Bug Bond Thunder Creek.
Bug Bond Thunder Creek, a great salt water sea trout pattern.
The original Thunder creek streamer series came from the vice of American, Keith Fulsher. In the early sixties, not satisfied with the regular head and eye size of streamers, he began experimenting and chose the reverse buck tail technique for his Thunder creek patterns. This technique involves tying the buck tail, as the technique suggests, the opposite way and then folding it back over the hook shank and tying down to form the head. The simplicity of this pattern and the minimal materials needed to tie it, is fly design at its very best! He achieved his goal, a slim two toned body with a large minnow head that allowed for larger eyes, the main attack point for predatory fish and through changing only the buck tail colour and hook size, could imitate numerous baitfish. Streamers generally fall into two categories, baitfish imitations and attractors! I am in no doubt that the Thunder creek covers both. You can try a whole load of colour combinations, and if you would like a little flash in the pattern tie this in at the rear of the head before folding the wings back. Also if you would like a heavier pattern use lead under the head dubbing. If you are looking for a slimmer pattern to imitate a sand eel, replace the buck tail with a synthetic material like fish hair or DNA, but dont build up the head with dubbing, this will keep the pattern slim and streamline.
1
Secure your straight eye streamer hook securely fixed in the vice.
Attatch your tying thread and cover the first third of the hook shank.
3
Now cut a small bunch of buck tail and even the ends in a hair stacker. measure the hair bunch to the correct length required and tie in as shown, on top of the hook shank.
4
Turn your hook up side down in the vice.
5
Tie in another bunch of lighter buck tail on the underside of the hook shank. This should be just a little shorter than the first. Make sure that the forward whippings of tying thread are tight into the hook eye.
6
Now apply a little dubbing to the tying thread and build up a tight dense base for the head of the baitfish. Make sure that the head is not larger than the initial butts of buck tail. Finish with the tying thread hanging at the base of the head.
7
This stage can be done free hand, but you can achieve much better results using a transparent plastic tube. Place the tube over the eye of the hook pushing the buck tail back to form the wing.
8
Make a few tight turns of tying thread to form the head. The Bucktail wing will flare outwards.
9
Carefully remove the tube, by twisting it from side to side while carefully pulling off the head. Make a few more secure tight turns of tying thread and whip finish. Apply the tape eyes one each side. To set the wing flat wet your fingers and stroke the wing.
10
The only thing remaining now is to coat the head with Bug Bond. The first coat is just to secure the tape eyes. Make sure that when applying the next two coats that you cover the band of tying thread. When the wing dry’s it will remain flat.
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All in one… a three minute dun mayfly pattern.
This pattern I developed out of necessity during a unexpected Vulgata hatch.
To find a simpler dun mayfly imitation will be difficult. All you need in the way of materials is one long fibered CdC feather and a short foam cylinder and a hook.
I named the fly “All In One” as the whole fly is tied with the same one CdC feather. You need to practice a little if the techniques I us are unfamiliar too you, but with a little practice or after you have tied a half dozen or so, it only takes about two minutes to tie this simple but effective pattern. All in one floats fantastic as the whole fly is made from CdC and foam.
1
Secure your hook in the vice so the jaws of the vice hold the hook at the bottom of the bend, and that the straight part of the Klinkhamer hook is horizontal.
2
Choose a long fibered CdC feather and comb all the fibres back as illustrated about 1 cm from the feather tip.
3
Tie in the CdC feather at the rear of the horizontal part of the hook shaft.
4
Cut a short length of foam cylinder and tie this in as a regular parachute post.
5
Attach your hackle pliers to the stem of the CdC feather and carefully wind this around the foam post as you would a regular parachute hackle.
6
Comb the CdC fibres that cover the hook eye back so they are not in the way and tie down the CdC feather.
7
Trim off the points of the CdC parachute hackle and use the surpluss to dub the thorax. You dont need much.
8
Finish with a couple of whip finishes and your All in One is finished.
Make a fast Buck.
Buck-tail’s are not only great patterns to tie and fish but are making a huge comeback.
Here are a few of the most recent I have tied, I will follow-up this post soon with an in depth article about tying these beautiful flies and the use of Buck-tail.
Bug Bond Thunder Creek.
Bug Bond Thunder Creek, a great salt water sea trout pattern.
The original Thunder creek streamer series came from the vice of American, Keith Fulsher. In the early sixties, not satisfied with the regular head and eye size of streamers, he began experimenting and chose the reverse buck tail technique for his Thunder creek patterns. This technique involves tying the buck tail, as the technique suggests, the opposite way and then folding it back over the hook shank and tying down to form the head. The simplicity of this pattern and the minimal materials needed to tie it, is fly design at its very best! He achieved his goal, a slim two toned body with a large minnow head that allowed for larger eyes, the main attack point for predatory fish and through changing only the buck tail colour and hook size, could imitate numerous baitfish. Streamers generally fall into two categories, baitfish imitations and attractors! I am in no doubt that the Thunder creek covers both. You can try a whole load of colour combinations, and if you would like a little flash in the pattern tie this in at the rear of the head before folding the wings back. Also if you would like a heavier pattern use lead under the head dubbing. If you are looking for a slimmer pattern to imitate a sand eel, replace the buck tail with a synthetic material like fish hair or DNA, but dont build up the head with dubbing, this will keep the pattern slim and streamline.
1
Secure your straight eye streamer hook securely fixed in the vice.
Attatch your tying thread and cover the first third of the hook shank.
3
Now cut a small bunch of buck tail and even the ends in a hair stacker. measure the hair bunch to the correct length required and tie in as shown, on top of the hook shank.
4
Turn your hook up side down in the vice.
5
Tie in another bunch of lighter buck tail on the underside of the hook shank. This should be just a little shorter than the first. Make sure that the forward whippings of tying thread are tight into the hook eye.
6
Now apply a little dubbing to the tying thread and build up a tight dense base for the head of the baitfish. Make sure that the head is not larger than the initial butts of buck tail. Finish with the tying thread hanging at the base of the head.
7
This stage can be done free hand, but you can achieve much better results using a transparent plastic tube. Place the tube over the eye of the hook pushing the buck tail back to form the wing.
8
Make a few tight turns of tying thread to form the head. The Bucktail wing will flare outwards.
9
Carefully remove the tube, by twisting it from side to side while carefully pulling off the head. Make a few more secure tight turns of tying thread and whip finish. Apply the tape eyes one each side. To set the wing flat wet your fingers and stroke the wing.
10
The only thing remaining now is to coat the head with Bug Bond. The first coat is just to secure the tape eyes. Make sure that when applying the next two coats that you cover the band of tying thread. When the wing dry’s it will remain flat.
Drift boat fishing in Trysil
Marc Petitjean and Torill Kolbu fish a drift on the Trysil River with Espen from Call of the wild.
My pale yellow mayfly imitation that was easy to see on the dark water, drifted perfectly 7-8 metres from the boat, quickly approaching two rolling grayling in the next pool, that we had had our eyes on for the last 80 metres or so, drift. When without warning another, previously unseen fish rose from the depths of a dark pool and enthusiastically disappeared with my mayfly. Espen began pulling on the oars to slow our decent and dropped the anchor. I lifted my rod and it immediately assumed the golden arch position with the grayling diving deep into the pool. After a short battle my first grayling of the season was released.
Late one Sunday night, 02.45 to be precise, the last week of June, I was woken when my mobile bellowed out the familiar SMS tone, was this the message that I had been waiting a week for ? “1 new message received” I pressed the keys on my mobile feverishly, as I fumbled for my reading glasses. The message read, The Danica are hatching, Come ASAP, Espen. 03.26 I was packed and in the car with only a thermos of strong black Columbian and a *Swedish General, to keep me company for the five hour drive from my home town just south of Oslo, to meet Espen Eliertsen inTrysil.
Espen who is owner and head guide for “Call of the wild” a fishing guide service in Trysil, is the first person in Europe to import and use Clacka drift boats from the USA. Espen is a trained guide who has guided both hunting and fishing in USA and Austrailia, as well as being a white water rafting instructor. Earlier in the month, he had promised me a boat fishing trip unlike any other. If you regularly read any north american fly fishing magazines, the very unique and American looking Clacka drift boats, will be familiar to you, normally photographed in the equally unique landscape on a river in Big sky Montana. But how would they look and even more, function, on a Norwegian river ? I was intrigued and couldn´t wait to find out…
The drop anchor on one of the clacka drift boats.
Anchor release system.
Rod holders are safe and well placed in the boat.
- The standing support feature keeps the caster on an even keel.
These McKenzie style drift boats can be traced back to old North Atlantic cod fishermen but where somewhat popularised for fly fishing by the the famous Western Novelist and fisherman Zane Grey, who used them at his fishing camp on the Rogue river.
Allthough the initial overall shape of the boat has remained the same the modern design features that Clacka have used years developing, make this the ultimate river drift, fishing platform.
After a brief safety talk, about what, and what not to do, not dissimilar to that you receive on a plane from a flight attendant, we where in the boat and starting the first drift.
The weather forcast for the next two days was echoed in the headlines of the tabloid press, all using words as “Tropical” “Heat wave” “Over the whole of Norway” “30 degrees +”. As I understood from Espen, we needed the temperature to rise in the river, in order for the Danica to do there thing, but was this going to be too much of a good thing ?
Espen with a 43 cm Trysil grayling.
There where Danica and Sulpherea and Rodanis mayflies hatching everywhere, and when I say everywhere, I mean everywhere, but this being the first day of the hatch, the famous Trysil grayling were not as eager as the seagulls to take advantage of this seasonal delicacy. I couldt belive that fish where not rising! The whole river surface was covered with duns, popping up and floating like small sail boats down river. Espen re-asured me that it always takes a little time for them to start feeding on the surface when the Danica hatch first begins. The first few hours they concentrate where the food is most plentiful and that below the surface.
For the next three hours we had only been in contact with a few fish and drifted just about every type of river condition from shallow rapids to fast flowing channels to flat calm slow drifts, and the Clacka drift boat in combination with Espen´s expert handling impressed me more and more, performing perfectly as a sturdy fishing and casting platform at all times. We drifted through breath taking Alaskan type landscape, with steep rising pine and spruce covered mountains on each side of us, that you only get full effect of from mid-river, down to where the river opens out and widens almost into a large basin, here Espen suggested that we take lunch, I had actually forgotten about eating but suddenly realised the almost Parkinson like symptoms my hands where showing form the consumption of way too much Columbian and General in the last ten hours and no food. So I agreed and Espen dropped the anchor in mid stream, We can sit and watch for rises as we eat lunch. It sounded like a plan.
Doing the Alska drift.
While we where finishing up sandwiches and ice cold drinks that Espen had tucked away in one of the boats many water tight storage compartments, heavy clouds began moving in from the north accompanied with a light rainfall, but still the air temperature over 25 degrees. In other words, perfect hatching weather. We noticed first one rise, close to land, not a huge splash but a typical grayling rise followed by a delicate sip, leaving the tell tale bubble the way grayling do. Shortly followed by another one not far from the boat, and yet another, and like magic, and for reasons we will probably never come to understand, small rings began to decorate the surface of the flat calm river everywhere, it had started.
On the drift down the fish I had managed to take, after a few changes of fly had all fallen for a detached bodied CdC mayfly pattern of my own creation, I tied on a new one while Espen pulled up the anchor and manoeuvred the boat into a tactical casting position for what he thought was a better and steady rising fish. The anchor on these drift boats is ingenious to say the least. No disturbing the fishermen in the boat while you open hatches and dig out the rope and anchor, and then throw it overboard. This is fishing boat design at its best. All Espen has to do is step on the anchor release which is positioned by his feet where he sits to row, and the anchor is released from the back of the boat. When he needs to take in the anchor, he just pulls on the rope from his sitting position and its up again.
Arve puts Jon onto another fish.
One of the other great advantages of fishing from these boats, is the boat with a little help from Espens control with the oars, gives a drifted fly the perfect drift with a minimum of mending the fly line. You are also not only casting to rising fish, but while drifting your fly is constantly covering new water and new fish. When drifting over faster runs of water you can change from dry fly to a single nymph or a set-up with a heavy nymph on the point and a couple of lighter nymphs as droppers and a strike indicator. This is not only an extremely effective method for fishing pocket water but a deadly technique for searching out larger grayling in the deeper faster water, that otherwise would be inaccessible. If you intend to maximise your fishing affectivity you can set-up two rods, one with dry fly and one with nymphs that you can alternate between as the river determines as you drift.
With a new fly on the leader and Espen holding the boat steady he says ” nine o clock, 15 metres ” I lift my rod and make a couple of false casts to shake of the dry fly floatant and lie my line down in the nine o clock position, “perfect” says Espen. The fly drifts perfectly along with several naturals, one of which is 60 cm or so ahead of mine, when it slowly enters the steady risers feeding window and “sup” its gone. Mine is next in line ! and like a text book account of how it should be, the fish obliges and leaves only small rings in the surface where my fly once was. If there was only a slight breeze these rises would be impossible to see. I automatically lift the rod and my line tightens, I can feel immediately that this fish is of another class from the ones I have had contact with so far. The fish dives and enters the strong under current using his majestic dorsal fin to his advantage and holding his position deep on the bottom. After 2 or 3 minutes he succumbed to the overwhelming power of space age carbon. What a beautiful fish, 38 cm of grayling, a new personal record on dry fly.
The largest fish of the day,about to be released.
The rise continued for another 45 minutes or so, or five more fish, and then began to fall off until there was only the odd rise here and there. We drifted down to the bridge where we where going to take the boat on shore. While unloading the boat I noticed some hefty rising that wasn´t more than 70 cm from one of the bridge supports. There where three heavy grayling rolling in the surface one after another, each time they came up showing their whole side and dorsal fin to us. I pointed them out to Espen when he returned from the car park, you´ll have to take the boat out yourself if you want to try for them. Espen had and appointment with a priest and 20 other people that he would float them down the river as part of a mid summer eve event, and he was already running late. I just have to go and get the hanger, I´ll be back in 15 minutes. I jumped in the boat and drifted the 50 or so metres I needed to get me in casting distance and dropped the anchor. After quickly dusting my fly I could now see clearly 3 huge grayling, one of them or more, rolling every 10 – 15 seconds sucking in every dun that floated over them. I made a cast, but I had misjudged the current and mid section of my fly line began forming a rapidly increasing down stream loop, that any second was going to start stripping my fly out of a natural drift. I began mending my fly line like a mad man, trying to correct the drift before my fly sailed over the rising fish. Just before my fly entered the critical part of the drift, over the fish, I gave my rod a violent flick and lifted what fly line I could out of the water stripping my fly across the surface for about 40 cm and quickly dropped the tip of my rod again. The result was perfect and as soon as it came over the first fish he rolled and once again my line tightened. And like the other grayling it wasen´t long before he was on the bottom in mid river. Typical I thought, the best fish of the trip and no one here to help me photograph it. When I eventually brought him up to the boat and slipped the landing net under him I could see this was even bigger than my previous best fish earlier in the day. I lifted him into the boat and removed the hook. Knowing Espen was soon to return I placed the fish back in the landing net and into the water.
A couple of minutes later Espen was back on the shore and I lifted the net in triumph, and shouted we need to photograph it before the light goes. After 20 or so pulls of the oars Espen was reviving the fish while I sorted out the camera gear. We returned the fish after a short photo session. He was between 43 – 45 cm, another personal record from the river Trysil.
I can strongly recommend this drift boat trip on the Trysil river for both boat and bank fishermen alike. You experience a whole new type of fishing in fantastic surroundings. But it dosen´t stop at the river Tysil. The area around Trysil is full of lakes and rivers that contain not only trout and grayling but also char and pike. All the information that you need can be obtained by contacting Espen, who speaks fluent English or Destination Trysil the local tourist office.
Lots more information can be obtained from Espens website. http://www.callofthewild.no which is also in English.
Marc with a nice Trysil brown taken on the wade and fish beats.
Drift boat fishing on the Trysil River info:
Day trip drift boating
Price per boat (max 2 persons per boat) Nok 3000,-
8 hours drifting including transport too and from the river.
Day trip includes:
Meet at the Trysil Hyttegrend/ Trysil fishing centre.
Drive to putout sight for boat where drift will begin. Here you will be instructed about the boat and its equipment and safety.
One stop approximately half way through the days drift and lunch. There will also be opportunities to stop if wished for wading and fishing on good wading stretches of the river throughout the drift especially in the shallower parts in the middle of the river, that are otherwise difficult to access without a boat.
Included in the price:
Transport too and from the river
Guide and boat
Lunch
Not included:
Fishing license
Fishing equipment (can be hired)
Recommended equipment:
Waders
Hat (Must have)
Sun glasses (Must Have)
Neck scarf
Rain clothes
Warm pullover
4-5 weight rod
Half day drift boat trip:
Price per boat (max 2 persons per boat) Nok 1500,-
4 hours drift including transport too and from the river.
Meet at the Trysil Hyttegrend/ Trysil fishing centre.
Drive to putout sight for boat where drift will begin. Here you will be instructed about the boat and its equipment and safety.
Drift a 4 hour stetch of river. There will be oppertunities to stop if wished for wading and fishing on good wading stretches of the river throughout the drift especially in the shallower parts in the middle of the river, that are otherwise difficult to access without a boat.
Included in the price:
Transport too and from the river
Guide and boat
Coffee
The different drifts:
North drift:
The drift starts way north in Trysil and we drift down to Sennsjøen. The river is slow flowing here but has many fine stretches with good dry fly fishing. A very good drift with possibilities for good Grayling, trout and lower down near Sennsjøen big white fish.
You will drift through fantastic landscape with good opportunities to come in contact with big fish.
Middle drift:
We start between Trysil centre and Jordet. This stretch offers a varied fishing from faster flowing stretches to slow stretches with deep pools. The Grayling dominates this stretch but there are still good possibilities for trout and down at Sennsjøen big white fish and Grayling.
Southern drift:
This drift goes through the Gjerfloen fly fishing zone of river. We drift through all types of river from slow floating to powerful rapids. Here it is only allowed to fish with fly and this stretch has a bag limit of one fish per fisherman under 38 cm. But you can continue to fish catch & release. This stretch was the first of its kind in Norway. Only 20 fishing licenses sold each day.
Half day drift boat trip:
From Strandvollen bridge to Trysil centre.
This stretch offers a good varied fishing for Grayling but trout are possible down near Trysil centre here are also possibilities for big white fish. This trip gives you a good introduction as to what drift boat fishing is all about.
Season:
Week 24-27 Mayfly excellent hatches and dry fly fishing
Week 26-27 Danica/ Vulgata hatching
Week 28-29 Start of the caddis fly hatch. Also possible mayfly hatching.
Week 30-35 Caddis hatches especially good in the evening and at night. Some mayfly hatching.
Week 35-40 Second generation mayfly hatches and caddis. Normally very good fishing on days with good weather conditions right until there is ice on the water.
For information on water levels and air and water temperature, hatches see Trysilflyfisher on Twitter.
Booking, Contact and other info:
Espen A Eilertsen
Tel: 0047 404 15677
e mail: espen@callofthewild.no
The fly for Autumn Pike…
Pike Steamer, a sure attractor for autumn pike
“Steaming is term given to a style of mugging where an unsuspecting victim is chosen, followed and attacked suddenly at great speed without warning”.
The art of camouflage, surprise and speed are the pikes most powerful weapons for securing a meal. Of course some meals are obtained easier than others, but generally speaking the freshwater crocodile wont say no to a free meal. Like the muggers victims the pikes are chosen for much the same reasons, easy pickings! weak and old, or both, unable to move fast or get away, once attacked and of course the bounty.
The idea behind this pattern is to work on all the pikes predatory instincts, and make the victim (the fly) as attractive and irresistible as possible. I do this through fly design and presentation. When designing predatory patterns there are several things to consider and a few key elements that all patterns should have. If you want a general pattern that you could use just about anywhere for anything, then you should choose to imitate a natural food that is widely available – like small bait fish. Then you have to consider the four most important attractor factors:
Movement… colour… eyes… and sound.
The movement in this pattern is achieved through a combination of materials. Both the marabou and Icelandic sheep hair are extremely mobile in water, but their effect is enhanced by the weight of the Epoxy head. Predators find this swimming action, irresistible.
The eyes, which are always an attack point, are oversized for additional predator impact.
If you keep all these factors in mind when designing predatory patterns you won’t go wrong.
During a three week fly fishing tip to the Amazon, home of more fresh water predatory fish than anywhere else on the planet, I developed a technique using surface splashing to stimulate feeding and awareness of my streamer, which works just as well for our own pike. Maybe you’d like to add this technique to your own armoury of tactics.
It requires though a specific leader set-up to work at it’s best, especially when fishing large flies. And it’s simplicity in itself – take around 1.5m of 30lb mono, and connect the fly to the mono with a Rapala knot. This will give a better swimming action on the stiff mono. (By the way, I have never encountered a leader shy pike, and seldom use a wire trace.)
This short, stiff leader will not only give bigger flies better turn-over when casting, but also better control and precision in presentation, and (touch wood), I have never had a break-off. The following technique is only possible with such a leader.
Firstly, find a likely spot on the water, where there’s maybe a pike lying in wait, or resting after a hunt. Before casting, make sure that your streamer is well-soaked and all air removed. This will not only make it sink quicker but also make it more aerodynamic and so easier to cast. Then with a short, hard and direct cast, shoot your streamer into the water as hard as you can – then repeat this three or four times in the same area of water. Splash that fly and heavy leader as loud as you like, it will surely attract the immediate attention of any pike within spitting distance.
Make one last cast and this time let your streamer sink… and then retrieve as normal. If there’s a pike in the vicinity it will come to the fly, the rest, as they say, is up to you…
Hook: Mustad S71SNP-ZS # 3/0-5/0
Thread: Dyneema
Wing: Icelandic sheep hair
Flash: Holographic tinsel
Over wing: Light Brite
Collar: Spun rabbit
Cheeks: 2 Grizzle hackles
Wing topping: Five strands of long natural peacock herl
Hackle: Spun Marabou Yellow
Eyes: Large mobile eyes coated with resin
1
Place hook in vice as shown and attach tying thread at the rear of the hook shank.
Tie in a long length of fine tapered Icelandic sheep hair or synthetic sub. If you choose a synthetic substitute make sure that its not so stiff it doesn’t pulsate in the water, and that its not so soft it lacks body.
2
Now taking the wing material in your left hand, back comb the sheep hair. This means run the comb the opposite way you would normally, like girls did the the early eighties to get more body for bigger hair. This will accumulate the shorter hair fibers at the base of the tail and create the illusion of more body volume, with out adding extra weight to the pattern.
3
Tie-in on top of the wing approximately 10 long strands of holographic tinsel, or another chosen flash material of your choice. Place a few drops of glue or varnish on the whippings to make the fly stronger and more durable.
4
On top of the wing tie in a bunch of pearl light brite to add a little more volume and attractor flash to the wing and body.
5
Cut a short length of cross-cut rabbit strip and place the rabbit strip in a dubbing loop and spin to make a nice dense dubbing brush.
NB. If spinning a thick-dense rabbit fur, with under wool, you will need an extremely strong tying thread to make the dubbing loop. If you use a standard thread it will most likely break before the loop is spun enough to hold the fur securely. It also helps to use a heavier dubbing spinner rather than a lighter one.
6
Wind in the spun rabbit hair making sure you comb back the fibers with each turn when winding inn to form the collar as shown.
7
Select 2 broad grizzle hackles and colour on both sides of the hackle with a waterproof felt pen.
8
Tie in the grizzle hackles one each side of the collar.
9
For the wing topping tie in 5 long strands of peacock herl. The strongest herl is found just below the peacock eye on the tail feather. If you are having problems getting the herl to curve over the wing correctly, run them one at a time, carefully over the blunt side of a pair of scissors, between your finger and thumb, just like you would with a ribbon when wrapping a gift.
10
Make another dubbing brush as in steps 5 & 6 but this time with long fine tapered marabou.
11
Wind the dubbing brush on to make the front hackle. Finish off with a couple of whip finishes.
12
Glue on 2 large mobile dolls eyes. Make sure that these are evenly balanced on the hook shank. Or if you wish to give your steamer a injured affect, glue on the eyes unevenly or even, two different eyes, one much larger than the other, and the fly will fish off center.
13
Give the eyes and head a coat of Bug Bond or Epoxy resin, making sure that you coat both eyes in a “glass ball” of resin.
14
Once the Bug Bon is applied you give it a quick blast with the UV light to cure. Or if you have used Epoxy place it on a rotary dryer if you have one until set.
15
Your finished and fish ready Pike steamer.
Just thought I would re-publish my most popular post. Bee Cee Caddis Pupa
Bee Cee Caddis Pupa
Hook Mustad C49S curved caddis # 6 -14
Thread Dyneema
Gills Ostrich herl
Body Fine leather strip (chamois)
Under body Dubbing / Lead free wire if required
Legs Partridge hackle & CDC
Collar/Head Hares ear dubbing & CDC Dubbing
Each summer a few fishing freinds and I make the annual fishing trip from our home town Skien in southern Norway to Lofsdalen in Sweden. A journey that under normal circumstances will take six hours driving, from door to door.
Lofsdalen is acctually known for two things, skiing and bears. During the winter, when the bears are sleeping, Lofsdalen is a Mecca for ski and snowboard enthusiasts and becomes a throbbing white metropolis of snow scooters, snow cats and ski lifts. But at the time of our annual trip, the first week of July, most of the snow, and all of the winter turists have long gone, and the bears along with the vast amounts of mosquitoes awake hungry from their long winter sleep.
The timing of our trip is not coincidental, with the help of the internet and telephone, 14 days before our trip we start a network of weather information between us. Sending web cam links weather forcasts and any other related info as to the conditions in Lofsdalen. Beacause each year around the first week of July ephemera vulgata can start hatching in fantastic numbers on these mountain lakes, and the big brown trout that have also spent a long winter, under the ice, are also hungry.
Yes, I know what you might be thinking, ephemera vulgata is a mayfly and this is a piece about caddis pupa ? well the past two years we havent managed to get our timing right, because of freak weather conditions, Lofsdalen is from 600 -1200m above sea level, and is subsiquently, subject to dramatic weather changes.
The back up plan, if you like, for not getting our mayfly timming right is the hatches of aeuropes largest caddis fly Phygania Grandis or great red sedge. These first hatches are not as proliphic as the vulagta hatches and no where near as challanging for the fly fisherman, but a emerging pupa fished correctly, just under the surface can result in fantastic sport.
A good caddis pupa pattern can make the difference between no fish and fish !
When the caddis fly hatches into the adult insect the species are more or less, divided into two. The ones that hatch at the surface in open water and the those that make there way to the shore, where they climb out on plants or any other structure that is available. When this occurs and caddis pupa are on the move this pattern fishes extremely well.
When fishing this pattern, I like to dress only the head and collar with a good floatant ie: cdc oil, this also creates a perfect air bubble around the head just like the natural, and only when the pattern has soaked a little water does it begin to fish correctly. When the porus leather and dubbed underbody have taken on water and the head is dressed with floatant, this pattern sinks so slowly that it almost “hangs” just under the surface. I like to let it sink for 10-12 seconds or so, but you should keep alert during this “free fall” period, as criusing fish will also pick this pattern up “on the drop”. After the pupa has had time to sink I carefully mend the slack out of my fly lineand then lift the tip of my rod so that the pupa rushes towards the surface, this is when the take normally comes.
Decpite the multitude of families, sub families and species of caddis flies, the only thing you have to change is the colour and size, the pattern can remain the same.
Contre-jour Fine art photographic prints
Arctic char detail from the comming Contre-jour exhibition of photographs by Barry Ord Clarke
The 32 images in this coming exhibition endorse Barry’s love and passion for the sport as a fly fisherman, photographer and artist. The viewer is taken on a journey into the world of fly fishing that is rarely seen. On first encountering these beautiful images, they are sufficiently recognizable as images of fish and fishing, but as you approach and view them at close range, they transform into a graphic and sometimes abstract, overlapping of organic patterns and colour.
All images are for sale, signed and numbered by the artist. Barry is also making a series of limited photographs with hand tied flies in beautiful mounted frames. I will keep you posted regarding the exhibition. For sales and enquires please contact:
barrycl@online.no
Skyrise. Black & White hand print 80×60 cm
Vulgate mayflies. Colour hand print 80×60 cm.
Sea trout fishing. 80×60 cm Black & White hand print
New Hatches cover shot
Check out my stone fly nymph photo on the cover of the new Hatches magazine.
