Fishing Report 3/19/2007

[John Berry]

After guiding or Sowbuging for eight straight days, I got a day off and my wife Lori and I headed for Rim Shoals. I had caught the caddis hatch there the previous day with a client and wanted to fish it my self. We fished caddis pupae for the first hour and drilled them. When we saw bugs appear Lori switched to the green butt and was having her way with them. I checked my box and sadly noted that I was out. The fly tiers dilemma, I had tied and given away about eighty at Sowbug but kept none for myself. I fished a partridge and green and did very well. I tried an elk hair caddis but it was so overcast I was having trouble seeing it. I switched to a green St Vrains caddis but just could not get anything going. The fish were definately keying in on the emergers and not the adults. I switched back to the partridge and green and finished the day well. We fished late and caught over twenty a piece. No big fish. They varied from twelve to sixteen inches long. All were brightly colored and fat. Life is good!

[Terry Beeson]

John,

Good report and glad you did well on your day off. Wish I had gotten one of those Green Butts from you at Sowbug, but your station was pretty busy every time I passed by... (<----- Whine Bag...) But then if I had gotten one of them, I'd feel bad about taking one and leaving you with none... OK... probably not, but it's the thought that counts...

Anyway... A question for you... from someone who is even more a novice dry fly fisherman than a fly fisherman in general:

During your Norfork session at Sowbug, you talked a bit about dry flies and mentioned the "if I can't see it, I can't fish it" problem. Maybe I'm just thinking more about calmer water, but how well do you have to see the fly to fish it? Are you looking more at the fly or at the leader for twitches and stops? When I DO fish dries, I watch the fly with some concentration on the leader. Most of the time, I see the fish sip the fly by it's proximity to the leader. I'm sure I may be missing some if not a lot of fish, but I have seen a twitch in the leader and done a hook set to find a fish at the end.

But the big question is, what SHOULD I be doing as far as looking for an indication of a take? I would like to start fishing dries a bit more, so I will be "listening" intently...

[John Berry]

Great question. I want to see the fly well enough to see the actual take. I want to see the trout close his mouth and then i set the hook. I never even notice the leader. The main point I was trying to make was that I prefer to fish dries close. It always amazes me to see someone tie on a size twenty and the cast it seventy feet away. I was having trouble seeing a size fourteen elk hair caddis yesterday because of the overcast conditions. Never feel bad about taking one of my flies. It is my fault for not sitting down to address the vise. Wish you had stopped by so we could chat.

[The Caddis]

Question-

I am a man of limited sight and have probelms seeing dries up next to me in the water. You mnetioned that you fish dries close to you, any comment on how close? I use a humpy up top when fishing a small midge to work as a strike indicator when I can't see the midge.

[John Berry]

I have a lot of empathy for your limited vision. I wear glasses that look like coke bottles. The distance that I will fish a given fly depends to a great deal on the size of the fly. I can fish a size eight grasshopper fifty feet or more. But a size twenty parachute adams will be pretty close. Say twenty feet or less. I will even high stick dry flies. That is, I will only have a foot or two of fly line out and fish the fly by flipping the leader, tippet and fly upstream and let it drift down just like you would high stick a nymph. You would be surprised to see how close you can get to rising fish especially in a riffle.

[Terry Beeson]

I remember you talking about that one, too, in the Norfork session... I was the one of the ones that did the "Homer Simpson" "D'OH!" when you said that... Seems perfectly logical now that you said it...

[Danoinark]

Caddis and John. I have the same problem with limited eyesight. I had never thought of fishing drys as close in as 15 or 20 feet. I always think I need to be further away in order not to spook a wary trout top water, but at the same time I will fish a nymph sometimes as close as 10 feet. I will echo Terry's DOH! Also John is the green tail .. the flouroscent green floss tail with hare's ear dubbing body and partridge hackle?

Thanks

Dano

[John Berry]

The green butt is basically a red butt with a green tag.

The recipe is:

Hook: Tiemco 102Y (or 103BL) size 15

Thread: danville brown 6/0

Tag:bright flourescent green single strand floss

Body:single strand peacock herl

Rib:fine gold wire

Hackle:Hungarian Partridge (two wraps)

Fish it like any soft hackle and hang on.

[outdoorarki]

John, can you post a pic of it. I think I know what it looks like but still would like to see it.I'm new to dries.

[Danoinark]

John

Thanks for sharing the recipe.

Dano