Fly size

[moon1284]

The more flies you tie the better tier you become. You don't have to carry all of your flies on every trip. Id say tie as many as possible in as many sizes as possible.

I tie pretty much every fly I fish and I really don't enjoy tying flies all that much. But I can tie them exactly how I want and most of my patterns are slightly different than what is standard. I also like catching fish on flies I tied

 

[rrt]

I haven't fished anything smaller than a size 18 for several years now. However, much of that is due to the loss of trico fishing on the streams I used to fish. The tricos are gone in one place; horses "living" in the water have ruined another area that was a wonderful trico meadow.

Otherwise, size 18 BWOs are the smallest dries I have used in years.

Also, I have never tied a nymph smaller than size 16. Maybe that shows you that I am not very creative, but I usually do manage to catch some trout when I am on the water.

Unlike many fly-fishermen, I use the largest fly I can get away with and still catch trout. Today, I generally leave my box of size 22s and 24s at home. (Old age?)

 

[Canoetripper]

Thanks for the above supportive replies. I am a member here because I want to learn more than I know and be supportive of other fellow board members. I would never be sarcastic.

The tiny flies and tippet are legendary on www.wvangler.com where I am also Canoetripper.

 

[SmoothOperator]

greenghost wrote:
When things get that small, size becomes less and less critical, imo.
I say skip sizes.

I never fish smaller than 22 anymore. Too hard to tie on. Too hard to see ... especially with my older eyes.

That being said, I think there are definitely situations where super small flies work. I used to do very well on hard-fished waters throwing 24s and 26s midges, black gnats, and such in places like the slow water above the dam at the Playhouse on the Yellow Breeches, or on certain sections of Laurel Hill Creek that used to get hammered.

I used to fish #24 Griffin Gnats , Jassids ,Brown Midges & Beatles,in the slow water above the dam with great success ......( back when there was only a small stone house along that area.) Also a great area for fishing spinners in the dark walking the wall..... alot of monster, strong,fat bodied bows caught there in years gone by......( that was 40-45 years ago)

 

[SmoothOperator]

rrt wrote:
I haven't fished anything smaller than a size 18 for several years now. However, much of that is due to the loss of trico fishing on the streams I used to fish. The tricos are gone in one place; horses "living" in the water have ruined another area that was a wonderful trico meadow.

Otherwise, size 18 BWOs are the smallest dries I have used in years.

Also, I have never tied a nymph smaller than size 16. Maybe that shows you that I am not very creative, but I usually do manage to catch some trout when I am on the water.

Unlike many fly-fishermen, I use the largest fly I can get away with and still catch trout. Today, I generally leave my box of size 22s and 24s at home. (Old age?)

Used to fish Trico's on Falling Springs out of Chambersburg....believe it was at an area called the Kelley Farm? Quit fishing it when that area was closed because a new owner bought the farm......Was a little hatchery there on the main branch.....

 

[Bamboozle]

The name was "Skelly", the regulars referred to it as the "Skelly Meadow" with the neat fence ladders, loads of "cow pies" and the cows that would be inches away from you while you were trying to be stealthy...

It was my favorite beat in the "olden days." I heard it was closed due to bad behavior. I don't know what the status of it is today.

 

[Dave_W]

Bamboozle wrote:
It was my favorite beat in the "olden days." I heard it was closed due to bad behavior. I don't know what the status of it is today.

My favorite too.

I used to chat with old Mr Skelly when he drove by on his tractor back in the 80s/90s. After his death the family posted the property in 2001 or 2002. Although there were some fits and starts in getting it re-opened to public access, it sadly remains closed.

 

[Bamboozle]

A couple of good and TRUE Skelly Meadow memories:

I once had a baby duck who got sort of washed downstream and separated from its mother, latch on and follow me upstream at my feet for hours as I was fishing. Later when WE got up to the barn, the duckling was reunited with mamma and the other kids. Watching it abandon me and run over to the rest of the family was the cutest dang thing I ever saw!!

Another time I was fishing over a riser just a few feet upstream of the farm road crossing (the "rattling pipes"). I was kneeling and doing my best to avoid detection when I felt the hot breath of a cow on my neck. I looked up and she decided to move on and proceeded to walk IN the creek and relieve herself out of both barrels, literally right on top of the rising fish...

...who was unfazed and kept rising!!

I didn't catch that fish, but maybe I would have if a had a "Cow Dung" wet fly!! ;-)

I miss that meadow...

 

[larkmark]

Every time I ventured out to Falling Springs the last few years was disappointed. Tricia seem unreliable and even the great sulphur hatches are way down. Those hatches were the reason I kept coming back. That along with the wild Rainbows. The size of the average fish is way smaller too. Ithonk I am seeing the de thing happen on Big Spring too. The old timers would be shocked and the new people are apparently satisfied with catching nothing or tiny fish. I also fished Tricia on certain parts of Penn's and those hatches have mostly disappeared. People can say what they want but I see an overall decline especially on the famous streams.

 

[larkmark]

Damn spell check got me again. Tricos.
I love fishing midges and emergers and tiny olives. I just wear magnifiers. I go down to 7x once in a while. My favorite small tippett is the 6.5 Trout hunter.

 

[dc410]

Dave_W wrote:

Bamboozle wrote:
It was my favorite beat in the "olden days." I heard it was closed due to bad behavior. I don't know what the status of it is today.

My favorite too.

I used to chat with old Mr Skelly when he drove by on his tractor back in the 80s/90s. After his death the family posted the property in 2001 or 2002. Although there were some fits and starts in getting it re-opened to public access, it sadly remains closed.

Created some great memories back in the day on the Skelly Farm, how ‘bout it Dave! ????

 

[Dave_W]

Created some great memories back in the day on the Skelly Farm, how ‘bout it Dave! ????[/quote]

Yes indeed - good times.

Hard to believe it's been 35+ years. :-o

 

[rrt]

I fished there a couple of times in the dear departed days of yesteryear. The numbers of trout was amazing -- and nice ones, too. (And, yes, I'll bet it's been 35 years since I made the trip to fish there, too.)

Now, for you CV guys: Books and articles at the time often touted the presence of wild rainbows in FSB. However, I suspected these rainbows were escapees from the streamside hatchery, and as a fishing visitor I didn't really care if they were wild or escapees. They were nice fish. The question: Do you guys think they were wild, or do you think the 'bows in FSB were mainly hatchery trout that had escaped into the stream?

 

[Dave_W]

rrt wrote:
Do you guys think they were wild, or do you think the 'bows in FSB were mainly hatchery trout that had escaped into the stream?

This thread is getting a bit off topic but I'd like to answer this one:

Yes they were wild without a doubt in my mind. They spawned in late winter and were common in the stream in multiple year classes (and still are).
To be sure, there were hatchery escapees but these were BTs, ST's and tigers (I don't recall them raising any RTs at the private hatchery - at least within my memory).

Charlie Fox told me the wild FSB RTs were Shasta River rainbows and this was a common view a generation ago. More recent scholarship by Benke etc. has cast doubt on this and I no longer tell people they are Shasta fish.

 

[Bamboozle]

Dave_W wrote:
Charlie Fox told me the wild FSB RTs were Shasta River rainbows and this was a common view a generation ago. More recent scholarship by Benke etc. has cast doubt on this and I no longer tell people they are Shasta fish.

He told me the same thing and it was the accepted explanation at the time.

 

[SmoothOperator]

Bamboozle wrote:

Dave_W wrote:
Charlie Fox told me the wild FSB RTs were Shasta River rainbows and this was a common view a generation ago. More recent scholarship by Benke etc. has cast doubt on this and I no longer tell people they are Shasta fish.

He told me the same thing and it was the accepted explanation at the time.

Yes.........I remember the old timers at that time ( 35-40 years ago) telling me they were "Shasta rainbows"...... The little concrete bridge going into the farm was my favorite area......I caught a 21" bow that hid under that bridge and only came out late evening or right at sunup and sat in a depression in the weeds and would rise to sulphur spinners ...... Also the fast water ( Rapids) right below that bridge held enormous Bows that only took nymphs.......Good times gone by......

 

[rrt]

Thank you.

rrt

 

[larkmark]

Recall sitting there by creek after it was too dark to see and just listening to the big ones eating sulfurs. The big ones certainly did come out at dark. Caught a beautiful Rainbow one night there with my boys. You know a lot of people would be there at times but it was all friendly and guys encouraging others.

 

[rrt]

I guess I'm the one who took this topic away from its original idea, so I apologize. Maybe the mods could make it a separate topic from where I did it.

Anyhow, since we moved away from "fly size" to the CV (again, my fault), I recall running into Fox a couple times on the Letort. I found him to be a gentleman and truly concerned about wild trout. I also ran into Marinaro (and his friend Bill Fritz), and they regaled me and a couple of friends with tales of fishing on FSB (for what Fritz called "hogs") and elsewhere in the CV. Fox and Marinaro were among my first fly-fishing heroes, and I treasure autographed copies of "A Modern Dry Fly Code" and "This Wonderful World of Trout," both of which I re-read often. Put Marinor's chapter about tricos from "In the Ring of the Rise" together with his fly info in "MDFC," and you have what is still a pretty complete summary of mayflies and the fishing to them that exist on limestone streams. U ran into Ed Shenk one evening on the Letort; he had broken a rod. New to fly-fishing, I couldn't reach a trout with my rod, handed it to him, and he raised the trout (on my fly) and easily landed it -- pretty much a crystal memory for me.

Don't know why, but I have not been back to the CV for many years. Its streams are unique in PA.

For Dave W., Larkmark, and others who knew them better than I, I imagine you have some nice memories of these fly-fishing icons.

 

[KGStine]

Since we're already off track---
We had an office in Chambersburg that I worked out of occasionally. This was in 1969 or the early 70's. I was in my early twenties and new to flyfishing. Instead of eating lunch, I would drive out to the farm, take off my suit coat, tuck my tie in my shirt and fish for an hour. This was where I first fished dry flies. I caught some fish in spite of myself. But, what I remember more vividly were the refusals, where the trout would come up, put his nose under the fly and drift downstream, before turning away. I can still picture those dam fish. This was under the big tree between the hatchery and the concrete bridge.

One evening I stopped on my way home, and went upstream through the meadow on the other side of the road. Just as I started fishing, a gal came galloping down through the meadow on a horse. As she got near, fish started to scatter from everywhere. I never so so many big trout. I swear some were as long as my arm. I never caught a fish that evening.

At least that's how I remember it, but it's been 50 years.