Achigan Article by Nelson Ham - Tight Lines Fly Fishing Company

30-41 Achigan
6/19/06
7:31 PM
Page 30
Nearly wiped out
Achigan
of the midwest
during the logging
years, smallmouth bass
make a triumphant
return in the freestone
streams of Wisconsin
S
30
F I S H & F LY
T O R Y
A N D
P
H O T O S
N
E L S O N
R .
H
A M
Underwater photography by Eric Engbretson
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F
RENCH EXPLORERS TO EASTERN CANADA, New France, adopted the Algonquin word
achigan for bass, meaning “the one who struggles.” They were referring to the tenacious smallmouth bass so abundant in the rocky streams and lakes of the southern Canadian Shield—the
low but ragged land of ancient rock that is the core of North America.
Included in the Shield is the north country of Wisconsin, and this landscape belies a long
and turbulent pre-history ending with the Great Ice Age. But the Wisconsin northwoods
endured its toughest environmental challenge only in the last 150 years, with the clear cutting
of forests, construction of dams and pollution of water resources. Vast quantities of fish described by early settlers were decimated, including the smallmouth bass.
Today northern Wisconsin is a premier smallmouth river fishery. The
forests have returned, the rivers run
clear and the smallmouth bass are back,
accommodating the dams as best they
can. Many miles of streams await those
interested in pursuing achigan once
again. The bass grow large—three to
five pounders live here—and you’d be
surprised at the flies they’ll eat.
Think saltwater big.
Dark Waters and Ancient Rocks
On a hot day last July, I headed north
from Green Bay to float a favorite
stretch of river with two new clients.
The quickest route takes me about an
hour and a half—if I don’t get caught
behind an RV—and the ride is easy.
The small towns along the way are great
for coffee, but otherwise don’t make
much of an impression.
My anglers were meeting me at the
launch, so I rode alone and made the
trip a bit longer. Twenty miles short of
the landing I turned on to a gravel road
that follows the river. I wouldn’t call it a
“river road,” but it’s close enough. It
weaves its way back and forth for a few
miles, every so often giving a glimpse of
the river. I always slow down for these
picture spots and pretend they’re views
from long ago.
The forest is thick by this time of year,
and the water is dark—tannin-stained
from the bogs upstream. Then there are
the rocks. This is a freestone river to be
sure, held up by two-billion-year-old
rocks of the Canadian Shield. They’re
worn but solid. Of course they make up
the falls and rapids, but in this river
they also make ledges, banks, humps
and islands—unlike an alluvial river of
sand and silt. Seemingly sprinkled on
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F I S H & F LY
top are plenty of boulders, some the size
of my driftboat. These are erratics left
by the last great North American glacier—the Laurentide Ice Sheet.
This river is like many in northern
Wisconsin. If you’re a smallmouth
angler, it is some of the best water in the
world. Achigan thought so as well;
northern Wisconsin is native territory
for smallmouths—lots of rock and gravel, downed wood, shady banks, big
boulders and clear water full of crayfish
and minnows.
Smallmouth bass here did well for
several thousand years, and today hold
their own. But 100 years ago it was
damn hard to find a decent shade tree,
a clear drink of water or a smallmouth
in the northwoods. The environmental
history of northern Wisconsin, its rivers
and the smallmouth are inseparable—
linked by ecology. It’s a story of land
pushed to the brink of disaster by greed,
followed by a tale of redemption.
Cut, Dam and Kill
I first set eyes on northern Wisconsin
over 20 years ago and thought I was in
an ancient forest. When I moved here
and started pursuing brook trout and
smallmouths, I learned the trees were
hardly old. A century ago, Wisconsin
was the antithesis of any legitimate conservation ethic.
In the late 1800s and early 1900s, the
northern forests were clear-cut to
“feed” the growing cities of the Midwest
and elsewhere.
Land was to be conquered, not cared
for.
Few thought of the long-term consequences, but Increase Lapham was an
exception. Think of him as Wisconsin’s
first state scientist. In a show of conser-
vation foresight, he wrote Report on the
Disastrous Effects of the Destruction of
Forest Trees, Now Going on so Rapidly in
the State of Wisconsin in 1867.
Lapham’s warning went ignored.
When the lumbering era ended
around 1930, the northwoods was
called the cutover. Old photos show
“stump forests” without a standing tree
in sight. And absurdly as it sounds, the
new land was advertised as good farmland. But these infertile soils, poor
growing seasons and rough terrain
proved to be an agricultural nightmare
for settlers.
Early in the lumbering era, logs were
moved to milltowns by floating them
down rivers such as the Wisconsin and
Wolf. Trees were cut in winter to take
advantage of spring floods, and the logs
were also easier to move out of the
forests and swamps on frozen ground.
With river transport came the need
for dams as a means of moving logs
across drainage divides and from tributaries to major rivers. This increased
spring flows and reduced log jams, but
rail transport eventually took over after
the damage had been done.
These log drives were destructive to
rivers. Even before a drive took place, a
channel was “improved” by removing or
blasting boulders, rock ledges and
sunken logs to lessen the chances of a
catastrophic log jam. When appropriately-named splash dams were opened to
initiate a drive, the sudden flood of logs
would scour the channel walls and bed.
Aquatic life took a real beating.
Although many 19th-century dams
in Wisconsin were built for logging purposes, some operated grist mills and an
era of hydroelectric dam construction
followed in the early 20th century.
Sure, it looks pristine and calm right now. Just wait until there’s a five-pound smallmouth bass splashing on the other end of your line.
Smallmouth bass here did well for several thousand years, and today hold their own.
But 100 years ago it was damn hard to find a decent shade tree, a clear drink of water
or a smallmouth in the northwoods.
Thousands of dams remain in
Wisconsin.
Most of the northwoods lay in shambles at the beginning of the 20th century. Wild fires raged, lakes and rivers
choked from silt and channels were ravaged by drives. Hundreds of dams
squeezed the rivers. Land, lake and
river ecosystems were devastated.
Catching a decent fish was practically a fantasy.
Imagine how much worse it got when
the paper companies started polluting
the water in the decades after the log
drives.
MURDICH MINNOW
PATTERN BY BILL MURDICH
TIED BY UMPQUA FEATHER MERCHANTS
HOOK:
Tiemco 811S, size 1/0
THREAD: White 6/0 Uni-thread
TAIL:
Silver Flashabou over white bucktail
with pearl Flashabou
COLLAR: Silver Flashabou over white Ice Fur
BODY/HEAD:
Pearl Estaz, top colored with cool
gray Pantone pen. If needed, use
underbody of white med. chenille
for bulk
EYES:
Silver or pearl 3-D molded, size 5.0
NOTE: For freshwater use TMC8089NP size 10 or
Targus B9089 size 8.
Revelation, Rehabilitation and Rebirth
Someone saw the light. The relatively mature forests and mostly healthy
rivers of the northwoods today are owed
to model conservation and environmental movements that developed in
the 20th century. Environmental
tragedy turned into a remarkable recovery.
By the early 1900s, a State
Conservation Commission was established, which included the Fisheries
Commission and State Board of
Forestry. Northern Wisconsin was
replanted with the help of the
Civilian Conservation Corps
and nurtured to forest once
again.
The conservation effort to
rehabilitate the northwoods was
well underway by the 1930s, and it
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included restoring streams and lakes to
bring back the “good old fishing days.”
Sid Gordon, author of How to Fish from
Top to Bottom (1955), for a time headed
the program to improve aquatic habitat.
Fish hatcheries were important to
this rehabilitation effort. The first fish
hatchery in the country was built in
Madison about 1875. A bass hatchery
was established in 1903 in Minocqua,
and by 1940, Wisconsin had eight stateoperated bass hatcheries that produced
between 1.5 and 2.5 million fry and fingerlings per year.
In the 1950s it was clear that natural
reproduction was sufficient to maintain
bass populations and stocking was
almost eliminated. Even so, much of
the bass stocking that took place in the
early 20th century
was
for
largemouths,
which
were stocked mostly
in
lakes.
Stocking of smallmouths
was
minor, and limited
bass stocking has
returned in recent years.
The struggles of Wisconsin’s aquatic
resources didn’t end in the ‘40s and
‘50s, however. Senator Gaylord Nelson
founded Earth Day in 1970—the impetus for the establishment of the
Environmental Protection Agency and
the Clean Water Act.
It was finally some help to address
years of abuse of water resources.
Dams remain a complex issue.
Hydropower is a relatively clean energy
source, but the negative impacts are
obvious, such as restricting fish passage
for spawning and dramatic flow changes
that flood or strand fish. New laws
make it easier for the Wisconsin
Department of Natural Resources and
groups such as the Wisconsin River
Alliance to have a voice in protecting
rivers when hydroelectric dams come
up for relicensing.
So, Where are We Now?
Many Wisconsin rivers are better
today than they were several decades
and even 100 years ago. Most rivers
designated by the DNR as Outstanding
& Exceptional Waters are in the northwoods.
The return of smallmouth bass to
northern Wisconsin is especially
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F I S H & F LY
BARTEAU MINNEAUX
PATTERN BY BART LANDWEHR
TIED BY BART LANDWEHR
HOOK:
Tiemco 8089NP, size 6
THREAD: White 6/0 Uni-thread
TAIL:
Gray Icelandic sheep fur over pearl
Flashabou over silver Flashabou over
white bucktail
LATERAL LINE:
Two peacock herl each side
THROAT: Red rabbit
COLLAR: White Ice Fur
UNDERBODY:
White medium chenille
BODY/HEAD:
Pearl blue Angel Hair spun in dubbing brush; top colored with cool
gray Pantone pen
EYES:
Silver or pearl 3-D molded, size 5.0
NOTE: Vary the pattern by coloring with different
pens. The Barteau is a great saltwater pattern as well and has been used to catch
many species including jacks, stripers and
snook; substitute a stainless hook.
BASS SANDWICH
PATTERN BY BOB MARVIN AND
NELSON HAM
TIED BY NELSON HAM
HOOK:
Daiichi 2461, size 1/0
THREAD: Chartreuse 6/0 Uni-thread, Flatwaxed Nylon for attaching foam
TAIL:
Two chartreuse marabou plumes
LEGS:
Orange round rubber hackle
UNDERBODY:
Chartreuse Estaz
BODY:
White 6mm craft foam, front cut at
45-degree angle
EYES:
7mm doll eyes
NOTE: Body is from The Happy Face Fly by
Captain Bob Marvin, Naples, Florida. It’s
a simple but effective way of creating a popper
from sheet foam. Substitute rabbit strips,
craft fur, bucktail, or feathers for the tail.
Rubber legs can be attached to front foam
tie-in. Fish with short, quick strips and give
good pops. A long strip will pull the fly
underwater, resulting in a big air bubble and pop.
impressive if you consider that the
species received little help after the logging era and the modern population is
self-supporting. Stocking numbers from
the Wisconsin DNR are telling: In fiscal
year 2005, about 14,000 smallmouths
were stocked statewide—compared to
about 170,000 largemouths and over 20
million walleye, three million pike and
two million brown trout.
The smallmouths seem to be doing
well on their own, but this doesn’t mean
they aren’t susceptible to over harvest.
A trophy fishery can be lost in a hurry.
Convincing more anglers to practice
catch-and-release and to not fish for
bass protecting their nests during the
spawn is critical.
Why?
First, there isn’t much scientific
debate that removing a male from a
nest, even for a few minutes, results in
some mortality to eggs or fry. And there
is no question that a guardian removed
permanently from a nest results in complete mortality. Basically, fishing to a
bass on a nest is a bit like hunting deer
chained to a fencepost—let them be.
Second, there is a common misconception that bass numbers are near
those of trout in similar-quality streams.
As John Lyons, fisheries biologist for the
Wisconsin DNR, told me, “…because
bass are higher up on the food chain
[largely fish and crayfish eaters versus
aquatic insects]…more total primary
and secondary productivity is needed to
produce a pound of bass than a pound
of trout.”
He went on to explain that anglers
and even some fishery managers have
unrealistic expectations as to how many
bass a stream can support. Lyons’ years
of research suggests that trout will have
maximum densities three to 10 times
higher than bass, all other things being
equal.
Finally, bass in colder, less-productive, northern waters grow much slower
than those in southern states. A 20inch river bass from northern
Wisconsin is easily 10 years old or more.
Catch-and-release angling is vital to
supporting and improving the fishery.
Their river homes and lives are tough,
even without the destruction of days
gone by. The smallmouths still endure
the dams, ice, cold, heat, floods, pike,
musky and countless other obstacles.
A trophy smallmouth is more than
anything a survivor, “one who struggles.”
Waiting for Popper Time
When I met my clients that July
morning last year, we dropped my driftboat at a launch below a dam, and I ran
my shuttle. My two smallmouth mentors, Tim and Bart Landwehr from
Tight Lines Fly Fishing near Green Bay,
had found their “shuttle girl” a couple
of years earlier. Still in high school, she
drove fast enough—seemingly powered
by bubble gum and pink flipflops—and
I was back at the ramp in 15 minutes.
As I rowed away from shore, I knew
we would quickly be out of the dam’s
sight and then float seven miles without
hearing a car and only seeing a cabin or
two. My anglers started casting minnow
patterns at bank eddies, and within five
minutes both had 14-inch smallmouth.
We started into a long straight reach.
Here the river flows over those 2-billion-year-old rocks and also follows a
fault—a suture zone where ancient
North America added a new piece of
crust a long time ago.
I barely had to move the oars to drift
just so. Otherwise I stared at the water,
alternating between my angler’s flies
and the bank far ahead, looking for the
telltale swirl of a surface take. No swirls
yet, but it was only midday.
We stuck with my mid-summer play
and kept on fishing big streamers, but I
was so wishing for popper time.
Summer Strategies, or, Keeping it Slow
I’m no different than most bass
anglers who believe catching smallmouths on the surface is simply the
best. There is good fishing in Wisconsin
spring and fall, but a hot July and
August are the halcyon days of northwoods smallmouth fishing.
Fishing smallmouths in a big
Wisconsin river can seem daunting, but
keep two things in mind:
First, there is a lot of unproductive
water.
Second, you aren’t going to find many
spots where you’ll catch 20, 10 or even
five fish too often. So, besides recognizing good structure, it’s best to cover
large amounts of water.
One strategy that I use mid-summer
involves searching with a large (four-tosix-inch) streamer on a floating line
(e.g. Murdich Minnow). Fish such
Fish large salt water flies with short, erratic strips to imitate dying minnows. Then,
annoy the heck out of your driftboat companions by catching all of their fish.
TIBOR REEL AD
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T I P S
A Northwoods Fly Box
PICK FLIES THAT COVER THE WATER COLUMN IN ZONES—surface, shallow, middle, deep and bottom. Most of the following are
widely available:
Good surface flies are Umpqua’s hard-body poppers, Dahlberg
Divers, Murray’s Shenandoah Chuggars and Sliders, Whitlock’s
deer-hair poppers and foam poppers. Get these in minnow gray,
red/white/black and yellow/red to start. Add yellow or chartreuse,
and black for the divers.
Standby streamers are the Clouser Minnow, Whitlock’s Sheep
Minnow, Barr’s Bouface, Lefty’s Deceiver and Blanton’s Flashtail
Whistler. Most come in one or two standard colors; good Clouser
colors are chartreuse and white, chartreuse and yellow, sculpin and
baby smallmouth.
Bottom patterns include Whitlock’s Near-Nuff Crayfish and
Scorpion, woolly buggers, Holschlag’s Hackle Fly and Galloup’s Zoo
Cougar. Go for browns, olives, black and crayfish.
Murray’s Hellgrammite and various nymph patterns are great.
Some swear by Clouser Bass Nymphs.
Many bass flies are tied on Tiemco 8089 hooks. Buy them mostly in sizes 10 and 6. For most other freshwater hooks, use sizes 1
through 8. For saltwater patterns find hooks no larger than 1/0,
preferably 1 and 2. Better yet, buy models and tie your own on
freshwater hooks. If you tie, the TMC 8089 and the Targus equivalent are excellent. I use the Targus in size 8 quite a bit. The Daiichi
2461 is good for longer-shank patterns.
Smallmouths will sometimes feed heavily on trout forage. Carry
a box that includes terrestrials—hoppers, beetles and ants. Some
Wisconsin streams have good leukon, brown drake, and Hex hatches.
A few White Wulff, Drake, and Hex patterns will have you covered.
streamers as a dying minnow, meaning
erratic strips and pauses.
Slow, long strips are a no-no.
If you’ve ever watched a predator fish
feed on baitfish, you know the act.
Dying guys are always taken first—the
easy meal. Also, never take your eye off
the fly. A smallmouth often hits the fly
during the pause and will spit it out
before you feel the take.
If you don’t get hits on a shallow minnow, think about going to a smaller fly
first, then probing deeper with a weighted streamer, such as a Clouser or a crayfish imitation. If need be, switch to light
sink-tips. Choose crayfish patterns that
have action even in slow water. Worst
of all are the raffia-and-feather concoctions made to look like real crayfish. I’d
take a woolly bugger any day. Fish these
with a strip-pause-pause-strip cadence.
In the best of times you’ll go up the
water column. When aggressive fish
start hitting shallow patterns, switch to
poppers or divers. For most bass anglers,
smallmouth on the surface is ‘our’ dryfly fishing.
There aren’t many ways to mess up
popper fishing, but most people seem
inherently good at doing it wrong. Some
people do pop too much, however. In
still water, 10 to 20 seconds between
pops is an absolute minimum, some
would say even a minute or more. If
you’re fishing moving water, the time
isn’t as important as the distance. A pop
or two every ten feet is a good start, but
pop more frequently with increasing
turbulence or turbidity.
The second problem is the hook set.
It’s human nature to set the hook as
soon as you see action at the fly. Wait a
second or two—then set the hook.
You’ll catch more fish by slowing
down.
On the Rocks With No Ice
Technique is one part of smallmouth
strategy, but you need to cover structure. Authentic river rat and smallmouth master Dan Gapen (son of
“Muddler” fame) calls them “cuts”, but
you’ve heard “current breaks” or
“seams” in trout fishing. They’re places
where water velocity abruptly changes
because of stream structure.
Smallmouth don’t expend more energy than they need to. They would
rather be in slow water right next to fast
current, a veritable food highway.
People think of cuts as being only vertical, such as where current breaks
around a boulder, but velocity transi-
On a typical summer day, focus your surface and shallow-water presentations on bank eddies,
points of rock or gravel jutting into the channel, rock ledges, rock walls, rock islands,
rocky shorelines and river humps—shallow, rocky, submerged islands.
These flies are made completely out of baby bunny rabbits. Or synthetic fur and rubber legs, either one
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F I S H & F LY
Remember the Nymphs
Nymphing for bass is important to
master. In the heat of midday, when
fishing with streamers or poppers can be
slow, Harry Murray’s strategy of
methodically drifting nymphs through
riffles into pools can be deadly.
Bass nymphing is best done differently than nymphing for trout. Bass are
sight feeders—a fly showing life is
important. Again, pick flies with materials that have action in the slightest
current like marabou and soft webby
hackle.
The most effective way to fish
nymphs, and even crayfish at times, is
to periodically move the fly by hard
mends or lifting the line. You’ll know
the fly has jumped when you move the
indicator. Bigger flies also mean a bigger indicator.
This technique can be
extremely effective on
finicky smallmouth.
It’s also a great
searching
technique in
off-color water.
Try Murray’s nymph patterns, woolly
buggers, Tim’s Moppet and crayfish.
TIM ’S MOPPET
PATTERN BY TIM LANDWEHR
TIED BY TIM LANDWEHR
HOOK:
Tiemco 8089, size 10
THREAD: Black 6/0 Uni-thread
TAIL:
Black zonker rabbit strip, yellow
Krystal Flash
BODY:
Copper Diamond braid
LEGS:
Fluorescent yellow round rubber
hackle
HEAD:
Black rabbit fur spun in dubbing
loop
EYES:
Lead or lead-free medium dumbbell,
yellow
NOTE: Chartreuse, black, crayfish and white are
standard colors. For white pattern substitute
red Krystal Flash, pearl diamond braid, red
eyes, white and red, with black perfect rubber legs and a turn of red fur at the head. It
can be stripped like a crayfish, but is most
effective drifted under a big indicator with
occasional jumps by mending.
tions also occur in the horizontal, for
example where a riffle empties into a
pool. The classic river structures to target for smallmouths are those that generate cuts or those that concentrate forage (crayfish and minnows) in slower
water.
On a typical summer day, focus your
surface and shallow-water presentations
on bank eddies, points of rock or gravel
jutting into the channel, rock ledges,
rock walls, rock islands, rocky shorelines and river humps—shallow, rocky,
submerged islands. Uniform sand and
small gravel isn’t productive—but don’t
pass rock piles big enough to hold fish.
Big boulders and boulder fields
should never be missed. I learned that
lesson the hard way two years ago when
Bart and I guided four anglers. We were
on a stretch of river he had floated the
preceding month and I had only seen
for two days.
We were even between our boats
most of that summer day, but then I
“low-holed” him—unintentionally, of
course. When he passed me, his anglers
were sitting and he was rowing fast. He
moved to a shelf with boulders in shallow water, dropped anchor, tied poppers
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T II P
P S
Gearing Up for Smallmouths
PICK A MEDIUM-FAST OR FAST-ACTION NINE-FOOT 8-WEIGHT
for your first smallmouth rod. The heavy line allows for easy casting of heavy or wind-resistant flies and quick landing of a strong
fish in current. Six and 7-weight rods certainly have their place in
smaller streams and also in clear, shallow water typical of late
summer, so keep those in mind for those conditions.
I prefer fast action rods (but not too stiff) and haven’t used anything better than the Sage XP. They cast well in the range of 30 to
60 feet and have strong butt sections. Other folks certainly make
excellent fly rods, just make sure you test cast with a fly when it’s
time to buy.
You don’t need a stop-a-truck drag for bass, but reel weight is
more important than you think. Casting a tip heavy 8-weight will
lead to arm and hand pain. Pick a reel that balances your rod
roughly at the position of your index finger and thumb.
If money is tight, get a good rod and workman reel. If your wallet is more forgiving, consider that your new 8-weight will be ideal
for steelhead and bonefish—assuming you have a reel with a quality drag. Buy the best reel you can. Ross Canyon reels are proven
big fish performers. The Cadillacs are still Tibor and Abel.
I plead shameless endorsement for Rio fly lines. The Clouser is
the best bass line that I’ve used. Its turns over bulky flies easily and
shoots well. Rio uses the Clouser taper in several other lines useful for bass fishing.
My favorites are their short-head (seven to nine and a half-foot)
intermediate, type 3, and type 6 sink-tip lines (look for Streamer Tip
and Density Compensated Sinking Tip). They’re ideal for shallow
rivers. I use the intermediate clear-tip line often. Its slow sink rate is
perfect for fishing streamers over submerged bars, shelves and humps.
on both rods and waited. In the next 20
minutes, my boat picked up two fish
and his boated 12, while we were made
to watch. In the afternoon heat the bass
had moved up on to the shelf to feed on
minnows, and they were happy to eat
poppers as well.
The lesson learned was: grasshoppers
should never low-hole their masters.
Weeding Out
Weedy areas attract minnows and
can harbor big bass. They can also be
tough to fish with fly tackle; try surface
and weedless patterns. Slower water
downstream of riffles, larger drops to
deep water, and the tails of pools can be
productive. Occasionally
you’ll need intermediate or
deep-water lines and flies.
Drowned or partiallysubmerged wood is a
mixed bag. Isolated
stumps or logs will often
hold a fish or two in an
38
F I S H & F LY
Flies connected to floating lines are best served by a standard
eight or nine-foot leader tapered to eight, 10 or 12-pound tippet. If
you tie your own, there are plenty of published formulas to pick
from. Sink-tip lines work fine with a three- to five-level leader.
Regular mono is good most of the time, but fluorocarbon has its
place, especially in low, clear water. I’ve used mostly Umpqua and
Rio tippet, but I’m also impressed with Frog Hair; although expensive, it really is supple, stretchy and strong.
Tie on your flies with the non-slip loop knot. It is strong, quick
and easy to tie—and most importantly, allows the fly to move
freely. Practice tying the loop small; big loops cause tangles. Check
your leader and knots frequently.
Casting a big fly rod, especially with heavy flies and sink tips,
isn’t easy. Take a couple of lessons, and practice regularly. Focus
on basic casting, but also mending, shooting line, casting under
obstacles (branches) and accuracy.
Two skills poorly developed in many anglers are hook setting and
fish fighting. Have someone show you how to strip-strike properly.
Most people use far too little force and wonder why they lose
fish—they never did set the hook. There is a lot of stretch in a fly
line, and 10-pound tippet is strong stuff.
It takes skill to land a strong fish quickly, and keep in mind that
the “Orvis Pose” is a bunch of b.s.—it’s a great way to break a rod.
Keep the rod lower and closer to your body. You’ll tire a fish quickly by pulling the rod in the direction opposite to its run. One final
thought—a good guide will show you how to fish as much as
where to fish. Take advantage of that.
MIKO ’S MUDBUG
PATTERN BY NELSON HAM
TIED BY NELSON HAM
HOOK:
Eagle Claw 630, size 1
THREAD: Brown 6/0 Uni-Thread
WEIGHT: Medium nickel-plated Dazl-eyes
EYES:
Black medium bead chain or burned
mono; tied down bend from shank
CLAWS:
Two brown grizzly marabou plumes
FEELERS/LEGS:
Orange or yellow round rubber
hackle; Flashabou and Krystal Flash
to complement
BODY:
Brown grizzly, oversized saddle
hackle; palmer over pearl-root beer
Estaz
NOTE: Plain lead eyes can be used, but harder
dumbbell eyes create more sound when hitting underwater rocks. Most effective fished
when stripped instead of nymphed.
otherwise bleak stream bed.
Some authors stress fishing the shady
bank, but too many fish are caught in
sun. Concentrate on structure and forage first, and then shade. Nonetheless,
always cover water beneath overhanging trees.
Honestly, if you’re fishing northern
Wisconsin rivers for the first time, you
would be blind to miss half the good
structure. The islands, ledges, points,
walls, humps and big boulders are obvious in the lower flows typical of late
summer.
Short of signs saying, “cast here,” the
structure can’t be more accommodating. It’s some of the best smallmouth
water in the country.
But the other half? River knowledge
is hard won. There are still times when
I fish with Tim or Bart on a river we all
know, and invariably we catch a few
more fish on “their side.”
At its bleakest, fishing for smallmouths will make you think you’re
Smallmouth bass are wily creatures, but can still be fooled by an expertly-placed leggy fly.
also seldom saw big fish pictures—no
22-inch monsters.
I did catch fish, but not many and not
anything big.
Then I had an epiphany, mostly
because I was just really tired one
Saturday morning. A few years ago I
accidentally watched ESPN one weekend and started reading In-Fisherman
and Bassmaster.
And to answer your question: No, I
don’t have one of those fishing shirts
that make me look like a NASCAR
crew chief. But I suspect there is a flyfishing rep somewhere with visions of
guides wearing Winston or Sage plastered across their shirts and embroidered flames thrown in for the new generation.
What I noticed was the gear guys
using tactics a lot more refined than
things I’d seen in any fly fishing magazine. Granted, fishing deep with gear is
more user-friendly than with fly tackle,
but to be more successful as a smallmouth fisherman, I needed to nymph
and sling sink tips more effectively and
more often. Otherwise, my bass fishing
It’s fishing those trenches that will make you look long and hard at spinning gear
the next time you’re at a hook-and-bullet store.
hunting for the giant squid in an ocean
trench. When the fish disappear there is
only one place to go—deep with heavy
flies and sink-tips. Gapen calls it “center-streaming.” The fly tackle is cumbersome, the casting is not really casting, the strikes are hard to detect and
the fishing is slow.
My advice to you: Good luck
It’s fishing those trenches that will
make you look long and hard at spinning gear the next time you’re at a
hook-and-bullet store.
The ESPN Epiphany
When I first read about fishing for
smallmouths, it
seemed that I’d
need poppers,
a few crayfish
patterns and
roughly 500
Clouser minnows—and the
streamers should
all be two-tothree inches long. I
AVER Y A N C H O V Y
PATTERN BY NELSON HAM
TIED BY NELSON HAM
HOOK:
TMC 8089NP, size 10
THREAD: Danville monofilament, ultrafine
TAIL:
Silver and pearl Flashabou, mixed
BODY:
Pearl Ice Wing Fiber or Gartside
Secret Stuff or Martinek Dri Ice
TOP:
Smoke DNA Holo-Fusion
EYES:
Pearl or silver 3-D molded, size 5.0
NOTE: Ice wing fibers are attached in alternating
clumps until the head is reached, then
brushed vigorously rearward with a dog
brush. Flies up to six or eight inches long
can easily be tied in combination with other
tailing materials like feathers, Icelandic
sheep fur or Puglisi fibers. Try fishing with
a Petitjean Magic Minnow Head or
Wigglefin.
would be like dry-flies-only fishing for
trout.
All this led me to one magical
thought:
I wondered why we didn’t use flies as
big as some of those bass lures.
Have you measured a Zara Super
Spook or looked lately at the size of
most soft baits? Three-to-six inches is a
lot more common than two or three—
and the largest swimbaits used today for
targeting giant largemouths are almost
a foot long!
It was about this time that I started
fishing saltwater with Captain Bob
Marvin. A chance referral put me with
this masterful, old-time, Florida guide.
His snook flies acted like smallmouth
flies.
I also became entranced with saltwater tyers like Steve Farrar and Tim
Borski. Their flies made of the latest
synthetics, sometimes mixed with naturals, were no longer stiff and lifeless like
their predecessors.
The final piece of the puzzle was my
SUMMER 2006
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30-41 Achigan
6/19/06
7:32 PM
Page 40
friend and former fishing partner Phil
Cochran, an ichthyologist now living in
Minnesota. In my mind he is the last of
a dying breed of old-school field naturalists. He gets the credit for everything
I know about stream ecology, but certainly none of the blame for all the
things I’ve forgotten, which are a lot.
Phil showed me my first caddisfly—
Helicopsychidae if I remember right—
the one whose case looks like a snail
shell. For the next few years he went on
to show me how a stream works. He
also showed me research of his friend
John Lyons, who most consider the
Wisconsin DNR’s expert on smallmouths.
B A S S P A L A , O . F. ( O R I G I N A L
FLOATING )
PATTERN BY NELSON HAM
TIED BY NELSON HAM
HOOK:
Mustad 3191, size 2/0 (straighten
offset bend with line pliers)
THREAD: White Flymaster; white Flat-Waxed
Nylon for attaching foam
LIP:
FlyLipp
UNDERBODY:
Pearl Estaz
BODY/HEAD:
Black over white strips of 2mm craft
foam
EYES:
Silver or pearl 3-D molded, size 5.0
NOTE: Flash tail and rattle can be added. Short,
quick strips work best.
Saltwater Streamers and Big Stinking
Bass
The result of all this fishy learning is
that I realized big saltwater streamers
should work for imitating minnows
important to a river smallmouths diet—
sometimes more so than crayfish. And
there was no reason not to go big;
ichthyologists say that four or five inches is an optimal forage size for larger
bass. Many minnows such as shiners,
dace, stonerollers and chubs have average lengths of two-to-four inches, with
the largest adults being several inches
longer.
That is when I started using saltwater
patterns for smallmouth. New equipment and tying materials meant I could
cast the flies easily and they had life in
the water. Most importantly, I caught
more big bass and fewer smaller ones.
When Tim and Bart trusted me to
show me their smallmouth “crusher,” I
felt an inner redemption. It was a fiveinch saltwater pattern marketed by
Umpqua called the Murdich Minnow.
Fished like a dying minnow, it attracts
Bass in colder, less-productive, northern waters grow much slower than those in southern states.
A 20-inch river bass from northern Wisconsin is easily 10 years old or more.
Catch-and-release angling is vital to supporting and improving the fishery.
T R A V E L
T I P S
Northwoods Rivers and Shops
DON’T EXPECT “TOP 10 SMALLMOUTH RIVERS.” Similar articles
have turned weekend trout fishing on the spring creeks of southwest Wisconsin into a team sport, complete with early morning
races to the one car pull-outs. Fortunately, many bass fishermen
focus on lakes in the summer and many smallmouth streams in
July and August can only be negotiated by wading or canoe. On
many summer days you can have a Wisconsin smallmouth stream
to yourself.
The DNR estimates about 3,500 miles of smallmouth water in
the Wisconsin. The northern water includes the big rivers and
flowages, such as the St. Croix and Wisconsin—almost all of which
can be fished by boat. The southwest streams are part of the spring
creeks region. This is small-stream wading or canoe water.
Buy DeLorme’s Wisconsin Atlas and Gazetteer for planning trips.
Wisconsin has excellent trout-only guidebooks, but Motovioloff’s
Flyfisher’s Guide to Wisconsin (2003) includes smallmouths.
Midwest Fly Fishing magazine regularly publishes articles on
smallmouth streams, patterns and tactics and can be found online
at www.mwfly.com. Russ Wayre’s Smallmouth! America’s Top Bass
Waters (Midwest/South ed.) profiles several lakes, rivers, and
flowages in Wisconsin.
Much more info on the “where” can be found on the Internet.
Many smallmouth waters are on state or federal land, or under the
pervue of power companies, and these folks are happy to supply
info. You shouldn’t have trouble finding them online. A good start is
the DNR website at www.dnr.state.wi.us. Use the U.S. Geological
40
F I S H & F LY
Survey’s website to monitor river discharge, especially with the
passing of summer storms (water.usgs.gov). You can assess
whether you’ll find a raging torrent or perfect conditions on your
favorite river.
The following are Wisconsin flyshops that can set you up with
equipment, flies, and a good guide. Local river knowledge is important. Top-water and shallow-water fly fishing is a relatively short
season—plan ahead. July and August are the prime months. By the
way, we haven’t touched largemouth bass or lake fishing—
Wisconsin is black bass wonderland.
Tight Lines Fly Fishing Co.
Tim Landwehr
DePere, Wisconsin
920-336-4106
www.tightlinesflyshop.com
Angler’s All
Roger LaPenter
Ashland, Wisconsin
715-682-5754
lapenter@charter.net
The Fly Fishers
Pat Ehlers
Milwaukee, Wisconsin
414-259-8100
www.theflyfishers.com
Superior Fly Angler
Jeff Dahl
Superior, Wisconsin
715-395-9520
www.superiorflyangler.com
Hayward Fly Fishing Outfitters
Larry Mann & Wendy Williamson
Hayward, Wisconsin
715-634-8149
www.haywardflyfishingcompany.com
big smallmouth.
Unfortunately, the Murdich didn’t
survive in Umqua’s lineup—they never
figured out that Bill Murdich made a
killer smallmouth fly. Like me, you’ll
need to tie your own, but it is completely worth the time and effort.
Believe me.
Smaller flies have their important
place in bass fishing—in spooky water,
for example—and sometimes bass simply aren’t aggressive to larger prey and
thus larger flies. But the latest generation of fly rods makes casting larger flies
easier, and new fly-tying materials allow
us to tie bigger patterns that are light,
maintain the appearance of bulk, shed
water easily and show life in slow-moving water.
Don’t expect big streamers to be a
panacea. You’ll probably catch fewer
fish on average, sometimes very few, but
in the right situations you’ll be casting
the right fly to take some of the biggest
fish of the season.
It is the same principle used by
Whitlock, Galloup, and Linsenman to
target monster brown trout—big baitfish patterns with big equipment for big
fish.
If you are serious about hunting big
bass, give big minnow patterns a try and
stick with them. We’ve waited far too
long to fish big “lures” to smallmouths.
The Bassmasters did it years ago, but
they had a good reason—they fish for
money.
I also have some new bass heroes—
Steve Farrar, Bill Murdich, Tim Borski,
Jack Gartside… the list goes on. The
next time you need some bass-fly inspiration, look in the saltwater bins. You
might stumble onto a bass-wielding
treasure.
Just for a Moment
My new friends and I finished the
float last July by casting poppers to rising fish, but the biggest fish that day
took a Murdich Minnow it saw only for
a second. The outside bank of a fast
sweeping bend had a rough rock wall
Just like putting together an opening paragraph or the foundation for a building, bass
fishing is all about structure. Find downed logs or rocky banks and you’ll find the fish.
with one eddy no wider than a shoebox.
Time for one cast and a quick strip.
I had to slip my boat slowly downstream into quieter water so we could
land the fish—19-inches long and dark
SILI -SKIN MINNOW
PATTERN BY STEVE FARRAR
TIED BY NELSON HAM
HOOK:
Tiemco 8089, size 10
THREAD: White Flymaster or Danville
monofilament, ultra-fine
UNDERBODY:
Mother-of-Pearl Sili-skin rolled
around middle half of hook shank
TAIL:
Silver Flashabou over Tan DNA
Holo-Chromosome over white
DNA Holo-Fusion
BODY/HEAD:
Pearl Flexicord Light (quarter-inch)
covered by Mother-of-Pearl SiliSkin
EYES:
Silver or pearl 3-D molded, size 3.5
GILL SLIT: Red Pantone pen
HEAD COATING:
Dip in Softex, Softbody, or Plasti-Dip
as chocolate, but as beautiful as they
come.
On some days I’ve seen that river,
with the passing of a summer storm and
low fog, look a bit like the coastal rainforest of Alaska. The rocks look eerily
like cloaked sentinels, standing guard,
unwilling to give in to the constant
passing of dark, acid waters born in
headwater bogs.
Similar is the smallmouth bass, a survivor, unwilling to come to hand without a fight—the one who struggles.
The Algonquin were right on, and
this struggle can mean many different
things.
If you come to the northwoods, you
might find yourself whispering achigan
when the fighter slips out of your hands
and back into dark waters.
Nelson Ham grew up the son of a Bavarian
fräulein and a U.S. Army combat soldier
who always let him go his own way. A
glacial geologist and college teacher by
trade, he spends his summers fishing and
guiding in northeast Wisconsin for Tight
Lines Fly Fishing. He lives in Green Bay
with his very understanding wife. She
even rows a driftboat.
SUMMER 2006
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