Northern NH Fly Fishing: April 2016

April 2016 was slim pickings for trout fishing around these parts. Partly because the water is still very cold, but mostly because the stock trucks haven't made their rounds yet. :)

I fished for 4 hours to catch something this cold, windy day near the end of April at a trout pond up in Errol. This little guy took the #20 buggy-looking dropper fly that I had behind the #12 damsel larva main fly.

Another day near the end of April I dragged this guide's choice hare's ear and dropper for 3 hours, along with numerous other flies, and came up empty. Possibly it was because the water was still quite cold, but likely it was because the stock trucks hadn't made their rounds yet. ;)

Occasionally our family dog tags along on a fishing expedition.

This first pond trout of the year took the dropper fly behind my beadhead wooly bugger - it was a #18 peacock and black wooly bugger. I do well with very small buggers, particularly in spring with holdover and native fish. I think they take them for damsel fly larva, small bait fish and all kinds of other food they typically eat.

Here's the bugger combo. The #10 bugger looks like a giant compared to the typically more productive #18 dropper bugger. Though I usually like the hackle on my buggers longer than standard to provide a bit more movement in the water, the bigger bugger in this photo sports unusually long hackle... might have been the result of a bit too much cold beer at the tying bench. ;)

In late April bugs FINALLY began to hatch above surface. This one was a Hendrickson, one of the earliest mayflies. There was a pretty good hatch, but nothing was rising to them. Possibly because the water was still cold, but mostly it was because the stock trucks hadn't made their rounds yet. :)

After many years of buying flies for fishing I decided to learn how to tie my own in January 2016.

I attempted to take a tying class, to get started properly, but after my initial inquiry, and being told I'd hear back, weeks went by and I heard nothing more from the instructor. So, I taught myself by watching online videos generously shared by knowledgeable tyers.

1) The most influential has been Tim Flagler of Tight Line Productions. https://www.youtube.com/user/tightlinevideo
He and Matt Grobert of http://www.caddischronicles.com/ both tie for the Tight Line Productions videos. They're very clever in the way they make you a better tyer by subtly sneaking lots of best practices into their high quality tying videos. I've picked up countless tricks and procedures to make things easier and the flies better.

2) Jim Misiura. Jim's massive series of "Fly tying for beginners" videos has been very valuable as I try to expand the number of arrows in my ever-growing fly tying quiver. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UChBe08TywiYfR5M_3P2dBig

3) Davie McPhail. Davie has a very natural seeming ability to tie beautiful flies, and explains things as he goes in a very pleasant manner. He has single handedly enabled me to figure out how to properly tie in classic wet fly wings. https://www.youtube.com/user/DavieMcPhail

4) Tim at Trout and Feather. Tim's instructional video are numerous and he does a particularly good job of explaining why he's doing certain things in the tying process, as well as his thought process on modifying flies for various situations. http://www.troutandfeather.com/fly-tying-videos/

5) Rounding out the most influential 5 is Hans Weilenmann. I have very much benefitted from Hans' minimalist approach to tying. No thread wrap is wasted and everything is very tidy.
https://www.youtube.com/user/HansWeilenmann

There have been others, but these five have been my primary educators in fly tying. Thank you gentlemen. :)

Since beginning fly tying a mere half year ago I've tied well over 2,000 flies, and I've sold nearly 100 dozen of some of my favorite nymphs, dries, streamers and wooly buggers in online auctions. Viewable here: http://www.ebay.com/sch/milleroutdoors1/m.html

The real fun in tying flies is developing your own patterns and tweaking popular patterns to work better. I plan on publishing a few of my creations in the not-too-distant future in an effort to give a bit back and pay the knowledge sharing, that I've so benefited from, forward. So stay tuned. :)

A few of the flies I've tied...