Showing posts with label Ephemeroptera. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Ephemeroptera. Show all posts
June 4, 2015
May 11, 2015
July 25, 2013
Carp Camp 2013 Beaver Island, MI: The Setup
The two hour ferry ride over to Beaver Island from Charlevoix is always a pleasant experience. It gives me an opportunity to clear my head, anticipate my arrival, as well as get myself into the right frame of mind and acclimate myself to island time. Beaver Island Boat Company provides the ferry service, and just a week or so prior to my arrival, word of a failed port engine on the Emerald Isle posted on Facebook, putting she ship out of service indefinitely. The Emerald Isle is BIBCO's flagship boat, the bigger, younger ship in the company's fleet. Service was to resume on the Beaver Islander, a ship I've yet had the pleasure of cruising on. The ferry ride over was nochalant, with little difference between the two ships apart from capacity and vending options, a true testament to the professionalism of BIBCO and their staff. Upon our entrance to St James harbor on the island, we were surprisingly greeted by a biplane, cruising around the island at a low altitude. The familiar sights of the harbor and the bright red roof of the Central Michigan University boathouse brought back pleasant memories of my last visit to the island. It was like visiting an old friend.
Upon arrival, we made our way off the dock and over to the Fisherman's House where we were to make home for the next five nights. I had caught wind of the terrible conditions that plagued Cameron's TFM hosted trip. A few of the guests from TFM's trip stayed back a bit longer and fished an unscheduled day in hopes of breaking the funk now that the weather had cleared up considerably. After meeting and chatting with a few of the carryover guests, I walked over and met Cameron at the boat landing as he was coming in on Kevin's boat. A fine day on the water, but no carp. Hard to believe that between threes boats, six anglers, and four days out, only two carp were landed. Brutal. Although brief, it was nice to chat and catch up with Cameron before he headed off to the air strip to catch his flight out.
I made my way back to the house and unpacked, settling in before all of the campers arrived. There were many thoughts running through my head, wondering about how the fishing was going to be over the next several days. We were slated to have a nice stretch of stable weather, though we were unsure how long it would hold out past three days. Conditions were certainly better than for the TFM group, but was weather the only factor at play regarding the tough carp bite? Photos of hex and large drake mayflies started popping up on social media a few weeks prior to Carp Camp. Hex popping around the end of June/early July was common so there wasn't much cause for alarm. On the boat ride over, the ship was covered with hex spinners, still wasn't worried. As I sat down to a grilled dinner with the campers, we chatted and speculated throughout the evening of what was to come of the fishing. Much anticipation.
Day one started with a great breakfast courtesy of the Dalwhinnie. We met up with the Indigo guides and constructed a game plan for the day. We were going to follow the wind and the warm water, fishing the windward sides of the islands and the cups and bays that would catch and hold the warm surface water as it blew in to shore. I had my fly selection picked out and my rods rigged and ready. We grabbed our lunches from the deli, and I saddled up with Sweet Chili Martinez for my first day. We launched the boat and made our way out of the harbor, headed to the west. What we would find when we got to the flats we did not know. The plan was to fish from the boat as much as possible, allowing us to sneak up to the fish as close as we could. This isn't always the easiest tactic. Drifting boats, the wind, weary, deep carp changing course as you cast to them, and water currents, this can all be a challenge. At one point I had done a complete 360 from a fish I was targetting from when I had started my backcast to when the fly was delivered. Disorienting to say the least.
Over the following four days we covered a lot of water and saw a lot of fish. We all hauled a lot of line, got our boots wet, and casted plenty of flies. Sometimes we found ourselves in a complete cluster of tangled line and knotted leader, other times, in a perfect zen like trance of enlightenment, fishing to a pod of fish circling in a pool of bathroom temp water. I would be hard pressed to say that we didn't fish hard. We were thorough. We were complete. We had brought our A game.
To see how the fishing went, stay tuned for Parts Two and Three.
June 1, 2012
March 27, 2012
Spring Sucker Nymphing Tactics
Fly selection when working the spring spawning run can be critical. Hatches are very sporadic and light when they do occur and the pickings are slim, as there just isn't the diversity of emerging insects during early spring as you find later on in the season. Caddis and midge nymphs are always a safe bet to fish through out the year as they are always present. With early spring, however, I often think of the other March Madness, the stonefly hatch.
Staging fish aren't always interested in feeding, as they have one thing on their minds, spawning. And rarely do I find suckers feeding on the surface due to their subterminal mouths. So I fish low and slow. I like fishing tungsten weighted stonefly and drake nymph patterns like my Thunderbird, Boreal Bomber, and Fresh Pimp nymphs and bounce them along the bottom. Every so often a fish may take an emerging fly on the rise, at the end of the drift, but this is not typical during the prespawn phase. If you need more weight to reach bottom, throw on some extra lead. Suckers will hold tight to the bottom and will only feed if a fly is easy pickings. I like to utilize tightline nymphing during this time of year, as I can better detect the subtle takes. Bouncing the fly on the bottom using your rod tip will also add to the detection as well as help give your fly the appearance of a dislodged nymph tumbling along the bottom of the stream bed.
This isn't bobber fishing or fishing for stockers, this is a numbers game. Getting your fly in the zone is crucial, as are the repeated runs and drifts of your nymph. Fish may spook and get lined, but they'll quickly roll back into their hold in the current seam, jockeying for precious spawning gravel real estate. It is to your advantage that you can keep drifting your fly through the zone in the hopes of an eventual hook up.
Your ROI (return on investment) may be low but if your put your time in, you will rack up the numbers of caught fish.
Staging fish aren't always interested in feeding, as they have one thing on their minds, spawning. And rarely do I find suckers feeding on the surface due to their subterminal mouths. So I fish low and slow. I like fishing tungsten weighted stonefly and drake nymph patterns like my Thunderbird, Boreal Bomber, and Fresh Pimp nymphs and bounce them along the bottom. Every so often a fish may take an emerging fly on the rise, at the end of the drift, but this is not typical during the prespawn phase. If you need more weight to reach bottom, throw on some extra lead. Suckers will hold tight to the bottom and will only feed if a fly is easy pickings. I like to utilize tightline nymphing during this time of year, as I can better detect the subtle takes. Bouncing the fly on the bottom using your rod tip will also add to the detection as well as help give your fly the appearance of a dislodged nymph tumbling along the bottom of the stream bed.
This isn't bobber fishing or fishing for stockers, this is a numbers game. Getting your fly in the zone is crucial, as are the repeated runs and drifts of your nymph. Fish may spook and get lined, but they'll quickly roll back into their hold in the current seam, jockeying for precious spawning gravel real estate. It is to your advantage that you can keep drifting your fly through the zone in the hopes of an eventual hook up.
Your ROI (return on investment) may be low but if your put your time in, you will rack up the numbers of caught fish.
June 29, 2011
Cahills of the Fluorescent Kind
Stenacron interpunctatum, better known among angling circles as a light cahill. I love the way that the local population around here emerge with almost fluoroescent yellow or chartreuse hues. You can really notice it when isolating a few color values as highlighted in a post from last summer, Exposed.
June 16, 2011
The Brown Drake
Ephemera simulans, typically the first of the big drake burrowing mayflies to emerge in Upper Midwest streams and lakes. Ephemera species like the Brown Drake and it's better known cousin, Hexagenia limbata, are members of the big meat genus of the mayfly world. These are truly giants in every way, including giant fun taking highly aggressive fish feeding on these giant morsels.
June 10, 2011
A Bug's Life...
A poke around the house while doing some yard work found a few tasty morsels for those fish. Ever since they redid the highway upstream, I've noticed an increase in abundance and diversity of emergent macroinvertebrate life. Proof that installing storm water retention systems for impervious surface runoff does make a difference. The bonus? I've finally started observing a few species of mayflies over the past year that are only found in clean coldwater environments. While the Pelican River that runs through my backyard isn't what you'd classify a trout stream, it does support the same macroinvertebrate life that you'd expect in a blue ribbon trout stream.
May 22, 2011
A New Hope
Been working on a restoration project over the past few days. It's a great sign of encouragement to find this guy emerging from the bottom of a ditch. This restored reach will be reconnected in July.
Just like the good old days...
June 9, 2010
May 29, 2010
emergence
A precipitous hatch of mayflies have taken over the Roughfisher Command Post as of late. A stretch of warm daytime temperatures coupled with low dewpoints have triggered a solid emergence of mayflies during the low light periods. As a result, we have been greeted each morning with a plethora of duns and spinners gracing the windows, screens, and siding of the command center. I took this as a great opportunity to break out the Canon and grab a few macros of these intriguing indicator species.
Maccaffertium vicarium (March Brown)
Callibaetis ferrugineus (Speckled Dun)
Maccaffertium vicarium (March Brown)
Callibaetis ferrugineus (Speckled Dun)
May 17, 2010
Speckled Dun
I finally spotted my first mayfly of the season at the Roughfisher Command Post. This male callibaetis imago had freshly emerged from his exuvia. Looks like it's time to start fishing some mayfly nymph patterns.
August 17, 2009
naturals
There has been a prolific hatch of mayflies over the past week. A respite over the abnormally cool summer temps proceeded to ignite a flurry of emergence. Duns of several baetis and callibaetis species peppered the screens of the Roughfisher Command Post, presenting an unreal opportunity to watch these duns molt in to spinners up close.
Witnessing one of nature's mini marvels always provides for inspiration at the vise, as if by divine influence. Since most roughfish don't willingly take dry flies, I crafted up some recreations of these mayflies in their nymphal form. While I'm not quite as concerned with true coloration due to the nature of nymphing in turbid water, these patterns should closely mimic the profile and silhouette of the naturals.
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