Fish Food – Blue Line Fly Fisher

Gearing Up for Springtime in the Adirondacks

Leave a Comment / Fish Food / Rob / December 23, 2023

As I started writing this, I was in Texas wrapping up my annual bowhunting trip. It amuses me that the folks there think it is unbearably cold in December when it is 40 degrees out!
They wouldn’t like our December. When we got home, we found our typical winter weather and with it, the official kickoff of my fly tying season— time to fill up the fly boxes for the coming spring in the Adirondacks, including some flies for trout pond fishing.

Ponds and lakes are often the best place to start flyfishing in the Adirondacks as the
spring runoff and rainfall entering streams usually keeps them high and cold. For fly anglers, this doesn’t make for productive conditions. Our fun typically doesn’t start until water temperatures hit the mid 50’s. The ponds and lakes can have actively feeding trout well before things heat up in the streams. Once the ice melts trout start feeding on the spring bounty as soon as the sun warms up the shallow areas, and a simple float tube and some fins will get you on the water.

Food sources for stillwater trout in the Adirondacks are much different than the insect life
found in the streams. One of the biggest sources of springtime food are damsel and dragonfly nymphs. In early spring, these nymphs swim towards shore where they eventually hatch. Trout feed on any of the nymphs that they can get. My usual fishing strategy for damselfly or dragonfly nymphs is to cast out into deeper water with a sink-tip line and retrieve the fly in little twitches like the real thing heading toward shore.

One of the oddest foods pond trout hit are salamanders. I learned this from Adirondack
Fishing Guide, Joe Hackett. He even developed his own fly pattern to match the salamanders that end up getting washed into the ponds after a good rain, one he tied from scraps of an old fur coat. A salamander is a big meal for a trout and an easy one they won’t ignore. I have a little more refined pattern of my own that I tie as a jointed fly, giving it plenty of motion.

Some ponds have leeches, and they are another food source for springtime. Simple leech
patterns or even a Wooly Bugger will work on a slow twist retrieve on a sink-tip line if that is what they are interested in. Ponds typically don’t get a lot of dry fly activity, but it does happen. A couple of years ago I was paddling around a Warren County pond in the spring and the trout started rising to a midge hatch. Fortunately, I had some midges along and was able to paddle to shore and switch to a floating line and immediately started catching rising fish on a Griffith’s Gnat. Midges are an important food source in stillwaters, and even though they are tiny, trout feed on them. Midge larvae are another good subsurface pattern for springtime.

Long winters make springtime in the Adirondacks magical. For fly anglers, early spring
isn’t always the best, but putting a little time into fishing trout ponds or lakes before things heat up in the streams is a lot of fun. If you can shift gears and match the hatches in the ponds, it can be really productive too!.

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The Good, the Bad, and the [Ausable] Ugly

ADK Tied, Fish Food / Nate / August 4, 2023

The Good

This summer George and I had the opportunity to fish with Richard Garfield, an independent guide based in Wilmington, NY and owner of Fly Fish the Adirondacks for over 20 years. I wanted to fish with Rich after coming across the Ausable Ugly fly pattern while researching Adirondack flies last winter. I had tied a dozen or so over the winter, but had this idea not to fish with them until I could spend a day on the water with the pattern’s creator.

We met Rich at six in the morning. It had been raining steadily since the previous evening. Everything had become saturated overnight, and it was not looking like it was going to lighten up at any point in the morning.

We discussed options and expectations for the day, then George and I decided to try a small stream that Rich said had a good mix of brook and brown trout. After a drive through the North County, we parked along a non-descript road, from which Rich led us through the woods to get to the stream.

Before we entered the stream, Rich asked, once we were in the stream, to remain within the stream bed and to be careful to not step on any of the riparian vegetation, showing that he is a steward as much as he is a guide.

We fished upstream hitting pockets and the banks with dry flies, and drifted nymphs through the deeper and faster runs. Our dry flies included: Usuals, Haystacks, Ausable Bombers, various Wulffs, Caddis, Stimulators, Micro Chubbies, and Grumpy Frumpies, among others. A little ways up the stream, Rich asked why we hired him. I told him it was because of the Ugly. Upon hearing this reason Rich pulled out a size eight Ugly from his stash. That fly became the dedicated nymph for the rest of the day.

Rich had us try a run underneath significant low overhanging branches from multiple trees with the Ugly. After a number of casts that turned up nothing, I asked Rich to show us how it was done. Rich accepted, got in position and proceeded to make a targeted cast, letting Ugly drift down, retrieving the line with a figure-eight technique. Rich proceeded with a second cast, and on the retrieve hooked and brought in the nicest brook trout of the day. George and I alternated prospecting everywhere that looked fishy. We caught countless fish ranging from 5” brook trout to 14” brown trout. It was a very productive day.

The Bad

The constant rain made it necessary to change flies frequently. No amount of fly shake could counteract the precipitation and humidity we were experiencing. During one of these fly changes, Rich saw me holding my compartment box over the water while selecting my next fly and said that holding an open compartment box over the stream was quite risky and noting that he had seen several fly boxes lost to the swift current over the years. I acknowledged his warning and agreed that I was living dangerously, but continued to make all of my fly changes this way for the rest of the day.

In the last thirty minutes of our trip, I paused to change to a fresh dry fly once again. I moved to close the box and next thing I knew, it left my hand tumbling toward the torrent below along with 90% of my dry flies. I recovered the box, but the vast majority of my flies were washed away as the water rushed in, lifted them out of the compartments, and carried them off down stream, presumably into the mouths of trout lying in wait.

George joked that I educated the stream, suggesting that my unintentioned buffet would teach a thing or two to the all too eager trout. In reality it was I that received an education from the river. With my new honorary degree in humility, I am reassessing my method for carrying dry flies on the water. Rich said I was playing with fire. I didn’t listen. And I got burned. The moral of the story… Listen to your guide.

The [Ausable] Ugly

Our time spent with Rich was an enjoyable day of fishing and shooting the breeze. Rich is an unpretentious guide who is willing to teach and share his knowledge of the region, which made for a memorable trip. George and I enjoyed our time with Rich, and fishing a new stream.

Rich graciously critiqued the Ausable Uglies I tied. He showed me where I could improve the pattern the next time I tied them, and gave me two of his for reference. His observations and suggestions included:

Bead: A tungsten bead is best and necessary. A 4mm bead for a size 8 hook works well. (We were fishing a size 8 throughout the day. The heavy bead allowed the fly to get down quickly with all its dubbing and hackle, even in faster currents.)
Tail: The tail should be about the hook shank in length. (Or twice the length than what I had tied.)
Dubbing: Generously apply to the dubbing to the thread in a loose noodle. When wrapping it around the hook shank, it should not be wrapped too tightly. This will ensure better results when picking out the dubbing later on.
Hackle: Selecting a very soft and mangy hackle is important. This will create the most movement, softer hackles will undulate more in the water. Avoid stiff hackles. Rich said he will even use hackles mangled, or that others might even avoid using.

Overall the pattern wants to be soft and chewy. He named it the Ugly for a reason. We fished it dead drift, with little jigs, and stripped it like a streamer. It is an incredibly versatile fly and I have used it to great success on multiple occasions this summer on other streams. Rich also said that he uses it fishing for Great Lakes steelhead, something that I will try this fall and winter.

If you find your way up in the northern part of the Adirondacks, near Wilmington and Lake Placid, I recommend getting in touch with Rich. He offers trips for both warm water and cold water species, small streams, and has access to some private water. He can be reached through his website: https://flyfishtheadirondacks.com/.

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Blue Line Brookies

Leave a Comment / Fish Food / Rob / July 22, 2023

Time is the greatest gift you can get, and my relatively new retirement has afforded opportunities that I never had time for while working a full-time job, owning a small business, and also having another part-time job. One thing that I’ve found more time for is fly fishing on Blue-line brook trout streams in the Adirondacks.

Crawling up on a plunge pool in eager anticipation, then making the perfect cast, soon to be rewarded by a feisty brooking grabbing your fly is great fun during the times when it all comes together. Just getting to these streams and fishing them is its own reward.

When I was younger, there really were not a lot of wild brook trout streams with decent populations of fish. Now the native brookies are more widespread and with a little research, it’s possible to find them. In general, I like to find a stream on the map that is at least four miles long or so, and from there you just get out and explore. I certainly don’t find brookies in every one that I try, but have found some that were great.

Flies and gear are easy. A box of attractor dry flies, like my favorite, the Ausable Wulff, plus a few foam Chubbies to fish dry/droppers with, and a couple of beadhead nymphs like the Pheasant tail, Frenchie, and Perdigon and you have everything. I bought a new rod for exploring these streams, a 6.5 foot 3 weight, which has been ideal.

These trout don’t have a ton of food in terms of hatches. They largely rely on whatever washes into the stream, and typically are going to eat any fly that comes by them. The challenge is in getting a shot to present the fly. They see very well and you have to wear colors that blend in and position yourself downstream where you won’t be seen when you cast.

I generally find there is a point on the streams where you start catching mostly small trout. Usually the lower couple of miles from the mouth of the stream upstream are where the bigger fish will be found. On these streams a 7-incher is average, and a 12-incher is a monster.

If you do try this sort of fishing, please keep a couple of things in mind. These streams and the trout that are in them are pretty delicate. They can’t handle a ton of fishing pressure. Also, have a plan for releasing fish before you catch one. I have a rubber coated net, but I usually wet my hands and just wiggle the hook out and let them go without touching them.

Water temperature is the key to when you shouldn’t fish. This season we’ve had a lot of rain in July which has cooled these streams, providing more summertime fishing than usual. In general, try and fish when they are 65 degrees or less and the trout will be in good shape when released.

The Adirondacks are a gem, and the wild brook trout are a treasure that are doing well on a lot of streams. Backcountry fly fishing for them is a challenge, and while not every stream is going to yield good numbers of trout, it is great when you find one that does!

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