The Gulf Streamer. Welcome to the GCC. Gulf Coast Council of the Federation of Fly Fishers. Spring 2009

Transcription

1 Spring 2009 Gulf Coast Council of the Federation of Fly Fishers The Gulf Streamer Gulf Coast Council Conclave Inside this issue: Gulf Coast Council Conclave Welcome to the GCC 1 In Search of a Spook 2 Bass Tactics for Pickerel 2 1 The Gulf Coast Council's third annual conclave will feature celebrity guests Stu Apte, Nick Curcione, Bob Popovics, and Wanda Taylor. Activities include fly tying demonstrations, workshops, FREE seminars, product exhibits, rod tryouts, onpremises fishing for reds and specks, raffles, silent auctions, live auctions, Friday night crawfish boil and a Saturday banquet featuring Cajun delicacies. For more details, check the Conclave page on the GCC website at Also, see attached flyer and registration form attached to this newsletter. Inside Story 4 Inside Story 5 Welcome to the GCC Inside Story 6 Conclave 2009: Lake Front Civic Center, Lake Charles, LA May 15-17, 2009 Fly tying Demonstrations Casting Instructions Seminars and Workshops Exhibitors Youth Activities Great Local Fishing and Food Welcome to the community called the Gulf Coast Council of the Federation of Flyfishers! This newsletter is intended to be a companion to the GCC website located at Please visit the website for updated information, downloads, articles, and a calendar of current events. A successful newsletter is dependent on content from the membership. Inside are a couple of articles with great photographs from one of our members. If you have photos of a recent fishing trip, a favorite fly pattern, or just an article that you would like to share, please submit to the editor at editor@gulfcoastfff.org. Couple of points. 1. Please submit suggestions on how to make the newsletter and website better. 2. Please visit the forum section of the website to post and share ideas with other members. You will need to register to do this, but it is painless and besides, it s FREE!. 3. In the forum area, there is an area dedicated to club announcements. Any club events can be posted here and then picked up by many interested people who will help make your event a success. 4. Active conversation will help continue to make this organization a success. Please contribute in any way you can. See you on the water, Chad Abell, editor

2 The Gulf Streamer Page 2 In Search of a Spook by William Heugel Based on my bait casting and spin fishing experiences one of the most effective baits I have used is the Zara Spook. Since discovering fly fishing about 30 years ago I have been searching for a fly that would give similar action. Jim Stewart developed the Bass A Roo to emulate the River Runt. John Gulley put together a fly to act like a spook but it was not a top water fly. Several years ago I received some instruction from Anthony Hipps on how to build a foam popper and shape it. I tried many combinations of foam and feather and hair to get something close but nothing seemed to meet need. I decided to try a combination of Anthony s techniques of using pieces of foam with John s techniques of using the double sided sticky tape and wrapping the result with Estaz. This seemed to get me close but it wasn t until I was dreaming about the spook that I realized the line attached to the bait below the centerline of the fly. I decided to use a jig hook. While it s not the big walk the dog action the fly on the jig hook gave some great action and proved to be a serious bass attractor. I do most of my fishing on Toledo Bend lake. A place where in the summer time the school bass collect and act just like saltwater fish. They round up the shad and crash through them. Its really exciting fishing and it gives an old fly tyer the opportunity to test drive some of the flies that come from the bench. This activity is heightened because most of my fishing partners are spin fisherman or bait casters. They seem to catch more of the bass using the hard baits and soft plastics. Read full article per attachment. The Spooky Shad. Bass Tactics for Pickerel by William Heugel What does a bass fly fisherman do for winter sport? The bass are down deep and sluggish. Catching them on a fly is not like flogging the shore in the spring either. The answer to the question is to chase chain pickerel using bass tactics. Air temp in the 40s, water temp in the high 40s and the fish are in water just inches deep here in East Texas. Hawkins, and Toledo Bend. The only ones I have seen in TB were small and in the grass. The best time to fish for them is from about mid December through March. He has written articles about fishing for them and enjoys using the bass fishing techniques during the time when bass are deep. Jackfish and Pike are common names. Like their northern cousins they have a mouth full of teeth. They do not grow large in our area. The Texas record is 4.74 lbs To catch the reader's attention, place an interesting sentence or quote from the story here. Those are the conditions Don McMurry and I were in when we went fishing for Chain Pickerel. These cousins of the Great Northern Pike and Muskie are in several lakes in the East Texas area. That includes Caddo, Dangerfield, That s when they leave the cover and come to the shorelines to spawn. Rob Woodruff is one of the premier guides for pickerel.

3 Gulf Coast Council of the Federation of Fly Fishers Gulf Coast Council, Inc., of the Federation of Fly Fishers, Inc. 205 W. College St Lake Charles, LA Phone: Fax: Visit us on the Web The Gulf Coast Council is a regional entity of the Federation of Fly Fishers, an international non-profit organization whose motto is "conserving, restoring, educating - through fly fishing". The GCC represents roughly 450 individual members and 18 affiliated and charter FFF clubs in south Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi, as well as members in coastal Alabama and western Florida. It is the aim of the GCC to be an effective outreach organization in continuing the valued traditions of our sport. Any individual, family or nonprofit organization can join the Gulf Coast Council by joining the Federation of Fly Fishers. For more on the FFF, check out their website. ( restoring, educating - through fly fishing"... Contacts Office Name Phone President Glen Cormier st Vice President Keith Richard Secretary Larry Offner Treasurer Danny Williams VP Communications Mark Delaney VP Membership Walter McLendon VP Conservation Bob Tabbert VP Outreach Stacy Trimble VP Club Development Marc Pinsel VP Education Vacant Co-VP Events Sydney A. Smith Co-VP Events Buzzy Burns

4 Bass Tactics for Pickerel What does a bass fly fisherman do for winter sport? The bass are down deep and sluggish. Catching them on a fly is not like flogging the shore in the spring either. The answer to the question is to chase chain pickerel using bass tactics. Air temp in the 40s, water temp in the high 40s and the fish are in water just inches deep here in East Texas. Those are the conditions Don McMurry and I were in when we went fishing for Chain Pickerel. These cousins of the Great Northern Pike and Muskie are in several lakes in the East Texas area. That includes Caddo, Dangerfield, Hawkins, and Toledo Bend. The only ones I have seen in TB were small and in the grass. The best time to fish for them is from about mid December through March. That s when they leave the cover and come to the shorelines to spawn. Rob Woodruff is one of the premier guides for pickerel. He has written articles about fishing for them and enjoys using the bass fishing techniques during the time when bass are deep. Jackfish and Pike are common names. Like their northern cousins they have a mouth full of teeth. They do not grow large in our area. The Texas record is 4.74 lbs Don and I met Rob at the boat ramp about 7AM. We didn t go far to find the first fish. Just a short distance from the ramp Don caught the 2lb plus fish using what looked like a black clouser.

5 Fortunately Don did not try to lip the fish. Rob had given me some suggestions on what flies might work so I tied up some of my rabbit flies and also selected several others that I thought might work. We continued fishing the shoreline and neither Don nor I got more hits. I finally changed flies and put on an orange and red rabbit fly. These were colors Rob had suggested earlier but then I am known for being hard headed. I caught several fish including a bass before disaster struck. The fly that was working got cut off by the fish. I fished several other flies with no luck and finally put on one of Rob s Mickey Finn colored clousers. Success again came my way. Throughout the day we had plenty of hook ups. Some that jumped and some that just ran in various directions. We managed to catch a few bass in the process. Interesting that some bass remain in the shallow areas under these weather conditions. Only one bass we caught looked like it had come from the deep the others were dark and looked like they had been in the shallows for some time. We fished with 6 wt rods. Primarily because of the wind.

6 We could have fished with wire leaders and that would have eliminated some of the cut offs. However according to Rob that would also have eliminated the possibility of catching the bass. Here is an example of the shoreline we were fishing. Sometimes it was over dead lily pads and other times just this grass. The pickerel attach the eggs to the grass and then leave. Fishing for chain pickerel in the middle of winter keeps us tuned up for the bass action to follow in the spring. A fine fighting fish the pickerel should be on every warm water fly fisherman s list.

7 In Search of a Spook Based on my bait casting and spin fishing experiences one of the most effective baits I have used is the Zara Spook. Since discovering fly fishing about 30 years ago I have been searching for a fly that would give similar action. Jim Stewart developed the Bass A Roo to emulate the River Runt. John Gulley put together a fly to act like a spook but it was not a top water fly. Several years ago I received some instruction from Anthony Hipps on how to build a foam popper and shape it. I tried many combinations of foam and feather and hair to get something close but nothing seemed to meet need. I decided to try a combination of Anthony s techniques of using pieces of foam with John s techniques of using the double sided sticky tape and wrapping the result with Estaz. This seemed to get me close but it wasn t until I was dreaming about the spook that I realized the line attached to the bait below the centerline of the fly. I decided to use a jig hook. While it s not the big walk the dog action the fly on the jig hook gave some great action and proved to be a serious bass attractor. I do most of my fishing on Toledo Bend lake. A place where in the summer time the school bass collect and act just like saltwater fish. They round up the shad and crash through them. Its really exciting fishing and it gives an old fly tyer the opportunity to test drive some of the flies that come from the bench. This activity is heightened because most of my fishing partners are spin fisherman or bait casters. They seem to catch more of the bass using the hard baits and soft plastics. My first day of testing the new fly proved that it was effective. The second day was a demonstration with one of my bait casting partners. He was shocked and amazed at the success of the fly which I now named the Spooky Shad. The action of the jig hook and the foam configuration with a floating line caused the fly to come up out of the water and also to develop along with the marabou tail a bit of a walk the dog action. It became a very seductive fly to those bass. This year in the spring another opportunity to test the fly against the shore based fish again proved that it was a true fish attractor. Here are the instructions for building the fly. Color it to match the needs in your area. On Toledo Bend we use white with some blue on top. Also a gold orange and brown combination has proved effective. The fly works well with an 8 wt but can also be used with a 6 wt. Depending on how much foam is put on it can be made to float in the film or just below it. When below the film the action seems to be more exaggerated.

8 Spooky Shad This fly is a combination of some techniques developed by Anthony Hipps and John Gulley. I have always wanted to have a fly that emulated the Zara Spook. John developed a fly called the lil spook and built it around some double sticky sided foam tape. Anthony developed his popper by building up foam and painting them. I have used the two techniques together and applied a jig hook. The jig hook places the eye of the hook at a position similar to that of the Zara Spook which gives it a bit of the walk the dog feature. This has turned out to be one fish catching fly. Works great for Black Bass and would probably do well for some saltwater fish

9 Hook Mustad 410 jig hook or bend a hook to suit you Tail Marabou color to match the approach. Rabbit, Saddle hackle or rubber spinner bait hackle also work Thread Any color 8/0 or will also work. It s a bass fly. Body 2mm fun foam and double sided sticky tape. Available at Wal Mart Body Cover Estaz or crystal flash. Pick your favorite color. Chartreuse is good. Eyes Doll eyes Body Color Permanent Marker. Prismacolor works from Hobby Lobby 1. Attach the marabou tail. About the length of the hook is good. If this is to be a frog pattern you might want to put a weed guard on before attaching the tail. Also the frog would use splayed out saddle hackle. 2. Cut a piece of 2mm fun foam. The kind with a sticky side helps some. Cut it so it will just wrap around the hook shank. About ½ inch wide seems to work. It should go from the hook bend to just short of the point where the jig hook bends down. Secure it with the tying thread but don t pull hard on it. This foam is to provide more of the flotation portion of the fly. 3. Now cut a section of the double sticky sided foam. This should be about the same length as the fun foam. Cut it to cover the fun foam. Put it on and tie it down on the ends to begin shaping the fly. Make sure to not pull too tight in the center section. This stuff will squeeze up tight and take away all of the floatation benefits. 4. Attach the Estaz or Crystal flash at this point. It could also be attached earlier or later. I just happen to use this point. 5. Now cut another section of the double sticky sided foam. This time make it smaller than the layers already on. This builds the body up and again adds to the shaping you may be looking for. Again don t tighten it so much that it will flatten it except where you want to shape the body. 6. Now wrap the Estaz forward and tie it down. The sticky tape does a great job of holding the Estaz in place. I stroke it back as I lay each wrap. A bit like putting on a rabbit strip. 7. Attach the eyes with goop. You can use plenty here. Make sure the goop gets down to the tape so there is a solid connection. You don t just want it attached to the Estaz. 8. Finally apply the coloring. I have made my frogs green with black spots. Looks pretty good. The Estaz acts a bit like deer hair in that it holds some air. You can use short or long Estaz depending on what look you want to attain.

10 The fly typically sits a bit down in the tail. When the floating line is stripped because of the location of the hook eye the fly tends to come out of the water much like a shad would if being chased by a bass.