If you’re a fisherman anywhere near Boston, it’s time to get out there. Although this week you might have to dodge the rain drops. The stripers are in. In fact, reports are they’ve been in in some harbor locations for close to a month now. Plenty of fish around the airport. And Quincy Bay is reported full of now only stripers but near the mouth mackerel and herring too. Everything is ahead of schedule this year due to the exceptionally mild winter and warm early spring. Would not be suprised at all if we see bluefish in the first half of June.
I wanted to pass along along links to a couple of retrospective articles on Jack published just this past month. The first is by Dave Souza of the Fall River (MA) Herald News, a longtime friend and supporter of Jack’s work. The second is by Elizabeth Laden, the publisher and editor of the Island Park (ID) News. I’ve never met Elizabeth but I know second hand a lot of the stories she relates and surely she’s a member of Jack’s “western family.”
And not coincidentally the term, “family” is what struck me most after reading these two pieces. For a man with few blood relatives, Jack had an amazing ability to inspire and create family wherever he went. And of course, he went everywhere. So he had a Boston family, a western US family, a Florida family, a Caribbean family. He had cousins in Europe and brothers in Africa, South American sisters, Canadian uncles and New Zealand aunts.
Both very fine reads. Thanks to Dave and Elizabeth for sending them along.
Here’s another tying video of a Gartside pattern, the GSS Emerger. This is an extremely simple pattern to tie and very effective not only for trout but for panfish too. It’s tied completely with olive GSS. The video is by Jim Misiura and Jim does a great job illustrating the pattern.
Jack loved tying wet flies and emerger patterns. They appealed to him on a number of level. He found them elegant in their simplicity. Their basic “bugginess” appealed to his impressionistic bent as a tyer. Also Jack loved the tradition of tying and nothing is more traditional than a wet fly. His book Secret Flies includes a number of these patterns. You can also find tying instructions for a GSS Wet Fly here.
This past weekend saw the Bear’s Den Fly Shop’s 14th annual fly fishing show. Every year Scott Wessels and his family do a great job putting on this free show to promote fishing, friends, and fun. A few photos (click to enlarge)…
Masahito Sato tying one of his corsair-head streamers.
Bob Popovics shared some great stories of tarpon fishing with Jack in the Keys.
Famed flats fisher Dick Brown demonstrated some of his new bonefish patterns.
Dave Nelson tied some beautiful old-school wound marabou streamers.
Pat Cohen made some amazing creations out of spun deer hair.
Dave Skok fly in the night before from fishing in the Carolinas.
When I saw Jamie Boyle in a Yankees hat my first question was, “Did you lose a bet?” He had. To Popovics.
A friend Kathy Slade sent me this picture she took last summer of an odd gelatinous mass she found on Ferry Beach in southern Maine. She had no idea what it was emailed the picture to the Gulf of Maine Research Institute who in turn sent it on to their scientists. A free something or other to the first person to correctly name what it is.
I think if Jack were still alive he would be making a lot of tying videos. It was something we talked about and I wish we’d done more of it. I was reminded of this today when I was talking on the phone with a tyer from Wisconsin, describing one of Jack’s signature patterns, the Soft Hackle Streamer. It’s a fly that is at once very simple and amazingly effective. It can and has caught just about everything, from bonefish to catfish to tarpon to carp.
In the course of our conversation I was describing the blood marabou you need to tie the pattern correctly. The tyer hadn’t heard of blood marabou and it took me a little to explain how it differs from standard quill. When I got off the phone I wondered if anyone had made a video of its tying steps. So I did a quick internet search. And the answer was yes. Several.
Now one of the great things about the Soft Hackle Streamer is how adaptable to change it is. So not surprisingly, of the videos I found, no two tied it exactly the same. And none of them tied it quite in the way Jack did (granting that Jack himself tied it in a variety of styles).
The video below, from Joe Cornwall of Ohio, is very good (no comment on the opening music, tho ). If you’ve never tied the fly before, it’s well worth a watch, as is one by Jim Misiura. Joe does a good job emphasizing some of the things critical to understanding the pattern: its ‘breathability”; the importance of using blood marabou; the method of winding the marabou as hackle; and the importance of combing out the fly (Jack used a fly or eyelash comb rather than a tooth brush).
There also are a few differences worth noting between how Jack tied the fly and how Joe ties it:
Jack did not to my knowledge ever tie the pattern on short-shank hooks, usually using a Mustad 9671 or equivalent. (When tying Soft Hackle Streamers for tarpon, he used long-shank hooks, tying the fly on the rear third of the shank and leaving the front two-thirds bare. This protects it some from the tarpon’s sandpaper mouth.)
Jack tied the pattern with a collar, usually of folded wood duck flank. (On his New Wave Soft Hackle Streamer he used the lower, downy end of a grizzly saddle feather). He believed the collar served a very important function: it helps the head maintain a consistent shape. Specifically, it helps prevent the marabou from “jelly-fishing” forward during pauses in your retrieve.
For those of you in or around Boston, there are still lots of fish around, including some big ones! I’ve seen blitzes this week along Revere Beach, Nahant’s Short Beach, and the Lynn/Swampscott shoreline–all within wading range. Sunday night I gave a ride “home” to some friends temporarily moored in Salem Harbor. Their dingy was at a marina near the power plant and wow was there a ton of bait there. And stripers feeding on them. So much bait scattering it was like a rainstorm. I think I’m going to need to spend more time exploring the Salem waterfront next season.
Tonight’s snow and frigid temperatures are a sign of things to come but I don’t think are enough to push the fish out. So if you have the time and inclination, get out there!
After a summer immersed in activity, the fall offers a time of respite, a chance to catch your breath, reflect on what’s been, and catch up with old friends, even as you’re marking the days down to winter.
On the old friends score, I met up with Gartside cohorts Dale Linder, Mel Harris, and Tom Kennedy for dinner one evening last week. We even got in a little fishing afterwards (see Tom in picture). Dave Skok, another local Gartsider of repute, could not be there as he’s gone for the month, fishing the Martha’s Vineyard Striped Bass and Bluefish Derby as he does every year. A couple days later Dale and I cruised the Seatoad along Revere Beach looking for fish. Didn’t find any but it was a beautiful, warm, sunny fall afternoon and great to be out on the water.
Be sure to check out Stuart Patterson’s article on the Gartside Gurgler in this month’s online edition of Florida Fly Fishing Magazine. You may recognize some of the material that was reproduced from jackgartside.com and from Jack’s book Scratching the Surface. Another old friend, Masahito Sato, is also working on an article on Jack. I’ll post a link when I know when and where it’s going to appear.
Last spring long time Gartsider Iain Sorrel launched Saxon Tackle. Saxon produces and sells rods and other tackle for the emerging carp fishing market (emerging applies to the US…in Europe carp fishing has been an obsession for a long time now). If you’re interested in carp fishing, or have friends who are, you’ll find some great information on Saxon Tackle’s web site.
Received this message from our good friend Ed Mitchell about a disease ravaging striped bass populations in the Chesapeake Bay. Frightening stuff. Please read:
Mike, Stripers Forever has started a drive to raise money for mycobacteriosis research. With 75 percent of the bass in the Bay now infected, myco poses a huge threat to the future of fishery. I’ve attached our press release and a brief document from the lead research guy at the Virigina Institute for Marine Science. Could you please make your angling friends aware of this drive? Its a worthy cause…tax deductable too.
FUNDING INITIATIVE FOR RESEARCH ON DEADLY STRIPED BASS DISEASE
Stripers Forever, the conservation organization advocating for responsible stewardship of wild striped bass along the Atlantic Coast, has announced an outreach initiative to raise money for research on mycobacteriosis, a deadly fish disease that is increasingly prevalent in the Chesapeake Bay where the bulk of stripers that migrate up and down the Atlantic Coast are spawned. “Myco” is believed to be nearly always fatal to infected striped bass and can create serious health problems for anglers and anyone else handling those fish before they are cooked. Fishery scientists estimate that more than 75 percent of all striped bass in the Chesapeake Bay system are infected with myco.There is at present no known cure for this insidious disease which represents a major threat to the well-being of stripers and thus the future of recreational and commercial striped bass fishing from Maine to North Carolina.
The fund raising appeal being administered by Stripers Forever is called The Mycobacteriosis Research Initiative (MRI). Donations to MRI will benefit Virginia Institute of Marine Science (VIMS), the leading authority on myco. Checks should be made payable to “VIMS Foundation” (write “For Myco Research” on the memo line) and mailed to VIMS Foundation, P.O. Box 1693, Williamsburg, VA 23187-8779. A link to a secure site for credit card donations appears along with more information about myco under featured links on the left side of the Stripers Forever home page (stripersforever.org). All contributions are tax deductible and will go into a dedicated myco research account. Visitors to the site can sign up for membership in Stripers Forever at no charge.
Dick Talleur passed away several weeka ago. Truly one of the nicest guys you could ever hope to meet, not to mention a fly tyer of legendary status. It was always a treat to visit Dick’s booth at the shows…you always got a smile and and a lot of good advice. Take care Dick.
I wanted to pass along along links to a couple of retrospective articles on Jack published just this past month. The first is by Dave Souza of the Fall River (MA) Herald News, a longtime friend and supporter of Jack’s work. The second is by Elizabeth Laden, the publisher and editor of the Island Park (ID) News. I’ve never met Elizabeth but I know second hand a lot of the stories she relates and surely she’s a member of Jack’s “western family.”
I think if Jack were still alive he would be making a lot of tying videos. It was something we talked about and I wish we’d done more of it. I was reminded of this today when I was talking on the phone with a tyer from Wisconsin, describing one of Jack’s signature patterns, the Soft Hackle Streamer. It’s a fly that is at once very simple and amazingly effective. It can and has caught just about everything, from bonefish to catfish to tarpon to carp.
). If you’ve never tied the fly before, it’s well worth a watch, as is one by Jim Misiura. Joe does a good job emphasizing some of the things critical to understanding the pattern: its ‘breathability”; the importance of using blood marabou; the method of winding the marabou as hackle; and the importance of combing out the fly (Jack used a fly or eyelash comb rather than a tooth brush).
After a summer immersed in activity, the fall offers a time of respite, a chance to catch your breath, reflect on what’s been, and catch up with old friends, even as you’re marking the days down to winter.
Received this message from our good friend Ed Mitchell about a disease ravaging striped bass populations in the Chesapeake Bay. Frightening stuff. Please read:
Dick Talleur passed away several weeka ago. Truly one of the nicest guys you could ever hope to meet, not to mention a fly tyer of legendary status. It was always a treat to visit Dick’s booth at the shows…you always got a smile and and a lot of good advice. Take care Dick.
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