Funny thing about that fly tying, you'll never know how good a fly really is until you swim it. So with my strength coming back after this run of the flu I wanted to get out fishing. I wasn't making a drive anywhere so I decided to stay local. I checked the gauge in Lambertville and the river temp was just over 40 degrees. Now I'm learning there's more to the Delware than striped bass. Smallmouth and largemouth bass, walleye, all kinds of catfish, and then there's the muskies. Muskies are usually found a little north near the Delaware Water Gap in better numbers but hey why not give it a shot. Winter is a good to fish the fish, or so I have read.
Before I left I checked into the NJ Dep website and renewed my fishing license as well as my NJ Saltwater Registry, now I'm all set for 2023. I even got a trout stamp just in case I feel like doing that one day. At the river I found a pink and chartreuse Deciever type fly that I hoped would get some
attention. I found a nice run with a good seam and an eddy and what I would think a great place for a predator to lay in wait for a frozen Scooby-snack to go passing by. It was just nice to be out with mild air temps and before the rain that is supposed to arrive midday. I fished for about an hour before
breaking out one of the flies I tied last week. Like I said above, you don't know what a fly will do until you swim it. You can caress it, comb it, wet it, but wait until you swim it. In my palm the below fly looks fishy, and in a herring rich run it will get eaten by a striped bass, bu the horror! Now you
you can't evaluate a fly after you pull it out of the water, well completely. It's not undulating, key word, it's all matted down and compressed. But even above you can see how the fly, pretty good until the mono extension, looks good, until it doesn't. Laying in the water below you can see how the tail section is disjointed? and not a natural taper, and it's tending to kick down. Below is a short
video of the fly in action, looks good, a little on the pale side, love the eyes, but at the end you see the "hanging tail", kind of like that "hanging chad", God, when was that, over 20 years ago? Jeez,
I've gotton old. Below are some pictures, a little exaggerated, of that mono extension, or failure thereof. What I'll probably do is just cut it off and be done with it. The other thing I need to work on is the bulk, fly needs to be a tad fuller, even though those river herring are streamlined for travel
upriver. Below is a specimen that I found on the riverbank a few years back. I have to remember there are two types of river herring that enter rivers in the spring, alewives and bluebacks. Below is
shot of both for comparison. I think what we see mostly are the bluebacks, but I can't be certain of that. Either way, they are very similar, the alewife a bit chunkier, so I should tie both for the ready.
If you love watching bait as much as I do then you'll love the below video, taken by a friend up north, where the herring are thicker and have better runs. I can just imagine predators lined up behind looking to snack on the sick, lame and lazy that drop back.
What I need to remember, I am no artistic fly tier, you'll never see one of my flies in Fly Tyer Magazine. My best fish came on bulky 10-minute fly I tied befoe heading out for the night. I preach the KISS principle to my students, Keep It Simple Stupid, I should heed my own advice at the vice.