At Alaska Fly Fishing Online is a piece about how fly fishing in the last frontier is led by guys who might not much care about pretty files and accurate imitations of what’s hatching, swimming and otherwise falling victim to the jaws of predacious fish. They tie simple flies that just catch stuff.
MidCurrent has another good fly tying video, this time for the basic Adams pattern, courtesy of Tightline Productions. The Adams is of course the super popular and versatile pattern for imitating a lot of common mayfly species. It’s very easy to tie, and one of those flies that always seems to end up on everyone’s “if I could only have x number of flies” lists, even though there seem to be a lot of flies on those lists! There are tons of great resources for tying the Adams, such as this one on hipwader.com, a new site to me. YouTube also has a bunch of great videos for tying the Adams. Tons more, too, just search.
I’m especially interested in all this right now because for several days it’s been in the low thirties and very windy around here, and so the fly bench is getting some use!
Looks like another great small stream fly rod. And small enough to fit under the Christmas tree.
I have not yet cast one of the new Scott F2 fiberglass fly rods ($595) but that should be remedied soon, with a full report. The 703/3 looks like it may be just the ticket for small stream brook trout fishing. A seven footer in 3 weight is just about right for the streams and for my taste.
Poem from The Speckled Brook Trout, © 1902 by Louis Head:
I am Salmo Fontinalis,
To the sparkling fountain born,
And my home is where oxalis,
Heather bell and rose adorn
The crystal basin in the dell,
(Undine the wood-nymph knows it well,)
That is where I love to dwell.
My wife and I decided to work off the turkey and pie the day after our Thanksgiving feast and go for a hike. The woods around here were crawling with hunters, so we headed to Shenandoah National Park. Neither of us had ever been to Jeremy’s Run so we figured we’d hike the trail there. Besides getting some exercise, I wanted to photograph spawning brook trout. Nothing like fishing, but this would also be something new. I normally don’t come out here this time of year and have never seen spawning brookies. I didn’t know if I would have much chance to see any. When you’re fishing, these guys are usually well hidden until they hit your fly. Without a fly rod, well, it didn’t seem so likely to me.
I just ran across this item on the Northern Virginia Chapter of Trout Unlimited. Kirk Smith, a PhD student from George Mason University, spoke to the TU chapter on November 4th about his efforts to reintroduce brook trout into area streams. This guy is doing some really exciting and groundbreaking research to restore local streams to support brook trout.
This week’s Virginia trout stocking schedule. Slow holiday week — enjoy Thanksgiving!