On Tuesday I spent the morning playing with the kids and tying a few flies. When I brought out my gear to tie a few Tenkara Style Flies my 5 year old daughter - who loves to watch and critique my flies - told me I had to use the neon green hackles for a new fly. I got these bright green hackles for a few salmon flies I was tying for a trip to Washington and have never used them since. So on my little girls advise I tied a reverse hackled fly with black thread body and copper ribbing that she immediately named "The Grinch" after the Doctor Seuss cartoon. I kind of liked the look after it was finished so I tied another and then moved on. Little did I know that 'the Grinch' would be the go to fly of the day when we hit the water a few hours later.
The next fly I tied was another new creation I am sure has been tied before. I called it the "Black Widow" due to the black thread body with bright red floss for a center marking. I used some Starling hackles for the legs on this scary looking spider and a bit of copper wire to hold this thing together. Like the "Grinch" it is tied on a #16 nymph hook. Both simple flies but as you see from the pictures below - Both are effective!!!
After the the morning tying session, the family and I packed up a lunch, loaded up the car and headed up to the mountains for a bit of trout fishing. I took my Tenkara rod and my box of new flies with hopes of good fishing. I was not disappointed.
Again with my daughters advise and to give her gaudy Grinch a fair shot, I rigged it up on the Tenkara rod and tossed it out in the stream. BAM!!! The fish to the left was caught on the second or third cast. And the two fish below soon followed with very little effort.
My daughter - always excited at the prospect of fishing - got to control the rod and bring this bad boy in. After it was hooked good I handed her the rod and waited - net in hand - for her to bring it in. I was truly amazed at the effectiveness of this fly. I mean this fly flat out performed. There was a guy fishing just down the way and he eventually just reeled in his bait and watched the action.
Mark this post - THE GRINCH - a killer for holding trout.
If you look close at most of the fish above you can see this fly in the lip of every one. There was more fish that fell victim to this fly that never made the photo bucket just because, well you just cant whip out the camera for every fish. It just looks weird. The fish to the left is the only one you cant see the fly. That is because he just inhaled it!
After I wore out the "Grinch" I thought I'd give my "Black Widow" a shot at the action. Unlike the Grinch, the Widow was much harder to see under water and although I saw fish following it around, it took quite a while before a hook-up took place.
I did have a few takes but was unable to bring them in. That was until this guy showed up. It was probably the best colored trout of the day. I had to put down the camera phone and have my wife break out the good camera for this one. As the saying goes - I have saved the best for last.
As you can see, The Widow is aptly named. After this fish and an only a bit over an hour of fishing time, we packed up our lunch from our stream side picnic site and took the kids to go see the South Carolina trout hatchery.
In the end it was truly one of the best days I have spent fishing in a long while. The kids had a great time and I believe that even though the temp never reached above 40 deg, my wife had a great time. (She hates the cold more than anything). Below is a pic of the trout swimming around the holding tanks in the hatchery. The kids loved it!
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