The Bench

No, not this guy.


I'm talking about a fly tying bench/station. Since I've been tying, I've been overwhelmed with the amount of real estate and storage containers needed for everything. About six months ago, my brother-in-law Nick (who is a carpenter) decided to design his own portable fly tying bench. His turned out to be pretty useful so I gave it a go.

I dont have pictures of the original, but it was just a very basic box with an arm to hold the vise, a few holes drilled in it for tools, and a couple nails to hold in some thread. And for the record, it was ugly as hell. I'm a Project Manager, not a carpenter. Cut me some slack.

It worked for a while, but now that I have so much more stuff, I felt like I needed to tweak it.

I added a bottom to catch all the garbage that accumulates under your vice. I shorted the arm to lock on the vise (come to think of it, I really want a pedestal now), added an extra shelf along the back, and added 4 inch aluminum bars for spools. Each bar holds three spools. Also threw in a magnet near the vise for a place to hold hooks and finished flies. I'm pretty happy with it now that I have my stuff in it, but I wont be able to really tell how nice it is until after I've used it for a while.

I think my favorite part is the little area under the new shelf where I can store my hooks. Once I have a final prototype that I like, I'll most likely buy some nice wood and beg one of my family members who is a much more skillfull craftsman than I to put it together. This cost me less than $6. The wood was from the culling cart at Home Depot and it was about $2.50 total. The aluminum bar was another $2.50.

Here it is, in all it's glory.



Here's the area underneath the shelf to store the hooks.


And more more thing...How the hell did a picture of Tila Tequila come up when I Google image searched for Johnny Bench?

You know you fish too much when...

You're in Dunkin Donuts at 6am picking up coffee before an ungodly awful Sunday shift at work and you reach in to your jacket pocket for some spare change and get stabbed by a size 8 Slumpbuster.

Ouch.

Speaking of Slumpbusters, here's Trout Predator's tutorial on tying them. I really like this pattern and he makes it look easy. Although I have yet to find squirrel tale cut in strips. I've been using Zonker strips.

Stockies on the EB

Well, it's Saturday. We did buffett at the diner for breakfast, trip to Home Depot with my son, and picked up a Christmas tree. The afternoon was spent trying to get a 9 foot tree to stand up straight inside a tree stand that was way too small to hold the weight of the enormous Douglas Fir. After running some hooks and rope all over the damn place, the tree is standing. (complete with lights and various things hanging from it)

I needed a break and once my son went down for a nap, I headed out to the East Branch for an hour of fishing for stockies. The water was stocked on 10/4 by the PFBC, but only 600 trout were stocked in about a five mile stretch of water. Over half of those were taken out by the worm dunkers, and after listening to Tom Rosenbauer's 10/28 podcast saying that in most cases, stockies only survive a few weeks, I wasn't expecting much.

But, with limited time and a small chance to catch fish, I made the 100 yard trek down to the stream. I tied on a streamer and started roll casting along a bank near a deep pool. Mr. Rosenbauer was wrong. A 12 inch rainbow took the streamer. He was definitely stocked, but started to gain back some wild color. It was still nice to catch a trout less than a stone's throw away from my house. I released him to hopefully catch him again in a few weeks.


As for the fly that he took, it's a new one I tied up that I was going to test up at the Salmon River for steelies, but never got around to it. Real simple green and black streamer with no hackle. Sometimes less is more.

Size 14 Mustad 2xl streamer hook (weighted with lead)
Killer Caddis glass bead
Ice Chenille - Peacock
Black Marabou

Bargains and bottom bouncing

Well, the Little Lehigh fly shop is closing it's doors for good. As of Friday, everything was half off so I made the morning drive to snag some deals. I did pick up a ton of hooks, weight, tying materials, and gadgets.

Some people are really sad to see this place go. I don't care that much, but it was nice to be able to pick up a leader if you need a new one while hiking the stream, or to stop in for a cup of coffee while midge fishing in 15 degree weather. Rod did teach me a BWO pattern that has netted me dozens of fish, so I owe him one of that. It's really easy and come to think of it, I should make a tutorial post for it because I like it so much.

Anyway, after stuffing a bag full of chenille, hooks, hackle, foam, etc, I figured I'd make a few casts while I was up there. I fished for an hour just above the fly shop in pretty discolored water. Started off with the rubber legged Copper John since it worked well for me last week and once again, it did the trick. I hooked in to a pretty brown trout. The spots on his gills were beautiful and he could have been a model for a Derek DeYoung painting. The poor i-Phone pic doesnt do this fish any justice.



Switching to a brown Wooly Bugger also paid off with a 15 inch stocked bow. Not a bad day.

Now, time to knock out some more streamers....

And along comes a new fly box

I attended the grand opening of the Orvis store in Plymouth Meeting a few weeks back. and received a free $25 gift card. I picked up one of their Posi-Grip swing leaf boxes. I've had it with me on two trips so far and I do like it. Sometimes the hinge bends back and it's a pain to close, but it does securely hold a sh*t ton of flies. If you are interested in one, I would only suggest it for nymphs. Larger dries do get a little too much flatting of wings and hackle.

I started filling it up tonight.

RIP

"The Co-Pilot Had Fish.

What Did the Navigator Have?"

-Leslie Nielsen

I think I have a new favorite pattern

So, I was searching for Copper John patterns the other day and I can across a few rubber legged versions which intrigued me. I recently purchased some rubber legs on clearance from A Sporting Lifestyle on Friday before they closed up shop so I decided to have a go at tying some.

After about 4 failed attempts that had me snapping off the hook eye to get my bead back, I finally came up with a pattern that I liked. I kept the rubber legs long in hopes of giving the fly some nice movement underwater.

Recipe:
Orvis 3x long curved nymph hook, size 20
UTC Ultra Wire (Medium) in the color of your choice
Harelin Dubbin Medium Rubber Legs (Black)
Peacock Herl
1/8" Scud Back
Polar Flash
A drop of Hard as Nails on the wing case and finishing knot

Here's the result.






They look goofy, but I was hoping they would work. I was planning a trip to the Little Lehigh on Sunday and I knew the fish would be keying in on eggs so I sat at the vise with a beer by my side and knocked out a handful of eggs and a few of these Copper Johns.

Sunday's arsenal...



I fished from 1-4pm. I was bouncing an egg pattern with a small split shot, followed by one of these Copper Johns. The water was crystal clear and I had no problem site fishing to all the fish podded up in the Heritage Section. I wasn't even there 5 minutes and I already hooked in to a fish. I continued to have hookups every few minutes all afternoon.

The fish were keying in on the egg, but when they saw the CJ, they rushed it. It was a great afternoon on the water and I'll definitely be tying more of these.

And if you don't believe me that these things catch fish, here's a beautiful small, but wild, brownie that came about 8 feet across the stream to smash the CJ.

Drumroll please...

Well, I guess we're live. Not sure how you got here, but welcome to the site. After spending countless hours reading other blogs, I decided to chronicle my fishing trips, thoughts, fly patterns, etc for reference later in life.

My name is Mike. I've been an avid fisherman my whole life. About a year and a half ago, my stepdad, Jack, got me hooked on fly fishing by giving me a 6 wt St Croix and a couple casting lessons. I've pretty much ignored all my spinning gear since then. I started tying about a year ago, and have pretty much wasted every spare penny on materials since then. Whoever tells you that tying saves you money..they lie.

Well, enjoy the site..or don't. It will be here either way.

We had the first snowfall of the season on Thanksgiving day here in PA. I got out for an hour to cast at a few stocked trout on the east branch of the Perkiomen Creek. Didnt catch anything but did snap a pic of the sparse snowfall we got.