L.T. Special

A salmon fly in autumn attire

The L.T. Special is a terrific fly for fall/backend salmon fishing. It is well used when camouflaged against the colors of the autumn leaves. The L.T. Special gets its name from its creator, Larry Tracy of New Brunswick, Canada (click link to read about Mr. Tracy and his famous fly).

Nature in autumn attire (note the resemblance)

I tie the L.T. Special with a couple of minor changes:

Hook: Daiichi 2441
Thread: Danville 6/0, fluorescent orange
Tip: Copper wire
Butt: Uni-Yarn, fluorescent orange
Rib: Copper wire
Body: Copper Bill's Bodi-Braid
Wing: Kelly green bucktail on top of orange buck tail; copper Krystal Flash
Collar Hackles: Yellow followed by red

The L.T. Special in action

A Bowl of Yummy Salmon Dry Flies

Salmon Cereal

My wife would probably shoot my a sideways look if she knew I used this Tiffany's crystal bowl to shoot a salmon fly picture. It was a wedding present so, the way I see it, it's half mine! Besides, she'd probably be more upset if I ate Cap'n Crunch from it, so at least it's getting some (clean and nutritious) use.

I decided to retie all my Bombers in a wider variety of sizes. I never tried using two hackles on a Bomber until now. I'm not sure if I like the doubled up hackle when using saddle (too heavy), but those tied with two long neck hackles seem okay. Also in the soup are some Carter's Bugs, Wulffs, a few Gaspé style dries and a few "secret weapons," courtesy of my friend Bob.

With the low water and long summer we've had, I hope to put some of these to good use on the Naugatuck this season. The rest will have to wait until I get onto some good dry fly water/conditions on a wild salmon river, which is a scenario I rarely find myself in. I'm almost always too early or too late. My dad is itching to make a trip to Newfoundland sometime in the future. That might be the ticket. Fingers crossed...

News, events and updates - late summer/autumn 2012

"The Pearl" (Kelson), tied for Mike Radencich's new book

There has been a lot going on lately, though very little of it fishing related, unfortunately. My wife and I sold our home and moved into a new one. With all the hassle of moving, I've only tied a couple of flies in the past month or two. Our new house has a pretty sweet tying room though, so I hope to be back in action as soon as the last of the major projects have been completed.

In between moves, I had high hopes of making a quick salmon fishing trip to Quebec, but low water, high temperatures and a general lack of time made it impossible for me. It turns out I didn't miss much during the time I had hoped to go, so I don't feel so badly. If conditions look good, I really want to make a quick trip to either the Cains River or the Margaree or River Phillip over Columbus Day weekend. My wife is not sold on the idea, to say the least! After a big move, and with our first child expected in January, another salmon trip is a tough sell. If any of you "old pros" have any tips (short of expensive pieces of jewelry), please let me know! 

I recently updated the news and events page of my website. I am pleased to be back at the Catskill Fly Fishing Center and Museum's "Arts of the Angler" show this fall. The show is November 10 and 11 and is at the Ethan Allen Inn in Danbury, CT. Also, I have a couple of presentations scheduled on fishing for broodstock Atlantic salmon in Connecticut. Despite the crazy weather and high water last fall, I had a great season on the Naugatuck River. I was able to experiment with some different flies and techniques and it really paid off. I'm planning on passing on some of this info at the presentations in October and November. 

Last year, I tied up some fly assortments for the Connecticut broodstock salmon season. It was a few of my favorite and most productive flies. I think most intermediate tyers could replicate the flies in the assortment at least well enough to catch fish. With that in mind, I'm considering offering a tube fly assortment this year instead. I know many local anglers aren't set up for tubes and, at least for me, there was a lot of costly trial and error that went into learning which materials to use, where to get them at a good price, non-North American tying techniques, etc. I can't imagine many local anglers want to spend their time and money learning how to tie tube flies like Temple Dogs and Shumakov-style tubes so, if there's enough interest, I might make up an assortment of a half dozen of my favorite tube flies. Please let me know if a tube fly assortment is something you might be interested in and I will get to work. 

If there is interest in learning how to get started tying various tube flies, please let me know and maybe we can schedule lessons or classes this fall/winter. 

Looking forward to cooler temps and fall fishing! 

Wings for an Angler - Lee Wulff

This video is incredible. Imagine learning how to fly and land a seaplane in under three weeks, then flying up to remote areas of Newfoundland for some dry fly salmon and sea trout fishing...

Crazy!!

I get the impression that Lee Wulff was one of those rare talents who had the ability to be really good at whatever he decided to do.

My all-time favorite movie is Bruce Brown's classic surf film "The Endless Summer." To me, "Wings for an Angler" has that same sense of adventure. It really struck a chord with me when I watched last night. These guys had no fear of the unknown. They just went for it. I'm sure they struck out now and then but they certainly hit quite a few grand slams as well.

This is well worth twenty minutes of your time

Product Review: Cabela's Utility Binder

Not fancy looking, but it works

Though my fly tying materials would say otherwise, I really do try to stay as organized as possible. In an effort to efficiently store spare shooting heads, running lines, tippet spools and other miscellany, I came across this review for the Simms Headwaters Tackle Wallet. Now, I think very highly of Simms' products. I usually look to them first when it comes to waders, clothing and accessories. However, I just don't feel like paying Simms prices for everything, especially when there are reasonable (and less expensive) alternatives.

Enter Cabela's Utility Binder...at $19.99, the large size is half the price of the equivalent Simms product. They do the same thing. The only difference I can see is that the Simms wallet uses velcro to hold the pages, while Cabela's binder uses two binder-type rings. Since I live relatively near a Cabela's retail store, I figured I'd go check it out.

It just works...'nuff said

I don't recall how many pages came with the binder. I think it was 10-12. However many it came with, it was more than enough for my use. The whole package was very sturdy and seems to do its job well enough. At half the price of the equivalent Simms product, the Cabela's was a no-brainer. 

I brought it to Russia...it held plenty of heads, tippet spools, spare cleats, spare running line, etc. I probably overstuffed it, but the zipper held just fine. I don't need to carry as much stuff with me when fishing in the U.S. or Canada, so it's definitely big enough. I probably could get by with the medium, but it's only a few dollars less, so I'll opt for the expandability of the large. It's probably a pretty tough item to screw up, but I was happy to save a few bucks considering I was originally going to buy the Simms. 

I probably could written this review in four or five sentences and still conveyed my message well enough, but it has been a good way to delay some necessary housework. In summary, if you're looking to get a little more organized and save a little bit of money in the process, I highly recommend the Cabela's Utility Binder. 

Kola Salmon Video #2

Here's another video of my Kola trip, this one shorter, less dramatic, lower resolution (iPhone 4) and a smaller fish, but I'm not complaining.

This was around 1:30am. This was as dark as it ever got at night. This fish was the first caught of a good run of fish which came through that day. I think there were about six anglers fishing this pool and everyone hooked fish, though it seemed like there was just one sweet spot. This was a killer pool above a HUGE set of rapids. In warmer weather, the bottom end of this pool would make for excellent dry fly fishing. 

My friend hooked three and landed one in a matter of a few hours. I landed this one and lost one about 18lbs later that day. This fish never ran up or downstream. It made several blistering runs straight across stream, directly into the heavy flow. It was bizarre. I've never had one do that before. 

It was a relatively cold night. The air temperature was about 44ºF and the water temperature 54ºF. This was the only fish I hooked on something other than a Sugerman Shrimp and floating line/leader combo. It took a small German Snaelda, tied on a 1/2" brass tube, fished on a floating Airflo Compact Scandi head with a 5.6ips Rio Versileader.

Kola Salmon Video

I would have been happy with pics, but a video is even better! The "film crew" arrived about halfway into the fight. The fish had already made two good runs, despite 25# test Maxima and a drag cranked to about 85-90%. There were a couple of tense moments, especially when he got too close to the rock. The tippet was totally chewed up when I checked it afterwards. I thought the locals were using unnecessarily heavy gear, but now I understand the need for it. I was proud that my little 13', $20 spey rod held its own!

Watch it on YouTube in HiDef...