A Close Look At Freshwater Scuds

Brian Briscoe photo

   Upper Columbia flyfisher & photographer, Brian Briscoe, has embarked on the ambitious project of photo recording the various menu items found in the upper Columbia mainstem & drainage. Brian kindly shares his amazing work with SHJ. The scuds were collected from a B.C. lake & exhibited at the annual West Kootenay Fly Fishing Club Symposium last year. There is a lot to be learned from studying these photos. As scuds are important trout forage in most lakes & slow waters, Brian’s observations on shrimp form & behavior shed light on effective imitation.

Brian Briscoe photo

The shrimp in the photos are mature, at about ¾ inch in length. A size that seems to surprise Eastern anglers, though I’ve found ¾ inch models in the Washington lakes I fish, as well. As it is with aquatic insects, we see that colorations vary within a population, shades of olive, & many exhibiting an attractive flare of bright orange or pink at the tip.

Brian Briscoe photo

Brian makes a truly salient point regarding tying imitations of these, pointing out the fact that scuds straighten their bodies when in motion. They swim very rapidly in bursts, the body held straight. Only when not in motion do they assume the characteristic ‘C’ shape we see so often in popular imitations. These swimming scuds might be well-simulated tied on a long-shanked, drop-bend hook like the TMC 200R, the profile, to my eye, a near perfect match.

Brian Briscoe photo

Scuds are bottom dwellers, so imitations are best fished deep. I can see that the ‘C’ shaped profile might do well dead-drifted beneath a bobber, but if the imitation is to be delivered via a sinking line & dredged near the bottom, stripped, one might be better served with an imitation tied on a ‘conventional’ hook design affording a straight profile. To my own eye, a Carey Special design, stripped, might be a closer match than a ‘C’ shape scud design for simulating the swimming shrimp in the photo at the left.

Brian Briscoe photo

In improving one’s game, there is no substitute for observations garnered from time on the water, surely. Thankfully, & fortunately for fly tiers, those like Brian, whose curiosity leads them to record what is in the water, offer fly tiers a unique, valuable window, through the frozen image. Well done, Brian. Much thanks for sharing your work with us.

More on scuds in this excellent article by Phil Rowley: http://www.flycraftangling.com/index.asp?p=123  

Brian Briscoe photo

 

Brian Briscoe photo

 

Brian Briscoe photo

Grannom Sedge Emerger

     Time passing swiftly, I’m getting to work on refreshing my supply of spring & summer trout flies. Looking through the boxes it occurred to me that: even though I tie & carry a considerable assortment, only about a half dozen patterns account for most of the trout I caught last season. And one pattern in particular stands out, my log indicates, a simple olive sedge emerger, this one pattern accounting for about a third of the trout I catch in a season.

That says something about the importance of caddis as trout bait. And particularly the emerging pupa phase.

Admittedly, my home water is a caddis river, its mayfly hatches sporadic & mostly unpredictable. But isn’t that the case in a lot of places? And no matter, as, spring & summer, the sedges produce daily hatches serving to get trout up & going. Mayflies are the occasional steak dinner, while sedges are the daily ration.

On a lot of streams, East & West, grannom is the first reliable hatch of spring. Following grannom, in the West, are the more prolific spotted sedge, so similar they are often mistaken for grannom. The pattern featured here covers both of these species, & tied in sizes #10-#18, will cover many others one might encounter anywhere.

The version featured is tied on a Mustad 3366-BR, a hook I like a lot. This straight-eye sproat design is popular for tying North Country wetflies, traditionalists claiming it tracks & hovers like the eyeless hooks of old, the performance preferable to modern down-eye designs. The Mustad 3366-BR is very inexpensive, about five bucks for a 100 pack, & I don’t know why, but that is good. These are sized smaller than standard wetfly, a #10 equal to a #12 standard wetfly. I tie standard #12’s & #14’s on a #10, & #14’s & #16’s on a #12 3366-BR. These aren’t heat treated as brittle-hard as English hooks, so the barb can be pinched down without fracturing the hook point – & the ample barb leaves a generous fish-holding hump when pinched.

Grannom Sedge Emerger

Hook: #10-#18 (natural grannom is about #12 – nymphs are a size larger than adults)

Thread: camel UNI 8/0

Rib: olive-pearl krystal-flash, 2 strands, twisted, & wound over the abdomen as a rib – then wind solid through the thorax area, providing a ‘light’ base that will show under the thorax dubbing

Abdomen: light olive rabbit, touch-dubbed on a strand of light olive Pearsall’s silk, or light olive tying thread

Thorax: brown-dyed hares mask, short, loosely dubbed

Hackle: brown partridge, grouse or brahma hen ~ & finish.