Streamer Ways

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I still remember the days when people used to use their phones to call up their friends in order to set up a day on the water.  We now live in a time where texting has become the primary method of pre fishing communication.  As long as fishing is still part of the overall equation I am not going to complain especially when Nick Wilson volunteers to pick me up for a day of fishing at 7:00 am on the Ides of March.  I initially had planned on Nick and I implementing a "Divide and Conquer" approach once we arrived at the river until Nick proposed that I teach him my Streamer Ways.

In the world of Fly Fishing there are dry flies, nymphs, wet flies, terrestrials and streamers.  Streamers are a type of fly usually designed to imitate a bait fish of some sort.  A bait fish is any fish that could conceivably be consumed by another fish.

 It was only last spring when I personally made the decision to go from, "Streamer Dreamer" to "Streamer Dream Teamer".  Since then I have fished streamers obsessively and nearly exclusively.  I have teamed up with some of the best and the brightest in the world of streamer fishing  to take "Streamer Dream Teamers" from a couple of words scrawled on a restaurant napkin to a group of visionaries now numbering in the fours.  Perhaps someday we will even have our own Facebook page.

While I feel as though I still have a lot to learn about fishing streamers I do believe I am qualified at this point to teach a little bit of Streamer 101.

Nick will probably never become as obsessed as I am about fishing streamers because he truly loves fishing dry flies and terrestrials.  I could go as far to say that, "It's the size of the rise that catches Nick's eyes".  The term rise refers to the disturbance on the waters surface when a trout engulfs a food item that is floating.  But I am glad that he sees the value in becoming a better streamer fisherman for those times when dry flies and terrestrials are not the key. 


While many days on the water that Nick and I have shared in the past have evolved into contests to determine who was a better fisherman today we would lay down our swords and fish together.  I was humbled that Nick asked me for help and I was determined to be the best teacher I could be.  I got the sense that Nick was ready to soak up as much information from me as he could because over the last year he has seen the average size of my catches rise considerably.

Does this guy look ready to catch fish with streamers or what?

I can't remember how Nick ended up with an Olive Conehead Wooly Bugger on the end of his line but what is undeniable is that the Olive Bugger is a veritable fish catching machine.  Can you see how much the Bugger resembles a bait fish?

"Once a streamer is cast out it must be brought back in by means of stripping.  There is no wrong way to strip because any way will eventually catch a fish but it is good to experiment with slow retrieves and if those don't seem to be working you can try fast or medium retrieves with intermittent pauses." 


 That is basically what I told Nick and it wasn't long before he had the first fish of the day.

I was really happy to see him experience success and it was almost as fun as if I had caught the fish myself.  It kind of reminded me of the day I got him to put away his dry flies and give nymphing a try.

This photo is from April of 2012.  It was taken on the Kinnickinnic River in Western Wisconsin.  I don't know if he has gotten rid of that ratty old hat yet or not.

All kidding aside we continued to make our way upstream and when we got to a spot that I thought was too shallow to hold fish I continued to proceed forward.  Nick knew better and started to cast where I was about to walk and seconds later I was ripping my camera out of the dry bag.

At least I was in prime position to capture the battle that ensued.  It wasn't long before another one would bite the dust at the hands of Noodle Nick.  I recently informed him that Noodle Nick was going to be his new nickname after he purchased a 10 foot fly rod to use for Steelheading.

  Coincidentally it was the same 7 weight fly rod he used to land this beautiful brown trout.

After seeing Nick land two nice browns to my none I was in good spirits but ready to end this slump I was in.  I am sure glad that world famous fly fisherman John Barr invented the Slump Buster for precisely this predicament.

Here is  a view of the Slump Buster both wet and dry.

And here is a photo of me holding the trout that ended my slump.  I was so happy.

If you look closely at the photo you can see that the trout already had a small bait fish hanging out of his mouth when he attacked my streamer.  The attack could have been an act of territorial aggression.

 Nick and I have always had a gentlemens agreement that works out nicely for the both of us.  He drives and I buy lunch.  It's hard to beat A&W after a day on the water.

The End

Eddie Rivard Fly Fishing is now on Facebook

https://www.facebook.com/eddierivardflyfishing

How Eddie got his groove back

Eddie is a highly successful, thirty something resident of the Twin cities who is persuaded by his trout fishing idol Ger to take a well deserved outing into Wisconsin's Pierce County.  While he takes in the scenery of the Rush River he catches trout and rekindles his love of fishing and exploring after taking a nearly a month off after having surgery on both of his feet.  The experience once again forces Eddie to take a personal inventory of his life and try to find a balance between his desire to fly fish, his need for companionship, and the responsibilities of being a small business owner.

I had been planning on waiting another week before venturing out but last night after Ger sent me photos of some of the trophy brown trout he'd been catching my feet miraculously felt better all of the sudden.  Well I have no problem finding my own places to fish I couldn't resist the urge to follow in Ger's footsteps.

Here are the photos that Ger sent me.  I call them magic healing photos.

You would think that someone would be happy after a day like that but when you are the best all you can think about is the one that got away.

Before leaving home I gave Trouticus a kiss goodbye.  Trouticus is the 20 inch Brown Trout I caught on the Willow River last August.  I just picked up the mount last week from Scott Miller Taxidermy in Prescott WI and I couldn't be more pleased with it.

Upon arrival at the river it didn't take me long at all to pick up Ger's trail.  I am a self trained tracker as well as an intuitive.  I notice things that are out of place and out of the ordinary.  I could tell by the shape of these prints that they were indeed human.  After measuring the size of each track and the distance between them I was 20% certain that these tracks were made by my friend.

I noticed sheets of ice in the branches of this tree well above the waters surface.  At first I was befuddled by this but I have always been amazed at how well I can figure things out when I use my brain to think about them.  I theorize that at one point the branches were weighted down enough by heavy snow so that they dipped into the river and collected ice.  After the snow fell off the branches they rose above the stream taking the sheets of ice with them.

This is called, "Shelf Ice".  I will talk about it more later in the program.

First Blood.  This Brown Trout was fooled by the yellow Zonker.  He chased it for a few casts before I finally got him to commit.  The main reason I took a photo of him is because I wanted to have at least one fish photo and was worried that I wouldn't catch anymore after him.

Worry. Why do I let myself worry.  It wasn't long before I caught this 15 inch beauty by casting my Conehead Wooly Bugger onto and ice shelf and dragging it off letting in sink into the depths.  It never had a chance to hit the bottom before she scooped it up into her jaws.

 I usually like to smile when taking a selfy.  That way people will know for sure that I was so happy the very moment the shutter snapped.

Besides catching fish I also partook in some amateur paleontology and archaeology.  I was very impressed when I spotted this jaw bone from a Stegosaurus.  If you notice the teeth protruding out of the bone that is how you can tell that it is a jaw bone.  How I determined it was from a Stegosaurus I am still not sure but lets just say I had a feeling.

 I noticed this rock was just a little too perfect isosceles triangle like to be produced by mother nature alone.  When I picked it up I descended into a trance like state where I had visions of  an ancient stone mason working this rock to fit his needs.  After dropping it back into the river I awoke from trance and things were back to normal.

Speaking of being back to normal I was able to make it through the day without having my feet hurt too much.  I am really looking forward to a successful 2014 campaign.

See you on the river!

The End

Eddie Rivard Fly Fishing is now on Facebook

https://www.facebook.com/eddierivardflyfishing

The Gopher Three

The rivalry between the football teams of the Minnesota Golden Gophers and the Wisconsin Badgers is among the most storied in all of American collegiate sports.  In the the fall of 2013 the battle spilled onto the field of fly tying and that's where things became really exciting.

The confidence I had in my Gophers had been bolstered by the success they had at the start of their 2013 campaign as well as the faith I had in head coach Jerry Kill.  Ever since I listened to coach Kills introductory press conference I have been confident that he is the one that will eventually lead Gopher Nation to Pasadena.

The confidence that my friend Kyle Schaefer has in his Wisconsin Badgers is primarily based on results.  Since Barry Alvarez took over the Badger's football program in the early 90's they have been on quite a run.

During the weeks running up to the big game tensions between fans of the two teams had never been higher.  I'm surprised I didn't delete Kyle as a Facebook friend during that period of time but you know what they say about keeping your enemies closer.

During one of our conversations about fly fishing streamers I changed the subject to football and challenged Kyle to a friendly wager.  Whoever's team lost the game would owe the other guy 3 streamers tied with their own team's mascot's fur.  So if I lost I would owe him three streamers tied with Gopher Fur and if he lost it would be 3 streamers tied with Badger Fur for me.

After the Badgers cruised to an easy 20-7 victory over my Golden Gophers I was devastated.  Not only would Paul Bunyan's Ax be spending another year in Madison it also meant that I was going to have to learn how to tie flies.

Its not that I had never tied a fly before its just that I have yet to become awesome at it like I am at everything else I do in my life.  I get these headaches every time I sit down to tie.  The pressure I put on myself is made even worse by the fact that my dad is pretty much one of the best ever fly tiers.  If I didn't call him dad I would probably call him, "Mr. Perfect".

While one can purchase Badger Fur at pretty much any fly shop I quickly discovered that Gopher Fur was not readily available.  I guess the tanning of gopher hides is not "Economically Viable".

While I have a long track record of giving up every time I have ever been faced with a challenge in life I was determined to lose this bet in style.  Kyle didn't care if I used actual gopher fur for the streamers but I did.  I knew full well that if he had lost I would have demanded streamers tied with badger fur.  My search finally took me to the website Taxidermy.net

 Never in my life did I think that I would ever end up on this corner of the internet but I heard that is where people go when they needed things.  I put out a plea to see if there was anybody that could help me.

When a man from Glenwood Minnesota named Daniel B said that he was willing to help I was ecstatic.  I guess there still are awesome people in this world.

I wasn't sure what the going rate is these days for a tanned gopher hide so I figured I would make it worth Daniel B's time by offering him 50 dollars to help me out.

The next few weeks felt like an eternity.  I would have loads of anticipation every day as I ran out to check the mailbox only to walk back to my front door sullen with disappointment.  Then one day I was happy to see that I had received and envelope addressed to me from Daniel B.

 When I opened the envelope a found a letter.

I also found what looked to be one tanned gopher hide.

I was so pleased with the finished product that I decided to sit down and write Daniel a letter thanking him for his fine craftsmanship.

I was relieved when word came that Daniel had received both the money I had sent him as well as the thank you note.

I spent the next few weeks gathering the other supplies that I would need to complete the streamers.  I bought any fly tying materials I could find that were colored maroon and gold.

This last week I have spent recovering from foot surgery at my parents house in Taylors Falls Mn.  I knew that I would be able to use this downtime to complete the flies.

My surgery was on Wednesday morning and by Thursday evening I was feeling well enough to get started on the gopher streamers.  I spent a couple hours getting everything unpacked and set up to tie.

 Once I had everything set up I became tired and had tiers block.  My dad wasn't tired though and he even had his gophers sweatshirt on.

When I went back down to the basement to resume my tying Friday morning I saw that dad had left me some examples of his work.

Knowing that my flies would probably not look as good I had a deadline staring me in the face so I just started tying.  My first concoction turned out pretty good.  Hopefully it will catch a fish.

For my second fly I wanted it to be articulated the only problem was that I had never made an articulated streamer before.  When my dad arrived home I asked him for some help.

 Beadalon Wire works well for making articulated streamers.

 Don't forget the beads.  Some guys use two, others use three.

 The third fly in the series would be modeled after the Dahlberg Diver.  I found out that the secret to making streamers using deer hair was just to start doing it.  It's really not that difficult.

I was pretty proud of the finished product.

Go Gophers!