Mystery Fly Prize Announced

Each year at the One Pattern Fly event held by the Blue River Fly Fishers, we have a little game where entrants can try and guess the identity of the mystery or secret fly.  Of course the winner should receive a prize and it should be fly fishing related.

This year in trying to decide what the prize should be I wanted something practical - something the winner would surely use.  For example, not everyone who fly fishes ties their own flies so fly tying material or gear wouldn't be a lot of use to that particular person.  In trying to think what every fly fisher would or could use the answer became  easy.

The first person to guess the identity of the secret fly to be used in this season's Blue River Fly Classic will receive a 24 piece Copper John set.  Everyone can always use flies and this pattern is a dandy on Blue River and just about anywhere.

The guessing game will begin soon.  Good luck.

Mad Dash To The River

Thursday was a horribly slow day at the mercantile store.  I guess many folks are busy trying to get those last few gifts under the Christmas tree.  I found myself pacing back and forth, from one end to the other of the store and there was an uneasiness in me. 

That uneasy feeling stems from me constantly watching the weather, and in that I knew another northern front was headed our way and expected to arrive on Friday.  If a fellow didn't get to the river on this day, then it might be a week or better before conditions improved. 

Shortly after the lunch hour it became more than I could bear and I informed my young boss I would be taking a very long lunch break.  I assured him, however, that my return to the store would be imminent and he should not worry his young self.  My mad dash to the river was on.

Of course I just wanted, and needed, some river time.  But, there was another reason I wanted to hit the Blue and see if the bows were frisky... or not.  On Sunday, I had fair success with the Frenchie fly pattern and all this time the question on my mind asked if this pattern's performance was a fluke or real deal?

Wednesday night I churned out a bit more than a gaggle of Frenchie patterns in sizes 14 and 16 of the colors pink, chartreuse, and olive. This pattern calls for ice dubbing for the thorax, but due to my fly tying material inventory under some kind of austerity currently I used rabbit fur.  On Sunday, the rabbit fur didn't seem to matter at all to the trout - they seem to rather like it. 

I think fly tying is a marriage between the tyer and material.  As a tyer, I should never let myself become divorced from the vital materials needed.  Besides, this philosophy I carry is also a good excuse to go out and buy more stuff. 

I arrived at the river at almost exactly 2 p.m.  It was, for the most part, overcast with the sun making sporadic and feeble attempts to break through the soup in the sky.  The wind was solid and unrelenting straight out of the south.  The temperature was comfortable, even with the wind.  The river today was a pretty as I have ever seen her.  She is still showing that unique emerald hue, clear as a bell in most places, and today the river just looked fresh.  However, I am sad to report the flow and volume is diminishing.  Hopefully this weekend's rains will replenish.

 

As I walked across the top of Horseshoe Falls, there were bugs - lots of bugs.  Bugs in the color dark brown or black and skittering everywhere.  About 100 feet upstream I could see the trout keying on these critters, but that stretch of water is almost impossible for the fly fisher to get to without some kind of sailing vessel. 

 

I walked out on the ledge that Van and I favor whenever we come to this particular place.  It is deep here and I'm not sure exactly how deep, but I do believe it is one of the deepest runs on the Blue.  I would be fishing under an indicator today, but did not set my indicator to the depth of this run.  In other words, I fished it much more shallow than the rule of thumb tells us to.

 

Although I came to test the Frenchie, the chartreuse Copper John from my last outing was still tied on and I sent him sailing to the sea lane.  The first two casts resulted in two eats, along with two misses, which I seem quite prone to doing these days.  However, they say the third time is a charm and on the third cast the first bow of the afternoon would come in for branding.

 

 

Leaving the Copper John in action, two more bows would come my way.  The wind was so prolific today it interfered with the angler getting a natural drift.  The wind was blowing from downstream to upstream and here I was casting upstream for a downstream drift.  The indicator basically was floundered by the wind.  Usually when drifting I let the drift do the work, but today in order to capture a bow a little twitch had to be employed.

 

 

After three bows had been landed, I relieved the Copper John of duty and tied on a size 15 pink Frenchie.  As I put the Frenchie in the drink I wondered if it would indeed produce or not.  My answer came sooner rather than later.  The Frenchie seems to be the real deal.

 

 

 

The pink Frenchie would go on to capture four trout.  With time growing short I decided to try a size 14 chartreuse Frenchie.  This color didn't seem to be as attractive as the pink, but did manage one bow before my time was up. 

 

I wish I could have stayed all afternoon and more so I wish I would have had some company.  From where I was fishing I could see a good 1/8th of a mile upstream and twice that much downstream, and there wasn't a soul on the river.  The Blue looked quite lonely today.

 

In the white wagon at 3:28, I drove off the river having the pleasure of meeting eight citizens of the trout community at Blue.  

 







Good Juju Bugs - Bad Juju Bugs

Today was a day I have been looking forward to for the better part of a week.  Michael Mercurio was traveling north from Texas, Scott Dittner was traveling east and south.  Later on I would find out that Boone Merhman was also traveling north from Texas, and Mike Littrel sailing south.  Everyone was on their way to fly fish on Blue River.

Boone and Mike planned on hitting the catch and release area early, and then catching up with Michael, Scott, and me later on in the south wilderness.  Michael, Scott, and yours truly had agreed to meet at 9 o'clock and head straight for the south wilderness, and this is exactly what took place.

Before heading out this morning, I hit the mercantile store and built a Christmas gift basket for Miss Gloria at Scotty's.  For the last three or four years I have taken her a gift basket and I knew if I didn't get it delivered today I might not get it there at all due to a tightening work schedule and more ill weather headed this way.

 

Right after dropping the basket off at Scotty's, I look down the road and there comes Scott Dittner.  We chat a while and then decide to head to the meeting spot with Mercurio... figuring he was dragging ass.  However, Mercurio was already in place waiting on our asses that seemed to be dragging. We shoved off and hit the wilderness.  

Mercurio is probably the best nymph fly fisherman I've ever met.  Most times I fish with him he smokes my butt in good fashion.  Scott has become one of those guys who has twenty, thirty, or more fish days.  However, there are times that capturing trout are a hard fought battle and unfortunately this would be one of those days... at least while I was there.  Mercurio and I would have to cut out mid-afternoon, but Scott would end up staying to fish with Mike and Boone. 

It's happened to me many times... more times than I would like to tell.  It's almost like you have flies with good Juju, or flies with bad Juju.  Today, I seemed to have a couple of patterns with the good Juju.

One of the good Juju flies was the Copper John.  Fishing it at the lower end of the south wilderness, this pattern would take the first half dozen trout.  I would have left it on, but after tying several flies of a pattern I had never fish before I wanted to give that pattern a chance.  The pattern was the Frenchie... a good Juju pattern also.

The Frenchie is a fairly easy fly pattern to tie.  If you have enough material prepped and ready to go, then an easy ten flies can be finished in an hour or so.  This pattern was created by Lance Egan, and his creation has a huge following.  The guys at flytying123.com have created an excellent video showing the materials and process in creating this pattern.




I tied three different colors of Frenchie's last night - one in pink, one in chartreuse, and one in purple.  Starting out with the pink, the trout was quite interested.  After several fish, the pink Frenchie was lost to the sea.  Then the chartreuse went on.

The chartreuse picked up where the pink left off and more trout were showing interest.  After exploring this downstream pool, it was time to go upstream.

Working our way upstream we come to Coyote Pass.  Scotty and Merc go further upstream while I stay at the Pass.  There are three other anglers here so I bide my time and let them fish.  One angler moves upstream and I take that water, but only one fish comes to hand.

Further upstream I fish the trout hotel and it seems there is full occupancy at this stretch.  The chartreuse is doing quite well until a tree limb takes his life. The purple Frenchie goes on, but meets with great failure.  Then the Lightning Bug goes on and also meets with great failure... and Scott and Merc experienced the same with the Lightning Bug - zero eats. Where's that Copper John?

The John goes back on and one more fish would be taken bringing my daily total to 17.  This would be the end of my capturing fish this day. 

Making our way to the Cove, the bad Juju still lingers on the flies of Merc and Scott and by now we are all scratching our heads as to why - they're damn good flies fished by damn good fly fishers.  Merc tells me it's almost 1 o'clock and I swear it doesn't seem like we've been on the river for an hour.  My time, and Merc's time is short, but we plow on hoping for more fish. 

At about this time, Mike and Boone along with Boone's wonderful furred friend Josie arrives.  I so regret not getting a picture of Josie who is a magnificent specimen of a bloodhound and so well mannered.  Mike and Boone had a good outing in the catch and release and now they were exploring the south wilderness. 

As Merc and I was beginning our walk out of the wilderness, I kind of made a bet with the remaining three.  I bet them that if they went all the way to the top of the south wilderness - a place called Dividing Line Falls, they would really get into the fish.  I hope I was right... I hope I win that bet...  and not because I like to win bets.  I do like people really getting into the fish though. 

Good Juju, bad Juju... it happens and that's not what is important.  Spending time with folk you really like is what's important.  The problem is... these opportunities don't come around often enough.

Landlocked And Fly Tying

This past week the prairie ocean took the polar plunge.  The north Texas area got slammed and most of Oklahoma didn't fare any better.  Making a fly fishing trip to Blue River was out of the question at least over the next several days.  It didn't take long for those cabin fever doldrums to set in.

However, as any good sea faring chap should do, I used the down time for much needed fly fishing maintenance and part of that included tying up a small amount of two different patterns.  After that initial try I continued to tie until I had a good dozen or so of each.

The two patterns that were on my mind in the warmth of the fly tying room was the Copper John and the Lightning Bug. Now, the Lightning Bug was a fairly easy tie for me, but the Copper John pattern gives me a little trouble.  This is one pattern, for me, that if the proportions are not exactly right then the finished product looks a bit... off.

 

The under body taper on this pattern is particularly important as the length of the copper body and then there is the abdomen, which also has to be well proportioned.  Out of a dozen or so finished Copper John's, I may have had five that I was absolutely delighted with.  The others will have to do as scrubs I think.

 

My first mate Drift was intently at my side over a three or four day period while I leaned into the vise tying more and more flies.  He is a dedicated friend for sure and I guess if he could have tied a few flies for me he would.

 

 

For sure I am not the most organized fly tier.  I tend to cram a lot of different materials on my desk at once because my mind wanders from pattern to pattern.  With everything that is needed to tie different patterns at my disposal I can quickly switch gears and dive into a new pattern with ease.  No, I never become confused having to deal with 38 different materials in front of me. 

 

 

For the most part I concentrated on the two patterns I mentioned.  After finishing the lot of Copper John's, I tackled the Lightning Bugs. Actually, there would be two different variations of Lightning Bugs.

 

One variation calls for pheasant tail to be used as the legging material.  The other calls for that fine product CDC.  Which will fish better remains to be seen, but I leaning toward the one dressed with CDC.  Sunday will prove to be a fine testing day for these creations.

 

 

 





 



 

 



Missing The Roar

It seems like each year I miss more and more things about Blue River.  A good example is a channel that once had water and fish in it.  Now... it's dry.  Sometimes it's a small falls where not so long ago the river gushed, but these days there is only a trickle.  I miss the flow of this river so much it saddens me often.  Lady Blue today, is nowhere near as vibrant and she was back in 1981 when I first came here. 

The thing I am missing the most about this river is her voice.  It wasn't that many years ago that anytime we parked at the south wilderness entrance we could hear the roar of the river once we stepped out of our vehicles.  Now, the river has been hushed and even if we intently try to hear her voice... it is only a whisper.

The roar I use to hear, while standing high on the hill at the parking area, came from Desperado Springs and the upstream waters known as the Scatters.  The river braids, forks, and basically scatters in this area and one of the tallest falls on the river is located within.  At this place on Blue River, the river resonated in an outdoor cathedral with natures voice as the chorus.

As to why the Blue River is suffering these days is up to speculation I guess, but I have my own opinion and I blame all the mining going on west and north of the river area.  Mines are basically giant bore holes in the earth and once they puncture the aquifer, the water comes flowing up.  For the miners to continue to dig, they then de-water the pits and there goes precious lifeblood downstream - completely away from this area.

It's sad.  I want to hear the roar again.

On my last outing I chose the south wilderness as my fishing destination.  Arriving late in the day I knew there wouldn't be much time to waste so I didn't venture far into the wilderness, but did venture far enough to be rewarded handsomely by the trout.

The bugger brown is a sad chap these days.  On the last several outings he has been relegated to the role of front man.  The bugger brown leads, while a smaller pattern such as a nymph or midge gets all the attention. 

On this particular outing the bugger brown once again led the way for a standard Copper John.  It wouldn't take long for the Copper John to find the first fish of the afternoon.  There would be many more to come.

The river was in excellent shape with good clarity.  The water I was fishing was a fairly wide pool, and with alders behind me the roll cast was the only cast to be made.  Trout after trout would come to hand and they were all on the Copper John.

The Copper John would take a dozen and half that more bows, and poor bugger brown hadn't had any success.  I then decided to give the Copper John a rest and tie on a slightly different size and different colored cousin of his - the red Copper John.  I was simply curious if this fly would do as well.

The red Copper John picked up where cousin standard left off and bows continued to come to hand.  In a short hour two dozen bows found there way to my hand and the bugger brown was still skunk. 

About seventy-five or more feet out I saw evidence of more trout activity so I worked my way over to this place.  Here there was a sandbar to wade out on and therefore I waded until the river was at the seat of the waders.

I had taken a spare pair of waders on this outing because I couldn't remember why there were spare.  It didn't take long before I felt the river trickle down both my legs and suddenly I remembered what I couldn't remember about the spare waders. 

After catching three more bows I could tell I was totally wet so out of the river I waded.  Before making the hike up the steep hill, I sit down on a rock and thought about the wonderful afternoon I had just had and called it... good. 









A Brief Report On Blue River

Fishing Thanksgiving Afternoon

In deciding to pass up many things associated with Thanksgiving such as Macy's parade, football, and extreme early shopping, afforded a perfect opportunity to hit Blue River.

Van went out ahead of me and by the time I found him he had ten fish under his belt.  The first hour for me was a struggle only catching three fish, but I believe that fortunes can change and later downstream they did.  In a twenty minutes period fourteen bows came to hand one after the other.

Here's a brief rundown of how the fishing was.

Conditions:  Sunny day with temperatures hovering around fifty degrees.  The wind direction was variable as was the speeds.  Water clarity was excellent and the pressure on the river was light. Water temperature was not taken, but it didn't take long for numbness to occur in the lower extremities.

Flies Used:  The majority of the first ten fish Van landed were taken on the bugger brown.  Later, he would trail a size 16 Pheasant Tail and the rest of fish was taken by that pattern.  He would end his day with close to 30 fish to hand.

The first three fish for me came on the bugger olive, with the other two taken on a Brassie.  Downstream I tied a size 14 Copper John on beneath the bugger brown and the Copper John would take the next 14 fish.  The bugger brown did not attract a single fish.

Pictures of some of the pretties landed Thanksgiving afternoon.

 

Chapter 58 Day 2 - Trout Season

RUNNING AGAINST FROM THE WIND 

Like yesterday, my time today would be limited and knowing well ahead that a front was on it's way, I found myself in an uncomfortable rush this morning.

Today is day 2 of trout season and my chapter 58.  Yesterday the fishing was okay and my expectation today was the fishing might be better. 

As I said, the front was on it's way from the west traveling east and promised quite strong winds predicted as high as sixty miles per hour. 

On the river Blue today I went downstream to Glory Hole and took position on an outcrop of granite.  First rattle out of the box, there was a strike and hookset with the first offering.  Of course I was thinking trout, however, it was a small spotted bass.  Casting a bugger down and across I would quickly catch two trout.  Looking downstream I could see swirls, so of course that direction I went. 

Retiring the bugger I decided to fish tandem.  On goes a Copper John and to his sweet ass I tied a size 18 Red Midge Larvae.  I would've bet my bottom dollar that the Red Midge was going to get most of the action, but I was so wrong. 

The Copper John took all the trout while presenting this tandem rig.  Fishing a tandem rig is a much slower kind of fishing compared to stripping a bugger, but, it's very effective at times. 

With the exception of one trout all the trout today were in the eight inch range. 

Fishing tandem under an indicator I seem to miss more fish than I catch.  One problem I had today is I took a new rig and didn't take the time to stretch the fly line which causes too much slack and slows the hookset motion. 

After five fish coming to hand courtesy of the Copper John, and none courtesy of the Red Midge, I decided to change the midge out to a Crackleback.  The Crackleback fared no better than the midge. 

The early morning was nice today and the front wasn't scheduled to arrive until after lunch.  Around 9:30 however, it was easy to sense a big change in the air and for me the fishing, or I should say catching, shut down. 

I head to the bunkhouse thankful for the time I had this morning.