Fly Fishing Search Engine, Fall Hatches, Siphlonurus

Fly Fishing Search Engine, Fall Hatches, Siphlonurus, Mergansers, Carp

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FISH LONG & PROSPER !!!

Topics
Fly Fishing Search Engine
Fall Hatches
Siphlonurus?
Mergansers
Carp

New Search Engine
www.flyfishusa.come now has a Search engine. Up to this point all site navigation has been by directories and direct hot links to specific pages. This approach has some distinct advantages over search engine navigation. Until lately it has been quicker, more precise and this architecture builds the best organized web site. It also takes a heck of a lot more work to build and maintain. And we are noticing that now that our site is over 1,000 pages, that navigation is getting more difficult. So, we have now added a spider to out site that crawls around and finds things for you more easily.

Lets say that you are looking for a Sage SLT fly rod.

Type Sage SLT fly rod into the box below and click Search.

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You will be taken to the Sage SLT page. This works for many items in our web site. The word Search appears on every page that has a navigation bar near the top. When you click the word Search, you will be taken to a new navigation page where you can access our Search Engine. Search engine efficiency will improve as we integrate it more deeply into our web site design. If you have problems navigating our site, you can always call us. Rest assured that the good old reliable "directory and hot link navigation" will be maintained and improved as well.

Fall Hatches Spark Trout Fishing

In the fall most anglers are fishing for steelhead & salmon. This leaves a lot of unmolested trout water. Most trout have been feeding on the prolific hatches of the summer are fat & strong. Trout grow fast in the warm water of summer and are still growing & fattening through the fall months of September & October. They can be very aggressive. Tiny mayflies, midges & blizzard hatches of several species of caddis can produce tremendous dry fly fishing throughout the day. Fishing caddis pupa

patterns sub-surface can also add to the fun. Larger trout tend to look for big bites in the fall. Wednesday we caught a good number of trout on on large marabou leaches fished with sinking tip lines. What had started as a steelhead trip wound up as a trout trip as the trout fishing was just too good to pass up. Big trout feed on crayfish and baitfish. Sculpins, shiners and chubs can become regular fare. Streamers and Wooly Buggers fished deep on the swing can be

Kelly Neal with a Redside that ate a black leech.

Lyla Foggia with a Redside that ate a tiny nymph.

deadly on big trout and steelhead in the same water. Thursday was tougher. Instead of being warm and calm like Wednesday it was cooler and blustery. Fewer trout were feeding and those that were, were feeding on nymphs right on the bottom. I mean right on the bottom. More trout were caught after a split-shot was clamped onto the leader 5" from the fly. You have to be adaptable as weather and water temperatures can change in a hurry during the fall months.

October Caddis are starting!
The Pacific Northwest has some spectacular giant caddis hatches. Most of these hatches are in the fall, but some cold spring creeks have hatches through much of

the winter and into the spring as well. The fat bodies are colors that range from light tanish orange to yellowish orange to bright orange to burnt orange. Wings are usually gray but there are also brown tones. There are apparently a number of different species in what is commonly called October Caddis or Fall Caddis or Giant Caddis. Most belong to the family Dicosmoecus. They range from California to Alaska.
The larva of these giant caddis build tube-like cases. During the winter months when the larva are tiny, these cases are made from vegetable matter attached to a foundation of silk. As the larva grows in size through the spring months they abruptly switch to cases made from small gravel. You can observe these larvae crawling around on the streambed dragging their cases with them as the forage for algae and decaying plant and animal matter. During the the summer months of June and July Dicosmoecus larvae are important trout foods. Daily behavioral drift cycles occur in the early afternoon, usually peaking about 4:00 P.M. They are one of the few families of caddis that leave their cases before behavioral drift cycles. This makes them extremely enticing to large trout. In August these larvae seal themselves in their cases and by September they are ready to emerge as adults.
Emergence occurs from late afternoon until dark. The pupae Usually swim and crawl to shallow water, but some emerge mid-river. At this time a pumpkin colored wet fly can be very productive.
Egg laying also occurs in the afternoon and evening. The big fate juicy females flop around on the water exuding their eggs. They are a prime attraction for trout of all sizes.
Be sure to have some Improved Sofa Pillows and Orange stimulators handy. Sizes range from #10 to #6 on 2X long hooks.
Caddis Dry Flies
Caddis Pupa

Siphlonurus? Got a new digital camera for my birthday. It takes pictures up real close and real far away. Now all I've got to do is learn how to operate it. The great thing about digital format is when you take a picture that doesn't come out right, you can just erase it. I've been taking a lot of pictures (hopefully for your enjoyment). Tuesday there was a hatch of large mayflies where you would least expect them. They were crawling out of the water, to the top of exposed rocks to hatch. They did this rather quickly. The sequence below took less than 5 minutes. The pictures are hand held with no artificial light. Needless to say that the depth of field is very shallow when you are zoomed in this close. The nymphs were about 1 1/8" long and fairly robust. They would be a good mouth-full for a trout.

We weren't fishing for trout & didn't have any flies that looked like these nymphs. You can bet that I will have some flies that look like these nymphs next time I fish this place. I will probably have a couple of duns and spinners too. If anyone can identify this specie, call and tell me and I will be glad to tell you where I found them. 1-800-266-3971

Mergansers

Mergansers

We were standing on the banks of the Deschutes River. The man said, "The fishing would probably improve if we shot all of the mergansers." I was stunned and am sure that I reacted badly. Years before I had an even more aggressive reaction to a man who had suddenly pulled a 22-pistol from his pack and shot a merganser from my moving boat. Why do mergansers receive such disdain from human fishermen? From my point of view all of the wild life along the river adds to the river experience. My approach is "live and let live". I go to wild places because they are wild. I make as little impact as possible. Mergansers and the species that we think of as "sport fish" have coexisted for for millions of years. If there has been a recent decline in sport fish, then it seems that another specie is more likely to be the primary cause.
However, now that I have some new photographic equipment to use, I plan on making a a year long study of mergansers that inhabit the many river that I fish. I am in search of facts: What do they eat? How do they live? How do they effect the fish populations that we strive to protect?
The photo above is cropped from a family group of mergansers that number 8 individuals. There appears to be quite a bit of social interplay between them. Expect many more Merganser pictures in the future.

Merganser Links:
Duck Central
USGS
Ducks Unlimited

If your fly resembles a blackberry, you are probably fishing for CARP! by Marty Sheppard

John Elkland had mentioned a few times that we should go carp fishing. Being that steelhead fishing totally has my attention right now, when John called to say lets go Carp fishing my response to him was, "your going to have to talk me into this."
On September 15th off we went. Along with us was Ed Lawrence from Montana. We were going to the Snake River. John had a stretch of river picked out where we could do a day float trip. After shopping for lunch and taking our time getting to the river we launched the drift boat around 11am.

To be honest, I did not expect to have very good fishing. Almost everyone I had talked to in the past said the same things, "you need bait" or "yeah I've caught 'em -----with a bow and arrow!" John had talked me into this adventure with stories of carp sipping mayflies and running into the backing like bonefish. "Guidespeak?" I was about to find out.
John had said the sight fishing was the key to success. The first two hours of the day were windy. This period was slow fishing. As we neared a bank that had a long stretch of blackberry bushes Ecklund, told us how the carp often line up and feed on falling blackberries. I tied on a black wholly bugger and made a few blind casts when suddenly I spotted one. Before I could say a thing my cast was unfolding and fly landed two feet in front of the carp. The fish took instantly! My reel started screaming and in seconds was in the middle of the snake river. Its first run was not quite to my backing but still I was impressed. The fish pulled and held its position in the current. If I did not know any different it could of passed as a Chinook. With its second run it could of passed as a large male steelhead as this run went well into my backing. Now I'm more than impressed!
In the end when the fish was in hand it became a thing of beauty. I admired its golden color. No longer was it ugly. It had gained my respect.
By the end of the day we had caught well over a dozen tailing, stationary and rising carp. Fishing from shore to clooping (rising) carp was the most fun. As far as we could tell they were eating EVERYTHING that passed them in the surface film. Swinging a size 12 Prince Nymph worked very well. Other flies that proved effective were Zug Bugs, Carey Specials, Royal Coachmans, and I even got one on a Moose Turd steelhead waking fly!
More About Fly Fishing for Carp

If you would like to read past "Insiders", click Archives

Your commentary is always welcome. Drop us a line: flyfish@flyfishusa.com

The Fly Fishing Shop, Welches, OR

1(800) 266-3971

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Fish long & prosper,
Mark & Patty