TightLinesBlogzine.com

Once again Moody Pond is stocked, and it’s wonderful to see fish rising! This year we stocked half and half 12-14″ rainbow and brook trout. We also selected thirty larger (I’m not telling how large ) trout , half rainbow and the other half brown trout. We got a special deal from Sumner Brook Farm. The fish from this company are exceptionally healthy and always full of spunk.

The delivery guy accidentally dumped someone else’s fish in the pond so we got some extras in the 8-10″ size - rainbow and brookies. I felt badly for the delivery guy who had to call his boss and tell him the mistake he made. Unfortunately once they were in the pond there was no way he was getting them back! The owner Richard Prunier was very professional about it and said “it’s your lucky day”. There was no charge for the extra fish.

Many of the trout are rising clear of the water to take the natural mayflies, dragonflies and caddis off the surface…

So the pond is once again alive with fish…

Many fellow anglers were delighted to contribute to stocking this year and partake with time on the water…

It took about two weeks for the fish to key in on naturals. Before that time I could toss out anything, even a cigarette butt and they would hit it - so long as it moved. All dryflies were ignored until I stripped them in under the surface or made lots of movements.

I watched the new fish circumnavigate the pond and put everything they thought might be food into their mouths. This trial and error effort teaches the fish what’s good to eat, much like we learn as children. Through fishing the pond and observing fellow anglers I now understand how a top-producing fly can quickly go out of favor, but that’s an article for another day.

It’s funny, but before being involved in the stocking of Moody, I thought the fish in the local waters were so “educated” that they would refuse my offerings. I now know it’s all about what stocking stage they are in - the newbies are still trying to figure out what’s good to eat - and of course knowing what insects are in the waters.

Tight Lines…

In Moody Pond all kinds of life is under way. Here are succession photos of Spotted Salamander eggs.

Amazing how the clear outer jelly disappears in the water like an invisible barrier…

Eggs developing into larval stage?

I have set aside a batch of eggs to let them hatch in a fish tank that I partly submerged in the pond. I will take pics of the salamanders when they hatch.

I was observing the schools of minnows in the same area as the salamander eggs. The larger minnows tried to push their faces into the jelly to eat the eggs. I wonder how many will be eaten by the trout in the pond.

Here’s what the adult looks like…they are big, about 5-7″ long.

Great video of the Spotted Salamander migration: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=joZgb7E23LU

I just got an iMac and the learning curve and conversion from PC is taking a bit longer than I intended. Photos are my current hold-up, but I just installed Aperture 2 and will be back in action soon.

As for Moody, the pond vegetation has been slow to start, but looks like we have had our last hard frost and the plants will be brave enough to grow once again. The tree leaves started two weeks ago and they still have a bit to go until they are full out.

I’ve been collecting bugs and taking photos along with clearing some brush around the landing and creating new storage racks for the kayaks and pontoon boat. I had a great helper who made the task go twice as fast, his name is Troy. He’s new to fly fishing but you would not know it watching him double-haul cast from the big rock out in the pond. He plans to come back and help me to train the new fish to live up to the Moody Pond title.

Stay tuned….

Bad news, Moody pond has been cleaned out by the otters that visited this past winter. I’ve been watching the pond for a week steady and one lone brookie of 6-8″ is the only fish kicking around in the pond. I’m sure there are a few others, but we have lost more than 90% of our trout. From what I can gather from the fish farmer and others that have a pond is that otters are serious trouble. I was told that the otters will kill as many fish as they can at one time and stash the rest underwater or above to eat later. They will dine on them for a week or so and then repeat the process. I’ve circled the pond many times looking for evidence of fish mortality and I can’t find any. It’s as if they were taken by aliens. I’ve yet to find the otters’ stash.

I’m sure otters and not something like disease or pollution were the culprits. The pond was healthy and fine as it went to sleep last fall and was fished almost up to the hour of ice in. If it was something other than a carnivore, I would have seen the fish littered all over the bottom of the pond on the day of ice-out.

The lack of fish bodies points to consumption. The only evidence is in the otters excrement. They have a habit of creating a specific area outside of the pond to be their outhouse and it’s a community thing. I see lots of fish bones in this area on the bank.

The pond is at 55 degrees now and I’ve been seeing quite a bit of bug activity with no fish eating going on. The mergansers take one swing around the pond, looking underwater, never diving and then leave - I think they know something.

The fish at Moody are usually hungry after winter and start eating the day of ice-out. Only their almost total eradication explains why they have not been eating or could not be seen when I scout the pond from the banks or a kayak.

The only other plausible theory would be the fish had not awakened yet, but I find that hard to believe at 55 degrees and with the current insect activity

Little did I know that the otters were tag-teaming underwater by one corralling the fish to the shallows and the other lying in wait to ambush the fish when they have no where to run. Truly a heart-sickening reality to know the fish which I have grown so close to that I’ve given them nicknames will never be seen again. Some rainbows were over 24″ and a few brookies were up in that size range as well.

The pond has been stocked every year for four years and ever spring a solitary otter came to visit during the week of ice-out. It usually caught a few fish, and I’m more than ok with that. There has always been plenty of fish even though a few were eaten.

This is the first time they have hit the pond during winter when the fish are hibernating and are easy targets. I think the lack of ground frost or freezing of any kind kept a few areas of the pond open all winter so the otters could come and go as they pleased. Usually the pond is completely iced-in during winter.

I just called up this afternoon and reserved 100 trout in the 12-14″ size. This size was chosen to prevent mergansers from dining on the freshly stocked fish. I split the order with half rainbow and half brook trout. So we are in the rebuilding mode and will be sure to call the trapper in early fall so the traps can be set all winter.

Here are some of the beauties that once lived in this healthy coldwater pond…

Well, as of the morning of April 20, 2008 we have official ice-out. I was way off on my estimate this year; I had it down for May 1st. I took the inaugural kayak trip around the pond to see what’s going on. I also wanted to asses the damage from a pair of otters that had fun frolicking in the pond this winter.

A licensed trapper was called in, and one of the otters was caught right away, but the other one kept coming back and continued feeding on the fish. I’d be more than happy to share fish with the otters, but they are so greedy they eat all the fish and leave none behind.

My first impression after spending some time floating on the pond is that it’s devoid of life. No frogs, bugs or fish, and the underwater plant life is hidden under the leaf litter. I’ve learned from past years that during the next few weeks waves of life will spring back.

Soon the fish will start to rise and make their numbers known with soft sipping sounds and gentle body rolls, followed by sloppy slurping sucking sounds, and as the water warms, quick snap body rolls and boils progressing to an aerial show of tail-walking full of spunk as summer peaks. Then fall sets in and it all happens again in reverse.

I did manage to find some life. The Speckled Alder that live along the banks of Moody Pond are the first to flower…


A few of the early stone flies were hatching sporadically.

The Backswimmers are zig-zagging with attitude on the surface. They exude an air of confidence they won’t be eaten by the fish, and take off flying to the other side of the pond. When you see them in flight they look like caddis with slightly blue-tinged wings. What ever you do don’t pick them up - they bite HARD!

I of course found out the wrong way that these bugs will actually hunt and kill small fish. The rainbow trout in the pond seem not to be phased by them, and eagerly slurp them down first thing in the spring.

At the pond we have a healthy population of painted turtles. I counted 11 total. They are funny things; some scatter when you go near while others just sit still like a bump on a log, even letting you pick them up and snap a few pics of them.

You can see where the term “turtleneck” came from.

These certainly are painted turtles - you can see how beautifully decorated they are on the underside…

A few underwater shots. Note how clear the visibility is in the pond right now - the camera can see 6-8 feet…

That will change very soon and it will return to poor visibility (2-3 feet). At Moody the fish are very hard to catch, but particularity hard in the spring and fall as then they have the advantage of seeing you before you see them.

A couple of summers ago I was using my floating, hot-pink pool chair, “ Pinky“, with my legs hanging out like half-submerged logs. If I stayed still long enough the turtles would hop on to my feet and sun themselves. I had waders on and was glad I did. One turtle liked the look of my wading boot lace and took a bite. He nipped off an inch or two before I could see what was going on!

This stick bug is something new to me. Weird-looking thing. It emerged from the water ten feet away from the bow of my kayak in the middle of the pond. It immediately began making its way to a thickly overhung bank. I would imagine it sits among the branches and waits like a praying mantis to snap something up with those sickle-like scythes for arms.

This looks like some kind of mayfly shuck. I never saw the emerged insect.

I spotted some casemaker caddis; not sure what kind they are. It’s fascinating how they make the little houses out of pine needles. This particular caddis is all over the rocks on the bottom of the pond. During the warmer times of the year you can expect to see hundreds. My guess would be they hatch into a small to medium, tan/gray caddis. About a size 14.

Another caddis I picked up was one of the giant sedges of the Northeast. This faux Hex caddis is a full one inch long in its dry form. The case is roughly 1.25″ long. This is Bankiola Crotchi the Giant Traveling Sedge.

You can see the dry fly form of Bankiola Crotchi here.

Moody Pond is reading 49 degrees. The first few rises have been spotted, but they are far and few until the water warms up a bit more.

For years now, I have fallen in love with the mystique and rich history of the Rangeley Lakes Region of Maine. Being an angler, born and raised in this state all of my life, the draw has become too great for me to resist a trip to these fabled waters. I am finally going to make the trip to the fly fishing mecca of Maine, the Upper Dam Pool. Made famous by none other than Ms. Carrie Stevens and her husband Wallace Stevens, this is the same water from which Carrie took her state record 6+ pound brook char on her very own Gray Ghost. I feel like I’m 5 years old all over again, and Christmas is a month away. I find myself zoning out in the middle of the day dreaming about trophy size char and landlocked salmon. I’m totally giddy with anticipation, but this trip is not just about fishing for me. I feel like I need to stand in the same spot where Ms. Stevens stood, and feel close to the place. I need to stand at the edges of this famous pool, and take in the beauty of Mooselookmeguntic Lake, and imagine what it was like in the glory days of Maine angling. I will finally have my chance.

This will be a pilgrimage I plan to make once a year, every year from this point forward. I hope to make many memories in this pool with friends and family in the future. I think during the whole month of May, I’ll be doing dedicated Upper Dam fly tying. I’ll definitely post some of the resulting flies which I plan on fishing.

Links to learn more about Carrie Stevens & Upper Dam:

Carrie Stevens Fly Reproductions

Anatomy of a Rangeley Style Streamers

The Carrie Stevens Challenge

Book - Carrie Stevens: Maker of Rangeley Favorite Trout and Salmon Flies

Carrie Stevens Patterns

The Carrie Challenge

Peace,

Jake

This year my antics on a private fly fishing pond, I’ve lovingly dubbed Moody Pond for good reason, will be more organized. I plan to follow them throughout a fishing season in a series of posts.

Ice fishing is not done on Moody, not because the owner does not allow it, but because the base of the pond has many active spring holes that go dormant and then pop into action at any time. This makes the ice on the pond very unstable with 40-degree water being pumped out towards the ice. The pond is spring fed only and has a major spring that breaks ground and runs for about 500 feet before it enters the pond.

On the West side of this elongated pond is a large, dense conifer forest that climbs up a steep 2200ft mountain side. Moody pond is home to fisher cats, bobcats, bear, moose, fox, martin, mink, ermine, turkey, ducks of all sorts, great blue heron, bitterns, woodland thrush (they have the most divine flute-like song in the evenings), a dizzying array of frogs, turtles, minnows, and an enormous selection of aquatic insects - and that’s just off the top of my head!

Moody is not a wadeable pond. It covers about 3 acres, has an average depth of 5 feet and is home to some of the most beautiful native brook and rainbow trout I’ve ever seen. The elevation of the pond is 1100 feet, and it has an eastern and southern exposure with the north and west walled off by the forested mountain. I usually fish from a kayak, pontoon boat or float tube. Heck, I’ve even used an inflatable pool chair that was bright pink. I named it “Pinky”. Don’t laugh, it had serious fishing mojo. After I landed a 5-pound brookie from Pinky, a male Orvis store employee who had been watching let himself be persuaded to hop into this hot pink chair and fish from it (I have pics to prove it ).

Ice-out is usually around the third week in April. The norm would be to wait a couple of weeks after ice-out for the water to warm up to see fish activity. I don’t think that will be the case this year. Only a month ago a small spring hole was open in the back bay area of the pond, and, believe it or not, I saw a trout snout rise to grab a midge on the surface of the 4-foot opening in the ice.

Our ground did not freeze at all during this past winter so my thought is that the trout will be full of spunk as soon as ice-out occurs. This winter was one of the snowiest in the past 35 years, and we have 4 feet of snow still on the ground. I’m guessing ice-out will be around the 1st of May. Time will tell.

Current photos of Moody Pond facing south and east…

Stillwater season is quickly approaching, Tight Lines

Hairline has some killer looking two tone rabbit strips. I just can’t get enough of the hot orange/ yellow. This material will be deadly to create flies for salt or freshwater.

Flaming Nome’s Nuisance:

The Bamboo Blank Project - Part 1

The Bamboo Blank Project - Part 2

In Part 3 of the Bamboo Blank Project I will cover test-casting the rod, wrapping the guides, patching the cork grip and applying a finish to the cork.

Tip: At this point you must decide on or already know which kind of finish you want and how to apply the finish to the rod before you progress. You have a few choices:

First, either apply a varnish with a brush or apply tung oil with a cloth. Both of these methods require treating the rod blank with three coats before wrapping the guides.

Second, you can use a dip tank method, wrapping the guides on the bare blank, and dip treat last.

Initially I could find little info on the first method so I wrapped the guides on the bare blank as in the dip tank method but applied a varnish with a brush. I regret not treating the bamboo blank before wrapping the guides.

I did a few test wraps on a dowel to get the feel and view my color choices. I could see with this experiment that I needed to cut back on the green wraps and get my trim wrap a bit thinner. I used size A thread only.

You can see in the image above that the threads on the right have had a treatment of color preserver and have darkened quite a bit. This will happen with most threads.

While the color preserver was drying I just had to get out and enjoy the beautiful day and soak up some sun. Time to test cast the rod. I used masking tape to tape the guides to the rod in the marked places, slapped on the reel seat (unglued) and put a WF5 and reel on the rod. By casting the rod before I wrapped the guides, I was able to test the balance of the rod, casting ability and guide placement. I wa also able to make adjustments right there in the field.

The rod balanced within the first half inch of the grip; just where I like it. It is not tip heavy at all like traditional bamboo tends to be, so no need for additional weight in the reel seat area.

The guides were perfectly arranged, and I was pleased with the size guides I picked out: stripping #10, 2, 1… the tips are all #1 then comes the super large tiptop loop.

Casting was very nice - windy as heck that day, yet I still could manage control of the line with a 5wt. line. I only set up the dry fly tip, and I have to say I was trepidatious casting this rod after reading some horror stories about china imports. Could this rod live up to my previous experience of how quality bamboo feels? I’m glad to say it cast better than I could have hoped for.

WOW does it haul line!!! I was able to cast 70 feet no problem! I was casting the rod without being conscious of it - a mark of a very comfortable rod.

I had two stripping guides to choose from, so I re-rigged with the second stripping guide and the casting was drastically different in a bad way. It slowed my line speed down quite a bit and robbed my cast of about 20 feet. I went back to the first stripping guide and it was sweet sailing once again.

Back at the shop I filled in the large holes in the grip with a combo of cork filings and Tightbond II. I made an oatmeal consistency and patched it in.

Let it dry overnight… next evening…

Looked UGLY! I sanded the grip with 320 grit sandpaper and then spot sanded with 600 grit wrapped around a popsicle stick.

I researched sealants for cork grips and read that a number of rod builders use the color preservative for this application. Ok, I’m game. I painted on a painfully thin application and let it dry.

I then started my thread wraps on the nymph tip. Normally snake guides are square cut and you have to round the corners down to achieve good contact all the way around between the rod and guide. The guides I purchased did not require this step. The only guide that needed a little rounding was my stripping guide, and that was minimal. Be sure to check your guides before wrapping. I used a small, fine metal file to take the sharp edge off. I also checked all sides and especially the end points of each guide to make sure they were not sharp, otherwise they would cut into the threads or rod when casting.

I advise the purchase of an inexpensive pair of reading glasses (at least 3+) or a hands-free magnifying glass to help see the small thread detail. They won’t win any fashion awards but they helped greatly to create beautiful wraps. The wraps were the most labor intensive aspect of this project for me.

In the photo above you see the rod wrapper, thread tensioner, white plastic burnishing tool and my home made alcohol burner. The rod wrapper is simply a way to support the rod while tension is maintained on the thread. The burnishing tool is used to pack (close the gaps) in the thread on the rod and flatten the wraps.

The alcohol burner is made of a tiki lamp wick and brass tip resting on a flower bud vase. This tool is used to burn away any frayed or tag parts of the wraps once installed. After heating the wraps it will also tighten them up since they shrink as they cool.

*Tip: be careful not to hover in a single area for very long; wraps will burn easily.

I won’t bother to tell you how to tie on and tag off your thread wraps as this info is readily available.

Back to the grip… the color preservative made a clear shiny thin coat on the grip, but it looked hazy, like some cork dust was trapped under the clear coat. So I attempted to remove the clear coat with mineral spirits, no success. Ok, acetone time…

I dabbed a bit of acetone on a rag in an attempt to eat off the thin gloss coat. This seemed easier to me than setting up the drill lathe and sanding the grip down again. Well, I wiped fast up and down the cork grip, careful not leave any pools of the acetone. As I did this the movement evaporated the acetone quickly. Inadvertently what I achieved was an ultra thin coat of the color preservative that was polished by the drying cloth. The shine was knocked down by the acetone, and I achieved a satisfying finish on the grip.

Obviously the discoloration I saw was not cork dust under the finish. I ended up with something close to a satin tung oil finish, and it still has great grip even when it’s wet (first thing I tested).

Boo porn…

The next and final installment in the Bamboo Blank Project covers placing the feather inlay, applying the finish to the rod & wraps, cutting the butt section and installing the reel seat.

Stay tuned

Below is a conversation I had with the forum member S2ary at www.flyfishinginnh.com . It contains some good info to consider when fishing gin-clear or tannin waters.

S2ary:
The In-fisherman magazine has an eye-opening lead article on how fish see colors under water, and which colors bass prefer to strike.

I just leafed through the article at the store, but I was amazed to see how quickly all of the color spectrum dropped out in 6 feet of tannic (brown-stained) water. This is the same tea-stained water we have across New England, so this is an article worth reading.

Nome:
Having the Androscoggin and Saco Rivers practically in my back yard (two polar opposites of water clarity - one brown with visibility up to 3-4ft; the other gin-clear up to 25-30ft), I’ve had fun experimenting with regard to fly color choice.

The video below was shot in the tannic Androscoggin river.

Underwater pic of a brookie in the gin-clear Saco…

The color preference differences to induce fish strikes has been amazing between clear and tannic water. For me the key was all about being the bug/bait fish and how best to camouflage my offerings in each water. The depths of the Saco change in color, even though they look crystal clear from above, and so does the life living within that zone. After the eye-opening education I had snorkeling the Saco last summer, I gained insight into water turbidity and what role depth plays in regard to clarity and light. It seems counter-productive to hide your offering by trying to camouflage it, but I think the fish have evolved to key in on anything trying to hide.

S2ary:
Just out of curiosity, which watershed do you feel is more fertile? Do you know what the pH is of each river?

Do you notice a difference in trout species dominance and natural reproduction rates between the two rivers?

Nome:
In reference to only what I’ve had experience with, that being the sections of the Andro and Saco that reside in NH, the Andro is by far more fertile with life. The Saco in my eyes is pretty darn barren except in a few choice sections which possess immovable structures.

One question pops up immediately in my mind after typing out those two sentences. Would the above statement hold true if the Andro did not have so many dams to control and prevent the high water scouring (major river bed alterations throughout the year burying insect life and vegetation) as opposed to the Saco which does suffer from this annually throughout the year?

Yes and no. The soil surrounding each river is very different. The Saco is in a very deep glacial deposit bed consisting primarily of sand, whereas the Andro has a rock-strewn river bed with broken down granite and plant matter as river bottom.

The stability of the soil structure in a river bed would seem to be key to the river’s ability or inability to support life. One thing that stuck me last year when hopping from one river to the other is the lack of numbers of islands in the Saco compared to the Andro. I believe this is directly related to poor soil structure and the dams controlling water velocity by slowing the river down during high water times. Sand offers very poor food value for plants and weak soil structure in which to place a strong roothold. Lack of anchor plants on a given island or bank will allow erosion during high water abuse. Again back to soil structure.

Does water clarity play a role in water temps? I’m sure it does in some way. A fellow fisherman has said that a river with tannins will be cooler due to lack of sunlight penetration and the attendant riverbed warming. That could be the case, I’m not sure.

I do think the Saco’s sandy bottom and surrounding sandy surfaces will absorb more of the sun’s energy, warming the water significantly compared to the Andro’s rocky river bed. Ever notice on a beach the sand is hot as heck, yet the rocks are nowhere near as hot to the touch? Rocks are excellent at moderating temperature fluctuations. A large flat area of sand has more surface volume to collect solar gain than a rock outcropping with varying angles. Would the Saco run cooler if it was tannic instead of clear? I have no idea - very interesting question though.

A shade factor should be added into this equation as the Andro has more vegetation surrounding the river, in many places all the way up to the river’s edge. The Saco has great swaths of open farm land in the river valley and poor soil structure to maintain vegetation along the river’s edge to help keep things cooler. Not to say no vegetation is present on the Saco, but take note of the honey holes. They always have at least one, if not all three, of the following: depth, permanent structure and shade.

All bets are off during the dog days of summer. Then it’s all about the spring holes and cold tributaries.

As for pH, when comparing the riparian vegetation on each river, I’d say large sections of the Saco are sweeter (higher pH) than the Andro by looking at the plant life it supports on its banks. Poison ivy, though it will live in a low pH environ, thrives in higher pH soil and is all over the banks of the Saco throughout North Conway. Also the presence of other high-pH-loving plants helped me to come to this conclusion which could add to the decline of the low-pH-loving brookies in the Saco.

My thought about trout species is that browns and rainbows are by far better adapted to these two rivers over brookies. The single most important factor is the waters are too warm for the brookies to thrive as they once did. That being said, I do think brookies have a better chance in the Andro than the Saco because of cooler water, more shade, lower pH and the ability to hide from predators in the darker water.

When catching a brookie during the hotter summer months on the Saco, the fish is a very pale rendition of it’s normal gloriously-colored self. It is weak and seems to be hanging on by a thread compared to a brookie caught during the same time of year on the Andro. I think brook trout are out-numbered by browns and rainbows on both rivers. Those two species seem to do well in the Saco, but they thrive in the Andro and readily reproduce.

Being a horticulturist by trade has opened my eyes to the fact that soil is the “make or break” of all kinds of living things in a greenthumb’s world. Fly fishing is a natural obsession for someone who is fascinated by the relationships between plants, insects, micro-organisms, water and soil.

S2ary:
What is scariest for you is that you anticipated what my next two questions would have been. Soil characteristics and vegetation. Without seeing the watersheds I can feel them. —- smell them even. Warm sweet grass breezes compared to deep musky organic breaths of air that tumble down the stream bank cooling the back of your neck on a warm summer’s day.

I can’t wait to get up there.