Fly Photography. In order to share his work with friends and fishing buddies, Schaaff created a website and began uploading images from his
Photo by Richard Schaaff
“I began spending more time taking photos than actually fishing” —Rich Schaaff
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memory cards. Upon viewing his work, it’s obvious that what Rich captures with his lens goes well beyond the average ‘fish porn’ shots. “I try to avoid the typical grip and grin,” he adds, “But I’ll go there if it’s my fish!” During the winter months when he wasn’t standing knee deep in a steelhead river, Rich began experimenting with a light box – a portable device that provides even, diffused lighting for shooting small objects. He saw the amazing artistry in flies tied by his friend Rocky Maley and sought to capture the beauty of the flies by showcasing them with other items of fishing gear as props. His background in interior design helped when it came to staging the shots. Due to his keen ability to capture the subtleties associated with all aspects of fly fishing, after a couple of years, Schaaff’s work began to get noticed. Marshall Cutchin of Midcurrent.com invited Schaaff to be featured in the photography section of the popular fly fishing website. The talent already assembled on Midcurrent was impressive, and Schaaff was humbled by the invitation. Up to this point photography had been simply a personal endeavor. With increased exposure came residual interest in Schaaff’s photography, and his work caught the attention of Korkers, the Portland, Oregon-based footwear manufacturer. The day after a brief phone call to see if Schaaff was interested in shooting some possible catalog work for their 2011 season (he was interested, by the way), a pair of wading boots showed up on his doorstep and Schaaff got busy with his camera. The folks at Korkers apparently liked what they saw in his proofs and hired him for the shoot. Since then, Schaaff has also done work for Slate Creek Fly Rod Company and Umpqua Feather Merchants. He’s come a long way since schlepping the streets of Manhattan on his days off, shooting rolls of black and white film. As for the big rainbow on the Madison River near Three Dollar Bridge, it’s hard to get a straight answer from Rich as to how that scene finally played out. Without photographic proof we are simply left to wonder. Rich Schaaff lives along the banks of the east fork of the Lewis River in Washington state where he spends the win-
Photo by Richard Schaaff
ter months fishing for the elusive steelhead. He’s also been known to chase redside Rainbow trout on the Deschutes River in Oregon, and on summer evenings he waits for the “blessed hex hatch” on an undisclosed small lake not far from his home. Rich’s work can be seen on his website, www.eastforkfly.com.
A
fter this article was written, sadly, Rich Schaaff passed away on November 2nd after a brief bout with cancer. The love of his life, Julie Schaaff wrote these beautiful words, which are a fitting epitaph for her husband: "During the last few months of Rich's life, so many things had come together in a positive way. He was able to leave a job that was no longer satisfying to him and his photography was becoming something that he could make a living doing. He lived in a place he loved, where he could be lulled to sleep by the sound of the river. We shared a deep and intimate love that gave our life meaning. He wanted to live!! But it became apparent that God had other plans for Rich." -Julie Schaaff. KYPE
SALMON R. NY
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Williams, The Legend
TED
on the Field and on the Water by George Douglas, Sr.
I
n 1930, San Diego, California was a small city of about 100,000 people. A skinny kid named Ted had just finished playing baseball with a group of friends and was now headed out to Coronado Island with a fishing buddy to fish Mission Bay for albacore. He would spend the rest of his life alternating between both loves, baseball and fishing.
Bio: Outdoors Enthusiast, Fishing Hiking Skiing Snowshoeing Type of Fishing: Fly and Spin Fishing Location: Great Lakes Catskill Mountains Contact Info: Streamside@kype.net
Ted Williams would later trade in his homemade bamboo fishing pole for the most advanced fly fishing equipment in his quest for what he called the big three: Tarpon, Bonefish and Atlantic Salmon. During baseball’s off-season, Williams lived at his home in the Florida Keys and would fish for Tarpon and Bonefish with a few of the top guides that rented out their services, especially in the area of Islamorada, Florida. Early mornings would find Ted and his guide hunting for Tarpon with the light tackle that made his catch that much more challenging and exciting. It was also one of the trademarks of fishing with Williams. Tarpon, due to their large size, were easier to spot in the early hours of the day. But later, when the sun was higher, the hunt changed to spotting Bonefish on the flats. Spotting fish, presenting the fly to the fish, and enticing the strike was the technique that Ted loved. Releasing each fish that he caught was a must. In those early days, Tarpon and
Bonefish were plentiful and Williams had much of the area to himself. Coming to the Florida Keys and renting a guide for even a day was an expensive venture, even in the mid 1940's. But Williams had found a new home and six months a year, fishing in the Keys was his new passion. And passion it was because just like hitting a baseball, Williams the perfectionist, would approach fishing with everything he had within him. The results were obvious to anyone around him. Due to Williams’ presence in the area, Islamorada soon started calling itself the “Sport Fishing Capitol of the World.” But by the mid 1950's something occurred that would change Williams’ fishing world for the rest of his life. He was still playing baseball at this time when he received an invitation from the Miramichi Salmon Association. They had, of course, heard all the stories about Williams, his love for fishing and the purest that he was concerning everything that had to do with the challenge of fly fishing. Of course, their motive was also
MICHIGAN
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promoting the area and the pursuit of the elusive Atlantic Salmon. Nothing would promote the area more than the arrival of Ted Williams himself. Williams had never fished for freshwater fish of any kind before but for some reason, he became interested and accepted the invitation. The river was the Miramichi which crossed the Canadian Province of New Brunswick. For two months in late summer, the salmon make their spawning run down the river, later returning to the sea. Williams found that this was a different kind of challenge in his fishing life. With Tarpon and Bonefish, the challenge began with the hunt to first sight the fish and then make the presentation. But this was very different. With Atlantic Salmon, there was no sighting the fish in the various pools where the fish tended to rest while on their journey. It often required hundreds of casts before a strike. Of course, Williams did have some of the choice pools along the Miramichi to fish. One of his favorite pools was called the “swinging bridge.” Access was afforded to him that others did not have. For Williams, this was imperative. He was not about to have others fishing around him. His tolerance of people was not always the best whether he was on the baseball diamond or while fishing. It did not take too much for Williams to leap into a cursing tirade. Like everything else that Ted did, cursing was like an art form. Nobody was better. Williams also found that these fish were a lot more selective in what fly they would take and how it was presented. In fact, the Atlantic Salmon actually were not feeding while in the river. The fly would be taken for whatever other reason, such as annoyance or other reaction. This also made the challenge much more difficult. He would spend hours making his own flies, each one, a little different color and style. But Williams loved tying flies. It wasn’t just a part of the whole fishing experience. Outsmarting the Atlantic Salmon with his own creation was one thing, but he also used fly tying as an escape. He often would retreat to his fishing room, which contained all his fly tying equipment, when he was stressed and needed the escape. He found it very relaxing. Even while Williams was still playing ball, he could often be found tying flies in his apartment in the city that he was playing in at the time. Williams even invented a number of his own flies. One was called the “Bear Hair,” and another was called “The Spotlight” which had four colors in it. Williams thought that he would put all the different major colors in one fly. Hunting deer was a big deal in the area of Miramichi and Williams would tell all the hunters to give him some of the hide so he could use the deer hair for fly tying. His favorite fly was the “Conrad” which he tied on a #6 hook. After a few trips back to the Miramichi, Williams was totally hooked. Islamorada was out and Blackwell, New Brunswick was in. He bought one track of land and built a cabin on. It wasn’t just the fishing. He loved the people, the land, the cool, crisp air
Ted Williams receiving his enshrinement into the Freshwater Fishing Hall of Fame. This award was delivered The Hitters Hall of Fame in Hernando, FL. by Larry Colombo. Photo courtesy of the Freshwater Fishing Hall of Fame
"The Tarpon may be a better fighter, the Bonefish a faster swimmer, but all things combined there is no better opponent for the consummate angler than the Atlantic Salmon." —Ted Williams
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and pretty much the whole atmosphere of the place. He had found a new home and would fish there the rest of his life until he could no longer do so. He often stated that if he had only one fish to fish for, it would be the Atlantic Salmon. Of course, being a representative for Sears, Williams would fish with his own line of reels from Sears with 150 yards of 20 lb. Dacron line for the backing. To that, he added #8 torpedo fly line, and 6 to 8lb. test leader. His rod was an 8 1/2 foot split bamboo fly rod. The river was two hundred miles long with numerous tributaries that also offered great fishing. There were no rapids or dams, just meandering river with abundant pools and plenty of Salmon. Williams owned one of these pools in front of his cabin. Morning, noon and evening he could usually be found casting into his pool. The Atlantic Salmon Hall of Fame was located in Doaktown, New Brunswick and it didn’t take long before Williams was inducted. Fishing with Ted followed a certain routine. With guides or friends, everyone knew the routine. Williams
entered the pool first and he would make the initial casts into that pool. When Williams moved, then you could fish where he had left. If that routine was not followed, one could feel the glare that was coming at you. Or worse, one could hear the infamous streak of profanity coming from him. Either way, it was certainly wise to use caution. There is a story of a person on a boating dock in Homosassa, Florida who asked one of the boat Captains if they ever saw Williams around the area. The Captain answered, “Yes, sometimes. Do you want to meet him?” The person answered, “Sure.” The Captain stated, “Well, he is right over there on that other dock.” The person walked over, wearing a Ted Williams tee shirt which he had purchased at the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown. When Williams saw the man with the shirt, he rather strongly tapped him on the chest saying, “Where did you get that -------- ------- shirt?” Williams had a big issue with people buying illegally sold memorabilia with his name or picture on it. When the person said that he had bought it at the Hall of Fame, Williams’ demeanor completely changed. He patted the person on the back and even signed the shirt for him. As the years passed by, he remained an almost constant visitor to the Miramichi. No other fishing or fishing location even tempted him. The passion for the fish and the river extended beyond to the point where anyone that kept an Atlantic Salmon rather than return it the river as Williams did, was in his words, the equivalent of murder. He was the ultimate purist and no one should be otherwise. But after approximately thirty years of fishing on the Miramichi, Williams’ health was deteriorating. He found it more and more difficult to put the waders on and get into the river in pursuit of the Salmon. In the fall of 1993, he left the area and never returned. Writing a few words about the fishing life of Ted Williams, of course, is only part of his life story, although a very important part. His huge accomplishments in his baseball career were groundbreaking in their time. Williams’ military record in two wars and his charitable work were all done without any fanfare. His passion for life, including fishing, was legendary and those of us who are connected to the fishing world can all the more appreciate his contribution to the sport. KYPE
Photo by Richard Schaaff
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The
Kings of Chrome
Ice Out...Atlantics??? by BRENDAN O’FARRELL
Bio: Fisheries Specialist Owner, Twisted & Addicted Rod Crafting Chrome Hunter
M
ost of you addicts out there, especially the Great Lakes Steelheaders, look forward to ice-out chrome, more than a six pack of beer and a playoff game—but iceout chrome has a different meaning to some anglers. Ice-out chrome means hot, hard, silver missiles, commonly referred to as Atlantic salmon. A decade or so ago, I was jonesin’ hard for a fix of early spring steelhead and had exhausted almost every local river mouth I could think of. In most of the Great Lakes region, steelhead can only be legally targeted at river mouths, the high water mark of most flows, or upstream to a predetermined landmark—that is, until the chaotic circus of “opener” arrives. Tired and devoid of a hook up, I decided to make one, last-ditch effort, and hit up a tiny, local Lake Huron trib. Typically, there are minimal flows in the spring prior to freshet, due to a hydroelectric plant manipu-
lating the levels, but it can still usually produce a hook up or two. I got to the mouth and was greeted by three, car-top campers and a crew of what looked like pretty rough dudes, (which is saying a lot coming from a northern hick like myself), who were staggering around trying to steady their walk and talk, as they approached me. “What’s up fellas?”—my traditional salutation, to which one of them responded, “Nothin’. ‘Damn smelts are slow this year. You fishin’ ?” I really wanted to come back with, “No Einstein—I’m headed out bowling!” Instead, I just kept walking with a grin, and replied, “Yeah, gonna try it out anyway.” I was halfway out to my slot, just as the river disappears into the giant bay, when Einstein yelled out, “Some dude was here this mornin’ with one of them there fancy fly reels (referring to my centre-pin), and a big pole, and hooked into a silver that just blew him apart!” Well—with the juices now flowing, realizing the possibility of a fresh run of chrome sitting off the mouth of this flow, I drifted a big, ugly, roe bag out, and the float dropped exactly where it was supposed to. Wham! This fish was a tank! It screamed out about a hundred yards, and didn’t look back. I had no idea what I’d
PENNSYLVANIA
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hooked into, but was thinking, at first, it was a very rare spring chinook. After re-spooling the hundred yards that the fish left floating in the water column, I sent out my next drift looking for a similar take. Wham! Another freight train! After a long fought battle of tail-walks and Tarponlike aerial manoeuvres, my eyes opened and my jaw dropped only to see a glistening, black back, sterling silver wall of muscle and a tiny, bullet-shaped head…"Atlantic?" Let’s rewind a little here… In the summer of 1999, I had the incredible experience of hooking into my first, of what would become many, Lake Huron Atlantic Salmon of the fabled St. Mary’s Rapids in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario. Since that first explosion of chrome, I have become somewhat obsessed with these creatures that are very aptly named, the KINGS of Chrome, due to their lightning-fast head shakes and power enough to summersault through the air a half-dozen times before you even know you’re hooked up. The Atlantic salmon program, based out of Lake Superior State University (LSSU), can most definitely be considered a success. The LSSU aquatics research facility is based on the bank of the St. Mary’s River in Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan, where they began the Atlantic salmon stocking program in 1987. Since then, somewhere between forty and sixty thousand yearlings are released into the St. Mary’s River each year. The adult returns have already been the subject of many magazine articles, T.V. shows, websites, and have even made their way into hard cover books—but it’s not the St. Mary’s River
Atlantics we’re exploring here, it’s every other Lake Huron tributary. Now, fast forward to that early spring day where I was pumpin’ a 15 foot float rod to the breaking point, trying to beach a ten pound rocket at the mouth of a small tributary, with Einstein and Elmer Fudd watching in amazement! After I hooked up with Atlantic number twelve, and only putting number four on the beach, the action died, and I somewhat stumbled out of the water looking for a refreshment, which Einstein and Elmer were more than happy to share. During the ride home that afternoon I kept going over the events in my brain, contemplating what the heck just happened and how I could repeat it… That night I sent off an e-mail to friend and colleague, Roger Greil who manages the LSSU Atlantic salmon program, explaining to him what had happened that day, hoping he could offer some explanation, and he did. It is believed that some of the stocked salmon will migrate around the entire Lake Huron basin, cruising the shoreline from Sault Ste. Marie, all the way down the coastline to Southern Lake Huron and back up to the Soo, feeding on smelt in preparation for that year-three spawn. The two year process feeding around the lake explains the appearance of LSSU Atlantic salmon in large tributaries in the southern basin, such as the Saugeen and Nottawasaga Rivers, as well as the phenomenon of my little flow in the North Channel—oh—did I say that out loud? Needless to say, I returned to the scene of the previous day’s slaughter, with high
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thewaywarddrifter.com
Unaccomplished Angler
unaccomplishedangler.com
Creek Addict
creekaddict.com
Fishing Fury
www.fishingfury.com
World Fishing News
wis-fm.co.uk/default.aspx
Troutrageous
www.troutrageous.com
Fin Follower
www.finfollower.com
Fly & Fin
www.flyandfin.blogspot.com
The Jersey Angler
www.thejersey angler.blogspot.com
Reel Job Fishing
www.kent-klewein.com/ georgia-fly-fishing-blog
BigerrFish
bigerrfish.blogspot.com
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NEW YORK
NEW JERSEY
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hopes, and was met with complete disappointment when drift after drift, and hook up after hook up yielded nothing but hatchery-escapee rainbows. (But, that’s an entirely different article in itself). During the following weeks, I heard tales of smelt fishermen dip-netting late at night, only to have the run disturbed by big, silver salmon running the creek and chomping on the smelt pods. I even caught wind of another steelheader who beached what he called a “chrome coho” while drifting off the very same river mouth. Bound and determined to figure it out, I have spent the last six years studying the migration routes and feeding patterns of these royal descendants, and was asked by Kype Magazine to share a few secrets on ice-out Atlantic success. With Ontario’s new Atlantic salmon initiative, coupled with the program run out of Michigan and LSSU, and the species’ unrelenting need for movement and migration, Atlantic salmon are now showing up in good numbers across all five Great Lakes. Yes—even Lake Superior! TIMING The diverse climates within the Great Lakes basin,
means run times and feeding patterns will differ from region to region, but the keys to look for are all the same. Smelt, smelt, smelt! Once the ice blows out of the river mouths, the estuaries and bays of Great Lakes tributaries, watch for off-shore winds to pound the shoreline, triggering sediment suspension, which in turn, draws the smelt runs closer to shore. Smelt will actively feed along windswept shorelines directly out from the flow during the daylight hours of the spawning run, to ensure energy reserves are at peak, to navigate flowing water. It’s this feeding activity that also triggers big feeding machines like Atlantics to move in tight to shore to feed on smelt. The second you hear someone say “the smelt are running,” get your gear together, call in sick, and head out to that river or creek mouth…the Atlantics are awaiting you! Another trigger and timing factor to consider, especially in the more northern reaches of the Great Lakes basin, is the sucker spawn. A couple of years ago, during a dismal showing of smelt, the Atlantics started popping up in the same locations, but were obviously chomping on sucker spawn instead of smelt. Regardless of the trigger, ice-out Atlantic salmon have one thing on their mind, and that’s food...Find the ice-out trigger and you’ll find a day full of break-offs and cartwheels, like you’ve never experienced before. TECHNIQUES While I’m a die-hard float fisherman using a centre-pin to dead-drift bags and flies, friends and colleagues of mine have taken these aggressive, chrome tanks on both singlehanded fly rods, as well as spey casting into the surf, then stripping back. Trolling smelt coloured spoons off the river mouth will also produce arm wrenching strikes and hard fought, offshore battles. Regardless of technique, the pattern is the same across the board…smelt, smelt and more smelt. KYPE
NEW YORK
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Fishing
BEAD in Alaska by DAKE SCHMIDT With thousands of places to cast a line and with opportunities around every corner, Alaska is the place to be for salmon and steelhead. Kodiak Island is one of those special places where the summer sun and silver salmon fade with the tourists into the autumn air. When the leaves turn color and fall off the riverside alders as fast as the temperature drops, it only means one thing to me – the almighty steelhead. Though not in great numbers in many rivers here on the island, it only makes these trophies all the more sacred when that chrome bullet is in your hands and you're smiling big for the camera. Probably the most well-known steelhead treasure on Kodiak Island is the Karluk River. This tranquil, desolate, treeless place is a breeding ground for all five species of salmon—humpy, sockeye, chum, chinook, and coho—as well as steelhead, rainbows, and Dolly Varden. The average size of the Karluk steelhead can be a healthy hen at 26-30 inches, while bruiser bucks with forest-green backs can push 36" and weigh upwards of 16 pounds. By the late summer and fall, dead and dying salmon produce a powerful stench that overwhelms your senses, while the short tailed-weasel (ermine), red fox, and Kodiak brown bear scavenge the river banks for easy, but necessary, food calories before the harsh of winter. After months of fish flesh and unfertilized salmon eggs floating down-stream, it doesn't take a rocket scientist to tell you that
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flesh and eggs should be the "meat and potatoes" of your fly box during October and November. For as aggressive as steelhead are, they can also be quite picky. In my experiences, I have found that most dark leech patterns, large nymphs, and flesh flies work well from day to day. Dead drifting or bottom bouncing any of these can produce an intense strike where setting the hook is done by the fish, not you. Since its conception on the world famous Kenai River, bead fishing has become a deadly alternative to glow bugs and egg-sucking leeches. During the fall months, trout beads have helped anglers across Alaska to land monstrous Dolly Varden, rainbows, and steelhead. This is the time of year that I blow the dust off the bead box and give my flies a rest. First, we need to set up our bead, peg and hook - a simple process that is easily mastered. Typically 10-12 lb. test does fine; keep your leader long, at least 10 to 13 feet. Slide your bead on the leader and fasten your hook to the end with your own trustworthy knot. Trout beads come in many colors and sizes. You may want to experiment with some to find the right color, but in my book you can never go wrong w i t h
Photo by Dake Schmidt
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Photo by Dake Schmidt pink or orange. The size of the bead should vary only between 8 and 10 mm. - they both work equally well. The hook you use is very important. It must be sticky and razor sharp, and for me that means Gamakatsu - C14S Glo-Bug in sizes 4-8, to be specific. Now, you don't want the bead on the eye of the hook or it will cover the point, barb and gap. To solve this problem, you'll need a round toothpick. Slide the bead up from the hook two inches and press the tip of the toothpick into the hole and break it off clean with the surface of the bead. Repeat on the opposite side and your rig is done. The purpose is for the fish to inhale your bead, and when the hook is set, it imbeds into the meaty flesh of the outside corner of the mouth. This great method ensures a solid hook set without the chance of your prize fish being hooked deep in Dake Schmidt lands this thick Karluk River Metalhead the throat or tender gills. on Alaska’s Kodiak Island. If there is one thing I have learned in my 25 years of drifting nymphs for trout in Colorado, it is that using the proper amount of weight for the water conditions is just as important as matching the hatch. If you are not getting your edibles down to the bottom where the fish are, your opportunities of success will dwindle greatly. Fishing beads in Alaska is no different. In a natural setting, salmon eggs are very dense and drop surprisingly quickly to the moss-laden rocks and gravel. Fish are quite fond of picking food off the bottom where the current, camouflage, and aerodynamics are in their favor. Steelhead will always stay within inches of the river bottom, so remember to check your lead regularly. Ready to fish, I stand in the river and gauge the average flow, depth, and current in front of me and use the far riverbank as my 12 o'clock. I decide how much lead it takes to hit bottom by casting to my 11 o'clock upriver, tapping bottom at 12 to 1 o'clock and swinging it off the bottom near 1 to 2 o'clock. Most strikes will occur from your 12 to 2 when your slack tightens and your set-up comes off the bottom. If you have too much lead you will snag or have to pull it Photo by Dake Schmidt along, which would take away from its natural drift. If there's not enough weight, you'll float the offering right over the top of the fish. Either way, a small BB's worth of weight could be the difference between a tired casting arm and a tired catching arm. Work the runs well and hit all the water in front of you, then simply take a few steps downstream and repeat. Before long you just might be holding that Alaskan steelhead of a lifetime. KYPE
ALASKA
21
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The Split Case
PMD
By the Publisher, Aileen Lane
by Aileen Lane
I
first discovered this pattern among flies from “The House of Harrop” (Rene Harrop) at my local fly shop. The Split Case PMD has proven to be an effective fly at the Owyhee River and the South Fork of the Boise River. I am sure this pattern would work at most rivers. The yellow breaking out from the thorax imitates the PMD beginning to emerge from its nymph body.
Bio: Publisher of Kype Magazine Fly Tier & Owner of MKFlies 1/3 of the Trifecta of Fly Fishing Ventures Pro Staff Tier for Deer Creek UK
Start the thread, making sure to make smooth, even wraps.
Make four even wraps with the Gold Wire.
Type of Fishing: Fly Fishing Location: Boise, Idaho Websites: KypeMagazine.com MKFlies.com Flyfishingv.com
Tie in the Duck Mallard Wood Duck feather fibers and the Gold Wire.
Contact Info: lane.aileen@yahoo.com
MICHIGAN
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CT.
Lightly dub evenly 2/3 or the way up toward the hook eye.
Cut a small strip of the Nymph Stretch Skin. Trim the tie-in end in an angle and cut the black strip down the middle.
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While adding a little stretch, pull the yellow strip behind the hook eye (leave enough room for the legs and black strip to be tied in afterwards.) and tie in.
Tie in the black Nymph Stretch Skin.
Tie in legs using feather fibers from the Duck Mallard Wood Duck.
Tie in the yellow Nymph Stretch Skin. For hooks size 18-20, I cut the yellow strip in half making them more narrow. Add a small amount of dubbing.
While adding a little stretch, pull both sides of the black strips and tie behind the hook eye. After tying in the black strip, cut off the excess and add small drop of head cement. Directions, top of next column.
Recipe Hook: Daiichi 1720 size 20 – 16 2x long Thread: 6/0 Black Tail: Duck Mallard Wood Duck Abdomen: Rust Brown Fine Dubbing Rib: Small Gold Wire Thorax: Nymph Stretch Skin in Black and Yellow Legs: Duck Mallard Wood Duck
Float by DAVE GANTMAN
Fishing Jigs
W
hen I think of float fishing I can't help but remember a mild summer afternoon on one of my favorite local steelhead runs. While hiking the half-mile long trail, I couldn't help but get the feeling it was going to be a good evening of fishing. The weather was comfortable, the water conditions were low and clear, and I was carrying my float fishing rod. This particular spot starts with a nice riffle and drops into a slow moving, glassy run about 100 yards in length. Due to the abundance of snags and weeds on the bottom of the river, most fisherman overlook this fishing hole. It's near impossible to drift-fish, and because of the low clear water, spinners and spoons could spook whatever steelhead were in the area. I
knew, however, that fishing a float rod with a small jig was going to be my ticket to success. I suspended a pink and white 1/16 oz. River Rat Steelhead Jig about a foot above the weeds. Systematically working through the run, I managed to land four summer steelhead in the two hours before dark. WHY FISH JIGS? The ultimate goal in the pursuit of any species is to catch more and bigger fish using the most simple and effective method possible. For steelhead, float fishing is widely considered to be just that. In the previous article, I explained that success in steelhead fishing is about increasing percentages during time spent on the water, as well as having confidence in the strategies and tactics being implemented. Using the float-fishing method, you can accomplish seemingly endless drifts where your chosen bait is in the targeted zone nearly 100% of the time. It's a very visual and interactive way of fishing which will keep your interest and add to the enjoyment of the steelheading experience. SETTING UP To get started with float-fishing jigs, all that's required is a float, swivel, leader material, split-shot, and jigs. You can catch plenty of fish using just these basics. Getting a little more technical with our tackle choices allows us to increase our percentages while on the water. I like to use a rod with a length from 9 to 11 feet, and a line weight of 8 to 10 pounds. This helps in casting light set-ups and provides
24
MICROCERPT Read Fly Fishing Excerpts at: www.microcerpt.com/blog/tag/fly-fishing/
Photo by John Fabian
David Gantman with a beautiful Oregon Steelhead hooked on a jig.
good line control. A rod with a little extra length also allows you to play large fish on light leaders, which can prove necessary in some jig-fishing conditions. The main line that I prefer for float-fishing jigs is 15 to 20 lb. braid, or what it is also called spectra. This type of line has a very thin diameter for its breaking strength and it casts with very little effort. The line will also float, which allows for much easier line manipulation when attempting to achieve a proper drift. Attached to the main line you can use either a fixed or sliding float. If using a sliding float, a bobber stop will be necessary to adjust the proper depth, but be sure to always place beads on your line just above and below the float to act as bumpers. Below the float you should have a barrel swivel between the main line and the leader. The leader can be either monofilament or fluorocarbon, 8 to 15 lb. Your leader should, however, always have a smaller breaking strength than your main line. This helps avoid losing your entire set-up when snagged. On the leader, you need to have enough weight to balance the float. For example, you have a 3/8 oz. float and an 1/8 oz. jig—this would mean you need a 1/4 oz. of weight above your jig to balance the float. This weight, when spaced evenly along the leader, helps the jig ride directly below the float. Now the rod has been properly set up—you're ready to fish! FISHING THE JIG To begin fishing your jig, estimate the depth of the water, and set the float 12 to 36" above what you estimate the bottom depth to be. Cast up-stream to the head of the desired pool, run, or riffle, starting with short casts. Reel in the slack as the float drifts down in front of you. Before opening your bail, lift your line to straighten any slack. Now allow the line to peel freely from the spool. This accomplishes what is called “the dead drift.” The dead drift allows the jig to float with the current at a natural speed. Each cast made, should be made further and further out, systematically working your drifts further away from the bank. This allows you to cover all the water without spooking fish. Float-fishing jigs is a quick and effective way to work through fishing spots. You can cover lots of water and feel assured that fish are not being missed. If you haven't gotten a bite, change the jig to another color and/or size and work through the area again. If your float gets taken under, close the bail, reel down, set the hook, and hold on! Applying these tactics for float-fishing jigs, you should be able to go out to your favorite steelhead waters and be successful. Look to future articles in the Jig Fishing Series for more in-depth and detailed information about jig fishing. KYPE
SALMON R. NY
25
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Every Day is a Spey Day by Chris Lessway
I
Bio: Michigan Fishing Guide Fly Fishing Instructor Tube Fly Tier Guide for North Branch Outing Club Type of Fishing: Fly Fishing / Spey Casting Location: Michigan Trout and Steelhead Rivers Website: OutForTrout.com Fullersnboc.com Contact Info: info@outfortrout.com
f you’re anything like me and you love to steelhead fish, you probably already know it's more than just a hobby. Steelhead fishing is an addiction and a lifestyle. Do you find yourself calling in sick to go fishing? Do you send your rent check in late, because you needed a new pair of waders? Do you find yourself waking up at 4 in the morning, just so you can be the first one to arrive at your favorite steelhead run? Do you obsessively check river levels? If you answered yes to any of these questions, admit it—you're an addict like me. While there are many ways to fish for these silver-sided acrobats, fishing with a two-hander (more commonly called a spey rod), has become an increasingly popular way to fuel our addiction. Twelve years ago, a friend of mine bought a spey rod. I thought he was crazy. Why would anyone want to learn to cast that behemoth of a rod. I was content with bouncing nymphs and egg patterns along the bottom. I caught plenty of fish this way and had fun doing so. I was set in my ways, and that was that. I figured I'd let my friend flail away with his new rod, while I caught fish, but a couple of years later, after seeing more and more people on the river using the long rod, I decided to attend a spey gathering to see what this craze was all about. A spey gathering is where two-handed rod aficionados get together to exchange information, ideas and try new rods and lines. What I witnessed changed the way I
viewed spey fishing. I watched an elderly gentleman make a cast of about 120 feet with no effort whatsoever. He made it look so simple. Not a single false cast or back cast was required. The fly line sliced though the air in a tight loop that seemed to never end, before gently falling to the river below. I was awe struck. I needed to learn this style of casting! I called my friend and told him I wanted to borrow his spey rod. After a barrage of heckling and unnecessary "I told you so’s," he eventually handed the rod over. I took it down to the river and made one battered cast after another. After thrashing the water and spooking every fish a mile up and down the river, I decided to buy a couple videos and books on spey casting. I put away the nymphs and egg patterns, bought my own spey rod, and totally dedicated myself to learning this method of casting. For the next year, I fished exclusively with my spey rod. It had become a challenging, exciting, and new way to catch these chrome torpedoes in which we spend our lives pursuing. My casts were not perfect, however, a fishable cast doesn't have to be perfect. Spey casting is essentially an advanced aerial roll cast. It was named after the River Spey in Scotland. The origin of this technique of casting and fishing with two-handed rods dates back to the middle of the 19th century, where salmon anglers in Scotland were faced with the challenge of rivers that
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trol became that much easier. More efficient mends were made and longer drifts could be achieved. These advantages opened up water that was previously only accessible by boat. Fishing with a spey rod in the winter became invaluable. Anglers could set a fixed length of line and not have to strip any in, resulting in less ice build up in the guides, and warmer hands. Since the invasion of the two-handed rod in North America, rod and line manufacturers have developed newer materials into their designs, which in turn, make spey casting more efficient and effortless. Due to these newer designs, more modern casts have been developed, such as the Snake roll, the Snap-T, the Wombat, and the Perry Poke, just to name a few. Salmon and steelhead anglers are not the only ones bitten by the spey bug. Trout anglers are using shorter and lighter versions of the two-handed rod while fishing with indicators, throwing streamers, and skating dry flies. Nearly every rod company today makes some kind of spey rod. If you do decide to take up spey casting, talk to your local fly shop and find out what rod is good for you. I urge you not to get caught up in the technical jargon and semantics. Hire a guide and learn the basics. There are many great books and instructional videos also available. Study these and get out on the water. By learning how to cast the two-handed rod, you will find that you've gained access to waters and fish that were previously impossible to reach. KYPE
Maximizing the coverage of water with a nice spey cast.
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ALASKA
27
OHIO
THE SPEY CAST
Photo by Chris Lessway
were wide, fast, and had trees and brush running all the way down to the rivers edge. These obstacles left no room for backcasts. To face these challenges, anglers used long rods from 15 to 20 feet long, and made of lance, ash, and greenheart woods. They were extremely heavy and wearisome to cast. The first spey cast developed from a roll cast—and over time, it formed into "true spey" casts. These casts, known as the single spey and the double spey, are still commonly used today. To be a successful angler, one had to cover as much water as possible by swinging the fly at a downstream angle across the river, while keeping the fly in front of the line, as to not startle the fish. With these long two-handed rods, anglers, on a good day, were able to roll their line out 80 to 90 feet. A gentleman named Alexander Grant, a native of the Spey valley, took the art of spey casting to an extraordinary level. Using a 21 foot rod, he had created out of greenheart wood, he was able to roll cast a mind blowing 65 yards. How about that for some distance casting? It was about fifteen years ago that the "spey craze" came to the Northwest United States, Canada, and eventually the Great Lakes region. Steelhead anglers began to see the benefits of casting a two-handed rod. Long casts of 80 to 100 feet plus, could be made with relative ease and without any false casting, which in turn, meant the fly spent more time in the water. Anglers no longer had to worry about if they had room to make a back cast. With a longer rod, line con-
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Learn What Local Trout Really
EAT
Has This Ever Happened to You? by Michael McAuliffe
Y
ou did your homework. All winter long you studied your hatch charts, researched the best patterns, tied flies, and figured out where and when to fish. You fastidiously gathered all of this information in the hopes of constructing an epic season of fly fishing. It is early afternoon on a crisp April day. You have confidently positioned yourself downstream of the fast water that the Epeorus Pleuralis inhabits.
Bio: Owner: Rise Form Studio/Rise Form Fly Fishing Guides NJ Fly Fishing Guide Fly Fishing Instructor Author Fly Tier Type of Fishing: Fly Fishing everywhere Filming everywhere Website: riseformstudio.tv
You tie on a Quill Gordon just as the first bugs begin to struggle free of the surface tension. The trout should start eating any minute as the flotilla increases in numbers. After an hour of watching the big mayflies pour by unmolested, you concede defeat. Naturally you wonder, “What did I do wrong?” Conventional wisdom would have you believe you’ve done nothing wrong. Many of our trusted advisors coin phrases to justify why the fish didn’t eat on a particular day, or better yet, why we can’t catch them all the time. Does this sound familiar? I thought so. Don’t feel bad, I’ve been there; and now I intend to chronicle how I stopped falling victim to angler’s theories, hatch charts, speculation, conjecture, and the pontifications of “experts.” Long before I began guiding professionally, I simply wanted to be a better angler. I did all of the things mentioned above and continually came up short of my expectations. The simple truth of the matter is that hatch charts represent a small view of the complex relation-
ship between trout, food sources, behavior, and environment. It is a common and accepted belief that trout do 90% of their feeding sub-surface. So why do we put so much stock in writings that primarily detail feeding behavior and food sources that are visible on or above the surface of the river? If you are from my region, the Mid Atlantic States (notably NJ and PA) and your interest is fishing dries flies in the evening, hatch charts are a fantastic tool. They should put you in the ball park and guide you to what trout are eating during a window of time and what flies you should have in your box. However, for the rest of us that fish beyond May and June Evenings, many of the hatch charts I’ve seen leave out much of a trout’s primary food sources. If you want to consistently catch more Trout, especially on tough days, you will need to educate yourself through observation made on the stream.
Looking Beyond the Text How did I learn to see beyond the Hatch Charts and get the complete pic-
OHIO
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ture? Enter my good friend and fellow NJ Fly Fishing Guide, John Heaney. John is the one of the best fisherman I have ever had the good fortune to share a stream with, and he taught me that the greatest tool a fly angler can arm himself with is a regiment of focused observation. The tools we use for our research are a seining net, stomach pump, notebook, and digital camera with a macro function. Armed with these devices we started cataloguing what the trout were eating during every month of the year. I like to jokingly call this the Salmo Gastronomic Index for New Jersey. The first step to understanding a trout’s diet in a particular river is by looking at what food sources are present. There are several simple ways to quickly identify what food sources are available. The first is to look at and under submerged rocks along the side of the stream. The second is to pull up a few submerged sticks or trapped leaves and examine the insect life you are finding. A good course of action is to spend a few hours sampling at least once a month. It is important to do this in diverse types of water. Varied insects and food sources inhabit slow/silty, moderate, and fast/broken stretches of water, so make sure to sample a diverse cross section of habitat. I like to pick 3 spots on a body of water with landmarks that will not be erased by floods, and sample the exact spot each time. I would also recommend you do this in the same stretches of river you fish the most. Remember to put stones, leaves and sticks back where you find them, as they are important parts of the ecosystem. If it is legal in your area, a seine or kick net is a better option. Have one
person hold the net or screen a few feet downstream while you disturb the streambed with your boots. The current will carry and trap macro-invertebrates in your net. Make sure to get good clear pictures of what you find. Now you can catalogue and research your findings in a notebook. The second and most revealing observations you can make are through the use of a stomach pump. Over the course of a little more than one fishing season, I watched and learned from John Heaney how to safely and effectively pump a trout’s stomachs. This is a subtle art that takes a lot of practice. I would strongly recommend you seek out someone with a few years experience if you intend to employ this technique. It is very easy to harm a trout if you do not do it properly. To get stomach samples, you need to catch the “right” fish. We like to pump stocked fish in the 12-14 inch range. It is very easy to harm a smaller trout, due to the size of the stomach pump and the opening between the gills. A larger fish is much stronger, harder to control, and
Photo by Richard Schaaff
“I watched and learned from John Heaney how to safely and effectively pump a trout’s stomachs”
OREGON
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also likely to be injured in the process. After netting the right sized fish, make sure to wet your hands before handling a trout. Get a little bit of water in the tube of your stomach pump, and turn the trout upside down. This will disorient the fish and should stop it from struggling. This is the critical point at which we choose to pump or just release a trout. If it continues to wiggle or the slightest resistance is felt when inserting the tube, we release the fish without sampling. If the tube slides in easily, we gently squeeze the bulb and allow just the water to be pushed from the tube. In one steady motion, slowly back the tube out while letting go of the bulb. If you do this properly, it should take eight seconds for the entire operation from net to release. If you miss and do not get a sample, release the fish and try again on the next one. If you did it right, you will see bugs in the tube. Squirt the contents into a white dish or container and photograph your findings. These stomach contents
will reveal something that most entomology texts are missing, concrete facts. Stomach contents are not debatable, and you will undoubtedly discover times when the trout are not focused on the mayfly that has landed on your shirt, but rather, something you did not see. In collecting our data we were able to get more information than we imagined because several of us were doing this concurrently. We would schedule trips, send emails, and indulge in many long-winded phone calls to share the data with each other. Our good friend and fly tying guru John Collins was also a valued compatriot and conspirator. He was a huge asset in identifying insects, and developing new patterns that better represented our local bugs. This is when things really got interesting. The Big Payoff The most surprising revelation that we encountered with our studies was the abundance of midges in the stomach samples. There are lots of great tail water and limestone streams in our general region
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MICHIGAN
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Photo by Richard Schaaff
when you are finished to record your findings. If you establish small changes in your routine, just by adding a few minutes of curious observation, you will catch more trout and become a more capable angler. KYPE
ALASKA
OREGON
that are famous for their midge populations. To this point, Chironomids were barley even mentioned in relation to our local NJ freestone streams. Month after month, we would find countless tiny midge pupa and larva in our samples. As it turns out, there are month long periods in our local waters when the trout feed almost exclusively on midges. Our stomach samples also revealed that caddis larvae appeared much more frequently than we would have imagined. We knew our local trout ate caddis larvae, but we had no inkling that it would present itself as the major food for the entire winter and a great deal of the spring. Once we began fishing imitations of the Hydropsyche and Rhyacophila (both commonly referred to as Green Rock Worms) in the winter, our catch rates went through the roof. Our winter sessions turned into some lights-out fishing, rather than a desperate move to get out of the house. After a few years of us using these techniques and recording our findings, we discovered one last revelation. Our local trout do not eat that many mayflies! Sure, trout will opportunistically eat a mayfly nymph that is well presented. There are also some events in the year that get the trout feeding on mayflies like the Sulphur, Slate Drake, and Blue Wing Olives. However, the fact is that our NJ Trout are mostly eating scuds, caddis, stoneflies, and midges. Looking at our sample results, caddis and midges are the predominate species in almost all of our local trout water. Based on what many of our clients and people who attend our lectures tell us, representations of these bugs are not their “go to” flies. I believe this is due largely to the simple fact that midge larvae/pupa, and caddis larva are not easily seen when looking at the streambed. Chalk it up to out of sight, out of mind. Once anglers understand the importance of these “other” food sources, fly selections change and catch rates go up. I would implore any fly angler that reads this to change your habits slightly. Spend a few minutes observing the water and insects before and during any lull in your fishing trips. Always take the time
Mack's Sport Shop 212 Lower Mill Bay Rd. Kodiak, Alaska 99615 907-486-4276 SHOP ONLINE! www.mackssportshop.com
EYES BY
DON MATHEWS
Bio: Staff Editor, Kype Magazine Avid Angler and Hunter Outdoor Writer Type of Fishing: River fishing for Salmon and Steelhead Location: Steelhead Rivers of Oregon North Umpqua River Contact: Streamside@kype.net
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f you’re going to be a steelhead guide on the Great Lakes Tributaries these days, you better have a few switch rods and sink tips in your arsenal. The interest in swinging flies is huge. It’s all about the take. Steelhead gently sip up your nymph or egg offerings, but when a steelhead has a baitfish in its sights, it violently strikes to kill. That’s why you feel those bone jarring takes on the swing. I do best swinging natural looking baitfish imitations to our steelhead. Sure, I catch them on big ugly purple patterns, but when I’m swinging flies it’s the realistic looking Chub or Shiner patterns that put fish in my net. Make no mistake, if you’re a numbers guy, stay with the high stick nymphing and you will catch more fish most of the time. As a steelhead guide who is used to easy money nymphing in “Steelhead Alley,” I’m now faced with a growing clientele of swingers. All it takes is a few good strikes to make the day. I’m constantly searching for new flies to entice a steelhead into doing a Jeckle and Hyde on those tough days when I’m with a diehard swinger. Over the years there have been a few rows in my fly box that empty out first, the ones that bail me out on those tough days. Those patterns possess some magical power to get locked-jaw fish to suddenly take. What makes these flies tick? We spend hours on end tying them but
we really never know what they look like from the fish’s eye - until now. with the dawn of the fly testing tank. I have no idea who came up with the idea of a fly testing tank. They might have been around for years, but I first saw one last spring at a show in Chautauqua NY (www.tubeflytech.com). As soon as I saw it I knew I had to have one. I built mine out of a five-gallon fish tank with a powerful adjustable flow pump that works very well. I have become obsessed with my new fly testing tank. My wife thinks I’m crazy for staring hours on end, mesmerized by the flies in the tank. I found out those magical streamer patterns in my box all had one thing in common: They performed well in the testing tank. On the other hand, some of the most beautiful patterns in my fly boxes are history now. You know the flies I am talking about. The dogs, or as we like to call them “show flies,” that are beautiful when you open your box around the guys, but they just never seem to put fish in the net. Yet you still keep them there because maybe someday... I found out that most of my show flies were “spinners” in the tank. They wouldn't track true and their action was poor. Once I really started to understand how a fly works in the current, I could spot a design flaw in almost every nonperformer. That was enough for me to rip them out of my fly box for good.
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The naysayers to the testing tank idea might say flies aren’t going to act the same in a stupid fish tank as they do in the river, but they do. In my experiments, they do behave the same in the feeder stream behind my house as they do in the tank. When I tethered them in the current, I get the same results as I do in my testing tank. It’s just a whole lot colder and I can’t see them from a side profile as I can with the tank. Sure, it’s not a perfect picture of how the fly behaves while being swung in a river current, but I’m a believer in the concept of the testing tank. To help me fill all the new empty spots in my fly boxes, I have been working with Guide Mark DeFrank. He shares my obsession with fly design and beer drinking. Being a commercial tier, he has a good knowledge of the materials available in today’s market. In our ongoing quest to develop the ultimate fly for swinging to Great Lakes steelhead, we settled on the tube fly design. We chose tubes for several reasons, but the leverage and holding power of the shortened hook is the biggest plus. We realized that wing construction and balance are critical on flies that will be fished on the swing. Regular streamer hooks have an up or down turned eye that keep the flies riding upright in the current. With a tube fly, the lightweight hook plays little into keeping the fly upright, so the other components must balance the fly. Many tube flies are tied with patterns that spinning will not affect. I prefer patterns that more closely resemble our baitfish with white colored belly sections and darker backs, and these flies would be less effective if they spun upside down. With some of the materials available to today’s fly tier it’s not hard to find materials that breathe, flow, or wiggle as one might say. Minnows or baitfish have a rocking or wiggling motion when they swim, especially when being chased by a big-toothy predator. This is undoubtedly why lure designers discovered years ago how effective it is to add a bill to the front of a minnow style lure. Look at the proven track record of the wobbling Rapalla lure. Almost every species of fish that swims has fallen victim to one. To catch fish, a Rapalla must track true and remain upright and horizontal in the
current. Get a few weeds on the back treble hook and the weight kills the action and you don’t catch squat. I can guarantee you that a Rapalla spinning circles in the current doesn’t catch fish, so I must assume that a spinning fly would appear unnatural to fish as well. Last spring we played around quite a bit with tube flies on our guided trips. We felt that most of the tube fly patterns that we tried were too heavy for our “Steelhead Alley” tributaries. Most of the patterns we tried were tied on bottle tubes. I guess if you were swinging them on big water like the west coast’s Quinault or Skykomish they would be great, but on our small streams, they are the equivalent of a bottom bouncer. In the test tank, most of these patterns exhibited a lot of “hang down” and did not stay horizontal in the current. Most of our experiences with them were poor. When swinging flies I prefer my weighted sink tip to get me down near the bottom. I want my tip to pull the fly down, not the other way around. Lightweight flies get way more action, so we gave up on bottle tubes and most of the metal tubing. After spending hundreds of dollars on expensive components we discovered the tube flies that performed best in our streams were tied on inexpensive small lightweight plastic tubing. We found the patterns that perform best are slightly weighted at the front and very light at the tail. Too big of a hook just kills the action. We’re also finding that different types of cones or heads can make a huge difference in the action. Unfortunately, many of the radical cone
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designs we tried were “spinners” in the tank. The fly slowly spins and occasionally darts to the side, and the action it gets is best described as erratic. Probably okay for bass, bluefish or some other chase species but not what I’m looking for in a steelhead fly. We felt that we needed a differently designed cone head than those currently available. What I needed to do was find a head design that would balance a tube fly tied with soft breathable materials, the end goal being a fly that stays horizontal and doesn’t spin without adding a stiff upper hair wing. We also wanted it to deflect current much like the bill on the Rapalla style lure. I tried bead chain and dumbbell eyes on tubes with good success. They did a good job of keeping the tube upright and they do deflect the current, giving the fly a rocking motion. Next we started altering our existing cone heads
by grinding material off the topside, making the cones lopsided. This was a major breakthrough. When they are used in a fixed position on the tube with the ground flat side up, they work as a counterbalance and keep the fly upright. The tier also has the option of tying in a wing or material in front of the head to help balance the fly further. We liked the results when we ground the top 1/3 of the Medium Eumer Monster Cone off. This gives the fly a very nice rocking motion. It’s so radical even stiffer materials will wobble. With the topside of the Eumer cone removed, they seem to track better than using a whole cone. Problem was the Eumer cone once altered was on the light side and didn’t keep the fly as upright as we wanted. We liked the results but thought a heavier cone was in order. I searched all over the Internet and couldn’t find what I wanted. So off to the metal lathe I went armed with a section of 3/8-inch brass bar and some hand drawn blueprints. I repeated the procedure over and over: hand turn a custom head in the lathe, put it on a tube, tie the tubefly, put it in the tank and see what happens. It’s still a work in progress, but we found a less radical head angle makes it track true and still moves the light breathable materials we prefer in our patterns. I can’t wait to try my new creations. Ice out is weeks away. I’m betting that they will catch fish since they look so real in the tank. I just hope I don’t lose many of the hand turned heads. It’s going to be hard explaining the purchase of a CNC Lathe to the wife. If you don’t have a metal lathe and a hundred spare hours don’t worry. We
34
The Fishing Gods, by George Douglas Foreword by Dec Hogan buy now at: www.microcerpt.com/georgedouglas/
had excellent results altering the commercial tube heads out there, especially the Frodin x-small turbo cone (F.I.T.S.). There are several manufacturers making cones that fit tubes. Most brass cones can be altered easily with a dremel tool.
Don’t be afraid to experiment. Just be careful, it is tough holding small parts while grinding them. Don’t try it on tungsten cones they are too hard to grind. Once ground, your altered cone will need to be held in a fixed posi-
tion on the tube. Tie it in tight and use super glue or Zap a Gap to hold it in place. A top wing balances the fly and secures the cone in place. Just be sure to hold on tight when you swing it thru the pool--it’s all about the explosive take. KYPE
Fishing with Rob Olson Montana Outfitter #8976 PO Box 2382 Livingston, Mt. 59047 406.579.3619 www.FishingWithRob.Net
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Curse by George Douglas
of the
Perfect Season
F
ly Fishing has the uncanny ability to fill the void in our lives, repair what is broken, and rejuvenate our passion with new perspectives along our journey. It’s a sport with an infinite knowledge base that offers us opportunities of growth whenever we are ready—even for those of us who have made fishing their career.
Kype’s slogan, “Keeping it Real,” comes with a responsibility to address all aspects of the sport, not just the howto aspect, but subjective topics as well, as they have been proven to be just as important, if not more so. What’s in our heart will dictate our attitude and, ultimately, decide if we are in this sport only to take or to give back as well. Throw a twenty-year-old fly fishing guide on a river that receives a hundred thousand anglers a year, over a hundred additional drift boat captains...and watch what happens. Over time, the well-intentioned heart of a new guide hardens, and a dominant streak of competitiveness will inevitably flow through their veins—trust me—I know. Young and green, with misplaced priorities, I found myself striving to be the best guide out there by out-fishing the other more seasoned guides on the river. A skunk was okay, if, and only if, they too were skunked. I set my standard to their level, charged what they charged, and fished the way they fished. As time went on, however, and with the introduction to other fisheries and regions, I felt compelled to raise the bar and hold myself to higher standards. I’d approach each and every season with the same simple goal in mind: to obtain a perfect season—a season where each and every guide trip resulted in surpassing my client’s expectations by landing fish no matter what obstacles came our way. Similar to an obsessed football coach studying every last move on film, I’d go over my journals, my calendars, water-flow charts, weather reports—all in hopes of positioning my clients in front of fish the following morning. On those evenings of uncertainty (and each season there are always a few), half dreaming, half awake, all options would replay until the alarm sounded. Eventually, usually over a cup of coffee, a decision was made with the refusal of questioning it any further.
With only two days left in the 2011 spring steelhead season, my calendar reflected a perfect record—thus far—that is, until there was a knock on my door at four-thirty that morning. “The Creature’s in jail,” the visitor blurted out in the damp darkness outside my cabin door. “What?” I asked in a raspy voice, still not fully awake and not believing what I was hearing. Comprised of multiple nicknames, Sisco, T-Wild, Skidz, Goof, and of course, the Creature (aka, Creatch), the group of nine young anglers from New York had met me in Steelhead Alley for two days of fly-fishing. “Dude,” Sisco explained, pointing to the mere six digits inked on the back of his left hand, “It all started when I was getting a chick's phone number, and (out of no where) some guy punched me and Creatch stepped in.” The complications of Creatch going to county lockup and the bruise upon Sisco’s brow led to a late start that morning and a nasty skunking—therefore ending my prided streak of perfection. The following night, after an amazing day of fishing and a most unusual holiday dinner with the remaining eight anglers, I sat on my couch with my calendar and etched in the final numbers of the season, Easter Sunday. Sitting back and reviewing the entire season, I contemplated earnestly why my eyes were continually drawn to one particular day, the only day with a goose egg. Out of an entire steelhead season that consisted of great clients and friendships, amazing moments, rewarding late afternoon comebacks and dozens of trophy steelhead, I was immensely bothered by the one skunk. It was at this time I realized something was very wrong. The fishing industry has pockets of guides, shop owners, and political figures who compete for control, fish, clients, land and monies. There are guides who compete
WASHINGTON
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with each other for pools—cliques of territorial guides patience with those who merely want to catch a fish, but who despise the newcomer—and the daily clash of styles have yet to learn the do's and don'ts of streamside etiamongst bank anglers. The list goes on and seeps into our quette. It should be a place where attitudes run parallel fisheries, therefore, often creating an arena of competi- with the peaceful terrain and voices harmonize with the tiveness that can often clash with the beauty of the sport. soothing rush of the river—a place where we appreciate I’ve come to realize that unless we are representing today's fish, rather than worry about tomorrow's. These our country on the national fly fishing team, excessive are important messages we should all convey to our competitiveness does not belong in fishing, as it often children alongside teaching them the art of fishing—the leads to bad etiquette, bad attitudes, bad internet posts, knowledge, care and wisdom to supersede. I express these things that you may learn from my bad vibes, bad business and bad fishing. When we can remove ourselves from this toxic asylum, realization, and that you, perhaps, will be as inspired as we are able to visualize the sport from afar, and, hopefully, I am in being reconnected to a perspective of days gone rejuvenate our perspective by reverting back to a time when by, in toning down the competitiveness that you bring to the river. If you can find your we first started fishing—a Guide, George Douglas time when our passion was (right), and friend / client, way to this mindset, I’m conred-lined—the feeling of Erik Gonzalaz with fident you’ll better enjoy exploration charged through a bright female your time on the water, fish steelhead, caught better, be more creative, more our hearts as we searched for on a Steelhead successful, and ultimately trout and bass near our Alley tributary, give back to the sport as your homes—the sense of Ohio. attitude blends with nature, achievement when we dispersing a contagious leaped from dancing bobvibrancy that will linger on bers to a dancing fly line—a the banks of our rivers. simple time in our lives For me personally, and when the only pressure we as far as guiding goes, it may had was to beat the dinner bell and be home on time. Back then when it was pure, be unrealistic to say I'll have zero competitiveness untarnished, unwavering, and as innocent and sincere as and/or that my intensity on the river will taper, howeva page in The Adventure's of Tom Sawyer—That’s what er, I feel extremely fortunate to be back in touch with something I had missed and desired for many years I’m talking about. After talking to a few other fishing guides and gaining without ever being conscious of it. I'm confident that their perspectives on guiding, it quickly jumped out at my newly inspired mindset will radiate a deeper appreme that my unrealistic pursuit for perfection and the ciation for each opportunity to guide for these magnifiintense competitiveness in my heart had blocked my cent creatures and I will do so with a more balanced ability to tap into what I consider the most important and approach—one that will preserve the color of my hair, precious aspects of fishing—the very things that had allow me to put things in proper prospective, and to hooked me initially—things I had lost touch with over make room for enhanced creativity on the river. As far as my writing goes, it has always been dear to the years—things, perhaps, we all need a reminder of— The river is a source of peace and beauty, a place where my heart, now even more so, as this experience has we can leave our problems behind, a place where the rat taken me to a place I have never seen before—a place I race ends and tranquility finds us. It should, therefore, be will bring you in an upcoming book titled The Fishing a friendly place, a place where we extend a hand and Gods. KYPE help one another, where respect and courtesy of fellow UPDATE: A continuation of this article ran in the next issue, be sure fishermen presides, where we encourage new anglers to to read the results of the following season---the perfect season? pursue fishing as a hobby, career or religion and find 37 Briquettes Smokehouse Pork, Chicken, Beef Brisket, & Ribs Dine-In or Take-Out In historic Ashtabula Harbor 440-964-2273 briquettessmokehouse.com
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JC’s by John Collins
Bio: Custom Order Fly Tier NJ Fishing Guide Fly Tying Tutorials on Riseformstudio.tv Custom Flies at www.myflies.com Type of fishing: Fly Fishing Location: Northeast Trout Streams Great Lakes Tributaries Ocean and Delaware River Striped Bass
Electric Caddis Pupa
T
his is a fairly new pattern I came up with using the Ultrawire/ Stretch Tubing combo, to give the fly a translucent effect. It has worked phenomenally here in the east during Grannom Caddis hatches. Colors and sizes can be changed to imitate various Caddis hatches here in North America.
This fairly realistic pattern plays upon the translucent characteristics of an emerging Grannom Caddis Pupa's abdomen and color, which is bright Green/Chartreuse when under water. Way's to fish this fly are as follows; A) during a full blown Caddis hatch. B) as a searching pattern in a tandem nymph rig. C) as a dropper off a Dry Fly. D) by itself, utilizing a "Leisenring Lift." E) on the swing to imitate an emerging insect. It's an easy pattern to tie and very durable. Materials and directions are as follows; Materials Thread: Chartreuse 8/0 Hook: Daiichi 1150, #12 thru #18
Abdomen: An under body of chartreuse tying thread, which is covered with the wire/tubing combo (Small Hot Chartreuse Waspi Ultrawire inserted into the Chartreuse Waspi Micro Stretch Tubing) Thorax: Natural Tan Dubbing or Tan Ice Dub Wing Bud: Black Raffia unfolded and burned with a Caddis wing burner. (Also can be cut to shape with scissors) Antenna: Two fibers of Lemon Wood Duck or imitation Wood Duck (Mallard dyed Wood Duck) Note: Color combos (Abdomen/ Thorax) can be changed to imitate Caddis that are prevalent on a particular stream or insects that are hatching at a certain time of the year.
Contact Info: flyjcfish100@msn.com flyjcfish@gmail.com 908-319-4592
A beautiful Rainbow Trout taken with an indicator rig on New Jersey’s Pequest River. Fish, fly, and photo by János Czifra.
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Step One: Insert Small Hot Chartreuse Ultrawire inside of Chartreuse Micro Stretch Tubing. Step Two: Attach tying thread just behind the eye and cover shank to about 1/3 around hook bend and return thread a little less than 1/8 of an inch from the eye. Step Three: Attach wire/tubing combo at the point you stopped your thread in step two and cover completely. Now, return your tying thread to the point just behind the eye and tie off. Your wire/tubing combo should be at the farthest point to the rear of the hook which has been
covered with thread. Step Four: Take your wire/tubing combo and pull as tight as you can so the tubing constricts around the wire and wrap forward. At the midway point relax the tension you put on the wire/tubing combo midway up the bend of the hook. Doing this will give the abdomen a tapered look. Make three or four more wraps (relaxed) and pull tight again until you reach the thread tie-off point and lash down the wire/tubing combo—cut off the excess material at that point. Step Five: Unfold some Black
Raffia and take your Caddis Wing Burner (or cut to shape with scissors) and make two wing buds. Attach one on the near side of the fly and another at the far side. The position should be at the tie off point in step four. Step Six: Dub your thorax so the wing buds stick out and dub forward to where you want to tie in your head. Step Seven: Add two Wood Duck Fibers for your Antenna pointing towards the rear. Whip finish. Then color the Chartreuse head thread with a Brown Sharpie or similar permanent marker. KYPE
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