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Winter 1997 Newsletter
Flyfishing Vision by Ellen Mason(Winchester, VA)
In my minds eye I can still see a lone fisherman from years ago performing the beautiful ballet of casting as he waded the South Branch of the Potomac. That vision has stayed with me for many years and with the help of Gary Fritz, I too was able to realize the dream. At Heaven on Earth Ranch, I was able to wade the Smith River and "cast to the wall" of the sheer cliffs. The mesmerizing rhythm of casting, the unparalelled beauty of the surroundings and the anticipation of big trout left me exhilirated and eager to return whenever possible.
Steve's "Drop and Stop" Woolybugger Technique by Steve Weaver(Lenexa, KS)
What can a midwestern bass fisherman add to the elitist sport of flyfishing for trout ? Perhaps a new technique for fishing a weighted woolybugger.
First of all let me explain that this technique is not for the white wine drinking, brie eating, top water(OOPS, bass terminology - I mean dry fly) enthusiast with a 3 weight bamboo rod and a 7x tippet. This is for the trout fisherman who wants to catch fish when there are no hatches.
You'll need a hefty 6 or 7 weight rod capable of handling a sinktip line with a beadhead woolybugger on the end of a stout leader. This technique was pioneered in a drift boat on the Missouri River, but should also work when wading large streams.
The cast should be made quartering upstream and may vary in distance depending on the water you want to fish. Immediately begin a series of upstream mends in your line to allow maximum depth to be obtained on the down stream drift. Strikes may come at the completion of the downstream drift when the current takes your woolybugger cross stream to a position directly downstream from you. If no strike has occurred, or if a fish hits the woolybugger and misses, don't give up. Simply strip 6 to 12 inches of line from your reel and let it quickly out through the guides. The woolybugger which has been hanging in the current will suddenly falter and flutter downstream. This is a powerful trigger for any gamefish. If a trout has been following your fly with some interest, this will likely induce a strike. I recommend repeating the strip and drop several times before abandoning the cast. Also use this technique when using a more traditional cast and strip retrieve.
The Hoppadroppa
Otherwise know as a multifly rig or a dryfly/nymph dropper combination, the hoppadroppa, as my good fishing friend Dick Crawford (Holden, Maine) calls it, is deadly. If spooky or selective fish are driving you nuts, tie on this rig for a money-back guaranteed hookup. Fish usually, but not always, take the droppa.
The hoppa acts as an edible strike indicator. "Hoppa", normally viewed as a hopper patter, is actually a generic term and can be any dry fly that meets the following criteria. First, it has to float well so it can support the droppa. Second, you have to be able to see it well or its absence (when a fish takes the droppa) won't mean much to you. My favorite is a home-brewed, white-winged, foam-bodied, heavy-hackled stimulator-type dry. My experience says the smaller the better so long as it floats well and is highly visible.
The droppa should be a meat and potatoes nymph. If I had but one choice for the Missouri River it would be a #16 beadhead Prince nymph, just don't ask my to explain why it works so well. Hare's ears, pheasant tails, caddis pupa, and so on work fine. How far below the hoppa should the droppa be tied? It depends. If you are casting to steadily rising fish it can be as little as about six inches. If no fish are seen then it depends on the depth and speed of the water you're fishing-up to 24 inches below the hoppa.
Try to drift this dynamic duo drag-free to the fish. But that's one of the beauties of the technique, you can screw up and still catch fish because movement of the droppa often triggers a take.
New Year's Resolutions
As dedicated flyfishers we should always be striving to improve our skills and become better flyfishers. There is no better time to commit to this than at the beginning of a new year. Here's a few resolutions that I have made, perhaps you can keep them better than I.
1. Tie a dozen flies a night throughout the winter so I won't be faced with a force march to the flytying table the night before a trip.
2. Practice casting one hour each week.
3. Patch those waders - now.
4. Tie my own leaders. While I don't use them too much, at least now I can tie a bloody blood knot with my eyes closed.
5. Wipe off the algae caked on my flyrods and the sand out of the reels.
Even with repeated opportunities to acknowledge the wisdom of these resolutions I still have a tough time keeping them; probably I've taken too many weighted woolybuggers to the head.
Osprey's "Best Buy" Entry Level Equipment
The Sage Discovery Series flyrods are a tremendous bargain. They not only have a good crisp action but are rugged. I carry two in my boat to be used and abused by me and my guests. They are very adequate for flyfishing Montana - a 9-foot, 6 weight is ideal. They retail for about $180. So why do I have so many expensive rods? Because.
The Teton Tioga series fly reels have a smooth drag and are reasonably light. They have the feel of a much more expensive reel. They retail for about $100. It ain't Abel, but that's OK.
Year in Review
Winter newsletters are supposed to full of "the caddis hatch was fabulous on the lower river in 1996, the PMD's were sparse, and the fall Baetis seemed to be more size 22's than 18's" stuff mixed with an liberal splash of braggadocio about gobs of big fish landed and released on 8x tippet. A current events biology lesson made palatable by an overlay of human behavior. My mind just doesn't seem to cut that way. My reflections on the last fishing season are vignettes of fishing with friends. Writing for me is a tugging and pulling process more laborious that rowing a boat, made even tougher if I'm trying to force the content-so the "Year in Review" will have to be a few of my recollections and not an socioentomological critique.
George Kammerer(San Jose, CA) and I can't remember why he was fishing in his baggy, blue long underwear, something to do with his leaky waders I think. His friend, John Crowley(Visalia, CA), and I caught him on film in his long underwear plenty that day since George seemed always to be attached to a fish. The rising fish were ultraselective that day as we threw the typical sequence of floating nymph, emerger, sparkle dun, and cripple at them. Finally, George asked politely, "Do you ever use Royal Wulffs?" Isn't it refreshing to know that the immutable, irrefutable laws of fly selection should at times be tossed out of the boat. George caught fish all day long with his #18 Royal Wulffs. John caught fish too, one I remember was a nice rainbow that he roped as clean as though he was at the Ennis Fourth of July Rodeo. When he landed it we saw the line was looped around the tail and the fly was dangling free. I just got some pictures from John of wood carvings he did to commemorate the fish he caught that day. Like he said, you can only tie so many flies during the winter-he needed yet another challenge, so now he carves.
Three generations of Nippoldt's from Woodbury, MN showed up the first week of July and we fished together for a week. Bert, Ned, Jill, Tanner and Gretel, what a delightful family. As is normal for me, I learned at least as much from the Nippoldt's as they did from me, probably more. Ned's enthusiasm, regardless of weather or fishing conditions, clearly pointed to the flaws in my more compulsive approach to flyfishing. It was Tanner that dealt me the most poignant moment of the summer as he turned to Ned one day and said, "Dad, I'm sure having a good time catching these big Montana trout." Nothing more could be said about the rewards of my profession.
I had fished with Pat Mason(Winchester, VA) earlier in the year when he was with his wife and the Meadors. He returned in September with his son Will. How should I say it-they caught a ton of fish. The last day we floated from the dam to the Wolf Creek bridge. Just a hundred yards above the bridge I suggested we catch twenty more fish and call it a day. We didn't quite make twenty but the incredible sunset that spread over us made counting fish more irrelevant and irreverent than it normally is, which is plenty.
I consider it somewhat of a miracle that Ward and Sis Reilly(Suwanee, FL) are coming back to fish with me again this summer after I lined them up with lodging last year that was complete with bats-the kind that fly. Of course, they won't be staying at that place again, nor will I be recommending it. Ward and Sis are new to flyfishing but they tend to catch a lot of very nice fish and, most important, have a great time. For his tenure as a flyfisher Ward is an extremely proficient caster and a superlative fisher of woolybuggers. As their skills have increased they have started the natural evolution to dryfly fishing. We have crossed the line from client and guide to good friends, a fact that was made clear to me one day as we fished a spot that had yielded many fish to me previously but wasn't about to on that day-- Ward looked at me and asked, "Are you sure you've fished this river before?"
The west wind can, and often does, blow strong on the lower river in October, but Jolly Gissell(Beverly Hills, CA), Jim McNeil(Pacific Palisades, CA) and I decided to show our mettle and tackle it anyway. They caught some fish and I enjoyed rowing the boat for my friends, but two things stick in my mind about that float. Toward the end of the day we spotted lines of rising fish about 20 feet out from shore. Jolly is an excellent flyfisher and put the hoppadroppa right on several fish, but one was worthy of note. This fish, a trim but solid rainbow of about 16 inches, was the Michael Jordan of the lower river. It jumped again and again and again and when we thought it couldn't possibly jump anymore it would fool us again and again. It was with a great deal of admiration and respect that Jolly released that fish back to the river to jump another day. As if that weren't enough, just as the sun hit the horizon, the dark clouds parted enough that a slit of light emblazoned the hills near the river. It was a Kodak moment that film can't replicate.
As my clients often tell me, I'm one lucky stiff; that is, being able to live and make a living fishing in Montana. It was just reaffirmed as I finally sorted and organized all of my 1996 pictures. Looking through those pictures has me raring to get on the water and row a boat for the 1997 season. We've got a lot of snow meaning we'll have plenty of water this summer. Fish populations and sizes are as good as they have ever been and whirling disease hasn't affected us yet. Hope to fish with you this summer.
CONSIDER THE CARP
Yes, Montana does have carp, a fact I might not have mentioned a few years ago, but with the expanding scope of flyfishing to include so many new fish species like peacock bass and dorado, it seems plausible that flyfishers would embrace, or at least tolerate, the concept of catching a carp on a fly. I'm certainly no expert in the field, but the one carp I caught last summer provided some excitement and a lot of laughs that I'm pretty sure were directed at me, not with me. The carp took me a long ways upstream and then back downstream before finally breaking my rod at boatside. My good friends and clients-for-the-day, Jerry Vine(Rochester, MN) and Mike Schad(Zumbro Falls, MN) helped me land it. I'm somewhat surprised that they haven't asked me to take them carp fishing.
TEXT FOR THE BIG FISH CLOSEUP ON THE BACK OF THE NEWSLETTER
Ted Long(Omaha, NE) is the kind of flyfisher that can catch fish where there aren't any. He spends his summers at his house and studio in McAllister(near Ennis) and comes up to fish our area, usually in the fall. In 1996, he fished with Bob Marcotte, also from Omaha. They are both extremely experienced outdoorsmen and gracious to boot so rowing a boat for them is a pleasure. Regardless of the flies I prescribe for Ted, he catches fish and usually some large ones. I sometimes feel like suggesting that he tie on a #2 Stonefly nymph with a dragonfly nymph dropper(both are darn rare in the Missouri River) just to give his skills a real test. Needless to say, I was not surprised when Ted landed this trophy rainbow in one of the lakes of the H Lazy 6 Ranch.
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