Of Sleeping Late and Fuzzy Nymphs

Of Sleeping Late and Fuzzy Nymphs

The air is muggy; a weeks worth of rain has left the ground soaked and spongy. 
What's worse, weathermen and facebook pundits say we're in for more of the same. 

And after the work week I had, sleeping til noon on a rainy morning sounds like a good plan. But, my eyes pop open, and 7:00 am will have to do. 
I look at the clock and groan; hey, it beats my usual 5 o'clock in the morning.

After making the coffee, I look outside and see it ISN'T raining right now. Seems like a perfect time to mosey down to the neighbors pond, aka, "Fly Lab II," and wet a line.

Yes, I really do mosey. This is South Carolina, after all. 
People here mosey.

The Season is Here
Approaching the pond, its obvious Spring is well underway. The surrounding grass is high and lush, the underbrush has grown to choking fullness, and the pond is sporting a fringe of green algae weed. The tadpoles of a few weeks ago are now conspicuous by their absence.

However, dragonflies are out in force. Their darting flight and swooping moves create a flying circus all around. I count a number of types I recognize, and one or two that are new to me.

The big boys of the bunch are the Rusty Dragonflies. These guys span your hand with their wings and you can hear their humming as they power by your head.
Small blue damselflies flit here, and there, their black, helicopter wings beating the air.
Swarms of very small dragonflies, the size of a thumbnail, well, they're new to me. 
My favorite, the Eastern Whitetail Dragonfly, makes a welcome appearance. 
And I watched, fascinated, as a 2" green female dips her abdomen and deposits eggs among the algae weed.  

Warmth and a lot of rain have transformed the pond and its environs into a new place, and I wonder if the fish are still here. 
As if in answer, a large, "KERSPLASH"  is heard from across the pond. Something has blown up the water in the far shallows; something is chasing something else, over there, and I mutter to myself, "Well, well, and hello. Lets get to it!"

The Business At Hand
Today I'm fly fishing. I've brought an assortment of flies, seen here

They are, from top to bottom:

1. Flip Flop Popper (black)
2. Old Faithful Popper (green)
3. Moodah Poodah (tan)
4. Casual Dress nymph (left)
5. Mink and Pheasant (a Casual Dress variation, right)
6. Bullys Bluegill Spider
7. Reverse Tied Black and White Soft Hackle

I tie on "Old Faithful," a small, #10 popper I've had for, well..., come to think of it, I don't really know how long I've had it.
It has been repaired a few times, has had a couple of color changes and dressing versions, and it keeps on popping along. Today it is chartreuse, with a faded red mouth, leering eyes and a jaunty feather tail of tan Indian neck hackle. 

I un-spool some line about the length of my 9 foot, 5 wt. fly rod and prepare to cast the fly. 
Ready....set.... and.... STOP!
I'm tangled up in the leader. I have to put casting on hold while I first sort out the mess. 

Its like that in fly fishing.

You get all ready, everything is set, but you lose just a split second control of the line. 
Then, it's BAM! and you've got a mess on your hands. 
Something they don't tell you about in fly fishing is you need patience and a cool head. 
Don't do anything in a hurry with the long rod. 
I suppose this is why only a few people do it well, and for very long. To coin a phrase; "if it was easy, everyone would do it." 

Back To The Business At Hand
It was just a minor tangle (as tangles go), so I was soon sorted and back at it. A swirl of the rod tip, a few flicks of the wrist and voila! the line was stretching toward the far corner of the pond and Old Faithful was back on the water where it belongs.

And that's pretty much were it stayed.
Untouched by fishy mouths.

Its also like that in fly fishing. What you think is gonna work, well,... it doesn't.

Over there, look - it's my perfectly good popper, floating all buggy and googly-eyed! 
I can see it, and I gently twitch it.
I stall it, waiting.
I pop it.
I wait some more.
I make it dance a jig.

And the quarry ignores it. The game is a bust.
Every other writer and fly man in the world seems to be filling their creels on these "bugs," and I get nothing. 
Not even a courtesy swim-by.

Well, something else you learn to do in fly fishing is adapt.

"Alright you buggers, if the popper wont do - lets see what will."
I tie on a Mooda Poodah, which is a craft foam and deer hair, bug-thing with rubber legs. 
"What do you think of THIS?!" I shout, and cast it back into the same spot. And that was the trick.

The fly sat for a few seconds, quivering, legs dangling. Then, there was a splash, and it was taken under, savagely. The line straightened out and I was dumbstruck. 

But in fly fishing, you have to be ready for this. 
I woke up, grabbed for line and started stripping. 
I got the situation under control. The rod is bent, the fishes weight is felt.
At that moment, a 1lb. 'rocket bass' leaped from the water, flew about 4 feet and tore off across the pond.  This was more like it.

Now, I know a lot of you like to see bass flying through the air. That big head flailing, those red gills flaring. 
Why, the more aerial displays, the better. 
But I'm the opposite. I try to keep them below as much as I can, with tension firmly maintained. 

"Keep the hook in their mouth, not waving around with their head, out of the water" - that's my motto.

And I did exactly that. 
And that feisty 'green trout' still managed an LDR (long distance release), despite my best effort to the contrary. 

Just like that, the fish was gone and all I got back was the fly. 

At that point you say, "Sometimes you catch them, and sometimes you don't."
The fly was taken, the fish got hooked (briefly), and I got my fly back. That's a good start.

Working the Water Column
I wasn't planning to be there all day; in fact, I only had about 45 minutes to fish. If I was going to work the water column, from surface to the bottom, it was time to switch up.

"Okay, the Moodah Poodah caught a fish," I said. "But, I've fished them for a few years; that's old news. Let's see what we can do below the surface, with something new."

Because I also tie my own flies, I usually have an assortment of untested ones ready to try. I reached for my fly holder and took a look at the offerings. 

Besides the poppers and surface bugs, I also brought along a couple of sub-surface nymph and soft hackle patterns to test out. 
I took one of the "Casual Dress" patterns loose from the holder.

The Nymphs Are the Ticket - Again.
Something I've learned from this freshwater fly fishing business is this: If you're not fishing nymphs of some sort, you're missing fish.
They don't have to be exacting mimics, either. Representative of the type is enough. The "Casual Dress" nymph is of the latter sort. 

Its tied from muskrat hair and a little ostrich. This makes it fuzzy, wiggly, and, well, just plain nymph-y. Natural fur is arguably the best material for these flies.

And the fish were nailing them every second or third cast. They liked a slow retrieve with a sink-and-quick lift. Their take was either a rip-snorting snatch and run, or a gentle heaviness in a sideways direction. 

Nymph Mouth Rocket Bass

I also noticed something unexpected with the Mink & Pheasant version of this nymph. Call it one of those, "Ah-ha moments" that often happens.
The M&P nymph, like the Casual Dress, is a hair-and-feather job. What happens is, it dries out a good bit during line-out (false casts), and then floats for a while in the film. It then submerges to fish wet.

But, while it was still at the surface, I noticed fish were coming up to slap at it. I assume these are bluegill, as this "smack and stun" trick is the bluegills M.O. They do it to knock the wind out of bugs that hit the water; they then come back and pick them to pieces. It was the only sign of bluegill I saw.

Mink And Pheasant Nymph

I also fished the one soft hackle I had, a Black and White Reverse Hackle.
It's a body of heavy black thread, ribbed with krystal flash, and a collar of reverse tied fibers stripped from a hackle feather.
It's a very basic fly, but very adaptable and a good fish catcher. 
It is also a way to use the cheap, non-descript hackle feathers that might otherwise be too long for the hook size you're using. 
I'll detail this one in another post, so make sure you subscribe.

Soon, it was time to go and get busy with the days non-fishing business. We need new tires on the car, preparations for the family Memorial Day are in the schedule, and .... well, there seems to always be something else.

But that's okay. At least I got to sleep in.

Tight Lines and Thanks,
David

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David Hutton, © 2018
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