Leadwing Coachman

Hook: Wet fly, #10-16
Thread: Black 70 Denier
Tip: Gold Mylar Tinsel
Body: Peacock Herl
Beard: Brown Hackle
Wing: Mallard Quills

Turkey Dun Wet

 

Hook: Standard Wet Fly, #14 (weighted opt)

Thread: Black 70 Denier

Tail: Dun hen hackle fibers

Body: Gray Hareline Dubbin

Hackle: Dun hen hackle

Wing: Paired Turkey Quill

Normally, a Blue Dun wet would have a Gray Duck Quill wing, but I subbed the turkey since it's all I had on hand.

West Branch Report

With last night's rain, the water levels were up a bit (~450 cfs at Walton) and the water was a bit more cloudy than its been for a few days. According to the pros, the higher water and cooler temps should be good for fishing so here's hoping. While out on the West Branch near Hamden I did see some decent bug activity, though the surface feeding was sporadic for most of the evening.

Best guest at what I was seeing is that we had Hendricksons, Blue Quills (dark bodied, dark winged mayflies), and the occasional bright green apple caddis. I fished a few different patterns throughout the evening, starting with a basic March Brown wet fly, and then progressing to a Hendrickson parachute, a blue quill, a BWO with CDC wings, and a rusty spinner. Dark flies definitely seemed to be the most effective tonight. I had trouble seeing the small #18 blue quill though I think it was probably the best choice based on color and size of the naturals. I tied on the #14 BWO since it was a little bigger and floated a lot better making it far easier to spot. It caught a beautiful 16" brown that casually slurped it from the foam. I admit, I knew he was there, but I thought he was a much smaller fish when I casted to him.

West Branch Report

I hit a few more spots upstream from Walton this evening. Stream flows are quite nice at ~500 CFS. Still a little sedimentation in the water, but clearing up fast.  The evening was cool and breezy so I got a lot of work on my side arm cast and double-haul to tuck that fly under the wind. I also spent some time fishing an area where the current was slow on the near bank, fast in the middle, and slow on the far bank where the water drained from one pool to another. To fish the seems I got a lot of practice on my aerial mends. I definitely recommend checking out Peter Kutzer's video for some tips on this:

Perhaps it was the breeze, but I didn't see much surface activity until after dusk. I fished the same patterns as Monday for the most part, though I did try my hand at nymphing with an indicator and a pheasant tail and I spent some time swinging an Adams wet fly. The nymphing didn't last long as I don't much enjoy casting the rig in the wind. Someday I will give nymphing a more thorough go. I know it is one of the most effective ways of catching trout, but I haven't had much luck with it to date. Swinging wet flies through riffles can be relaxing and easy, especially if the current makes get a drag-free float on your dry difficult.

In the end, it was a slow day for me with only a few small fingerlings and river chubs. My buddy did land a nice 13 incher on a hopper pattern of all things.

Tenkara Style Wet

The fly in the photo was tied with cream colored thread, wine colored wapsi-wire ribbing, and a grizzly hen hackle.

Pattern: 

Hook: Nymph (12-16)
Thread: color based on preference (so far I've used olive, brown, cream)
Ribbing (optional): wapsi wire
Hackle: Soft hackle tied facing forward in the Tenkara style (my favorite is grizzly hen) 

Instructions:
The traditional fly is quite simple and designed for quick, easy tying.

• Wrap thread from behind eye to a third of the way back on the shank, and then halfway back to the eye.
• Align the hackle on the hook such that the tip is at the butt of the fly.
• Tie in the hackle behind the eye (tip will still be free facing rearward.
• Wrap hackle towards eye and back, stroking fibers forward to get the forward facing hackle traditional to Tenkara flies.
• Tie in hackle.
• At this point, tie in wire if desired and wrap back to hook bend binding down hackle tip and then forward again to thorax creating smooth tapered body. I sometimes like to leave a little of the hackle tip exposed.
• Counter wrap wire to create rib and tie off at thorax. 
• Whip finish behind hackle with two 3-4 turn whips.

Adams Wet Fly

Hook: Mustad R90 nymph size 12

Thread: gray

Tail: grizzly and brown hackle fibers

Body: Natural Wool (gray) tied in dubbin loop here

Rib: silver Wapsi wire

Hackle: grizzly and dun hen hackle

Opt: weight with 6-7 turns lead-free wire

CDC & Elk

This is a very simple fly created by Hans Weilenmann in the 1990s.  The CDC & Elk is a variation on the Elk-hair Caddis that is both easy to tie and versatile.  Using only two materials, you can churn out a few of these in relatively short order. 

Pattern:

Hook: Dry Fly (12 or 14)
Thread: Brown
Body: Dark Dun CDC
Wing: Elk Hair (Deer hair subbed above)

Instructions:

1. Starting your thread a little behind the hook eye, wrap back to the barb and trim your tag end.
2. Holding your CDC feather in your left hand, stroke the fibers forward with your right-hand and tie in the first 1/4-1/2" of the tip per Hans' technique: two pinch wraps on top, one wrap in front around shank only, then another wrap on top.
3. Advance thread forward to an eye space or two from the eye.
4. Using a hackle pliers, wrap the CDC forward to your thread.  The rear end of the fly will be nicely dubbed as the CDC fibers are all trapped.  As you advance, more and more fiber ends will be freed up and create a leggy/buggy look.  Be sure to stroke these fibers rearward as you wind.
5. Tie off CDC behind eye and trim.
6. Select a small clump of hair (I like to hold mine to the hook shank before cutting to help gauge size), remove fuzzy under-fur and use a stacker to line up the ends.
7. Size the wing such that the deer hair ends even with the bend of the hook.
8. Per Hans, pinch the butts at the hook eye and trim the hair square at the hook eye.
9. Maintaining your pinch grip, tie in the hair with two pinch wraps and tighten down forming your nicely balled head.  A third wrap should go at 45 degrees through the head ball and a final wrap around the hook shank only, under the head and behind the eye.
10. Whip finish and cement.  (This is a great pattern to practice whip finishing by hand.  The control you get by hand allows you to get the whip finish under the head much more easily than you would with a tool.)

And since my summary could never equal learning from the creator himself: 

Fishing the CDC & Elk:
As an elk-hair caddis variation, this fly is ostensibly a dry caddis imitation.  However, per Hans, it's useful for prospecting, can be successful as a mayfly imitation, makes a decent emerger when a bit damp, and can be swung as a wet fly as well.  I'm looking forward to trying the CDC & Elk this season.  A quick and easy tie that covers several different scenarios?  How can you go wrong?

For more on CDC patterns: Tying with CDC

Fall fishing, wet flies and streamers.

I can't tell you how thankful I am fall is upon us!  It's been an incredibly rough summer and my fly fishing pride has taken a beating.  The local streams were too warm, or at least, that's what I'm telling myself, and I just didn't have the skills to have much success on the lower East and West Branches of the Delaware.  I guess I'll chalk the summer up to a nice learning experience and a great time out on beautiful water.

Now that the evenings are cool and the water levels are back near ideal, I spent a couple of hours on the upper West Branch near Hamden, NY.  Talk about a beautiful fall day.  I had no idea what the fishing would be like, but it didn't matter.  Being outside on a day like this in central NY is why I moved here.  As an added bonus, I had one of my most successful days yet fly fishing and actually managed to get some of the techniques I've read about to work on the water.  It's nice to get some positive feedback after a dismal couple of months!

I arrived and the stream just before noon with blue skies and full sun.  I didn't notice any surface activity at all so, figuring dry flies were out, I went straight to an olive wooly bugger. I found a fishy looking spot where a fast riffle entered a deep run with large rocks on the far bank for cover.  The run continually deepened until it emptied into a large pool beneath a bridge.  Earlier in my career, I would have fished the calm waters beneath the bridge, but I keep reading how aggressively feeding trout will be in moving water since it's generally colder, more oxygenated, and that's where the food supply tends to be.

With that in mind, I fished my wooly bugger starting at the beginning of the run and working the length of it.  I basically used the wet-fly swing technique casting it straight across or slightly downstream and letting it swing in the strong current.  I varied it up by switching the rod tip or sometimes stripping in some line.  I tried to work it so that the fly would be in the seam between the fast run and the slower water on the side of the stream when it finished its swing.  Within 5 casts, I hooked my first and nicest brown of the day.  Delighted with myself, I fished the wooly bugger for another hour without any more success.  Looking back, I don't think I was getting it deep enough.  Even as a weighted fly, it was riding high in the fast current and the run was extremely deep towards the tail end.  I just don't think I had it where the fish were feeding.

At any rate, I decided to switch to a wet fly.  I had been reading scouting reports saying that leadwing coachmen could be deadly in riffles and runs, but to date I'd had no success.  At this point, I should mention that I noticed some mayfly activity.  What to me seemed like small blue-wing olives were appearing on the water, but I still didn't see a single rise.  Based on all that winter reading, I guessed there must be nymphs emerging and that the trout must be keying in on those subsurface.  Hence, wet fly time.  And this time, I added some split shot to get my fly down in the water current.

Swinging a wet fly is about the easiest thing you can do.  Just cast it across or slightly downstream and let it swing.  Again, I held my rod so that the swing ended in the seem.  The strikes came like I've never seen.  Most of the trout were little guys (8-10"), but after the summer doldrums, I didn't mind in the least.  I did notice that I seemed to catch a lot of fish after the fly had swung downstream and I had left it in the water while moving my position.  That made me realize that it pays to let your fly drift in the downstream position for longer than I would've thought useful.  Reading a bit, it seems that allows the fly to rise up towards the surface making it really look like an emerger.  Whatever the case, it caught a lot of fish.  Over the course of 4 hours I caught close to a dozen fish, which, for a beginner like me, made me feel pretty damn good about myself.