April 7 and 8, 2021 – I Had Good News and Bad News for Eric – Northampton County Limestoners

Only dinks to hand and only after a fly change.

Man, I had a challenging couple of days on the water this week.  I have some creek pics and a bunch of dink shots to show for about 7 hours spread over the two days. Okay, I may have a shot of one 10-incher from this morning, but it was pretty bad and not for the usual reasons.  It was technically not my fault.  Each time I have been out this spring, and I’ve sent pics to Eric, he’s asked if the fish was on his fly.  Some of them were, of course, but I do have confidence patterns that I gravitate towards unless I consciously go for one of Eric’s.  I beta tested some of his flies on Fishing Creek after putting together a solid run on my confidence patterns for early spring—larva on the point and something small and baetis on the dropper with all the midges and blue-winged olives around.  In March, I put a bunch of his nymphs in a small dedicated box as a reminder to fish some more of them.  Some are waiting for more consistent caddis time later this month, and I have used his walts and frenchies for a year now with great success, but there were a bunch of perdigons that I needed to try.  Well, as the title suggests, I have good news and bad news for my boy Eric.

Fished well (if I landed any).

First the good news:  I went out late morning on Wednesday in high sun, heat, and pretty normal to low water, so rather poor conditions to fish midday, and I landed about five dinkers.  But the creek, which can be very difficult, was fishing really well.  On his blue perdigon, I hooked probably ten more fish that all got off!  I even lost a good small stream fish that was pushing 16 inches or more.  After losing a 12-incher after a brief battle, and then another about 11, I thought it was me, but I lost so many fish on that same fly!  I think the ratio of hook size to amount of hook covered by the body of the fly to the size of the bead, it just all has to be perfected and balanced more.  They look awesome, so I used them with confidence until I was like, “Man, I am not this bad!”  We all have bad days, and I have plenty, but a pattern was forming that went beyond the fish being skittish in the conditions and bad hooksets.

Dink dink.

Many, including the little pig, popped the damn fly, and I got a good hookset, but I think every fish I hooked on that perdigon got off and quickly.  In order to land a few, and confirm my suspicions, I had to put a basic CDC pheasant tail the same size as the perdigon on the dropper.  I was reluctant to blame the fly.  For one, Eric is my buddy and his flies have been very effective in the past.  The other reason is that I was quick to blame his grinchy bugger for losing a pig on the Lack, and it ended up my fault for pinching down a barb.  I gave the perdigons way too many chances as a result.  The minute I changed the dropper, I had success keeping fish on, but it was already too late.

Need some rain, duracell still works, of course the 5-incher stays on the gasolina!

Jump ahead to today, and I actually got out earlier to fish another creek in the same region.  I was hoping for some redemption for me, and young Eric!  Today, I had one of his blue-collar Duracells (no CDC, so basically an ice dub walts) on the point and a gasolina perdigon on the dropper.  Like I said above, I was far too willing to entertain that I was just having a day yesterday.  The fish were not as cooperative on the whole this morning, despite the more advantageous timing, so fewer opportunities on the whole, but dammit if I didn’t jump another pig on the perdigon.  This was bigger than the one yesterday!  I think I landed nothing but dinks, and only one on the perdigon this morning.  The only real sized fish I landed was on the Duracell, and I lost a second fish over 13 inches on the same gasolina.  Remember that scene from “Caddyshack” when the Bishop is having the game of his life until he’s not?  I definitely shouted “Rat Farts!” (only not the PG version) to the sky, and thankfully was not struck by lightning.  The culmination of a challenging couple of days was dropping yet another fish when I returned to the big fish run where I jumped the pig earlier in the morning.  That was it, I started walking back to my spot and taking mental notes on Eric’s perdigons.  

The only halfway decent fish I could land in two days, and it's, what, 10 inches?

Artist rendering...

I may have to pick the brains of a couple of Sam’s local guide buddies for their formula.  My educated guess is the list I shared above: hook size to bead size to amount of body material.  I guess I will go back to confidence flies when I get out again?  I talked to Eric yesterday and today, and we agreed that this is why we beta test his bugs, but he tied a bunch of those same perdigons and has several in his own box, so he was pissed too. I know he talked to the guys at the fly shop about the hooks, and he used a formula to size the beads, but I assured him it was more the formula for these particular hooks than the materials, something to do with size of the gap and the hook length with the size bead on them, just not enough bite.  So frustrating.  I think we need rain, so I can throw something bigger than size 18 at them that they’ll consistently eat.  A good day beating them up on size 14 blowtorches or something, maybe that will get me right in the head again!