Carter's Bug (sz. 8) and Salmon |
Boy it's DRY out here. Bone dry. The last time the water was this low was back in 2016. I look forward to our local salmon fishery pretty much every fall, however, it's pretty hard to get excited about fishing when the river is this low. I like swinging wet flies and tubes on a two-handed rod, but I don't need to fish a two hander to have fun. I honestly don't have a preference between a single-handed rod and a two-handed rod. That said, it would be nice to have a bit of current to work with. I'm not crazy about frogwater Atlantic salmon fishing, regardless of tackle.
Despite the conditions, it hasn't been all doom and gloom. This season's silver lining has been how amped up the salmon have been to dry flies. I have caught plenty on dries in the past, but this is the first season where I've actually had more action on dry flies than wet flies/bucktails/tubes. I realize the weather will get cold and the dry fly fishing will end but, as of last week, they're still willing to play ball with dry flies.
I've been using two dry flies this season: The Carter's Bug (as tied by the late great master, Bryant Freeman) and the Newfoundland Bee Bug (pattern below). All the action I've had on dries this season so far has been on flies sizes 8 and 10.
Welcome bycatch |
Anyway, back to the dry flies...I'll post the recipe for the Bee Bug below. Both it and the Carter's Bug are fairly simple ties...much easier than tying Bombers or the deer hair bodied Wulff Bombers so popular in Quebec. Try them out and let me know how you do!
Newfoundland Bee Bug
Thread: Black
Tail: Black deer hair
Body: Alternating bands of black and yellow deer hair, spun and clipped
Hackle: Brown, palmered the length of the body