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.
Rainy's Wooly Bugger Assortment comes complete with 24 tried and true woolies in the best colors and a 6-compartment see-through fly box. Includes: Beadhead Wooly Buggers Beadhead Halloween Buggers Beadhead Krystal Buggers Beadhead Autumn Buggers Conehead Rubber Leg Buggers Wooly Buggers Rainy's Wooly Bugger Assortment comes complete with 24 tried and true woolies in the best colors and a 6-compartment see-through fly box. Includes: Beadhead Wooly Buggers Beadhead Halloween Buggers Beadhead Krystal Buggers Beadhead Autumn Buggers C
Living in New Brunswick Canada I don’t see pike like I did in Ontario but I do see Chain pickerel, which get up to about a max of 30 inches and are just as aggressive as a pike the same size. They are after all part of the pike family.
My first pickerel caught was on a fly rod while I was fly fishing for brook trout. Imagine my surprise when a little pickerel grabbed it in mid-air. Even though it was a tiny specimen I could see they were vicious and was eager to try the fly rod for some bigger ones.
Since my first pickerel I have caught hundreds and hundreds of them, all exciting fun but the most fun I think I have had fly fishing for pickerel is using a fly that had the hook point snapped off. I was using it just for the reaction I get from the pickerel, same applies to pike of course. I would just cast it out and watch the reaction from the pike and to see how far I could attract them from.
On the right days I have had them easily come from 10 or 15 feet away while casting in the weeds. Most times they would be moving, more than one coming in all directions, before the fly ever hit the water so they had to be sitting right at the top of the water. So cool.
I have had pickerel take the fly, the one with no point on the hook, and still hold on to it all the way back to the boat or float tube. I have even lifted some out of the water, without being hooked and they just won’t let go.
What I have found is that pike and pickerel like the same food and will attack all the same flies. I use bass flies and salmon flies to catch them here in New Brunswick and do quite well with them.
But I am looking to tie a few flies designed for pike so I was looking through Youtube as I do often and found some cool pike on the fly videos I would like to share and then at the end I will add in a video showing how to tie a pike fly.
Here is a cool video where they are casting to pike and watching them take flies. I get such a kick out of watching that wake more through the water.
That was so much fun watching but I have to add this one as well. We don’t get pickerel that big here in New Brunswick but even so I have great fun catching them on a variety of flies.
And now a video showing you how to tie a fly for your pike or pickerel fly fishing trips. Enjoy and keep your arms strong.
I love top water action, who doesn’t, but I also like to use streamers, the same streamers I use for Atlantic salmon work great. Streamers will run just under the surface and they get a lot of action and most times I still get to see the strike right at the surface too.
The Mickey Finn Streamer
I usually use the Mickey Finn streamer for spring run Atlantic salmon but once I gave the Mickey Finn a try for pickerel I added it to my pike on the fly flies. The Mickey Finn streamer takes about 3 minutes to tie once you learn how and is quite durable.
Enjoy the video and maybe I will see you on the water fly fishing pike or pickerel.
Fly fishing for pike is not for the faint of heart! However, for fly fishers with the desire to test their skills against the fiercest freshwater gamefish, this DVD ''Pike on the Fly In Pursuit of the Water Wolf'' with Barry Reynolds is a must-watch. Follow along as Barry Reynolds takes you to some of the most pike infested waters in North America, from little know rivers and tributaries to the mighty Yukon while he pursues the great water wolf with flies. Barry explains his admiration for the tremendous northern pike and why he keeps going back year after year, the quest for the ''Holy Grail'' a pike of over 50 inches on the fly! In fact, eight pike of over 50 inches were taken during production of ''Pike on the Fly In Pursuit of the Water Wolf'', including Barry's personal best&8212 a monster pike measuring 54'' in length and 28'' in girth. The film's intense soundtrack along with its breathtaking beauty and heart-pounding pike-fighting action will entertain every angler and not just those armed with a fly rod. ''Pike on the Fly In Pursuit of the Water Wolf'' also includes bonus footage for those who want to know more about flies, leader set-ups, fly lines and other valuable information that&8217 s required for taking pike on the fly. Approximately 68 minutes. Fly fishing for pike is not for the faint of heart! However, for fly fishers with the desire to test their skills against the fiercest freshwater gamefish, this DVD ''Pike on the Fly In Pursuit of the Water Wolf'' with Barry Reynolds is a must-watch.
Catching smallmouth bass on the fly rod is a blast, especially when I’m using some of my bass popper flies.
Bass popper flies are easy to fish, they’re fun and the strikes are quite often very explosive and that’s why I like using poppers.
Here is a video I found on Youtube that shows how to tie a popper.
Crease Fly Bass Popper – PA Fly Tying Lessons
Crease flies were originated by Capt Joe Blados for stripers and blues.
Scaled down, these flies are an effective alternative to loud poppers when largemouth and smallmouth are skittish but still taking surface patterns. Crease flies wiggle and swirl when stripped and this action often drives bass crazy.
Watch this video to see how to tie a very simple, effective, and durable surface pattern for smallmouth and largemouth bass fishing.
One of my favourite methods for fishing trout, well really any fish, is using my fly rod and artificial flies. I also tie most of my own flies. For me that’s just part of fly fishing. There’s just something extra in fishing when you make your own flies and lures.
Some of these flies are so tiny that I am amazed every single time I hook into a brook trout with them. Others are bigger and some are ones I actually use for fly fishing Atlantic salmon, Smallmouth bass and Chain pickerel. I do like to use a lot of top water flies, just to watch the action when I get a strike. It’s so cool and makes me keep coming back for more.
When I am fishing new water I always take both my spinning rod and fly rod. That way if the terrain is too tough to get a fly rod through I can use my spinning rod but most places I go I tend to be able to use my fly rod. I also must admit I don’t do that well on those windy days so the spinning rod does come in very handy.
Flies I Use To Catch Brook Trout
I like tying my own trout flies for those days on the water and I never go with anything complicated so even if you never tied an artificial fly you would be able to put one of these together.
Most often, almost 100% of the time I use dry flies. It’s just so much fun watching them take it from the surface of the water, but every once in a while I will use a wet fly, a streamer or even a nymph to get below the surface if they aren’t taking anything from the surface.
My personal favourite dry, wet and streamer trout flies:
Dry Flies – Hair Wing Dry Flies – size 8-18
Gray Wulff
White Wulff
Irrisistible
Dry Flies – Fan Wing – size 10-20
Adams
Royal Coachman Fanwing
Dark Hendrickson
Other Trout Dry Flies I Use
Misquito size 10-20
Brown Bivisible sizes 10-20
Brown Hackle Peacock sizes 12-20
Wet Flies
Black and Grizzly Weighted Wooly Worm – size 2-10
Coachman Lead Wing Wet Fly sizes 12 -18
March Brown English Wet Fly sizes 10-14
Streamers For Brook Trout
Mickey Finn – size – 6-10
White Maribou Streamer sizes 10-14
Black Woolly Bugger – size – 6-10
Brook trout fishing, whether on your spinning rod or fly rod is a great hobby but always think conservation for our children and their children. Practice CPR – Catch, Photograph and Release.
Note there is nothing wrong with eating a few trout. I love to keep a few for dinner in the early spring when the water is still ice cold here. They taste great but for the rest of the year I always release them unless I hurt them during the fight and know they won’t survive.
I’m always looking for flies I can fish for multiple species on and the Krystowski Minnow looks like it will definitely do the job. I am going to give this fly a try for some smallmouth bass and chain pickerel next year and see what kind of action I get.
I will start by tying it as it is in the video and then I also want to change a couple of colours to red and white as I have a great amount of luck using flies and lures with those colours.
Tying The Krystowski Minnow
Tying The Krystowski Minnow
The Story Behind The Krystowski Minnow
“The Krystowski Minnow is one of my early original fly designs. I began tying this fly long before I was part of the fly fishing industry and a contract fly designer. It was at a point in my life when I had very limited time to spend behind a vise and, more influentially, when I had very little money to spend on tying material. I needed an all-purpose baitfish streamer that I could use for every occasion. I could not afford to have multiple fly boxes for every species of fish, but I was fishing everywhere and often. I needed a fly for river smallmouth, farm pond largemouth, Spring steelhead, Fall browns, wiper, walleye and northern pike. If I had a handful of Krystowski Minnows in my box I was all set. The fly needed to be cheap to tie, fast to tie and never fall apart…even after being chewed on by northern pike. I have old fishing buddies back in my home town who fish this fly over everything else. The fly is named after a family in northern Ohio who owned a small bass pond and would let me fish and invite me in for dinner. The earliest prototypes of this fly were fished in their pond” — Jay Zimmerman (Colorado Fly Fishing Reports )
Krystowski Minnow Tying Instructions
Hook: Gamakatsu B10S #2
Thread: Black 6/0 UNI-Thread
Wing: (Bottom) White Icelandic Sheep Hair, (Middle) Chartreuse Icelandic Sheep Hair, (Top) Black Icelandic Sheep Hair.
Eye: Extra Small White Painted Lead Eyes
Step 1 : Begin with Gamakatsu B10S #2 hook. Create a ¼ inch thread base of black 6/0 UNI-Thread behind the hook eye.
Step 2 : Tie in a clump of white Icelandic Sheep to “bottom” of hook shank.
Step 3 : Tie in a clump of chartreuse Icelandic Sheep on “top” side of hook shank.
Step 4 : Securely mount ex-small white painted lead dumbbell eyes to “bottom” of hook shank. It is important that you wait until this point to tie in the lead eyes. Because the eyes are ex-small (this fly fishes best as a light-weight streamer) it is crucial there be distance between the arbor of the lead eyes and the hook shank. This ensures the fly swims hook point up.
Step 5 : Tie in a clump of black Icelandic Sheep on top. Be sure to leave several inches of the black sheep hair extending out past the hook eye.
Step 6 : Take the black sheep hair clump that you left extending past the hook eye and part it evenly. Be sure to leave the thread at the rear of the fly head.
Step 7 : Wrap each piece of the black sheep hair back separately (being sure to cross between the lead eyes) and tie off and trim.
Step 8 : Wrap black tying thread thoroughly over entire head of fly, being sure to secure any loose sheep hair and give the entire head an overall tightening. Then whip finish twice for durability and trim thread.
Step 9 : Cut fly down to 2 ½ inches long (trim up the end nice and tapered). Then apply multiple coats of head cement over entire head, to include the painted lead eyes. I prefer at least five coats of Hard-as-Hull.
The Adams dry fly is meant to sit on the water’s surface so it’s important to get the wing, hackle and tail proportions just right.
The tail should be the length of the hook shank and the hackle should be one and half times the gap of the hook. Also the wing should be about 20% longer than the hackle. Get this right and it should sit pretty for the fish.
It’s always advisable to use stiff hackle when making a dry fly like the Adams as it will help to keep it floating higher on the water’s surface.
?I enjoy using the Adams on most of the trout streams and brooks here in New Brunswick. I find that I have great luck with dry flies that are made using brown hackles like the colour in this fly.
Note: To tie in the bead to start this fly you can slide the bead over the hook barb and up the shank of the hook. At that point you can use your thread to place the bead exactly where you want it. Use wraps of thread on the front to secure it’s location and then put thread at that back to keep it from sliding around while you tie your fly.
A Simple Leech Pattern
This pattern is quick and easy and really tricks the trout into striking. In a larger pattern it’s great for bass and pike as well. I have always preferred the black leech but we also see leeches that are brown so those patterns work as well.
I love watching people tie flies, especially when they actually explain the steps.
Here is a list of what you will need to tie the Cahill.
Name: Cahill
Hook: #12 Dry Fly
Thread: Black 6/0
Tail: Furnace Hackle
Body: Blue Dun Superfine Dubbing (needs to repel water.)
Wing: Imitation Wookduck Flank
Hackle: Brown Neck Hackle
Using The Whip Finisher To Tie Off Your Fly:
Not comfortable with the whip finisher yet. It took me a long time before I stopped using my fingers to whip finish a fly. Here is a video that will show you how to use the Whip Finisher.
I looked at a few whip finisher videos on Youtube and chose the following because it has audio and is easy to see the process.
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.
