Sooner or later, every fanatical fisherperson who catches the fly-fishing disease seeks treatment by traveling to one or more of the famous western streams. My pilgrimage to a fly-fishing Mecca took me to Idaho with my dear friend Alan Barnard. My fondest memory from that trip, though, doesn’t involve famous rivers or epic hatches. Instead, I smile recalling a little park where I fished a streamer in a tiny creek across from the funky hotel where we stopped for the evening in anticipation of the next day’s big adventure.
Alan and I paid the friendly receptionist the fees for one night’s lodging and a multiday fishing license. She said the creek across the street was teeming with ’bows and browns. Cool. We unloaded the rental car, grabbed our fly rods, and crossed the street to the small park. I noticed quite a few parked cars. We walked across the manicured lawn to the little winding creek. You could almost pole-vault across it. And this itty-bitty creek was chock full of inner-tubers, who could barely maneuver without touching both banks. Well, we thought, “What the heck — we’re here. Let’s fish.”
I tied on a simple size 8 streamer — a dace imitation. And long story short, beneath all those oversized Cheerios floating down the creek, the receptionist was right: it was full of fish. I cast during the calm moments between tubers, and bang! Fish on, again and again, in spite of all the commotion.
Unfortunately, while all that was going on, my shoes kept sinking into the putrid muck of the creek’s bank, and for the rest of the trip, those shoes reeked so horribly that they remained tied to the rental car’s roof rack. A road-kill skunk smelled better.
Otherwise, it was a great start to the trip. Later that night, I admired the dace streamer over a burger and glass of cheap wine. It’s easy to tie. Here’s how. Place a size 8 4X-long hook in the vise. Attach 3/0 black thread behind the eye, mount a length of gold tinsel there, and wrap the thread back to the spot on the shank that is over the barb. Next, wrap the tinsel back to the same spot, leaving it hanging off the back. Attach a length of cream-colored floss above the barb, advance the thread to the eye, and neatly wrap the floss forward to just behind the eye. Cut away the excess. Next, spiral wrap the tinsel to the eye and remove the excess. That finishes the body.
Tie in a throat using some stripped orange hackle under the hook shank behind the eye, allowing the hackle tips to extend back three-quarters of the shank’s length. Next, tie in a wing with two badger hackle tips side by side on top of the shank and behind the eye. The wings should extend half a length beyond the hook shank. Create a smooth black thread head and then paint on eyes using yellow and black enamel. Dip the fine end of a pencil or a match head into the paint and dab a yellow spot on each side of the head. Let it dry. Dab a smaller black dot for the pupil, let it dry, varnish the head, and you are finished.
I’ve never been back to Idaho, and I threw away the stinky shoes many moons ago, but I will always fondly remember my trip with Alan. I was grateful for the companionship. I was even more grateful that as we ate our burgers in our funky hotel, we didn’t get busted for poaching, because that’s when we realized our licenses weren’t good until the next day.
— Andy Guibord
