Kenneth & Barbie

As I suspect is prone to happen occasionally in homes where children reside, someone at my house recently decided that a Barbie doll needed a haircut. Actually, I think it was a Barbie head that had lost it's body. Either way, the haircut resulted in a nice little cluster of straight, black synthetic hair strands, and it wasn't long before Barbie's clippings were in a little bag on my tying table.

I've played with a few designs with different lengths of Barbie's hair, buy my favorite so far combined it with a cluster of fur from our dog Kenneth, along it a few peacock quills and a bit of peacock dubbing. Barbie's hair, which I cut to a about twice the length of Kenneth's fur, is in the middle. Kenneth's contribution is frizzy, so it flares nicely around the straight tail. I haven't seen the Kenneth & Barbie bug in the water yet, but I like the way it looks in the vice.

Droppers

One of my favorite ways to fish from late spring through fall is to rig a Rebel Micro Pop-R or Crickhopper with a fly a couple of feet beneath it on a dropper. It provides a double appeal, and I'll catch some fish on the surface lure and some on the fly. Often when a fish hits and misses my popper or hopper, a moment later the lure will dart under like a bobber, and I think it's often the same fish that spotted a simple meal hanging in front of it after having been drawn in by the surface lure. The technique works well for bass, panfish and trout.

With such things in mind, I spent a little early-hours time today tying a few bugs to take with me to New England. None are specific patterns (at least not intentionally). The main common denominators, I suppose, are that they are at least a little ugly and crudely tied. With a few, I'm hopping to suggest grass shrimp or tiny light-colored minnows. The others are generalists, simply meant to look like some kinds of aquatic insect, tiny fish or critter of some other sort. Most are streamer sorts because I move the top bait a fair amount, but I'm kind of wishing now that I'd tied a few that looked a bit nymphier.

It's hard to say if I'll even break out the bug box, but I figured it couldn't hurt to have a few dropper flies handy, and if I'm going to use a fly, I'd certainly prefer to use one I tied.

#CatchFishAnywhere #NortheastAdventure

Kenneth Flies

I've mentioned Kenneth Bugs a few times in past blogs. They are hair jigs tied from the fur of our black dog Kenneth.

 

I tied the first ones as a novelty, amused by the idea if catching fish from something made from my dog's shed fur (easily amused, I know). However, it didn't take long to figure out that there was something about Kenneth's fur that made it work well in the water. Kenneth Bugs outperformed similar jigs tied from black crafthair, bucktail or marabou. I tie and use them now not for novelty but simply because they produce fish.

 

Next week's trout outing is a fly fishing trip, though, so I decided I'd better tie some Kenneth Flies to try. Same basic design. (I won't say pattern because I tie every one a little differently.) Just tied on streamer hooks instead  of jigheads.

 

First two are pictured. I hope to tie several before the end of the weekend. If I end up having opportunity to use them, I'll try to remember to report back how they do!

Bug Tying Weather

Trout do like tend to like dark days, but it has rained enough over the past few days that I think the streams might have gotten a bit out of whack, and through the winter, a couple of days of steady, cold rain can sort of keep the trout from ever waking up.

Maybe those are excuses. Maybe it just seemed cold to me to walk up a creek.

One way other the other, today seemed like a good day to stay home, and a Saturday at home typically is a good day to convert jigheads, fur and feathers into critter imitations or attractors that I hope will draw the interest of trout, smallmouths and other fish. Some will work. Others probably will not. Either way, Ugly Bugs are fun to tie, rain or shine.

Draw of the Docks

I've just returned from Rend Lake Resort in Illinois, where I spent three fun and productive days catching crappie and taking photos with pros from B'n'M Poles. While I was there, I couldn't help but notice that there were ALWAYS anglers on every set of docks at the resort -- and that someone on any given dock usually had a fish on the line. They weren't big fish, necessarily, but everyone seemed to be catching their share. They were out there at first light, even it was 35 degrees outside, and they remained there when the sun went down.

Eventually I couldn't stand it.

Although I'd probably caught a 100 fish by the time we wrapped up our time on the water on day 3 and I had been out in boats fishing some of the lake's best spots with top pros, the allure of the simple dock fishing became more than I could resist. An hour or so before sunset on Day 3 I grabbed a B'n'M jig pole, tied a tandem rig with an Ugly Bug and a Road Runner Original Marabou, stuck a couple of spare lures in my sweatshirt pocket, and walked down to the dock behind my room.

It wasn't long before I was in on the catching game, and while my fish were no bigger than most others I'd seen, the basic dock fishing with a single pole in hand was every big as fun as it looked. I caught about 10 crappie before returning to my room, content and ready to begin packing my gear for the drive home.

Bugs Awaiting Making

A big part of me really wishes I'd brought my tying vice on this rip. Punisher Craft Hair has a tremendous amount of movement in the water, and I believe some of the colors I picked up on my trip will make really pretty and productive Ugly Bugs. I'm eager to put the new hair to work, at the vice and in the creek.

But then again, maybe it's just as well that the vice stayed home. I'm getting done writing that really needs to get done as I stage between the Dale Hollow and Rend Lake parts of my trip, and having the vice and all that pretty craft hair could create a serious distraction. Plus, when I do tote the vice, I only bring a sample of other materials, and if I got to tying, I'd probably find myself wishing I had a certain color of feather or package of dubbing for the bug I found myself wanting to make.

Doesn't matter. Vice isn't here. I can only envision now and go to work on new Ugly Bugs once I'm home again.

Celebrating 10 Years with 10 Trout

Asher's first fish of the morning, this brook trout, took an Ugly
Bug I had tied with fur from a stuffed dog named "Shad Fly."

The final trout I caught yesterday afternoon was nothing special, except that it was number 10 for the day. Asher and I been on nine for a while and really hoped for one more. We were celebrating Asher's 10th birthday, so finishing with 10 fish just seemed right. We were getting hungry and little chilly, though, and it was getting kind of late. I'd called last cast and truly was not planning to make another, and I probably had 10 feet left in the retrieve when the fish hit.

Trout No. 10 for the day came on the
called final cast of the afternoon.

I had wanted to take Asher to a trout stream, instead of doing the regular local pond outing, for his birthday, but on the actual day I was battling a prohibitive bug and he was on his way downhill quickly. Yesterday, one week later, we both felt a lot better, so we made our birthday trout outing and had a big time climbing rocks, wading in the river, enjoying spectacular fall colors and even catching some brook trout and rainbow trout.

If you happened to read my post about "Shad Fly," the stuffed dog I recently bought from Goodwill for $1, a jig tied from her fur produced Asher's first trout of the day, which is the one pictured above. My best success came on an Ugly Bug that combined Kenneth fur and peacock hurl.

We capped the day with a dinner stop at a Chinese buffet in Murphy.

Shad Fly's First Pups

The little white long-haired dog on the stuffed animal rack at the Goodwill store immediately caught my eye, and I knew her name, "Shad Fly," before I even spent my dollar. She's only been home about a week, but she's already beginning to produce offspring. A handful of "pups" from the first litter are pictured above. Shad fly is kind of poodle-like now, but I suppose she'll eventually look like a white schnauzer.

Ugly Runners Ready

Ugly Runners. I guess that's what you'd call 'em. Ugly Bugs tied on Road Runner heads. Whatever you want to call them, I have several tied and ready put to the test next week at North Carolina's Nantahala River, and I'm looking forward to seeing what the trout think. I have a few other ideas spinning in my head as well and am likewise eager to test those ideas. I'll tell more if they work!

With the delayed harvest season having just opened, there should be plenty of trout in the river. I just have to convince them that they want to eat.

Brown Trout Begging

Dark skies, an incoming front and oddly mild temperatures for the first half of September have brown trout begging me to come and play. I know they are calling, because I can hear them. And a few Ugly Bugs I've tied (ones I actually think are kind of pretty) really would like to be part of the game. For the same reason that this page has been too stagnant of late (magazine deadlines), I may not get a chance to play the game today. The calls seem to be getting louder, though, so we'll see what happens.

Peacocks, Angels & Hand-Tied Jigs

When my 19 year-old daughter Sarah sees peacock feathers, she sees pretty skirts for cornhusk angels. To my 7-year-old daughter Autumn the same feathers represent pieces needed for cute little dolls. To me, peacock feathers a represent jig or fly material. The iridescent green and purple strands make wonderful tail material, and also work really nicely for wrapped bodies. I use them in both smallmouth jigs and trout jigs.

Normally the peacock complements other materials, adding a little flash to a black or gray hair jig or a deeper green to an olive marabou jig. The jig above is actually all peacock.

It also works nicely for me because I get all the materials I need from Sarah's remnants. She needs the full end of the feather with the prettiest colors, and she always end up with pieces that have several strands still on them She would throw those away, so I gladly move them to my tying area. Autumn's use falls in between. She likes the full pretty feathers, but she just likes making things, so she makes her dolls, enjoys them for a while and then takes them apart and give the feathers back to Sarah!

All this peacock talk makes me want to go trout fishing.

Smokies Surprise Catch

I sometimes say that I like to fish for everything that swims, but I have to admit that I have fish in mind when I make that statement. Not that I minded Mr. Crawfish latching on to my Ugly Bug, but a craw really wasn't what I had in mind when I drifted my little hair jig toward the base of a current-swept boulder.

Seemingly the craw really wanted my bug. It was never hooked, but instead grabbed the bait and never let go. I thought I'd caught a leaf or some other debris when I felt extra weight but no real wiggling and then saw something brown spinning as I pulled it from down deep. Eventually I figured it out to the delight of my 9-year-old son, Asher, who was fishing beside me.

Even when I grabbed the craw, it only tried to pinch me with it's free claw, not wanting to let go of that jig. I wanted the jig, too, though, so I pried it free before affording Asher a closer look at my catch and then slipping the craw back into the creek.

Thinking back and looking at the picture, I'm thinking maybe I should have been rigged with a larger olive and orange Ugly Bug!

Dog Fish

Kenneth sheds. In fact, he sheds a lot. So when he got a bath yesterday, I got a big pile of black dog hair. If it turns out to be good jig material I'll be set for a long time. There's a big pile of it drying outside.

I tied one quick little Kenneth bug yesterday, just to see how manageable the material seemed, and I took it along on a short pond outing. All I can claim at this point is that the bluegills like Kenneth bugs. We'll find out about trout soon, I suspect, and I might have to whip out a few 1/8-ounce Kenneth bugs to test next week at Sturgeon Bay.

The hair looked good in the water, and the jig stayed together well. The material was less buoyant than I expected, so I might have to mix with other materials or tie bugs thicker if I want a slower sink rate.

The 'Eyes Have It

When we arrived at Orman Reservoir, it was almost hard to believe we'd traveled less than an hour from Deadwood, which sits deep in the Black Hills. Orman is flat, nearly pancake flat, with very few trees along the shore (although you do see the mountains in the distance if you look to the southwest). What seemingly doesn't change no matter which direction you travel from Deadwood is that the fishing is outstanding.

I spent a fun day at Orman with walleye pro Jim Sherman, with Lee Harstad, executive director of the Deadwood Chamber of Commerce, joining us for the afternoon. We spent most of the day casting jigs to weedy bars and caught big numbers of walleyes and smallmouths. We began the day fishing minnow-tipped curly-tailed grubs, but ended up catching most of our fish on hair jigs. My jigs of choice, of course, were Ugly Bugs. Specifically, I did best with brown and orange marabou jigs, each with a pair of brown rooster feathers flared out to suggest crawfish claws.

The walleye was a new species for my 2014 fish species list. Both walleyes and smallmouths were different from any of the nine species I'd caught the day before with Tyler French on Lake Pactola. Yet another reason why Deadwood has become one of my absolute favorite fishing destinations!

Tying Bug Bitten

I knew the tying bug had bitten me, but I'm not sure I knew how bad the bite was. Beyond the draw of the vice at home, the attraction of fur, feathers and glitzy stuff in any setting and the pattern ideas that bounce around in my head, the tying bug bite has really translated to the water. If I'm fishing, and there's any possible Ugly Bug application, that's the box I'm reaching for, and it's a huge added thrill any time I can catch my fish on jigs I've tied.

Fortunately, the fish seem pretty willing to eat my bugs. In fact, in some recent situations I've felt like they were the best thing going.

Ugly Bugs have been good to me in Deadwood. So far, I've used one of my own creations to catch brown and rainbow trout, crappie, bluegills, rock bass, northern pike, largemouths, smallmouths and walleyes. The one I picked out for lakers didn't do the job, but every other time I've tied on an Ugly Bug in three days of fishing, I've caught fish.

Of course, I've also fed more than a few bugs to rocks or trees. I guess I'll have to spend some more time tying when I get home! But first one more day of fishing.

Durability Lacking

Well, I guess need to work on my tying mechanics. The fish made pretty quick work of an Ugly Bug yesterday. The good news is that the damage was done by a dozen bream and bass landed in about 45 minutes. So apparently it looked OK when we started the afternoon. It just wasn't put together very well. And it wasn't just that the fish were so aggressive that anything would work about the same. Nathaniel and I each tried other miniature offerings -- proven 'gill getters at times -- and those didn't do the job nearly as well.

A little better finish and a dab of cement would have served me well, I suppose. In fact, I ought to invest a bit of time watching a few videos about tying mechanics. One way or another, I know I need to get some more feathers on that jighead soon! Maybe before tomorrow, in fact. Trout waters await, and I sort of think the trout might like the same pattern.

Feathers for Holly& Me

"Pretty!" Holly said, as soon as I pulled my new brown and orange marabou boa from the Walmart bag. That much we agreed on. I'd eyed the same strings of feathers a few times previously, thinking about the crawdad jigs they could become, and had finally decided to bring one home and put it to use.

Holly seemingly saw a different beauty in the feathers, though, because she immediately removed my new purchase from my hands, wrapped it around her neck and repeated, "Pretty!" Again, I could only agree.

I figure we can both enjoy the boa for now. I can trim feathers as needed to tie crawfish pattern Ugly Bugs, and she wants to throw the soft feathers over her shoulders and parade around in pretty colors, there will be plenty of feathers left to enjoy for quite some time.

Of course, when the boa does get sparse, I can always go search out another one. I wonder if Holly would think black or olive feathers were pretty?

Ugly Bugs Improving a Bit

No one would accuse my Ugly Bugs of being pretty, and I know my tying techniques don't follow the book. I do think I'm gaining better form overall, and I know the jigs I'm tying now have better durability than those from even a few months ago.

The bulk of my jigs are natural sorts, either minnow patterns like those pictured above, crawfish imitations or black attractors that look a little bit like a lot of things that trout and other fish commonly eat. I also tie some extra ugly ones with a lot of flash and a good dose of pink, because the trout seem pretty fond of those.

I'm not sure how my Ugly Bugs will fit into this week's fishing plans on Norfork Lake -- or whether they will fit in at all. Still, it's a safe bet that my bug box will be in the truck when Nathaniel and I pull out tomorrow morning and within reach when I'm on the water. I might even toss in the vice and a few materials. Just in case!

One Quick Pond Lap

The primary purpose of today's pond visit was to slide out in the canoe and grab a few jigs and bobbers we left hanging in trees and bushes yesterday when I bank-fished with a few of the smaller members of my crew. But as long as we were headed that way, Nathaniel and I figured we should tote along a rod apiece. Always time for one quick pond lap, right?

It was indeed a quick lap -- half an hour at the most -- but we did manage to each catch a fish. Nathaniel caught a nice bluegill on one of his first casts, and I snuck one bass out of the corner of the pond. Of course my favorite thing about the fish I caught was that it ate an Ugly Bug (my hand-tied jigs) -- one with a sparkly white body and a pink tail that was already tied to the rod.

Now back to writing fish stories.

One is Better than None

It might have been a stretch to visit the pond yesterday afternoon. Nathaniel and I probably convinced ourselves that it had warmed more than it had and that more afternoon remained than really was the case. Still, I'm glad we went. We were able to squeeze in one quick lap before dark, and I was able to convince one bream to eat flashy little minnow-imitating Ugly Bug. Nathaniel also managed one bite on a shaky head, but the fish didn't bite decisively enough to get hooked.

Of course, Nathaniel already had two species on his tally yesterday. He had spent the morning with a
friend trout fishing in North Carolina and caught his first brook trout and rainbow trout of 2014. He was really hoping for just one bass from the pond so he could add three species in a day, even with a cold- and warm-water mix of species. That wasn't in the cards, though.

One bonus of yesterday's outing was that we rode down to the beaver pond to give it a glance, and the water level appears to be creeping back up toward where it should be. It remains low, but it appears high enough to get the johnboat in and out reasonably. Sunny late-winter and early-spring days produced some of last year's best action on the beaver pond, so it might be almost time to move the boat back over there.