Caddis fly

Completed caddis fly

I have seen this pattern numerous times now, and finally decided to give tying it a try.

The caddis fly belongs to the order Tichoptera (latin for hairy wing).  Caddis flies are available to trout at all times of the year, so this is a good go-to fly to add to the box.

Actual, live caddis flies ©Frank Greenaway/Dorling Kindersley

Materials: Size 8, 3X nymph hook, black 6/0 thread, black tungsten bead, lead wire, green dubbing, black saddle feather, sand, silicone.

Anchor your tungsten bead at the bend of the hook using the thread, then wrap the shank with lead wire. Tie in your dubbing behind the bead and then tie in the saddle feather making one complete wrap.  Coat the lead-wrapped shank with silicone and roll the fly in sand.  I also added a clear coat of shiny nail polish to the shell for that extra gleam.

Knife River, Two Harbors

The Knife river is fairly shallow

The Knife River is a small river that feeds into Lake Superior.  It is decent for trout fishing, and can be accessed by following highway 61 out of Duluth, and then going west on county road 11 till you cross the river.

I was the only person fishing on this Sunday

You can park on the side of the road and walk upstream.  Waders were not necessary as the majority of the river is less than a foot deep.  As you walk the river, you will encounter several shallow pools that hold fish.

A Wulff tied by the author

My fly of choice for the day was the Royal Wulff (as described in the previous blog entry).  As soon as this fly hit the water, a trout would take it.  By the end of the day, this fly was too chewed up to be used.

The Knife River is beautiful and quiet

A rainbow caught with a Wulff

The majority of fish caught were small rainbow trout.  Although small, it was fun watching these fish leap to take the fly as it hit the water.

A nice brookie caught on a hopper

The catch of the day was a brook trout caught in a very long and deep pool.  This trout was caught by casting to the mouth of the pool and skating the fly off to the side of the pool where large rocks were located.

A green frog sits on a rock in the river

All in all it was a nice day;  A lot of trout and a beautiful river.  I would recommend wearing shoes or wading boots even though you will not need waders.  I opted for sandals, and my feet are pretty beat up from slipping off of algae covered rocks.

Fly Tying: Royal Wulff

A classic pattern that has been on fire the last couple weeks on the river is the Royal Wulff.  This pattern is named after Lee Wulff, the iconic fly fisherman who made many contributions to the sport, including fishing vests and left-handed reels.  His best known contribution may be the perfection of the Royal Coachman, a fly which was notorious for catching fish, but did not sit well upon the water.  Lee took the fly and replaced the feathers for the tail and wings with the more robust hair of calf, deer, moose or elk.

To tie the fly:

Hook:	Dry fly, #10-16
Thread:	8/0
Tail:	Moose body hairs
Body:	Peacock herl
Waist:	Floss, red
Wings:	Kip tail
Hackle:	Rooster, brown

Tip: While the original fly had two individual wings, Lee preferred tying one wing.  This is both faster when tying and more buoyant when fishing.

Kinnie, August 13th 2011

Brown caught on a 'fly' pattern

Returned to the Kinnie Saturday morning.  Water was cloudy due to some overnight rain, and few fish were rising.  No luck in the usual spots with nymphs, and no luck in the usual spots where trout rise with dry flies.  I used the imitation 'fly' pattern that Rev. Aadland gave me and began to catch fish.  I was casting upstream into a seam and caught two nice trout within ten minutes.  It seems that atypical patterns have their place when no other usual presentations will work.

Tying the 'Deer Fly' Fly

Reverend Aadland drifting a dry fly

This Sunday I had the opportunity to fish with my girlfriend, Brigitta's father, Reverend Thomas Aadland.  He showed me a new fly he had picked up that was litterally a black 'fly'.  Tonight, I decided to tie my own version, and created the deer fly pattern.

Deer flies are very common in Minnesota and can be quite a nuscience.  If this fly is succesful at catching trout, then it may be the fly's only redeeming quality. I have yet to fish the fly, but will report back after doing so later this week.

The 'deer fly' fly

Materials: 1mm black sheet foam, thin-skin, rubber legs, brown rabbit dubbing, flashabou.

Underside of the fly 

You can see the flashabou on the underside of the fly here to add a glimmer when sitting on the water.  I also used the excess flashabou to segregate the foam on the head to create the appearance of eyes.

Best Fishes!

Name change: The Polyphemus Pariah overthrows the Water Wulff

After some flak, the name of the blog has been changed to The Polyphemus Pariah.  Within 5 mins of searching I came across a variety of other water wolf sites, and variations on the term.  The Polyphemus moth is a great moth of the North, and a pariah is of course, an outcast.  This name fits this blog as I am usually both, up-north, and trying to escape monotony when I refer to events in this blog.

Pack National Forest, WA

A road bends around a ridge in Pack Forest on a misty morning

Nick and a Western Red Cedar 

Pack Forest was a gift from lumberman Charles Pack to the University of Washington's College of Forest Resources in 1926. Initially only 334 acres, today it has expanded to 4300 acres of forested land.

The forest is primarily Douglas fir, Western Red cedar and a small variety of other mixed conifers and hardwoods.  Some of the cedars are hundreds of years old.

One of the winding service roads leads to an old hidden pond.  There was initially a spring here that was diverted into a man-made pond that was used for water storage for fire fighting.  Helicopters used to lower their water bags into the pond and then take off to dump the water on the fires. The pond is no longer used for this purpose, but now holds some amazing rainbow trout due to its cool  spring fed waters.

The hidden pond in Pack Forest once used as a fire retardant source for helicopters

Backing the drift boat into the pond

The author fishing

The water in the pond was cool, clear and deep.  Minnow pattern presentations had no effect on the trout, only insect patterns.  The trout taken took a large insect pattern called a superior x-legs.  This fly has been my go-to when nothing seems to be biting.  It is a lead wrapped shank so the fly sinks quickly.  Retrieval should be a brisk haul to imitate a darting aquatic insect.

        A superior x-legs pattern tied by the author

A netted bow

 

A football shaped bow

The first fish of the afternoon broke my 4X tippet to my dismay.  I was disheartened until I had another fish on the line. With some careful netting by friend Nick Reep, a nice male bow was landed.        

The kype on this male is clearly visible

The rainbow had a prominent kype (black tip of the lower jaw) telling us the fish was a male.

Thanks to Nick and his trusty pal Lulu for rowing and showing me the ropes in WA

The Kinnie, July 30th 2011

A Brown caught on a glass bead-head nymph

A new spot was found on the Kinnickinnic that looks to promise large fish. On a sweltering day with high humidity, the fishing was not fantastic, but the one brown pulled from a shallow pool was of some size.  The trout taken was in a prime lie (right outside of the ideal current, but hidden).  There were plenty of places where the river bottle-necked creating turbulent deeper pools on the end of the neck. At the end of the pool, or the tail, is where bigger trout like to hold.  

A nice Brown before release

 There were also many good visible seams in the water where trout wait just outside of the turbulence and wait for food to drift past.  There were a few fish rising, but none would rise to the variety of flies offered.  The trout taken was caught on one of my glass bead-head nymphs I  tied this past winter.

A very large, deep pool

I am excited to return to this new spot in the future.  At the end of the day, I found an extremely large and deep pool with a nice current and many fish rising.  By this point in the day however, I was out of my nymphs, sinkers and strike indicators and too many kayakers were passing by and stirring up the waters.  I am eager to see what this spot tholds in the
future.

Painted Turtle Photo

DNR turtle information poster. Painted turtle photo by T. Keyler

One of my photos was used for the DNR's 'Turtles of Minnesota' poster. I took the shot of the painted turtle this spring at the  Minnesota Landscape Arboretum in Chanhassen, MN.  The front helps with identification of these turtles.  The back of the poster educates readers about MN turtle species and what they can do to help their status.

Cascade River State Park

The Northshore is home to the most beautiful rivers in Minnesota.  These rivers offer spring steelhead and Kamloops rainbow runs,  fall Pink salmon runs and decent trout fishing at points.

Upper Cascade

Cascade River State Park offers camping within walking distance of the falls. The Superior Hiking Trail runs through the park, and this can be followed to many of the fishing locations.  

Columbine grows on the edge of the falls

To fish for trout in the park, you must hike above the falls (unless it is spring and you're fishing for kamloops).  The river widens considerably and the water slows. 

The author fishing a deep hole

There are a few decent holes that I like to fish, and plenty of fish hold behind structure in the river.  The areas that move at about 1'/sec are right for these trout.

A small Brown trout
 

I have been successful with both small trico spinners and small bead-head nymphs.  These waters hold small rainbow and brown trout. 

Rainbow trout taken on a trico

Rainbow release

Brigitta with a Luna moth

In the evenings, ir you're lucky, you may come across a Luna moth or a polyphemus moth fluttering about. 

View from Lutsen mountain in the fall

In the fall, the Pink salmon return to the mouth of the Cascade to spawn.  The males have a distinctive humped back that forms upon entering Superior.  Post spawn, the salmon die.  Egg patterns work best for these fish.

The author with a humpie on line

Male Pink salmon

Salmon Genetics

I just finished this paper for my Evolution Grad course: "Euro-American Influence on the Evolutionary Trajectories of the Pacific Salmon".  

Click HERE to read the paper

A sample figure from the paper

Mississippi River Valley

Large Timber Rattlesnake

The Mississippi River Valley in South Eastern Minnesota is one of Minnesota's greatest attributes.  My father, Dr. Daniel Keyler, Dr. Phil Cochran, and I have been part of an ongoing study in Timber Rattlesnake populations in South Eastern Minnesota.  This Sunday, temperatures were in the mid eighties and the humidity was high. We managed to find 8 Timbers on our hike.  Most were 2-3 year old juveniles but 2 or 3 were gravid females.  Finding both juveniles and older snakes in an area is a good indication of a healthy population. 

 We also stumbled across a few black widow spiders.  The female was encasing a june bug while 2 males sat nearby.

A Royal Wulff protrudes from this Brown's jaw

In the afternoon, I headed off to a local stream to do some fly fishing.  Large browns were rising and taking small dry flies such as Royal Wulffs and black gnats. These trout were in slower water than I am used to, and would arise from the depths of cloudy pools.  I caught 2 or 3 fish, but many fish rose to my flies and missed the fly.  Even though I only took 2 fish, seeing the rise makes it very enjoyable.

On the drive home we saw the sun setting over the river while the fishing boats cruised back to their docks.  I also stopped by the harbor in Lake City (the township where waterskiing was invented) to take a photo of all the sail boats that were docked.

Lake City Harbor

 After the sun set, there was a june bug hatch and our windshield became so encrusted with bug juice that we had to stop in Hastings and wash the car off.  We got home late that night, but it was a an ideal day in the Mississippi River Valley.

June bug-covered windshield

Kinnickinnic State Park

Essential gear for small river fishing

The Kinnikinnic, AKA the Kinni, is a Class 1 trout stream located in River Falls, WI.  Kinni State park offers 9 stream entry locations, 7 of which classify trout as abundant, and 2 as common.  There are brown trout and brook trout in these waters, brookies being the native species, but browns being far more common.

Picturesque Kinny

I use a 4wt rod and reel and an assortment of small nymphs and dry flies when fishing these types of waters.  I generally look for slower moving waters (1'/sec) and deeper pools to fish.  When nymphing, I use a small oval shot about a foot above the fly (depending on depth of pool), then a strike indicator a few inches above that.  For dry flies, I simply use a 16" 4lb tippet to give the fly maximum mobility.

A large pool that held decent fish

Some midge flies I tied

All trout were taken on a assortment of midge flies I had previously tied.  I used a variety of dubbing colors and different flash on these midges, but all used small, red glass beads for heads.  There is a previous entry on this blog for tying these midge flies.

First nice sized brown trout of the day

I caught 4 trout, with 10" being the largest for the day.  This trout was taken in faster moving water, and was holding behind a large rock.  I drifted the nymph past the rock multiple times until I got a hit.

Second, smaller brown.  Four browns taken that day

Late fern fiddle heads

Fishing aside, Kinnickinnic State Park offered a variety of flora, and an enjoyable way to spend the afternoon.  I enjoyed it so much, I bought a WI state  park pass for the season.  I will certainly be returning to the Kinni.