Author and friend Rick Kustich recently tagged along on one of our Salmon fishing trips to the Gaspe. He asked what flies he needed for the trip and of course we gave him a good list. Now while Rick is a fairly good fly tier he does tend to be a procrastinator, usually waiting until the last moment before cranking them out in Caffeine enhanced all-night tying binge.
On this particular trip I think he waited a bit to long and decided to cut some corners. He took a look at the Magog Smelt and said to himself “what can I leave out on this fly to make it faster to tie yet not lose its fish catching properties”. Since we usually use Nickel-plated AJ hooks the silver tag and body were obvious choices to start. And if you’re not putting on a body why bother with a rib or tail. Hell, there are lots of salmon flies that don’t even have tails. The wing he left as is, white, yellow and purple. He decided to nix the peacock herl topping however. The red throat? What the hell, he left that. But the teal sides, who needs them? And last but not least, the jungle cock eyes. Had to keep them, it is a salmon fly after all! Rick’s brother Jerry dubbed the resulting fly the Magoo.
Cut to the fall zone on the Dartmouth River. We had about 30 fish in ladder pool, not sure about the other pools. They are hard to see into, but they defiantly had some fish. The 2 gentlemen we shared the zone with left early without catching any fish. I got a few tugs with my completed Magog Smelt and a few other flies but hooked nothing. And Rick with his Magoo? He hooked one large 20lb fish and landed 2 bright smaller fish to finish the day early. No Justice.
Charlie.
On this particular trip I think he waited a bit to long and decided to cut some corners. He took a look at the Magog Smelt and said to himself “what can I leave out on this fly to make it faster to tie yet not lose its fish catching properties”. Since we usually use Nickel-plated AJ hooks the silver tag and body were obvious choices to start. And if you’re not putting on a body why bother with a rib or tail. Hell, there are lots of salmon flies that don’t even have tails. The wing he left as is, white, yellow and purple. He decided to nix the peacock herl topping however. The red throat? What the hell, he left that. But the teal sides, who needs them? And last but not least, the jungle cock eyes. Had to keep them, it is a salmon fly after all! Rick’s brother Jerry dubbed the resulting fly the Magoo.
Cut to the fall zone on the Dartmouth River. We had about 30 fish in ladder pool, not sure about the other pools. They are hard to see into, but they defiantly had some fish. The 2 gentlemen we shared the zone with left early without catching any fish. I got a few tugs with my completed Magog Smelt and a few other flies but hooked nothing. And Rick with his Magoo? He hooked one large 20lb fish and landed 2 bright smaller fish to finish the day early. No Justice.
Charlie.