Well, Vacation and recovering from vacation kept me off the river till Sunday night this week. I am happy to say the Brandywine is still fishing great. The flow was down when I hit the water and a quick check of the USGS site showed the river to be running at just above 90 CFS. I do not ever remember it being this low in the past! The water temps are holding well at 78 degrees. With all of the talk and posting of the Ska-opper over the weekend I decided to take my 2 hander and Ska-opper fish the entire evening. Now I will be the first to admit a 450 gr switch rod is a bit of overkill for 12" Smallmouth, it is still very fun to work through all the casts and land fish on top water. At the start of the trip I was landing nice, red-breasted sunfish on almost every cast with a few Smallies mixed in.  When the sun went behind the trees is when the action started. I worked my way through one of my favorite runs and found several AGGRESSIVE fish, fish that would continue to strike the fly until they hooked themselves, sometimes 2 or 3 times. It was truly an enjoyable evening to be on the river...until the sky opened up and I realized I was about a mile and a half away from the truck! Oh well, a few wet clothes were worth it. BTY if you want to see a Ska-opper that has been through the wringer stop in. 

 We received a similar report from one of our customers Bob Flanagan about his fishing on Friday evening on the Brandywine and One Boot Ed sent me a awesome picture of a beautiful 16 incher he landed on Saturday morning.   

 Smallie season is in full swing, in fact the best time of the year is right around the corner. Get out and fish!!!!!

                                                                                                                                                                                      Tight Lines...
                                                                                                                                                                                                              Tim  

 

A 2 hander, Ska-opper, and a Smallie...Awesome!

One Boot Ed's Nice one from the weekend. Way to go buddy!!!

The Ska-opper is a simple, yet very effective Gurgler type fly.  Below I have posted a video that features Scott Howell, the star of Skagit Master 2. In the 10 minute video Scott explains the origin of the fly, how they came up with the name and at the end it shows him putting it to task on the water.  Originally developed as a Pac Northwest Steelhead fly. We at the shop have have been using it with great success on Smallmouth this entire summer. Because we are not dealing with the same current flows here in Delaware we have modified the body matl. and changed from spun deer hair to Estaz. This makes the fly much faster to tie and allows for color change of the body. The flies pictured have flash in the tail as well as rubber legs. I believe the rubber legs make a difference, as well as the flash, but this fly can be tied with only 3 materials; Marabou, Estaz, and Foam. 

  Spend a few minutes tying a few of these up and fish them, I will bet after the first strike you will be as addicted to Ska-opper fishing as we are, and yes for those of you wondering I am going to give these flies a shot over some trout as well as Stripers this fall.

Hook; TMC 8089, TMC 811S, or Mustad 3366
Tail; Marabou blood quill tied over a few strands of Krystal flash
Body; Estaz or Cactus chenille
Top; 2mm foam or 1/8" Evazote

For Smallmouth I seem to prefer the brown / root beer color combo, but have caught fish on white / pearl, yellow / yellow and black. A size 10 8089 (currently on back order) or a #2 3366 hook fit in well with the Smallmouth, but hook size can be adjusted accordingly.  

As a added tip try hanging a small Nymph or Crayfish off of the bend of the Ska-opper. The popping will get their attention and when they see the dropper they may be more inclined to bite it. We call this the "Dinner Bell" set up.

Enjoy...

I just added some pretty cool items to the Bargain Corner. Check em out, be sure to scroll all the way to the bottom of the page.

                                                                                                                                                                           Tight Lines
                                                                                                                                                          

More cool nights dropping water temps in the Brandywine. Better fishing in the warmer parts of the day, would be my target. Still plenty of hoppers and beetles, and the crickets are getting much more active early and late in the days. Add rubber legs to some of your streamers to boost your success! Faster retrieves have been working for me better, recently, but mix up your presentations. Sinking leaders have been the ticket when fishing the trenches for larger smallies. Get out and fish!!!

PS. I got a chance to cast the NEW Sage rods yesterday, and WOW, WOW, & WOW!!!

Several cool nights in a row, chilling down the temps in the Brandywine. Fish when you can, but the afternoons should fish better after the sun's been on it for a while. Still plenty of dragon flies, hoppers and beetles; it is amazing the amount of rising fish when the wind picks up and blows these bugs onto the water! I saw a ton of TRICOS in the water film, and some smaller caddis flying around. These bugs draw attention from the forage fish, which draws attention from our targeted fish, SMALLIES;) Plenty more weeks to go for river bassing. Get out and fish!!!

I truly believe this is one of the must have instructional books for tiers of all levels. 

  Well Last night was the culmination of about two months of "work". Earlier this spring while I was getting ready for Smallmouth season I went to the "Clouser's Flies" book  for some inspiration. Now if you are like me when you hear the name Clouser you immediately think of his most popular pattern the Clouser minnow. I have caught my fair share of fish with a Clouser minnow and I am sure you have too. When the book came out in 2006 I was one of the first in line to get it and I read it cover to cover. After reading and studying the patterns in the book I added a few of the patterns to my Bass arsenal, but just a few. I realized this spring that I had short changed myself. Mr Clouser has taken the time to share SEVENTEEN (that's right, seventeen) of his patterns in this book all with full color step-by-step tying instructions. As I thumbed through this book for the hundredth time it dawned on me...Why don't I tie my way through the ENTIRE  book, all of the patterns,  then try to catch at least one Smallmouth on each of the flies. To add a extra twist I wanted to do it in one season. 

  The benefits of doing something like this are tremendous. For me setting a goal keeps me focused, and tying flies I wouldn't normally tie stretches my comfort zone and forces me to learn new techniques I may not learn otherwise. I would need to spend a fair amount of time on the river, which I did, and I have had the best river bass season I can remember. I tied four of each pattern so my warm water fly boxes are full and because I tied and fished flies I haven't used in the past I had to adapt fishing techniques that I don't normally use for Smallmouth. 

   All in all this was a great learning experience for me and I hope I can share some of what I have learned with all of you. Maybe some of you are looking for some inspiration or are looking for a new challenge. Stop in and lets talk about it.     

Swimming Nymph, One of my all time favorites. 

Hellgrammite, Nothing moves in the water like rabbit fur. A true big fish producer. 

Suspender, I don't know how I didn't use this one in the past. Easy and fast to tie and looks AWESOME in the water. Actually caught a fish on the first cast. My "new" favorite. 

EZ popper, I always bought my poppers in the past. 

Floating Minnow, KISS method at its best here. Simple and effective. Gonna spend more time with this one. 

Clouser Deep Minnow, This should be a staple in EVERY streamer box regardless of species of fish. Everything will eat this fly, ask Lefty. 

Half and Half, This has always been my favorite saltwater Striper fly. This little guy absolutely crushed it. (remember size doesn't matter...) 

Clouser Crayfish, Indicator nymphing for Smallmouth... kinda cool to see it go under and know it is not a Trout on the other end. 

Madtom, Can't go wrong with Rabbit fur and Calf tail. Another first cast producer. 

Darter, I tied these in olive and orange. I was going for a perch color. I think black and grey would be effective as well. Had a good fish on with this one estimated in the 16" range. He had other ideas and came UN-buttoned before I could land him. 

Foxy Redd Minnow, Great all around fly and the perfect color combo for Smallmouth. Added benefit is that Fox tail fur is full of underfur. comb it out and save it. It makes great dubbing. 

Fur Strip Clouser, I love this picture, great markings on these fish. This was my most productive "one outing" pattern. I must have landed between 15 or 20 fish this morning. 

Crippled Minnow, Great action on this fly. I am not in love with the red and white color combo. When I tie more, and I will, I will go with more earth tone colors. 

Ultra Hair Deep Minnow, I must say this one does not really fit my style of fishing. Not much natural movement in the ultra hair. May shine in a deep water situation. 

Bright Sides Minnow, When I was tying this I thought it was the stupidest fly ever, once I saw it in the water I couldn't be more wrong. Action is very similar to a Rapala jerk bait. 

Rattle Clouser, I was not fond of the color combo he used in the book. When I tied them I was thinking crayfish so I used a lot of olive and brown. I used glass rattles. They are much louder, but, don't smack a rock.

 This was my best fish of the project. I laid her against my rod then released her. I measured the mark on my rod when I got back to the shop and it was just over 19". Awesome fish!!!

Last but not least the Clouser Drake, Had a lot of help from Terry with this one. We decided to change the color from a green or brown drake to a hexagenia which is much more common on our rivers. Got 3 Smallies, several Panfish, and two trophy Fallfish on this guy. It floats like a cork. It was actually fun to fish for bass using tactics we usually use for trout. 

Well there you have it, 17 fish on 17 flies. I encourage everyone to try this, I believe everyone will learn something in the process. 

                                                                                                                                                                                              Tight Lines...

                                                                                                                                                                                                                Tim 

The Schminnow is a simple yet effective pattern designed by Norm Zeigler. Norm has a beautiful fly shop on Sanibel Island. www.normzeiglersflyshop.com  Terry met Norm last February and he has been toying with this pattern since then. Originally developed for Snook this simple to tie, versatile pattern has found itself right at home in the Smallmouth river this summer and I have no reason to think it won't be successful on Trout this fall. As mentioned Terry has been using this pattern on guide trips this summer. He was tying a few last Saturday and he gave me two of his fresh ties (thank's boss). I tried them out Sunday morning and landed several good Smallies and for sake of a knot pull I would have landed my biggest bronze back this year. 

  This fly only uses 3 materials and can be tied in under 5 minutes. Colors are only limited by your imagination, but the white / pearl combo seems to be very popular. I do know of an interesting combo of rum and chartreuse that has brought at least one fish to hand in the 3 pound class. Way to go MA!  Tie a few of these up and give them a shot. 


Hook; TMC 5263 size 2
Tail; Marabou blood quill
Flash; color to match body
Body; Estaz or Cactus chenielle 
Eyes; large black mono eyes

Enjoy...

White Schminnow

Root beer estaz and brown marabou 

BTY if anybody lands a nice 18" Smallie with a white Schminnow in its jaw I would like it back. Thank you. 

                                                                                                                                                                                        Tight lines,

                                                                                                                                                                                                             Tim