Well, jasonborger.com is still jasonborger.com, but fishfliesandwater.com has taken over from jasonborger.com and turned jasonborger.com into fishfliesandwater.com. Confused yet?

Actually what I’ve done is transfer the blog URL (a/k/a the Web address) from jasonborger to fishfliesandwater. The change should be essentially invisible, since both domain names point to the same set of files. BUT, if you are someone who has a Web site with permanent links to this blog, I’d suggest changing the URL to be safe.

Everyone should still have access to the site via the jb.com URL, but once you click on anything you’ll notice the URL changes to ffandw. I have a reason for doing this, so this change isn’t a frivolous alteration (digging around in the guts of Wordpress databases is not something one does for frivolity, unless one has a passion for MySQL. I do not).

If something doesn’t work right, please let me know (use the Contact JB link in the header).

Thanks!

With the recent Drawing Flies 52 emphasis on wet flies (another to come this week) I though that I’d post a bit on “adding a swing.” This really is an “add-on” tactic, not a full blown wet-fly approach, but it can still give your presentations an extra, and sometimes effective, element.

August of 2005 saw Montana’s famed Bighorn River with water levels looking good and many fish up and rising. Afternoon midge and caddis activity set the stage for some exciting dry-fly action, especially on the river’s broad, moderately deep flats. While the bank-sippers provided measured, up-current action, the mid-river fish lent themselves to longer casts and, of course, down-and-across swings.

On one flat, the fish were spread out all over the place and feeding rather sporadically. Although a dead-drifted caddis dry took a few fish, it turned out that the same fly fished submerged and on-the-swing was the ticket to better success. The presentation required standing hip deep, with thick brush a few yards directly behind. In order to fish the fly for the longest possible time, and to avoid potential casting hang-ups, I used a Snap-C (a/k/a C-Spey) to deliver the fly. Each cast was made across stream, with a subsequent up-current mend to allow the fly to drift as naturally as possible. As the fly approached a downstream quartering position, I reached the rod toward the fly to maximize “dead-drift,” and then allowed drag to set in. Rather then immediately re-casting, I worked the fly in a series of on-again/off-again twitches as the line swept the fly through the currents. Only when the line was nearly straight downstream of my position would I re-cast (using the Snap-C). This sequence, combined with a slow down-river pace, felt more like fishing for steelhead or Atlantic salmon, but it worked just fine with the Bighorn’s trout.

What I did those August days is what many other trout anglers have done in many other August days before—making the swing a proactive part of the entire presentation, rather than an afterthought (or not at all). Everything about the situation—from the water-type, to the fish’s feeding habits, to the hatch, to the type of cast employed—was considered in a making the swing an integral presentation element. But you don’t have to go that far. If you simply keep the swing in mind as you fish, you can add it whenever you want. When not focusing on a specific fish, or casting up-current only, I may add a swing if I think I can put the fly over some additional “trouty” water.

There has been much written and recorded on the topic of swinging trout flies (especially as its own technique, versus the add-on swing discussed here), and I encourage you to explore this often under-appreciated approach. Adding a swing does not have to be difficult, but it can open up additional angling opportunities.

Drawing Flies 52 McGinty. Charcoal sketch with watercolor.

Available for purchase? No.

Tech info: 6″ x 9″ Strathmore paper, medium-soft charcoal with watercolor. I like charcoal in that it is so immediate and so spontaneous. With a toothy paper like I used here, the look and feel almost charts its own path as you go. Of course, charcoal has a down-side: It’s hard/impossible to fix when you get in “too deep.” With that in mind I went right ahead and overworked some areas. Frustrating! But in the end, it was a good experiment/exercise overall, and I was mostly pleased with what I got.

I had originally intended to do only the charcoal sketch, with perhaps a small splash of color. Once I got the charcoal done (literally just a few minutes), I had a lot of time left, so I dabbed in some yellow, then some more, then things kind of went from there, until I had to stop myself for fear of ruining it. I certainly see some future possibilities for technique after doing this fly.

Jeff’s McGinty is here. Personally, I love the graphical look. Always thought Jeff had such strength there, and his fly is a great example. There’s just so much “pop” to the piece, and heavy line accented by the white border, really bring the fly off the paper (almost like a cut-out that’s been rubber-cemented in place). Might not have been what you wanted, Jeff, but it is one of my absolute favorites to this point.

Fly fishing from a boat can take many forms, whether it be sight fishing from a flats skiff or drifting the rapids of a wild Western river. Along with the wide range of boating possibilities comes a myriad of presentation techniques. In stillwaters, one of the simplest, but most important techniques is the Countdown Method.

In stillwaters, fish may stratify at a certain depth. If your fly is not at that depth, your cast-to-catch ratio will not be to your liking. Some years ago, I had a very memorable day fishing lake Number One on New Mexico’s famed Vermejo Ranch property. It was crisp and bright at the lake’s 10,000 foot elevation, and a mid-summer cold front had dropped the water’s surface temperature. I was in a johnboat on the outer edge of a submerged weedbed. The trout were stratified 12 to 15 feet down and they weren’t moving up for anything. Once the right level was determined, the fishing became almost hilarious. It didn’t matter what fly was tied on—as long it was at the right depth. Streamers, mayflies, caddises, snails, damsels, midges—all of them worked. I’ll never forget it.

The trick to catching fish on Number One that particular day was not found in the fly, the tippet, the leader, the cast or the retrieve. Rather the trick was in counting. Anyone could have had a stellar day on that water, even a total novice who didn’t understand one thing about entomology or casting.

The Countdown Method requires a sinking fly and/or line system. A sinking line/short leader combination is good for holding a fly at depth. A floating line/long leader combo is good for allowing a weighted fly to get down quickly and for jigging imitations of midge pupa and the like. Be aware that line inclination will change as depth increases.

Regardless of line/leader rigging, the overall Countdown method remains the same: Cast, and as soon as the fly hits the water, begin to count, allowing the fly to sink dead as you do so. You can use any counting speed you like, as long as it is consistent. In other words, space your counts evenly (one-thousand…two-thousand…three-thousand, etc.) I typically space my counts at one-second intervals because it is easy to be consistent and because it is easy to communicate the spacing to others if need be.

If you have no idea where the fish are in terms of depth, begin with a count of five, then retrieve. If several casts produce nothing, then move to a count of ten, and so on. If you catch the bottom, you’ll know you’ve counted too long. If you catch a fish, then you’ll know where to begin concentrating your efforts. Sometimes fish will take on the dead-sinking count (e.g. “17”) rather than the retrieve, so be watchful. Be prepared also, to have a fish already on as you start your retrieve. I have had days when fish tore the fly off the tippet during the count. I have also had days when the fish simply took the fly and swam off, towing the line behind them.

I remember when I was quite young and fishing a small lake in central Wisconsin. It was a cold early-autumn morning and nothing was happening on the surface. My father had set me up with a sink-tip line and a short leader pointed with a Hare’s Ear nymph. I walked the shore of the lake, casting and counting, casting and counting. At the deep, far end of the lake, I stopped and let the fly sink an extra 10 counts. As I watched the seemingly impenetrable water, I saw the unmistakable “wink under water”—the white flash from a trout’s mouth opening and closing. Not sure if I my eyes and brain were telling me the truth, I raised the rod tip. My reel soon confirmed that my faculties were indeed functioning properly. A few sweaty-palmed-minutes later, a 19-inch rainbow was cradled in my net, accompanied by excited congratulations from my father. The Countdown Method had done its duty.

The Countdown Method is disarmingly simple, but that’s what makes it so effective for so many anglers. Just cast, count and retrieve. And while the Countdown method sees the most use from a boat or float-tube, it can also be used to great effect when wading and walking.

After the Braided Butt Damsel post, I got a couple of questions about fishing damselfly adult patterns wet. Using the BB Damsel pattern shown, with a yarn parachute post (versus foam), the fly can be fished “damp” easily (just fish “sans floatante“). If you need to get the fly deeper, or are fishing a pattern meant to float strongly (such as one that incorporates foam parts), then split shot, a sinking braided or poly leader, or a sink-tip line, can all do the trick.

I often prefer to fish damsel adults wet after a significant egg-laying episode and/or during/after a strong wind during egg-laying or emergence. If blind-fishing, a slow, steady retrieve or a few quick strips, followed by a dead-sink (and repeat) can be effective. If sight-fishing, timing the sinking of the fly to match the fish’s level at interception is a good tactic (here is where a, umm, “fly suspension device” can be helpful). Often, there is no time for such a well-crafted approach, so generally dead-sinking or slowly swimming the fly in front of a fish is often effective. Worked for that brown above…

Drawing Flies 52 Deceiver (pike/muskie/baby tarpon colors). Had to join the DF 52 digital revolution in my own way (see Jeff’s soft-hackle for more on his first DF 52 digital foray). Pen-and-ink sketch, scanned, set as paths in Adobe Photoshop, exported to Adobe Illustrator, paths adjusted, printed, partly colored, ate the whole 30 minutes like it was candy.

Available for purchase? No, sending it off to Jeff.

Tech info: 8″ x 12″ Pentalic paper, pen-and-ink (initial drawing), Claria inkjet ink, watercolor, and talking to my old G4 PowerBook (”C’mon…c’mon…C’MON!”). First DF 52 digital foray for me (Jeff lead the way last week).

Did the sketch in pen-and-ink first (went fast, worried less about detail), then scanned it into Photoshop (had all my computer miscellanea ready to go before-hand). Did some quick adjustments and turned the drawing into paths, which where then exported to Illustrator. Once in Illustrator, I did some more adjustments to get the look I was after, and hit print.

Once the image was off the inkjet, I went after it with watercolor and watercolor crayon (both brushed on). Clock was ticking fast, so I went a little sloppy in some areas—some worked, some ended up simply looking a little sloppy. Just started into the real detail work around the head area and saw that I had a whopping minute or so left. I went streaking fast with the blue to balance the hot colors and *beep*.

Jeff’s Deceiver is here. Jeff, it was my turn this week to panic…didn’t quite make it (thought I might do a bit better, but just didn’t have enough time/speed). Will make for a decent little blurb for the book, at least.

One of my favorite ways to illustrate is to rough sketch with an added story line (previous ‘bow and brown (and other brown) already posted). Those of you who own the book, Presentation, have already seen these, but expect a bunch more in the new books series.

Below is a color version of the above (from a series of hand-colored prints that I did). I only have a small image, but I think that it still shows how the color adds to the sense of the sketch (the color also being applied with speed, and not too much fussing).

If you’re not into fly tying the above title could give you pause, but if you are into the “vice of the vise,” then here’s a post for you. This has already been up over on GB’s blog, but I figure why not post it here, as well? This is from GB’s 1991 book, Designing Trout Flies (the illustrations are from yours truly, created between classes and study sessions while I was at the U of Wisconsin). So, without any more unnecessary introduction, here’s the Braided Butt Damsel:

One question that I/we often get about this fly (inspired by a pattern that my father saw in New Zealand back in the 1980s) is, “Why don’t you use foam for the post, it floats better?” The answer is based on years of observing damselfly hatches and is fairly simple: because sometimes we want the fly to sink. If that sounds odd, keep in mind that “dry flies” (or perhaps more accurately “dry insects”) sometimes aren’t so dry….

All images/image text Copyright © Gary A. Borger. Used with permission

Drawing Flies 52 Soft Hackle. Almost salmon-style with those long fibers. Pen with some watercolor added with a detail brush. Couldn’t stay away from the color….

Available for purchase? No, kinda like it for myself.

Tech info: 9″ x 12″ Canson tracing paper (I’ve come to really like the gliding smoothness of this razor-thin paper for pen work). Pigma pen and a bit of watercolor. More tech info to come.

Jeff’s Soft-Hackle is here. I figured it was only a matter of time before one of us took a shot at doing something that involved pixels. To my eye, the fly feels traditionally painted at first glance, but then there is that super 3-D effect and the smooth, smooth edges that say “vector art.” My first thought was “What did he paint that with?” Then I realized…”Oh, cool.” My feelings on this type of truly mixed media? Do more! (And now that you’ve taken the lead with it, Jeff, I suppose I have to take a shot myself. This project is only starting to get interesting!)

Update 1: Sounds like Jeff has something brewing… Looking forward to seeing what you have going, my friend.

Al Crise (or “ol’ Al” as he was known to many) has passed. Some FF&W readers may know Al from his casting classes at Federation of Fly Fishers’ meetings and so forth, or from his posts on a number of fly-fishing bulletin boards. Al was tireless in his teaching of fly casting, and had a real desire to get kids involved in the sport. Al was also very much about helping those who were injured or debilitated to get to know the healing aspects of fly fishing. He will be greatly missed by many….

I remember one time when I was doing a casting clinic in downtown Fort Worth, Texas, which had been hit by a tornado before my arrival. I was to do the clinic on top of a building, and I had been promised an “associate” or two to assist with the large number of clients. Turns out that Al was one of those who had agreed to be there. Crunching around on bits of broken glass still lurking from blown-out windows, we wrangled everyone and got the clinic done. I don’t how everyone’s fly lines fared after being cast over the debris, but the clinic was a success. One of the more “unique” situations in which I’ve had to do a casting clinic, and a memory of ol’ Al that I’ll never forget.

For those SoCal FF&W readers who might want to hear me drone on pontificate in a lively and engaging manner, you may wish to attend the March 13-14 Fly Fishing Show in Pasadena. While the final schedule is not yet in place (Update: It’s in place now), it looks like I’ll be doing some talks on casting (including using your body as a “built-in” instructor), approach and presentation (including a dazzling array of slides from the 70s, 80s, and beyond!), and tying (that last one will likely include techniques like Diffusion Hackling, and other “quick tricks”).

See you Pasadena…

Some of you may have noticed the new “Collaboration” header over in the sidebar, and wondered what was going there (indeed one of you wondered enough to e-mail and ask). The collaborations are exactly that, FF&W and a small group of other blogs working together to provide content and so forth. Today is the day that the “FlyTalk” collaboration begins, and you can see it here. My friends at FT and I are discussing how to create a stronger collaboration going forward, and there will likely be some special content created just for them.