Thursday, May 9, 2019

Soft~Hackle Journal May 2019


                May

    A bit late getting the issue out this month. Sometimes the rest of life gets in the way of writing. And we have to live so we’ll have things to write about.

Been traveling, making the yearly move from winter quarters back up to fish camp. We take our time, stopping to visit family & friends along the way.  Takes two days just to load the truck prior to leaving. And no matter how tidy we try to make the load, we always end up looking like the Beverly Hillbillies going up the freeway.

One year we had a fifty-pound sack of potatoes riding on the back of the load, & the sack had a hole in it so was leaking spuds, & every once in a while I’d glance in the rearview mirror & see one fall out & bounce along the highway into traffic.

We discourage tailgaters.

Good to be back home on the river. May is kind of a slow month here, most of the larger trout up the creeks spawning. Walked down this evening. There are some bugs: grannoms, March browns, craneflies, & a lot of carpenter ants. I’m out of the ants & need to tie some. 

There were a few trout up & feeding on the grannom sedges, & I did manage to Spey up a couple on a #14 Partridge & Peacock softie, not jowsers, but good pullers just the same, & they made me glad. 




                                                   The Reel News

Is Michelle Obama a Man?

Whitman pointing at the sky.

We already know this.

Greening the arctic.

                                                     At the Vise

I really do need to tie some carpenter ant imitations. Warm days in May are bringing them out & they are falling everywhere, & a lot of them end up falling on the river where trout are on to them. Will do it tomorrow. Recent efforts have been more along the lines of larger spiders for Trout Spey & softies to fish over sedges & mayflies. For me, these are more satisfying to tie than ants, which require a lot of thread winding to form the body shape, the way I tie them. 

Native Girl ~ hook: #6 ~ thread: rust-brown UNI 8/0 ~ tail: GPT ~ rib: copper wire ~ body: copper tinsel ~ thorax/shroud: Hareline Shrimp Pink UV Dub & bit of pink dubbing behind the wing ~ wing: ruffed grouse tail in compound loop ~ collar: brahma hen ~ cheeks: JC


Sunrise ~ hook: #12-#14 ~ thread: tan UNI 8/0 ~ hackle: woodcock shoulder covert ~ body: sunrise yellow size 'A' rod wrapping thread & thorax of brown wool mixed with a bit of Hares mask


   
Green Drake Flymph ~ hook: #8 ~ thread: olive UNI 8/0 ~ hackle: golden olive grizzly ~ tail: gadwall whisks dyed with yellow marker ~ rib: yellow floss, doubled & twisted ~ body: dark olive hares mask with a bit of Hareline Shrimp Pink Dub mixed in, thorax dubbed on the floss rib, a bit of light olive dubbing behind the hackle collar

Watercolor~Ink by Doris Loiseau