Tom L

I'll demo the CF Minnow at the Monday Tying night 2/23/15. Please join us. Tiers and non-tiers all welcome.

7 or 8 years ago Bob Long was on the stump delivering a great talk on fly fishing rivers for Smallmouths. I memorized the three rules:

 

1. Fish the magic waters.

2. Fish downstream 90% of the time.

3. Make short casts (30 feet or less)

 

In this video I hear a lot of echoes of Bob's description of the magic waters which Bob described as 18- 34 inches deep. #8 is not just for trout only.

 

 

1. Fish the magic waters

It is well known that 10% of the water holds 90% of the fish. Finding the 10% requires good reading of water (a good understanding of stream anatomy and actual time on the water) to help pin point where the fish would likely be. As Kelly stated in the video that not all 18"-36" of water would hold fish, you just don't make long casts because you can make 100' casts. There are several good books on the reading of water subjects, I've these 3 and they're highly recommended: 1) Reading the water by Dave Hughes; 2) the Orvis Guide to Reading Trout Streams by Tom Rosenbauer; 3) Reading Waters by Gary Borger. Although, these books are trout books, but smallmouth and trout are living in very similar waters. Good reading of water goes much beyond just basic understanding of a stream anatomy. These books goes much deeper and they make good winter readings.

2. Fish downstream 90% of the time.

I found that this statement is true, but I don't think I can quantify them into a percentage. I do prefer to fish downstream, becasue, as Rob, Ron, and other FFers stated that it is easier to achieve a tight-line presentation and less striping which equal to less work. I only fish upstream when I can't position myself upstream above the fish likely holding area or when I need to fish deep. I use the swing technique most of the time on my downstream presentation. The swing technique causes the fly to swim downstream in an angle, very much like a spin fisherman casts his lure upstream in an angle and retrieve back downstream. And I did catch most of the fish on the swing down. I think those fish that I caught on the after the swing techniques (the strip-up, the raise-and-drop, the crawfish dance and other techniques that I mentioned in the bulletine) were fish that chased the fly downstream on the swing but didn't commit.

3. Make short casts (30 feet or less)

I prefer the term "make the first cast count". The casts can be long or short, but they needs to be acurate, and of cause short casts are more acurate than long ones. I believe "make the first cast count" is especially important when hunting for the big ones. Most of the big ones that I'd caught were within the first few casts when I get to the spot. Big fish would hunt in the prime areas of a stream. A prime area is the area that offers the most food with less energy spend and a safety place to hide near-by if dangers approach. One needs to be able to pin point these prime areas, and again good reading of water and actaul exprerience come into play. One needs to approach these prime areas stealthly and close enough to make short & accurate casts. And before one even makes the first cast or even get close to the river edge, one needs to start reading the water, strategize how to approach the prime areas stealthly and effeciently.

Thanks Mike for bringing up the subjects. There are a lot of good info that people shared here. Like most of us, I'm not a smouthmouth expert, just a weekend worrior, but these are some of the things that I followed in the past to help me catch more and bigger fish.

I am considering a 7wt. I believe that my rod is fast enough to handle the full sink. A 9' 7 wt St Croix Imperial series.

Jim, you'll be fine with a 7wt sink tip or a 7wt full sinking line. The St Croix Imperial will be able to handle both type of lines. If you do choose to go with a sink tip, I'd highly recommend a Type 5 and 20-25' sink tip.

When using sink tip, the tip should be at least 2x the water depth (e.i. in 10 fow, the sink tip should be 20' or more). Integrated sink tips come in a variety of lengths (12, 15, 20, 33,35). I believed the longest integrated sink tip in the market today is 35' which would allow you to fish up 15 fow (or maybe 20 fow) effectively.

On the added-on vs integrated sink tip line, these are some of the issue one should consider:

1. How the line would shoot thru the guides. For only 10-15' of sink tip, this is not an issue for the added-on, because the attached section would be outside the rod tip most of the time. The integrated sink tip line would definitely shoot better when you have 20' or longer tip.

2. Transfer of energy. Integrated sink tip lines are engineered to have a smooth transfer of energy from the floating line section out to the sink tip section. Again, on short sink tip line, this is not a big issue,, but on a longer sink tip if not well matched between the floating and sink tip line, I'd experienced both kicked back and crashed landing. A kicked back in when the fly-line rolls out and the the end of the roll, the tip bounces back and causing a pile-up. A crashed landing is when the tip of the fly-line piles-up and crashes, because of not enough energy to roll it all the way out. However, with time and practice, these issues can be over come.

I have a RIO Intouch type 3 full sinking line. A bit pricey, but a very good line. Very low stretch and come with a hang marker that lets you know the end of the line is coming on a strip.

OOPs. I forgot being on a Monday the restaurant will be closed?

No Ron. We do not close on Monday. We're open 7 days. If anyone can come early for dinner, that will be great. If not we'll have some snacks and refreshments from 6:30pm-7:00pm and start tying around 7:00pm.

Tom, I believe your Foxy sits at an angle when at rest. It is a great fly.

You're right, John. Tested and confirmed. Thanks for pointing that out. It is hard to visualize what your fly is doing under water when you fish the murky water of the Fox most of the time.

An Update:

I was bathtub testing the flies the other day. And to my surprise, I found out that the CF Bunny stood on its head and the tail pointed vertical while the fly was at rest. I was not sure how long the fly would stand on its head vertically, so I soaked the flies in a glass vase and timed it (see the pics). It took over an hour before the fly would lay flat. I think the buoyancy of the craft fur and the bunny strip cause the fly to stand on its head, but once the materials became completely water logged the fly laid flat. I'd heard that some fly tiers glued a piece of foam at the tip of their bunny strip fly to raise the tail. Jeff Little said that he get more strike out of his paddle tail when the tail is raised when it crawls along the bottom. I guess this is a good trait of a fly.

Tom,

are the heads spun craft hair? and will they sink without the barbell eye? Eye catchers as well as fish catchers for sure.

Yes Rob, they are all craf-fur heads. I used craft-fur stumps in a dubbing loop and figured-8 for the head. Craft-fur stump is the part that is closest to the craft-fur patch, approx 0.5-1". It is the densest part. It includes the under-fur and craft-fur.

The flies would sink without the barbell eyes or the chain eyes. As I'd mentioned before, the craft-fur head is not as buoyant as the deer-hair head; and it is not as absorbant as the wool head.

Oh so nice! A fantastic collection. That first Craft Fur Bunny is a real eye catcher.

Thanks John. That CF Bunny in the first pic was tied with a Fire Tiger Bunny strip. I inserted a rattle in the belly of some of the CF Bunnies (can't tell from the pics). Planning to experiment with rattle this coming season.

Tom, fine craftsmanship!

Hey Jim and anyone else that might be interested, we're going to have a 4th Monday tying at the Thai Garden on 2/23/15 and I'll be demo the CF Minnow. John L is working on that to set it up. Mark your calendar.

Awesome collection!

That CF Minnow would tear it up on the Kank.

Thanks Mike. The CF Minnow is an off-shoot of my CF Muddler which had been pretty good on both the Fox and the Kank. But there are some situations that I'd like the fly to sink a little faster and deeper than the CF Muddler does. That's the reason I replaced the deer hair head of the CF Muddler with the Craft-Fur head and added the chain eyes. The new fly still fishes and acts similar to the old CF Muddler but just sinks a little deeper and faster.

Nice variety & some interesting colors. I like the purple, good low light choice.

That's exactly what I'd in mind for the purple and also for the times when all the proven colors (white, yellow, tan, chart, brwon) fail. I'd switch to some funky colors like purple and hot pink.

It is my winter therapy: a fly here and there. These are some of my new/old creations.

CF Bunny

CF Minnow

Tube CF Minnow

This is what-you- end-up once you add them up.

Lots of good ideas here.

Gonna try to make it to the IF4 this year. Thanks for the heads up.

Ha! No more teeth marks on the rod.

Rich gave me a sheet of the silicone that he mentioned in the last bulletin a while back. I just started playing with it a few days ago. These are the flies that I came up with: a crawfish and a paddle tail.

Scott, I can do Sunday 9am-2pm.

Nice..... It can be viewed as a flat wing Hornburg also.

Mike nailed it that the buoyancy of the wing was suppose to keep the fly rides hook-point-up, but I have a serious double that this fly would. 2 things might prevent it from riding as such.

First is the tail. It adds opposite buoyancy countering the wing's buoyancy. Dish the tail would help.

Second is the cable eyes. The way the eyes were tied on in the video adds additional weight to the hook-point-side. The wing may not have enough buoyancy to flip the fly hook-point-up. Flip the cable eyes up or opposit of the way it was tied would help.

These are just my quick observations without actually testing the fly.

double what Rob said.

These are 2 additional ideas that I could think of.

Looped-Wing Leech:

I cut the yarn (cut only the core) into short pieces; then tied one end of a piece to the shank and looped the other end back and tied to the shank. Dupped the shank with Awesome Possume. And took another cut piece, tied one end to the hook shank and looped the other end back and tied to the hook shank again. Then dupped the shank again. And repeated 4-5 times until the entire hook shank was covered. The second photo, I turned the fly upside down to better show the technique.

Stacked-Wing Minnow:

This minnow is virtually a modern twist of the old favorites Micky Finn and Black Nose Dace by using Romance yarn as the wing. To accomplished the stacked wing, I again cut the yarns (cut only the core) into short pieces; then I used a lighter flame to fuse one of the yarn core pieces (the ends that would hang freely) to prevent them from frailing out. Tied the unflame end of the yarn pieces to the hook shank and stacked them up on top of each other.

Thanks everyone for the kind words. I think these new materials discovered by Rich have a lot of potential, especially the Romance yarn. I first saw them was while fishing with Rich on lake shabbona a few months back. Rich was fishing his newly created Ma's Leech and the way that fly moved in the water was very life-like. I'm definately anxious to give these new flies a test drive.

If you have these yarns at hand and had created some flies, please post and share your creations. I do have a few more ideas on how to use them. I'll post them in a near future.

Muddler style Flies

This is the second installment in the Romance and Eyelash yarn series. I used Romance yarns as the tails (furled) and bodies (palmered) - these are the same techniques that Rich used on his Ma's Leech. For some flashes, I, again, opted for Eyelash yarns or Polar chenilles (just a few turns). I'd found that adding a hackle collar gave a smooth transition from the body to the head of the fly, and it also provided an option for adding a hot spot as seen in the 1st fly which is an all white fly with a red collar. The head of the flies are made of craft furs (dupping loop, figured 8, and trimmed). I've been tying a lot of craft fur flies and found that the craft fur stumps that I trimmed off just go to waste and now I've found a good use for them. The craft fur head makes the fly looks and swims like a traditinal Muddler, but less bouyant. Fly with eyes just looks more life-like and instead of glue-on eyes-- I wanted something more permanent-- and chain-eyes were a good option for this fly. So here they are:

Head: Craft Fur (dubbing loop, figured 8, trimmed)

Eyes: Chain eyes

Collar: hackles

Flash: Eyelash yarn (optional)

Body: Romance yarn

Tail: Romance yarn

Rich Mc was very generouse to have given me some samples of Romance and Eyelash yarns. I have found that the Romance yarns are good substitutes of hackles & marabous and the Eyelash yarns are good for adding extra flashes to a fly. The Eyelash yarns textures are very similar to Hareline's Polar Chenille, but they are a little bit stiffer - not as fine as the Polar Chenille.

Following Rich's steps, I'd toyed around with these materials and came up with a few flies.

Clouser Style Flies

In this 1st series, I used Romance yarns as the belly of the Clouser (palmered), rabbit strips as the top or back. And for added flashes, I used a few turns of Eyelash yarns or a few turns of Polar Chenilles.