fishing for words

(and tossing out random thoughts)

Category Archives: Fly Tying


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Mother Nature wants us to fish

On the heels of the old-is-new-again “wild salmon” movement comes the rediscovery of “natural hooks.” It appears that Mother Nature wants us to fish.

On the Juneau Empire (Alaska) newspaper’s JuneauEmpire.com, an interesting little article travels the West to tell the tale of a Dr. Bob Bosworth, a retired physician and fly fisherman living in Denver, Colo., who ties flies on hook-shaped spines plucked from Fish Hook Barrel Cacti growing in Arizona…

Look closely, these are no ordinary flies.

It’s not metal, or wood. Not cast or carved. It’s cactus. And these flies have caught fish.

It’s not metal, or wood. Not cast or carved. It’s cactus. And these flies have caught fish.

One might notice the hand-tied details, the tiny imperfections in the hackle or the individual wrappings of thread. One might even recognize the common imitation stonefly pattern, but it’s unlikely the hook will get a second glance.

It’s an innovation from the tying table of Dr. Bob Bosworth, a retired physician and fly fisherman living in Denver, CO.

And the flies have the local fly fishing club, the Raincountry Flyfishers, talking. Bosworth’s son, Rob, recently presented these flies at a meeting in December. Jaws dropped and the questions came in.

“I’ve been tying flies for over 50 years and I’ve never seen or heard (about) anything like this,” President Tony Soltys said. “I was amazed that someone would do that, and I wanted to know why.”

Soltys wasn’t the only one interested. In fact, at the club’s upcoming meeting, which will be held on Wednesday, Jan. 20, a “tie-off” will determine which club member get to take home one of these “cactus flies.”

Fittingly, their journey began thirty years ago in the southern deserts of Arizona. Bosworth remembers clipping some hook-shaped spines from an aptly named Fish Hook Barrel Cactus growing in the backyard of a friend living in Tucson, Arizona.   Read more…

With these hooks fly fishermen could soon stake out an environmentally friendly high ground. I can see it now…flies tied with natural bird and animal fibers on natural hooks, bamboo rods, all cotton vests…a return to using silk fly lines…then eventually ditch the wading boots for flip-flops and the waders for Speedos.


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big fish, big fun

I’ve heard it said that that those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it, but I don’t think that applies to fly fishing. At least not during a recent Eastern Sierra trip with the club. Fall is just around the corner in this neck of the woods and it seems the local trout are feeling it. It certainly wasn’t a case of “you should have been here last week.”

To get the skunk off as early as possible maximize fishing, I joined two club members on our way to our temporary home at Tom’s Place Resort. I arranged an early morning met up that put us on the East Walker River by mid morning, just in time for a small caddis hatch. The killer combination was a size 16 black caddis on top with a crystal flash zebra midge of my own design. Three hours later and with eight browns to the net — biggest at 14 inches — it was off to Tom’s Place, where we’d meet up with the rest of the group. After a quick transfer of food and luggage to the cabins, a quick rundown offered by yours truly of some fishing options, we headed out. The scenery alone would be worth the price of admission; the sage infused high-desert of the East Slope, with a backdrop of pines and aspens climbing snow-tipped granite mountains. A backdrop that only became more beautiful with a trout brought to the hand.

With only a few hours to fish, I headed to the outlet of Rock Creek Lake to jump into the playground of brookies, offering a wide spot bordered by rushes or plunge pools directly below the lake outlet. Dries were the order of the hour, with humpies winning hands down.

Then, there came the food. Posole for dinner Friday, pulled pork on Saturday, and a heavy-duty breakfast composed of six pounds of bacon and three dozen eggs. And I can’t forget the homemade beer.

2009.09.012.Dutch.Fighting

Dutch on a nice rainbow.

Saturday two fishing friends and I hit Crowley Lake with a guide. Crowley didn’t give up fish easily, or quickly. But quality was good. The only woman on the boat ended up catching only browns — and with five of ‘em, more fish than me or her husband — while her husband landed only Kamloops rainbows. I ended up with four Lahontan cutthroat and one Eagle Lake rainbow. With the except of my rainbow, all of our fish exceeded 18 inches, with my largest cutthroat topping out at 22 inches.

During a mid afternoon break, we tied some flies, including a few midges based on my recipe: silver bead head, black thread body overwrapped with ghost crystal flash, counter wrapped with red or silver fine wire, with a small crystal flash tail. That afternoon brought some thundershowers, but they only dampened the ground, not the fishing.

Sunday dawned bright and clear, and we headed out separate ways. Some stopped at the Tuolumne River, just south of the Hwy 120 bridge to net two fish and miss a bunch on a size 18 black EHC. A few of us again hit the East Walker, where we dredged up browns with nymphs and wet flies.

In the end, we collectively landed brook trout, Eagle Lake and Kamloops rainbows, Loch Leven and German (aka von Beher) browns, at least one cuttbow, and Lahontan cutthroats.

Group2

Our Crew

After stopping overnight at the cabin in Twain Harte, I fished a local stream in the rain – and I was the only one on the water there – and landed fifteen stocked rainbows. Fall is fast becoming my favorite time of the year up there…quiet and no crowds.

All in all, a great trip, great fishing, and great fun.


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nothing beats a “free” weekend

In the words of my father, I “made out like a bandit” this weekend. And had a spot of luck too.

It began Friday when the new hard drive for our Series 3 Tivo arrived. The old hard drive decided to take a permanent vacation, presenting the dilemma of either purchasing a new Tivo, meaning we’d loose the lifetime subscription that has paid for itself a few times over, or trying to drop in a new hard drive. Either way, it would cost about the same. The hard drive install was quick and easy, and after running through the guided set up our resurrected Tivo was running smoothly with our lifetime subscription still intact.

Saturday afternoon the wife and I visited a fellow fly fisherman and his wife with the express purpose of combing though some fly tying materials. Comb through we did. About an hour and a half later I was putting a grocery bag in my car full of materials, including seven dozen spools of thread of all sorts of colors and hues. All that and a dinner date with my wife.

Sunday’s event was courtesy Honda. As a participant of an online Honda Owners Panel (which conducts surveys about once a month) I was awarded two pass to the IndyCar race at Infineon Raceway. Christopher and I arrived about ten that morning to enjoy a continental breakfast in the Honda tent, which was set up at turn two. (An uphill right-hand sweeper.) After walking around the various exhibits and watching the Historic Gran Prix cars head out to the track for warm up, we headed back to the tent for a great rib lunch. Lunch gave way to a visit by the Ryan Hunter-Reay (driving the ethanol-sponsored Rahal/Letterman Racing #17), then a tour of the garage area. Though I wouldn’t pay for the privilege, it was fun seeing the race in person. Helio Castroneves (Team Penske #3) won, with Ryan Hunter-Reay finishing 18th. Gotta love free stuff.

I’ll be the guy looking for more freebies…


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one fly for the trees, one for the fish, one to remember how to tie the blasted thing

Scooped up my fully equipped fly tying desk — which eerily looks much like a little folding wooden TV tray — and plopped it between myself and the TV last weekend. Armed with a rack of threads, small and even-smaller hooks, a few tungsten beads and a diet soda, I set to tying a few simple flies. Despite no definitive proof that tying one’s flies saves money, it’s nice to think that idle time spent watching fly fishing shows on the boob-tube doesn’t always or entirely have to go to waste.

Not being a fly fishing crazy purist and intent on catching trout, I find no difficulty in lining my fly box with plenty of nymphs instead of dry flies. Before the fist show was over there were enough Zebra and Blood Midges to share with a family friend who’s expressed an interest in spending tons of money on joining the world of fly fishing. While simple enough to tie, they seem to work best on size 20 or smaller hooks. A size so small that a sharp inhalation could spell danger if one is bent over a pile of loose hooks.

Later that same weekend I upped the ante to tie some glass bead head emerger midge nymphs in both black and red. A made-up name to be sure, but a sometimes very productive pattern that’s also relatively easy to tie. Dropped one or two into the friend’s makeshift fly container as well.

Even learned something new, all on my own. Last Christmas Santa delivered via my stocking a small kit for tying a single fly. While this kit contained a less-than-impressive clip that was intended to act as a vise, the simplistic instructions offered just enough insight to prompt the tying of my first soft hackle wet fly1. No doubt one of the more artistic flies I’ve so far tied. Maybe I’ll soon post a report on whether or not it catches fish.

I’ll be “sacrificing” a few flies on a nearby stream…

1While nymphs and wet flies can be lumped together as “wet flies,” i.e. fished subsurface, wet flies generally refer to soft hackle flies meant to be fished as a drowned mature insect, baitfish or any other desirable food morsel. Nymphs are designed to imitate, well, insects in the nymphal stage. (And the pupa stage in some cases.)


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down the road we go

Maybe we’d better hope that the trout targeted this season don’t rise to the flies tied here at the House on the Hill. Already we’re beginning a battle the creeping curse that comes with fly tying.

Fly Tying StationYou can start with the materials strewn about the dining room table: hooks, bobbins, black thread, tan thread, red thread, small scissors, medium scissors, hackle pliers, red chenille, black chenille, olive chienille, pheasant feathers, partridge feathers, brown dubbing, olive dubbing, black dubbing, black marabou (turkey underwear), thin silver wire, thin copper wire, small red wire, white antron, muskrat hide, green “Krystal” flash, gold tungsten beads, silver tungsten beads… Apparently this battle is bound to escalate.

A fly tying station is already headed out this way via the seemingly unstoppable United Parcel Service. But already predicted is a need for drawers to comfortably contain a quantity of synthetic and animal natural materials.

The curse is not the cause of worry. The worry is that already I have pondered uses from the dog’s fur left behind after a good trimming. Heck, I’ve even considered brushing the house bunny…might make decent dubbing or even a hackle.

It’s not an obsession, it’s a hobby.