I asked Terry what flies he was using for muskies and he told me that he was using the patterns of my old friend, Bill Sherer. Bill has long been on the forefront of designs that employ not only size and movement but also the use of the acoustic footprint as well. Predator fish that basically feed on other fish, frogs, mice, leeches, and the like key in very strongly on the acoustic footprint, and Bill’s designs offer this aspect of the natural’s characteristics. You can see Bill’s flies and more at his web site: http://www.wetieit.com/. Here’s a sample of Bill’s work.

No Yellow Perch. A favorite for early season Muskies and for Pike everywhere. This all synthetic fly has great movement and superb durability, it is especially good in stained water where sight distances are limited due to water clarity. Size 3/0 with our "Red Wire Weed Guard" approximately 5 inches long.

I am currently working on volume 3 in the Fly Fishing book series. This volume is entitled, Long Flies. By long flies I mean bucktails, streamers, strip flies, collared flies, buggers, muddlers and divers, tube flies, film flies like poppers and sliders, techno flies, and others. Their developmental history is not only fascinating but highly instructive in both fly design and angling tactics. Long flies are not just for trout. They’re for practically everything that swims, including muskies and bass. Here in Wisconsin, walleyes and muskies are king; bass and trout come in a distant second. So when the trout are in the midst of August doldrums or the rivers are blown out from all the rain we’ve been having this summer, there’s always the “other” fish that can be pursued with the fly rod. And they’re great fun, too.

Terry Cummings sent me some great photos of muskies and bass on the fly rod. You can be certain that he didn’t take them on a size 14 Parachute Adams. No, there are long fly fish.

My grandma, what big teeth you have, said Terry. The better to eat your fly, my dear said the muskie..

Another hungry muskie that ate Terry's long fly.

Not to be outdone, Mr. Smallmouth had a go at the long fly, too.

Terry's fishing companion, Aaron Nelson with a nice smallie that ate a long fly.

The trailer is out for the upcoming new movie on fly fishing–The River Why. You can see it on the River Why site

http://www.theriverwhy.com/TRAILER/ where you can also see other information on the movie.

It is also on YouTube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AV5o7L4_DYU

Watch for Jason being “taught how to cast.”

This is one of my most favorite mayfly dun designs. It sits correctly, the wing has a strong profile, the poly yarn gives the wing a natural sheen, and the fish eat it very well. It’s super easy to tie, and that makes it even more desirable.

Step One: Wrap the shank with thread and form a small bump of thread just onto the hook bend.

Step Two. Tie in a clump of hackle fibers for the tail and wrap back to the thread bump. The fibers will spread out into a fan shape (the "Fan Tail"). Dub on the abdomen.

Step Three: Tie in a hackle, dub on the thorax, and wind the hackle "X" style. First make a couple of turns forward as if palmering the thorax. Art by Jason Borger.

Step Four. Continue applying the "X" hackle by palmering back over the thorax. Then wrap the hackle forward in several "normal" turns, tie it off and clip away the remainder. Art by Jason Borger.

The completed "X" hackle. Note the hackle fibers are slanting forward and rearward as well as sticking out to the sides.

Step Five. Tie in a clump of poly yard at the head of the fly, extending up and back over the top of the fly. Tie off the thread in front of the yarn. Trim the butt end of the yard the same length as the hook eye.

Step Six. Trim the wing with one clip of the scissors. Put a big drop of head cement into the butt of the wing to fuse the fibers permanently into the wing form. Trim the hackle off the bottom of the fly.

The Yarn Wing Dun seen from above. Note the fan tail and hackle fibers. The hackle fibers point to the rear, to the front, and out to the sides like the legs of the natural.

I will tying a series of flies over the next few days as samples for Willard Koukkari’s forthcoming book on food organisms I’ll feature these flies in the blog as they are dressed and photographed. Today’s feature event is Thompson’s Foam Beetle. Ken tied it both with and without hackle legs, and it works both ways. This description is for the fly with hackle legs. Simply omit the hackle of you want a faster-to-tie imitation.

Step One: Cut a strip of foam and trim one end to a point.

Step Two. Tie in the foam strip and wrap back until the thread is just onto the hook bend. Dub on the rear of the body and tie in a hackle feather.

Step Three: Dub on the thorax, wind the hackle three or four turns forward over the thorax. Secure the hackle, trim away the excess, and cut the hackle off the top of the fly. Fold the foam forward tightly along the top of the fly and tie it down securely at the head. finish the head in front of the foam strip.

Step Four: Trim the foam strip equal to the end of the hook eye to form the beetle's head. Trim the hackle off the bottom of the fly.

The Foam Beetle as seen from above.

The basic construction of this fly came from my knife-making, guitar-playing, piano-tuning, composer, and fishing buddy, John Beth. He’s always got something new and fun to play with, and when he showed me his Sperm & Egg Fly that he catches all his steelhead, and some browns and salmon with, I was delighted. The basis of the fly is Otter’s Egg. These are silicon eggs available in a wide variety of colors and sizes. Cabela’s, Gander Mt., and others offer these. The eggs are tough but equally as tough to keep on the hook. Here’s a neat way to readily make a Sperm and Egg Fly that is fast to tie and totally prevents the egg from slipping off the hook.

Step One: Pierce the egg onto the hook. John prefers red hooks, but I’ve used other styles, too.

Step One is to pierce the Otter's Egg--try to get it as centered as possible.

Step Two: Attach the thread at the eye and tie in a strip if peaarlescent Twinkle Organza. Other cross-woven materials will work, too, but I really like the twinkling effect of this stuff.

Step Two is to tie in a strip of Twinkle Organza or other cross-woven material.

Step Three: Tie off the thread at the front of the egg,  and tie it in at the rear of the egg.

Step Three is to tie off the thread, cut it away, and retie at the rear of the egg.

Step Four: Fold the Twinkle Organza over the top of the egg and tie down at the rear of the egg. The material will keep the egg securely on the hook. Trim the length of the material to form a short tail, and then, using a dubbing brush, comb out the material to remove all the cross-grain fibers, leaving only the length-wise fibers to form the tail.

Step Four involves folding the material over the top of the egg, tying it off, trimming the tail to length, and brushing it out.

Here’s a smaller Sperm & Egg Fly dressed on a standard bronzed egg hook.

Small Sperm & Egg Fly dressed on a bronzed hook.

Our traveling pal, Jeff Currier, has just returned from salmon fishing in Norway. It was a success; that is to say, he caught a couple of salmon. But he also found sea run browns, resident stream browns, and graying. Summers in Norway are idyllic, with pleasant temperatures and long days–perfect for the fly fisher. Check out more of Jeff’s adventures by clicking on his link to the right.

A Successful Jeff!

My friend Marcelo Malventano has created another rather unusual piece of angling art, a stonefly in metamorphosis. For more of his great work, click on his link to the right.

A most creative piece of angling art by Marcelo

This story will appear in our forthcoming book, Nymphs and Wets, as an illustration of the modified Czech Nymphing tactic.

Montana had been under a siege of rain for weeks when Nancy and I arrived in late June to participate in a memorial service for our friend, Jim Greenlee, past owner and president of Weinbrenner Shoes. It was Jim that had invited me to work with him to design what eventually became the Ultimate Wading Shoe. We had planned to fish the Madison in Jim’s honor, but the river was running high and dirty. We would be back in ten days, and have another look.

Upon our return, Nancy and I found the river still high but only the slightest tinge away from its usual summer clarity. The willows were alive with Hydropsychid caddis adults, and in places also held adults of the big Golden Stonefly (Acroneuria californica), hanging like so much ripe fruit. In addition the PMDs (Ephemerella infrequens and E. inermis) were just beginning to hatch. It looked very much like my options were open. I sat in the motorhome and dressed a half dozen size 10 caddis larvae with a palest olive body, dark brown thorax, and copper bead head. The larva would be the lead fly in a two fly rig; the second fly would be a size 16 Flash-Back Pheasant Tail Nymph.

I set up the basic UniBody leader design using a leader ring between the .013 Maxima Chameleon and four foot section of 1X tippet. I added another leader ring to the terminal end of the 1X, also. A size 3/0 shot went just above this second leader ring. To this second ring I then tied on 15 inches of 4X, and knotted on the caddis larva. I used the in-line arrangement for the second fly, clinch knotting a piece of 4X directly to the hook bend of the larva, and added the size 16 Flash-Back P.T. The indicator hung on the leader about 15 feet above the terminal fly. It was a modified Czech nymphing rig, using shot to help hold the flies along the bottom in the Madison’s swift waters.

As the evening waned into dusk, I headed off down river, looking for a most favorable section of the “secret river” along my side of the white water rapids. About a half mile down stream, I located a huge rock with a small current on the inshore side and a powerful current on the river side. The smaller current ran across the backside of the boulder and tucked neatly into the heavy water of the main river. The waters formed a boiling turbulence line where they remixed on the riverside of the rock. It was certainly “fishy” looking water. A gravel bar edged its way along the downstream currents, and I could fish without the need to wade. A perfect setup.

I was using a bright fluorescent red and yellow “Turn-On” indicator; one half fluorescent red, the other half fluorescent yellow. These elongate cylindrical indicators consist of two, interdigitated halves, divided cross-ways of the cylinder with a slot cut lengthwise along the axis of the cylinder and to its core. A rubber band in the slot holds the two halves together. The leader is slipped into the slot, and the two halves turned to wind the leader around the rubber band, effectively securing the indicator and allowing for immediate removal as needed.

I plopped the rig into the currents at the rear of the boulder and held the indicator about a foot above the surface, watching it intently for any indication of a take. It’s bright colors made it easy to see in the waning light. Several casts later and I had not seen a single movement that would indicate a take. I just couldn’t believe that I had not had a take. It seemed to me in this strong, almost violently mixing current zone that the indicator was too far from the flies, and I was not getting a good sense of what they were doing. I shortened the distance between the terminal fly and the indicator to 9 feet, and plopped the imitations back up into the swirling water at the rear of the boulder, holding the indicator about 6 inches above the surface. Almost immediately the fluorescent marker leaped upstream, and I tightened on a 14-inch rainbow. “Now that’s more like it,” I mused, as I reeled the fish to hand.

Well, it was one of those spots that one hopes for. In the next half hour seven more nice fish came to hand from that single pocket. Five of them were rainbows and three were browns. Five had taken the larval imitation, three had taken the trailing Flash-Back P.T. The rainbows were all in the 14 to 16 inch class, but the browns ran larger—between 15 and 18 inches. Certainly a good evening hour’s of fishing.

The next morning I was up early and eager to try my “modified” Czech tactic on more of the Madison’s finny denizens. The blue sky promised a bright day, with a good chance for a PMD hatch later in the morning. I had only an hour or so to fish, and decided to stay with the same set up I’d used the night before.

Directly in front of the parking lot were a series of boulder headed pockets. They all looked good, but one seemed a bit more attractive to my eye than the others. Like the pocket of the night before, there was a sharp drop into deep water along the outside edge of the boulder, forming a dark slot in the currents. In addition, the water seemed to boil and foam over the top of the elongate rock in a very different fashion than it did over the other boulders in the vicinity. I waded into position, and set up my first cast. Immediately I was fast to a very fine whitefish—20 inches of twisting, current using muscle that gave a good account of itself. It was the first whitefish of the trip, and I released it happily, unhooking the little barbless P.T. with a quick flick of the forceps. Back at the boulder, things got hot fast. First a monster—all five inches of it. The little rainbow jumped and splashed around like a much larger fish. It was in superb condition, and I rejoiced at this strong come back of the Madison’s rainbow population. It too had taken the P.T. Then, it was back into the bigger fish. Four more came to the nymphing rig, three to the P.T. and one to the caddis larva, and all of then were very nice fish. The rainbows were from 15 to 17 inches in length, and the two browns were 17 and 19 inches long.

The tally for the evening and morning’s fishing was most interesting: 9 rainbow and 5 browns, 9 on the P.T. and 5 on the caddis larva, and all before 9 and after 5. And, oh yes, one very nice whitefish.

The trip is over, and we made it home between violent Mid-West storms. Wisconsin does get tornadoes, and we had three in our locale just before we arrived. The last part of the trip was a two-day fishing excursion on the Madison, probably my most favorite river in the US. When we visited in late June it was high from weeks of rain, but upon our return 10 days later, the river was in good condition, and I had the opportunity to fish two hours one evening and two hours the next morning. The fishing was like I remember from the “old” days–the early 70s. I took 14 trout, one of which was 5 inches long–a very healthy rainbow. The others were all very nice fish. 8 rainbows between 14 and 17 inches and 5 browns between 15 and 19 inches. All of the fish were very healthy. The rainbows showed no signs of whirling disease, and were as active as any rainbow I’ve ever caught from the Madison. All the water and the excellent condition of the fish promises a great summer’s fishing on this blue-ribbon trout stream.

These fish will be the center of a story–”9 to 5″ in our forthcoming book, Nymphs and Wets. The story will be excerpted here in a day or two.

17-inch Madison rainbow; note the spotting--like a Feather River bow.