We're having company... our captivating new grand-daughter is coming to visit us in August - all the way from California! She's a bit too young for fishing, but I know her dad (and maybe mom, too) would enjoy some fly fishing.
August means low water, which translated into practical fishing terms, means warm water. Traditionally, August has been the time to abandon the brooks and streams, and head for the Atlantic Ocean to fish for mackerel, jig for cod, or go shark-fishing.
In spite of this, I'm trying to come up with a fly fishing day trip (or two) during their one-week stay. Let's see what the local options are...
- Smallmouth Bass fishing in Ten Mile Lake
- Chain Pickerel in Louis Lake
- Stocked Rainbow Trout in Hidden Hills Lake
- Brook Trout - if you can find them this time of year
- Brown Trout on the Mersey River
- Trophy Brook Trout (hatchery stock) in the Christopher Lakes
- White Perch in most lakes
Earwigs are gross. When I was a kid, growing up on Nova Scotia's South Shore in the 50's and 60's, there was no such thing as an earwig. I never saw them until we moved back here in 1989. Then and now, we have an abundance of them. They live in the grass, the topsoil, in the woodpile - anywhere there is moisture and some dark place to crawl into. They eat vegetation, mostly, and can do damage to flower and vegetable crops during summer months.
Why should anglers know about them?
I have an optimistic view of most things, including things that are universally viewed as bad. I think about the Chinese pictogram for Crisis which is comprised of two symbols - one of which means Danger and the other, Opportunity. Take earwigs, for instance... I have never heard anyone say a good word about an earwig - have you? I found a good use for them, however - read on...
About 10 years ago, they introduced Rainbow trout to one lake in Queens County and have stocked it twice annually ever since. Hidden Hills Lake is landlocked, 20 - 30 feet deep on average, and about 4 or 5 acres in area. The water is stained brown, like most of our lakes, and has a low pH, due to our geographic location in the acid rain belt of North America. Still, the Rainbows have managed to survive, if not thrive, in Hidden Hills Lake. The fish are typically 12 - 14 inches in length.
It is fun to catch them. In contrast to the PowerBait squad on the shore, I like to do it from a canoe with a fly rod, and I like to release them. We might be lucky enough to arrive at the lake when a feeding frenzy is on - fish smacking the water's surface constantly. More often, we get there and see only the occasional rise. This is where the earwigs come in.
Two things led me to it. One was my experience with shark-fishing, which involves a chum bucket of frozen oatmeal and baitfish gurry, slowly releasing a trail of fish oil and blood into the water. The other was something I saw one day, while fishing...
I noticed an earwig in the canoe. I picked it up and flicked it into the water, where it wiggled ferociously to escape the surface tension. It didn't take more than a few minutes before a trout came up and inhaled it. That stuck in my mind, and when I found a nest of earwigs in my woodpile one day, I thought, "Wouldn't it be nice to have a few of these in my canoe on Hidden Hills Lake?"
The next time I went, I took a plastic container full of earwigs with me. It was no trouble to collect fifty or so. I just put the container on the ground, below the nest, and beat on the woodpile with a stick of firewood. They dropped out of the woodpile and scurried for cover in the grass, but most of them fell in my bucket.
Out on the lake, I checked the wind direction and started pitching them into the water, a few at a time. Then I anchored the canoe downwind and waited.
You know what happened next...
The Rainbows got very excited about the struggling earwigs. We were able to get lots of action, on just about any similar size dry fly, if we were patient and could wait for the fish to find the fly. Often a fish would rise to an earwig within casting range. If we could cast to the rise in a timely fashion, we'd generally get a quick response. It was also productive to strip a Woolly Bugger or Leech type fly through the area.
This is a deadly method, similar to my balloon trick for White Perch. It' s also a lot of fun - dry fly fishing is visually stimulating and increases the enjoyment for any angler. If you use barbless hooks and release the fish, you will do little or no harm to the resource. The true joy of angling is in the catching - not the killing. Fish belong in the water so that our grandchildren, and their grandchildren will share the opportunities that we have enjoyed.
Good Luck and Good Fishin'!
RP
3 comments:
Phew!
I'm so glad to know you used them as an attractant rather than live bait. I couldn't imagine how I'd ever be brave enough to weave one onto a hook. As I was reading along (expecting the worst) I was scheming on how I was going to manage to convince my husband to do this for me. I sigh of relief when I realized I could use a little woolly bugger as the weapon itself.
I must say I have used slugs before. I wasn't sure it would work, as it seems to me I'd read somewhere that they were "bitter" to fish (how anyone would know I don't want to even think about). Regardless, my cousin and I had been fishing brookies and nearing the end of our travels we stopped at a small pool just under a culvert. I'd gotten a nice feeling bite but unfortunately lost it. Upon returning to the bait box, I realized we were out of worms. Frantically we began turning over every stone and piece of wood we could lay our eyes on. Nothing (well, nothing I'd put my hands on) except a slug. "What the hell" I thought and grabbed one. I managed through his slipperiness to get him on the hook and cast it in. And yes, amazingly enough I pulled out a nice little 10-inch pan trout with it. We couldn't find any more slugs or other kind of creepy crawly so we headed back home.
I must get myself a woolly and try the earwig thing sometime.
Hi V:
Interesting bit about the slug - necessity, the mother of invention, and all.
Actually the earwig trick is similar to an old technique called "beating the alders". Fly fishermen sometimes try to "create a hatch" by knocking any resting insects off the alder bushes into the stream.
RP
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