The day dawned very windy and ended very windy. However, the sky was blue from corner to corner and the fish were at least a bit cooperative. Even though I’m on the downside of the king run this year, I took a couple of them early in the day, and then saw my friend Lou Jirikowic headed my way. We talked for a bit and then got back to fishing. The kings were only a little cooperative, but Low found that the cohos would take a pink egg, or pink anything, and so they added to the day. We both took several in the 31-inch range. They take the fly aggressively and fight like a junkyard dog. I used all my pink double egg and sperm flies in the day’s fishing because I snagged a few big kings (and subsequently broke them off) and had one “tooth” the leader. I shall be tying flies tonight. The weather indicates it will be very crisp in the morning, but I will be here at daybreak looking for some big, sparing kings. More to come….

A nice early morning king that gobbled a 10mm tangerine Otter's egg.

The cohos are big this year and ready to take the fly and give a knock down drag out fight.

My friend, Cap’t Jake Jordan had a hip replacement done this summer. He made fast and good recovery and is now out chasing the false albacore. These are among the fastest and strongest fish you’ll ever hook on a fly rod. After a 20 minute fight done almost entirely in the backing, the fish surrenders and you are stunned at how small it seems to be relative to how hard it fought.

Albie food. A Gummy Minnow or silver flash fly can be very popular with the fish.

Don Butler with a very nice Albie.

I had a note today from John Beth who sent a photo of a nice brown taken by our mutual friend, Dr. Dan “Doc” Zavadsky. I’ll be down there this coming week looking for this fish’s companions and others, too. Watch for photos this week.

The fall run browns are in and chomping.

Long Flies is coming soon. Watch here and on Jason’s blog for further announcements.

Jason and I have settled on the cover art for Long Flies. It has the perfect look and feel to it, and I think it’s a great visual to introduce the reader to this wonderful facet of fly fishing.  Long Flies have been a part of my fly boxes since the day I started tying flies at age 11, over 55 years ago. These are the “Big Fish” flies that have served me so well in streams, lakes, and ocean venues around the world. Here’s the promotional write-up from the back of the book. Watch for it this fall.

Fly Fishing, the Book Series, Volume Three: Long Flies. Fishing long flies holds the greatest opportunity for the fly rodder to take big fish in any water type. Big fish target the food sources that provide the greatest amount of energy; these are the long fly organisms such as minnows, leeches, eels, mice, and more. In this book, Gary Borger covers the origins and development of long flies in all their many forms, from bucktails to streamers, from muddlers to divers, strip flies to collared leeches, and much more. There’s a thorough look at the characteristics of successful long flies, and the theories and practices of fishing them. Eighty paradigm imitations are shown in full color. Included are a host of successful tactics such as the Broadside Float, the Leisenring Lift, Shotgunning, the Jigging Swing, the Baitfish from L, the Strip/Tease, Walking the Dog, Trolling and Drifting, and many other methods. Throughout the book, the “how to” and “why to” are brought to life with stories that stretch back over half-a-century of Gary’s fly-fishing life. Complementing all of this is a collection of black-and-white illustrations by Jason Borger.

The Fall Salmon season is well underway, and I’m headed off to experience it once more. John Beth will be joining me for a couple of days, and we will not only be looking for kings and cohos,but browns and steelhead as well. I will be posting regularly (I hope daily) next week about conditions and fishing. Watch for the posts.

A nice king from last year's run.

The International Fly Tying Symposium is coming up, November 19, 20. If you’ve never attended, I urge you to shake a leg and get out to see all the great stuff at the Symposium. It is the largest fly tying only event in the world and features tyers from all over the world. There’s all sorts of products available, classes–I will be teaching a class on the use of spinning loops in fly design–talks (I will present talks on Really Matching the Hatch and Long Flies), and more–much more.

If you love fly tying, you will love the Symposium. For more info, go here www.flytyingsymposium.com

This is the lead photo on this year’s brochure. It’s a photo that I posted earlier of Theo Bakelaar with a nice striper taken at night with a dead-drifted surface fly. He will be there to show how to tie the fly, and many others.

Theo Bakelaar with a big striper taken at night. Get all the details of the fly he used at the Symposium.

It’s amazing how dependent we’ve become on computers and the internet. One doesn’t give them a second thought until one or the other is not working. That’s been the problem this last week with our internet service. It’s been out of service. Hopefully it will be back in play with no problems going forward.

Now let’s see, where were we? Day 3 at laker camp dawned bright and sunny and we decided to fish early and come back for brunch. Rocky Reef was still in shadow from the surrounding forest, and as we quietly motored into the cove next to Rocky Reef, I unloosened my Icicle and flipped it out into the dark waters. On previous days, we’d seen fish rolling out in this zone, and I figured it was worth a try. On the second cast, I hooked a very nice 11 ½ pound laker, the biggest of the trip.

As it fought hard and deep, Scott Snead unhooked his fly and flipped it in right next to the boat while he began pulling line off the reel. There was a big swirl at the surface, and Scott had one. It probably had followed my fish toward the boat to see what it was doing. Regardless, Scott soon landed his nice fish, and we put ashore. The fish were not in the very near-shore shallows like they had been the day before, but we soon caught several.

After brunch, we headed back, and I put in at Craig’s Cove. In a few minutes I spotted a big female laker with two smaller males in courting mode. Another fish hung out in deeper water and circled slowly watching these three. I allowed the Icicle to sink about 8 to 10 feet down where the three were moving about, but they showed no interest. Still, I hoped one would have a shot. Suddenly the fourth fish came shooting in from the deeper water and slammed the fly. It took off like a shot and fought very well for an 7 ½ pound lake trout.

After it was released. I decided to cast long and allow the fly to sink deeply before retrieving. As the imitation came into sight, another fish shot out from the rocky ledge on which I was standing and nabbed the fly. It was a 2 ½ pound walleye. It was not a walleye dinner day, so I released it to grow for the next trip.

I then moved along the shoreline back toward Rocky Reef (about ½ mile away) and fished was I went. It was all long cast territory. I got “piked” by a northern (hit and cut the leader). Then, back at the point next to Rocky Reef, still casting long and fishing the fly down 4-5 feet, I got another good grab and landed a nice 8-pound laker.

Because the mornings were often quite foggy, we elected to be picked up an hour before dark on day 3. So we headed back to camp early, to pack and secure the camp for another year. Some intrepid soles decided that the warm, sunny day signaled a dip in the frigid waters of the lake. And so, on went the swimming suits and amidst some rather strong gasps and shouts, a “dip” ensued. The Otter was right on time, and we bundled our gear aboard and headed south. An hour later we were back at Ear Falls, and left for home. It had been a good trip, with a total of 30 lakers hooked, 21landed, weighed, and measured in just 2 days total fishing time.

Day 3 was bright and very warm, but we still took several nice lakers.

Lake trout, like brook trout, are char and bear beautifully white edged fins.

The prominent lateral line of the lakers is an indication of the life they normally lead at depth. The Icicle produces a strong acoustic footprint that these fish readily detect.

Mmmmm....tastie, but not this year, Mr. Walleye.

Not a white whale; rather, an intrepid angler taking a dip in frigid lake waters.

Late afternoon on Day 3 found us loading the Otter for the trip back to Ear Falls. It was a great trip, and the lakers of Rocky Reef did not disappoint us.

Day two dawned cold, foggy, and overcast. I was more than excited to get out. This is fall laker weather. So after an icy dip in the lake, a shave, and breakfast of scrambled eggs and bacon with homemade bread and blackberry jelly, we set out. The others wanted to search for walleyes and probe other potential spots for lakers. I elected to go back to Rocky Reef and fish there. In the first hour, I had six trout on and landed five. They were all in the 7 to 8 pound category. Then the sun popped out and the day warmed and brightened almost instantly. And just as fast, the lakers dove for deep water. They are fish of the deep—normally residing 60 to 80 feet deep in this lake. They come into the rocky shallows to spawn, and in the bright sun of day, slide out in to water that is 20 to 30 feet deep.

Occasionally I’d see one break the surface out in the bay, and I threw long and hard to get one here and there throughout the remainder of the day. All in all, it was a good day. Warm and relaxing, and good casting practice for most of the day that had started out with an explosive bang.

Day two started with a laker on nearly every cast.

However, after an hour or so, the sun broke through, the day warmed, the lakers went deep.

While exploring and casting long for day 2 lakers, I found a clear mark of last year's water level.

A shorelunch is mandatory on such expeditions, and we ate hot dogs cooked over and wood fire. They never tasted so good.

The others headed back out for walleyes, and I headed back in search of the occasional laker.

I found a few in the bright sun of the afternoon by casting long into the deep water areas and working the Icicle back about 10 feet down.

The walleyes were right on the bottom in 30 to 35 feet of water, but they took the jig and minnow rigs very well. No problem with enough to fry for a great evening meal.

Day Two ended well, with a splash of red in the sunset and the promise of fish yet to come.

I’ve just returned from a fall lake trout fishing excursion. I say excursion because we drove 11 hours and then flew and additional 45 minutes into the remote Ontario lake. We fished the same lake last year and got there a week too late. Being the intelligent creatures that we are, we selected a week earlier this year. We were a week early. Ah, yes, that’s par for fishing. However, we still caught fish, and enjoyed our time in camp.

Day One was our flight in and camp arranging day. Everyone hustled and we managed to get on the water by about 1pm. The lake was down about 3 feet from last year, and rocky reef was more like rocky peninsula. The day was bright and the fish hung out in deeper water. Bill Graebel took the end point of the reef while the rest of us spread out looking for the lakers at other points along the shore. Bill spot proved to be the epicenter of the fish concentration, and he took 6 lakers from 6 to 9 pounds. Scott Snead took a couple more, as did I. All in all, it was a warm, lovely fall day with enough fish to keep all of us happy.

Dinner that night was walleye fillets provided by our fishing host, Dave Graebel. Mmmmm, good.

We flew out of Ear Falls, Ontario, with Excellent Adventures.

The big Otter handled all six of us and enough gear and food for 12 people.

Setting up includes removing the bear shutters, getting all our gear stowed, mowing the grass, setting up the kitchen, splitting wood, putting the boats in the water, mounting the engines, and all the other details needed for six guys to like happily in the wilderness.

Rocky Reef was more like Rocky Peninsula.

Bill was the first one to hit the lakers with a 9 pound beauty.

Lake trout are char, and closely related to the brook trout.

Most of the lakers were over 26 inches in length and weighed 6 to 11 pounds. The net is 30 inches long.

I used a 9 1/2 foot 7 weight on this trip. It performed very well.

The Down and Dirty Icicle was the fly that turned them on.

I had a comment/question asking about clarification and differentiation for the Belize Knot, Kime’s Clincher (Clifford’s Knot), and Lefty’s No-slip.

1. All of them are non-slip loop knots.

2. All of them start with an overhand knot  in the end of the tippet.

3. I particularly like the Belize Knot for finer tippets where a small loop is desired.

4. Kime’s Clincher is best in heavy material such as is used in a shock tippet–40 to 80 lb mono.

5. Lefty’s No-Slip knot is best in light to medium weight tippet materials.

6. The differences in the way they are tied is in the way the tag end of the tippet is wound around the tippet and then inserted back through the overhand knot:

With Kime's Clincher (Clifford's Knot) the tag end goes up through the overhand knot and is looped around the tippet one half turn and then back down through the overhand knot.

In Lefty's No-Slip knot, the tag end he tag end goes up through the overhand knot and is wrapped three to five times around the tippet before being taken back through the overhand knot.

In the Belize knot the tag end does NOT go up through the overhand knot. The tag end is wrapped around the tippet three to five turns and then the tag end goes back down through the overhand knot