Peace On Earth
Goodwill To Men
Barred Surfperch Season
I admit to being a saltwater
junkie & a frequenter of the wet sand. You’ve heard of the Fountain Of
Youth? Right there. Over on the other side of HWY 1 spread out to the horizon
like a spilled Margarita. Having settled in for winter on the Cali coast, where jowser barred surfperch hunt the surf line, I’m
heading to the beach on days when the tides are right.
Long rods have always been
the choice of surfcasters, & for wet sand fly casters, long, two-handed
rods are a fun tool, able to throw heavy flies the necessary distance in the
buffeting & often windy conditions encountered on the beach. I’m seeing
increasing numbers of two-handed casters on the central & northern California Monterey Bay
The cast of choice is the
two-handed overhead cast, or ‘switch’ cast. This is essentially the same as the
‘conventional’ overhead cast we make with a single-hand rod, but with the
addition of a hand on the rear grip to lever the forward cast. Rods of 10 to 12
feet are best for this. The overhead cast is necessary for throwing the 15 to
30-foot fast-sinking heads needed to get a fly down & keep it down in the
turbulent surf zone. It is extremely difficult to pick up & aerialize a
30-foot sink-tip & heavily weighted fly with an anchor-point cast,
particularly in the waves – hence the switch cast. Open space for the backcast is not a problem. But watch for Cali mermaids walking their Labs.
Light Spey or switch rods in
the #3-#4 weight class are popular in the surf, though I prefer a little more
rod, my favorite, a 12’6” #5 Spey. But any longer than that & it becomes difficult
to throw the overhead cast.
Though shooting heads are
serviceable, most experienced surf casters come to prefer integrated lines.
Surfperch are often very close in, requiring the fly to be stripped nearly to
the leader connection, & an integrated line accomplishes this without the
irritation of loop-to-loop line connections bumping & catching through the
guides. Also, windy conditions on the beach raise hell blowing coils of light
shooting line out of the stripping basket, & the heavier running sections
of integrated lines stay put in the basket & are easier to handle with
cold, wet hands. Though shooting heads generally cast farther, the difference
in casting distance is negligible, I think. And a well-matched integrated line
will cast better than a not-so-well-matched shooting head.
Remember, it takes a
lot less weight to load a rod performing the overhead cast than it does to load
a rod with an anchor-point cast, so it’s best to choose a designated surf line
with a weight rating near the lightest end of a rod’s grain window. For
example, my #5 Spey has a grain window of 350-550 grains. The Cortland Compact
Type 9 (sink-rate, 9ips) with 30-foot sink-tip I’m using is rated at 375
grains.
The leader is simple. I rig a
semi-permanent, 2-foot leader butt of stiff, 20 pound test fluorocarbon with a
small barrel swivel attached to the tippet end. (Seagar Red Label is the best
I’ve used, & available at any Walmart). The swivel is necessary, as the
surf will tumble the fly & twist the casting line without it. A 2 to 3-foot
tippet of 12 or 15 pound test fluoro, depending on conditions, is knotted to
the swivel. Though I’m not real fond of multiple fly rigs as they do tangle, I
often prospect with a second fly tied dropshot style at about the middle of the
tippet section. The dropper works best unweighted.
Are surfperch good to eat? No
fish better. Surfperch are the ingredient of choice in the original Baja fish
taco. They are fairly plentiful & I drop a few in the pack & we enjoy a
lot of fresh fish tacos while wintering in Cali
 |
| Mark Hagopian |
Winter Spade Flies
~ Mark Hagopian
Fellow saltwater junky, SHJ
East Coast correspondent, & talented fly designer, Mark Hagopian, kindly shares
these two elegant herl-body spiders with us. Though Mark tied them with Great Lakes steelhead in mind, I think they show promise
as good bait for pre-spawn rainbows, cutthroat, & landlocked salmon as well.
Combinations of various hackle & dyed ostrich herl create a spectrum of
possibilities for colorations on these. Lots of enticing breathe & pulse in
the materials. We all recognize the effectiveness of the soft-hackle design
frame in simulating stream-born insects, but Mark’s flies serve as a good example
of the simple spider design as a wee lure (attractor), an effective & often
overlooked approach to soft-hackle designs. If trout aren’t eating bugs, try
swinging a lure. The dressing is simple: a bit of imagination, an ostrich herl
body, & a soft hackle or two.
The Reel News
The Loss Of Animalness:
Experiencing smaller & fewer insect hatches?
 |
| Bill Shuck |
Long a staple of soft-hackle tyers, Pearsall’s is no
longer selling Gossamer Silk. Huge bummer, to be sure. But don’t worry,
necessity is the mother of substitutions. Embroidery thread can be useful. And
though it may not be the perfect substitute, I’ve found size ‘A’ rod wrapping
thread to be a fine substitute for silk applications, & at a fraction of
the cost. ‘A’ thread has the strength & gloss of silk, though slightly
larger in diameter, & is available in every color imaginable. It can be
dubbed on & is perfect for split-thread dubbing. I use it in ‘A’ & also
the larger ‘D’, which is excellent for bodies or ribbing on larger patterns. And the metallic rod threads are as good as the finest French oval, yet less
expensive & available in many more colors. Check out the threads from Pac Bay.
 |
| Bill Shuck |
In a correspondence with the
estimable Bill Shuck, I suggested rod wrapping thread for tying, but of course
he was already on to it, & sent the two examples featured here, tied with ‘A’
thread. As you can see, the bodies are a bit heavier than those tied with
Pearsall’s, though not overly fat to my eye, with a ‘juicy’, segmented look. Bill’s
version of the Tup’s Indispensable looks like it’d be at least as effective as
the original.
Fortunately for us, Bill
picked up the cue &, in addition to the rod thread examples, sent along the
following two articles. Bill is one of the great Mid-Atlantic tyers in the
Leisenring/Hidy tradition. For those interested in how James Leisenring
constructed his flies & the philosophy behind them, Bill Shuck’s flies
serve as stellar examples. I’ll let Bill take it from here:
Baby Sunfly ~ Bill Shuck
An English clergyman, Rev. Edward
Powell, fished streams in the Shropshire region in the Welsh borderlands of England Ellesmere ,
England
Hook: Sizes 12 – 18
Thread: Brown or black
Tail: Black or coch-y-bondhu
cock hackle barbs
Body: Dubbed rabbit face,
from triangle of nose & eyes, very dark, tied full
Rib: Brown thread, 3 turns
Hackle: Black or
coch-y-bondhu cock hackle, as many turns as possible
It is interesting to note
that the fur used for the body of the fly was the quite dark underfur found on the
face of the English rabbit, not the better-known-to-fly-tiers English hare -- a
different critter. It is necessary to trim away the grey/tan outer portion of
the fur to get at the dark, bluish black underfur.
Answering the challenge of a
fellow member on the Flymph Forum site, I’ve attempted to tie this pattern as a
soft hackle wet fly. I’ve tied it on a vintage Herter’s 423 TDE hook, Size #14
using Pearsall’s Gossamer #17 brown thread. The tail whisks were taken from an
iridescent black feather found at the back of a coch-y-bondhu hen saddle and
the collar is a combination of that same black feather and a black and 'red' feather from further up the saddle. Since I do not have
an English rabbit mask, the body is a blend of hare’s poll and black wool spun
in #17 Gossamer on a Clark block.
~Bill Shuck
Hen Saddle Palmer ~
Bill Shuck
Hen ‘saddle’, or elongate hen
neck hackle, is a choice feather for dressing flymphs or palmered flies. Bill
gives us a fine example serving as a short tutorial on how it’s done. The method
Bill describes here is the basic palmering method I use for all types of flies.
The nondescript brown buzz-hackle
looks like a lot of things one might encounter on a freestone, & a
worthwhile type to carry. These fish well drifted or swung. Also a good pattern
fished deep to simulate medium sized stonefly nymphs. Bill describes the
dressing:
Thread: Pearsall’s Gossamer
#6a, light orange; leave long (6” or so) thread tag for use as reinforcing rib
over the palmered hackle.
Hackle: Tip section from
webby, pointed hen saddle feather (base of hen neck) tied in slightly behind
the hook eye, by the stem w/tip extended out over the eye. Wrap tying silk to
rear, leaving the tag hanging at the start of the hook bend.
Shank Tag: Tying silk wraps
Tail: Light ginger cock
hackle barbs, longish
Body: Blend of 80% hare’s
poll dyed gold and 20% brownish-orange wool spun on #6a on Clark’s block; tie
in just in front of tail and bring tying thread forward to just behind the
hackle and tie off/trim excess hackle – wind thread tag forward as a rib over (through)
the palmered hackle to the front.
Head: Thread wraps, preferably
conical shape per Leisenring/Hidy
~Bill Shuck
See more examples of Bill’s
fine work here: https://soft-hacklejournal.blogspot.com/2016/04/bill-shuck-form-function.html
Thanks for sharing, Mark
& Bill.
Wishing all of you &
yours health & happiness through the Holidays & in the coming New Year.
~Steve
