Creek Addict

Fishy’s Hopper is a fly Stan gently insisted I learn how to tie and I agreed. I showed up with visions of Orange Stimulators in my head. I’ve tried several times to tie them but I can never get the material proportions right. I always end up with a Size 6 fly tied on a Size 12 hook. It might catch a desperate brookie in a nutrient-starved high mountain stream but only if you’re really lucky.

Anyway, we’re not talking about my overstuffed stimulators, this post is about Fishy’s Hopper – a pattern developed by Jay “Fishy” Fullum. Those of you who subscribe to Fly Tyer magazine might remember his name from his regular segment on “Innovative Fly Tying.”  He also has several books and a DVD  which include step by step instructions for  a lot of his unique patterns and useful tips and pointers from how to execute technical patterns to how to tie flies using common household items. I enjoy all of his ideas and concepts and have found his patterns to be very effecctive in every application.

Aside from all of this, the Hopper is just fun to tie. Working with chunks of foam, shaping them, coloring them with markers, has an arts-and-crafts vibe to it that I enjoy. Also, this fly is DEADLY. When it hits the water and the rubber legs wiggle, be ready to set the hook. I have yet to try this pattern on trout but for bass, bluegill, pickerel and perch this is a go to fly for topwater action.

Hook: Long Shank Size 6-12
Thread: Olive 140 denier
Body: Foam (Shaped and Colored as described below)
Legs: Green Sili-legs
Color: Green and brown permanent markers

1. Start your thread on the hook and secure it, but do not wrap forward. (Note my old school bobbin setup courtesy of Stan).

2. Cut a piece of foam approximately 1/4″ longer than the total length of the hook. The “head’ of the hopper should be scooped out a little to create a concave surface at the front of the fly. This gives it a little popper action when you’re stripping it in (always good for making the bass mad and drawing their attention). The “ass” end should be shaved down and tapered/rounded to look more like an insect. In general try to remove the corners and edges and turn hard edges into rounded/smoothed ones. (See below for an example but you can do better!)

3. Tie your foam in place. When securing it, make several wraps one on top of the next. This technique will be used to imitate the segmentation on a real grasshopper’s exoskeleton. When aligning the foam, the head should be just behind the eyelet of the hook, with the ass hanging out over the bend of the hook.

4. Lift the foam so it’s not in the way and wrap the thread up the shank of the hook about halfway to the eye. DO NOT wrap over the foam while doing this. Once you’ve reached the halfway point, wrap around foam again with several overlapping wraps. The segmented look is beginning to take shape.

5. Repeat step 4 moving further up the shank to a spot just a little bit behind the eyelet to make another set of overlapping wraps. This should be close enough to the eye to  fully secure the foam in place, but far enough back from the end of the foam to create the impression of a “head” of the grasshopper.  (See Below)

6. Rotate your vise 180 degrees so the shank is on top. Coat the hook shank and entire underside of the fly with epoxy and let it dry. Applying the epoxy to both the foam and the hook ensures a strong bond between the materials and the hook. This is essential because the bass are going to go crazy for this fly as soon as it hits the water so you want to tie it so that it withstands the beating it will inevitably endure.

7. Color the top half of the body with green permanent marker. We used “Prismacolor” markers in “Olive Green”. Color the sides and under-body with brown (or whatever color scheme you want). Two tone is generally better, but it’s up to you. As I said before – it’s arts and crafts time – go nuts! (the photo below shows the marker we used for the body of the fly).

8. Take your sili-leg and thread it through the eye of a sewing needle. Push the needle through the foam body halfway between the front two thread wraps.

9. Push the needle all the way through and pull it until the legs are approximately equal length on both sides. Cut the sili-leg at the eye of the needle – leaving 2 legs on either side.

10. Start new thread wraps on top of the existing wraps just behind the legs. Catch the legs in on both sides to give them a sleeker, swept back profile and tie off. Whip finish and cut the thread. I usually apply a small amount of super glue to the thread just before I whip-finish for added durability. If you do this just be careful not to let the glue drip down your thread into your bobbin holder.  Finally, trim the legs to the length you want. Don’t cut them too short, the back and forth wobble of the rubber legs is part of what makes this fly so enticing to bass, bluegills and perch. Enjoy!

Fly tying goes in fits and starts for me. When I first discovered it, like everything else fly fishing related it grabbed hold of me like an addiction. I was watching youtube videos and shopping for vises, materials and anything I could find. Then all of a sudden it wasn’t a priority for me. Mostly because spring came along and it was time to fish, tying just got in the way. I couldn’t find the time or the patience to sit at the vise and actually tie.

Lately, I’ve rekindled my interest in it thanks in part to a new friend. Stan is a retired dentist and avid fly tier. I met him through my work but it quickly came out that we shared an interest (our better halves would say obsession) in fly fishing and fly tying. While I still hope to get out and fish with Stan one of these days he and I both accept the reality that it’s just not that easy for him to do it anymore at this stage of his life. He’s in his late 80’s and old war wounds in Korea 60 years ago have weakened and withered his legs so that fishing and wading is not something he can do much any more.

Thankfully, Stan, a very proficient fly tier loves to take “young” (I’m 32, not that young anymore but don’t tell him that) people under his wing and share his love of the art of fly tying. Stan is also one of the nicest guys I’ve met – a true mensch. Once a week, after I am done with work for the day I head over to Stan’s place to tie flies. His wife Joan gives us cantalope and cherries to bring down into the basement and we alternate between tying flies and me listening to stories of adventures long past.

Some of our conversations are about fly fishing – chasing tarpon off Nicaragua in the 1980s, or about fly tying with Mary Dette. Other times we speak of more serious things like when his battalion aid station was surrounded by Chinese soldiers in Korea. As the commanding officer, he armed his “walking wounded,” set up a defensive perimeter and held the attackers at bay until a unit of Marines was able to break through and rescue them. He won a Bronze Star for that, but if you ask him he’ll tell you honestly that it was no big deal. I contribute a little to the conversation but mostly I am an enthralled listener. I’m a history buff with a fascination with military history, so I enjoy listening to the stories and he enjoys sharing them with someone who is genuinely interested.  Though I can’t imagine how anyone would not be fascinated by them.

We’ve hung out a few times and we always have a lot of fun tying new patterns. This is the first in a series of posts about the expansion of my fly tying repertoire under Stan’s watchful tutelage.

This first pattern is called a Shminnow. It’s pretty similar to a Woolly Bugger without the palmered hackle. My dad and I have found them to be very effective patterns in both fresh and salt. Largemouth bass love ‘em and stripers will definitely take them as well. This recipe is definitely a freshwater pattern based on the size of the hook.

Materials:

Hook: 2x shank streamer hook size 4-10

Thread: White 140 denier

tail: White Marabou

Body: Pearl Estaz

Eyes: Black Plastic Dumbell Eyes

Start by covering your hook with thread:

Next, select a bunch of marabou, measure it to be about the same length as the hook shank and tie it in. When you tie it in, pinch the material together tightly and hold it while you cinch the thread down over it. This will help keep it from sliding down around the shank. I leave the butt ends of the marabou on and wrap over them to give the fly a bit more body.

Tie in a 6 inch piece of Estaz. Make sure to wrap the thread all the way up to the front of the hook.

Tie in your dumbell eyes behind the eye of the hook. To do this:  hold the eyes in place with your materials hand and wrap figure-eights around the “bar” of the dumbell and the hook shank. Wrapping in a figure eight will pull the dumbell straight so that it sits perpendicular to the hook shank. (Note: don’t copy the photo, make sure you leave a bit of a gap between the dumbell eyes and the eyelet of the hook)

Wrap the Estaz up the hook shank in touching turns. When you reach the eyes do a couple of figure-eight wraps with the Estaz. This will fill in the space between the eyes and give the body of the fly an even taper. Tie off the Estaz with a couple wraps of thread, whip finish and you’re done!

Since it has been about a billion degrees out lately and I am stranded hours from the nearest trout stream, I’ve been heading out in the float tube after the so called “green trout.” Last night I dragged the old man with me after I convinced him that the shingling around the Bilco door could wait til another day.

Your chariot awaits! (Apologies for the crappy pics, apparently today Droid doesn’t do autofocus.)

Make sure you tighten the cap or you might just get some water down the back of your waders, or you could drown. Either way, not much fun.

Pops getting ready

Assume the position!

We went armed with our light salt water rigs. The wind was howling and hucking big ugly bass bugs with a 5wt is hard enough on glassy nights.

It was a quiet evening, Dad landed a bunch of bass and showed me up.

I got a smallish pickerel and a couple of runt bass but nothing to write to home about (so instead I write to all you readers out there).

Time to head home and get some grub. Crashing with the parents during the work week does have its perks.

Tonight was a different story. Glassy, calm and fish breaking all around me and a fine adult beverage to take the edge off a long work day.

The fish were rising, going after flies on the surface. It looked like a few different things, dragonflies and something else that was hatching, couldn’t tell what. Without the wind everything was peaceful until some raspy voiced woman in a pick up truck brought her black lab down to play fetch in the water. Every time he brought the ball back he’d bark, the sound echoing back and forth across the pond. The bass didn’t mind so I got over it. Later on I got to listen to someone having a very loud cell phone conversation about the Hampton Jitney, summer traffic and a bunch of other hamptons related crap. Ahhh summer in the hamptons!

All I had with me was a popper so there was no matching the hatch but I did just fine. Landed 3 decent bass, lost two more. One in the weeds and another when I bonered the transition to putting him on the reel.

This was the fish of the day.

It spun me around in circles in my tube as I was bringing him in and it put a bend in the 8wt reminiscent of a schoolie striper. These green trout are pretty cool!

I guess I should try to give some constructive advice to make this post worthwhile, so here goes. What I noticed was that the fish weren’t taking the popper while it was moving. The key to drawing a strike was to drop it near the edge of the lily pads and wait a sec. If there was no strike right after the initial splash, I’d give it a twitch and that’s when the fish would strike.  Actively stripping the poppers did not seem to interest the fish.

Hey, look, it’s an update. This one is way past due, and I have more than a few on the back burners. I’ve got time to fish these days, just not too much time to talk about it. Here are some pictures from our weekend up in New Hampshire at the Eastman Inn. We always have a good time up there. Alicia’s father, Art, was home for the weekend from the UAE and got to spend some time with his grandson. The extra hands on deck allowed me some much needed fishing time. Here are some pictures from said weekend. Enjoy.
Wild brookie stream.

Two for one. These brookies (and plenty others) were taken out of glassy flats floating a curly sighter with 2 size 18 nymphs.

Lots of stockers.

Brookie lake.

Moose 1.

Moose 2.

America, Fuck ya!

Weak update, I know. At least it has some pretty pictures though.

My good friend Jamie Philpott has started a new blog, Striper Junkie. I presume this blog will have something to do with fishing for stripers, but hey, what do I know. Jamie has just started his foray into striper fishing. Follow his blog. Hopefully he’ll spill the beans on the money spot when he finds it.

Another one of my good buddies, Bill Henry, has also started his own blog. The Great Lakes of NYC looks like it will cover all the hidden fishing treasures found in NYC, and hopefully some others that are accessible by NYC public transit. Bill’s knowledge of the fishing that can be reached from public transit is unmatched. If you live in the city, or somewhere close, definitely follow his blog.

I promised an update this week, so I guess I better deliver.

Nick and I went to a new stream in the Catskills a few weeks ago. We had read stuff here and there about the stream, but it’s one of those places that no one really talks about. We had talked about going to this place for about a year but never made the time. I love fishing new places. I don’t know why we hadn’t hit this place sooner. To most, this place is nothing more than a tiny tendril of blue, meandering through the reaches of green that cover the Catskill portion of the NY topographical maps. To fisherman, it’s a paradise. I want so badly to just tell everyone the name of this place. The gem waiting out in the NY woods is too good to spoil though. There was no other fishing pressure. There were tons of wild fish, wildlife and wild scenery. Considering the access to this stream, it’s mind boggling to think about how little pressure it gets. Just minutes away are some of New York’s most popular rivers. Rivers that are hoarded with thousands upon thousands of anglers each year. Little do these anglers know that right under their nose is one of the most pristine cold water fisheries in the Catskills. Obviously, I’m glad it doesn’t get pressure. I just don’t understand why.

Due to drought conditions, the river was very low. When conditions are like that, you always know two things. You know where the fish are going to be, and you know the fish are going to be spooky. Walking the banks of the river was like reading a treasure map. You know, one of those X-marks-the-spot-type maps. Every deep hole, over hanging/submerged log, and fast, decently moving run held fish. I couldn’t believe how many fish some of these holes held. Wild fish of all shapes and flavors. One of the holes we fished was maybe 3 feet deep with a log submerged half way in it. Nick and I pulled out maybe 10 or 15 fish from this hole alone. We also both lost some big fish out of that hole due to the tree, but we won’t talk about that. All the fish from this particular river on that day were taken on either dry flies or tiny nymphs. We’ve been using a new (to us) technique with those tiny weighted nymphs, and we plan on releasing a video explaining how exactly it’s done in the near future. Keep your eyes peeled for that one, it’ll be a good one.

Some pictures from the Catskill stream.

On the way home we decided to hit one of the warm water fisheries in the area in hopes of getting into a few smallies. I basically followed Nick around as he did all the catching. I did all the cursing. It was clear, low, slow moving water. It was easy to target them. I just couldn’t manage to get any in the net. I hooked a few. I got to watch them smash some of my flies, but that was about all the fun I had there. Nick had a blast though. That’s what friends and assholes do. While you’re going through a bout of bad luck, losing fish, breaking tippets on rocks, generally getting pissed off, friends and assholes catch fish in your face. Then they smile about it. They smile about it, and ask to have their pictures taken. Here are some of those pictures. I’m done with this story. Bite me, Nick.