How To Articles

Dying Buck Tail With Kool-Aide

Dying Buck Tail With Kool-Aide
by Kevin McKay
Master Maine Guide
February 2005
Preparing The Tail:
Items Needed
1. Deer Tail
2. Fillet Knife
3. Borax
4. Nails
5. Board



Take the tail fresh off the deer and strip the bone out of it. Do this by grabbing the base in one hand and slowly peeling the skin off the bone. Then take the tail and cut it down the middle with a filleting knife on the white hair side.
Place it on a board with the open side up. Spread it out and nail a corner, then stretch as far as possible and put another nail. Nail down all four corners.
Next, take Borax soap detergent and cover it completely and then leave it for several days until it is as hard as a board.
Brush off all the borax and you are ready to dye it.
Dying with Kool-Aid:
Items Needed
1. Unsweetened Kool-Aid
2. White Vinegar
3. 2 Pots
4. Measuring Cup
5. Water
6. Hanger
7. Clothes Pins



1. Take the tail and place it in a pot with hot water right out of the tap for 30 minutes until the tail is soft.



2. Place two packages of Kool-Aid in a second pot with 12 ounces of water and 4 ounces of vinegar. Bring it to just below boiling.



3. Remove the tail from the hot water and get rid of the excess water and pieces of tail that have come off, over a sink.
4. Place tail in the Kool-Aid.
5. Make sure the whole tail is covered.



6. Let the tail simmer for 30 to 40 minutes or until the tail has reached the desired color.





7. Let the solution temperature cool down.
8. Rinse and wash in warm water with dish soap.
9. Now take a coat hanger and clothes line pins and hang the tail to dry.


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Nymphing Away The Day

"Nymphing in its simplest form is fly fishing using sub-aquatic forms of aquatic insects". Unknown author

What the term first meant to me back 10 years ago on Grand Lake Stream, was a heavy weight guy with a bright colored orange floating line, casting about three feet in front of him with a bobber looking thing attached to his line and staring into the water like a my dad does with the news every night. He would hold this stare and pause, until WHAM, landlock after landlock salmon leaped from the water. My buddy and I watched in awe as we were fishing streamers and hadn't gotten a hook-up.

Since that fishless day in Downeast Maine, I have thrived on any info or teachings regarding this topic. You and I have heard it over and over that fish feed 80% or 85%, or is it 90% below the surface. Whatever the percentage of whatever studies you are mulling over, understand this, trout and salmon eat off the bottom a lot!! It didn't take just the fat man at Grand Lake Stream to make me understand that on the bottom is where I wanted to be. Now how do I do it?



I did lots of bank sitting with my rod all strung up with all kinds of new gear on my line and in my vest. I watched good nymphers, but mostly novice ones, but still watched. I read books, spoke with guides, read articles, and watched videos. I did everything except have someone show me how to do it, which would have been easier, quicker, and in the long run would have been cheaper. I spent lots of time on the water day and night to get this right. I struggled with my ego and style, battled off purists, hooked my skin, but damn it I was starting to catch fish, and big ones at that. It wasn't pretty, but they were coming into my net.

It's been about ten years since that day at GLS, I've put on some weight and now I am casting in the shadow of the big man. I would like to share my findings that helped me raise my skill and enjoyment level. This is not gospel by any means, just one person's findings on this incredible technique. In no time you will have your own to share with others.

First off, most equipment will do, so don't think you need to go out and re-arm yourself with new rods and lines, but if you need help convincing your spouse, this could help. I'm a master at it now, just don't tell my soon to be wife that my old rods worked just fine.

I use a 9 ft rod in a 5 weight for most places I fish in Maine. I spool my reel with a Double Taper line. I like longer rods for better line control and mending. Both of these in turn will help with drag free drifts. As for the action of the rod, I like a fast action, tip flex. It's good for a quick hook set with minimal wrist action. Roll casting or chucking your rig is easier with a quick rod, so I go with one.

I only use a floating line in a DT. It's easier to mend, roll cast, and I can cast a dry fly or emerger without having to re-spool. I can add weight to my line and get it as deep if not deeper than a sinking line, so I don't use a sink line. With all that line under the water on a sinking line, it's a lot harder to mend, so I stay away from anything that would affect my drift. At the end of my line I have a 9ft 4x leader attached. You can use a nail knot, loop to loop connectors, superglue, or bubble gum. The fish don't notice, so don't get hung up on it. Attach it so it holds and let's go fishing. So far you are strung up like you are going dry fly fishing.

I use a strike indicator for a few reasons. No not a bobber. I use an indicator for exactly that. To indicate where my leader is heading and to indicate a strike. Yes it bobs, but let's get away from that terminology. What kind you say? There are all kinds from your grandma's yarn balls, to multicolored cones, stick on pastes, a cork from 1994 Pinot Grigio. I use the simple round or barrel shaped ones that you feed the line through and hold in place with a toothpick. Not too small. The bigger the better. You want to be able to suspend a weighted stone fly if needed. Where do I put it? I usually place mine about 2 times the depth of the water I am fishing, 4 feet of water=8 feet up from my fly. This of course is depending also on the speed of the water. Longer in real fast water, shorter in slower. Trick is to get your fly to move with the water, but also ticking the bottom. They say if you are not catching bottom you are not catching fish. This is true and also translates into loosing flies. Either start tying them, or call your buddy that does.

When you call him tell him you need some stone flies, pheasant tails, brassies, hare's ears, and flashy nymphs. I'm actually a firm believer that most of the time when you find fish and have the drift and the depth, the fly is not all that important. Match the hatch, blah, blah. I only say that because I catch about 80% of my fish on something that resembles a chili pepper shrunk in a microwave. Don't get me wrong, if there are stoneflies crawling on my waders I will fish them, but basically I use lots of bead heads and flashback in the fast water and more natural PT's and hare's ears in the slower water.

Tie your nymph to your leader with your favorite knot with about 18 inches on tippet. Preferably fluorocarbon if your wallet and wife says ok. If you want to get daring, add a dropper behind this with another 18 inches of tippet. Two flies are better than one, right? You bet, except when you have to net fish or get it untangled from your rod tip and line, which happens in the beginning. Take it slow.

Weight. Not the big guy, no, but your leader will need some. I use split shot or sink putty. I always place it right above the knot from the top fly where you added tippet. This way it is placed a nice distance above your fly and with the knot it won't slide down. Great spot. For the amount, it's hard saying not knowing. After a while you will be able to look at a run in the river and just know. For now just try to get your fly on the bottom. Add and subtract weight, find what works. That's the fun part. You know it's working when your rod is bent over.

So it's all new to you, don't sit on a bank and wait for people to clear the pools so you don't get embarrassed with this. Get in some water that is moving and flip your rig out there with a little side arm action or roll cast, but only a few feet in front of you. This isn't a set up, you will false cast, and it won't be pretty, but just get it out there. I won't go into instructing you on how to read water and how to find lies, so just go to a fishy looking spot, an eddy, or a funnel in the rocks, and try it.

I remember back to the fat man that never had more than 4 feet of line out off his rod. You would be surprised how many fish will come right from your feet. Cast upstream so your drift will be come down in front of you 2 feet away. The next cast 3 feet away, etc. Work all the water in front of you. If you catch a fish close, you might not disturb the ones 10 feet away and catch them on the next cast. Watch your indicator as it drifts by and jerk a hook set at any sign of the indicator not flowing freely. If it's the bottom you are doing well, if it's because your flies are now way downstream from the indicator, cast an upstream mend and start over.

The key is detecting strikes. It's not going to be like fishing for perch with a worm and bottom. A trout might hit that fly 10 times in 2 feet and do it so lightly you might mistake it as the current twisting your indicator. It takes time to sense the strike and recognize it, but with time you'll get it. At the end of your drift slowly lift the rod tip, making it like your fly is emerging to the surface. You wouldn't believe how many fish come at this point. When you are done the drift, use the friction of the water as resistance and in one motion, chuck it upstream. It's definitely an art of itself to detect the strike and to determine where your flies are in relation to your indicator. I found that I tended to throw a lot of upstream mends in the beginning, sometimes I had a fish on, but at least I could start my drift over and begin with a drag free drift.

I can't instruct you to become a great nympher on paper, just give you some of my advice on equipment and attitude. The fish will eventually come to your net. Watch others on the water, and spend as much time as you can on any water. It's damn hard to catch trout on the couch, though over a campfire and bourbon your buddy might try to tell you he did it once. Have fun with it.




About the Author

Jeremy Trainor is an avid fly fisherman and outdoorsman who was born and raised in Wales, Maine. He enjoys fly tying and canoeing with his soon to be wife Shannan and lab Marlin. He spends his free time working for Orvis consulting clients on equipment, teaching classes, and providing fly fishing seminars.

by Jeremy Trainor
March 2004

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Salt Marsh

Salt Marshes are one of our nation's most important natural resources. These seas of grass are inundated by salt water twice daily, and provide nursery habitat for almost 90% of our coastal fish species.

The area comprising a salt marsh is neither ocean nor land. The tidal currents that dictate all of the natural biorhythms flood the salt marsh 730 times each year. As the waters recede, the enriched waters provide as much as 54% of the soluble and particulate nutrients to the surrounding coastal waters.



Salt marshes are the most productive natural habitats on the face of the earth. The nutrients exchanged between the salt marshes and the open ocean nourishes the coastal waters for a distance of nearly three miles out to sea. It is in this way that these two separate ecosystems complement each other. The effect of the nourishing waters starts with the nutrients available for the production of phyto-plankton, and is transferred up the food web to the top predators. In a sense the entire natural food web starts in the estuaries. As the mud flat invertebrates feed on the particulate nutrients and phyto-plankton, the invertebrates excrete a high nitrogen waste that flows back into the salt marsh feeding the grasses. In a well balanced estuary as much as 85% of the water exiting the estuary returns on the next tide cycle.

An additional benefit of salt marshes is as Nursery Ground for coastal fishes. Nearly all of the finfish found in coastal waters depend on salt marshes for at least one of its life stages. All shellfish rely on the stability of salt marshes to harbor their larva.

Zones of the Salt Marsh

The salt marsh can be divided into two distinctly different zones. The lowest zone is inundated by the tide twice each day and is called the Regularly Flooded Zone. The second receives tidal inundations only periodically, and is called the Irregularly Flooded Zone.

Within these two zones there are three classes of habitats. Each of these habitats provides distinct and very diverse wildlife values with none more productive than the other. The most noticeably different habitat is where water pools on the surface of the marsh. These areas are called Salt Pannes. Another type of habitat is the High Marsh and is comprised of the fine textured grass that grows in the seemingly flat surface of the Irregularly Flooded Zone. The third is the Low Marsh, a narrow band of tall grasses that line the lower elevations of the Regularly Flooded Zone.

Salt Pannes

Salt Pannes are in most cases where people experience their first taste of marshland wildlife. During different tidal cycles these pool areas are attractive to multitudes of marsh birds. Salt Pannes can appear in both the Regularly Flooded Zone and the Irregularly Flooded Zone. High Marsh Pannes are cyclical in nature. As Hydrogen Sulfide accumulates in the soils, the grass around the panne dies, causing the water surface to migrate to a creek or ditch. After the water drains, the Hydrogen Sulfide is flushed from the soils and the plants reestablish, plugging the opening. This cycle is called Rejuvenation and is important to the evolution process of salt marsh pannes. Without rejuvenating, the Sulfides found in the panne soils bond with the available Nitrogen reducing the invertebrate production.

There are four different classes of Pannes. Each Panne type is important to many different wildlife species. Deep Perennial pannes provide deep-water refuges for baitfish stranded on the marsh surface at low tide. Shallow Perennial pannes provide feeding and resting areas for marshland wading birds during periods of high water. Temporal pannes provide the most important invertebrate and insect larval habitats that are safe from feeding fish. Vegetated pannes are important as feeding areas for migrating waterfowl. Each of these panne types link together like the links of a chain, by removing one link the chain is broken and not nearly as productive.

High Marsh

The grasses of the high marsh comprise the real production factory of the salt marsh. A well tuned high marsh can out produce the best cornfield four times over. The nutrients carried in on each passing tide permeates the marsh peat and, fueled by intense competition, the grasses grow thick and lush.

Each season as the new growth dies, the plant parts break down into particulate matter or Detritus. Detritus is the hub of the coastal food web.

Low Marsh

The low marsh is easily defined as the tall grasses that line the sides of creeks and ditches or extends from the high marsh down to the mud flats. The primary function of the low marsh is as a nursery area for 90% of the coastal fishery species.

These grass-lined banks provide safe haven for small fish as they proceed in and out of the marsh to feed. Without the proper ratio of creeks and ditches, inaccessible areas of the marsh would only be available for feeding fish for a handful of hours each month. As the tide receded from these areas untold millions of fish would be stranded on the marsh surface or in warm water pannes to perish.



The coastal food web is dependant on the productivity of salt marshes. The effects of a large estuary can be evident two miles out to sea. The baitfish and gamefish that utilized the salt marshes as a nursery ground migrate the entire eastern seaboard and out to the edges of the continental shelf.

Salt marshes can be beneficial to more areas than just the surrounding coastal waters. The system of marshes lining the Atlantic Coast is extremely important to migratory birds. Many bird species, most notably the shore birds, make planned stops at Areas of Ecological Importance as they migrate both north and south each season. These areas are instinctual stops that reliably provide an abundant high-energy food source, such as Horseshoe Crab eggs or Sea Worms.

Because of their filtering nature, salt marshes also readily remove many of the pollutants found in surface and ground water, such as heavy metals. The removed pollutants are then stored within the accumulating peat of the marsh.

In the recent past, salt marshes were considered to be wastelands and breeding places for Mosquitoes that have little value to society. As a result they could not be filled fast enough. Many coastal cities have been built on the marshes, including the whole Back Bay area of Boston Massachusetts. Only during the last two decades has the importance of salt marshes been discovered. These new lines of thought have made salt marshes the most protected habitats in the United States.



A picture is worth a thousand words. This little oasis in Danvers, MA has the spectrum of coastal values in a microcosm. The salt marsh blends with coastal woodlands, open shrub, dense shrub, and wet meadow. This area is small and as such has limited year round values; however it becomes very important during migration periods and to winter resident species.

by Geoff Wilson
February 2005

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Aquatic Insects: Bugs 101

That's talk real basic entomology or more specifically a beginning of understanding aquatic insects. The plain fact is that if you hope to catch fish on a consistent basis, instead of by chance, then you have to have some understanding of how this bug thing works.

The first lesson is that a fish will consume over 75% of its total food intake by finding its food source below the waters surface. Simple logic should suggest that an angler must take advantage of this fact of nature if the goal is to catch fish on a consistent basis. You have to learn something about the life cycles and habits of the major aquatic insects that fish eat. The largest reason for this is that if the fish eat 75% of their food below surface, this leaves the remaining 25% consumed at the water's surface. In case you missed my point, I'm telling you that unless you're in the middle of an aquatic emergence or the resultant oviposting, you're not going to catch anything on a dry fly.

The second lesson is that fish love the following food items; Caddisfly, Mayfly, Stonefly, Midges, Leeches, Shrimp, Crustaceans, other fish and even things that fall onto the water's surface. But the meal of choice is and always will be aquatic insects, so let's take a simple but effective look at these various insects and the roll they play in a fish's life. This lesson is easy to remember if you think about the water in terms of its' depth.

D = Diptera = Chironomids (Midges)

E = Ephemerella = Mayflies

P = Plecoptera = Stoneflies

T = Trichoptera = Caddisflies

H = Heavenly Bodies = Bugs and others that fall into the water

D
Dipoptera (True fly having two wings)
Chironomids (Midges)

Midges (Deerfly, Gnat, Cranefly, Blood Worm, Black Fly, Horsefly, and the ever popular, Mosquito) are tiny insects that have a life cycle similar to the caddis, that is to say that the stages are complete; egg, larval, pupal, and the air breathing adult. These insects are the most plentiful and smallest insects in our waters. The stages are different only with respects to the time the insect spends as a pupa. One large difference is the midge spends a much longer period of time attached to the underside of the surface meniscus before breaking through as an adult. These pupa also travel much greater distances before emerging as adults. These are often very small insects but at the same time are among the strongest in the aquatic insect kingdom. This is very evident when in fact these small insects will emerge from the water in temperatures that freeze other insects solid before they could reach the riverbank. As long as the water isn't frozen solid, these creatures will hatch. These insects are basically fished by using an emerger pattern and as a dry the fly of choice is the Griffith's Gnat. The more advanced anglers will also employ a rig system using the Griffith's Gnat as the dry and strike indicator and a dropper fly such as a Serendipity or Copper Buzzer.

Common Imitations:
Griffith's Gnat, Biot Midge, Copper Buzzer, Crystal Chironomid, Mosquito Pupa, Serendipity & Suspender Midge

E
Ephemerella (lives but a day)
Ephemeroptera (Up-right winged)
Mayflies

There are a gazillion species of the ever-popular Mayfly but you really don't need to know the Latin scientific name, genera, family and specific species to be a good angler. These insects are born into the air-breathing world without any functioning mouth, now you know why they live but a day. We place little cute names to these insects in order to separate one species from another. Some of these common names are Adams, Quill Gordon, March Brown, Pale Morning Dun, Blue Winged Olive and so on and so forth. Mayflies will deposit eggs onto and in the water, usually in or just above a riffled area. These eggs will sink to the bottom and eventually hatch into immature (baby) nymphs that live, feed and grow under the waters surface. The Mayfly is said to have an incomplete life cycle because it bypasses the larval stage by hatching from the egg as a nymph. Some will swim around aquatic vegetation, some will spend their lives crawling or clinging around rocks, boulders, weed clumps and other aquatic debris, while still others will burrow into the fine sand or silt and decayed organic debris that covers the bottom areas of slow flowing waters.

Depending on the specific species some Mayflies will take from a few weeks to a few years to mature to the point where nature forces them to the surface to enter the air-breathing world.

When nature calls, the nymphs will rise towards the surface and attach themselves briefly to the underside of the surface film in the emerger phase of its life cycle. Fish love these emerging nymphs and quite often even go into a feeding frenzy as though they understand that this free lunch won't last very long. Fish will not let a feeding opportunity go to waste and will always take advantage by selectively feeding on the most prominent species, letting anything else drift by untouched.

While slightly beneath or even in the surface tension, the nymph will attempt to separate itself from its nymphal shuck. This activity causes such a commotion that nearby fish will find it irresistible and charge the insect before it gets away. Once the insect sheds its nymphal shuck, it will sit on the waters surface and spread its wings. While the prevailing air currents are drying the wings, these small insects are looking much like small sailboats being blown around by the warm breezes. Fish also love to take these small offerings before they take flight and leave the waters surface. The dun will fly to the nearby trees or bushes and go through a final moult into a sexually mature spinner, so called because the mating in air requires an aerial spinning maneuver. At this stage, the insect's wings will loose all color and appear cellophane clear. Once mating has taken place, the female will deposit the fertilized egg onto or into the water, then dies and often falls to the waters surface as a spent spinner. The male will also follow the female by spinning towards the waters surface as a spent spinner. These spinning activities will also cause fish to take advantage of a feeding opportunity.

Common Imitations:
Adams, Blue Winged Olive, March Brown, Grey Quill, Quill Gordon, Hendrickson, Red Quill, Blue Quill, Grey Fox, Cream Variant, Light Cahill, Sulphur & Maple Syrup

P
Plecoptera (Folded wings)
Stoneflies

These are among the largest aquatic insect and at the same time the simplest. Like the mayfly, the stonefly has an incomplete life cycle. The stones only have two stages that are of any importance to us anglers and that is the nymphal and adult stages. The stonefly requires highly oxygenated water that is medium to fast flowing and has a streambed of small- to- large rock aggregate.

These aquatic creatures often have great periods of time between stages and can actually take over two years to mature enough to hatch into air-breathing adults. The nymphs, when ready will crawl from the water up plant stocks, boulders, rocks, logs, and anything else that will provide an avenue of escape from its aquatic beginnings.

Common Imitations:
Kaufmann Black Stone, Whitlock Stone & Michigan Caddis

T
Trichoptera (Hair covered wings)
Caddisflies

Caddisflies have what is called a complete life cycle, which is; egg hatching to the larval stage then through many moults the larvae develops into a pupa and the pupa will rise to the surface as an adult caddis, dry its' wings and very quickly fly off to the waters surrounding vegetation.

The mating ritual of the caddis is always the same. Between sunset and late dusk the males will return to the riffled areas dipping and skittering along just above the waters surface. The females will enter the mating swarm and after the nuptial activity is completed, will deposit her eggs by one of three methods. The female will fly just above fast water and jettison the egg sac onto the surface or the female will drag her posterior across the waters' surface to dislodge the eggs from her abdomen. Some species will even dive and swim to the bottom before releasing the eggs or crawl into the water by using the stock of an aquatic plant or a boulder, rock and even other debris that may have fallen into the stream.

After a time the eggs will hatch and the larvae will, depending on the species, be a free-living larvae that crawls around the bottom substrate, a larvae that will spin a spider like web or net and exist behind the net and there are other larvae that will collect fine gravel, organic debris and make a case which the aquatic insect will crawl inside for protection.

Each species will go through many moults before developing into the pupal stage and rise to the surface where it will attach itself to the underside of surface meniscus (tension). Once they moult into the adult insect, they break through the surface tension and quickly fly off to the surrounding vegetation to start the process all over again.

Common Imitations:
Brassie, Elk Hair Caddis, Caddis Sparkle Emerger, Cased Caddis, Caddis Pupa

by Richard Babine

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