Wednesday, May 6, 2015

A few good flies... And vittles.

It's been a fun week.  Monday I managed to get a turkey.  Fun hunt where the birds came in a direction they "were not supposed to"... basically they went to the right, to get around an obstacle vs the left I thought they would take as they came to the call.  That meant I had a stone wall blocking, and had to channel my best inner hen to get them past the stone wall.  It worked and the four of us enjoyed one of natures true treats: Wild Turkey marinaded in Drew's Italian dressing 24hrs and grilled on open flame... YUMMY!

The bird not only tasted/tastes great... his feathers are going to lead to some nice flies too :)


Getting to that point when caddis and mayfly hatches start popping like crazy, so I've got a little vice time in making some rather generic emerger's...

but also some soft hackles in caddis green silk (ahhh), some bead head caddis larva and some super simple Sawyer's Killer Bugs.  If your not familiar with the latter, it's a fly created by the same Sawyer who created the pheasant tail nymph.  It's tied as the original PT nymph was - with wire rather than thread.  The killer bug though is just wool yarn 2-3X wrapped up the shank.  The dark is just funky bit's of thread in the wool yarn.  The fly is tied in at the back via a whip finish - which is a little tricky to do with wire!  That said, it's a super simple fly that seems to work well enough you kind of wonder why you ever tie things that are complicated :)... Any way, I'm looking forward to getting out with a few of these.


8 comments:

  1. Great blog!

    I'm in Northeastern MA, but I do most of my trout fishing in your neck of the woods. Based on your past posts, I think we've fished a few of the same streams. Good to see someone else fly fishing small streams in the area!

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    1. Hi Coleman! I live about 30' due north of Worcester now... but spend a lot of time in my home town, as well as the woods and trails in this area. If you see a brown tacoma with a TU sticker on the back bumper, say hello! Thanks for the kind words! I looked at the calendar, and realized I'd not be getting out until perhaps next Wednesday so I just hit a local stream for an hour over lunch. It was awesome. A mini rojo hot butt dry was the only fly used - fish after fish... and some near 10" which are some of the largest I've caught on this stream (which I wont name but bet you know if you are familiar with TU projects in this area)... Hard to come back to work :)... Days like this, self employment has it's perks :)! Be well - I hope to see you out there.

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    2. Yep that TU stream is one of my favorites. I only discovered it this past winter, but I caught some browns and brookies on one of the warmer days. Have you fished near the confluence with the larger river? I didn't get anything there, but there were some spots that looked like they could hold some big fish. I'm jealous you're so close to that stream! It's the closest wild trout stream to me and it's a 40 minute drive :/. Well worth it though!

      I go to school out of state, but I'll be back in a couple weeks. I have a few weeks before I start work, so I'll be fishing hard! Let me know if you ever want to meet up and fish/share tips. It sounds like you're aware of most of the trout streams in your area, but I know some a bit to the south of you that you may be interested in - I don't get down there much, so I'd love to see someone else fishing them.


      Speaking of TU projects, have you seen this?

      http://gbtu.org/blog/2015/4/17/crowningshield-project

      It looks like a beautiful stream - I'm hoping to check it out this summer.

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    3. I've fished close. I think it's posted below the state road where a dam was removed. A friend of mine who lives about a mile from there asked, and was given permission - not to fish the stream, but to walk down and look it over. He did, and said he didnt see much. But, I bumped into a local conservation commission member one day when I stopped by the stream to see how dam removal was going. He claimed to have seen a bunch of brookies and browns through that stretch when the state electroshocked it prior to the TU project. I have a stream that parallel's it's course 100yds from my house, it dumps into the same big river about a mile upstream. I've talked to MDFW folks and there is no history of the stream near me ever having been stocked... but I've caught a few clearly stream born browns. The fact they live in the other stream - they could have come from stocking the pond before the dam came down... But this other stream? I think there may be a population of browns in the big river that use these cold little feeder streams to survive high summer temps... I have not caught one over about 12" yet though so... It may be a pipe dream

      Sorry for the semi rant. I've not seen that TU project - sounds awesome.

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    4. Interesting. I waded downstream under the bridge once and I didn't see any Posted signs, but there could have been some by the road. There are several nice bends that form deep undercut banks - they look like they could hold big trout, especially browns.

      Even if there isn't a brown trout population year-round in the river, they might move down there during the cooler months and bulk up a bit. I know big browns tend to be nocturnal - if you get a chance try fishing near the confluence around dusk.

      I think I know the brook you're talking about near your house (never fished it, but I noticed it on the map and wondered about it). Have you ever checked out the MA Water Quality assessments? You can find them here:

      http://www.mass.gov/eea/agencies/massdep/water/watersheds/water-quality-assessments.html

      They have fish survey data for some streams, and they found mostly brookies with a few browns in 2002 in the stream I think you're talking about (I might be wrong though). Interesting that it was never stocked - I think that would definitely point to migration from the TU stream, which means some browns at least passed through the river at some point. Pretty cool!

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  3. Congrats Will on the gobbler.
    That partridge and green, plus the cdc emerger should bring you the desired result.

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