Blog Archives

Clean Bench Giveaway Results

6/27/2014

After a week of tying flies from scraps I successfully cleaned my bench and filled a Tacky fly box. Before we get to the winner a little commentary if I may. When I started, the task seemed easy enough, but it proved more challenging than I thought. Often I missed an ingredient which would have produced a higher total. Not to mention I didn't have basic materials like pheasant tail. Hackle was in short supply and poorly sized (no wonder they were scraps). While not required, I tried to tie several different patterns knowing the winner may want variety. So instead of 25 RS2's I stripped the dun hackle for quills, used the antron for wings and tied a couple of AK's Spinners. Peacock herl was another rationed material though I had plenty. I stretched it out to include midges, beetles and even an October caddis or two. There was more foam than I knew what to do with, but I ran out of legs for more ants and hoppers. In my daily tying I'm fortunate to have a seemingly endless supply of materials and this exercise made me think through my patterns.

Thanks to everyone who guessed and my apologies to those who had greater expectations of me! And the total is....

Congratulations to Michael who had the closest guess without going over at 53

Total - 55 Including:
Charlie Boy Hoppers Charlie Boy Crickets
AK Spinners
October Caddis
Chernobyl Ant
Big Red Midge
Disco Midge
Green Rock Worm
Hammer Creek PSV
Hi-Vis Beetles
Puterbaugh Caddis
Kaufmann Stone
Midge Larva
RS2's
Peacock Midges

2
2
2
2
2
4
4
2
5
4
2
2
7
7
7

And a one of a kind Hammer Creek original Articulated Zuddler Cougar. Made from two unfinished flies and the scrap that couldn't make anything else! The winner of this fine product must use it at least once and document any fish it catches...

Help me say thanks to the fine folks at Tacky Fly Fishing for sponsoring the event and check out their boxes at Tackyflyfishing.com.

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Best of the Net

6/27/2014

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Thought I'd try out a new recurring segment I'm calling "Best of the Net." Throughout the week I post the videos and articles on Twitter & Facebook I find interesting from around the web. On Friday I'll gather the best of the net and you can vote for your favorite using the poll. At the end of the year (if the segment is still going) we'll have tournament of all the weekly winners to decide a grand champion.

If you have a nominee for "Best of the Net" email me at: HammerCreekFlyFishing@outlook.com.

Our Two Hands

A new film based kickstarter campaign from Bloodknots. Our Two Hands is an examination of fisher-people in pursuit of Salmonids with a swung fly and their collective desire to ensure the species survival. If the film is half as good as the trailer it should be phenomenal. Check out their campaign HERE

Bug Collars

Bug Collars by Boozeman Fly Goods:

Bug Collars are doughnut shaped brass beads that allow the tyer to quickly and easily add a "hot spot" to their fly. No extra dubbing where you really didn't need it. No more wrapping thread fifty times behind the bead. Just slide a Bug Collar on the hook. Done.

2014 5-Weight Shootout

From Trident Fly Fishing: virtually everyone has an opinion on what, or who, makes the best 5-weight fly rod. So, we decided to join the crowd. But, in typical Trident fashion, we’re going to take a different twist on the traditional fly rod review. As always, this shootout will be completely data driven, and we’re going to give you better and more objective results than you’ve seen anywhere else.

Craft Beer 100 Shot Fly Tying Challenge Teaser

From Vagabondfly: This is just the teaser to the full length video. A quick snapshot of the day to whet your appetite. If you are into fly fishing, fly tying and craft beer, then this is for you... enjoy!

Fly Dreamers

I may be late to the game here, but I signed up for a Fly Dreamers account. It's different other forums out there...more of a Facebook feel. I dig it.

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Clean Bench Giveaway

6/23/2014

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My mess could be your flies!

In college I started each semester with optimism for organization. With highlighter in hand and three ring binder to tow I’d surely take academia by storm with my studying efficiency. A month later my highlighter would end up in a decorative bottle of Absolute and my binder repurposed as either a large coaster or Hot Pocket dinnerware. While the years since brought incremental maturity I still find myself falling into the same bad habits. I came down stairs to my “tying room” this morning and this is what I saw. It couldn’t have been more than a couple weeks ago when I cleaned my bench vowing to only get out components for the patterns in process and before ending a session return them to their proper place. Now my materials read like a fly tying timeline. Sadly this isn’t the worst it’s looked though I take comfort in knowing I’m not alone. I’ve seen some of your benches! It got me wondering how many flies I could tie with just the scrap or items left out. So we’re going to find out.

Winning guess wins all the flies and a Tacky Fly Box

Starting today I’ll tie as many flies as I can with the materials at hand and give them to the person who can guess the total at the end of the week. Closest fly tally without going over (AKA Prices Right Rules) wins. You can place your guess here in the comments section, on my Twitter & Facebook post or a different guess on all three to increase your odds. Likes and shares are appreciated. In the event of a tie (get it?) I’ll think of some creative way to break it. Did I mention the fine folks at Tacky Fly Fishing are throwing in one of their awesome “Catch All” fly boxes to house them all? If you haven’t gotten your hands on one, trust me they are phenomenal.

Close up, that looks like a lot of Deer Hair...

Here are some things to consider when making your guess:

I’ll supply Hooks, Thread, Beads
No thread midges
Likely scraps from these patterns: Charlie Boy Hoppers, Beetles, Ants and Kaufmann’s Stone
I’ll get creative in substitutes
You may win some ugly, I mean innovative Hammer Creek original patterns the cleaner my bench gets
These Tacky Boxes hold a ton of flies if my scrap tying doesn’t fill it up I’ll be throw in some of my favorites for the winner

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Field Journal from 6/13/14

6/18/2014

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I mostly fish in the morning, but (apparently) once every full moon I get a chance to fish my favorite waters in the evening. Nothing against late afternoon fishing, in fact I really enjoy it, but it works better for my schedule to get out in the AM. But this Friday the 13th was an exception and perhaps an early father’s day gift. I’m also afforded the opportunity to fish Friday afternoons due to company summer hours which ends the day at 2:00PM (sometimes a little sooner). So during the day I started putting my gear together and uncharacteristically strung my rod and tied on my flies with conditions sight unseen. From the USGS site I knew the water was dropping and flows were lower, but potentially still off color. I had an itch to fish a hopper dropper set up, so come hell or in this case high water I was going to at least start with it. My rig included a Chernobyl Ant with a size 16 Copper John trailing behind it. I’d like to tell you I selected it because it’s one of my favorite runoff patterns, the copper flash catches the fishes eye or because of its weight it gets down quick in fast water (all of which are true, of course), but I picked it almost entirely based on the fact that I hadn’t fished a Copper John much this season and wanted to get it wet. I had a couple stops to make along the way and arrived to a semi-vacant stream at about 2:30ish. My prior preparation made it easy to get on water shortly after. I ran into one angler on my way to the first hole who was rocking a sweet MN Rep your Water hat (need to get me one of those). The report was grim; he fished a couple hours, threw everything at them and only caught a fish or two. After the quick debriefing I started to curb my expectations for the day. As expected the water wasn’t high, but was off color. Shortly after we parted I made my first cast into a hole the angler had passed over. Instantly I hooked up with a nice brown. Not long after that I landed another, both of which were above average size for the stream and with plenty of fight in them. Just lucky I thought considering I hadn’t really detected the take either time. The first was at the end of the drift when I picked up to cast again and the last after a little mend. My strike confidence grew on the third fish whose stature made for a subtle twitch of the Chernobyl. Throughout the rest of the day they wouldn’t leave the Copper John alone hitting it as soon as it landed on the water. I desperately wanted a pig to rise to the dry, but it was not meant to be. The day brought a dozen or so fish to hand and all but a couple oversized. After the first handful of fish I started to really appreciate the look of the evening stream. Sure it’s the same water but something about it felt different. I started to wrap up the day at about 5:00 so I didn’t get into the magical evening hatch, but it was still a great couple hours. As I worked my way out I noticed an inch worm hang by its silk dangling in the water. The current pulled it back and it looked as though it was jumping upstream. I watched it more than my indicator until I felt a tug on my line ultimately resulting in the best fish of the day. Just one of those days when I was more lucky than good.

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Guest Contributor: Chris Rohr - General Cigar Co. Inc.

6/11/2014

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I struggled a bit finding the right spot for this post. It's part blog, part gear review and certainly a public service announcement for all you cigar smokers out there (may be a little advertisement thrown is as well). I enjoy a good cigar while fishing and after writing the blog The "Cigar Fish" Chris Rohr of General Cigar Co. Inc. introduced me to a product which now accompanies every trip out. Chris is an avid fly fisherman, cigar aficionado and now guest contributor to Hammer Creek Fly Fishing. Assuming we aren't alone in our paired interests I asked if he would write a piece explaining a bit more about the product along with some of his favorite streamside stogies.

Ever been streamside wishing you had a cigar to celebrate a great day of fishing or after landing the biggest ‘bow of your life? Unless you are fishing in a metro area, finding a fresh, premium hand rolled cigar can be a challenge…until now. General Cigar Co. Inc., the largest manufacturer of premium hand rolled cigars in the US, has recently introduced a line of cigars in foil packaging that keeps the cigars humidor fresh without the need for a humidor which is perfect for the fisherman or woman.

With choices ranging from Macanudo, the #1 selling cigar in the US, or other legendary brands such as Punch, Partagas or Hoyo de Monterrey, these cigars have a shelf life of 2 years (mine don't usually last that long, but I've been know to leave a cigar in a vest from time to time). Thanks to the revolutionary packaging, fly fishers always have fresh hand rolled cigars no matter where they are. Whether you store them in your glove box, tackle bag, or wading vest pocket, fresh cigars are always at hand.

If a traditional cellophane wrapped cigar falls out of your pocket into the water, you are likely left with a wet mass, unless, of course, you have the quick strike reactions of a trout on well-placed terrestrial. Fortunately, that is no longer an issue as the nature of the foil packaging is such that it keeps moisture from escaping or entering. The cigar stays in perfect smoking condition for when the time is right to light it up.

4 Streamside Favorites

With distribution in more than 25,000 locations across the United States, these cigars can be found in your nearest tobacconist, as well as convenience stores, liquor stores, drug stores and supermarkets. To find the location nearest you, check out this link: https://www.cigarworld.com/nohumidor/.

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Guest Contributor: Dan Frasier - CarpPro

6/3/2014

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Like many of you my fascination with catching a carp on a fly grows every time I see a pig held by heavy arms on the pages of my favorite fly fishing site or magazine. I'm committed this year to catching them by skill rather than dumb luck(which doesn't happen often). Admittedly I'm a work in progress and certainly not qualified to bring any worthwhile content to the site, at least not yet. Fortunately, there are great resources out there and perhaps the best of them is CarpPro. They assembled the who's who of carp anglers to bring you the very best information. So I reached out to see if they would add some carp musings to Hammer Creek and surprisingly they said yes. I'm very pleased to introduce guest contributor Dan Frasier to share his recent adventure on the Columbia River. Dan grew up hunting and fishing the prairies of Eastern South Dakota. From a young age his passion for fishing affected his decision making, down to taking dates to catch walleyes while he was in high school. A decade ago Dan decided to teach himself to fly fish. Living three hundred miles from the nearest trout stream, his only choice was carp. He has traveled the United States fishing for carp nearly exclusively ever since. Dan is the fly-fishing editor of CarpPro e-magazine and has been a featured guest on the Orvis podcast for his expertise in carp fly fishing.

Pothole Fish with John I Missed

In some ways it was the second day of my four-day trip to the Columbia River. In a more meaningful way, this was early on day one. My first day in Portland was spent doing one of those things that seemed worthwhile at the time, but in hindsight was just a day of fishing that didn’t happen. You know how priorities seem different in hindsight? Yeah one of those deals.

            Anyway, John Montana had displayed his renowned graciousness and now we were on the water. I was ready for big fish and plenty of them. I mean, I’d been known to catch a carp or two and, despite John’s warnings, it seemed pretty obvious that the Big C was just another carp laden body of water waiting to be conquered.

            We hit the road from John’s house early. He had a vague plan that involved a lot of “if they aren’t there then we’ll move onto the XYZ spot”. To be honest I’d quit trying to keep a mental map. John speaks about the Big C like you do with an old friend; using allusions to past events, pet names for places known only to you and broken references to memories that are more feeling than fact. Plus it didn’t matter anyway. If I ever repeated the names of where we were headed John would have hunted me down like a member of Seal Team 6 and people would be left to ask, “Hey, what ever happened to that Dan guy?”

            My first bout of nerves started at the first water we walked. Things here were different, but in an eerily recognizable way. My brain immediately grasped that the water looked like a carp heaven. Like something I’d seen before and recognized. Good water, good clarity, obvious feeding areas. And yet it was wholly different than what I was used to. The bottom was more like a moonscape than the mud flats I fish. Cobble, sharp rock appearing volcanic with divots and craters made up the bottom.

            The water itself was the color of those translucent aquamarine glass shower doors. You could see through it very well, but it wasn’t colorless. Just colored with an opacity that meant you had to consciously try to look through the water instead of at it. It was like the Columbia gave you enough to make the carp fishing reasonable but no more.

            John and I walked this submerged moonscape with the confidence that is natural at the beginning of a long fishing trip. John knew he could catch every fish he saw and I felt confident that I’d either get my share now or learn quickly enough to have plenty of time left in the trip to get it later. We saw a few fish, had shots at a couple (which John let me take) and landed none on that first pass. It was alright, lotta fishing left to do.

We hit the end of the flat and John was ready to move. The Big C has more fishable carp water than a person can cover in a lifetime so there is no point dallying at a spot that you’ve already walked. We hopped out of the water and up the Riprap. This is the steep riprap of large sharp stones that indicate significant human modification to a river. Great chunks of granite rise from the waters edge at a steep angle for 20 feet. It’s treacherous walking and difficult fishing. From that position an angler can get great visuals on a fish, but that’s about all he has going for him. Casting from riprap that steep means your line sags and moves the fly well farther in than you expect. The fish tend to be very attuned to any movement above them on the rocks and the angle makes hooksets VERY difficult. Elevated fishing is a strange and diabolical kind of torture. It lets you identify more targets that are nearly impossible to catch. Hell isn’t fishing without finding fish. Hell is fishing and finding huge numbers of uncatchable fish.

            So we hopped, stumbled and crawled our way along the riprap. This was more reconnaissance that serious fishing. We were looking to find fish in a perfect situation and passing by everything else. No point in taking shots you don’t love on the Big C.

            We wobbled our way along the boulders, trying hard not to break a leg or a rod. John and I were both reasonably athletic in our youth, and were having trouble recognizing that there are some things we can’t do as well anymore. It’ll probably take a broken tibia to really drive the point home eventually.

I can’t remember the last names of some of my past girlfriends. I have no idea where I had lunch 4 days ago and without my phone calendar I’d never be quite clear on what was happening in the coming week. I can, however, see this scenario as perfectly as if I was standing there right now.

As we were picking our way along, about 10 feet above the water line trying hard to find the right fish in the right situation. We came upon a tree growing straight out of the shoreline with a pothole under the water next to it. In that pothole was a car fender with a tail; tailing hard in 3 feet of water right against the shoreline. She was blissfully unaware that John and I were whispering obscenities to each other and I was trying to get into position to make a cast.

You remember all of that unattractive hubris I described earlier? Yeah, well it melted like ice cream on a warm apple pie. This was the largest fish I’d ever seen in the water. Hell she was a nearly as long as my leg and far thicker. And she was RIGHT THERE! The visual was like watching television. I could count her scales.

Deep breath, keep the backcast up and cast farther than you think so the belly of the line pulls the fly into the feeding zone instead of out of it. I was trembling. My first cast was perfect. The flies drug along just enough and settled just inches from the fish’s dinner plate. She turned, tried to eat the worm fly and I set the hook exactly one third of a heartbeat too early. Took the fly right away from her. Miraculously she didn’t spook. I set up for a second cast and put the fly a foot off target. Cast three missed the pothole she was in completely and shot four was at a different fish that had swum into my field of vision. Buck fever had taken over and I was out of control. I remember John hissing, “Cast at the damn giant fish that is right in FRONT of you!”

You remember that small tree that had shielded us? Yeah cast five was directly into that tree. John took my rod and handed me his to take another shot but before I could get any line stripped out the fish was gone. I didn’t ever see her swim off. I just looked down and there was nothing but an empty pothole.

I remember laughing at how comical the situation had become, as I stood there limp lined reflecting on what had happened. Somehow I’d gone from a seasoned carp angler to an out of control beginner in the span of 45 seconds. I’d flailed away, getting worse with each shot until I’d blown the whole situation. I’d like to say that I’m too cool for that to happen to. I’d like you to believe that I’m one collected carp hunting SOB. The reality is that, even after years of stalking these fish and many hundreds caught I still get excited enough to screw the pooch at times. I think that’s why I still do it. The day it becomes routine and uneventful will be the day I don’t stalk the mighty carp anymore.

Help me thank Dan for his fantastic contribution to the site by checking out Carppro.net and his book: The Orvis Beginner's Guide to Carp Flies.

This year I'm trying to bring voices other than mine to the site. So if you have a story to tell or a technique to teach feel free to drop me a line at hammercreekflyfishing@outlook.com.

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Clean Bench Giveaway Results

Congratulations to Michael who had the closest guess without going over at 53

Best of the Net

Our Two Hands

Bug Collars

2014 5-Weight Shootout

Craft Beer 100 Shot Fly Tying Challenge Teaser

Fly Dreamers

Clean Bench Giveaway

Field Journal from 6/13/14

Guest Contributor: Chris Rohr - General Cigar Co. Inc.

4 Streamside Favorites

Guest Contributor: Dan Frasier - CarpPro

Pothole Fish with John I Missed

Kyle Andes - Author

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