Posts Tagged ‘nymphs’

I’ve been looking at some of the newer (and very expensive) fly boxes that are now available. It’s seems funny to me that many of them are being sold as if “waterproofness” was a big deal as far as fishing flies. One company says of their boxes,

“These boxes have an absolute airtight seal with a recessed silicone gasket and postive locking system. They will NOT leak!”

I’m not too worried about my fly boxes “leaking.” They are seldom filled with water in the first place. But perhaps they mean that these boxes won’t leak in. But so what if they do? I’m going to be taking flies out of the box anyhow, and putting the fly in water. Sure, it will dry somewhat if I give the fly a few quick casts in the air before returning it to the fly box but it will still likely have some moisture on it – and now I’m putting it back into a “waterproof” box? For what purpose?

I suppose if I drop the fly box in water, I don’t want water getting into the box. However, the odd time I have dropped a plastic fly box into the water, I was able to grab it in time as it floated before much moisture got in to it. If I’m fishing situations where I can’t get the box because the current is too fast, I’m unlikely to ever see that fly box again anyhow, waterproof or not.

How often do you drop your fly boxes into the river?

Another company says this about their waterproof fly boxes:

“Moisture proof so flies stay dry”

Huh? Are these flies you are planning on using for fishing?

Here’s the thing: If you are using a waterproof box – unless they have come up with some new waterproof breathable material for fly boxes, once you shut that box, there is no evaporation or air flow going on. Put a slightly damp fly into a waterproof box, it has less chance that it will completely dry in a waterproof box than one that is not waterproof.

As far as long term storage, I’m not too worried about humidity getting into my fly boxes and ruining the flies. When I went to visit the Canadian Sport Fishing museum in British Columbia some years ago, they had a collection of Alexander Haig-Brown’s flies on display – and they weren’t kept in any waterproof fly boxes. They seemed quite fishable to me after all these years, too.

I have a collection of nymphs and other wet flies in fly boxes that my father owned. When he passed on, I inherited the boxes. The fly boxes are not waterproof and I know my dad fished those flies – getting them wet. I’m sure he did not dry every single one of them carefully before returning them to the fly box – and guess what? After more than ten years, those flies are still quite fine!

Personally, I think you risk more damage through material rot and rusting of hooks when using a waterproof box that does not allow for evaporation and airflow. If I were to have waterproof boxes that I used regularly, I think I’d probably drill a few tiny holes in it.

What’s your opinion? Worth the extra money to get waterproof fly boxes or do they really serve a purpose worth the extra cost? Tell me in the comment section.

Tonight, I wanted to tie up some bead head nymphs. You think I could find my beads?? Actually, the problem is that I’ve moved several times over the past few years, so even some of my fly tying stuff is in different places, different boxes, and if I haven’t needed something or other in the past while, it’s still packed away somewhere.

But I was SURE I had my beads in a handy location. I mean.. bead headed nymphs are a mainstay of mine.. except that I haven’t tied up any bead headed flies for awhile.

I looked and looked.. and almost decided to head to New Orleans, to get some beads. Now for youngsters, or those that don’t know about beads in relation to New Orleans, I apologize. This will mean nothing to you!

Probably a good thing, too. Believe me, the best beads for fly tying are NOT found in New Orleans, generally speaking. But after searching for my beads tonight, I was getting desperate.

Until finally.. another box opened, and there they were! So, I tied up some “secret” patterns with beads (remember, I can’t share my patterns until the Canadian Fly Fishing Championships has been completed), with my 3 1/2 year old son, sitting on my knee, fascinated with dead rabbit’s faces, cow tails, and feathers. He helped me do some dubbing, and then when done, pronounced, “Nice bug, Daddy!”

Heck, if my 3 1/2 year old can see the “buggyness” in the files we tied tonight, surely a fish with an IQ of.. well, whatever a fish has an IQ of, will see “BUG!!… Bug I want to eat!!” over these poorly tied flies.

I think I’m creating another fly tier. But he wouldn’t appreciate the beads of New Orleans. Not yet, anyhow.

Colin and I have been successful on both counts – he is still here and tonight we went fishing. Once again, on the Grand River near Elora. We arrived about 5PM, the day was sunny with some light breezes and the water very clear – close to normal flow levels and height. Although, admittedly I’ve not spent much time on the Grand River fly fishing having in the past preferred sections of the Saugeen.

But I have to admit I’m learning to really enjoy the Grand River. I fished some of it years ago, but it always seemed to be overated in many respects – and I didn’t like the sudden differences in flow rates that could occur depending on what the conservation authority figured it needed to do at the Shand Damn.

Anyhow, Colin and I began the evening’s fishing with nymphs. Within about 15 minutes, he had himself a small chub. An hour and a half later, and after a number of missed hits, a larger chub. On a fly he tied himself! This was not looking good! Colin was ahead in the fish landed score by 2, against dad’s zip. By then, there was both a Hendrickson and Caddis hatch going on, all at the same time. The water all around me had rings where fish were rising. I tied on a pattern which drifted high on the water – perhaps a bit too high, as I had hits just about every cast – but no real hook ups. What was also interesting to me was that the fish did not seem interested at all in anything smaller than a size 12 or 14. The larger flies were what they were interested in – but, it also seemed to me that most of the fish hitting my flies were on the small side – less than 6″.

I kept looking downstream, watching my son work the water – I am really impressed with how he has taken to fly fishing. He slowly worked sections, and quite smartly too – even though he was not sucessful in more than two fish. His casting is beautiful and I had wished I brought along my video camera just so he could see later how good his casting actually is.

The hatch seemed to end – I waded down to where Colin was, talked with him for a while and then returned upstream and tried some sections I had not fished before – this time with a nymph again. I looked at some real fishy looking water, and cast out my nymph, stripping in a short but quick motion (this seemed to be the most enticing to the fish) and had a brown on for about 4 seconds. Darn!

A few casts later – a terrible cast – where everything just went wrong and the line landed on the water curled up 10 feet in front of me, I was preparting for the next cast, when.. bam! Totally unexpected – and of course, lost that one too.

“Ok, there’s some nice fish right here,” I thought to myself. Next cast, perfect to how I wanted the fly to drift into the target zone – then some short quick strips.. another wham! This one felt good.. and I knew it was well hooked. The rod I was using, a 9′ 5wt. Temple Creek Outfitter Professional series rod felt good in my hands. I called Colin who was way downstream while bringing the fish in. He had never seen a brown trout before, so I wanted to show him how pretty they were.

Thankfully, there was no one else on the river to hear my hollering as I tried to get his attention. While he was walking up towards me, I took hold of a beautiful, chunky 12 inch brown. Normally, I’d release the fish immediately, but I really wanted Colin to see this, so I gently handled it in the water, tickling its tummy while waiting for Colin to arrive. We admired it for a few moments – and then watched him dart away back to the deeper water after being released.

By now it was getting close to dark – the sun had already begun to set, so we only had a few more casts left before we had to clear out of the river. I had one more hit on the nymph but no solid hook up before leaving.

Colin and I took off our waders, chatted for a bit while I was thinking, “Sheesh – I guess I have to take Colin home to Ottawa tomorrow.” A few minutes later, after we pulled out onto the highway, Colin said, “You know Dad, it seems like a bit of a waste for me to go home tomorrow because I don’t have school on Friday – what’s the point in going back for just one day?”

“Well.. I guess we can make sure it’s ok with Mom if you stay until the weekend – I sure don’t mind!”

Colin’s left a message with mom. Maybe there’s more dad and son fishing time in our future this week! I’m still not sure who is more excited, me or Colin – but I was really happy today that he caught the first fish, and then managed one on a fly he tied himself as well. Could a really nice brown trout be in his very near future?