Even though I wasn't feeling well, I needed some time on the water after a stressful work week. We got 3 inches of snow yesterday, and another 2.5 inches today but I still managed to get out to the water in between bouts of snowblowing. When I got to the stream, it was just the way I like it, a ghost town.
I only saw one other fisherman on the water on the whole stretch I fished. I love when it's like that. The fish aren't pressured, and you can get some peace and quiet. I realized today that I do all of a sudden miss the Little Lehigh Fly Shop. I fish there often in the winter, especially when it's really cold. It was a nice place to go in and warm up with a cup of coffee for a few minutes. Plus, the fish were actively feeding on midges nonstop both on the bottom and on the top. Having 7x or 8x tippet would have been nice. I unfortunately forgot to throw some in my chestpack and I can't just stop in the fly shop anymore to pick some up. I walked by the shop and the reality of no longer having a convenient fly shop sunk in. It used to say "Little Lehigh Fly Shop" above the door and the majority of the letters were scraped off. We're now stuck with "Shop".
As for the fishing, the fish would'nt even look at midges on 6x so I was forced to change flies every 20 casts until I got some action. I saw a ton of suckers with trout tailing behind them, and I got lucky on a pink sucker spawn. I wound up with 4 or 5 fish, almost all of them were cookie cutter stocked bows around 12 inches, and this one brown.
I'm not complaining about small fish. At least I was catching something and avoided driving home to skunkville.
In other news, the stonefly tying has been progressing nicely. I've been working on a stone that will get me down in the water column FAST without the use of a ton of lead. I love fishing for steelhead but I hate chucking and ducking and I'm not patient enough for swinging flies. This one is full of lead on the underbody and has a big tung bead. It could sink a cruise ship. The 6 legs were a pain to get right, and they could still use some work.
Overall, I'm really happy with this fly and I think I'm going to knock out some more, but feedback or suggestions are much appreciated.
3XL Umpqua Stonefly Hook size 10
Tungsten circle bead - black
.015mm lead underbody
6/0 Uni-Thread - black
Black goose biots
UTC copper and black wire, wrapped together
Wingcase - black raffia
Steelhead Ice Dubbing - black
5 minute epoxy
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