Finding the Soul of a Mid-winter river (or: caught naked in the sunshine)

At this flow, the tailout is infinitely large – and maybe a tad bit too deep to comfortably wade.  The water is running at six degrees this morning and a long pass through belly deep water would probably sap the life out of me – slowly and unknowingly.  So, I decide to drop the pram [...]

Read Full Post »

Basic Tying – Percy’s Blue Hope

Mid-winter, low water, cold mornings, WARM afternoons.  Let’s go!!! Added some blue schlappen into the mix of tinsel, llama, pheasant rump and mallard.

Read Full Post »

Preparing for the New Spey Rhythm on the Eel

Replacement camera arrived today.  Just in time for green water on the lower river.  I tied a few larger flies using pheasant rump and hackle-tip wings.  More to try out the camera than anything as the fly box is well stocked.  Hoping to do the early walk into Elinor bend where the river does a [...]

Read Full Post »

Searching for the Rhythm of the Eel

The river swings away from the highway for a few miles, winding through tall trees and underneath moss-covered everything.  Standing halfway through the run, bitter cold of morning stinging my fingers, I notice the water slows to a gentle sound – more like soft voice than the chatter up top in the riffle.  Here the [...]

Read Full Post »

Tying with Coot – The Spey Experiment

The new coot skin arrived!  Yippee..my substitute for heron feathers – or so I was hoping.
This really wasn’t an experiment – as others have used coot for a variety of spey flies.  But I had to see if it met my expectations of a good looking buggy fly with hackles that would stand up in [...]

Read Full Post »