A customer walked into the shop this week and dropped a fly on the counter. “Do you know the name of this fly?” he asked. My eyes bugged out of my head. “Yes, I do!” I said. “That’s the NCA Yellow Venison.”
The story then poured out from the angler. While fishing at Goodrich Falls on the Ellis River, the angler’s wife found the fly lying in the rocks of the shoreline. The two had not seen a fish at that point in their fishing expedition. The wife tied on the fly and cast into the pool. Strip. Strip. Bang! A 16-inch, 2-pound brook trout grabbed the fly. The couple was ecstatic to have caught such a nice trout.
The angler grabbed four NCA Yellow Venison from the counter display.
If you have cast at this pool, you know that a low-back cast loop will snap off the fly. I felt that the fly that the wife had found was the fly I had snapped off a couple days earlier. I handed the fly back to the angler. “Finders, keepers.” The angler walked out of the shop with a little hop to his step and visions of more nice brook trout dancing in his head. His wife would be happy that he had procured more of the flies she had found.
Moments later, one of the shop regulars came through the door. His go-to spot to fish is Goodrich Falls. I relayed the story of the previous angler.
“That fly was mine,” said the regular. “I was at Goodrich Falls last night.”
The story was that the regular customer had just caught a nice 15-inch brook trout and went to check the knot and the leader. The fly broke off and fell into the rocks and due to darkness, he could not see the fly, so left the fly there.
“I came in to get some more of those flies,” said the regular customer. He was too late. The new angler had just purchased the last flies on the counter display.
“No worries,” I said. “I’ll tie some more of those flies and you can pick them up tomorrow.”
What a great fishing story. Two anglers, two brook trout, same fly in less than 24 hours.
Another great fishing tale has to do with the fly the Transfoamer. The Transfoamer is a terrestrial imitation that has a marabou tail, ice-dubbing body and a double foam wing with rubber legs. A very buggy looking pattern when tied in black, tan or brown. It is also tied in purple and pink.
Regular readers to this column know my affinity for pink flies. Pink Lady Bucktail, Pink Wickham Fancy, Pink Lady Wet, Pink Lady Nymph, Pink Parachute Adams. Huge fan of pink flies.
So, no surprise when the shop had the Pink Transfoamer highlighted as a “Hot Fly” in the fly selection. The teasing from customers is relentless. “There are no pink grasshoppers,” say the customers. “Are you out of your mind?”
Yet Pink Transfoamer terrestrial imitations left the shop on a steady basis until the other day. One angler called me out.
“You are just having fun at our expense,” said the angler. “You must laugh each time one of us buys this fly. Well, I’m not taking the bait.”
“Here, take one on me,” I said. “You can pay me for it when you come back to buy more.”
The next morning, the angler was back in the Shop. Checking out, he had five Pink Transfoamers in his cup. “Lost the biggest brown trout of my life last night,” said the angler. “Fish took that Pink fly you gave me. I still can’t believe it but I’m going back to see if I can hook him again.”
This late in the season, fish have seen all the regular flies and lures. Change things up and use patterns that the fish would normally not see presented to them.
Steve Angers, a native to the Conway area, is the author of the book “Fly Fishing New Hampshire’s Secret Waters” and operates the North Country Angler.
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