Floating the Nitinaht River, Vancouver Island

With my Dad visiting from Ontario, I have been eagerly anticipating the much needed rain to freshen Vancouver Island streams. The extended drought has provided an interesting beach fishery, but, with some recent rains I loaded up the boat, called my Brother in Nanaimo and prepared to make the run down the washboard to the Nitinaht River. We arrived at the launch above the bridge heading for Bamfield to sunshine and excellent water levels. Dad and my brother are not fly aficionados and began to flog the water as I worked the driftboat slowly down the river. It didn’t take long until Dad was tight to a coho…but, the elation was short lived. Rolling and twisting as coho do, she came free of the barbless hook. We worked the hole hard, but found no other players at this location and soon continued down the flow.  We all worked the various pools hard and while I was at the oars, my Dad and Brother, intently followed my instructions for cover all the water that was available. You just never know what may be laying around the next corner cosied up to a log or undercut bank. It soon became clear that there weren’t the numbers of salmon I had come to expect in the Nitinaht River.  There were scatterings of chum, but, far from thick. Still there were several old warriors to hand to keep Dad and Brother casting with enthusiasm.  The most ominous sign was the sheer emptiness of the Hatchery Hole which normally is black with salmon vainly awaiting a return to their former concrete home. As we drifted further down the river, past Red Rock Hole the numbers of chum began to increase. Still, there were no signs of the pods of coho which draw me to the river year after year. After negotiating the S-bends prior to Eagle Run we came across a large log completely across the river, blocking our way. The three of us, however, made short work of hauling the heavy aluminium driftboat around the obstacle to continue our as yet fruitless coho search. As is usual on the Nitinaht River, the wildlife never fails to impress and provided a nice distraction from the hard work of searching seemingly barren waters. From the many eagles from which Eagle Run derives it’s name to the numerous black bears, including two sows with cubs, the Nitinaht River is never a disappointment.  A little below Eagle Run, in a small pocket of deep water and logs, Dad again hooked what appeared to be a coho. Again, however, it was gone far too quickly for me to be sure of it’s identity in the deeper, dark water.  With lines in the boat, we drifted through Glory Hole Slough scanning for fish. Aside from the groups of calico chum, no coho pods appeared and no coho were jumping. Reaching Sturgeon Hole, a jetboat was in place and warming up for departure. We exchanged pleasantries and enquired as to their luck. Much like our own, they had hooked several chum and one coho.  Biding us ‘Good day!’ they headed for the entrace to Nitinaht Lake at a pace I cannot rival with mere oars. We fished the well wooded channels of Sturgeon Hole through to Carcass Hole with very few decaying salmon on the bottom, despite the name. Very soon the entrance to the lake came into view. Suddenly, I see a bright coho roll fresh in from the lake. Down goes the anchor and everyone is casting with the enthusiasm that comes from witnessing the object of our search in the  last of the fishable water. It only takes three casts and I hook up a pretty bright fish I’m certain is a coho. After several spirited runs I lead not a coho, but a bright chum to the boat. The priest delivers last rights and soon he’s on his way home with us to become ‘Indian Candy’…a suitable reward for the valiant effort we have made probing every likely nook and cranny the lower Nitinaht River has to offer. My Dad and Brother relax in their respective seats as I begin the labourious row across Nitinaht Lake to the take-out.  While far from a roaring success, all are satisfied with a great day spent out of doors on a beautiful river awash in fall colours. We too, like the salmon, bears and eagles, will return.

Davie St. Hooker (all dressed)

As promised, here are the instructions for my version of the Davie St. Hooker to which I have added the tag, ‘All Dressed’. The fly in the example is tied on a #2 hook, 4x long and 3x heavy.

MATERIAL: suitably sized long shank streamer hook, cerise or hot pink bucktail or polar bear hair, white bucktail or polar bear hair, pink lazer wrap, silver tinsel, pearl flashabou, pink pearl flashabou, pink crystal flash, cerise or hot pink schlappen hackle, purple schlappen hackle, cerise or hot pink thread.

Lets begin. Attatch the hot pink thread to the rear of the hook and tie a piece of silver tinsel long enough to cover the entire hook shank.

Next cut a thin strip of the pink lazer wrap long enough to cover 2/3 of the silver tinsel covered hook shank. Taper one end of the laser strip.

As I mentioned, tie in the strip of laser wrap 1/3 of the distance between the tie in point of the silver tinsel and the eye of the hook. Wrap the thread up the shank of the hook and secure at the eye of the hook.

Wrap the silver tinsel all the way to the eye of the hook and secure. Trim off the excess.

Now over-wrap the silver tinsel with the laser wrap up to the eye of the hook. Secure the laser wrap with the thread and trim the excess.

Tie in a few strands of pearl flashabou. For the size two hook, I believe I used about a dozen strands. Make the pearl flashabou wing 1/3 longer than the hook shank.

Top the pearl flashabou with a medium bunch of white bucktail or polar bear hair.

Tie in a few strands of pink crystal flash, again 1/3  of the hook shank longer than the white layer. I used about 10 strands in the example.

Top the pink crystal flash with an equally long medium bunch of hot pink hair.

Top the pink hair with a slightly longer few strands of  pink pearl flashabou. The example used about 15 strands.

Next tie in a purple schlappen hackle by the base with the fluffy feathers removed.

Depending on the size of hook, wrap a few touching turns of the purple schlappen (few wraps for a smaller hook and more for a larger version). In the example I gave the fly 4 complete wraps of the hackle. Be sure to smooth the schlappen fibres back towards the hook point as you wrap each turn of the hackle. Tie off the purple schlappen and trim the excess.

Now repeat the process with the hot pink schlappen. Remove the lower feather fluff and tie in the base of the stem.

Once again give several turns of the hot pink schlappen according to the hook size. Again, I used four turns of schlappen for the #2 hook.

Create a neat thread head and seal with your favorite head cement or varnish. I think you will be quite amazed at the way this pattern seems to glow from the centre courtesy of the light gathering abilities of the lazer wrap. Good luck and tight lines!

Recently, I joined in on a winter steelhead fly pattern swap on a flyfishing forum I am a member of. Each participant was required to submit two different patterns. I figured that I would do one of my favorites and a new pattern. Thinking of what ‘new’ pattern to do, I was confronted by all the lazer wrap on the tying table from the preparation of pink salmon flies. I remembered a pattern I read about some number of years ago, created for fishing winter runs on the Squamish River, BC. This garish pattern was given the name ‘Davie St. Hooker’, a pun on a colourful, albeit seedy section of downtown Vancouver. The original pattern called for a body of silver tinsel, two thirds over-wrapped with pink lazer wrap and a wing of pink over white bucktail or polar bear hair with some flash mixed in. I have modified the original to include a little more flash and a collar of several wraps of pink over purple schlappen hackle. The result is an excellent roe imitation. With the salmon beginning that final phase in their lives, I can’t think of a better pattern to be washing through the flows. I’ll have the step by step instructions posted within the next few days, but, for now I must load the boat and head for the coast to see how the salmon populations are faring in a couple of west coast Vancouver Island estuaries and lower river tidal pools. Tight lines!

Beach casting near Cherry Pt., Vancouver Island, BC

I arrived at the parking area on the beach about 6 am. Briefly, I scanned the unruffled surface of the ocean for signs of fish while finishing my morning coffee. Nothing appeared to be stirring, not even the wind! The tide was quite low and still dropping but, was slated to turn in the mid-morning. I pulled on the waders and set up the 6 wt. tying on a rolled muddler, my usual cutthroat trout pattern. Things didn’t look promising, but, it seemed a perfect morning for casting practice. Heading south down the beach I scanned for any movements that might indicate fish but all was quiet. After about a kilometre I decided to enter the water and work my way back, casting as I went. It was satisfying on this still morning to feel the line in the air as it loaded the rod in preparation for the delivery, entranced with the rhythm of the cast. A sculpin interupted the tranquility of the scene on a fairly regular basis, all four to eight inches of them. If I could just find a cuttie that was interested…

Around 9 am I noticed a fish surface and kept an eye on the general area. A couple more splashes in the next 15 minutes had me working my way over to the area. When I got closer, it became apparent that a small school of pink salmon had invaded the flat likely part of the stocking efforts in Cowichan Bay. I quickly snipped off the rolled muddler in favour of a pink handlebar fly, a pink salmon standby. Moving into casting range, I dropped the fly into the school and began a slow retrieve. I made several more casts, changing up the retrieve before I lost the school. Concerned that perhaps my casting had disturbed the fish in the clear, calm conditions I stopped casting and tried to relocate the school. Soon they made their location known and again I moved into casting range. After only two casts, the school again disappeared. Now I was sure my casting was disturbing them and that they certainly didn’t like my fly. Looking over my flybox, I chose a blue green bucktail pattern (pattern instructions found in Step by Step Fly Tying) . The blue green bucktail was affixed to the line with a non-slip loop knot and once more I moved in on the school of pinks. This time the reaction was different. Three strips into the retrieve and a pink hammers the fly. A few minutes later a male pink salmon is cradled gently in my hands. He is a handsome fish already beginning to show the changes that the coming spawn will trigger in his body, the considerable hump in it’s back and the kype of the jaw. It is clear where the name ‘humpie’ , its alias, comes from. He slips from my hands to rejoin his friends and I look to see where they have gone. Twice more I repeat the process of locating the school and moving within casting range. The second fish is brighter and stronger, but gains it’s freedom after several short runs and a spirited tussle. I check the hook point for sharpness. The third fish is a small female, still pretty silver and while spirited, she is no match for the 6 wt. Regretably, I must leave to attend to other duties and she is quickly dispatched for a BBQ that evening with the remainder being smoked into candied salmon and jerky. MMMMM!

Coho Kandy

Greetings fellow flycasters! The following is a creation I came up with to imitate the needlefish, a favorite food source for our local salmon, coho in particular. The coho kandy was designed with beach fishing in mind. I wanted a pattern that duplicated the long slender needlefish without excessive weight or wind resistence to facilitate distance casting out on the beach. I think my friends in the Great Lakes region will find this fly an excellent smelt imitation when searching for early spring salmonoids along their beaches and rivermouths. Again, the colours I chose are representative of the baitfish I am imitating. Feel free to alter the colour scheme to address the baitfish in your area. This pattern is easily adapted to being tied on a tube for those that prefer.

Materials: suitably sized XXL streamer hook (size #4 in example), mylar tubing (pearl), a few strands of pearl flashabou, a few strands of purple pearl flashabou, small bunch of peacock accent flashabou, olive thread, red thread, mono thread, adhesive eyes, 5 min. epoxy and super glue.

Begin by cutting a length of mylar tubing corresponding with the size of the baitfish to be imitated and your hook size. Remove the core from the mylar tubing and hold it up to the hook to mark how far to thread it on the hook.

Now slide the hook down the centre of the mylar tubing and at the point indicated by the index finger and thumb bring the point of the hook through the mylar tubing. 

Attatch the olive thread to the hook shank and tie in the mylar tubing at the eye of the hook.

Trim off the excess mylar tubing and begin building up the ‘head’ of the fly. Tie in the red thread at the rear portion of the ‘head’ you have created. Don’t get the head too large just yet… you still have to add on the flash materials which will work sufficiently towards this end. This is more to give one an idea of where to tie in the red thread.

Now create a slightly thicker band of red than you think you will need. Build up this red band to the height of the olive head and tie off. The reason for the thicker red collar is because some of it will disappear under olive thread as the flash is tied in.

I now secure the olive thread with several half hitches and turn the hook around in the vise. Using the clear mono thread, tie an over hand knot in the thread to create a loop.  Put about 1 cm of the tail of mylar tubing through  this loop and draw the knot tight to create a tail. I now hold the mylar tail and the tag end of the knot and wrap the mono thread around the knot to keep it in place and add a drop of crazy glue or similar no name brand super glue to the wraps of mono thread sealing them in place. Make sure to let this dry before you continue… or else you will be entertaining the local hospital staff with the fly glued between two fingers! Super glue dries quickly if used sparingly.

Now that the super glue is dry, turn the hook back around in the vise. Now we add in the flash. I like to add in a couple different colours of flash before I finish with the top layer. I feel that the trick is to keep it sparse… this is to be an accent to the colour of the fly. When I see a baitfish, it has it’s main obvious colour scheme, but, caught in the right light or angle gives off flashes of other iridescent colours. This is what I am trying to emulate. Tie in a few strands of pearl flashabou (I think I used 6).

Next I tied in a few strands of purple pearl flashabou. (Again, about 6)

You can clearly see the purple over the pearl in the above photo. Now I took a small bunch of the peacock accent flashabou for the topping and tied it in. (maybe 20-30 strands)

Now build up the head with the olive thread till it is big enough for the stick on eyes.  Secure the tying thread and varnish the head.

Allow the varnish to dry then add your favorite stick on eyes and finish the head with 5 min. epoxy making sure to rotate the fly until the epoxy is set to ensure an even coat. I fish this pattern on a floating line with a long leader (15′-18′) with a fast retrieve…you can’t retrieve it fast enough!  I will tuck the rod under my casting arm and strip with both hands on occasion. Now if wind is a factor, switch to a clear intermediate line and 7′ or 8′ leader. Good luck!

Michigan Wiggler

Thanks to my nephew for reminding me of a long forgotten pattern (for yours truly), popular in the Great Lakes region. Back when I was short, centre-pin float reels were starting to develop a following on the tributaries of the Great Lakes. Our American neighbors were experiencing excellent success, particularly in the coldest weather, fishing live mayfly nymphs called ‘wigglers’ suspended under floats.  Well, I guess they weren’t live long after being inpaled on the hook, but I digress. It wasn’t long before a pattern evolved to replace the live wigglers which were difficult to keep on the hook except in the gentlest of currents. This may have explained their success in the cold weather where fishing the slowest parts of the river was the order of the day. The hexagenia pattern tied previously in this column is a more complex and accurate imitation of the ‘wiggler’ we are discussing. The Michigan Wiggler is a more suggestive nymph pattern and usually was tied in garish colours quite unlike the natural. While I have seen this pattern tied as large as #4, I found my best success with patterns that were much smaller, size #8 and #10. If you prefer to use the larger sizes, you may wish to tie the pattern using appropriately sized chenille in your favourite colours. The smaller versions will require a substitution of a thin strip of egg yarn or a dubbed body. The example soon to follow, is tied on a #10 hook using a dubbed body, which is my preference. This allows me to alter the body colour to suit my taste as well as creating a fine enough ‘yarn’ to allow for a weighted hook shank, though I did not weight the example.  So let’s get started.

Materials : Size #4-#10 long shank, squirrel tail, furnace hackle (or brown, your preference), and chenille, yarn or dubbing in your colour prefence. Favoured colours were red, pink, orange, hot pink, chartreuse, flourescent orange. My all time favourite was chartreuse. In the example I have tied a pink version (a close second to chartreuse) using pink ice dubbing which is a synthetic material that won’t work very well using a dubbing noodle seen in the Hexagenia pattern. Usually, the synthetic dubbing materials require a ‘dubbing loop’ to be used. This pattern will explain how to use a ‘dubbing loop’ tool.

Begin by securing your tying thread to the hook shank and wind it to the rear of the hook.Select a small bunch of squirrel tail hair to serve as the tail and shell-back for the nymph. Secure it to the rear of the hook.Place a few wraps of thread in front of the squirrel tail hair to lock the threads holding the ‘tail’ in place and wrap back over this towards the rear of the hook to push the hair that will become the shell-back out of the way.Now tie in the furnace hackle by the tip.

Next we will use the ‘dubbing loop’ tool to create a fine yarn of pink ice dubbing.Now lengthen the thread from the hook to the bobbin and wrap the thread around a finger and back up and over the thread wraps at the rear of the hook. This created a loop which the dubbing loop tool is inserted into using the hooks at the end to catch the thread. Let the dubbing tool hang and wrap the thread to the front of the hook. You will notice that the weight of the dubbing tool’s handle pulls the fine wire hooks together closing the loop. When you lift up on the handle releasing the tension, the loop of thread opens.Now take a small pinch of dubbing material and spread it out in the palm of your hand.The pink ice dubbing is a little hard to see, but, it should be apparent the need to keep it sparse or you will build a very thick yarn. By rolling it between the palms of your hands you can make a tighter noodle of dubbing material.Now taking the dubbing loop tool handle and releasing the tension to open the loop, place the prepared roll of dubbing along one side of the thread loop gradually using the tool to close the loop and hold the dubbing in place. With the dubbing trapped between the two sides of the loop spin the handle to tighten the dubbing into a yarn. Keep spinning, always in the same direction, until you have a yarn with some fibers of dubbing sticking out.Wrap the dubbing yarn to the front of the hook. Tie off and trim the excess.Now wrap the hackle forward, giving one complete wrap at the eye of the hook. (More if you prefer a larger fly) Tie off the hackle and  trim the excess.Using two fingers, pinch the hackle together and gently pull it down towards the hook point. At the same time, pull the squirrel tail hairs to the eye of the hook creating the shell back.Trim the excess squirrel tail hair and create a neat head. Varnish the thread and your Michigan Wiggler is ready to fish!

Blair’s Baiter – Beach/Estuary

Blair’s Baiter is a pattern that evolved on the coast of Washington state, to the best of my knowledge. Several weeks ago, I advised that a couple patterns would be coming anticipating beach and estuary flyfishing for feeding and staging salmon, as well as cutthroat trout, with a few extremely lucky individuals that will tangle with the rare salty steelhead! You will soon realize that those steelies you caught well upriver were a shadow of their former glory…and they are still impressive fish then! The Blue Green Bucktail was the first of the beach flies and Blair’s Baiter will be the second. What I think is important to note is that these are relatively generic baitfish patterns and open to numerous material substitutions or additions. Wrap the hook shank in tinsel. Vary the colours of hair, flash, etc. to suit your tastes…or better yet, the fishes. The combinations are limited only by your imagination. You may create the season’s hot fly. Don’t be limited in scope to the recipe’s you see here, I guess, is the secret. Nothing is as rewarding as succeeding on your own creation.  Now, on to the fly.

Materials: #4-#8 3X long hook, olive thread, pearl diamond braid, white hair (bucktail or polar bear), chartreuse hair (bucktail or polar bear), bright red thread, 2 strands of pearl flashabou, stick-on eyes, 5 min. epoxy

I begin by creating a thread base from the eye of the hook to the rear where the pearl diamond braid will be tied in. I find the the colour underneath the pearl diamond braid shows through a little which is why I like to use the thread base. If this doesn’t interest you, feel free to attatch the thread to the rear of the hook and tie in the pearl diamond braid.Wrap the thread to the eye of the hook and wrap the hook shank with the pearl diamond braid. Stop wrapping in front of the hook eye allowing enough room to tie the hair wing and build a neat head for the stick-on eyes and epoxy.Attatch the red thread and wrap a few neat tight wraps to simulate gills and tie off.Take a sparse bunch of white hair, removing the shorter, fine guard hairs at the base. Secure to the shank of the hook near the eye.Trim the excess white hair and select a similar sparse bunch of chartreuse hair. Again, remove the short guard hairs at the base and secure to the hook shank on top of the white hair.Trim the excess chartreuse hair. Tie in one strip of pearl flashabou down each side of the fly to create a lateral line.Build the head up with the olive thread and whip finish. Seal the thread with varnish. Add stick-on eyes and finish with 5 min. epoxy. Place on a rotational drying rack until the epoxy cures to keep it evenly balanced around the head.

Blue Green Bucktail – Beach/Estuary

As summer drifts steadily towards the fall more and more salmon begin to make their appearances in our near shore waters and estuaries.  Cutthroat trout or sea-runs are also gravitating to estuary areas preparing for the feast of the spawning and dying salmon and for some, leading to their own spawning ritual come the spring. The blue green bucktail is a superb streamer pattern at this time. As it’s name suggests, the pattern was originally tied with blue and green bucktail. However, in the example, I have elected to use polar bear, which is my personal preference. It is translucent and gives a little flash of it’s own, but, bucktail will definitely do the trick. The key, is to keep the fly sparse.  This aids the distance casting often necessary on the beach front as well as sinkability. Light penetrating through the fly is very important and becomes more of an issue with bucktail. When light is permitted to penetrate the pattern, it produces a ‘shimmer’ effect which is very like the glitter of a real baitfish. Give the blue green bucktail a try. You won’t be disappointed.

Materials: #4-8  long shank streamer hook, monofilament thread, white bucktail (polar bear), chartreuse (fluorescent green) bucktail (polar bear), blue bucktail (polar bear), blue crystal flash, chartreuse (fluorescent green) crystal flash, pearl flashabou and bright red thread, stick-on eyes, 5 min. epoxy.

Begin by affixing the monofilament thread to the front of the hook. Wrap it back to provide enough room to finish a built-up mono head to support the eyes and epoxy. Clip a small bunch of white bucktail or polar bear and brush out the short fine under fur near the base of the hair. If you chose bucktail, it will have to be stacked to even the tips. This maybe another reason why I prefer polar bear. Using a hair stacker, put the hair in tips first. The under fur has to be removed or the hairs will not slide down even inside the stacker. Tap the stacker down on the desk several times to even the hair and remove the top piece to extract the evened hair. Affix the white hair to the shank of the hook.

Next do the same thing with a sparse bunch of chartreuse hair and attatch it to the hook shank on top of the white hair being sure to keep the tips even. 

Next tie in 4 strands of chartreuse crystal flash. In the example, I used midge flash which is considerably smaller. Therefore, I upped the strand count to 8-10 strands of chartreuse midge flash. Trim to the length of the wing.

Next repeat the hair process with the blue hair, using the stacker if bucktail is the material. Affix the sparse blue hair to the hook shank on top of the chartreuse flash keeping the hair tips even with the end of the wing.

Now tie the four strands of blue crystal flash and trim to the length of the wing.Next attatch the bright red thread to create ‘gills’. You can also use the red thread to attatch a single strand of pearl flashabou down each side of the fly as a lateral line. This might be hard to see in the photograph.

If you look very carefully, you can see the flash created by the flashabou right next to the red gill and follow it down the lateral line. Secure the red thread and build a nice head with the monofilament thread. Tie off the head and seal. You are now ready to add the eyes and epoxy the head. Place the finished blue green bucktail on a drying wheel to keep the epoxy even until it is set.

Hexagenia Nymph

The large hexagenia mayfly nymph is one of my favorites when fishing the Great Lakes region. Generally, I tie this pattern very heavily weighted for use in moving water, but, for simplicity’s purpose, elected to demonstrate an unweighted version (popular with float fishermen).  Where possible, I like short-line nymphing, also known as Czech Nymphing, using a very heavy hex pattern as my anchor and an unweighted single egg yarnfly as a dropper.  In the spring spawning trout and suckers dislodge insects and eggs which are eagerly gobbled up by fish feeding below. The same situation occurs in the fall with the spawning salmon. Tumbling the heavy hex along the bottom with only the tip of the flyline on the water, I try to track the  team through the run.  With the heavy hex ticking  the bottom, I know the yarnfly is swinging loosely and as naturally as possible right in the money water. Watch for the least hesitation or a dip in the short piece of flyline tip resting on the water as strikes can be very gentle…though sometimes they try to KILL the hex! Some like to use a strike indicator (float fishing) and split-shot. I hate casting these set-ups, but to each their own. Now, on to the fly!

Materials: suitably sized hook (size #6, 3X long in example), white hare’s mask dubbing (or dubbing to match local specie), pheasant tail fibres, copper wire, guinea hen hackle or small grizzly saddle hackle, melted monofilament eyes. (Easily weighted with wrap on lead under the body or a black tungsten bead placed on the hook prior to tying.)

Let’s begin by preparing the melted monofilament eyes. I cut about a 1 cm piece of  30 lbs. mistgreen maxima and using a tiny set of tweezers to hold it in the middle, slowly melt the ends into balls (eyes). Keep doing this until the eyes have a bit of colour, being careful not to light the monofilament. Now put your hook into the vise and attatch your thread at the rear of the hook. Tie in a few pheasant tail fibres to serve as a tail and shellback for the nymph. Move the thread in front of the pheasant tail fibres and place a couple of wraps in front to stand them up out of the way.

Tie in a piece of copper wire.

Begin creating a ‘dubbing noodle’ by twisting the dubbing around the thread. Remember to always twist in the same direction adding small amounts at a time. It is easy to put too much dubbing on the thread and you will get better results by being patient and using tiny amounts. 

Build up the tail half of the fly with the dubbing noodle and tie off. Bring pheasant tail fibres over the abdomen and tie off. Again move the thread in front of the pheasant fibres and wrap back a couple of time to stand them out of the way. Now, wrap the copper wire forward to create a rib and tie off in front of the pheasant tail fibres.

Tie in the hackle feather by the stripped quill at the base. Here, I have used a grizzly saddle hackle, though I would have preferred a guinea hen hackle, white with black speckling.

Next tie in your melted monofilament eyes.

Create another dubbing noodle and wrap forward, criss-crossing over the eyes to fill in the space. Tie off and trim any remainder.

Wrap the hackle forward to the eye of the hook and tie off.

Bring the remaining pheasant tail fibres forward to the eye of the hook and tie off. Trim and create a neat head. At this point I trim any hackle fibres that point upwards above the shell casing and varnish the threads at the head. I also apply sealer (varnish) to the shellback which improves slightly the durability and gives it a nice sheen. Below we see the finished product from the top.

Here’s a look from head on… notice the flattening of the dorsal surface by trimming the hackle that stands above the back.

Some casting practice near Cherry Pt.

It was a beautiful, calm evening here on the eastern coast of Vancouver Island and I found myself with a couple of free hours. Fifteen minutes later I arrived at a favourite nearby beach not far from Cherry Pt. A little better than a week ago, I was frustrated by cutthroat trout that were clearly attacking herring and nothing in my box came close to the size or barred markings so obvious on the baitfish. Heck, it would be tough to cast a pattern matching the hatch with a 5 or 6 wt. rod, not that it seemed necessary to cast very far. I did manage a couple of half hearted wacks at the ‘Blairs Baiter’ style streamers I was fishing and brought several small sculpin to hand. For the most part, it was casting practice as it seemed most of my casts would spook the herring minions and likely any nearby feeding cutthroat. Eventually, darkness forced my withdrawl in defeat. I wish I could say last night was successful, at least in so much as a pretty, little cutthroat to hand would have made it, but it was not to be. I couldn’t make out the baitfish though signs of their ‘nervous’ wanderings were clear, here and there, as were the two seals obviously harassing them. I forgo the creek mouth leaving it to the seals and wandered down the beach casting in front of me at about a 45 degree angle fishing water 18 to 24 inches deep. Baitfish seem to be everywhere, indicated by ‘nervous’ water (looks almost riffly) and occasional jumping and scattering. I was sure something was feeding, but, again all I was catching were sculpins. A couple of osprey were also working the beach. Numerous times they would leave their treetop perches to crash down into the water below. I’m not sure what was on the menu that evening, but, certainly, it appeared there was plenty. Suddenly, I noticed a moving shadow and a good size one at that! Whatever it was looked to be about 30 inches, close to 1 metre.  Then I saw another and I was wondering if there were salmon swimming the flat feeding… The original fish I saw was now quite close, close enough to realize that the fish were actually spiny dogfish, a member of the shark family and quite plentiful in Island waters. I reeled in my 5 wt. and proceeded to hike back down the beach to my truck. I’ld need something bigger for those sharks, with a bite leader. For the time being though, I figured I’ld follow the cutthroat’s likely lead and head elsewhere. With the glaciers of Mt. Baker glowing pink in the twilight distance, I was content with mere casting practice while sharks, seals, and osprey do what they do so much more efficiently than we flycasters.

Remember to respect our wild spaces… if you brought it in, bring it out! That can of Lucky was heavier on the way in! This is the Whitewater Cowboy wishing everyone ‘Tight lines’!