Posts Tagged ‘chironomid fly fishing’

Arron Varga and I had arranged to meet to fly fish together this afternoon. It was freezing! This summer has been one of the oddest that I’ve ever experienced.  With a brisk wind blowing, and the temperature only about 10C,  I wasn’t properly dressed.  I didn’t realize how chilly it was before I left the house.  The wind was blowing right through my jacket and shirt.  But overall it was still an enjoyable several hours.

After I arrived, I tied on this fly and almost immediately, lost two fish using it.  Then about 20 minutes later, brought to the net a nice 14 to 15 incher.  Arron finally managed to hook a trout which turned out to be a very nice sized one on a leech pattern.  At one point, we thought we might have to give Ian James a call, who successfully cut his leader to unwind it from around an anchor rope with a fish on the other end. Arron’s fish seemed to want to flee to underneath the platform we were on and it appeared it might have wrapped the leader around a post.

But Arron managed to steer the fish away and successfully netted it. A quick photo was taken and the fish was released back into the water.

There were a few fish that were grazing the surface of the water, and we thought they were after small minnows that we could see. Schools of them were swimming around, almost right under us, and every so often a trout would splash in the area.

After Arron’s fish, the action seemed to completely die down.  Sometimes I wonder if fish can communicate with other fish when that happens: “Hey! I just got caught. Careful what you try to eat.”

Eventually, Arron had to leave and I continued to fish even with the cold wind blowing and managed one more rainbow then called it a day with my fingers simply too cold to work properly and my bones shivering.  As I wrote above, this summer has been one of the oddest with very cool temperatures. If the trend continues, we’ll be having snow in September!

Arron is off to Fernie, British Columbia in a couple of weeks with “Team Osprey” to compete in this year’s “Canadian National Fly Fishing Championships.”  If I don’t see him before he heads off, I’d like to take the opportunity now to wish him and the rest of the team all the best.  I believe they will do well.

Here’s the rainbow Arron had today:

Today was one of those days where I was spending several hours doing some aggravating type of work – kind of mind numbing stuff.  The sun was shining through the window, and the thermometer told me it was very nice outside.  The weather forecast told me that the next few days were not going to be so nice, and I heard a rainbow trout calling my name.

I thought to myself, “the work will always be there, but this weather will not be” – as we approach the end of August, the number of warm days we’ll have over the next month or so will decline and if it’s anything like last year, snow could be flying the first week of October.  So, a few hours away from mundane work during the best hours of the day, and return to it in the evening was a good idea.

I gathered my gear together and drove out to Humber Springs. Enjoyed the sunshine beating down on my face, but thought it might be too bright for any decent fishing action. But it beat being inside my office.  I thought I might as well start with what I was successful with yesterday, and tied on the Copper Oval Brassie as a point fly and Ian’s Brass Ass as a dropper.  The breeze seemed to change direction several times – and always in the wrong way to where I wanted to cast.  But that was ok, and it was nice to see some chop on the surface of the water.

After awhile, I decided to switch to a leech pattern and see if the trout perhaps wanted something beefier for their dinner.   Eventually, Jim Kennedy wandered over to where I was and discussed the fishing, the flies, our Greys’ reels that we both happened to be using,  and that he was heading to Northern Ireland for a visit in December.  We talked about the weather, talked about and bragged about each other’s girlfriend, and then the fact that the fishing was slow today.

After a bit, Jim decided to wander off to another location leaving me to where I was. I decided to go back to my Brassie and Brass Ass combination.  About ten minutes later, “hoe-leee!” My rod bent right over and this fish took off like a freight train heading for the open water.  It didn’t jump but it was near the surface and left a wake in its path.  Then suddenly, the rod tip went soft, and the fish was off.  I began to bring in the line to check my flies, when I realized – I had no flies! This fish had broke my 8 lb. Seaguar flouro leader.  About 10 or 15 seconds later, a large fish (I couldn’t see the whole length of it) broke the water surface a couple of times as it swam towards the area I had hooked one.  It wasn’t jumping to take anything from the surface,  and I’m thinking it was the one I had hooked – still trying to shake the hook.

I was quite impressed however with the run that fish made while I had it on the line, and how fast it blew by me leaving that wake in the water.

I tied on another leader to my line and new flies with a dream I might hook it again, and this time successfully fight it and get back the flies it had stolen from me.  But no such luck.  I did manage to hook another smaller fish and a “long release” took place, and that was about it for today.  I had to leave around 8PM and regretted having to pack up my gear.

But I’ll certainly remember that freight train rainbow trout for a long time!

Another fun evening! I had thought I’d go out and practice some of the things I had learned from Neil Houlding yesterday, but today, I also wanted to use materials attached to hooks.  Yesterday, we just used a bit of yarn tied to the end of the leader.  I took out my Meiser System 6 rod and went through some of the exercises Neil had given me.  I should get the line system he recommended too, however.

When I arrived, I met up with one other angler who was just leaving. He said that it had been tough fishing all day for him and he hadn’t had a single hit.  And as fly anglers are want to do, we discussed flies that had been working for us, flies that had not been, the lines we were using, and the weather conditions.  I’ve noticed that some of the anglers seem to quick to go to heavy sinking lines to fish the stillwater.  This year, I’ve had more success on the slow intermediate Sixth Sense. It fishes just below the surface and I daresay even a floating line when fishing some of the patterns I’ve been using would be fine as well.  Other than the two very hot days I wrote about here and here, the fish don’t seem to be down all that deep this year.

I managed to get in an hour or so of fishing after the idle chatter with the other angler and then some spey practice.  The sun was still bright and there was no surface activity.  So I started out fishing the Viva Zonker but there were no hits at all.  As the hour progressed, the light of day began to recede and midges started coming off the water.  And finally, a few trout could be seen rising.

That’s when I decided to tie on two flies, the “Copper Tinsel Brassie” on the point with “Ian’s Brass Ass” (pictured here) on a dropper.   Well, that was just the ticket this evening.  During the first few casts, I felt several bumps but no hook ups. Then finally, a nice fish which I managed to bring within 5 feet of the bank, and could see it had taken the Brass Ass before he managed to get off.

A few more casts, more bumps and another hook up which managed to free itself.  I was starting to hope this wasn’t going to be another evening of fish on, fish lost.  But in the end, I managed to bring to the net three fish in the 16 to 19 inch range.  The largest took the Brassie, while the other two seemed to think the Brass Ass looked delicious.

Ah, I am spoiled to live ten minutes away from such fishing! It’s so easy to just leave the gear in the trunk of the car, and head out even for just an hour of fly fishing.  I am hoping in the next few days to hit some of the upper portions of the Humber River, perhaps the Credit, and maybe I’ll take a run over to the Grand.  The furthest of which, the Grand, is about a 25 minute drive. Sometimes, it’s nice to be spoiled.

Update: Ian’s Brass Ass tying instructions are available here.