Ed Mitchell Outdoors

The Stocking Truck Showed Up

Its been a cool, windy and wet spring so far. Rivers rising and falling. With a decent weather report and no rain, I decided to head over to the Salmon River in Colchester. Yeah it had been high, but I figured it was down by now. And it was. As soon as I got out of the truck, a guy walked  over and said “Do you know what time the stocking truck is going to show up?”  “Got me” I replied. He then added “Should be soon.”

The Stocking Truck Showed Up

He then proceeded to show me a fly he planned to use on a Euro-nymph rig. I think he called it a “Squiggly Wiggly”.  He said it was a killer. Absolutely deadly. I had heard of the fly, but had never seen one. To me it looked like a weighted San Juan Worm, a fly I first saw years ago on the New Mexico’s San Juan River. It was an effective fly that many anglers bad mouthed. They said it wasn’t a truth fly. Bull sh*t! There were small aquatic worms in the submerged mossy all along the banks of the San Juan. And I’ve seen them in other rivers too, especially tailwater rivers. Nowadays guys say the same thing about the “Mop’ fly.  Oh well.

The Squiggly Wiggly

For a time I though he might be joking around about the stocking truck.  But sure enough an hour later the truck came rumbling down the road. Oh boy, here we go. Wham, they dumped in fresh trout by the net load. Decent size fish too. I saw one big, brood stock rainbow go it. Real tank. That bad boy is going to lit up someone’s life.

The Stocking Truck Showed Up

Now that doesn’t mean you’re going to catch those fish right off. Typically freshly stocked fish are in a state of shock. Hell, they have spent their entire life in a concrete swimming pool, and suddenly they are in strange new surrounding. Puzzled and confused they are. Don’t be surprised if they nail right to the bottom for an hour or more. And ignore flies too. After all up to now, they have been fed by a machine. But once they get acclimated to their new digs, wow the bite is on. Still its best to keep your flies slow and low. Don’t expect these fish to chase sometime flying by. Creep it by their nose. They may hit it two or three times before you hook them. Yes, yours truly released a bunch trout. And my friend with the “Squiggly Wiggly” did too.  I imagine there were a lot of happy faces up and own the river. Hey, the stocking truck showed up.

The Stocking Truck Showed Up

Ringneck pheasant tail is one of those material you should always have on hand. Great for nymphs and pupa. Well a few days back I went digging through my fly tying mountain of materials to find some and came up empty handed. Ugh. That send me searching the internet to remedy the situation.

While there I came across something I hadn’t seen before -Hareline Dyed Ringneck Pheasant feathers. Ummmm. Kinda nice. They were available in a 9 colors as well as natural.  Black, green, orange, to name a few. And they come two feathers to a pack.  I thought I would pick natural and green. J. Stockard Fly Fishing had a good price, so I shopped there. But natural was out of stock. So I took a chance on orange and green. 

Overall I think these dyed pheasant tail fibers are a good idea. Happy with the colors. My only concern is that the fibers on the feathers I received were shorter that I would like. It made tying on size 12# a chore even on a Tiemco 2487 which has a short  shank. I had you use two bunches of fibers to complete each fly.  As a result I do not think the flies turned out are as neat as they could have been. Well, they are still going to catch fish.

An Anchor Fly on a Jig Hook

Euro-nymphing continues to grow in popularity and with that growth jig style fly hooks have become harder to fine. One popular hook maker sold out their entire year’s supply by early February! Why are jig hooks in demand? Riding hook point up, they snag less on the bottom.

A few post back, I tied flies on the Wapsi JHCN10 Czech Nymph Leaded Body hooks. For this post, I’m using an Umpqua Competition Series size 10 C400BL jig hook. It is a black nickel barbless hook – designed for use with beads, has heavy wire, and a wide gap. Recently I  was in Upcountry Sportfishing in New Hartford and got some Hanak Competition H400BL jig hooks.  Like the Umpqua hook, they’re also black nickel and barbless.  We’ll look at them later another time.

My bead is a Lucent red tungsten, size 3.8mm (5/32). Why red? It creates a hot spot to attract fish. My thread is plain old Danville flat wax in white. The first step is to make a mound of thread up by the eye. Just enough so you can jam the bead forward. Then reattach your thread, secure the bead in place and cover the hook shank in thread. You can put a drop of super glue behind the bead, but it is really not necessary. (The body will lock the bead forward.)

For the body I have 5″ inches of transparent, green vinyl ribbing. Lash it to the top of the hook shank back of the bead. Wind your thread over it to the rear and then wind back to the bead. Next wrap the vinyl forward to the bead, keeping each turn tight to the previous one. You can use a rotary vise or do it manually. Either way. Once you reach the bead, tie the vinyl down.

The white thread shows through the vinyl. It seems to enhance the green color. To finish the fly I formed a thorax behind the bead with some hare’s ear dubbing. Obviously this is an optional step. Totally the tier’s choice. Whip finish and head to the water.