cornmuse

I'd tie that fly with a peacock herl body and rabbit fur tail - maybe with a bead head. Sounds like a heck of an idea!

I have a selection of clousers from 10 to 14 that I fish with quite often. Admittedly the size 10 isn't much of a stretch, but the size 14 often raises eyebrows. I tie the Foxee Red Clouser to a 14 for summer fishing where I want to imitate a juvenille crayfish.

I also have a few clousers tied on size 16 hooks using just a bit of flashabou for a wing. I use micro-size lead eyes. They sink very quickly and offer a bit of sparkle. Excellent choice for bluegills under summer, clear water conditions.

Joe C.

Whenever I tie this type of streamer I use a little Dave's Flexement on the back of the JC eye and glue it to the cheek feather. I also use a little dab on the two primary wing feathers at the base to connect them together as one assembly. I tie in the left, then right wing. Then the left and right cheek assembly. Sometimes you need to flatten the feather stems using the back of your scissors to get a perfect lay.

For those who've never seen a juvenille carp - take a look at a common goldfish. They are almost identical. The carp has two barbells on the chin the goldfish doesn't have - in smaller size specimens you'd need a magnifying lens to see it. Goldfish and carp commonly hybridize and many warm water rivers and ponds that have a population of carp also have a population of goldfish as well as hybrids. It's a more important baitfish around here than most people think, especially in the early part of the season.

On the fly I've tied there is a sparse white bucktail belly, but the white background from the scan doesn't allow it to show up. The colors are a bit darker in the image that the real fly which has more a golden orange hue - a little exaggerated when compared to the actual critter...

Joe C.

This is about the only fly you'll need to fish smallies on creeks from May through late July and even beyond. It is an excellent crayfish imitation and a superb Johnny Darter imitation - a creature many fishermen overlook as an important bait. They are one of the most prolific baitfishes in Ohio and likely in most of the midwest. Tie a few in size 6 using medium lead eyes and then fish it ON THE BOTTOM using a hand twist retrieve.

http://www.flytyingforum.com/index.php?act...show&showid=564

Tight lines and release that bronze!

Joe C.

More of a snake-like slither. Under water they're weightless, of course, so its almost a combination of the two.

JC

Sinking heads - 30 footers - are the real problem with sinking tips. That 30' head puts the transition right at the rod tip most of the time. Unless you have 2 or 3' inside the rod tip - or conversely 15' away from the rod tip - you'll have to deal with hinging. I've found my 10' Orvis sinktip (Wonderline - hell they all sink anyway so why not ) casts just fine. No hinging what-so-ever. The transition is less noticeable on this line (Type V) than it is on my ghost tip intermediate!

Regarding the use of sink tip vs full sinker - they are two different tools. I use the sink tip almost exclusively in creeks and rivers where I will high-stick (line length doesn't matter as the cast is seldom 20') or drift and retrieve streamers. The slow retrieve (essentially keeping a tight line) works with the current in some subtle ways with a sink-tip.

Joe C.

Where can one get woodcock? I've read about it, of course, but never seen it for sale anywhere.

Joe C.

Here is an excerpt from my upcoming work discussing canoes. Perhaps this will help...

"I love fishing from a canoe. There is traditionalism to a double-ender that brings a great satisfaction to river fishing, as though one were somehow connected to all those river explorers who came before. Paddling a well-designed canoe on a scenic midwestern waterway during the colorful months of autumn is a guaranteed stress-reliever and a great source of exercise. All canoes are not equal and what separates a good fishing vessel from a boat designed expressly for tripping is stability and mobility. A full discourse on the merits of various designs is beyond the scope of this book. The interested reader is encouraged to contact the various manufacturers for more information and a real education on the delights of paddling.

Canoes possess several traits that must be carefully weighed before purchase if practical versatility and a long-term relationship are to be cemented. The factors to consider are the size and beam (width) of the canoe, initial versus secondary stability, the rocker and the tumblehome. Let’s look at each of these in turn.

All other things being equal a longer canoe will be faster and will draft shallower. It should come as no surprise that an eighteen-foot design will carry more gear and is better suited for large water than a fourteen-foot design. The trade-off is weight and maneuverability. A solo fly fisher will do well in a twelve to fourteen foot boat, a pair of fishermen - especially fly fishermen – will quite likely feel cramped on anything smaller than sixteen feet (some might say sixty feet!).

If the length of the canoe is directly proportional to efficiency, the beam of the canoe is inversely proportional to efficiency. That is, a wider boat will be more stable, but slower and less efficient to paddle than a narrow design. Serious tripping canoes are often less than thirty inches wide – this makes for easy mileage but exhausting fishing. Conversely, a forty-inch wide canoe will make for a tough paddle against the wind – especially so if you have to cover a few miles to get to the take-out point before the skies open up on you! A wide canoe will feel very stable when drifting and casting, though. Most canoes sold as “sporting” boats for fishing and hunting will feature a thirty-four to thirty-eight inch or more beam.

My grandfather never liked canoes. Perhaps that was true because in his day most canoes small and light enough to car-top exhibited marginal to poor initial stability. Initial stability is a canoe’s resistance to tip or rock from side-to-side and is directly affected by hull design and tumblehome. Canoes which feature deep vee-type hulls often feel unstable to an inexperienced paddler. They feel like they are ready to roll over at a moment’s notice and with only the slightest provocation. Fishing from such a boat will give your lower back a real workout and total exhaustion is the likely reward for a full day spent on board.

On the other hand, properly designed canoes with deep vee hulls, which may exhibit moderate initial stability, may very well show outstanding secondary stability. Secondary stability is a canoe’s resistance to completely roll over and swamp while still allowing a good degree of tilt while paddling. The boat will tip, but then will reach a limit where it doesn’t want to tip any more. This is ideal for extreme maneuvers in fast water. Most white water canoes and some tripping canoes are carefully designed to maximize this attribute. In the hands of an experienced canoeist such a vessel can be made to virtually dance on the water.

The rocker of a canoe is the amount of upturn at the ends of the boat. A canoe with considerable rocker will have a distinct “U” shape. Extreme rocker is the purvey of white water boats – the greater the amount of curve the more maneuverable the canoe will be. Increasing rocker, while decreasing the turning radius of the canoe, also makes the boat more difficult to “track” straight. That is, pulling on one side of the canoe with the paddle will make the canoe turn quickly in that direction. When you are bearing down on an extreme curve in a river – and the current is moving you along at six or eight miles per hour- the ability to turn the boat before you bang into the bank or mid-stream rocks is a central concern. Fortunately most Midwestern waterways are quite tame compared to the beasts of the mountainous west and east.

A canoe with no rocker at all will track very true in flat water. This is a design used for paddling in lakes, ponds and other large waterways. My own Mad River Malecite is a design with minimal rocker and as such is quite efficient both in speed and tracking. A couple pulls of a paddle will send you scooting along in the direction the canoe is pointing. Carefully examine the nature of the waterways you are most likely to fish and choose a design that best suits that water. For most fishermen, only a slight rocker will be necessary.

Tumblehome is directly related to the design of the bottom of the boat. Tumblehome is the amount of inward curve of the side of the canoe from the bottom to the top. Flare is the opposite of tumblehome. Tumblehome makes the sides of the canoe look like a “C” and provides great protection in white water. A canoe with extreme tumblehome is also often designed with emphasis on secondary stability. A better choice for fishing is a canoe that exhibits only slight tumblehome, has a flat or nearly flat bottom, and places emphasis on initial stability.

In addition to the basic design of a canoe, material chosen for its construction must also be given some serious thought. In general there are three materials used for contemporary canoe construction: aluminum, molded plastic, and Kevlar™ or a Kevlar/fiberglass composite. Aluminum is tough, but heavy and noisy. While I have fished from many aluminum canoes and boats, I much prefer the quiet efficiency of a Kevlar or Kevlar/fiberglass boat. Kevlar, of course, is tough. It is the material from which bullet proof vests are made. That said, a Kevlar canoe would scratch and/or break upon impact rather than dent, like aluminum. Roto-molded plastics may be the best compromise in that they are tough, quiet and flexible. Plastic is tough – nearly indestructible – but less efficient in that the hull will flex slightly during paddling, robbing momentum and energy. The final choice is up to the individual and should be made based upon the nature, speed and composition of the streams, rivers and waterways one intends to fish.

Kayaks come in all the same configurations as canoes but are usually designed for a single paddler. Kayaks have grown tremendously in popularity in recent years, especially for fly-fishing. There are two basic categories of kayak one must consider if this is the path you choose to take. There are “sit on top” kayaks and “cockpit” kayaks. Cockpit designs are often white water craft and are what most folks picture when the word kayak is said. A sit-on-top design is usually less expensive and made from a roto-molded plastic. Before purchasing you should try both and see which one best fits your personality and fishing style. Most vendors sponsor events where a multitude of designs are brought to a local pond or river where you can “test drive” each. Nothing will help your decision like hands-on experience.

One thing to consider regarding the sit-on-top design is its ease of entry and egress. If you plan on paddling to key areas where you will hop out and wade, a sit-on-top design has much to offer. Getting in and out of a cockpit in waders can be interesting, to say the very least."

Excerpt taken from Fly Fishing Warm Water Rivers - Lessons Learned on Ohio's Great Miami ISBN 0-9765963-0-X. This book has gone to print this month and will be available in April for those who are interested.

Joe C.

Repeat after me -

"There's nothing like partridge, there's nothing like partridge."

Joe C.

Bully's Bluegill Spider - size 12. Use a peacock herl or chenille body, 4 legs of thin white or black rubber and weight the hook at the bend so it drops tail-first causing the legs to splay and wiggle. It's fished "on the drop" and is a killer.

Joe C

Tim H seems to do a lot of that - blatant self promotion I mean. The blockhead is a pretty simiple popper that he promotes in his column and in ads in MWFF - I can't see where it is significantly different that a zillion other topwaters. I had an exchange with that fellow a year or so ago that left me so livid I'll never buy a copy of Midwest Fly Fisherman again. My $0.02

Joe C.