Ian’s Brass Ass

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.