dryfly

I'm changing my board name from "dryfly" to Tiger "The Hammer" dryfly. Or to Mr. Tiger "The Hammer" dryfly.

No comments about technique ... the damsel looks good for presentation. One hugely picky point is tht damsel wings lay flat on the back as opposed to dragon wings that are perpendicular AT REST...damsel wings obviously are perpedicular when flying.

Geez, someone ought to call the RAP line. It is illegal to chum while fishing in Alberta.

DEEP THOUGHTS BY MEN WHILE FISHING Two men are out fishing at their favorite fishing hole, just fishing quietly and drinking beer. Almost silently, so as not to scare the fish, Mel says, "I think I'm going to divorce my wife - she hasn't spoken to me in over 2 months." Earl continues slowly sipping his beer, then thoughtfully says, "You better think it over - women like that are hard to find."

Hugs all around. Don't foregt the annual winter solstice fishing day sked for either Dec 21 or Dec 22. Actual solstice (when the Earth's axis tilts the most away from the Sun) is at 6:08 AM UTC which makes it 11:08 PM on Dec 21 here. So the actual instance of solstice is Dec. 21. BUT Dec 22 is a Saturday so we may opt for a the Saturday. The past solstice fish ins have been a ton o' fun.

Weedy1 Five of five stars. Freekin sick dude (or whatever .. ) *****

I've tied hundreds of new KILLER patterns. They kill my pocketbook. They kill my supplies. The kill my ego. They kill everything ... but fish. I actually have "created" a couple of winners--one going back 20 years that still graces my fly box. It was tied on a whim. The caddis larva was tied based on photos I had taken--and it is a serious pattern. Someone else named it for me... As for names? There is no one single database--hardly possible. Do a Google search by typing in the proposed name and the adding "fly" and see where it takes you. "Hawgstoppah's Hawg Slayer" ... There is no registry. Oh God, I said "registry." The federal Liberals will want to get on that right away and start a "fly pattern" registry to protect us all.

Man, talk about "left of center" funky, cult fishing...right up there with "garr on the rope fly."

Brian...I am thinking fishing from upstream but out in the main flow and cast down and over toward shore...maybe a subsurface midge pupa. It's now on my list of cool things to try at least once. May have to wait till next spring. (Note to self.) I bet if you farted in your waders from 60 feet they'd spook.

Male and female hexes have quite different colors..the females (or is it the males?) are a "honey-amber" color. Honking huge bugs. Fun to watch at night.

Good 'eye' Wes. How big was that may? If the body was 25-mm+ it is a hex. Looks like a hex. Clive

Teck: Book...sold out...used copies available at Abe Books. MMAX .. yeah, decent fish. Ida said 17 to 19 or so. Difficult to say. Seems Hawgstoppah has been up close and personal. There have been a few rainbows along the N side riprap for years. They are mucho safe there. Water is fussy. Hawgstoppah...you tried fishing them from standing in the river and casting back to shore? I've never tried them, but that might seem to be the plan. Cheers! Clive

Tupps...good point..lots of color diff between wet and dry ... and as W1 said, sometimes you want to stand out from the crowd. (I should be so lucky. ) Thx, Clive

tupps...thanks. I like it, but wonder why the orange thread v say, pale or darker green. Have you tried a few antron stand instead of the feathers for the trailing shuck? Cheers! Clive

Thanks Neil. Much appreciated. Vic will have some midges--think he sells something called a mountain midge..get as small as possible...only about 6-8 mm body. Fish it below something like a San Juan Worm of some sort. Good luck! Cheers! Clive

Thanks. Yesterday was one of those special days a guy might babble about for a long while. I only used a rod for about 90 minutes and landed many rainbows and they were feisty too. Although I've become a BAW convert it was most interesting that the old standby midge pupae was THE fly of choice yesterday. They bypassed the BAW for the midge. Cool. Midge article Wes..yes, new camera...ROCKS! Sizzle.

Only fished a short while on Monday (90 minutes) and again Tuesday -- about 90 minutes as well. Slowish on Monday--with operator error causing me to miss a lot of takes on TINY dry flies--20s, 22s and 24s. A half decent midge hatch actually. Yesterday in sun and NO wind, the fish were simply wired--stoopid good fishing. Used a BAW and dropper midge with the midge winning. And also fish caught on a swung backswimmer. Fish in good shape: fat, healthy and leaping all over. Was grand. Fall colors smashing ... one good wind. Both from the 507 bridge. Small muley buck near Cowley. One of Tuesday's many fish. Taken from the 507 bridge. This rainbow opened its mouth to feed. The turkeys came down to the river yesterday, so I left the river and drove up on the "lease" road and was lucky to find them and they were not too spooky. (For you camera geeks...500-mm lens) This was on Monday. This is known locally as the "Burmis flock." There were ~ 40 turkeys on Green's pasture on the "lease" road.

My DIL came through the Coutts border crossing last week. There was a new car in front of her so she queried the border guard. He estimated something like 50 cars per day coming through Coutts alone!! (Even if it is just ten cars...) The paperwork has to be pre done, but apparently the hassles are minimal. My wife was in Shelby and Conrad (MT) yesterday to shop at quilt stores with a dozen other gals from Leth. Even in Conrad (pop 2500) the prices of cotton material are ONE HALF a of the prices in Lethbridge and they were given another 25 percent off because of the volumes sold yesterday to the Canuck ladies. She bought backing materials for a large quilt that cost her $31. It was over $100 here. I'm for "buying local' .. and we buy most stuff here, but "enough is enough" in many cases. Poof.. NOW I'm goin' fissin'

Tight lining and dead drifting are two completely diff stories. For dead drifting, indicators the THE way to go. You guys seriously are missing out on a good thing though. You seem to be way too hung up on commercial technology..some of the best things we can use are "hand made" .. like our flies. Close cell (packing) foam clove hitched to your leader can be placed inches from a fly and give you instant and constant feedback..way more so than no indicator. If a fish sniffs your fly you know instantly--something no one can do casting ahead 20 feet into a riffle in the glare -- with no indicator. (No one can see a #20 spent mayfly fly 30 feet away...I use tiny indicators when fishing tiny flies I can't see....works great yet ignored by most anglers--and fish. ) Closed cell foam indicators are white and don't spook fish at all--look like water foam -- and can be cut down as small as a pea. You can hang a small PT or midge 12 inches below one of these in 18 inches of water. Try it. Clearly you can't do this with a large bright commercial corky. IMHO way better than no indicator and better than "hopper dropper" in spooky water. I'm going fishing for a few days. Cheers all and ... HAPPY THANKSGIVING TO ALL!! We have many (many) blessings!

The "Rowley type" indicators pop free when a fish is hooked and slide down to the nymph/fish. They are useful for long leaders in lakes where the flies may be down deeper than the length of the rod--which poses problems for landing. For river fishing the depth below the ind is often well less than the rod length.

Weedy...attach with a loop thru the hole...loosen loop and slide. (Not seen these before, but that would work.)

This is good discussion. I am not meaning to be argumentative, just MHO. In brief, the times to effectively use indicators out number the times when not to use one, by 10 to 1. -- "when ever possible go without the indicator" ... disagree. There may be some times you don't want one, but they are a valuable tool and for dead-drift river fishing you want one most of the time -- "it will teach you better line control" .. Why? A modest indicator rarely if ever interferes with line control--we are talking a small piece of lightweight foam. Big corkies may well impede line control. But you normally don't need a huge corkie..just something to give you depth control. If you need a big corkie for deep o fast water then you are better off with th corkie than not as you'll have little control over the depth and position of the nymph without it. -- "and how to feel the fly and take" .. Utterly disagree for dead drifitng nymps. Tight lining in a lake or deep pool is different. Feel the fly? It is supposed to be drag free--with some slack line. If you are short line fishing in close there MAY be some advantage. -- "will catch you more fish in the long run" .. disagree for most nymphing situations. Strike indicators: -- give you control of depth ..an you can change the depth by altering the nymph-to-foam length. -- give you better overall control of where your fly is ... sometimes you are trying to make sure it is in a specific "slot" .. versus just in a random piece of water -- usually tells you the instant you have a hit .. even a soft take -- tells you have a soft take and that is not possible to see on slack line without an indicator. There is normally 7 to 10 feet between the end of the fly line and the nymphs(s).. in runs that are (say) 3 or 4 feet deep there is too much slack in the line without an indicator. There are many situations (far more than not) where without an indicator there is no chance of having any control over the nymph and seeing strikes would be impossible. The prime example is casting more or less upstream into a run (even a shallow riffle)...if you get a take when the line is 30 feet ahead...you sure can't see the take. Well I can't and I doubt if anyone can. IMHO, for most drag-free nymphing conditions a strike indicator is the way to go to catch more fish -- hands down. As noted, the main indicator I use is a small piece of closed cell foam. Works great. The only commercial indicator I've been using on occasion in lakes is the Rowley indicator as shown by Weedy. They are very good. Cheers! Clive

Try closed cell foam. See here... Item is about dry flies, but these work for nymphs....the main indicators I use on streams ... sometimes use Rowley indicators in lakes. Cheers! Clive

RnB ... nice fish. Maybe not a pristine wilderness setting, but close to home and highly entertaining, eh? Nice. WRT the image posting. Can only submit 100Kb worth of images per post using the FFC server space. To post more than 100Kb of images per post then they have to be hosted elsewhere, such as your Shaw or Telus space or on flickr or Photobucket. Cheers! Clive