A Brief Departure - Part II, Some Flies

An eclectic mix from around the globe

Pictured above is my box of flies for CT sea run brown trout fishing 2013. Like I said, I'm fairly new to the game, and several of these patterns are new to me. I tried to include a smattering of patterns from the UK, Denmark and America. The UK flies came from various sources. They're all common wet flies. The Danish flies came from Martin Jorgensen's great articles on the Global Fly Fisher website. The American flies are a mix of trout flies and saltwater patterns. There are a couple of salmon flies thrown in, just because the formulas seem to work well*. 

Left side of fly box:

Elk Hair Caddis (just in case!)

Crazy Charlie

Burning Man

Medicine (Hugh Falkus)

Red Tag

Grease Liner

Mummichog Muddler  (post #12)

Li'l Stinker (see below)  

Green Butt Blue Charm*

Grey Fred

Chartreuse and White Mini Clouser

Sunray Shadow (aluminum and plastic tubes)

Right Side of fly box:

Teal Blue and Silver 

Red Tag

Mallard and Claret

Bloody Butcher

(some of these flies are transplants from other boxes and have already been chewed on, so forgive their scruffy appearances)

Most of these flies are impressionistic as opposed to imitative of specific food items. Of course, to a trout, the impression might be of something very specific. Last season, my largest sea run brown (about 5#) took a Sunray Shadow tied on a plastic tube. I lost another in that size class on a Black Sheep tube fly (tied on a Shumakov Long Range aluminum tube). I'm not one to try to rationalize what a fly looks like to a fish or why they take it. I'm just happy they take it at all. However, to me, those long, skinny tubes could have easily been taken for sand eels, especially the Sunray. 

Another fly which worked for me was the Mummichog Muddler, which is probably no surprise given its track record on Cape Cod sea run browns. We have plenty of mummies in our estuaries, so I'm sure these browns are very familiar with them. 

*The outlier for me last year was a Black Bear Green Butt. It was a really dark, overcast, drizzly day. I wanted a black fly and that was the only black fly I had on me. I figured what the heck...well, it worked. Why not, right? The fish that took it was a real beauty...a plump, football-shaped, silver trout, fresh from the sea. 

So flies that look relatively similar to actual food seemed to work best for me. That led me to create this fella for the upcoming season:

Li'l Stinker Grass Shrimp

It gets its name from the antennae and tail, which are made from the guard hairs from a skunk's back. It should work well for striped bass as well. I'm sure a Crazy Charlie would work well enough (I have caught plenty of resident trout on them), but this one was a fun tie. I'm anxious to take it for a swim.

Our first baby is due in the next couple of weeks, so this might be my last post for a little while. As far as fly tying goes, it's all trout flies on the docket for the time being. I have a feeling I'm gonna want to spend as much time as I can with my new little buddy, so the fly tying might take a back seat for a bit. If I catch any sea trout and manage to get pics, I'll post them. I'm really looking forward to warmer weather and longer days...