In search of the Central Valley striped bass, I must have made a million casts and stripped streamers countless times. That pursuit began in the 1990s, and the motivation, curiously enough, was my fear of death.
I nearly died one August in Yosemite because of an allergic reaction caused by a common yellow jacket sting. An off-duty ranger with a EpiPen saved my gasping life. I spent eight hours in the Yosemite hospital, hooked up to an IV drip, waiting for my swollen watermelon of a tongue to shrink back to a normal size. Thereafter, I was afraid to venture into the mountains after trout, fearing mortality from a winged assassin’s sting and the final dance with the Grim Reaper. I spent the rest of the summer cowering in the valley, close to hospitals, as I began learning to striper fish on the American River in Sacramento.
I was in my thirties at the time. Next year, amazingly, I turn 60. With each new striper outing, the aging tendons in my casting and stripping arm aches, and my shoulder pops, but I keep fishing. I don’t strip the streamer as hard as when I was first taught how. I incorporate more pauses. Wiser now, I allow the flows of melted snow, the cascading streams of rain, and the moon’s pull on the currents rushing to the salty sea to breathe life into my fly.
Of late, I’ve been fishing a craft fur streamer with pulsating synthetic hair, which makes life so much easier for this fisherman. It has become my protector, a mercenary on behalf of an aging angler. I call it the Savior. This is how to tie one version of it.
Begin by inserting a 2/0 Gamakatsu SL12S hook into the vise. Attach a strong black thread behind the eye and wrap back to the rear of the shank. I tie this version with fluorescent yellow craft fur. Cut off a clump and tie it in front of the bend with the tapered tips facing backward and extending three inches past the bend. Wrap forward over the fur up the shank about a quarter of an inch and stop. Cut away the excess fur. Next, tie in about 12 strands of UV Minnow Belly flash so it extends back just short of the end of the craft fur tail. Now tie in two separate 2-1/2-inch clumps of yellow fur, one on top of the shank and one underneath, giving the fly some bulk. Again, remove the excess fur. Repeat the last step with two 1-1/2-inch clumps of yellow-orange fur. Tie in 10 strands of gold Polar Flash on top, extending three-quarters of the way back. You now could continue forward with the craft fur to the eye of the hook and be finished. However, we will do something different.
Finish the fly body by tying in and wrapping forward a three-inch-wide olive-brown EP Foxy Brush, a dubbing brush made by Enrico Puglisi, folding back the fur until reaching the hook eye. Tie it off, remove the excess, and whip finish. Comb out the fur and then glue on eyes of your choice with a flexible cement such as Goop. That’s it.
Tie this fly in any size and color combination that suits your needs. You can find more inspiration on the Internet, where there are many versions of craft fur fly tutorials. The pulsating fibers are irresistible to hungry fish.
These days, I thank that meat bee that stung me while I ate lunch at Glacier Point in Yosemite. I still recall the magnificent view out the back window of the ambulance that sped me to safety and subsequently to my passion for striped bass fishing.