Salty Snacks

As spring comes to a close, and summer starts its endless grind towards fall, my wife and I patiently await the arrival of our firstborn, our daughter who is expected to arrive on the 9th. As our daughter has continued to grow, and as the time for her arrival draws near, Daddy has to be within close range, ready to drive to the hospital on a moment notice. With the local trout streams located within the safety and isolation of steep canyon walls and towering peaks, RF radiation from cell carriers doesn't stand a chance (and my AT&T coverage drops out the moment I even mention a trout stream).

 I keep turning my attention to saltwater, possibly because it seems like the only appropriate thing to do with my 8wt and intermediate line I bought.  When the in-laws started discussing the possibility of spending a weekend at Mission Bay, San Diego, I enthusiastically agreed - Bay means water, and water means fish. Seeing as it’s a flat glassy surface, and the surrounding area is devoid of mountains, the cell phone should work just fine from a float tube or Kayak... if not, someone could just yell.

 So, in an effort to prepare my flybox, for something i know very little about, I set to tie a few flies.

Tied on a Vintage Mustad Hook. The veritable chartreuse and white Clouser minnow was the first in line, this time trimmed with a red Mylar (repurposed wrapping paper) body, and fire orange head. I'm unsure if they will perform any better than a standard issue Clouser, but they certainly will look cool doing it. I have some tied sparse, but some a little broader... I've heard from friends that slightly fuller tied Clousers seem to work better on Leopard Sharks, and I'd certainly want to be prepared if I could find one to cast to.

Only very basically related to Doug's fly.Next up was something somewhat reminiscent of a Doug Uyematsu "New Beak", a popular surf fly for Halibut, Corbina, and Croaker in the Long Beach area. It suggests a crab/shrimp, so it’s worth a shot.

Probably my favorite of the bunch.

Leaning more to more muted, natural, colors for crustaceans I did another Ghost Shrimp pattern, this one I pulled the ideas from Saltwaterflies.com, Enrico's Ghost Shrimp.

It will either be named or forever forgotten. The only fly pattern I can say I had much personal creativity with, was my own Ghost shrimp pattern. Tied with the basic shape elements of various shrimp patterns, I wanted to show the translucent body over a orange/pink internal, as that is how most pictures I have found of real ghost shrimp actually look. So I tied a pair of eves in Clouser style, and a tail of some bucktail with a sprig of marabou for extra movement, and then wrapped a solid orange body of Poly yarn. Over the poly yard I made a dubbing loop of "Blaze" colored soft-crimp Angelina fibers. The idea being that as the Angelina fibers get all fluid in the water, the hints of orange from the underbelly will peek through. It’s likely too much thinking for a tiny fish brain, but that's the theory behind it anyway. I'll name it if it works.

 Now, I can only pray that the fish in mission bay are as cooperative as possible. The fishery there is supposedly fairly robust, a mix of many species, mainly Spotted Bay Bass and Halibut, but also chances for the other Sand and Calico Basses, Croaker, White Sand Bass, Corbina and the big game Bat Rays and Sharks. Let’s see what I find.

 for Digg verification: 278e769d6d114a5e87e34978682ba193 .

Slowing Season

So, I don't have what it takes to update 5-6 times a week. I was very unhappy with the quality of a couple of the posts from last week... Especially the TFO review. I have neither the time, nor the talent, to keep up with such a fevered pace.

From here forward, I plan on writing 1-3 times per week, depending on the quality of what I have to share.

So now, a quick post: Easter weekend was burdened with work on finishing the nursery (baby girl due in July) and family obligations, but when the work was completed on Saturday, I was visited by one lone mayfly... Ostensibly a peace offering from the trout, with whom I've spent far too little time lately.

Every time I look at one, I can't help but notice how pathetically short the tails are on most imitations when compared to the naturals. This natural had tails no less than 2x the length of the body, with a barred pattern.

 Plus, what color is it? Reminds me of why blended or mottled dubbing is such a great tool. The natural is White, Grey, Black, Brown, and Olive, all at once.

As it is, I will take any, and all, good omens when it comes to trout. Between my wife's bewildered look (just keep that thing out of my house), and the hurried pace of home improvement, I captured a few photographs.

Click image for more pictures