The Damsel Project

The Damsel Project

In an effort to take advantage of a local water covered in Damsel and Dragonflies where the bass seam to focus hard on, this pattern is the result. Having not seen water as of yet, it has passed my tests of profile, durability, ease of tying and floatability. The true test will be water, and the opinions of the fish. Good or bad, I will report back to review how it does and any changes identified as being needed.

Below are pics of the floatability test. The pattern sat without floatant for 7 hours overnight.

Recipe

Hook:  #8 Mustad C53S 

Thread:  6/0 Black

Tail/Head:  1/8" wide Black Razor Foam

Abdomen:  Blue Floss

Wing:  Grizzly Hackle Tips

Thorax:  Olive Ice-Dub

Hackle:  #6 Grizzly

Our Little Secret

Our Little Secret

This caddis pattern didn't come about by any original tying technique or claim to a newly discovered pattern. The Little Secret Caddis was nicknamed during a hatch when it was catching fish on a day when most weren't during the evening caddis hatch on the Tully. It's simply a pattern that works. But that's our little secret.  

OLS Recipe

Hook:  #16-18 Caddis Emerger

Thread:  8/0 Brown

Abdomen:  Caddis Green Turkey Biot

Wing:  Wood Duck Dyed CDC

Hackle:  Golden Badger

The Popper Hatch

From the Middle of the Lake

Look closely and you will notice one important thing. The water is empty. Not of fish, but of fishermen. And 360 degrees around me the view was the same. There are plenty of bass, gills and pickerel to be had. And all willing to crash your well-placed popper. But it's virtually unfishable unless you "get in". I guess that scares folks off? And do you want to know what makes it even funnier?.....There is an Orvis Proshop less than 3 miles away on the same road. 

The Mule Deer Diver was once again the bug of the day.

The pond was a a place of constant rise forms. fish were looking up and feeding right up until dark.

I spent the entire evening stalking feeding fish. See a rise find a hole in the algae and lily pads, and "plop" your bug in it. Pause a few seconds, and give a short twitch. 

Between the algae and fish, I rotated 3 poppers. And lost one of them to a large pickerel that hit and snapped me off like a durned barracuda. A heckuva rush, but the score remained...Pickerel one.....Ralph Nuthin.

The last fish of the evening. 

The rise forms stopped with the setting sun as if a hatch had ended.  Between a dozen fat gills and twice that many bass, both the rod and the shoulder got a good workout tonight. 

Tying the Mule Deer Diver

The Mule Deer Diver

The Mule Deer Diver was originally tied for float-tube popping on Western Washington State's lakes and ponds. 25 years later and now on the East Coast, it remains a staple in my box and continues to catch fish whenever attached to the leader. Simple to tie & easy to trim, it floats like a cork and has great diving action through the water. 

MDD  Recipe

Hook:  #6 Gamakatsu Stinger

Thread:  6/0 Black

Tail:  White Bucktail

Hackle:  Dark Barred Ginger or Grizzly

Legs:  Dun Medium Centipede Legs

Head:  Mule Deer Body Hair

Top-water Hat Trick

This evening, a small bit of local water gave up a top-water Hat Trick

It's not often many of the local ponds will give up all three on a given night, and even less often for it to be on surface poppers. Tonight however, all 3 came on a #6 Mule Deer Diver.

Mule Deer Diver

Hook:  #6 Gamakatsu Stinger

Thread: Black 6/0

Tail:  White Bucktail

Hackle:  Grizzly Tips

Legs:  Dun Centipede Legs

Body:  Mule Deer Body Hair

The nights Best Gill

The nights Best Bass

The nights Best Pickerel

A great night on the water. 

The Single Life

After years of pursuing those things in which I "thought" I needed, I finally got rid of all of my unnecessary drag.......Disk Drag.

For years, like most, I chased the latest in reel technology. Make it lighter, make it wider, I need a larger arbor, I need a butter smooth drag system, I need something that will protect those 7x tippets yet stop a freight train in current. A lot of money and time was spent researching, buying then selling quite a bit of machined anodized aluminum as a result. 

But then a few seasons ago while fishing a small stream with my favorite 3wt glass rod, the realization hit me.  After decades of fly fishing, I couldn't recall putting a single trout, bass or panfish on a reel, let alone applying the reels drag. Yet I insisted on buying reels in which close to half of the cost applied was to justify the advanced drag design. So....I went back to the beginning. And what I found were lighter, slimmer and perfectly balanced pieces of perfection, that sang to you if and when a fish was actually placed upon it.

 Single action "Click-Pawl" reels that get the job done.

Gone are the large arbor hunks of technology and engineering. Back to the simple elegance of a click-pawl mechanism, in a standard arbor, narrow configuration. Having fished on both coasts, I have never seen my backing save for 2 times, and both were on Salmon and Steelhead. And in both cases, neither fish was ever stopped or landed. Ironically, both were with a high-end disc drag reel. So why did I not see things sooner?

The "Click-Pawl"

The testament of time applies to the click-pawl drag system. From the 50's to the present....cast and painted reel frames, to machined and anodized....little has changed. Proof of which is the fact that so many of the different models, produced by differing manufacturers, have pawls that can be interchanged. Why fix it if it's not broke? Which is why click-pawl designs are seeing a resurgence of sorts, and manufacturers are finding they need to once again offer a single action reel. 

All a person need know how to do is set the hook.....and if need be palm the spool. The reel does the rest....it holds the line. 

Tying the Long Cress

Long Cress

This pattern is my all-purpose Cress Bug / Scud pattern for most all of the local limestone and Spring Creeks I frequent. It's a simple to tie, quickly reproducible & effective must-have for my box. Tied in sizes 14-18 and in both natural and olive Hare-tron, 

Long Cress Pattern

Hook:  #14-18 Caddis Emerger

Thread: Rusty-Brown 8/0 Uni-thread

Rib:  Fine Gold Wire

Body:  Natural Hare-tron 

Shell-back:  Tan CDC