November?! Waaagh.

New activities for winter.

Damn, there she goes, too. Fuckin eh,  WH40K: Space Marine seems to have consumed my nights, and any free weekend time when I was able to go fishing, but it was just slightly too cold to want to go out when I could stay home and exterminate asshole 13 year old kids in online games.

Twilight ruined vampires.
I mean, sparkly vampires?
Fuck that noise. Fuck your
Mormon vampires. Anne
Rice sucks, too, btw.

Yep, shit's reached that point. However, if you haven't shouted and some jackhole kid who stabs you in the face repeatedly in some lame ass online game, I suggest giving it  go just once. Its oddly invigorating.

So, what's the deal? Monocacy Trout Unlimited is back in action for their winter sessions, and some new and invigorated participation leaves me hope that they'll start to pick up steam and go back to full time and pursing a complete agenda. Thousand miles, one step, zen bullshit. Et. Cetera. November 22nd is an open meeting and fly tying night, come out and don't be an asshole.

Hit and run topic: Online petions suck, but sign it anyways. Pennsylvania House Bill 1950 and Senate Bill 1100 to supercede local enviromental regs for lesser state regs on Marcellus shale drilling. Read more.

Fly of the whatever, because I meant to do it weeks ago but, y'know, lazy and shit. Lafontaine Emergent Sparkle Pupa. Y'know, read more and all that. You've done this, you understand. Read more is go!

Its supposed to be awesome, but fuckall if I know because Penn's was blown out so fuck your face and your October Caddis. Also, these pictures are blurry as shit because it was like 3am and I felt I should try and do something useful or something. Deal. I don't care. This is an entry, be happy I cared that much.

Actually, why the fuck DOES anyone care? Seriously, why are you reading this? Don't you have something better to do?

The whole point of the ESP is that it looks like a caddis pupa, the short phase between the larva saying fuck you to aquatic life and making his mad dash to the sky. The larva will bloat its body with gas, swim to the surface, break out and through the water. This is why caddis hatches feature splashy rises, they don't hang out long doing this and the fish must react quickly. The ESP is the "emerger pattern" for caddis, akin to a cripple that didn't quite make it or who is still struggling.

So, like materials and shit, right? Not too complex:

• Deer hair for the wing, match the adult phase.
• Dubbing for the underbody, match the larva.
• Dubbing for the thorax, match the adult.
• Antron for the bubble, ginger or white. 

A note on the antron (and the dubbing, really). Obsessive types will go on and on about using the proper sparkle yarn for both so as to take advantage of the "trilobal antron fibers" or some mouthful of words like that. This is because the pattern originator specified a very specific item, and did so because he felt it was this substance that gave the fly its magic. Maybe? I dunno. Will powers magic, so if you will it then it is no dream or some shit, right? The rest of the world doesn't seem to care. However, if you do, the folks at The Book Mailer claim to have production runs of the real shit. Ye Olde Timers will say that you need the original Aunt Lydia's Sparkle Yarn (now discontinued). For the rest of us, just get some Antron yarn and some dubbing and move on with your day.

Do your thread body and tie in your antron off the back of the hook. Leave a healthy amount hanging out there, the more the merrier, as you're going to pull this OVER the body to form the bubble. When you tie this down, you'll need to make sure you get it evenly around the whole hook. This is the key to the fly. Do it right. Seriously. Do it in two small sections if you must, but do it right. Don't use so much as to obscure the underbody, its supposed to look like a gauzy haze, to mimic the gas bubbles around the underbody as the pupa breaks through and gets ready to take wing. If you can't clearly see the underbody when done, you've used too much. Try half of a piece of carded antron yarn, and adjust down as you see fit.

Next, dub your underbody. Do it loose and spikey so it traps air bubbles. Touch dubbing with lotsa wraps if you must. Do 2/3rd of the hook in this body. When you're done, we'll get to the other tricky part which is using the antron to form the bubble over the body. To do this, take the antron you left hanging off the back and fold it over (and around, remember, 360 degrees of coverage!) the underbody, as a right handed guy, I use my right hand for this . Basically, just pull it over the front of the hook and don't worry about that flared up bubble here, but instead getting that 360 degrees of coverage of antron fibers around the whole body. When you think it looks good, push back towards the bend a bit so that it bubbles up over the underbody.

Now, you can use your left hand to pinch it all down over the whole underbody, so that you've got it pinched in such a way that the bubble is compressed under your fingers and the point at which you plan to tie it in is exposed. Tie the antron bubble down. Another trick to remember is that thread tension is going to spin this ever so slightly, so if you cock your left fingers a bit, you can compensate for some of this (or just twist it after you tied it in). When you're done, you should have a gauzy haze of antron in a perfect bubble over your underbody.

Tie in your stacked deer hair wing now, not too long or heavy, a set of tips to make it look as if the wing is unfolding over the top of the body. After, apply some dubbing to the thread for the thorax over the tie down for the wings. Finish with a thread head, and by using your dubbing needle to pull out a few strands of antron for a trailing shuck.

That's it. Go fish the fucker in the film, on a swing or on a lift. Its not a dry fly, its a wet or perhaps a damp. Since it mimics the rising pupa in the film it should take fish at any stage from the bottom up to the top, including as it swings around like an actively swimming caddis pupa.