SilverDoctor

Rain, That mens I'll be out tomorrow morning for sure.

BUT DON'T DRINK THE WATER!!!

Just to add a bit to all the excellent posts here. I'm also big on trying to imitate the bait fish on the water. look in the shallows for what is on a stretch of water. Remember baitfish grow. Start with smaller imitations early in the year and size up as the fish grow. I love to target underwater boulders and other areas a predictor may hang. Streamers generally fall into two categories, imitators and attractors. When streamers and also bucktails were designed to imitate baitfish, such as black nose dace, creek chubs and smelt. Today and you will find plenty of impressionistic patterns such as Zonkers and Woolly Buggers rather than imitations of natural forage fish. At times it's nice to go to the classics for a great imitations. Impressionistic patterns tend to have trout strike by aggression or as a territorial response. The way I tend to fish streamers is my imitating a small baitfish out of it's shallow area. I like to swim it in a couple of short quick jerks then pause in a safe spot like small fish would then zip to another spot. Sometimes a small split shot 4" ahead of the streamer will make say a muddier or bugger swim with an erratic pulse. Be the minnow. With the spey rod I love to zip a minnow combo behind large submerged boulders way out. I try to throw a mend so the streamer pauses for a few seconds before the water pulls it across. What you want is to give the trout a good broadside look at the fly. You can keep the fly swimming broadside, across the current, through the entire drift by casting slack line and mending until the fly completes its swing. It is possible to cast quartering upstream with an upstream reach cast and keep the fly drifting broadside by mending upstream until the fly starts to pass downstream of your position. Start mending line downstream when the fly passes below. Keep mending line away from the fly until it comes to rest directly below. Let it hang in the current for a few moments before picking it up as trout will sometimes follow the streamer though the drift and hit after it stops. Make sure to keep enough belly in the line to keep the fly swimming. Mend enough to keep the line tight, but not slack. You can control the speed of the fly by the amount of mend you put in the line. Flick the tip of the rod through the drift to tease the fly. Vary the action according to the type of fly you are using. Fishing an undercut bank can be deadly. The trick is to get the fly to swim along the bank instead casting directly across and retrieving the streamer away from the bank. Make the cast directly across but use a wide reach cast, mending as much line as possible in the air before the line hits the water. This will put the line at a right angle downstream from the fly. Tease the fly as it swims downstream along the bank, keeping tension as the current pulls against the belly of the line. Take trout from a slow deep pool by casting upstream and retrieve the fly back down. The fly must swim slightly faster than the current with action and strips. Dart the streamer ahead and pause to dive toward the bottom. Sulking trout will turn and lunge downstream to attack the streamer when fished in this way. The downstream retrieve is a great method for sculpin imitations, which which need to fished near the bottom to be effective. Sculpins try to take the path of least resistance when threatened, which is downstream. Trout feed in different ways. When trout hit a streamer they aren't sipping it like a mayfly or nipping it like a nymph but they often try to kill it with a quick smash to stun the prey then a take. I often have a brown do a double hit. This double hit is really fast and may often seem like one strike. Remember that the streamer hook is long. It acts as a leaver and you can loose a fish easily by the fly levering out of the fishes mouth. Keep that tension on, and keep that hook sharp. I will sharpen a streamer two or three times with a small ceramic sharpener while fishing especially if I feel bottom, weeds or just because. Fishing streamers is actually more complicated than it seems. It tends to have a lot of subtle variations that can make or break a presentation, strike and battle. But it's a lot of fun. By the way Toolman have you had a chance ot ry that little bug eyed "Doc's Dodger" streamer yet?

I had ordered some fly tying stuff from Bill at the Fishing hole, it came in yesterday and they gave me the sale discount. A class act down there. Noticed a few fly rods at 40%. Lots of goodies on sale.

Best wishes to your family. You definitely have the best catch of the year.

He does beautiful work, does he still live in Cape Breton? I remember seeing an article on him in Fly Fusion.

There have been 3 or 4 hopper threads recently, try doing a search.

Pool by pool the old adage is nymph and dry fly up and stream down. Works pretty well. But rules are made to be broken. Keep a low profile, dress in muted colors, don't stand where the trout are and fish all the water and more thatn anything else take the time to study the water.

It has happened to me several times this year. I normally just move on. I have found that by watching the people afterwards they seldom do very well anyway. I often take the opportunity to sit and watch for a while. Twice this year I waited till people moved on then took a couple of trout from the pool, once when they where still in sight. I've learned over the years that some people are just not nice. To others or to themselves. It's they're problem not mine. I prefer the company of those who care. Move on upstream, smell the flowers, relax, unwind, look at the clouds, watch the trout and count your blessings. You are able to be part of a fly fishing fraternity who understand the unwritten rules of the water and those who enjoy it.

1) Bow River fishing - to fish till I can no longer walk. 2) Cutthroat stream fishing - then get a buddy to lean on to get me me to the stream 3) Stillwater - after the above still have enough energy to teach fly tying.

A great source of power on the back lift is the body turn. transfer the pull off the water using you body turn instead of your arms. You can cast all day that way. Much easier on lazy old farts like me. My personnel preference is leading with the foot under the upper most hand because this feels natural for my casting style. If you feel more comfortable with the opposite foot pointing to the Angle of aim then go with it. Your grip can be really light on the rod, I sometimes even cast with two fingers on the upper grip and only my palm under the end of the lower. Keep it at waltz beat for the correct timing. In other words, Spiral -2-3, Sweep -2-3. Shall we dance? One of the great benefits of my gut is carefully and strategically placed as a counter weight to the rod in traditional Spey style, swinging in the wind like a haggis (and I'm not even Scottish). it also supplies me with great wading traction, a place to rest my scotch and a fly tying bench. I'm wish I was fishin.

It wasn't me

Letort Hopper Dave's Hopper are great. Here is the one I really like.

both the Pfluger Trion and Battenkill are great reels. I have both and love em. Also love the Pfluger President.

I don't normally leave my stuff in my vehicle. I like to pack up for every trip as my needs are different for equipment depending on the area I fish. Large rivers, small streams or lakes. The one time I left my stuff in my van (on a business trip to Edmonton) it was broken into. Lost waders a couple of fly boxes and a precious bamboo fly rod. Be quite a while before I can scratch up enough shekels for a replacement, even a blank. My stuff was covered with an old blanket on the floor of my van. You're better off not leaving the stuff in. There is much less respect for people and property now. More care must be taken. Just pack up and go.

My regiment is scotch pulls Oh hum's Another burger Quick nap and day dream gets me in shape quick.

For fish in shallow water sit back and study the trout for a bit. If you actually see the fish feeding then try to figure out what they might be taking. Something to remember is shallow water fish have lots of time to study a fly and a PRESENTATION. The only occasional success I've ever had is to swim the presentation well ahead of the fish to entice a forward movement and strike. Remember a lot of these large trout are really wary and unlike in faster water where they may need to make a quick decision on what is drifting by them. Shallow water brown tends to be the cagiest ones. Make a pass if unsuccessful admire the fish and move on.

Yes they do lock the gates at 10:00 and many time before. i would suggest getting a shuttle service to pick up your vehicle and drop it off somewhere.

Good tie, Just a suggestion, what you have to watch is the hackle around the hook. Look for hackle that is only as wide as the gap of the hook. Otherwise you get miss strikes when the large amount of hackle cloges the hook point. You can clip some of it away to free up the point.

Sure if you like, that's why i prefer to give individual sessions geared towards a persons skills and how to hone them. I will deal with intermediate also to get you to the next level.

Sure thing Lundvike. I'll be posting an outline of what I intend to do. But the aim will be to have you tying the basics so that over the winter you can tie up a series of patterns to fill you boxes for next season. The direction would be on good tying practices. If there is interest you can pm me with any questions.

I'll be running on-on-one introductory to tying courses this fall and winter if there is enough interest.

Well it's been 48 years for me. Dame time flies when you're having fun. Started at 8 years old with my dad and a hand me down fly rod. We fished from French river in Ontario to the Miramichi River in NB. Tied a lot of flies standard and Atlantic's commercially and ran fly tying courses for boys clubs and boy scouts. Guided for a few years in BC and ran a fly fishing for life cancer clinic for women for a couple of years. Still learning, I figure I'm only about half way there. Hay Don, Is it you and me at the top of the chart?

I love old gear, I have a telescopic fly rod that is fiberglass sections. It's from the 1950's. I carry it in a small box when traveling. It's about 6' extended and compacts down to 12". Throws a nice dry and very handy for traveling.

You can make a great wasp trap. Take a 1 liter plastic pop bottle cut around the top where the curve stops.This makes a funnel. flip it upside down on the bottle. It's now a one way trap. leave some stale pop on the bottom and add about an inch of water. Wasps go in, can't get out and drown. I usually have about 3 or 4 on my deck. gets rid of em.