This weekend was an exciting and fun time in Atlantic Highlands, New Jersey. I was honored to serve as the officiant at Michael Maoui and Emily Hocks’ wedding, held at the Twin Lights Historic Site. From the site, one can see across Sandy Hook to the skyline of Manhattan. This site was not chosen at random, but was the result of careful planning of two, particularly wild eyed fly fishers. As we were getting ready for the ceremony, they pointed out the particular locale on the Hook where they had been fishing successfully all week, and where we would all fish after the wedding luncheon. And so we did. We managed a couple of hours at the end of the day, casting from the beach for stripers and shad. Emily caught her first striper from the beach–casting with a 12 foot 7 spey rod with a Skagit head. All of us took stripers and shad before watching the lights twinkle on on Manhattan. What a great day for both of them, what a great day for all of us.

Michael and Emily and me at the close of the ceremony.

Newlyweds heading up the beach to "their" fishing spot.

The best fishing came just at sunset when a school of baitfish came in to shore.

The stripers all ran in the 20 to 24 inch range.

The shad were thick at one point, making striper fishing impossible.

Otter’s Eggs are great imitations for the likes of browns, steelies, and salmon, and Walt Mueller (The Otter), has devised a great way to peg them on thee leader about 3 to 4 inches above the hook. He slips a tiny bead on the leader, secures it with a couple of turns through the hole in the bead and the slides an egg onto the bead. All well and good, and they loo great. But hold on there, partner. I discovered very quickly that frigid hands do not make good bead holders–especially the small beads that are needed. So, I slip 25 beads onto a floss threader and then melt the straight end to form a lump that holds the beads on. They don’t come off the other end on their own because of the loop in the threader. When I need one, I slip the end of the tippet through the loop of the threader and pull the bead off onto the tippet. I then tie a single overhand knot, making two turns through the loop of the knot. This holds the bead securely and will not weaken the tippet (the knot never comes tight on itself because the bead is in the loop of the knot). This works well even when one is bundled tight against the north winds of mid to late November.

Beads threaded onto floss threaders in the warmth of my tying room. These are much easier to add to the leader in the cold outside air of November. Thread the beads onto a floss threader in the warmth and comfort of your home. They are much easier to get on the leader in the cold of the out-of-doors in late fall.

I will be attending the International Fly Tying Symposium on Nov. 19, 20, in Somerset, NJ. Prior to the show, I will be fishing with gary Edwards on the Salmon River in NY and with Chuck Furimsky and friends out of Ocean City, NJ. I will post as I am able–hopefully photos of big browns, steelies, blues, and stripers. If you are in the Somerset area, come out to the show and say hello.

I will be teaching a class on Saturday morning on the use of spinning loops in fly design (many, many uses), and speaking about Fishing the Film and Long Flies.

Just one of many application of the spinning loop.

I’ve had requests to show step by step tying sequences for a couple of flies. The first of these is the Peacock Snail. Others to follow. The Peacock Snail is a lethal fly on trout lakes around the world. It’s very simple in design, too, making it easy and fast to tie. Sizes 10-14 are all that are ever needed. I like to put them on wet fly hooks, to give them a tiny bit more weight, but mostly to have a stronger wire for the big fish often encountered when fishing the snail.

Wind the hackle 3 turns. The small section of bare shaft af the base of the hackle feather allows you to start the turns without getting hackle fibers sticking out at odd angles. Tie in a piece of bright copper wire.

Tie in a half dozen or so pieces of peacock herl.

Twist the strands of herl together and wind them to the front, leaving about two head spaces in front of the body (1 head space = the length of the hook eye).

Counter-wind the copper rib--in this case I wound the herl clockwise and the rib counterclockwise.

Attach a standard brown, dry fly hackle at the front of the body, wing it four turns, and finish the fly.

My fishing, knife making, guitar building, composer, musician friend, John Beth, just sent some photos of cohos and steelhead that he caught just a couple of days ago on a Lake Michigan Tributary. The kings and cohos were winding down, but the browns have not yet made it into the rivers here. We did get a nice rain, and the river is up nicely, perhaps the browns and fall run steelhead will head in over the next week or so.

A 33 inch male coho in full fall colors.

Female cohos are not as brightly colored as the males, but none-the-less silll look quite lovely on the end of a fly line.

Let's hope this is the lead fish in a big steelhead run.

I will be in Tucson this weekend to speak at the Old Pueblo TU annual Halloween on the Fly event. There will be a morning casting class and then Power Point programs and discussions in the afternoon. Open to the public. If you’re in the area, come out and say Hello.

My prize bass from the day after HOTF fishing trip, last year. The bass were feeding on brown damselflies and I didn't have a single one with me. Guess what I have this year.

My friend, Chuck Furimsky headed south last week with his friend, Frank Surjansky, to fish with our mutual friend, Captain Jake Jordan. What a trip it turned out to be. Chuck called to talk about it, and then Jake sent our his email report. Have a look.

October 16, 2011; North wind at 15, cold over night, water cleared up, and we found bait and Albies 2 miles out in the buoy chain at 7:30 AM. They were showing but hard to get on as they were up and down. It was pretty choppy so we ran in close to the beach and then headed down along the beach. About 10:00 AM we began to see a few Albies, some birds working, and an occasional bait ball. Between 11:00 AM and 3:30 PM we hit the mother load, “Welcome to Albie Season”! In 50 foot of water we found lots of birds diving on 3 inch bay anchovy bait balls with the largest class of Albies that I have seen in the last 2 years.

When we headed in at 3:30, Frank and chuck had released over a dozen of these awesome fish, (17 to 21 pound class of fish) it took a while to convince these fly anglers to take it easy, they broke off more than we landed. These big fish require a stiff 9 or 10 weight rod with a reel with a strong and smooth drag, and a 15 pound class tippet helps to keep them connected. The fly of the day was a 3 1/2 inch tan and white surf candy on a #2 hook. Stay tuned for more Albie reports to be published shortly, I love my Job, wish you were here.

Regards:

Jake

Chuck with a big 'un.

Frank with another.

Day 4 dawned with rain and high winds, and the promise of much more to come. I headed back to the section where the kings had been so cooperative last evening. They were still abundant but amazingly subdued. In fact, they hardly reacted to the fly. It must have been a busy night because they all seemed totally lethargic. Then I saw some splashing activity downstream and very close in to my shore. I approached on hands and knees and saw a pair of cohos churning around in a pocket in the riffles. On the second cast, the female violently grabbed the Black and Purple Leech (black hair with purple flash in the body and collar). This has been one of my best salmon imitations, and the way the coho took the fly reinforced my confidence in the fly.

I decided to bail out after that first fish because the wind and rain were picking up. The inclement weather was an all day affair, and in retrospect, I’m very happy for the days I had on the river, and the cooperative fish that I encountered.

A nice female coho that was eager for the fly.

Day three started with rain—off and on from midnight to about 6 am. It was strictly incidental and without any accumulation. As a consequence the river stayed low and clear. The early part of the day was cold but without too much wind. The wind picked up about noontime and by 4 pm was blowing rather briskly (20 to 30 mph). Heavy, low clouds prevailed all day. Casting never became a problem, however. Yesterday’s cohos were closed mouth today, but the kings cooperated (as best as kings usually cooperate). I managed 2 nice kings and one small female coho by lunchtime. After lunch, I moved to a different section of the river and found a nice pod of big kings doing their thing on this cold October day.  I had to creep up on hands and knees and fish from a kneeling position, but it was well worth the effort. They were all of good size, with the final fish of the day measuring 40 inches tail to nose (25 lbs+). The last four fish took an all black collared leech, moving nicely to grab the fly. A couple more were lost in the battle. Tomorrow is supposed to be a repeat of today, weather-wise. Fish-wise? Only the morrow will tell.

A nice king from early in the day that took a salmon colored Down and Dirty Leech.A big hen taken in late afternoon on a size 2, all black collared leech.

A big female that took the all black, size 2 Collared leech late in the day.

The final brute of the fay--all 40 inches of him. He thrashed and jumped mightly, a great fight.

The day started early, and I was on the water just after daylight. The fish were moving, but not to my fly; not until I changed locations. Then they were after my fly, and continued to be after it for the rest of the day. The first several hours were an average salmon day: a king here, a coho there. Then I took a break to get something to drink and tie some flies. Lou had discovered that light pink was the hot color for the cohos, and I had tied some bright pink eggs last night. They were a flop, so I tied some light pink Down and Dirty Leeches on size 4, 3 extra strong, silver hooks. I kept the fur short—barely longer than the hook and thin. I went back to the river and met Lou. I told him we’d have lunch in an hour, and went to try my new creations. In the next hour I landed 2 kings and 3 cohos. After lunch, we went back at them, and they couldn’t leave the pink D & D Leech alone. My day ended with a 33 inch male coho, and a total of 21 fish landed, and at least 10 or more hooked and not landed. Lou did as well, too. It was an outstanding day. Tomorrow the weather is supposed to turn nasty—rain and 20 to 30 mile per hour sustained winds with gusts to 50. Should be rigorous, to say the least.

This 20 lb king took a Silver Leech in the early morning's fishing.

A very nice 31 inch male coho that found the pink D & D Leech to hard to resist.

The male cohos weren't the only ones that couldn't resist "pinkie."

A little closer look at the pink D & D Leech that did them in.

That's the way I like to end the fishing day.