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flies

Deschutes

November 25, 2015 By Eric Ishiwata Leave a Comment

It was day three of a four-day trip and things weren’t looking good. The water clarity was off, weather pattern stale, and salmon were clogging the prime runs. Even with the three other sticks in our group—all of them seasoned locals—we’d only scratched-out two fish.

Ishi DPhoto: Bruce Berry

After tough morning and a tougher afternoon, I started rehearsing those lines fishermen tell themselves when things fall short of expectations: great just hanging out with friends, always good checking out new water, strung together some really nice casts…you know, lies.

 
By 4:00, we were set up on one of the more popular runs but almost everything was wrong—brown water, cloudless skies, and sun shining directly into the fishes’ eyes. Wiser gents on the roadside patiently waited for better conditions but pure desperation drove me to fish. I racked my Onyx 5wt dry line set up and went for maximum confidence: a battle-tested Platinum 12’6” 6wt, 425 Tonic, and 10’ of T-11. Out of charity, Bruce handed me one of his black/purple/red Fish Movers with a set of instructions: “Tie this on and give me a shout when you hook a fish. I need photos of this fly hanging out of a fish’s mouth.”

Ish boatPhoto: Bruce Berry

Within ten swings, I heard a slow click-click from my Perfect and in an instant I was connected to a red hot anadromous freight train. One problem: Bruce had already fished his way around the corner and was well out of earshot. Determined to help him get the proof of the fly mojo, I was faced with the challenge of not only landing a hot fish, but doing so while I rock-scrambled downstream in hopes of grabbing Bruce’s attention. After banging my shins, dunking, and working the steelhead free from not one but two snags, I somehow made it back to boat, netted the fish, and flagged down Bruce in time to snap a couple photos and safely release the fish.

Fish Mover Up ClosePhoto: Bruce Berry

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: flies, Ishiwata, Onyx 5wt, Platinum 6, steelhead

Running Up the Score

August 12, 2015 By admin Leave a Comment

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Brownie, #10 Drunken Hopper, 8’8″ Platinum 4wt

The 1968 meeting between Ohio State and Michigan was a blowout. Leading 42-12 late in the fourth quarter, the Buckeyes ran one in for another touchdown and Woody Hayes, OSU coaching legend, mercilessly sent out his squad for a two point conversion.  When asked later why chose to run up the score–trying for the two-point conversion rather than the standard one-point field goal–Hayes simply replied, “Because the rules won’t let you go for three.”

ohio-state-university-football-coach-hayes-and-coach-schembechler-at-big-game-o-f-x-00009md_medium

Merciless

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: flies, Ishiwata, Platinum 4wt single, Rockies, trout

Like Autumn in December

December 16, 2014 By Eric Ishiwata 1 Comment

O

The so-called “December Thaw” produced over 1,000 record highs during the first half of this month. It is anyone’s guess as to how it might impact our fisheries, but in the short term, it has made for some pretty unique fishing conditions. Stretches of river that should have been locked under a foot of ice were flowing like it was mid-October. With a Winter Storm Warning looming, I headed north in hopes of making hay while the sun was shining.

On my first day, I was fortunate to fish with my good friend (and chief fly tester) Casey Miller, his brother-in-law Scotty, and Blake Jackson from the Ugly Bug Fly Shop. This is a fishy crew that would be super intimidating to hang with if they weren’t such solid dudes. Luckily for me, we fished a Disneyland stretch of water that is so loaded with trout, it makes anyone look like a “stick.”

Casey 12-12-14

Casey Miller test driving a new cray [photo: Blake Jackson]

Early in the day, I cautiously gave Casey a Protubed Vanilla Bugger–“cautiously” because that fly has a bit of a streak going. I’ve handed it to six other guys and none have gone more than five casts before connecting with a fish. As it turned out, Casey only had to sweat a single swing. He stuck a fish on his second cast. The streak continues.

OProtubed VB

Later that night, the conversation predictably turned to picking the best spot to fish the following day: either head back to Disneyland and hammer the sure thing or “go long” and try a stretch that hasn’t been fishable during December in years. We knew it wouldn’t be frozen, but the odds were that the water would be super cold and it would fish like a barren wasteland. On the other hand, it just might be do-able and, if so, you’d be swinging to trout that haven’t seen a fly in a month.

Casey persuaded me to “go long” and I found runs there were seemingly in prime conditions–ideal flows and perfect color. But, after two hours of fruitless fishing, doubt started to set in. There were zero signs of life and my feet were significantly colder in this stretch than section I fished the day before.

Doubt turned to second guessing (“Man, I should have gone for the sure thing”), which turned to resignation (“I’m just going to cast out the rest of this run and head home”), which turned to… Bump… (“Whaa?? That was bottom. I’m pretty sure it was bottom. I kind of think it shallows out right over…”) Bump… BUMP… Zzzzinggg…

OSpooled Perfect

After a blistering run–the kind where you instinctively pull your hood off, as if that’s somehow going to help–the fish turned, ran straight at me, and the line went slack. A massive brown? An ass-hooked sucker? Whatever it was, it gave my old Perfect its beefiest workout since my last Deschutes steelhead. And, with that single encounter, the run magically transformed from a ghost town to one brimming with players. With renewed hope, I marched back up to the top of the run, baby-stepped between slow, deliberate swings, and ended up beating the odds, hitting fish after fish, in a stretch with no one else around, on a run that should have been a foot under ice.

Thirty-six hours later, the entire region was blanketed in ten-inches of snow with an overnight low of 9F and a balmy high of 16F. Here’s to making hay.

O

Rod: Beulah Onyx 12′ 4″ 5wt

Head: 425gr Tonic Switch

Tip: Airflo FLO tip (T7)

Flies: Protubed VB, experimental cray, and a dumbed-down version of this in tan/red and black/chartreuse

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: flies, Ishiwata, Onyx 5wt, Rockies, trout

Rivers are blown…

May 19, 2014 By Eric Ishiwata Leave a Comment

…time to hit the lakes.

 

O

Rod: Platinum 9’6″ 6wt

Leader: 10′ Polyleader (clear intermediate)

Tippet: 3′ of 8lb fluoro

Fly: #10 Pine Squirrel Leech (black with chartreuse bead)

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: 6wt Platinum single, flies, Ishiwata, Rockies, stillwater, trout

Summer Dries

May 11, 2014 By Eric Ishiwata Leave a Comment

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Summer dry fly season has begun! I tried matching-the-hatch with a #20 baetis dry but all these browns wanted was #12 Strange Wool Parachute.

Ish's Strange Wool Para

Ish’s Strange Wool Para

(Photo from Takahashi and Hubka’s forecoming book, Modern Terrestrials)

Rod: Platinum 8’8″ 4wt

Line: Airflo Super-Dri Elite 4wt

Leader: 9′ 5x tapered leader + 2′ 5x mono

Fly: #12 Strange Wool

*****

Aggressive surface eats. Big, bushy dries. What more could you ask for? Well, how about no more snow…

may wsw

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: flies, Ishiwata, Platinum 4wt single, Rockies, trout

Protubed Vanilla Bugger

May 6, 2014 By Eric Ishiwata Leave a Comment

Protubed vanilla bugger1

Mark Boname’s Vanilla Bugger is a killer pattern that I have never fished. Chalk it up to stubbornness or stupidity, but I’ve never found bugger-style flies to be particularly lively on the swing. Don’t get me wrong, their stiff body hackles are certified-deadly on the strip, but under the constant pressure of a dead swing, buggers end up looking pretty wooden.

Curiosity finally got the best of me and I recently set out to see if I could steal borrow the best attributes of the VB (its size and color scheme) and combine them with the best characteristics of swing-style streamers (a tear-drop profile, flowing hackles, and a weapon of a stinger hook).

I began by converting the standard bugger over to a Pro Sport Fisher Nano Tube. The benefits of tubes are well-publicized; the most significant being they allow you to use the deadliest hook in the game: www.gamakatsu.com/fishing-hooks.php?pid=1014. I then added some “swimability” by lengthening the marabou tail, oversizing the collar and body hackles, and replacing the standard cone with a Pro Tube Ultra Sonic Disc. Last, to keep the fly swinging in “the zone,” I added a tungsten Raw Weight, which I hid between the body hackle and the collar.

I test drove this “new” variant last week using my Platinum 8wt Switch with 9′ of T-11, 4′ of 6lb Maxima to the Protubed VB, and 2′ of 6lb Maxima to a Kool Herc (white/dun/red). The results were impressive. While I couldn’t say for certain that those fish wouldn’t have just as readily grabbed a standard VB, the hook advantage of the Gamakatsu Octopus was undeniable. I went 7 for 7 with the Protubed VB and never once worried about the hook being thrown or bent. Confidence.

Protubed VB:

Tube: Pro Sport Fisher Nano Tube (clear) + Medium Pro Hook Guide (clear)

Tail: Marabou blood quills (cream or tan) + 2 strands of Midge Flash (pearl)

Body: Wool yarn (cream) + Whiting Farm Bugger Pack (golden badger) + wire rib (gold)

Weight: Pro Sport Fisher Raw Weight (med)

Collar: Whiting Farms Brahma Hen (golden straw)

Head: Pro Sport Fisher Ultra Sonic Disc (med; gunmetal)

Hook: Gamakatsu Octopus #6

 

A Protubed Thin Mint worked as well…

protubed thin mint

And, bycatch on the Herc…

kool herc walleye

 

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: flies, Ishiwata, Platinum Switch, Rockies, trout

Ish’s Smalls (Pro Tube version)

March 17, 2014 By Eric Ishiwata Leave a Comment

The bulk of my swing-style trout patterns are 3 to 4-inches long. Recently, I’ve had pretty good luck swinging smaller bugs, particularly when colder water makes fish less willing to chase streamers. The nice thing about these light, 1.5-inch long flies is their versatility: you can dredge them with a skagit and 12′ of T-11 or twitch them across the flats with a scandi and clear intermediate polyleader.

 Smalls (black/chart)

RECIPE

Tube: Pro Sportfisher Micro Tube (black) + Medium Pro Hook Guide (black)

Tail: 1.25″ Pine Squirrel Zonker (black)

Body: Hareline’s Pseudo Hair (black) and Ice Dub (Black Peacock) combined in dubbing loop

Wing: Arctic Fox (black)

Horns: Hareline’s Grizzly Flutter Legs (black/chartreuse)

Eyes: X-Small Brass Dumbbell (black nickel)

Head: Senyo’s Laser Dub (fl. chartreuse) in dubbing loop

Hook: Gamakatsu Octopus #8

***Other proven color combos: white with red head, olive/rootbeer, brown/rust, and brown/UV pheasant tail.

ish's smalls (white/red)

 

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: flies, Ishiwata, Rockies, trout

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