Salmonflies
Pteronarcys californica
The giant Salmonflies of the Western mountains are legendary for their proclivity to elicit consistent dry-fly action and ferocious strikes.
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This seems to be a young larva of Limnephilus. Although not clear in the picture, several ventral abdominal segments have chloride epithelia.
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Catskilljon on Mar 8, 2014March 8th, 2014, 3:50 am EST
Queen of Waters on a #12 3399...
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Quill Gordon on a #10 3399D...
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CJ
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Quill Gordon on a #10 3399D...
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CJ
Crepuscular on Mar 8, 2014March 8th, 2014, 4:22 am EST
Nice!
Entoman on Mar 8, 2014March 8th, 2014, 6:34 am EST
Beautiful.
Nice quality banding on the peacock eye. That contrast is what to look for. A lot of eyes have quills that are too dark on the light half.
Nice quality banding on the peacock eye. That contrast is what to look for. A lot of eyes have quills that are too dark on the light half.
"It's not that I find fishing so important, it's just that I find all other endeavors of Man equally unimportant... And not nearly as much fun!" Robert Traver, Anatomy of a Fisherman
Wiflyfisher on Mar 12, 2014March 12th, 2014, 2:40 pm EDT
Beauties! CJ, what hook are you using?
John S.
https://WiFlyFisher.com
https://WiFlyFisher.com
Wbranch on Mar 12, 2014March 12th, 2014, 6:17 pm EDT
I love to see heavily lacquered and small tapered heads. Both flies exhibit that. When I tie traditional hair wing steelhead flies I always apply three coats of head lacquer. Sometimes I will use black or red lacquer as that cuts down on how many coats are required.
Catskill fly fisher for fifty-five years.
Wbranch on Mar 12, 2014March 12th, 2014, 6:20 pm EDT
Do you fish wet flies very much or do you just enjoy tying them? Out of the thousands and thousands of trout flies I have I do not believe I have more than ten wet flies. I bought those at the Somerset Show about six years ago, five Hares Ears and five March Browns. I don't remember if I've ever caught a trout on a wet fly.
Catskill fly fisher for fifty-five years.
Wiflyfisher on Mar 12, 2014March 12th, 2014, 7:33 pm EDT
I don't remember if I've ever caught a trout on a wet fly.
Matt, are you including the coachman, leadwing coach and royal coachman wet flies? I have caught a lot of trout on those 3 patterns.
John S.
https://WiFlyFisher.com
https://WiFlyFisher.com
Wbranch on Mar 13, 2014March 13th, 2014, 4:35 am EDT
"Matt, are you including the coachman, leadwing coach and royal coachman wet flies? I have caught a lot of trout on those 3 patterns."
Yes, the Coachmen, and the other two come to my mind almost first when I think of a wet fly. I like your flies.
What do wet flies imitate? Drowned adults or a species of mayfly that emerges under water?
What I'm going to say is goofy to many but if you were to ever look into my fly boxes you would understand the comment. I just abhor what happens to quill slip wings after a few casts! That lovely wing gets all split open and all you see are all the individual segments of the once homogeneous wing slip.
I love order in my fly boxes and there are rows and rows of neatly tied flies. Seeing split quills in my box would flip me out and I know I'd be disturbed by it and if I did have them would keep them in their own box so I wouldn't have to look at them every time I opened a box.
Yea, I know it's weird!
Yes, the Coachmen, and the other two come to my mind almost first when I think of a wet fly. I like your flies.
What do wet flies imitate? Drowned adults or a species of mayfly that emerges under water?
What I'm going to say is goofy to many but if you were to ever look into my fly boxes you would understand the comment. I just abhor what happens to quill slip wings after a few casts! That lovely wing gets all split open and all you see are all the individual segments of the once homogeneous wing slip.
I love order in my fly boxes and there are rows and rows of neatly tied flies. Seeing split quills in my box would flip me out and I know I'd be disturbed by it and if I did have them would keep them in their own box so I wouldn't have to look at them every time I opened a box.
Yea, I know it's weird!
Catskill fly fisher for fifty-five years.
Oldredbarn on Mar 13, 2014March 13th, 2014, 7:37 am EDT
I love order in my fly boxes and there are rows and rows of neatly tied flies. Seeing split quills in my box would flip me out and I know I'd be disturbed by it and if I did have them would keep them in their own box so I wouldn't have to look at them every time I opened a box.
Let's see...You were either an engineer :), or you were raised by my German mother...We used to joke, in a serious way, that if you told me what time it was on any given Saturday, I could tell you which floor she was cleaning in the house. She always stopped for lunch to watch The Price is Right, have a tuna fish sandwich, a small pile of chips and a Mounds bar...
The problem you mention, re: quills splitting, is probably what made the Swisher/Richards no-hackles so scarce.
Spence
"Even when my best efforts fail it's a satisfying challenge, and that, after all, is the essence of fly fishing." -Chauncy Lively
"Envy not the man who lives beside the river, but the man the river flows through." Joseph T Heywood
"Envy not the man who lives beside the river, but the man the river flows through." Joseph T Heywood
Wbranch on Mar 13, 2014March 13th, 2014, 10:14 am EDT
Spence,
"You were either an engineer :),"
Yep, guilty as charged. I managed the manufacturing engineering dept, and the entire forty man Toolroom, at a General Dynamics facility for over 23 years. I just hated to see either my engineers with documents strewn all over their desks and most of all I saw red when I would go out onto the floor and saw the absolute squalor in which some of my macinists and toolmakers choose to work and care for their personal tools.
"You were either an engineer :),"
Yep, guilty as charged. I managed the manufacturing engineering dept, and the entire forty man Toolroom, at a General Dynamics facility for over 23 years. I just hated to see either my engineers with documents strewn all over their desks and most of all I saw red when I would go out onto the floor and saw the absolute squalor in which some of my macinists and toolmakers choose to work and care for their personal tools.
Catskill fly fisher for fifty-five years.
Crepuscular on Mar 13, 2014March 13th, 2014, 11:52 am EDT
I love order in my fly boxes and there are rows and rows of neatly tied flies. Seeing split quills in my box would flip me out and I know I'd be disturbed by it ...
Don't look in my boxes then! You may go into convulsions. ;) I almost took a picture of my bench last night, before i cleaned it up. It was a mess. scraps and materials for about 10 different patterns.
Catskilljon on Mar 13, 2014March 13th, 2014, 2:44 pm EDT
Do you fish wet flies very much or do you just enjoy tying them? Out of the thousands and thousands of trout flies I have I do not believe I have more than ten wet flies. I bought those at the Somerset Show about six years ago, five Hares Ears and five March Browns. I don't remember if I've ever caught a trout on a wet fly.
Ha! I am pretty much like you, although once a year a take a long ride to a very rugged and steep headwater stream and dap tiny gut-snelled wet flies with a silk line and cane. I don't carry anything but a dozen wets, and the rod and reel. Brookies that are no bigger than 10", alders and hemlock choking the water and when you get to the top the stream starts from under a rock.
Even with all the stuff we aquire, all the new technology and wiz-bang equipment for sale that you "have to have" that place puts it all in perspective for me, getting back to what fishing really is and was...
I don't use them much on my regular haunts, compared to the go-to flies I always use, but they do work if given a chance. You know what they say, you catch a lot of fish on wooly buggers when that's what's on the end of your leader all the time.
Here are a couple more...
Fontinalis fin #10 3399D
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Royal Coachman #10 3399D
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And my 2 favorite headwater flies, a coachman and a silver doctor, on antique 3371's in a size 14...
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CJ
PaulRoberts on Mar 13, 2014March 13th, 2014, 3:26 pm EDT
Beautiful, all. I love wets too. The most graceful of flies. Makes me miss Mark too. :(
Matt, you do not want to see my flyboxes either. The only secret I'd keep from you in them is the mess compared to yours! :)
Matt, you do not want to see my flyboxes either. The only secret I'd keep from you in them is the mess compared to yours! :)
Wiflyfisher on Mar 13, 2014March 13th, 2014, 3:40 pm EDT
CJ, those are awesome!!!
Totally agree with you.
Even with all the stuff we aquire, all the new technology and wiz-bang equipment for sale that you "have to have" that place puts it all in perspective for me, getting back to what fishing really is and was...
Totally agree with you.
John S.
https://WiFlyFisher.com
https://WiFlyFisher.com
Wbranch on Mar 13, 2014March 13th, 2014, 3:54 pm EDT
John,
Your last name wouldn't be Bonasera by any chance would it?
Your last name wouldn't be Bonasera by any chance would it?
Catskill fly fisher for fifty-five years.
Wiflyfisher on Mar 13, 2014March 13th, 2014, 3:58 pm EDT
John,
Your last name wouldn't be Bonasera by any chance would it?
That's Catskill John (CJ)!!
CJ ties an awesome beadhead too. :-)
John S.
https://WiFlyFisher.com
https://WiFlyFisher.com
Catskilljon on Mar 13, 2014March 13th, 2014, 4:53 pm EDT
John,
Your last name wouldn't be Bonasera by any chance would it?
Yea, it is! Do you remember years ago I met you on the little Lehigh at the Heritage section by the flyshop? Our buddy JP Sullivan introduced us [I miss that guy] You were fishing cane with a Hardy reel...that I remember well! CJ
Oldredbarn on Mar 13, 2014March 13th, 2014, 5:29 pm EDT
Ha! I am pretty much like you, although once a year a take a long ride to a very rugged and steep headwater stream and dap tiny gut-snelled wet flies with a silk line and cane. I don't carry anything but a dozen wets, and the rod and reel. Brookies that are no bigger than 10", alders and hemlock choking the water and when you get to the top the stream starts from under a rock.
Even with all the stuff we aquire, all the new technology and wiz-bang equipment for sale that you "have to have" that place puts it all in perspective for me, getting back to what fishing really is and was...
Didn't anyone read this wonderful couple paragraphs?!
Nice flies CJ...I'm jealous...On these pages I'm known as the guy with the over-loaded vest..."I don't carry anything but a dozen wets," that would be sweet. :)
Matt is neat and Eric is messy, and I'm overloaded.
Spence
"Even when my best efforts fail it's a satisfying challenge, and that, after all, is the essence of fly fishing." -Chauncy Lively
"Envy not the man who lives beside the river, but the man the river flows through." Joseph T Heywood
"Envy not the man who lives beside the river, but the man the river flows through." Joseph T Heywood
Wbranch on Mar 13, 2014March 13th, 2014, 6:30 pm EDT
Hello John,
"Yea, it is! Do you remember years ago I met you on the little Lehigh at the Heritage section by the flyshop? Our buddy JP Sullivan introduced us [I miss that guy] You were fishing cane with a Hardy reel...that I remember well! CJ"
Yes, I do remember that one meeting. It must of made an impression on mw because I often meet guys and chat with them on the river and if I run into then a week or two later I'll be embarrassed because I don't remember the encounter.
I still have that Carpenter 7' 6" #5 rod and the very early wintage LRH with the two screw nickel silver line guard (I also have a Featherweight and a Princess with two screw nickel silver linegaurds) I sold one two years ago for $300. I take the cane rod out a couple of times every spring and go up to the Yellow Breeches on a stretch with an excellent Ep subvaria emergence and a flask of Grand Marinier. I cast the rod and feel the cane, I see the duns riding the riffles, the rod arches and another season is underway. I sit on a rock on the edge of the river with my Grand Marinier, have a smoke and think about friends past.
"Yea, it is! Do you remember years ago I met you on the little Lehigh at the Heritage section by the flyshop? Our buddy JP Sullivan introduced us [I miss that guy] You were fishing cane with a Hardy reel...that I remember well! CJ"
Yes, I do remember that one meeting. It must of made an impression on mw because I often meet guys and chat with them on the river and if I run into then a week or two later I'll be embarrassed because I don't remember the encounter.
I still have that Carpenter 7' 6" #5 rod and the very early wintage LRH with the two screw nickel silver line guard (I also have a Featherweight and a Princess with two screw nickel silver linegaurds) I sold one two years ago for $300. I take the cane rod out a couple of times every spring and go up to the Yellow Breeches on a stretch with an excellent Ep subvaria emergence and a flask of Grand Marinier. I cast the rod and feel the cane, I see the duns riding the riffles, the rod arches and another season is underway. I sit on a rock on the edge of the river with my Grand Marinier, have a smoke and think about friends past.
Catskill fly fisher for fifty-five years.
JOHNW on Mar 14, 2014March 14th, 2014, 6:33 pm EDT
I take the cane rod out a couple of times every spring and go up to the Yellow Breeches on a stretch with an excellent Ep subvaria emergence and a flask of Grand Marinier. I cast the rod and feel the cane, I see the duns riding the riffles, the rod arches and another season is underway. I sit on a rock on the edge of the river with my Grand Marinier, have a smoke and think about friends past.
Matt,
I don't know if I have ever heard such an eloquent description as this. I think it is truly those relationships that keep bringing us back to the water, moreso than anything else.
"old habits are hard to kill once you have gray in your beard" -Old Red Barn
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