Here is a simple but very effective fly to tye for bedding bass. Remember that to be effective you must pass it through the bed, and drop it into the bed itself.

The Tye: Olive Sparkling Sally
Materials;
Hook: Standard Eagle Claw Lazer Sharp #1 Offset-Worm hook
Thread: Red
Wing: Flashabou, Olive bucktail, over white bucktail
Eyes: Large Brass dumbbell

How to Tye:

Start first by tying in the red thread, add a spot of super glue. Then tye in the eyes as you would a clouser type fly. Keeping the hook point up. This a sparse tye so use all materials sparingly. The use of the worm hook came about as an effective way to tye this as a weedless searching fly.
Now with the eyes secure just back of the eye, tye in a small amount of white bucktail that just comes to the hook bend, but must be horizontal to the point. (Maribou can be used but the resulting fly will not be as weedless.) Over that tye in a slightly larger amount of olive bucktail that extends a third back beyond the hook bend, keep it horizontal. Now add four to six strand of flashabou, greenish or white, your choice. Wrap the head and finish with super glue to bind it all together.

This ugly but effective fly will sink like a jig in calm water and dance around as you strip it, head down. Like a searching salamander. This is the one critter that bass cannot tolerate. These “Sallies” will eat bass eggs like it was Thanksgiving. So to fish this effectively, cast beyond the bed, and bounce it through and into the center slowly. But be ready, these bass are not hungry and will only grab it for a second or two before spitting it out way from the nest. Use the heaviest leader you feel comfortable with. Remember you will have to set the hook hard and haul the fish out from the bed in short order. Play it fast and release it back to the water as quick as possible. So it can get back to the bed, and protect the next generation of bruisers. Move around alot and don’t overfish a given area. This is a harmless way to catch and release alot of bass in a day. But be a good steward of the resource.

During recent days afield I am observing the settling in of summer. Spring has passed and summer has a firm grasp on life here in the North. The yellow sallies and BWO are in flight daily, and the trout are leaping for joy. I see dragonflies climbing up grassy stalks and hoppers leaping skyward. The brookies and bass of my home river are eternally vigilant and trying to eat all they can catch. The brown trout are eluding me, accept for the random hookup and loss. The burly browns of previous years are in a decline here on my home river and I don’t know what to do about it.

The wild trout of the back country appeal to me more and more. Not being an elitest I will dunk a worm in a culvert in the quest for a few of these tasty panfish. Nothing tastes quite as good as a plate of these and some greens.

Tip: Slice a potato, add a pat of butter, and wrap in foil. Then wrap a trout in foil with lemon and butter. put both on the grill for about ten minutes or until fish flakes from bone. MMMMMMM…excellant camping fare.

As the heat settles in over the North country all life here changes it’s patterns to suit the longer days. As an angler I have learned to do so as well. Although hatches can occur at most any time, the bigger and better ones all seem to come in the late afternoon and evening, as the day cools into the night. So be on the water for the last hour or two and you will catch more fish than at any other time. But be aware changing weather patterns could mean wind and this is one killjoy that we can’t alter. Wind and hatches seldom occur at the same time. Look for calmer weather, hot days, cooler nights. Get several days of this occuring and the hatches will be popping all over the place.

From time to time I will intentionally mention the consumptive use of our fishing resouces. I am a firm believer in catch and release angling. But at the same time I know that I can take a few from time to time in selective places and not do any harm. In fact these trout dinners are often how I get the non-fishing friends or family acquaintances to try fishing. It’s amazing what a grilled trout can do to convince a non-angler to pick up a rod and come fishing. You see the meal is the bait, and the experience is the hook. Now we have another angler helping to preserve and protect the resources. Ethics are learned behaviors and can only be taught to a student-minded person. One open to learning. A new angler is the perfect student and will absorb all you teach them, good or bad. So as you teach the means of fishing you have to instill in them the ethics of the anglers creedo. Intermixing it with fun and learning blends it all in their minds and integrates the knowledge as just one thought.

It’s this integration that makes summer so calming. New life springs up and flourishes. All of the life around you is just “Living”. There is no chaos in the rise of a trout. No confusions in drying wings lifting a new mayfly to the air on a summer breeze. This bursting of life energies is eternal. Knowing this is a calmness of spirit not to be found anywhere else but in God’s great cathedral, creation. Summer springs eternal…….all else is in preparation for these wonderful days of sun and living. Generation after generation…. and still God’s great machine, Life…..lives on.

Awhile back I suggested that circle hooks might do for baitfisherman what they needed done to reduce mortality and therefore increase their opportunities to angle. Avoiding the current “bans” on live bait. Well a biologist is currently studying that concept. Go to Fish Geek to learn more about the study in Utah.

It is June 10th and the bass are on the beds !!!! About 10 to 11 days earlier than last year and about a week earlier than the average for the last ten years. Remember now is the time to locate and catch staging females just off in deeper water from where the males are guarding the beds. The most effective fly method here is swim minnow streamers along the dropoffs. Or bounce rabbit fur leeches and crayfish patterns through the beds.

In a strange twist of biology my home river, the Meduxnekeag. Is now showing signs of having a pickerel and whiteperch population boom. The latter are believed to be downstream migrants from Drews lake, aka Meduxnekeag Lake. The pickerel are the more troubling species, since they will eat trout and bass. It is also speculated that they have moved down stream, but from Green Pond. Where there is a large contingent of them. Drews has some pickerel but they are rare there. Green Pond on the other hand has a surplus population. Spring flooding could have transported both species downstream. My reserach also indicates that they could have come upstream from the St.John River in Canada.

I have been researching a rather odd piece of trivia. It seems our friends over the line in Canada are trying to restore Salmon, Atlantic Salmon to the Meduxnekeag River. Salmon restoration will mean an economic benefit as well. Tourism must always be considered. I will share more as I find it. Additional data can be found here to support the efforts of the NB government to restore salmon to the Meduxnekeag.

I have just spent the last two days out and about looking for brookies and browns. On Monday I was in the back country looking up in brooks and in deadwaters. But on Tuesday I was back to my old friend the Meduxnekeag. My buddy Ivan and I waded the river loking for feeding fish. I was at a slight disadvantage in that my hippers decided to spring a leak on me. Somehow I managed to poke a hole in them the day before and hadn’t noticed. The brooks were far shallower than the river.

We met with reasonable success. He caught 6 brookies, all short, and a bass. I caught 3 brookies, all short, and a bass as well. Not bad for a three hour quickie trip near home. We got more hits than we caught, so the action was good. What might surprise all of you is weren’t flyfishing. We were throwing spinners and such. Nothing but hardware the whole time.

The windy conditions would have made casting a nightmare. But we could have caught twice the number of fish had we brought the fly gear. You see two conditions have to added to the mix. Dragon flies were emerging and taking flight all along the river. Plus we were seeing an intermitant hatch of blue winged olives. Those little size 18/20′s that were blown about in the breeze like dandelion seeds.

My advice, if you are antwhere in Aroostook county right now. Try the dragon flie nymphs, emergers, and spent versions. Then drop smaller and try the BWO nymphs, emergers and dries. The hatches are on and the rises will make your heart jump!!!

Go Check this out:

Splake