White River Tributary

Late last week, I got some flies from The Vermont Fly Guys.  It's great to have a local company that will custom tie flies at a reasonable price.  They know the local waters, they fish the same rivers I fish, and I can give them a rough idea of what I want, and they'll hook me up.  If you fly fish in VT, and you don't tie all of your own flies, I highly recommend these guys.

I had ordered a bunch of isonychia patterns.  I wanted them to cover the entire life cycle, from swimmer through spinner.  I expected to get some comparaduns, the standard dun pattern for isonychia.  They also did some articulated duns, which was pretty cool.  The spinners are very interesting, taking advantage of more modern materials and adding a little bit of bright foam for visibility and flotation.

For swimmers, this is what I got (both pictures are from the Facebook page of the VT Fly Guys.  I didn't take these photos):

For emergers, this is what I got:

And, I got a few other bead head nymphs as well.

The delivery of these flies cause me all sorts of logistical problems.  I spent Saturday going through my flies and fly boxes.  To be honest, I had no idea how many flies I owned.  I have two big boxes of large streamers that I only use early season, in high water, or in the fall for browns.  I have a box of various woolly buggers.  I have 2 boxes of all dry flies.  One box dedicated to stoneflies of all sorts.  And then, I had 3 more boxes of nymphs.  I did a quick count of the flies.  There were too many to be precise, but there were over 600 flies spread among 9 boxes.  The buggers and big streamers are boxed appropriately.  I carry those boxes only when I expect to need them.  The stones are boxed appropriately and I carry them all the time.  The classic dries for Vermont (Hendricksons, BWOs, Cahills, Quill Gordons, Caddis, sulphurs, terrestrials, plus attractors like Adams, Royal Coachman and varieties, stimulators, humpies, etc.) are all in the 2 boxes of dries.  I catch fewer than 20% of my fish in VT on dries, so it's not a huge collection.  But, it's probably at least 150 dry flies.  Then, the nymphs needed some work.  I re-organized them into a box of the core patterns that I always need - mostly the classics like PT's, hare's ears, zug bugs, various baetis nymphs, Sloan emergers, RS2's, etc.  The other bigger nymph box got was filled with the flies I use less frequently, but I need them sometimes.  And finally, because the iso's are so seasonal, I put them in a box of their own.

I can't imagine how guides deal with carrying so many flies and always having the correct fly for their customers.  There are times I feel the need to carry up to 6 of these boxes, which is a pain.  But, I'd rather not be a mile from my car and find fish feeding on something when the appropriate fly is back in the car.

So, after all of that work, I headed out to a favorite White River tributary last night.  Despite easy access, I've never seen another fisherman on this stream.  The wading is easy.  The water temperatures are usually cool, although at 67F last night, it was as warm as I've seen it.  But, the main branch nearby was 74F and not fishable.

At the car, I tied on a yellow humpy.  I know this fly doesn't get used a lot in VT.  It's probably a throwback to my days fly fishing in the Sierra Nevada in CA, where all you needed most of the time were elk hair caddis and humpies.  And, they were often interchangeable.  I like the humpies because the little bit of extra color makes them easy to see.  They also float well.

After tying on that humpy, I brought 6 boxes of flies with me - 2 boxes of dries, two of nymphs, one of stones, and one of isonychia patterns,   I then fished for 2.5 hours and never changed my fly.

That's the conundrum at times.  When I hit the water, I can probably name 3-4 flies that will be all I need most of the time.  If I could go to 10 flies, I'd be covered 99% of the time.  Yet, I somehow carry over 100 patterns on a regular basis.

As I got to the stream, I looked in the air and in the water.  Everything came up caddis flies, although there were a few midges around.  I did see a solitary BWO at sunset.

The fishing was a bit slower than the last time I fished this stream.  The water was clearer and two holes that always seem to produce gave me nothing.  I did have 8 strikes in the first 30 minutes or so, hooking 2 and landing 1.  And then things went dead for a while.  I did see 2 decent size fish in one pool and they didn't seem to have seen me.  But, multiple casts right over them provoked no interest at all.  I debated changing flies, but I'd just had a bunch of hits on the humpy, so I stuck with it.  Finally, as sunset approached, the action picked up again, despite the lack of bugs in the air.  I caught another fish.  Missed a couple.  Hooked and lost another.  Missed a couple more. 

By the time it got dark, I'd hooked 4, landed 2, and missed maybe 10 other strikes.  Not bad given the low, clear, warm-ish water.

I've got some time off work later this week, and with our temperatures heading down, I might try to see if the White is fishable in the morning late in the week.