Itchin’ For Fishin’

Was this winter longer than most? It sure seemed that way to me. Maybe it’s because I bought a treadmill so I could keep walking through the winter. I didn’t get out side much at all. Ahhh maybe that’s cabin fever. Guess I will have to travel south next winter.

I’ve been pretty busy with my online business all winter and even took on a couple of extra web design jobs to help my son get through college this year. It will be good to see him get a trade. He seems to be really enjoying it and is meeting his new temporary boss this afternoon. Very proud of him.

So with all that I have been doing this winter I still haven’t tied a single fly yet, but I have been looking at some I want to tie but I want to tie some that will work for trout, bass and pickerel, maybe even for Atlantic salmon.

One I found this morning on Youtube looks promising and is easy to tie.

It’s a leech pattern streamer, like a woolly bugger, that only uses a few items. Some maribou in what ever colour suites you, depending on the colour of leeches where you live. A little orange yarn to form an egg and some wire to weight the hook and of course some thread and to finish it a some hackle. That’s it.

Here is the video, enjoy.

Related articles

• Tying A Few Flies For New Brunswick Chain Pickerel Action On The Fly (thejoyofflyfishing.com)
• A Chain Pickerel By Any Other Name (thejoyofflyfishing.com)
• Can’t Hardly Wait For Fishing Season To Open (stepbysteptips.com)

I have done some fly fishing for chain pickerel. Actually New Brunswick was the first place I ever saw and caught a pickerel on the fly, well really on anything, it was my first pickerel, but it set the stage for many many happy days on the water battling these wacky and vicious toothy water wolf.

My first pickerel was while fly fishing a little brown dry fly for brook trout and got a surprise catch, a little pickerel which was actually smaller than most of the brookies we caught that day.

Over the years since I have used boats, canoes and my float tubes to fish for pickerel on the fly and started using some bigger flies we use for smallmouth bass and Atlantic salmon.

I also used a few black wooly bugger leech patterns to have fun on the water and would like to share a video showing you how to tie the wooly bugger so you can give them a try yourself.

Fly Tying Materials You Will Need For The Wooly Bugger

Here’s a video showing what you need to tie a wooly bugger, a great description of materials.

How To Tie A Wooly Bugger

I tie the wooly bugger streamer as a leech pattern and don’t use the bead head. I have never had a trout, bass or pickerel ever complain about the lack of a head. They wooly bugger is a very easy fly to tie and I’ve found that a 6 – 10 inch retrieve works best for me. So here is a video that shows how to tie the wooly bugger.

Don’t have time to tie your own, try this one:

White River Fly Shop Wooly Bugger Chenille - Purple - Flies & Flytying Offer by: Bass Pro Shops Price: USD 2.99 Introducing the best chenille we&8217 ve found for tying woolies, and no bugger should ever leave home without it! Made from the densest Antron available with a little pearl Mylar tinsel mixed in for fish-attracting flash. Introducing the best chenille weamp 8217 ve found for tying woolies, and no bugger should ever leave home without it! Made from the densest Antron available with a little pearl Mylar tinsel mixed in for fish-attracting flash.

Related articles

• Tying A Few Flies For New Brunswick Chain Pickerel Action On The Fly (thejoyofflyfishing.com)
• Fly Fishing Chain Pickerel in New Brunswick (thejoyofflyfishing.com)

I love fly fishing for Atlantic salmon, just never get enough of it, and I also love using the Atlantic salmon pattern known as The Green Machine on most of our salmon rivers here in New Brunswick Canada.

My understanding of the Green Machine is that it was first used here in New Brunswick. No wonder both I and the Atlantic salmon love it.

The following video was created by William at www.FlySpoke.com. Thanks for the great video William.

You can watch the video and I will make a list for you with the materials you will need to successfully duplicate this awesome salmon fly.

Atlantic Salmon Fly: The Green Machine

Pattern: The White Calf Tail Green Machine, a slight variation of the original Green Machine.

• Mustad Hook: 3582 – Size 8 – Down Eye Double Hook
• Tail: White Calf Tail
• Hackle: Size 12 Dry Fly Hackle (Brown or Ginger)
• Body: Deer Body Hair (Green)

Note: Using blue deer hair and you will create a smurf to catch Atlantic salmon.

Feel free to change up the tail colour and see how you do on your salmon water.

If you’re new to deer hair spinning it’s not a problem. I found this little deer hair spinning video, enjoy.

My wife is from Campbellton New Brunswick, definitely the Atlantic salmon capital of the Maritimes. I have been fly fishing there for both big brook trout and of course the Atlantic salmon. I thought you would like to see a video of an Atlantic salmon fly tied right here in New Brunswick. I wonder if I would have married her if she wasn’t from a salmon fishing background? Okay, just kidding.

Somewhere about 1935 Joseph Clovis Arsenault was asked by Joseph Pulitizer to replicate a worn out Black R.A.T. that had the under body showing through. This better with age and well used fly was the birth of one of the most famous of all Canadian hair wing flies. The Rusty Rat is as good today as any fly for fishing the world famous Restigouche River.

This video not only shows you step by step how to tie the Rusty Rat but as he is tying he tells a great story of the history. Well worth your time viewing.

Most fishers have confidence baits and the same thing goes for salmon flies. I have my favourites and they tend to be all I use most of the time. The Rusty Rat is a salmon fly I have never tried but after watching this video it’s one that I have to learn to tie for myself and give it a try next year. Looking forward to it already.

I have been fly fishing salmon and other big species of fish for 30 years or more and I always tend to start with a big goofy looking top water fly but the truth is I have caught far more large fish on smaller flies, like I use on small streams and brooks for brook trout. I guess I always think big flies catch big fish so I always give them the first shot.

Heck I remember a particular day that I was the only one hooking Atlantic salmon, on almost every cast I made. The guys around the pool started asking me what I was using after the third or fourth hook up. Of course I played the guessing game for a while. Then I gave in and shared two of my flies with my fly fishing buddies.

I lost a couple of those flies, one landed way up a tree I wasn’t ready to climb, another I broke the hook on a big rock that kept getting in the way of my back cast and a couple, well the salmon liked them so much they kept them when they got away.

Before long I was down to my last fly, maybe I should have kept them secret. Anyways we decided to drive back to the closest town that had a fly shop, as I didn’t bother bringing my fly tying kit with me on that day. DUH!!

We got back to town, a 30 mile trip, and I purchased a handful as did my two fishing buddies and we headed back up to our camp site for lunch and then back to the salmon pool. That’s a weekend I will not soon forget.

My point is that small flies will some times catch fish that aren’t looking at big flies. And sharing with friends is a good thing. I would much rather have everyone having a good time as long as I am catching fish.

It looked like a green machine, made of brown deer hair and tied on a hook between #12 and #16, so it’s not very big at all. It had no hackle, just the brown deer hair but it worked like I have never seen a fly work on Atlantic salmon.

Note: The day we fished with this little deer hair bug fly it was hot and had been hot for a week or so. The water level was extremely low and the water temperature was much higher than normal for that time of year.

So the materials for this Deer Hair Salmon Fly:

Wet Fly Hook: #12 – #16

Thread: Black

Body Material: deer hair