I’m sorry I’ve been away from my Blog for a few days. I’ve been putting the finishing touches on a new book entitled “Fishing the Film.”

It is Volume 1 in a book series entitled “Fly Fishing.” The books in the series will be written by Jason and myself. Jason is also the series editor and the artist. We are very excited about this series, and I will post a list the other titles shortly.

“Fishing the Film” is not about dry fly fishing, but rather focuses on fishing on, in, and under the film in the “film zone”—the upper several inches of water, and covers a host of dead-drift and active-movement fly fishing tactics. Angling anecdotes illustrate all the concepts and provide the basis for real-life examples of the tactics in action.

I’ll post some excerpts from the book over the next month or so. Watch for them.

Our intrepid editor and artist on his first Alaskan trip at age 15

As winter sets in, here in the northern climes, the thoughts of many anglers turn to fishing somewhere warm, especially somewhere warm with a bunch of fish that take the fly really well. Jason and I had the opportunity to visit Tarpon Cay Lodge a couple of years ago and fish there with our friend, Lee Haskin, a regular at the camp. It is one of those places with fishing so good you’ll think it was yesterday (as in, “You should have been here yesterday”). These are “baby” tarpon, running between 5 and 35 pounds. They take the fly really well and fight with all the gusto of the big boys. They jump, they clatter their gill plates, they run like gang-busters, and you can do all of it on a 8-wt rod–or even a 7 salt model. They take top water stuff and flies just under the film, Tarpon Cay is remote yet very comfortable with great food and superb guides. The photo below is on our friend Lee, with an average baby tarpon. Lee’s flies, especially his Gurgler, Neutralizer, Slideball, and his bucktail flies are lethal on these fish. Lee can be contacted at www.gurglersonline.com/. Visit Kiene’s Fly Shop (www.kiene.com/) for more info on booking a trip to Tarpon Cay Lodge.

Lee Haskin with an average-sized baby tarpon at Tarpon Cay Lodge

The big brown that I took on my last outing to the Sheboygan gobbled a Purple Hot Head Leech. This has been a great fly for me for kings, cohos, browns, and steelhead. It’s a Collared Leech (see 10/28/09 post on tying the Collared Leech) tied with dark purple FoxxFurr and a fiery, 505 Orange FoxxFurr collar. Typically I use a bright red or flourescent orange thread, too.

Now, to get specific: Hook—whatever you like in size, length, strength. The one in the photo is a Targus 7999, black nickel finish. I like its strength, especially for the kings. I tie it with a weighted or unweighted body, with eyes, with a bead, with a cone, or not. The one shown is the unweighted version, allowing me to add shot as necessary to reach fish in a wide variety of water depths.

For example, the big brown shown in the last post was in a deep pocket just before a swift breaking riffle. I used one 3/0 shot several inches ahead of the fly to get it right down next to the bottom in that fast water. In addition, I used a Curve Cast to toss the fly in so it landed downstream of the line and leader. This allowed the fly to dive into the deep pocket right in front of the fish. The fish took the fly on the second swing.

The Purple Hot Head Leech

I got up at 4 am and made a run at the Shegboygan. About a dozen casts after I got on the water, I hooked a nice steelhead that was on long enough to make me think I was going to land it. Then off. It looked in the upper 20’s in length and in the 8 lb range. I had made up my mind to fish from the top to the bottom of our favorite stretch. A mile or so later, I had not had a single take, and I had seen no browns, one coho, and one king. I tried two other places where we regularly find fish, and found the big zip. There was only one place left to fish. As I neared the bottom of this last section, I saw some activity. There were fish moving in the shadow of a tree, and I couldn’t see what they were or even exactly where they were. I’d see the sweep of a tail, a boil on the surface, the tip of a tail. Casting into the area of activity with the black and white collared leech–the same one the steelhead had nabbed, I got nothing, until about 20 casts later when I snagged a fish by the tail. It turned and plowed away—I broke it off. Rather than go back to a similar fly (because it had not even had a sniff), I tied on another favorite for the browns and cohos: a purple collared leech with a bright scarlet collar. On the second cast the fish nailed the swinging fly. At first I didn’t know what it was because it was in the shadows. Then, it flashed and came to the surface and opened its mouth. It was a nice brown, 31 x 16 (16 x 16 x 31)/750 =  10.5 lbs. I got my other fly back, too.

31 x 16 male brown, 10. 5 lbs/

I received an email from Tim Kelly with a question  “about a bug my son and I ran into while camping and fishing in Southern Missouri. The river was at flood stage so we couldn’t fish but we had fun just camping and goofing around in the Ozarks. Every night while we were setting around the campfire we began to see small white lights in the grass around us. At first I thought it was water drops, then spiders with their eyes reflecting the campfire, but after I captured a couple of the bugs, it turned out to be a small, sowbug-isopod looking insect, and its underside glowed. Not a yellow light like a lightning bug but a real white light. It was not a reflection, the underside of the bug would actually light up. Can you tell me what it may have been?”

I was not certain, but a quick online search only indicated fireflies and glow-worms as insects with bioluminescence. I advised Tim to go online and search under bioluminescence until he found something that looked like the critter he saw.

The next day, I received a copy of an email to Tim from Alane Dubbert, Naturalist,  Runge Conservation Nature Center, in Jefferson City, MO. In it, Alane explained that they were lightning bug larvae. I went online and immediately found this link that shows the larvae very well: http://www.backyardnature.net/lightbug.htm

Here it is–it does look like an Isopod. Thanks to Tim for sharing his story with us.

Dan Knox wrote to ask about the measurements of the browns that I posted. Sorry I didn’t make that clear Dan. The first measurement is the length in inches, the second is the girth in inches measured just in front of the dorsal fin. Rather than suspend these big fish by their jaws and chance damaging them, we take these measurements and then translate them into weight using the following formula: The square of the girth x length divided by 750. Some anglers divide by 800, but we have found that 750 more accurately represents the true heft of these fish. So, for example, the 36 x 21 fish would weigh: (21 x 21 x 36)/750 = 21.168 pounds; 21 is close enough. Note this, for a 36 inch fish, the girth is the weight. For the 35 x 20.5 brown, the weight would be: (20.5 x 20.5 x 35)/750 = 19.61 pounds; 19 1/2 is close enough. For the 34 x 20 inch fish, the weight would be (20 x 20 x 34)/750 = 18.13 pounds; 18 is close enough.

My long time friend, John Beth, managed to get back to the Sheboygan for another shot at the big browns that are rolling in. He did exceptionally well, taking another brute that was 36 x 21 plus 2 others and a nice female coho (looking very steelheadish). When landing the big guy, the line got tangled in his rod tip and he broke a couple of inches off his prized cane stick, but he says he has four more tips for it–there will be no pause in his pursuit of the big boys. Look at these fish!

Brown number 1 isn't all that small; a nice 25 incher

John's second fish; oh my gosh that's a beautiful brown; 35 x 20 1/2

Brown number 3, leviathan, 34 x 20

A nice female coho (looking very steelheadish) that John took to cap the day

What I didn’t mention earlier is that the monster brown John Beth caught was taken on a cane rod and silk line. This has become a tradition for John during the fall salmon and trout runs. I didn’t mention it because I wanted to give everyone a source for silk lines–just in case, you know. Here it is, silk line suppliers right here in Wisconsin.

http://www.silkflylines.com/index.php?photos

Joshua asked about dull colored lines. During the fluorescent wave a few years back, I couldn’t find lines that weren’t so hot they melted the packaging they came in. So I started dying them dull colors. it’s easy to do. In fact, all one needs is Rit dye. Use 2 tsp. in 2 quarts of water. Bring to a boil and turn off the heat. Toss the line in for about 15 seconds, the rinse thoroughly in cold water. Don’t fasten the coils of the line with a pipe cleaner, or string or twist-em, etc. If you do you will get a tie-dyed line (I have a couple). Just leave the line in loose coils. Yes you will have to untangle it a bit after dying and rinsing in cold water, but it’s easily done.

Now, about that 15 seconds. The plastics used to make the line will absorb the dye at different rates. Softer plastics take the dye up significantly faster that hard plastics (stiffer–as in salt water lines). So, test the line first—no not that end, dip the back end of the running line in first to get the correct timing. Or, use an old line of the same color and plastic. For most lines the timing is about 15 seconds. Too much and the line will be black—hard to see at any time.

My favorite is to dye a bright yellow line with olive Rit and get an olive yellow line. It disappears against the leaves, but is easy to see on the water. Almost no flash. Dye an orange line with olive and get brown. A white line can be dyed any color you like. Want to dye a “camo” line? OK, coil the line in 18-inch long lengths (the diameter of the coil will be about 6-inches). Hold the coiled line and dip a portion in one color dye. Then dip an undyed section in another color, then a third undyed section in a third color, etc. yellow, olive, and brown make a great “camo” combo—dye a yellow line with olive and then brown, leaving the third section undyed.

The brown line on the left was orange like the one on the right. The olive yellow line—second from left was a bright yellow line—second from the right. Both were dyed with olive Rit. The white line can be dyed a variety of colors.

Yesterday the flies were a black collared leech with green flash in the collar and a big black stonefly nymph. I had one of each left so last night I tied four more of each, using the dome light and a flashlight jammed up under the sun-screen for my light sources. A bit dull, but it worked. The vise sat on the glove compartment door–a great, stable platform in the suburban.

The fishing was slow today because the sun was brilliant. Very warming on the shoulders, but it put the browns in deep water. I did find a couple that took an egg fly. Both were large, and the tiny hook opened up, so no cigar. These were flies I’d dressed for “normal” sized trout, and again reminded me why I so dislike light wire hooks..

Then, my great long time friend, John Beth, showed up with a couple more of our mutual friends. We chatted and got caught up on each other’s lives, and then he went one way and I the other. A few hours later we met at the favorite riffle. I told John that Lou and I had spotted a 36 inch brown in the area, but had not seen it in a place where we could get a cast to it. I told him it was as big as many of the king salmon that we’d seen that year. I spotted a small brown (22″), and it took the leech on the second cast.

The other guys showed up and started fishing, I decided to go look at some other water. As I was leaving, John asked me where the big fish was. I told him between the top and bottom of the riffle, and left. I was only gone about a hour, and when I got back John was sitting on the bank. The others told me John had caught the 36-inch brown. I demanded photos–not that I ever doubt John, but you know anglers. Well, mercy me, they had the photos! Look at this King-sized Brown.

He really did catch it. He’d been casting a white, lead-eye leech to two other browns that he’d spotted, but without success. He let the fly drift further downstream and suddenly a huge mouth appeared off the bottom of the dark hole and ate the fly. The fish measured 36×21. “Wow” is all I can say.

If anyone was going to catch this monster I would have hoped it was John. He’s one of the original Lake States’ tributaries fishers and has done much to promote both the sport and the preservation of this wonderful fishery. John introduced me to this fabulous fishery back in the 80’s, and we’ve enjoyed many hours together in pursuit of browns, bows, kings, and cohos. Well done, my friend.