Day Two—Saturday—at the Somerset Fly Fishing Show was crowd deluxe. Yesterday’s snow storm held the crowd to a respectable size, but today’s crowd was simply smashing.

I managed to visit a couple of long-time friends in the industry, and get caught up on their activities. Simon Gawesworth,, Spey caster extraordinaire, was at the Rio booth, and we managed to chat for a few minutes at the opening of the Show before the roaring crowd pushed through the gates and filled the hall.

I squeezed through the crowd around the casting pond and got a snap of my old pal Lefty putting on a casting demo for an overflow crowd. Although his 86^th birthday is only a few days away, Lefty kept up his running banter and frequent one-liners and stories without missing a beat. Old showmen never die, they just go on with the show.

After a book signing session at the Author’s Booth, I gave a casting demo. The crowd was most cooperative and gave me a very good imitation of a bunch of casting demons—great work y’all. They were most enthusiastic and we had a great time fussing about with the Bow and Arrow cast, the Overhead Cast, The Hook Curve Cast,  Loop Control, On-the-Water Mending, In-the-Air Mending, Reach Mending, Curve Mending, Puddle Mending, the Reached Puddle, A Puddled Curve Mend, and more. My old college friend and fishing buddy, Ray Oswald, showed up to say Hi, and we got caught up as best one can in 15 minutes between programs. The it off to do a Power Point Presentation on Fishing the Film. All in all, it was a great day at the show!

There’s still one day left. If you in the area, you’ve got to come on out and see all the things that are going on.

The roar of the crowd was easily heard today!

My friend Simon posing as Mr. Rio.

Lefty's still showing how it's done at a couple of weeks from his 86th birthday--give it to 'em Lefty.

All my little casting demons--you all look so cute (and you can cast, too!)

The Show opened with a snow storm that dumped 4 to 6 inches of snow on the region. I had a fly casting class at 8:30 am with 10 students signed up. To my surprise they all showed up on time. I say to my surprise because the storm had only just cleared out and the roads were still a bit sticky and slushy.

We had a great time playing with the grip, the casting stroke, curve casting, mending, and much more. Because we had to be inside, we carried on in the ballroom, with it low ceiling and limited space. It was a very successful class, even so, and the student did well, playing with the Three Point Grip and the Foundation Casting Stroke, the Hook Curve, the Reach Mend, Curve Mend, Parachute Mend, Puddle Mend, and more.

To demonstrate the casts, I sat on a chair and had the student line up on their chairs facing me so they could see the line positioning with the variety of curve casts and mends.

The Show itself was well attended for a snowy day. I was able to make a quick pass through the show later in the afternoon, following my presentation on “Fishing the Film.” Interestingly, there were two European companies offering all the necessities for the tube fly tyer. This sly style is very popular in Europe for Atlantic salmon and sea trout, and find a good following here among Spey fishers for steelhead and salmon.

My friend, Michale Mauri had a successful trip for Steelhead on the Salmon River in New York and gave me a huge “V” for victory sign when I saw him at the show.

Tomorrow promises to be a really busy day at the Show. If  you’re in the area, come on out and say “Hi.”

The "Line Up."

"V" for victory.

Eumer Tube Flies with all the tube materials needed.

The Tubefly System booth; another complete array of all the necessary tube fly components.

Jim Murphy at the Hardy booth, sitting behind a display of reels.

For all of us interested in long flies, their history, tying tactics, and etc. this is the site where we can exchange ideas, read about the ins and out of long fly origins, and show our skills at dressing these important imitative flies: http://www.streamerlist.com/. Have a look.

Book Three in the Fly Fishing series is entitled Long Flies. It is a look back and a look forward of the design of flies to imitate minnows, leeches, salamanders, eels, squid, and other elongate food prey of our sport fishes. The look back is to glean what we can from the thinking of long fly originators, and the look forward is to see where our current thinking could take us. In addition there are a host of tactics for fishing the long flies, all illustrated with actual angling situations from my fishing, Jason,s fishing, and the experiences of others.

One of the earliest long flies that we have on record was one tied by the Father of American Dry Fly Fishing–none other than Theodore Gordon. He was truly a remarkable tyer and fisher at a major junction point in the development of all fly styles.

Here is an excerpt from our forthcoming book, Long Flies, about the Bumblepuppy. This is followed with the tying instruction for one of the first long flies that ever swam in lake or stream, or near-shore ocean currents.

The Original Bucktails

Bucktails did not gradually evolve from other design styles, but sprang into being as a direct response for the need of baitfish imitations. Thus we can clearly see the conceptual thinking of those who were involved in the evolution of these flies. The first long flies of note appeared sometime in the late 1800’s with the advent of long-shank hooks of sufficiently small size to dress minnow imitations. The justly famous Theodore Gordon, Father of American Dry Fly Fishing, is said to have originated a bucktail-style fly as early as 1880. Called the Bumblepuppy, it was used for a host of fish. In Streamer Fly Tying and Fishing Joseph D. Bates, Jr. writes that Gordon sent a letter to a friend, Roy Steenrod, in which he stated,

“I have taken bass, bream, rock bass, perch, sunfish, pickerel, etc. on Bumblepuppies, not to mention big trout on the Esopus. Good when they are feeding on minnows.”

Clearly, Gordon understood the use of long flies as baitfish imitations. In a letter to another friend, Bates reports Gordon as saying,

“The striped bass of the American coast is one of the finest game and food fishes in the world. On the same tackle he makes longer runs and fights as well as the Atlantic Salmon. Large striped bass were at one time fished at the Falls of the Potomac with large flies. I have killed them with Bumblepuppy flies. I sent you patterns years ago.”

The play of Gordon’s skill as fly fisher and fly designer does, indeed, splash across the entire frontier of American fly fishing, from trout on wet flies fished both wet and dry, to the development of American dry fly designs, to the effective and promotive use of the fly rod for a host of warm water fishes, to fly rodding in the salt.

We need to pause for a moment and look at the design concepts that Gordon built into his Bumblepuppy. There are numerous variations on the dressing, even by Gordon himself, who used the name Bumblepuppy rather loosely to indicate practically any un-named fly, but first and foremost it was a fly that he built on a long-shank hook as a minnow imitator. In its purest form, it had a long red tail of hackle fibers, a white chenille body ribbed with a single strand of red wool yarn, a long collar of several turns each of red and white hackle feathers that were wound before the wing was added, a white bucktail wing that extended back beyond the end of the tail, and long shoulders of mottled brown turkey feather segments, often extending as far back as the rear of the hook shank. The bucktail hair on the lower half of the wing was cut to about half the length of the hook after the wing had been tied in.

All of these features, save two, came directly from the art of the salmon fly, and those two are the use of bucktail hair for the wing and the clipping of the hair in the lower half of the wing. The use of bucktail hair was probably a merely fortuitous instance of using what was on hand. Gordon never says he selected this hair for any particular reason. It’s good stuff, however. It’s tough, making a fly that will hold up under the chewings of pike and bass, big trout, and big stripers. It creates a good profile while still allowing background space light to pass through, giving the imitation a bit of a transparent quality.

Clipping the lower half of the wing was a stroke of genius, however. The clump of shortened hair certainly creates a dense shoulder effect, but more importantly, it holds the top hairs up and away from the hook shank. Not only does this help keep the hairs from tangling on the bend, but it also causes the wing to open and close against the shank as the fly is fished with a twitching, stripping motion.

The tail is a clump of red hackle fibers--Bill Keough offers large hackles for just this type of work. See his link to the right.

After the tail is tied in, a body of white chenille is added.

The body is ribbed with a single strand of red wool yarn (I tie it in as a loop and spin it very tight to give it strength.

A large white hackle is wound four turns and followed by four more turns of red hackle. Could be a steelhead fly at this point.

A wing of white bucktail is added ahead of the hackle.

The Bumblepuppy is finished by cutting the lower half of the bucktai wing to about 1/2 the length of the shank and adding long shoulders of mottled turkey. Yes it looks thinner than it did, but this is Gordon's design and I guess he wanted it a bit thinner.

My very good and long time friend, “Pete” Parker has died suddenly. His grand daughter Genna indicated that it was most likely a heart attack or stroke. Pete had been diagnosed with cancer in 2009 and had beaten it, being declared cancer-free in 2010. Pete will be remembered by many in the fly tying community. He organized the fly tying theater for the ISE Shows for many years, and had great fun with all the “personalities” and “characters” that fly tying brought to him–me being one of them.

I have a great remembrance of Pete that he tied just for me–his red hot cigar fly. He actually used it on several occasions to catch fish. It is a very creative design. I never had the opportunity to ask if it worked better when tied with Cubans or not.

We will miss you Pete, but I know where you are and how very much your are enjoying yourself . I look forward to tying flies with you when we meet again.

Pete Parker's red hot cigar fly is a fond remembrance of my old friend.

Today was another good day at the Show despite the snow storm that swept in last night. After a morning’s casting class, I gave a casting demonstration and then a presentation of “Fishing the Film.” Then after a book signing I had a half hour to get around the Show and see a couple of people that I wanted to chat with.

The guys at Fish Pond are offering Steve Thrapp’s Microtrash Container as a part of their product line. What a great idea this one is. It’s a great way to store chunks of trash leader material, a broken hook, and other small pieces of garbage  that you’ve either generated or picked up along stream or lake. Small and lightweight, it give the fly fisher the perfect way to get rid of those annoying pieces of junk that we usually stuff in a shirt pocket or vest pocket and forget about until the next trip. To see this and other Fishpond products, head on over to their website: http://www.fishpondusa.com/

I also had a chance to chat with Walt and Susan Mueller who give us Otter’s Soft Eggs. These are the soft eggs that I use for steelhead, browns, salmon, and even stream trout. These are the eggs. Walt has a couple of new colors: Dead White and a wonderfully translucent Salmon Egg color. Walt has a new concept for using these eggs that he will soon release to fly fisher’s world wide. Watch for it on Walt’s site: www.softmilkingegg.com.

Fishpond's Microtrash container is a great way to hold small bits of fly fishing cast-offs.

Otter's soft eggs are available in a wide range of colors and sizes.

The Show was packed today. I offered a casting class from 8:30 to 11 this morning. The eight students did very well, indeed. By the time they left, they were curve casting, curve mending, reach mending, casting very nice loops, and even working on the double haul.

This was followed by a busy hour signing books, another casting demonstration, and a presentation on Trout in Stillwaters. Tomorrow will be similar with a casting class, a casting demo, book signing, and a presentation on Fishing the Film.

If you have a chance, come to thee Show and say, Hi. Hope to see some of you there.

My old friend Bill Keough standing among his chicken necks of many colors. Bill has more that super quality dry fly necks, he's also got great streamer and saltwater necks and saddles, too. Come and have a look.

The Show opened this morning and the crowd poured in. When I went to the casting pond to give the first casting presentation of the day, I was expecting a crowd of 100 or less. Wow, there were over 250 people waiting at the pond, and they kept coming. It was great day, all day. I did a program on Fishing the Film, a fly tying demo, and a book signing session.

Tomorrow I an holding a fly casting class from 8:30 to 11, and then I’ll be signing books from 12-1, giving a casting demo at 1:15, and the at 2:30 a program on Trout in Stillwaters. If you get a chance to be here, come on over–there’s lots to see and do.

Today was a bang-up day at the Denver Show. The crowd was not only large, but very enthusiastic as well.

Dave and Emily Whitlock signing books and selling their new designer T-shirts and other products at their booth. Dave is tying and speaking at the show, too, Come out and spend some time with them.

Book number two in our series “Fly Fishing” is entitled Reading Waters. Many people define reading waters as finding fish in lakes and streams by looking at water types and conditions. But that’s not necessarily always so, as this story, excerpted from Chapter One of our forthcoming book reveals. Watch for more post on this soon-to-be-released Volume Two.

Mark of the Payara

All fishing is inter-related. What one knows about one species can be transferred to other species. What one knows about reading waters in one stream, can be transferred to another stream. Or so I always thought. But this was very much different. This was not a trout stream, it wasn’t even a stream. It could never be called anything but a river, a mighty river. The Oronoco is a massive flow of water that comes out of the high ground on the northern edge of the Amazon basin and sweeps north and east to the Caribbean Sea. Just seeing it instills in one an overwhelming sense of sheer, unstoppable power. From where I stood, it was a mile and half to the far shore; there, howler monkeys set up their jet engine roars. The water, thirty feet deep in the shallows, seemed to fight itself to see which would be first to taste the salt.

Ed Rice and I were there to fish for payara. Little exploited by the fly fisher, this species was a new experience for all involved. Our host, guide, and angling companion, Carlos Aristeguieta, had given us a few details, and asked if we would help figure out the best tactics and flies to take these pre-historic looking fish. We came well equipped, but one look at that water gave us pause. But, not to worry, we would start on the small waters, Carlos reassured us. The Caura, a tributary to the Oronoco was merely a half mile wide—a lot easier to cast across. We didn’t even hesitate. Out came the 10-weight rods, on went the forty-foot, lead-core heads backed by 150 feet of 25-pound Amnesia, wire tippets, and the biggest flies we could find. When those weren’t big enough, we spent the evenings tying bigger ones.

We started in those places that Carlos knew payara would be holding–faster water stretches where the baitfish would be packed in tight against the banks. I use the term baitfish loosely, they were really just smaller fish in the 8 to 18-inch lengths. We’d pound down the banks, heaving that head with all we had to get the line in tight against the shore, in the shallow spots that were only 10 to 15 feet deep. When the fly had gone down for several seconds, we’d rip it out of there with long pulls, a series of short pulls, and every other tactic we could think of. Some places held nothing, while other places gave up several of the big brutes.

Drifting down to the Oronoco, we found ourselves in the throws of a rapids—at least it would have been a rapids if the water had not been thirty feet deep. It was a powerful current to say the least, and it swept most impressively along the face of a huge wall of hardpan (densely compacted clay). The standing waves in the swift water were several feet high, and we clung to the bobbing boat with both legs tightly wrapped around the stems of our casting stools. The payara were there, right in tight against the bank. This was more like it. Any place where there was a protuberance in the cliff wall, or a tree hanging head down in the water, or a huge boulder pushing belligerently above the surface, there was a payara, sometimes several.

It was definitely rapid-fire casting. The first heave had to be right because there was no second chance. If the fly dropped in the slot, a payara would meet it with such violence that many times one would forget to strike. No need anyway. The heavy line tearing off at breakneck speed would jam the hook home and rip the fish out of cover so fast it was astonishing. And then the fight. As soon as a fish was hooked, the other angler would reel in and simply wait out the fight, as the boat was maneuvered downstream and into a softer current where the beast could be netted. They were released with the much-appreciated help of 12-inch-long, needle-nose pliers.

On the run back to camp, later that evening, Ed and I were watching for other such places on the Caura. Seeing a high hardpan bank, we asked Carlos to run us over so we could cast along it. Coming close, we noticed a series of curved marks on the clay two to four feet above the surface.

“The payara are here,” Carlos yelled excitedly. We saw nothing. No fish breaking the surface, not even any impressive holding spots along the bank. So of course, we had our doubts.

“What do you mean,” I asked, not just wanting to know how he could tell such a thing, but also wanting to catch a couple more before darkness drove us to the estancia.

“The marks on the wall,” Carlos pointed excitedly. “Those are wet marks left by the baitfish as they jump out of the water to escape the payara.”

My line was in the air before he finished his sentence, and sure enough, the payara were there, and they were nasty hungry. For the rest of the week, we never passed a clay bank without checking to see if it held the mark of the payara.

Reading waters is not always reading waters.

Figure 1.3. The mark of the payara led us to these big brutes.

I will be at the Denver Fly Fishing Show held at the Merchandise Mart this Friday through Sunday. Please come and say Hi if your in the area. I will be available each day at the author’s booth to sign books, and there will be copies of my new book “Fishing the Film” available at the Show.

I will be offering casting classes, giving Power Point Presentations on Fishing the Film and Nymphing, giving casting demonstrations, and fly tying demonstrations.

For more on the show, click here.