Remembering BB

   On the subject of authenticity, which he equates as ‘dead center’, John Gierach writes: ‘There are few things in this world that are truly dead center…’, & then goes on to list BB King as one of the precious agents abiding within that rare space.

With deep regards for BB King, an authentic artist who spent his entire life deeply engaged in his craft & the history of that craft, expanding the tradition, taking it further, while remaining ever true to the abiding core principles.  

Truly a king.

BB King

Hook: #12 Mustad 3366-BR (with the exception of a larger barb on the Mustad, this hook is, near as I can tell, identical in configuration to the Alec Jackson soft-hackle hook, at about 1/10^th the cost)

Thread: black UNI 8/0

Body: bronze/black turkey (or crow) tail swords twisted with blue midge flash (I tie versions of this with copper or pearl flash too) – leave a tag of the tying thread to twist with the body materials – & dub over the thorax area with a bit of black rabbit

Hackle: natural bronze/black hen

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4fk2prKnYnI

Fly Fishing Mommas

     Yup, girls like it too. And in celebration of Mother’s Day we give a nod in their direction.

Advise: best to give the girls attention every day, be nice to them, not just on Mother’s Day. You will live better. You will get more pies, for one thing.

The girl holding the trout is a killer. I know that to be true because I have lived with her for more than half my life. She is Norwegian (awesome baked goods) & would live on fish if I let her kill enough of them. (I have witnessed her blithely suck the eyeballs out of trout fried with the heads on. The Viking in her.)

Here is my all-time favorite fly fishing video, filmed on the home water, Jennifer Mitchell fishing the UC black quill hatch:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xp-7oKTZ5Ww

Remember, girls & boys, we are in this together & for always. Be kind to one another. Boogie chillen.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G4pp02_GN9A

Late edit: Quote from my wife after reading the above entry: "You do know how male-centric yer blog is, don't you?"

  

Getting Down ~ the Depthcharge Worm

Sometimes you gotta get down.

And though that proclamation might be salient to a spectrum of occasions, it is certainly applicable to fly presentation, in a pragmatic, utilitarian sense. And often.

There are several ways to get down while using a floating line: sink compound applied to the leader; mini-jigs; heavy beadheads; splitshot; & also heavy wire wrapped under the fly body, my own preference.

The wormlike flies in the photo are actually sinkers, meant to be rigged as the front fly on a tandem fly setup (what I call a ‘depthcharge rig’). They contain about a splitshot’s worth of lead & sink like ‘right now’. As there is no hackle or fuzzy material to buoy or sail them, they sink & drift with very little resistance. They are made of rubber bands recycled from the daily newspaper. Being rubber & thin they aren’t as grabby & hitch-y as beads or jigs or shot, probing the bottom & lower water column with a nice, smooth ‘feel’ & seldom snagging. These are the easiest handling & smoothest casting of any type of sinker I’ve tried.

The depthcharge rig with sinking worm is my favorite way to deliver small soft-hackle flies deep. It is the non-weighted trailing fly that I’m trying to catch a fish on, though the sinker catches pretty good too. Generally, about 1 in 3 or 4 gets fooled by the sinker, but there are times the sinker is all they want. And I’ve had it happen more than once, the sinker taking the best fish of the day.

The rubber ‘worm’ simulates a lot of things commonly found in & around trout streams, particularly aquatic worms & beetle larvae & also land-born caterpillars. Trout eat a lot of these (pin a real one on & see what happens) & their obvious bait value to fly fishers is often overlooked for no good reason – & considering the worm shape low in the hierarchy of acceptable baits serves no purpose but a hindrance to fun.    

A simple worm made from a green rubber band works well on streams shaded by a deciduous canopy, where a lot of green caterpillars accumulate & fall into the water through the warm months.

These might be tied smaller or larger but I’ve found a #10 to be handiest for most trouting. I tie worm sinkers on TMC 200R hooks, which serve to give a nice shape, & keel to ride hook-up when weighted. Barbless versions (TMC 200RB) of this hook are available, though in my own experience the design’s shallow bend configuration does not hold fish well in barbless mode. However, the 200R possesses a tiny barb & backs out without doing serious damage – & if one needs to go barbless the barb can be pinched down leaving a nub which helps to keep the hook from falling out of the fish’s mouth or, more important, the trailer tippet slipping off in a fight.

Used tandem with a trailer fly on 12 to 20 inches of tippet tied to the hook bend, depthcharges can be fished dead-drift on an upstream cast, or quartered & swung, & are good for plunking pocket water on swift freestone streams. The Depthcharge Worm is a zen-clean way to present & fish a wee soft-hackle fly in the lower water column where it is likely to serve best most of the time.

Depthcharge Worm

Hook: #10 TMC 200R

Thread: yellow or choice

Body: rubber band – tied in well down the hook bend & wound to the hook eye – these can be painted with colored markers, the mottled effect is achieved by marking the rubber strip before stretching – cut the strip end at a steep angle & tie in by the tip for a neat rear taper – prior to winding the body, apply two layers of .015 lead wire, the top layer slightly shorter & centered over the base layer (specimen in the photo shows extent of leading), then shape with thread or floss until the lead is covered & an elongated cigar shape is achieved – apply cement to the thread body, then wind the rubber when the cement is tacky  ~ & finish.        

Yak Sardina

     I keep saying tailing is the simplest way to achieve articulation. So here is an example of a design that is all the way there – about as simple as you can get.

Ever notice that the good flies, the true workhorses, are usually fairly simple? Idiotic-simple in some cases. I’m all about idiotic-simple. I consider it a goal & an ideal.

Also, probably too often, I *spew about the superiority of natural hair fibers. Here is why: it is because natural hair is superior to synthetic hair for most bait-making applications. Wild hair is constructed on a ‘spine’ & has memory. It can also be ‘trained’ & will keep & return to the desired shape. Natural hair possesses nuance of coloration; gathers & reflects UV light; allows obfuscating light to pass through; breathes & undulates lasciviously when wet; does not tangle with itself requiring combing out &, this is important, unlike synthetic, wild hair doesn’t droop when the fly is paused. Not saying I don’t use synthetics because I do. But in hair streamers I prefer to use it as a lateral line sandwiched between layers of natural hair. Non-crinkly synthetic fibers, tending to lie together without much flare, work really well as a lateral coloration in an all-hair baitfish pattern.

Natural hair gives baitfish designs the same mojo that natural materials give insect imitations. Nothing mimics life better than life.        

*Spew: It’s my karma work. Made a deal with the thing that lives on my shoulder (not sure if it’s a devil or angel) & it gave me this. The affect is similar to tourette’s I think. No worries. Avoid eye contact, I won’t come up to you at the parking lot.

My take on the Sardina is based on the pattern as tied by Captain Vaughn Podmore. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CEWk4EhftMU

Can be adapted to simulate most any baitfish. I tie mine with clear mono tying thread. Before adding the eyes & cementing the head, I hold the fly in a stream of hot water under the sink faucet for a minute to shape it, as you would a bucktail or flatwing.  

Damn Near Straight Rabbit Leech

     I got the first leech on me at the age of eight, the summer I’d amassed enough sand to swim from the family dock out to the island in the center of Tucker Pond. A nice one. About two inches long. Noticed it there, dangling alien spade-headed wormlike critter, undulating from the center of my chest as I emerged gasping from the pond aiming to claim the island’s fabled blueberries. I ripped it away & a drop of blood streamed down. That was ikky, I thought. Took the celebratory juice out of my right-of-passage swim-to-the-island victory for a minute.

That was also the summer of my first truly big bass, taken on a black/blue flake rubber worm, a new thing. And I later learned that a lot of other fish besides largemouth bass like the black/blue combination.

The rabbit ‘leech’ (DNSR Leech) pattern featured here has become one of my staples for dredging Eastside Washington lakes, I like a #4, makes about a two-inch ‘leech’, & I doubt that it is taken for a leech, in that size, as the real leeches I’m seeing in the local lakes are under an inch long – which accounts for the popularity of mini-leeches, I think – & this pattern can be tied on a #12 & fished as a mini-leech. But I like the big ole #4 tied on a TMC 200R drop-bend hook (which serves to keel the fly – lake fish don’t want to see it rolling & screwing through the water) fished deep on a full-sinking line or 15’ sinking head.

Size & silhouette reminds me more of a dragonfly nymph or a sculpin than a leech…

Good smallmouth bass fly. Brookies & browns too. And it does travel to running water as well.

DNSR Leech

Hook: #4 TMC 200R

Thread: wine UNI 8/0

Tailing: black rabbit fur (taken from a strip or whole hide) layered with 2 strands blue flash/2, red flash – tie in ahead of the hook point – apply a drop of penetrating cement at the tie-in point (I keep saying it: tailing is the simplest way to achieve articulation.)

Body: black rabbit w/guard hairs mixed with chopped red & blue flash, on a dubbing loop of the tying thread, or wine 3/0 or sewing thread on larger sizes, if you like           

Collar: black rabbit fur spread around the hook shank as a collar ~ & finish.

Flyfish NE Washington with Steven Bird: http://ucflyfishing.blogspot.com

Soft-Hackle Gold-Ribbed Hare’s Ear

     Though I have featured the Hare’s Lug & Plover, a popular British version, it occurred to me that three years into writing the Soft~Hackle Journal & I have not yet archived my own take on the Hare’s Ear. Versions of the Hare’s Ear have been in use for the entire history of Anglo fishing literature, & no doubt were fooling English trout well before the advent of print. I’ve overlooked the ancient pattern, fearing redundancy, considering it already covered ad infinitum. Forgive me. And some things do bear repetition. There might be kids reading who really need to know this.

Example: Once had a guy show up to fish with a boxful of neatly tied flies (beadheads on all of em) & not a single plain old Hare’s Ear wet of any kind in his box. The guy had strong ideas about what works. He let me know he’d fished Patagonia every year for twenty years. But the upper Columbia redband, being canny wild trout, were not appreciating his impressive resume or his beaded enticements. Spotted sedge stormed from the reach, & the trout preferring the emerging pupae accumulating just beneath the surface film. The beadhead caddis ‘emerger’ the guy insisted on did not present the way the trout wanted it, the gold beadhead serving to sink the fly too quickly out of the preferred zone, & that soon became obvious while fish tailed all around us. He made a face when I opened my box & offered him the wee Hare’s Ear, but took it without a word, tied it on, & was soon into a nice UC redband. To be fair, the guy was a passionate angler, he was simply temporarily stuck in a frame.  

Moral of the story (if I may paraphrase): He who lives by one thing will, on some days, die by that thing.

If you don't already, I’d suggest you carry a couple beadless Hare’s Ears with you & be able to meet a spectrum of circumstances & hatches they will cover. Can’t go wrong with a soft-hackle Hare’s Ear when meeting spotted sedge hatches – & the same pattern tied with an olive abdomen covers grannom, as well as others. And the pattern is equally useful fished for both mayflies & the smaller stonefly species. The Hare’s Ear imitates nothing, yet looks like everything – a delightfully utilitarian, ambiguously dangerous combination, bottom to top.     

There is no disputing the fish catching mojo of rabbit face as a tying material, evidenced by the many versions of the Hare’s Ear we see – with & without hackle or tails – with hare’s mask the only material in common.  And I think there may be as many versions of this fly as there are tyers interpreting it. 

The version featured here is my own take, though I doubt the material list is original. It may be tied without tailing to simulate sedge larvae & pre-emergent pupae, though I fish the tailed version as an emerger during sedge hatches, as the tailing serves to represent a trailing nymphal shuck. I tie them both weighted & not.

S-H Gold-Ribbed Hare’s Ear

Hook: #10-#18 Daiichi 1150

Thread: tan UNI 8/0

Tail: mallard flank, wood duck or gadwall – 3 to 5 fibers (This is a departure from the popular guard hair tailing, & I think an improvement.)

Rib: oval gold tinsel – metallic rod-wrapping thread is good

Body: reddish hare’s mask taken from the base of the ears, dubbed on a loop of the tying thread, wound to the head – overwrap with gold ribbing to the head, then add a bit of dubbing mixed with guard hairs from the ear & wind on a short thorax (I wind a short thorax on all my soft-hackle nymphs to create silhouette & mass & to keep the hackle flared away from the body.)

Hackle: ruffed grouse, & partridge or brahma hen are good – & finish.

Flyfish NE Washington with Steven Bird: http://ucflyfishing.blogspot.com      

The San Gabriel River ~ Going Forward With a Plan

Grafitti, East Fork, San Gabriel River

     As a kid I pursued the trout of the San Gabriel mercilessly. Bright leaves of trout. I owe them a lot more than the two cents I’m throwing down here.

Growing up in Glendora, California, at the foot of the mountains, the San Gabriel River was my refuge from 1963 until 1975, when I relocated to the Northwest pursuing a career in forestry. It was my fly fishing natal stream. I was there at the inception of the catch & release native trout segment on the West Fork. The love & appreciation for the outdoors the river canyons engendered & fostered in me led to my career in silvaculture & forestry & provided the foundation of my life as a guide & writer.    

My hat is off to those who worked to bring the San Gabriel Mountains National Monument to reality, as it is a huge first step toward creating a stewardship plan for this sensitive & immensely important region adjacent to one of the largest population centers on earth. Hopefully, now we can move forward with a stewardship plan focused on addressing the new Monument’s most pressing environmental concerns. It is one thing to acquire a label for a region or a river, yet another to achieve the actual recipe & ingredients needed to restore & preserve it.

Of course, the prime ingredient is funding for the restoration projects the San Gabriel River within the Monument sorely needs. It is my understanding that the Forest Service has already been allotted some funds for use in the Monument, also, California Fish & Game, with some loose funds to spend in the southern region – & both of those outfits looking for a worthwhile project to spend those funds on. There’s a start. They need a direction.    

I’ve heard the San Gabriel watershed called the Central Park of Los Angeles, & though the analogy might not be entirely accurate I do agree the space serves a similar recreational function, I agree that it is deserving of equal care & stewardship. That is generally agreed on by most of the voices claiming a seat at the discussion table outlining their particular vision of what should happen in the Monument. And, as I review the various ‘stakeholders’, I am reminded that any plan going forward must be one that most benefits the environment of the Monument, secured as a natural area (not a city park), regardless. What benefits the habitat of the Monument is precisely what will benefit the most, ultimately. And though it is true that every voice deserves a place at the discussion table, it needs to be pointed out that there can be no compromise on the stream for habitat-destroying activities – that would only serve to give us what we already have: compromised, non-viable habitat. Non-extractive conservation ethics should prevail, & that serving to conserve both habitat & funds.

Yes, I believe it is possible to create an interface between the highly developed L.A. basin & the adjacent, fairly wild San Gabriel, & without the need to compromise sensitive habitat.

So what should the initial priorities be?             

In my view, the chief environmental priority should be the several miles of San Gabriel River mainstem, which is degraded at this time, while located in the widest portion of the canyon holding the most recreation potential. Indeed, if the San Gabriel River be the main vein, the mainstem segment, including that section of the East Fork canyon from Camp Williams downstream to the confluence with the mainstem, is certainly the heartbeat of the Monument.

The mainstem segment above the San Gabriel Reservoir was initially degraded with the building of the reservoir. There was some riparian habitat still remaining on the mainstem & up the lower East Fork canyon during the 1960’s, but the record rains of 1968-1969 raised a flood that scoured out the riparian habitat remaining in that segment & took out the stable streambed, leaving the mainstem segment the lifeless floodplain that it is now. After the flood leveled the streambed, off-road vehicle enthusiasts began to use the ruined segment, leveling it further. Unable to stop the flood of off-road vehicles the Forest Service bowed to the trend & added facilities to enhance off-roading, further contributing to degrading the streambed. It needs to be pointed out that recreational off-roading in streamside riparian areas is illegal under current California statutes – & it should be stressed: the segment is far too vital to the river’s function within the Monument to be used for activities as impactive as off-roading or placer mining.   

Why do I see the several miles of the San Gabriel River mainstem within the Monument as so important? As I said, it is the widest & most accessible portion of the canyon, holding the most recreational potential, while now, the most degraded high-value area within the Monument. Yet the nexus of my reason is this: The mainstem contains the most water, the greatest flow, & that critical to the survival of native trout inhabiting the system, particularly during times of drought, like what S. California is experiencing now. Native trout, particularly landlocked steelhead such as inhabit the San Gabriel, are highly migratory within their river systems, seeking the best feeding & spawning areas or deeper, cooler water during periods of low stream flow. As things are now, trout are unable to utilize the (potentially) deeper, cooler mainstem in its present state, so remain isolated up the branches, where their race shrinks in size conforming to the shrunken, truncated habitat. It is my view that, in the long run, a viable population of San Gabriel native trout will not exist without restoration of the mainstem streambed & habitat.                   

Some of the major players do see the river as first priority, attempting to gain a sort of parceled Wild & Scenic River status for the upper reaches of the San Gabriel (which has five dams spanning it & is contained in a concrete ditch for about forty miles of its total sixty-mile length). No doubt, the environmental pros know a lot that I don’t, but the W&SR status for a few small branches seems ironic to me, facetious, naïve at best (or desperate), when in reality the San Gabriel River is a famous example of what a wild & scenic river is not. And it will not be that just because we call it that. In any case, I suggest we admit that the San Gabriel River is severely degraded & move to focus the appropriate agencies on that problem within the new Monument – W&SR status or not. And, considering present statutes & options under the new Monument status, I don’t see how the W&SR status is particularly necessary toward expediting or getting the needed habitat work done. Status labels serve as a balm, however they don’t necessarily serve to lever actual rehabilitation. Native & Heritage Trout status labels have done nothing to protect the East Fork of the San Gabriel from ongoing illegal placer mining that has all but ruined the stream in recent years, for example.

Agencies place the blame on lack of funds for law enforcement, though my conversations with agency personnel might indicate ambiguous priorities are equally to blame. That’s not to say the Monument doesn’t need more personnel to ensure public safety & protect habitat, certainly that is a critical need, & should be at the top of the list of priorities. All seem to agree on that.

As citizen organizations concerned with the San Gabriel National Monument go forward with their respective plans, I urge all involved to consider rehabilitation of the mainstem floodplain, from the confluence with Bear Creek down to San Gabriel Reservoir, as an initial priority. Hopefully, fishery & angling organizations will see this as extremely beneficial, if not critical, to the survival of native San Gabriel trout & coalesce into an alliance to make this happen.

In my view, the San Gabriel River deserves & would benefit from catch & release, artificials only fishing regulations within the Monument. In perspective, it is not a lot of water, too small a system to be parceled & truncated. To be viable, it must be integrated, in actuality & in stewardship. So I call on the various fishing clubs & conservation organizations involved to make attaining catch & release regs, along with streambed & habitat restoration for the mainstem, a particular focus as we seek to integrate the remaining river system within the Monument. Our children will thank us for it, & the trout will reward us.