Hornyhead chub on the fly

I had been fishing the head of a large pool on the Brokenhead River with #24 streamer/nymph patterns and #30 nymphs and catching nothing but common shiners. One small area of the pool held visible, fairly large minnows with a distinctive stripe that I was unable to entice with the flies I was using. My fishing partner was angling nearby with a yellow plastic nymph on a tiny tungsten jig and managed one of them, so I tied on a Wee Willy Wiggler and that proved to be the ticket. Although tied on a #14 hook, the fish attacked the fly with gusto and while most were too small for the hook size, I eventually hooked and landed what was to be a new fly caught species for me; the hornyhead chub.

#14 Wee Willy Wigglers, #24 streamer/nymphs and #30 nymphs

Another shiner species hits a fly…

 I’ve been nymphing for suckers in the pool below the La Barriere Park bridge recently, and along with the suckers have managed the odd pike, walleye, drum and rock bass. Today I tied on a #24 nymph and caught a number of common shiners and a, new for me, (insert drum roll) River Shiner. At least that’s my interpretation but I’m certainly no expert. If anyone has an opinion, please leave it in the comment section.

I’ve received an expert opinion and my fish has been identified as a spotfin shiner. The giveaway is the dark pigmentation on the last two dorsal fin rays.

No news can be bad news

 

It happened again on my home river. That dreaded event...a winter-kill. After a year in which a back injury limited my fishing to spring/early summer, I’m again faced with an uncertain fishing future. The jury is still out on the extent or the reason for the kill-off but chances are the quality of any local fishing will be severely affected.

There is little to do now other than wait for the May 15th opening of the general fishing season to see what spring delivers. Given my present interest in ultralight fly fishing ( I own 6 rods in the 1wt to 3wt range), it wouldn’t take much to keep me happy. If that doesn’t pan out, a full dive into microfishing with a fly rod may be another way to stay local. The days where I’ll consistently drive 3 or 4 hours for a days fishing are far behind me.

Stay tuned, I did see a small fish jump out of the water right at my back yard. It might have been a little goldeye. 

The river is back...walleye on a 1 wt.

Two years ago I went through the disappointment of losing my favorite river. A combination of irrigation withdrawals, government stone walling on fixing pumping stations and deep snow levels resulted in what looked like a total winter kill. We lost a river full of big bluegills, crappie and channel cats. Not to mention the pike, drum, mooneye, goldeye, sauger, walleye and many other species the river supported.

This year we had long term high flows and the river seems to have repopulated, at least with some of the early season migrants that traveled up from the Red River during the spring thaw.

Best of all was that caught most of these fish using a new 1 wt fly rod and the rest with my trusty 2 wt.

 

Bigmouth Buffalo

My first year living on the La Salle was a mixed bag with many fish caught but desired fish missing. I was determined to unlock the secrets to large rock bass and bluegills which the river holds but apparently determination just isn't enough. Bluegills were entirely elusive and rock bass catches were sporadic and the fish small. Success came unexpectedly from crappie and carp with many crappie over 12" and carp up to 28". Other species caught were walleye, sauger, pike, perch, drum, channel cats, mooneye and several species of sucker.

Fast forward to my second year and the news is disastrous. The river winter killed and dead fish littered the banks and eddies. Most of the floaters were carp with the odd channel cat, walleye and crappie in the mix. In normal years, river reaches between dams and weirs can be replenished when spring flows allow fish to move upstream from the Red River but with the low flows of this spring that recovery is unlikely.

Yesterday I drove down to fish near the confluence of the Red and La Salle rivers and hooked two fish. One, a pike, bit me off almost immediately and this bigmouth buffalo. The buffalo is only the second I've caught on a fly and the first on the La Salle.

The Briminator or some of my favorite flies.

The warming temperatures and earlier sun are diverting fishing dreams from ice to open water again, a seemingly seasonal occurrence. Fly tying material boxes are being opened and forgotten treasures rediscovered. Already over three dozen recently tied flies are sitting on the fly tying table, awaiting their storage boxes and books, both old and new, are being examined for other possible fly patterns or new ideas.

Last year I fished three patterns, when they were working, almost exclusively; two newer patterns that I discovered in Texas and an old local standby, the leech. Since the two patterns from Texas seem to be unknown up here I thought I'd share the instructions for tying and fishing them. The first I'll describe is called the briminator and is mainly used as a sunfish fly down south. I've caught many different species with it here in Manitoba, including some pretty big trout. The fly is very buggy looking, requires only one feather and generally imitates a number of different forms of fish prey.

I used a #8 Mustad 3906B hook and tied on bead chain eyes about 1/4 shank length back. The eyes are tied on with a figure 8 pattern and fixed in place with some CA glue. A portion of  quill fluff taken from a pheasant cathedral window feather was tied in as a tail.

Using the rest of the fluff from the feather, a dubbing loop was formed and the material twisted into a material "rope".

The resultant fluff noodle was then wound down the hook shank until it rested against the eyes. The end was then tied in with a few turns and the tag cut off.

The cathedral feather, minus all the fluff, was tied in just behind the chain bead eyes, concave side down.

Using hackle pliers, two turns of the feather were made behind the bead eyes and then tied off .

Using the fingers pull back the feathers and lay down a couple of "soft" turns to keep the fibers facing backward. Then move the thread forward, using normal tension to hold the thread.

I like to add some ice dubbing using an appropriate color to the thread to form a neck and head.

Using a toothbrush or a velcro brush, comb back the head, feather and body fluff into an interconnected mass of fibers.









I've tied this fly in several sizes, usually in the range of #8 to #12. I've also used different feathers, usually ruffed grouse or gray partridge. The size of the bead eyes should be varied to reflect the size of the hook.

It can be fished any way you like. My preferred method is to fish it like a dragon fly nymph or small crayfish near the bottom by giving it short, quick pulls followed by a rest.

In my next post I'll describe the other fly, an un-named emerger pattern that really works well when the fish are looking for something smaller. The fly was shown to me over lunch by a gentleman whose name I've forgotten but to whom I've been extremely grateful since tying up a few of these. Stay tuned.

My new home and river

The move from the Assiniboine River to the La Salle River was made last fall, after 20 years of cutting 2 1/2 acres of grass. The new house has a much smaller lawn which naturally translates to much more fishing time. A long winter followed by an impatient spring of waiting for the fishing season to open has finally passed and my exploration of new waters has begun. While the dam at La Barriere  Park will remain my mainstay, much time will also be spent exploring new regions of the river. I spent some time at the dam, some time at new locations and significant time in my truck since the season opened 3 days ago. As most new explorations go, there was much fruitless searching with both fly and bobber mixed with the odd surprise, nice catch and adrenaline rush. First the surprise.

I ended up catching 5 or 6 mooneye at one location so obviously a small school was present in the area. In all my previous years of fishing the river, I had only caught one mooneye and that was in an area of the river with direct access to the Red River. These fish were caught well upstream of the Red and may indicate another species that has established itself on the La Salle.




 
The nice fish that came along was a 12 1/2 inch crappie. The fish was caught in the same area the mooneyes were holding, a nondescript area in mid river with no apparent structure. After this fish was released, I fished all the crappie type structure nearby with no luck. Go figure.

Next up, the adrenaline rush.  I was worm dipping along the shoreline with an ultralight rod and 4 lb test line to see what might be living there. I felt a slight tap, set the hook and almost went into shock. The line started peeling off my spool at an alarming rate and despite tightening up the drag as high as I dared the line kept peeling off at an undiminished rate. After what seemed like 5 secs I realized I was about to be spooled and I took off down the river after the fish, frantically reeling up some valuable line. I eventually got the fish under control and back to where my net was. I couldn't really net the fish but with its head in the net and the rod on the ground I was able to lift the fish out. A carp just over 30" and still swam away strongly after being released. I had forgotten how fast and powerful these fish are.

I also caught some pike, walleye, channel cats, and drum. Conspicuous by their absence were members of the sucker family. This is usually the best time of the year to catch them.


It's been a while since I've been this excited about an upcoming season and with this quality of fish within 5 miles of home I expect to be on the water a lot. Stay tuned.