Oh bugger!

 

Nothing fancy. Just some classic wooly buggers in black and black/grizzly.

Popper Madness

A collection of poppers I made for this weekend's trip to the in-law's house. Sadly, the bass in their pond were way too skittish, at least during the day, to be interested in these guys, so I had to go subsurface to catch 'em.

The poppers consist of Wapsi Perfect Popper Heads glued onto Wapsi Popper Hooks and painted with some oil-based paint pens. From there I tied on marabou tails, added a collar of rooster hackle, and some dubbin on a few of them. Finally, I heated a bodkin on the gas stove, melted a hole through the popper head and used my bobbin threader to add some rubber legs.

Wikoff Steelie Stone

While I'm new at Salmon fishing, Bob Wikoff is not and when he makes suggestions, I listen. First and foremost, he goes towards patterns that work, are easy to tie, and cheap to make. On a given weekend during peak season, he'll hook into 80-100 fish and maybe land 25% of them. If you're going to be losing 20+ flies a day, you can't afford to spend the time and money tying up Evening Stars all off season. Beyond that, he's looking for sparse patterns that get down in the water column quickly since the salmon are about as close to bottom as you can get. The Stone Fly pattern above is a creation of Bob's that he made to attract both salmon and steelhead to increase his chances of hookups. He tied his in all black with a purple or blue wing case and he added some wood duck fibers to the 'legs' on a few. To quote Bob, "it looks like &#$%" but it did catch me an Atlantic Salmon so who am I to judge? It also worked pretty damn well on small mouth bass.

Hook: Mustad 3906
Thread: Black 70 denier
Tail: Squirrel Fur
Body: Dubbed to match
Legs: Fur or soft hackle (add optional legs - Wood Duck or rubber)
Optional Shellback: Flashabou
Wing Case: Flashabou

Coyote Ugly

This is basically a Zonker pattern that I threw together to hopefully entice that monster Susquehanna walleye that got away. Aside from being what I had on hand, I'm hoping the coyote strips will imitate the color of the small mouth bass in the river. Fished low and slow, zonkers are good for leeches or even crayfish. As the crayfish in our area are mostly brown, it should play double-duty there too.

Hook: Streamer (Mustad 3665A 3XH/7XL size 8)
Thread: Black
Tail: Coyote Strip tied in Zonker style
Body: Silver Flashabou
Overwing: Coyote Strip tied in Zonker style
Ribbing: Wine colored Wapsi  wire woven through coyote strip
Flash: Wapsi Grizzly Accent silver/black
Head: Thread coated with Hard-as-Nails

Eyes on the Walleyes

JBP and I decided to stay closer to home as the days are growing short so we headed to South Side Oneonta and fished in the Susquehanna to see what we could dig up. We didn't plan particularly well so I didn't have much in the way of spinning gear with me other than a micro rod and a few Kast Masters. Not to be deterred, I tied on some salmon flies and some weight and went to work. To be honest, I'm not sure what I was thinking there, but I did land an 8" chub and a few small mouths with a large stone fly pattern and some split shot.

At some point, I came to my senses, grabbed my fly rod, switched to a sink tip line, and went back at it. That was definitely the ticket for me. I landed a few more small mouths, an 18" walleye (my first ever!), and an 16 inch brown who lept and cartwheeled in spectacular fashion after she attacked my Black Bear Green Butt.

While the brown was a lot of fun, the prize of the night came when I was working 6" smallie into the shallows to net and release. The fish was about a rod's length away when a massive walleye came up from the depths and swallowed my fish whole. I fought with the monster for a good 5 minutes in what seemed to be a tug-of-war over the poor bass. It didn't fight particularly hard but just acted like dead weight. I'd get him somewhat close and then he'd lazily swim away and pull my drag out. Finally, I guess he decided the bass wasn't worth it and coughed it up.

The funny part is that my buddy saw me hollering and fighting with my rod doubled over and came running over to arrive about when the walleye coughed up the bass. All he saw was me pull in a little 6" small mouth bass after all of that carrying on. I don't think I'm ever going to live that one down.

Beginner's Luck on the Salmon River

I'm fortunate enough to belong to a TU Chapter with some veritable legends of fly fishing. Bob Wikoff, one of the charter members, was kind enough to let me tag along for opening day on the Fly Fishing Section of the Salmon River today. He's been going for over 30 years so it's fair to say he knows a thing or two about fishing that river.

Going in, we knew the salmon run was late this year and there weren't many reports of fish in the river. In many ways, I think that was good for me as it gave me an opportunity to scout the river and learn the ropes a bit without having to compete with the obscene crowds that come with the salmon.

All in all, I didn't see much action from any of the anglers we came across. Outside of 2 Atlantic Salmon (one each for Bob and me), I only saw two other salmon hook-ups. One was a foul-hooked King in the fly fishing area, and the other a King a guy landed on a spinning rod down on the Staircase. We saw one guy chasing, and catching, Steelhead in the fast water above Church Pool as well. Seems "Sucker Spawn" was his key to success there.

In the end, there were no monster kings for me, but an Atlantic Salmon was a rare treat indeed. I'm crediting beginner's luck there. Bob said in 30 years, the male pictured below is only the second Atlantic he's ever caught in the Salmon River.

(view from below Town Pool)

(Bob at work)

(female Atlantic Salmon caught on a stonefly pattern)

(male Atlantic Salmon, also on a stonefly pattern)

(Bob and his salmon!)

Butternut Creek Report

Bolstered by our previous outing and overly confident of our fishing prowess, JBP and I opted to try some uncharted territory near Morris, NY.

The Butternut Creek was low but stained from recent rains but looked like a nice pocket water opportunity to improve my skills. I admit, I had a rough time of it and started out snagging every tree and shrub within 20 feet.

Finally getting my rhythm, and a 2" chub, I went classic Catskill style and tied on a #14 BiVisible. It seemed appropriate for the setting and as luck would have it, saved my evening by netting a beautiful little Brookie. One of my goals for this season was to catch a native brookie and here was my second. They are beautiful fish and it's a thrill to catch a wild native fish in a small, mountain stream.

West Branch Report

What better way to spend Labor Day than fly fishing with a good friend? JBP and I headed to Hamden, NY to fish a familiar stream in an unfamiliar spot and man did we have a time of it.

When we first arrived in late afternoon there were a few fish rising sporadically and a school of monster carp nosing around. It was tough getting anyone interested in my offerings but I eventually settled on a #18 flying ant tied off of the bend of a #14 Light Cahill.

There were definitely ants in the water when I looked closely and I've learned from recent experience that when fish are rising lazily and you see no bugs, it's probably an ant. At any rate, I soon started catching fish. At first, in fits and starts and mostly on the ant, but as the shadows grew the hits started coming on the Cahill. Eventually I switched completely to the Cahill and pretty much slayed 'em until darkness drove us off.

I didn't land anything over 14" nor anything under 10", except the odd chub, but I easily brought in 15 fish on the night. Yay for September!