Happy Spring. As Bob Dylan once wrote in one of his songs, “The Times They Are A Changin.” And so is RIPRAP. The Kiap-TU-Wish board has decided to change the way in which RIPRAP is presented and it will move to a format that will allow for a more web-based publication of news and stories. The plan is to keep a steady stream of information flowing to our website in order to bring more traffic to the site and ultimately give the chapter more exposure to our local and regional fly-fishing communities.
Some of you may not know that the first publication of RIPRAP occurred in 1987. From then on, RIPRAP has grown to its current state and to date has had 11 editors. I am honored to be a part of this group and would like to thank all former editors for their hard work and dedication to RIPRAP and the chapter. I encourage all of you to go to our website and take a trip down memory lane by searching through the RIPRAP archive. It is full of great articles and information. I’m sure you’ll say to yourself, “oh yeah, I remember that.”
~ Ed
The May issue of Rip Rap, our chapter newsletter, is available here.
In a previous article, I wrote about the history of fly-design moving between poles of simplicity and complexity, with a funny story about salmon fishing in Scotland. Sometimes, and more frequently than not, simplicity wins.
Emergers are a class of immature insect in the act of ascending to the surface, attempting to split wingcases, or drying wings, or escaping the remains of a nymphal exoskeleton. Trout, being effi- cient predators by necessity, feed upon the most vulnerable insects, those that, because of a disability or handicap, will never fly away.
During a hatch, there are thousands of individuals in the process of becoming adults. If everything goes as nature intends, they will all look alike. The cripples have one thing in common: theylook different from the successful individuals.
The differences may vary, but there will be some trigger that lets the trout know which ones are vulnerable, so the fish can rise confidently and not waste precious calories in an unsuccessful effort. This is also nature’s way of eliminating less robust individ- uals from the breeding pool. After hatching, the birds take their share, again targeting those individuals that exhibit less than perfect flying ability.
Consider now the standard dry fly, with hackle, wings, body and tails, tied on a metal hook which often breaks the water surface. Can you see your fly on the water amid a hatch of insects? If you can, then your fly doesn’t look like the naturals. The trout will also notice these irregularities and perhaps eat your fly. Ironically, the take is precisely because all of your ingenuity to craft the right silhouette, match color and size, and simulate movement creates just the opposite impression to the fish. The fish recognizes that your fly is a fake, but sucks it in because it won’t fly away. I think it’s terribly humbling to consider this, but it leads to a clearer understanding about what makes a great emerger imitation.
If any irregularity in the natural causes it to be targeted by trout, the more general and simple we can make those irregularities, the better. With fewer elements in each fly, we can concentrate on getting the colors and size right. The goal is to convince the trout that our imitation is a member of the same species that’s hatching, but also that it is crippled.
Soft hackle flies do exactly that, provided the body is the same color as the natural’s underbody, and the hackle is soft and sparse enough to get wet and simply lie along it. Don’t worry about flota- tion. Even wet, most soft hackles will stay in the film, despite the hook point. By the way, make sure you tie them on light weight hooks. Are your soft hackles hard to see on the water? I hope so. You may not be able to see the fly, but you can watch your tippet for a tell-tale twitch, or lift your rod tip if you see a rise where you think your fly is.
One of my colleagues at work mentioned that her husband was a fly fisher, but that he was making noises about taking up fly-tying as well. She wanted to know what she could buy to get him started in the right way. I’m sure that there are lots of folks out there in the same boat, and a little guidance might help. So here goes.
The first requirement is a comfortable space; a good, comfortable chair in front of a white or light colored piece of wood or laminate, thick enough to be stable, but thin enough to fit the vise’s clamp. One friend used a folding chess board, to which he glued two pieces of white board. Another lays down a white placemat on his desk. I bought a simple desk at Scandinavian Design about 25 years ago that is built from white melamine that serves as my tying table now. Is Scandinavian Design still in business? I just checked, and the answer is “yes.” They even have a desk like mine, but not in white.
The second requirement is a really good light source. I have a pantograph lamp that uses two bulbs, one incandescent in order to capture all the natural colors, and one fluorescent for brightness. I use a 100 watt bulb that I replace every few years by buying one on Ebay. The fluorescent bulb has never been replaced…knock on wood… it’s forty years old! I also use a large magnifying glass, 4 inches in diameter, that I can position between my eyes and the business end of my vise to make those #22 Tricos easier to tie. There are ‘goose-neck’ fly tying lights that throw a narrow beam of light, but when I’ve had to use one of those my eyes got tired very fast. When you are tying on the road, the desk light in most hotel rooms is adequate if not ideal.
Then, you need a good vise. The jaws of the vise should hold hooks firmly enough that you can bend the shanks with pliers while the bend of the hook is secured in the vise. The jaws should also hold the various sizes of hooks that you will be using. If you tie trout flies, you don’t need a vise that’s capable of holding size 3/0 bass bug hooks. There are several ways to open or close the jaws of a vise, and most of them employ a cam or lever, sometimes with an adjustable collet and sometimes not. There are many vises available, with all sorts of gadgets on them to rotate, hold a bobbin, hang a tool, or secure a thread, but what’s truly necessary are really good jaws and a simple way to open or close them. I use a Regal Inex vise, which runs around $150. It has a clamp base to secure it to my tying desk. I still have the vise I bought when I was 11 years old, an AA manufactured by DH Thompson.
That brings up a problem. Your fly-tying place better have plenty of places to store stuff because you’ll never, ever, throw anything away. You can buy small tools like scissors, bobbins, whip-finishers, and hackle pliers in a kit or individually. You generally get what you pay for in terms of quality. I love Matarelli bobbins and Ice Scissors.
Complete fly tying kits are available, and may appeal, but my experience is that half of what comes in the kit you will never use, and you’ll be running back to the fly shop to buy more of what ran out. If anyone would like to discuss this with me, let me know. My phone number is 715-690-4503 and my email kplmstr1@mac.com.
This year’s spawning run took place on January 14th. The Wisconsin DNR had a new system in place, whereby they would send you eggs from a state hatchery and take care of all the licensing paperwork too. The motivation for this change was due to TIC programs exploding in the state and therefore the need for a more streamlined and standardized procedure. Where was the challenge in that? No more driving around in the dark, during a snowstorm, in the backwoods of Frederic to collect eggs at 6 am. Instead, I waited in my warm house, cup of tea in hand, getting UPS updates, as the truck neared. The truck arrived at 10:30 a.m., just as they said they would.
The one challenge we did face was with a later start and getting the eggs to all eight classrooms before the end of the school day. However, like clockwork, my two newly enlisted Egg Runners appeared as the UPS truck left. Kiap-TU-Wish members Zak Trimble took the central core (River Falls and Ellsworth), Dustin Wing delivered the southern swing (Hudson and Prescott) and I headed out to the northern neighbors (Roberts and Amery). When the timing lined up, we were able to present the eggs to some very excited children. This year I did my homework beforehand, because I knew I would be asked what the state record brown trout is (41 lbs from Lake Michigan). According to the hatchery manager, the trout should hatch within a week!
Stay tuned for further updates and opportunities to help with Bugs in the Classroom, Rocky Branch Eco Day, and the trout releases at Willow River State Park, all coming up this spring. —Greg Olson
Throughout its history, our nation has been blessed with an extraordinary band of men and women who have sacrificed so much for the people of our nation. Regardless of the situation, regardless of the danger, these brave individuals have answered the call to protect our liberties and freedoms. Trout Unlimited is appreciative of their sacrifices and their service. In ever-growing numbers, our members are stepping up to provide healing, rehabilitation, hope and community to all veterans and their families who have sacrificed so much to protect the freedoms we all enjoy.
The Veterans Service Partnership (VSP) is a nationwide effort initiated by Trout Unlimited in 2011 to bring the healing power of water to those who have served our nation so boldly. The goal of VSP is to get TU chapters and members thinking about how they can actively engage our nation’s active duty military and veteran population locally by serving those who have served us in events and activities associated with fishing.
Dustin Wing, a Kiap-TU-Wish member and veteran of Operation Iraqi Freedom, is setting up a VSP program for our chapter. He needs help from us to get started, so please email him at dustinrwing@gmail.com with your response to the following questions:
Are you a veteran, active duty, guard/reserve or immediate family member of someone with military service? Please explain.
Would you be interested in participating or volunteering at VSP events held by Kiap- TU-Wish or partner organizations?
Would you be interested in serving on a VSP sub-committee within Kiap-TU-Wish?
For details about the program, visit the TU website and search “Veterans Service Partnership.”
