Flies For A Buddy

Things have been busy lately between real life and reel life.  Actually they never seem to slow down only get faster, but that's why they call it a ride.  Anyway the fall salmon run is starting to crank up and so are the calls for more flies.  It seems that lately I need to break away and tie a few distractions to recharge my batteries.  When it comes to fishing, I often prefer to go alone and have only a few friends that I can say that I actually look forward to fishing with.  My buddy Martin is one of those who I look forward to fishing with.  On one of our recent fishing trips he commented on how much he loved a fly that I had given him a while back.  There is usually one main reason someone REALLY likes a fly, because it produces fish!  The funny thing about the fly is that it combines two colors of insects commonly found on the Salmon River during steelhead season, little black stoneflies and the chartreuse green of caddis.  I had toyed with this color combo years ago and came up with the camo copper john.  All I can say is that for whatever reason, the two colors together work.  With Martin's birthday quickly approaching, what better gift than a few variations of the fly he enjoys.  I have of course given verbal instructions on how to tie his own and when we get time behind the vise, I'll show him hands on. Enjoy Martin!

Arctic Circle Flies Part Two

If you remember back in July of this year I posted about tying some flies for a friend who was headed to the Arctic Circle for some Arctic Char fishing. The original post can be found here: http://vern-o.blogspot.com/2011/07/ordinary-fliesextraordinary-location.html . Anyway it's time to bring you up to speed on the results.  First I get the following email:

Dear Mr. VERN-O..I would like to request a partial credit for two (identical) pink flies that after 5 days of being cast thousands of time over rock beds each lost the green color on one eye. Those char are  both 37+ inches and weigh 24 and 28 lbs..on an eight weight 13.5' spey rod--the larger one had 300 yds of backing out (25 minutes to land)....Two largest fish since 2008 on Ekaluk.  

Now I have to say this was the best complaint ever....he was kidding about the partial credit request.  I was tickled pink (pun intended) to say the least that his trip went so well.  I borrowed a couple of pictures that he later sent and blacked out the smiles of all parties to protect their indentity.

Different kids, different fishing approach...same result.

As you may have read before my oldest daughter is the able and ready angler and her younger sister is less so.  My youngest has some reservations about standing in flowing waters and seeking out viable quarry that lurk within the area streams and rivers.  She does how ever get the urge to go fishing with Dad every now and then.  She usually wants to go fishing in our backyard pond for bullheads, but this summer the drought had really made the pond undesirable, so I suggested hitting the local canal public boat launch for some worm dunking and Barbie pole fishing.  I woke my youngest early Saturday morning and said "Wanna go fishing?"....she was sure she was still dreaming, so I repeated the question and she sprang awake.  I gathered the gear and pastries and away we went.  We arrived at the launch while it seemed the rest of the world was a sleep. She's evolving into quite the caster and is content with the Barbie action.  Not wanting to push fishing on her, I allow her to set the pace and I act as guide making suggestions.  She really needs to work on setting the hook as we chummed the waters well with missed fish and lost worms.  The only downside came when the casting went a wry and the worm and hook grazed her arm.  She immediately dropped the rod and teared up.  She claimed she was ready to go home and I assured her that I wasn't going to end the fun we had up to this point on a tearful end.  I let her calm herself and made some casts for her til she was back in the swing of it.  We ended our morning casting our worries away and creating memories to cherish.  Nothing makes me smile when I hear, "Daddy I like going fish with you."....and I get to reply "I like fishing with you too".