GT's High Water Shrimp

This blog post was inspired by a beautiful first day of September, 2020 morning.  Brodie and I were out enjoying the cool Vermont air.  Our little wildflower meadow is really blooming; I took a couple photos of all the yellows and oranges popping out:

Even the Monarchs were enjoying the morning and the meadow!

All that orange got me thinking about the autumn salmon season on the Miramichi, which, thank you very much, we Americans will not be enjoying this year.  And because the reason for that (closed border) will likely save lives, it is fine with me.   But that doesn't mean I can't think about fall salmon fishing.   And I can still tie fall flies for another time!

Back in 2016, I developed a shrimp (sticklers might say Grub) pattern for the fall Atlantic salmon season on the Miramichi.   That September, I hooked and lost - when it jumped and came down on the tippet - probably the largest salmon I've ever come to grips with.  We were fishing in wicked high water. My friend and fine guide Renate Bullock was there when it happened.  She asked me what the fly was...I replied that it had no name because it hadn't - until now - hooked a fish (Yup, I'm one of those that doesn't name a new pattern until it has proven itself on the river).   I showed her another copy of the fly, since the one I had on was either heading for the ocean or upriver in a very large salmon's lip, and she proclaimed it "GT's High Water Shrimp."   So be it!

Fishing in high water again in 2019, I gave the High Water Shrimp another shot at fooling a fish.  Sure enough, we hooked a nice big hen together:

Here's how I tie GT's High Water Shrimp.   The materials:

A couple/three notes on the materials:

      Orange guinea hen - it is VERY easy to buy orange-dyed guinea hen that is WAY too big for this fly.    I bought a pack from just about every vendor on the planet.  All way to big.  It wasn't until I ordered a pack from Shadow Lake Sports on ebay that I hit gold.  Perfect size for the size 4 and 2 salmon hooks I tie it on.  Contact is aydoiron@nb.sympatico.ca.

      The dubbing - I'm a sucker for anything Irish (thank you, Bridget).  Frankie McPhillips Burnt Orange dubbing is tough to make into a noodle for a dubbing loop, but the color is on the money.  Interestingly, Frankie McPhillips is located in the same town as is Bridget's ancestral family farm.

     The ONLY oval tinsel I use is Lagartun.  I've tried the rest; it is simply the best, at least in my fingers and on my flies.

So, the recipe:

Hook - size 2 and 4 heavy up-eye salmon
Tag - Lagartun small oval gold tinsel
Tail - PB or bucktail dyed hot orange; 3 or 4 strands orange krystal flash over.
Butt - Black UV Ice Dubbing
Rear hackle - orange guinea hen wrapped
Body - Burnt Orange dubbing
Ribbing - Lagartun small oval gold tinsel
Front hackle - orange guinea hen wrapped
Head - 14/0 Gordon Griffiths orange Sheer thread

Here's my method of tying the fly:

Tie in the oval gold tinsel and wrap the tag:

Tie in the PB/krystal flash tail:

Tie in the black Ice Dub butt:

Wrap the rear guinea hen hackle:

Dub the body and wrap the ribbing (yup, I like it ragged and fuzzy):

Wrap the front guinea hen hackle, finish the head and add the Cellire.  You done!

Now go drag it through some big, heavy Atlantic salmon water and hang on!

Cheers,
Gary

Three More for the Miramichi

Like every other non-profit in (at least) the U.S. and Canada, the Miramichi Salmon Association (MSA) had to cancel all of its Spring and Summer fundraising events.  In order to take up some of the resulting financial slack, it is currently holding an online auction,  I have donated these three fly framings to the event (click on the pic to see a larger image).

The first is a map I legally borrowed from a New Brunswick government agency.  I played with it to create a sepia-toned image and added ten tied-by-me modern hairwing salmon flies.  The map and fly background are printed on a single sheet of 140 pound cold-press watercolor paper.  Matting is of course acid free.  The frame is oak milled into frame material in my shop.

Next framing centers around a fun poster I created, "The Eyes Have It" (get it....the "ayes" have it??)  Anyway, I printed the poster and triple matted it in acid free white, and added my version of Carrie Stevens' Green Beauty and my own Deep Green Beauty in the framing.  Frame made it my shop, pine done up in black.

Last, but hopefully not least, is a framing I call, "Autumn on the Little Southwest."  The framing includes a photo I took a couple autumns ago up on the that river while fishing with my pal Paul Elson.  I included several of my favorite fall flies, tied by me.  Frame is black cherry, which I milled from a tree in our backyard.

I hope you access the auction here: https://www.32auctions.com/MSAoutfittersauction?fbclid=IwAR2wohZKkEKN2ygqQe8H6nP05IW8pa1RuaKteqkoCxi6TiHt2Y2bHBLGSFY

If you are in the U.S. and are the winning bidder, the framings will ship from my home.  If you are in Canada or elsewhere, I'll ship the framings to MSA in Canada and they will ship from there.   There are other great items in the auction, hope you'll hurt your wallet a little in the name of Atlantic salmon conservation!

Cheers,
Gary

Friendship Flies

You can click on the pics to see enlarged versions.

I'm a lucky guy - I have very generous friends some of whom are also very good fly tyers.  Lots of the flies I've been given were handed to me on-stream.  I bring them home where they line up nicely on a shelf down here in the cave.

My friend John Miniaci up in Montreal gave me a bunch of those, and Stephen Nye up in New Brunswick sent me that huge joke bug on the end.  He knows how fond I am of deer hair bugs (not.)

I have also been given a number of classic Atlantic salmon flies that have been begging to be framed.  With nothing but time on my hands these days (I should be in New Brunswick building our camp...but that pesky border is closed due to the virus), I decided it was time to get framing.

I usually cut the mats for shadow box frames first and then let the fly or flies and mats dictate the frame style.  Awhile ago, Paul Rossman gave me a huge and takes-two-strong-people-to-carry oval mat cutter.  The base of the monster is something like 3 feet by four feet:

Once I got cutting ovals figured out, I started matching mat colors and flies.  I have a set of Rangers given to me by Stephen Nye, and I initially thought I'd frame them individually:

But I have more than a couple flies to frame individually, and thought that maybe I would frame these in a group in one frame instead.  I bought a large format printer that can print on heavy card stock; I like to use 140 pound textured watercolor paper for fly backgrounds.  That printer (Epson Workforce WF-7710) allows me to print right on the paper, negating the need for added-in labels.

First I mess around with mat colors:

I settled on white and a blue that picked up a color in the flies:

My pal Brian Cuming always visits us in salmon camp bearing gifts, be it music cd's, great wine, or beautiful flies.   I decided to frame three of his together as well, going with with and a dark brown, again to pick up a color or two in his flies:

Back to that oval cutter and some individual flies from friends and again trying to find mat colors that compliment the flies.  From Stephen:

From Royce Stearns:

Another from Stephen:

And from my young friend, Julian Furlaga:

After all that matting, I decided that "simple" would be best for frames, and I wanted them all to be the same so that they made lovely groupings.  I had a piece of 1"X 6" red oak laying around, so I milled it up to make the essence of simplicity frames.  And fortunately, had a nice day to spray the frames outside:

BTW, in my experience, this is the best clear satin finish I've ever used on stained or natural wood (shameless plug...it's how I got the manufacturer to sell cans to me wholesale!).

I think our camp, if the U.S and Canada ever let me cross the border again, will really look swell with these additions to the walls:

One more frame:  A gentleman that has been fishing my salmon flies for a few years is quarantined down in South Carolina.  He sent me a note a week or so ago, saying that he'd like a framing of some of my flies to enjoy and bring thoughts of salmon fishing past and future to him.  That was a happy project....this time I stained the oak.

That's it on the framing front....now back to a few more streamers and a very messy kitchen table (Bridget let me bring some stuff up from the cave while I recovered from a new hip.  That was in February.  So far she's let me stay!

Cheers!
Gary