A Tribute To France

I was recently on the Partridge Hook Forum on Facebook and read a post about the tragic events in Paris almost two weeks ago.  Mark Hamnett, Partridge Hooks, invited their friends and fellow tyers, no matter whose hook or whose vise they are tied on to tie their favorite fly in the colors of the French national flag which are red, white and blue.  Partridge Hooks is going to get them framed and send them to retailers in France in a show of solidarity.  Fly fishing and fly tying are truly international and there is a bond between us all regardless of who we are or where we live.  

Many probably do not know this, but I had the opportunity to visit France and in particular Paris last year.  It truly is a marvelous and spectacular city.  I loved every minute of it and I hope one day to be able to return.  Seeing the events unfold that Friday night really bothered me.  It was something I could connect with since I had been there.  Not only did it bother me because I had been there, but it bothered me to see innocent civilians lose their lives at the hands of terrorists.  Terrorism, regardless of the reason, has got to stop.  

As of late, we have been tying divers for orders.  I did well with divers over the summer when I was able to fish them.  I even managed to land a personal best largemouth on one.  Anyways, I felt the diver was a perfect fly to tie in the national colors of France.  

I used a Rainy's small diver head in white and tied it on a size 2 Gamakatsu B10S stinger hook.  Unfortunately, I did not have any Partridge Hooks.  At some point I would love to get my hands on some.  Starting from the back and working forward, I used Hareline Micro Rabbit in blue for the tail, I added Flashabou in Pearl, Red and Blue, I used Hareline marabou in blue with blue Palmer Chenille, white Hareline marabou with white Palmer Chenille and then red Hareline marabou with red Palmer Chenille.  Next, I used a blue and red Prismacolor marker to make the tricolor flag on the white diver head.  After it dried, I used an acrylic spray to seal it.  The lines aren't perfect by any stretch of the imagination but I am pleased with it.  It was finished with Hareline 3/16" Oval Pupil 3D eyes in pearl/black.  I hope it will bring some happiness to someone when they see it in a fly shop in France. One day maybe I will get there again to see it in person.  

Here are some in progress photos as well as the finished product.  Let me know what you think. Thanks.

A Swap Of Tying Materials?

Earlier this year, I posted a question as to whether or not anyone would be interested in exchanging tying materials on my blog.  A few answered up.  Winter is right around the corner and for a lot of us our fishing days are over until the Spring.  Most of us turn toward fly tying as a way to pass those dark, cold, and long winter nights.  I was thinking of hosting a swap of tying materials and I would like to know who might be interested.  Basically it would work like this: I would send a box of materials to a person, who would go through it, pick out what they want and then put stuff in it from their stash that they don't want.  They would, in turn, ship it to the next person on the list.  I would like it to not be a box of crap sent from person to person but rather quality materials no longer being used or needed.  I am attaching some photos of some of the stuff I would be willing to send along in the box from my stash. I am hoping we can get this thing up and running.  If you are interested, let me know please.  Looking for say 12 people.  You can email me at jandmflies@gmail.com.  I look forward to hearing from you all soon.  Thanks.

Bass Fishing in November???

Bass fishing in November?  Who would have ever thought it?  Not I, that's for sure.  Well, I did manage to do some bass fishing just last week.  Here in Maryland it was in the low 70's. Hard to believe that we had such nice weather so late in the season.  I did not want to waste an opportunity so I decided to see if a friend of mine would let me have access to his pond for a few hours.  I have had the chance to fish this pond before with great results.  After a few texts were exchanged, I headed out with my friend Greg.

Upon arrival, Greg and I could see that the pond appeared to be muddy and stained from a distance.  I was worried about fishing it, so I walked down to check it out.  This is the sight that I was met with:

The water was definitely up, muddy and covered with pine needles and leaves.  Needless to say, I was not pleased.  After a quick discussion, Greg and I decided to give it a try.  We figured why not given the warm sun and beautiful weather we were having.  I strung up the Cabela's CGR 7'6" 7/8 and headed down to the pond.  As a side note, I have been using the CGR 7/8 for a while now and I love it.  I have been pairing it with a Waterworks-Lamson Konic II reel spooled with RIO Products Smallmouth 7wt line.  I like to use braided leaders and Scientific Anglers Freshwater tippet in various sizes when I am chasing largemouth.  This is just my setup and what I enjoy using at this point. Anyways, we headed down to the pond and started slinging some bugs.  I chose a size 10 black masked bugger.  I enjoy tying these flies and they seem to be loved by the fish.  For those interested, you can find tying instructions for them here.  

The fishing was slow going with a lot of pine needles and leaves being dragged in with the fly.  In an effort to get a good strip without carrying along debris, I would try and pick out lanes of traffic that I could strip the fly through.  This seemed to work in eliminating some of the debris but not totally. Regardless, after a while the stars aligned and I was able to connect with a fish.  Immediately, I knew it was a good one.  The line went taught and within seconds the fish went airborne.  The fight was on. The largemouth would jump another three times and make several attempts to hide in various submerged logs before I was able to land it.  While not particularly long in length, it made up for it in girth.  It was clearly a fish that was packing on the pounds in an effort to weather the coming winter season.  

Given my initial success, we decided to stay around and fish a while.  Several hours later, I managed to land another small bass.  That was it.  Two fish in three and a half hours.  I guess it could have been worse...I could have been Greg.  He didn't catch a thing all day.  For me though, it was a great time.  I got out of the house, enjoyed some gorgeous weather and the company of a good friend.  I can't ask for more than that.