Article that was recently published by the American Museum of Fly Fishing
www.amff.org/purple-smelt-history-lesson/
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I get asked a lot about fall fly patterns.  There are a lot of great patterns out there that work in the fall.  However as my friend Rick Estes always reminds me..."in the end its up to the fish".  For me the fall brook trout like bright streamers.  Patterns with orange, yellow, red and yes often blue work.  The patterns that work are tied on #2-4 7x hooks.  I like the Partridge Heritage Streamer Hooks, they are stout and can handle the beating the spawning fish dish out.  I often share with tyers who ask me about the hook size, the larger patterns often catch the largest fish....at least in the fall. 

Two effective patterns are the Orange Sunshine and the Allagash Lake.  They fit the bill color wise with orange and on the Orange Sunshine I use a bleached grizzly over the orange.  The Allagash Lake uses a smokey grizzly.  All the feathers come from Ewing Feather Birds.  This month Ewing's Grizzly of the Month color is bleached grizzly and I can see myself using this on a number of patterns.  Off the subject a bit but recently while I was tying at the American Museum of Fly Fishing a friend was looking for that exact bleached color for some saltwater patterns.

​Good luck fishing this fall.  I'll post a few more patterns real soon.  If you need the recipe just email me.  nhflytyer@icloud.com

About once a year I sit down and tie up a handful of these flies.  Usually I end up with two and the friends I fish with are the beneficiaries of the remainder.  This is a true New Hampshire pattern which was originated by Bob Broad.  Bob ran the Brown Owl Tackle Shop in Errol, NH.  Most of what I have learned about this fly has come through my good friend Rick Estes.  I like to tell him that he ties this fly the best and each time I sit down I look at his to get mine just right.  

The fly is to be fished in the surface film, imitating a struggling adult stonefly which hatches in late June and July in the Errol area. This hatch occurs right at dark and beyond. It is also seen in the Connecticut River in Pittsburg, NH. My friend Chuck Cosseboom uses these on the Magalloway River with great success.  These stones are very large and I often make a few in size 4 and then in size 8.  

One of the common mistakes of this fly is to over dress it.  This often occurs if you use too much bucktail for the collar.  Additionally if you flare the bucktail too much it will end up in a less than desired result.  I tie my bucktail in on top of the last 3 wraps of the oval gold tinsel and then I touch the tread with varnish and lock the fibers in.  As the varnish sets I pinch the bucktail to get it to lie more parallel to the hook.  

​Over the years I've looked for the right color grizzly hackle for the fly and recently I found it in a Ewing Feather Birds Brown Grizzly Hen.  Years ago I remember standing on the dock of my grandfathers camp just below Bragg Bay on the Androscoggin River in Errol.  Just at dusk (and if you could handle the black flies) we would see trout take these stones floating in the surface film.  It's one of the essential NH patterns.....never go north without it.

Hook: Partridge 4-7x (you can tie these up to a size 4 but 6 and 8 are the most common)
THREAD: BROWN (6/0 DANVILLE #47)
BODY: Oval gold tinsel, 
Collar: Sparse yellow buck tail from the brown side of the tail near the rump end, extend the 
tips slightly beyond the bend of the hook 
Wing: Teal flank feather, tent style to slightly beyond the bend of the hook, (roll the teal in your fingers before tying it in)
Hackle: Soft brownish grizzly, originally wrapped like a collar and trimmed on top.
Head: Brown thread 

The Marlborough Fly Fishing Show is a little over a month away and it is always a great event.  ​https://flyfishingshow.com/marlborough-ma/  I'm excited to be a part of a great group of featured tyers who will be presenting at the show.  Great friends and tyers like Tim Flagler and Joe Cordeiro to name a few will be presenting as well.  If your attending the show please consider stopping by my table and or watching my presentation.  I'll be demonstrating some streamers that are not too difficult to tie and have been highly effective throughout New England.
​ Featured Fly Tiers:Friday
11:30 Alan Caolo – Tying the Versatile and Deadly Diablo Crab
1:00 Ed Engle – Tying Tricos
2:30 Tim Flagler – Tips, Techniques & Tools to Make Fly Tying Easier
4:00 Gary Borger – Universal Nymph Designs
Saturday
10:00 Scott Biron-The Versatile New England Streamer
11:30 Alan Caolo – The Timeless Deceiver
1:00 Ed Engle – Tying Blue-winged Olives
2:30 Joe Cordeiro- Techniques for Tying the Flatwing Fly
4:00 Bob Clouser – Clouser Crippled Diver
Sunday
10:30 Joe Cordeiro – Techniques for Tying the Flatwing Fly
11:45 Bob Clouser – Ostrich Added to Old Effective Patterns
1:00 Gary Borger – Unusual and Unique Hackling Techniques
2:15 Ed Engle – Tying Midges and Other Tiny Flies
Presentations subject to changes and additions.

Once again I will be offering a number of fly tying classes this year through NH Fish & Game.  Follow the information posted on this website under Classes.  These all fill up quickly and as of today we have classes through this year posted.  Look for both Intermediate and Beginner classes for 2019 soon.

I'm prepping for the American Fly Fishing Museum's on 8-11-18 in Manchester VT.  If you are in the area please stop by and say hello.  I'll have these fly plates and more on my table.  The first plate is an educational breakdown of how to tie a Babbs Ghost Streamer.  Always easier seeing the steps like that than just trying to explain it to people when they ask.  The second plate is of some great Ora Smith fly patterns.  The last image is of the Governor Aiken Fly, its the VT State Fly.

Each year I look forward to my week at Camp Barry on the grounds of the Berlin Fish Hatchery and each year the week shoots by so fast.  In a short period of time we teach the campers so much about fishing, both fly and bait, knots, fish identification, fish handling and much much more.  Every camper learns to tie flies and then uses their fly to fish with, often catching their first fish while fly fishing.  Its quite a neat thing to hear "today was a great day, I caught my first fish fly fishing on a fly I tied this morning".  Our days are long and its not unusual to be tying flies at 5am because we ran out of ones that were working the previous day.  

This year we were fishing one of the local ponds and we had a light cahill fly hatch followed about 60 minutes later by a dark dun fly hatch.  We used that entire sequence to educated the campers that were fly fishing with us at the time.  That night ended with all the instructors in head lamps while fishing on the pond. 

Two days are spent fishing the Androscoggin River below the Pontook Dam catching this year dozens of rainbows and browns.  For me the time on the Androscoggin allows me to relive many days of my youth fishing with my grandfather who owed one of the first camps on the base of Braggs Bay.  I  feel lucky to share what knowledge I have with the campers about fishing that river.

Camp wrapped up last Friday and we already have started planing for next year.  Areas we can improve, experiences we can expand on as we once again prepare for 2019 Fish Week as a Let's Go Fishing Volunteer for NH Fish and Game.  

The photo below is a classic, the camper missed a strike from a brown trout when he looked at the camera (you can see my reaction).  It became a teachable moment and he did not miss the next strike.

One of my friends is getting married next week and he asked me if I would make some brooch pins for his wedding party.  He had originally chosen the Grey Ghost streamer fly pattern but after deciding on gray suits changed his mind.  We tested out the Carrie Streamer pattern the Victory but finally he settled on the Black Ghost Custom.  This fly was Carrie Stevens rendering of the Herb Welch fly.  It was fun to tie and had its challenges.  First we did not get the hooks with the pins on until last week, so I was under the gun to get these done.  Second, I have made only a few brooch pins and they were done with Peggy Brenner, they were hair wing flies.  These have two posts on the far side of the hook.  Most have one post or a pin.  We needed the two posts because of the length of the hook shank to keep it from rotating on the jacket.  With two post the rib spacing got challenging as the posts were hand done and not exactly in the same spot on each hook.  The post closets to the eye crowded the far side wing, cheek and jungle cock which took some adjustment on each of the flies.  As with many of these the first one was a breeze, it was trying to get the rest to match that was the challenge.  They came out great, they were fun to do and I'm sure they will all look great wearing them on June 2, 2018.