Andrew Williams

TYING & FISHING FLESH,FRY AND EGG FLIES

TYING & FISHING FLESH,FRY AND EGG FLIES

Andrew WilliamsAndrew Williams

Ph

otog

rap

hed

by

Fred

Sei

ler

© 2005 Andrew WilliamsAll rights reserved. No part of this book may be

reproduced in any means without the written consent of the publisher,except in the case of brief excerpts in critical reviews and articles.

Published in 2005 byFrank Amato Publications, Inc.

PO Box 82112 • Portland, Oregon 97282 • (503) 653-8108Softbound ISBN: 1-57188-288-X • Softbound UPC: 0-81127-001-9-5

All photographs taken by author, unless otherwise notedIllustrations by Andrew Williams

Book Design: Leslie BrannanPrinted in ????

1 3 5 7 10 9 8 6 4 2

ANDREW WILLIAMSAlthough he was born in England near the famous Itchenand Test rivers, Andrew Williams didn't take up fly-fishing until the day he pulled a fly rod and reel out of theAusable River in upper New York State. The passion thatwas born that day led him to being the founding presidentof the Ottawa Fly Fishers in Ontario, and to fly-fish in theUnited Kingdom, eastern Canada and New England.

In 1989, he moved to the banks of the Kispiox River in northern BritishColumbia and found a new addiction—steelhead. He worked with theSteelhead Society of BC on the Wild Steelhead Campaign to reduce the impactof commercial salmon fishing on the Skeena River's precious steelhead. Sincethen, he has lived in the north, fishing, teaching and writing for variousAmerican and Canadian fly-fishing magazines. He is chairman of Friends ofWild Salmon, a group dedicated to protecting the wild salmon and steelhead ofthe Pacific Northwest.

“For Rhian and Janine:thanks for all your patience while dad fished.”

D E D I C A T I O N

C O N T E N T S

Introduction: Page 6

The Important Role of the Pacific Salmonin the Rivers and Forests of the Northwest

Chapter One: Page 11

of the Pacific Salmon

Chapter Two: Page 16

The Features of the Salmon Alevin, Fry and Smolts,and Tying Flies to Imitate Them

Chapter Three: Page 41

Fry and Smolt “Hatches”

Chapter Four: Page 62

The Moveable Feast

Chapter Five: Page 68

Chapter Six: Page 70

Tying and Fishing its Imitation

Additional Flies: Page 78

6 Cannibal Trout

Spawning chum salmon.

very year, adult pink, sock-eye, chum, coho, and chi-nook salmon battle upstream

in coastal rivers from California toAlaska, often travelling hundreds ofmiles to complete their mating ritualson the gravel beds where they wereborn. Unlike their Atlantic cousins,not one of the millions of Pacificsalmon that spawn in these rivers willsurvive to return to the ocean. Even

before they have dug their redds andlaid their eggs, their bodies are disfig-ured by the marks of death: raggedfins and patches of white bacteria.Soon, they will weaken and, unable tofight the currents any longer, begin todrift weakly downstream to die.Finally, their pale, rotting carcaseswill carpet the river bottoms andwave like pennants from the sunkenbranches that have snagged them.

INTRODUCTION

Photographed by Fred Seiler

Introduction: Born to Spawn 7

When I first moved west to live onthe Kispiox River, I marvelled at thebounty of nature as a seemingly end-less stream of salmon, especially pinks,flowed past in late summer. Nowhereback East had I ever seen so manylarge fish in a river. It was easy toappreciate how the rich culture of theaboriginal peoples of the Northwesthad been made possible by this abun-dant and reliable source of food whichswam up to their villages every year.Later, however, as I witnessed the slowdeterioration and final death of thesehordes, the life cycle of the Pacificsalmons seemed to me to be brutallyephemeral and even wasteful. Finally,the marvel of abundance was forgot-ten in the fall as I prayed for the rainsto come and wash away the tens ofthousands of carcases that filled the airwith the smell of decay.

But appearances are deceiving,and later I came to realize that whathad seemed at first to be a tragicwaste is in fact a noble sacrifice. Thereturn of the salmon to their homerivers to spawn and die has been forthousands of years the foundation ofthe health of the entire PacificNorthwest ecosystem. By tracking theconcentrations of marine-derived iso-topes, nitrogen-15 and carbon-13, inplants and animals in the river val-leys, fisheries biologists have foundthat the nutrients from salmon carcas-es enrich what would otherwise be amineral-poor, unproductive environ-ment. In the rivers and lakes wheresalmon transport these nutrients, thegrowth and abundance of everythingfrom algae and aquatic insects to juve-nile salmon is enhanced. From thevalley bottoms to the mountain tops,the great rainforests of the Northwest

and the creatures that live theredepend on the return of the salmon.

For example, researchers CharlieRobbins and Grant Hildebrand stud-ied museum specimens of grizzly bearsfrom the Columbia River area, a popu-lation that has been extinct since 1931,and discovered that up to 90 per cent ofthe carbon and nitrogen in the bonesand hair of these long-dead bears hadcome from salmon. They concludedthat every Columbia River grizzlythey had tested had fed on salmon,including bears that had lived 700-800miles inland. Other researchers havefound the same pattern of isotopesexisting in human bones in theInterior of British Columbia, indicat-ing that native peoples far from theocean also relied on the bounty of thesalmon runs, which in many cases arenow a trickle of their former size.

Grizzly bear eating salmon.

Ph

otog

rap

hed

by

Fred

Sei

ler

8 Cannibal Trout

Skunk cabbage in the spring.

Introduction: Born to Spawn 9

Studies reveal that the bearsthemselves are a major agent in trans-porting the salmon nutrients from theriver waters to the forests. Their fecesand the decomposing fish carcasesthat they and other predators drag upto 150 metres (492 feet) into thewoods provide nitrogen, carbon andphosphorus to the birds, insects, ani-mals and plant life of the rainforest.This nutrient pump provides up to40% of the annual fertilization ofsome riverine ecosystems. Universityof Victoria biologists found that theamount of salmon left on the forestfloor was equal to 4,000 kg. /ha (3,500pounds per acre) of commercial fertil-izer, accounting for the massive sizeof streamside trees.

The authors of a recent article inFisheries (Vol. 25, No. 1, January2000) estimate the historic biomass ofsalmon returning to west coaststreams was from 160 to 226 millionkg. (176,370 to 286,600 tons). Sadly,overfishing by commercial fleets,damming, urbanization, and defor-estation have severely reduced thenumber of adult salmon making it tothe spawning beds to contribute theirmarine-derived nutrients to the fresh-water ecosystems. The reduction nowto 11.8 to 13.7 million kg. (13,228 to15,432 tons) or 6-7 percent of the his-toric nutrient input, has contributedto the downward spiral of salmonidabundance and diversity, and addedto the difficulties of rebuildingsalmon and steelhead populations toself-sustaining levels. The ironicresult is that salmon fry populationsin these waters and the predators thatfeed on them have declined becausethere are not enough adults to makethe noble sacrifice for their offspring.

The authors say, “Fisheries man-agement has historically ignored suchecological implications of salmonspawning escapements. Harvestswere regulated to provide the mini-mum number of spawners needed toseed the habitat. The contribution of‘surplus’ salmon carcases to thegrowth and survival of juvenilesalmon was not considered when har-vest and escapement targets were set.”

A sad example of the problems thishas caused is the catastrophic declinein steelhead populations in VancouverIsland rivers. The eastern shore of theisland in particular has suffered fromhabitat destruction from urbanizationand logging, and the problems thiscauses have been exacerbated by poorocean survival in recent years. Becausesteelhead usually live in fresh waterfor two years, they are particularlyaffected by the reduction in nutrientsthat has resulted from the decliningsalmon runs. Attempts have beenmade elsewhere to fertilize some lakesand streams with artificial sources ofphosphorus and nitrogen, and inplaces such as Washington State withspawned-out hatchery salmon. Similarplans are being discussed for 15Vancouver Island rivers. Ultimately,the only viable method of rebuildingdepleted salmon and steelhead stocksis to let more adult salmon return, torecycle their minerals and protein, thussupporting their own offspring.

We are slow to appreciate thatnature knows best. In BritishColumbia, commercial fishermen andfisheries biologists talk about the ESSRfishery—the excess to salmon spawn-ing requirements fishery. They refer tothe “minimum spawning require-ments” of salmon runs, as though

10 Cannibal Trout

every salmon in excess of theserequirements that is not caught in thenets is a wasted salmon, or evenworse, as though these salmon are“over spawning” and destroying theredds of others. This is like a logger orforester talking about “decadent old-growth forests,” and saying that a treehas no value until it is cut down.These statements reflect the narrowview of nature as being valuable onlyif it contributes to human economicactivity. They ignore the contributionthat the nutrients of the salmon carcas-es make to the fertility of river bottomlife and that even a fallen tree makesto the ecosystem by rotting and mak-ing soil, amongst other things. Bothattitudes reveal our ignorance of thecomplexity of nature’s inter-connectedcycles. Slowly, however, we are com-ing to understand that salmon aretruly forest creatures and that theforests themselves are the products ofthe salmon runs.

Sport fishermen, on the otherhand, have long known that freshwa-ter fish, such as cutthroat and rainbowtrout, Dolly Varden, bull trout, andwhitefish, rely on all stages of thesalmon’s life cycle for a major part oftheir diet. In the summer and fall, theystack up behind spawning salmonand gorge on the eggs. After the adultshave died, trout will feed on the rot-ting flesh, sometimes tearing at a car-cass like a pack of wolves. In thespring, as the newly hatched alevinemerge and turn into fry, trout andother fish go on a feeding frenzy untiltheir bellies are so distended with thebaby salmon an angler might wonderwhy they are even remotely interestedin his fly. Even the smolts descendingthe rivers on their way to the sea must

run a gauntlet of hungry trout.Whereas the East coast angler has

to imitate the various insect hatchesin his home waters, to be successful,the trout fly-fisher of the PacificNorthwest must also learn the tim-ings of each stage of the salmonhatches on the rivers he fishes andknow how to match the eggs, fry, andflesh of the salmon that are present.Not only effective imitations of thesefood sources are the keys to success,but so too are a range of strategiesand fishing techniques to presentthem where, when and how the troutexpect to see them.

Fly-fishing in the coastal streams ofthe West is a relatively new phenome-non, perhaps a hundred years old atbest. But even during its early stages,trout fishermen were realizing theimportance of salmon as a source offood for their quarry. Shiny, silverstreamers were fished in the spring assimple imitations of salmon fry and redchenille-bodied wet flies in the fall torepresent eggs. White-winged stream-ers in the fall took hungry trout feed-ing on salmon flesh. Many of thosesimple flies from yesteryear will stillcatch fish, but anglers have developedmore and more realistic patterns for allstages of the salmon hatch. Just as flieshave advanced, so have equipmentand fishing techniques. A successfulangler knows that trying new patternswill increase his success, and thatwhile the traditional wet-fly swing stillhas its place, varying the way he pres-ents his fly to the trout will make itmore likely he will find the combina-tion that works. I hope this book willencourage you to experiment withnew patterns and techniques whenyou try to match the salmon.

Chapter One: The Life Cycle of the Pacific Salmon 11

o f t he Pac i f i c Sa lmon

7he Pacific salmon are mem-bers of the family ofsalmonids which probably

traces its ancestry to the era of thedinosaurs, 150 million years ago. Theearliest know fossil salmonid,Esalmodriftwoodensis, which was 55million years old and was in all likeli-hood the progenitor of modern troutand salmon, was found in Eocene

lake sediments just north of theBulkley River in northern BritishColumbia. Today the trout, steelheadand Pacific salmon which are itsmodern ancestors swim in nearbyrivers and lakes.

By the end of the Miocene era (24-5 million years ago) all the majorbranches of the subfamily Salmonidaewere established, including the

CHAPTER ONE

Illu

stra

tion

by

An

dre

w W

illi

ams

12 Cannibal Trout

grayling Thymallus; the charSalvelinus; brown trout and Atlanticsalmon Salmo; and the Pacific trout,steelhead and salmon Oncorhynchus.

Cutthroat trout O. clarki andsteelhead O. mykiss are consideredby some fisheries biologists to bethe most primitive of the Pacificsalmon family because they bothhave forms which live their entirelives in fresh water, have limitedmigration patterns and may live tospawn more than once. The sea-runcutthroat trout tend to stay close toestuaries and coastlines and willenter fresh water to feed severaltimes in the year. In spring, theyfeed on the emerging salmon fryand in the fall they often follow the

adult salmon upriver to feed ontheir eggs. The timing of the differ-ent runs of steelhead varies tremen-dously, with some entering therivers in the summer and fall andstaying over the winter in therivers, and others entering in springfor a few weeks only. Steelhead feedvery little in fresh water. Steelheadlead extremely variable life cycles:staying in fresh water for up tothree years before going to sea andreturning from one to four yearslater. In short, coastal rivers, steel-head will return to fresh water inthe spring, spawn and leave after afew weeks. In larger, inland riversthey will return in the summer andfall, over winter in fresh water, and

Cutthroat trout with fry pattern.

Chapter One: The Life Cycle of the Pacific Salmon 13

spawn in the spring before migrat-ing back to salt water. Some riverseven have populations that showboth patterns of behaviour. Theriver-resident form of the steelheadis the rainbow trout which is taxo-nomically identical. Like theircousins the brown trout, cutthroatand rainbow trout, and steelheadare spring spawners. The recordcutthroat is 40 pounds, but any-thing over 10 pounds today is pret-ty special. Steelhead over 40 poundshave been caught in commercialnets, although the average size isprobably more like 13 pounds.

Coho or silvers O. kisutch and chi-nook or kings O. tshawytscha are con-sidered the next most advanced afterthe Asian amago and cherry O. masusalmon because they have a long fresh-water residency as smolts—one to twoyears. There are a few coho popula-tions, such as those in Cultus Lake insouthern B.C., that do not migrate tothe ocean at all, reach sizes of only twofeet or less. Some chinook do not wan-der far from their home rivers andreturn as small, immature “jacks,” pre-dominantly precocious males. Cohowill spend from six months to twoyears in the ocean, average ten poundsat maturity, and spawn fromSeptember to December. Chinookspend up to seven years in salt waterwhich accounts for their larger size—up to 100 pounds. They enter riversfrom April to August and spawn in thelate summer and early fall. Some biolo-gists consider the most developedspecies of the Pacific salmon to be thechum O. keta, sockeye O. nerka andpinks O. gorbuscha. They have the sim-plest and most specialized lifestyles,rely the least on fresh water and are the

most numerous of the salmon. Whilechum and pink fry migrate to saltwater almost immediately uponemerging from the streambeds, sock-eye have adapted to using the lakeenvironment for spawning and rearingthe juvenile stages. Sockeye smoltsspend one to three years in fresh waterlakes feeding on zooplankton beforeheading downstream to the ocean. Thesockeye salmon has a non-anadromousform called the kokanee which lives itsentire life in fresh water, reaches onlyone to two pounds average weight andspawns at the same time, and often inthe same waters, as the sea-going form.

Chum salmon (also called dog,because of the large teeth they devel-op in fresh water or calico, because oftheir pink and green spawning col-ors) spend three to four years at seaand while they average about sevenpounds, grow as large as 40 pounds.They are fall spawners. Sockeyespend one to four years in salt water,return to the rivers in the summerwhen they average about sevenpounds and spawn in the early fall.Their rich, red flesh makes themhighly desirable and they are the eco-nomic mainstay of the commercialsalmon fleet.

Pinks (also known as humpbacksor humpies because of the distinctivedorsal hump the spawning malesdevelop) are the smallest and mostnumerous of the salmons, weighingthree to four pounds at maturity. Theymake up more than half of the num-ber of fish caught by the commercialsalmon fleet. They arrive in July andAugust after about eighteen monthsat sea, and spawn in late summer andearly fall, so all adults are two yearolds. Pinks normally have a two-year

14 Cannibal Trout

cyclic pattern of abundance, witheven and odd year stocks being genet-ically distinct. Some rivers have onlyan odd- or even-year run, and othershave both, but one is usually domi-nant. Pink salmon adults spawn infast-flowing, shallow riffles in sub-stantial groups and their huge num-bers represent a major source of nutri-ents to the riverine ecology.

All members of the Pacificsalmon family are anadromous,meaning that they spend differentlengths of time in fresh water,descend to the oceans to feed, andthen return to fresh water to spawn.They all die after spawning with theexception of cutthroat trout, steel-head and its resident form, the rain-bow trout. It was not until the 1970sthat it became universally accepted

that the salmon are able to identifythrough their sense of smell not onlytheir natal rivers but also the verysame gravel beds that gave them life.Salmon whose nostrils were pluggedor nasal nerves were cut swam pasttheir home waters, while those whowere left in their natural state unerr-ingly found their way home. Howthey can migrate thousands of milesout to the open ocean and return enmasse to the same river is still a mat-ter of speculation, however.

All Pacific salmon return to therivers in large schools with eachspecies returning to spawn togetherin specific areas of the watershed andat different times. Through this strate-gy, nature has reduced the likelihoodof hybridization, the competitionbetween the adults of the different

Spawning pink salmon.Photographed by Fred Seiler

Chapter One: The Life Cycle of the Pacific Salmon 15

A school of pink salmon adults.

species for suitable spawning areasand the competition between thejuveniles for food. At the same time,this pattern of behaviour ensures thatthe marine environment’s nutrientswill be transported throughout theentire river system, from the estuaryto the headwaters.

It really pays for a trout angler tolearn about the habits of the salmon inthe rivers he fishes. Knowing whenand where each species lays its eggsmakes it easier to find the trout andchar that wait behind the spawningsalmon for the eggs that drift down-stream. I have stood on the bank of asmall Alaskan stream watchingspawning chum salmon and have seendozens of large Dolly Varden right inamongst them, waiting for a free meal.Under conditions such as these, troutcan become quite selective to eggs,requiring imitations which match thenatural in size, color and buoyancy.

Where the eggs are laid in fall, thefry will emerge in the spring. In the

gravel beds below a lake near where Ilive, first the pinks, then the cohospawn in fall. In the spring, steelheadspawn in the same areas. Chinook andchum spawn in deeper waters down-stream in late summer, and the sock-eye spawn in the river above the lakein the early fall. I expect to see the fryappear in the same order and in thesame places, so I know which imita-tions to be fishing when. Recognizingthe different fry in the water also helpsto ensure that I am using the correctfly, because trout, especially the largerones, do become selective.

Finally, knowing where driftingsalmon flesh is likely to wind upmakes it more productive to fishflesh flies in the late-autumnmonths after the salmon havespawned and died. Each region andeach watershed has its unique sea-sons of the salmon and nothingbeats taking the time to becomefamiliar with the special characteris-tics of the rivers you plan to fish.

16 Cannibal Trout

or several weeks I had beenvisiting my favouriteSkeena tributary, trekking

through the shrinking snowdriftsthat hung on in the forests that bor-der the river. The days were becom-ing longer and warmer, and the budson the trees promised that springwas imminent. I knew steelheadwould be found in the riffles, somethe dark fish that had arrived in the

fall and wintered in the pools andnearby lake; others, far fewer, thebright fish of spring that had recent-ly entered the river from the ocean. Ienjoyed the thrill of the take as mybright fly was stopped in mid-driftand a strong steelhead rolled at thesurface; I was satisfied to bring thefish into shore and to release it to ful-fill its biological drive. But what Iwas really waiting for were the little

The Features of Salmon Alevin, Fry andSmolts and Tying Flies to Imitate Them

CHAPTER TWO

Illu

stra

tion

by

An

dre

w W

illi

ams

Chapter Two: Spring Time 17

darting, twinkling movements in theshallows and back eddies thatannounced the arrival of the trueharbingers of spring—the newlyemerged salmon fry.

Even in the cold, blustery daysof late March, a few hardy fry couldbe found along the edges of shallowriffles, absorbing the warmth of thestrengthening sun, but their num-bers were not sufficient to draw thetrout out of the nearby lake. Thenone day, when the swallows dippedover the stream, feeding on theclouds of midges, and the treesfuzzed green with leaves, there theywere, schools of darting coho fry inevery slough and backwater. It is atruly magical phenomenon to wit-ness: the silvery fry seem to bubbleand boil out of the very gravel likean alchemist’s dream of turning

stone into precious metal. I havereached down and lifted up a hand-ful of wet pebbles and watched fas-cinated as it came alive with twist-ing little fry that dropped throughmy fingers into the stream.Suddenly, where there was barrenwater, now there is life.

Within days, the river is full oftrout, char, whitefish and squawfish,ravenous from a long winter, thathave dropped down from the lake tofeast on nature’s bounty. This is thetime the trout fisherman has beenwaiting for. For a few weeks inspring, the river holds more and larg-er fish than at any other time of theyear, and when conditions are right itis the best chance an expert anglerhas of landing the fish of a lifetime.Large trout gorge themselves on thefry of the salmon: pinks, sockeye,

Salmon fry in hands.

Ph

otog

rap

hed

by

Fred

Sei

ler

18 Cannibal Trout

coho, chum and chinook. It is amongthe best times to introduce a neo-phyte to the joys of fly-fishingbecause, at least during the earlystages of the fry hatch, any clumsilycast silvery fly will take trout. It istruly “Duffer’s Week.”

But as the fry season progressesand the high, turbid waters ofspring give way to lower, clearerflows, the trout, especially the largerones, become warier and harder tofool. No longer will just any stream-er take trout consistently. To be pro-ductive, the fly-fisher has to matchthe size, coloration and behaviour ofthe particular salmon juvenileswhich the trout are feeding on thatday. A little careful observation andknowledge will pay off handsomely,if you can identify the juvenilesalmonids and fish a close imitation.

Salmon and Steelhead Alevin,Fry and Smolt Features

The eggs of the various salmonspecies which were laid in the reddsin late summer and early fall duringcooling water temperatures, incubat-ed in their gravel beds during thewinter, and developed into alevinwith the warming temperatures ofspring. The young salmonids arereferred to as alevin while they retaintheir yolk sacs, the remnant of the eggupon which they feed initially, and asfry after they have absorbed the sac.The time the eggs take to developinto alevins varies according to thetemperature range they experienceduring incubation, but by roughly 5-8 months after spawning, mostsalmon eggs have hatched. Evenunder optimum natural conditions

Salmon fry bubbling out of the gravel.

Chapter Two: Spring Time 19

only 10-20 percent of the eggs suc-cessfully develop into alevin, and theratio can be as low as one percent.

The newly hatched alevin canmove fairly extensively through thegravel and often stay under its surfaceuntil their yolk sac is almost com-pletely absorbed. While in the gravel,the eggs and alevins are eaten by var-ious predators such as sculpins, leech-es and invertebrates. Many eggs donot hatch and many alevins do notsuccessfully emerge from the gravel,so there is plenty of food for thesepredators to scavenge. They ultimate-ly have a beneficial effect on thestreambed ecology by removing thedead eggs and alevins, which bydecomposing would have competedwith next year’s eggs for oxygen.

Water temperature and light con-ditions are the key factors in the tim-ing of when fry emerge from thegravel. Referring to sockeye salmon,R.A. Bams said that “in nature, thedaily light and temperature cyclescause fry migrants to accumulate justbelow the surface of gravel bedstowards dusk when the water tem-perature is high. Upon nightfall theinhibitory action of the light isremoved, and the migrants enter theopen water. In a matter of hours,most of the accumulated fish haveemerged, the daily run is past itspeak, and the numbers drop off to alow level. These latter fish are thosethat have only just reached the sur-face of the gravel. Towards dawn thewater temperature is low, fish activi-ty drops, and light will again inhibitany further emergence.”

Biologists speculate that this pho-totropic (light-avoiding) behaviour isan adaptation to reduce the predation

of trout and other fishes on the newlyemerged fry. It certainly goes a longway to explaining why the peak oftrout activity frequently occurs dur-ing the hour or so just before andafter dark in the evening and justafter sunrise in the morning.

The timing of this predator/preyrelationship is evident on many riverswhere salmon fry are part of the springfeast for trout. Each spring for the lastnine years, I have made the trip toRainbow Alley, the short section of theBabine River which connects the westarm of Babine Lake to Nilkitkwa Lake,really just a widening of the river itself.Large rainbow trout and char enter theriver to feed on the millions of sockeyefry and smolts that migrate up anddown the river in the late spring. Thelake is 3000 feet up in the mountains,so even during a normal year springcomes two to three weeks later than inthe valley. When spring has been lateand water temperatures have beencooler than normal, we have arrivedtoo early for the peak of the sockeyefry hatch on the Babine, even thoughthe fry have come and gone in therivers in the valleys below.

Several studies of Babine Lakesockeye over the years have estimatedthat of the 3200 average number ofeggs a typical female lays, 80% are lostduring spawning, incubation, emer-gence and migration to the lake, result-ing in 640 fry. During their lake resi-dency, 90% of these fry are lost to pred-ators, resulting in 64 smolts that headdownriver to live in the ocean. Again,90% of these are lost, which leaves twoadults to return to spawn, maintaininga stable population. (Johnson, quotedin Levy and Hall) Other studies haveput the total mortality rate between

20 Cannibal Trout

Rainbow Alley.

63% and 87%, but no matter what thecorrect rate is, it’s obvious that thejuvenile salmon are a major source offood for predators in fresh water.

Although it is possible to catchfish all day long when the fry aredrifting through downriver, especial-ly on overcast and dark days, theriver really seems to come alive in theearly morning and late evening. Byearly June at this latitude the nightsare very short, so we’re talking aboutgetting up at four in the morning tofish and staying up to eleven or laterin the evening. The only way to sur-vive this brutal regime is to take along, mid-afternoon siesta!

At the alevin stage, all salmonjuveniles look very similar regard-less of species, so there is little pointin tying anything but a general imi-tation. Their bodies are long, thin

and translucent with a darker later-al line. The eye is relatively largeand dominant and the egg sac,which constitutes about 60% of thebody weight, hangs, red-orange andtranslucent, from their bellies. Thereis considerable variation in theamount of yolk material whichremains unused at the time the fryemerge from the gravel and the rea-sons for this are not clear. Biologistsspeculate, for example, that sockeyefry which have to travel greater dis-tances to the nursery lakes retain agreater portion of their yolk sacs toprovide energy for this journey. Thisis a characteristic of the sockeye fryon the Babine River, for instance,since many of them have a large sacfor several days after emergenceand show a red stripe in the belly forawhile longer.

One of the most successful tradi-tional patterns for imitating thenewly emerged alevin strugglingalong the gravel bottom of thestream is the venerable Egg ‘n’ I,Alevin or Yolk Sac. British Columbiaangler, Tommy Brayshaw, devel-oped it in 1939 to imitate the sock-eye fry of the Little and Adamsrivers. The original was basically avariation of the old standardEnglish sea-trout fly, the Mallardand Silver, with a silver tinsel body,a light mallard flank wing and athroat “hackle” of red Indian crowfeather. Although over the years,Brayshaw also used white polarbear hair for the wing, the Egg ‘n’ I

which is tied today is very similar tothe original except that red wool orpolypropylene are substituted forIndian crow. The Egg ‘n’ I is easy totie and should be in every trout fish-erman’s fly box for those timeswhen salmon fry have just poppedout of the gravel.

Egg ‘N’ I

Modern alevin patterns.

Chapter Two: Spring Time 21

Traditional Alevin Patterns

22 Cannibal Trout

Egg ‘N’ IHOOK: Traditionally, a #6 or #8

low-water salmonhook, but usually nowa #10 or #12 3X longstreamer hook such asthe Mustad 9671

THREAD: Black 6/0BODY: Flat silver tinsel

THROAT: Red-orange wool orpolypropylene fibers

WING: Strips or rolled light mallard flank, some-times tied down at tail

Whereas the Egg ‘n’ I was devel-oped in the interior of BritishColumbia to imitate specificallynewly emerged sockeye fry, anotherpattern developed for a completelydifferent purpose has proven also tobe a very effective imitation of

salmon fry, especially when they arein the surface film of streams andrivers. The Rolled Muddler with itswing and tail of rolled light mallardflank fibers, which gave it its name,was originated in the 1970s by TomMurray as an imitation of stickle-backs for sea-run cutthroats; a pur-pose for which it proved most effec-tive. Once other anglers learned ofMurray’s version of the originalMuddler Minnow, they began usingit throughout the province andtoday you would be hard pressed tofind a trout fisherman who does notuse the Rolled Muddler as one of hismainstays during the spring salmonhatch. I think the red thread which istied to show at the throat and headof the fly is suggestive of the remainsof the egg sac which persists as a redstripe on sockeye fry for several daysor weeks after the egg sac has been

Egg ’n’ I and Rolled Muddler.

absorbed. There are several popularvariations of Murray’s silver-bodiedoriginal. A common one uses goldtinsel and tan-dyed mallard fibersfor a duller pattern to use in low-water, bright light conditions.Others use dark green, olive-brownor dark-brown dyed mallard formore accurate imitations of the vari-ous salmon fry.

Rolled Muddler

HOOK: #10 or #12 3Xlong-streamer suchas Mustad 9671

THREAD: Red 6/0TRAIL: Light mallard flank

fibers about as long asthe body

BODY: Medium flat silver tinsel,ribbed with mediumoval silver tinsel, woundin reverse

WING: Rolled strips of lightmallard flank fibers orother dyed mallard it isvery common to includea few strands of pearlescent or silverCrystal Hair under themallard wing.)

HEAD: Light deer hair spun onas a mallard head with afew strands of deer hairover the body. (Do nottie a large, tightly packedhead as you would formost Muddler Minnows,because you want theRolled Muddler to fishin the surface film.)

THROAT: Tie red thread so thatsome shows at the throatof the fly to suggest theremnants of the egg sac.Darker Variation

As above, but with tan-colored(wood duck) dyed mallard flankfibers for tail and wing, gold tinsel forthe body, and tan-colored deer hairfor the head.

Three Modern Alevin PatternsHugh Storey’s Albino Alevin

This unique pattern is based on HughStorey’s observations at the local fishhatchery in Kitimat, BritishColumbia, where he lives. Someyears the hatchery produces largenumbers of albino chinook salmonfry and they stand out noticeablyamong their darker siblings.

“An albino fry can’t hide so he’sgoing to get eaten right away in the

Chapter Two: Spring Time 23

24 Cannibal Trout

wild,” Storey said. A self-taught fly-tier, he decided to create a patternthat would stand out just like thealbino naturals he saw in the hatch-ery. The result was his Albino Alevin.

“I use it in the spring for troutand on coastal rivers for steelhead. Itreally produces on the Stellako River,and when it does, I hardly botherwith anything else.”

HOOK: #6 or #8 Tiemco 2457scud or caddis hook

THREAD: Clear monofilamentTAIL: Fine, silver Flashabou

BODY: A plastic tube-fly linerEGG SAC: Red-orange yarn tied

underneathEYES: Pearlescent 2 mm

stick-on eyes coveredin head cement

TYING INSTRUCTIONSStep 1: Tie a base of clear monofila-

ment thread onto the hook.Step 2: Weight with around fifteen

wraps of fine lead wire.Step 3: Cut the tube-fly liner into

3/4” section.Step 4: Grab about 8-10 strands of

fine, silver Flashabou andone strand of peacock herl(to imitate the lateral line)and thread them into thetube with a line threader.

Step 5: Pull them out the end of thetube. Trim off to make a tailand fill the tube, leavingFlashabou long in front ofthe tube.

Step 6: Take tube to the end of thelead and tie in, first thestrands of Flashabou and

Spring on a Skeena tributary.

Chapter Two: Spring Time 25

then the plastic tube body,leaving half of the tube forthe body.

Step 7: Fold the Flashabou backalong the top of the hookand tie back to the end of thelead to make a dorsal fin.

Step 8: Flip the hook over and tiein an egg sac underneaththe body, using bright red-orange yarn or pale pinkchenille.

Step 9: Stick on a pair of pearles-cent, sticky 2mm eyes andcover head with a lightcoating of cement or epoxy.

Blane Chocklett’s “GummyMinnow” Alevin

The first time I saw Blane Chocklett’salevin pattern I was stunned by howlife-like it was. The soft, flexible bodymaterial made it look and feel as if Iwere holding a fresh, wet juvenilesalmon in my hands. The transpar-ent, pearly body and orange egg sacglowed in the light and I half-expect-ed the darn thing to move!

The secret to the realism ofChocklett’s imitation is a new mate-rial he and friend Harrison R. Steevesdeveloped called Sili-Skin, a sheet ofsilicone rubber with a colored foilunderlay and adhesive back. The

owner of Blue Ridge Fly-fishers inVirginia, Chocklett first used thematerial to make a saltwater baitfishimitation he called the GummyMinnow and which has proven itselfas a really productive fly for falsealbacore. Then he began experiment-ing with everything from squid tosand-eel imitations. Finally, he triedhis hand at the salmon alevin and theresult wound up in my hand on thatmemorable day. Umpqua FeatherMerchants is carrying Chocklett’sGummy Minnow.

Preparing the Material for theGummy Minnow Alevin

Sili-Skin comes in 2” x 6” sheets andis a tricky material to work withbecause of its adhesive backing, so becareful when handling it not to let thesticky side touch itself. Likewise,avoid stretching the material whenapplying it to the hook because if oneside is stretched more than the other,when they are joined together, thebody will curl in that direction.

TYING INSTRUCTIONSStep 1: Begin by cutting the belly

color (mother of pearl for thealevin) from the sheet ofSili-Skin in a 2” x 1” strip.

Step 2: Next, cut the strip lengthwisein the middle, leaving a smallsection the length of the hookshank uncut.

Step 3: Now, prepare a thin sectionof Sili-Skin in the back color(Road Slick) about 1/8 inchthick and 2 inches long.

Step 4: Lastly, prepare another strip ofmother of pearl Sili-Skin about2” x 2” for the final covering.

26 Cannibal Trout

TYING INSTRUCTIONSStep 1: Wrap a short-shank straight-

eyed hook with a base ofwhite thread and tie off. Thenwrap the shank with finesilver wire to hold a shortsection of thick fluorescentred thread in place. Pull thethread out of the way andhold in place with a clip onthe vise.

Step 2: Take the mother of pearlstrip you partially cut andpeel the backing off. Be care-ful not to let the sticky sidestouch. Position the piece sothat the split end is facingtowards the rear of thehook. Pull the two split tailsapart slightly and bring theuncut portion up to the bot-tom of the hook. Pull the redthread down below thehook shank before foldingthe two sections of Sili-Skintogether. Be careful not tostretch either one.

Step 3: Next cut the top portion atan angle from the hook eyeto the tail.

Step 4: Then cut from the backcorner to the bend of thehook at a downward angleto complete the shape ofthe alevin.

Step 5: Take the 1/8 “ x 2” strip ofRoad Slick Sili-Skin and pullthe backing off. Center andlay the strip over the backand fold down evenly oneach side. Then trim theoutline of the belly.

Step 6: Place sticky 2mm pearles-cent eyes on each side ofthe head.

Step 7: Tie in the thread at the hookeye. Run a fluorescent redbead on the red thread andtie off at the head so that thebead is snug against thehook shank.

Step 8: Take the larger piece of moth-er of pearl skin and pull thebacking off. Center and laythe strip over the back andfold down evenly over eachside, making sure to encasethe bead. Trim the outline ofthe belly to include the beadegg sac.

Step 9: Reattach the thread and tieddown the Sili-Skin withstrong wraps. Tear off andtrim any excess protrudingpast the hook eye and whipfinish.

David Sloan’sAmerican Alevin(Pink and Orange)

David Sloan is an innovative fly tierworking for the American Fly-fishingCompany in Sacramento, California,and his experiments have led to a

unique alevin pattern which Umpquawill be selling too. Sloan makes use ofthe crochet weave technique to pro-duce a durable and effective fly. It is alittle complicated to tie, but the resultis worth the effort. The parr marksshow through the clear vinyl rib andthe wing of fine fibers adds move-ment and life to the imitation.

HOOK: TMC 2302, size 8 and10

THREAD: White or gray 6/0TAIL: Pearl Wing ‘N’ Flash

(or substitute likeAngel Hair)

BODY: Clear small vinyl ribusing the crochetweave

BELLY: Pearl Wing ‘N’ Flash(or substitute likeAngel Hair)

EGG SAC: Fluorescent Hot Pinkor Orange DiamondBraid

UNDER WING: Pearl Wing ‘N’ Flash(or substitute likeAngel Hair)

OVER WING: Gray KinkyfiberEYES: 5/32-inch 3-D molded

eyesHEAD: Epoxied

TYING INSTRUCTIONSStep 1: Tie in a base of white thread

from the eye of the hookback to about the width ofthe gap of the hook.

Step 2: Take about 30 fibers of PearlWing ‘N’ Flash and tie themin, facing backwards, wherethe thread was stopped.Continue wrapping thethread over the fibers to the

bend of the hook, keepingthe fibers on top of the hook.Advance the thread to theeye of the hook. The tailshould be about 1 1/2 timesthe length of the body andhave a ragged edge, ratherthan an abrupt one.

Step 3: Tie one piece of clear vinylrib on top of the hook andone underneath, both facingtowards the tail.

Step 4: Form an even underbodywith the white thread andadvance the thread to theoriginal tie-in point.

Step 5: Using the gray thread,form three distinct, evenly-spaced parr marks about1/16 inch wide. Begin thefirst parr mark about 1/16inch from the tail end ofthe body. Whip finish.Repeat 1/2 way towardsthe head and at a pointequal to the distancebetween the other two.

Step 6: Rotate the hook sidewaysand weave the vinyl rib for-wards using the crochetweave technique describedon pages 202 and 203 in TheFly Tier’s Benchside Referenceby Ted Leeson and JimSchollmeyer. Continueweaving the body to a pointabout a hook gap awayfrom the eye of the hook.Reattach the white threadand tie off the vinyl rib,keeping the tag end of thetop part on top of the hookand the tag end of the bot-tom part on the bottom ofthe hook.

Chapter Two: Spring Time 27

28 Cannibal Trout

Step 7: Tie in a small amount ofPearl Wing ‘N’ Flash (orsubstitute like Angel Hair)on the bottom of the hookwhere the vinyl rib was tiedoff. It should extend about1/8” beyond the tail. Trimwith scissors to create atapered belly.

Step 8: Tie in a loop of fluorescenthot pink or orange DiamondBraid on the bottom of thehook where the Pearl Wing‘N’ Flash was tied in. Theegg sac should be slightlysmaller than the head.

Step 9: Tie in another small amountof Pearl Wing ‘N’ Flash ontop of the hook and repeatprocess #7.

Step 10: Tie in 5-8 fibers ofKinkyfiber on top of thehook, about 1/8 inch longerthan the tail and taper it too.

Step 11: Build a tapered head withthe thread and whip finish.

Step 12: Place a 5/32-inch 3-Dmolded eye on each side ofthe head.

Step 13: Using epoxy cement, form atapered head that covers theentire head of the fly.

Pink and chum fry.

The Characteristics of the Various Salmon Fry and Smolts

Photographed by Fred Seiler

Chapter Two: Spring Time 29

Once they have lost their egg sacs,salmon juveniles are called fry. In thecase of pink and chum salmon, thesefry migrate downstream immediate-ly to the ocean and are thus availableto trout for several weeks only.Sockeye fry first drift downstreamindividually, usually under the coverof darkness, and then frequentlymigrate upstream in schools to thenursery lake, mostly during daylighthours. For example, sockeye fry inthe Babine system will drift downRainbow Alley into Nilkitkwa Lakeand then turn around later andascend the river back into BabineLake where they will stay for one totwo years. Combined with the down-stream migration of sockeye smoltswhich occurs at the same time, thesemovements provide a major feedingopportunity for trout in the river. The

length of time that chinook fry rear infresh water is variable, with somesouthern populations staying forthree months or less, and northernpopulations staying up to a year. Themajority of coho fry that emergeremain in the stream for one to twoyears and are the most commonlyseen fry along the margins of streamsand rivers. As a result, they are sub-ject to heavy predation by trout, char,other fishes and birds. The fry of theanadromous form of Oncorhynchusmykiss, the steelhead, rear in freshwater for up to three years, and canbe found spread throughout a riversystem, even into the lakes. For theangler, being familiar with thebehaviour and appearances of thevarious salmon fry is the key to find-ing and using fly patterns that will beaccepted by the trout.

Pink and Chum Salmon Fry

Pink fry

In late March, my friend, Fred Seiler,a fishing guide and ecotourism oper-ator in the Skeena area, was explor-ing a tributary when he noticed akingfisher sitting on a gravel bar,apparently digging a hole. Seilersaid, “I don’t know how the kingfish-er knew there were fry in the hole,but when I went over, I saw that itwas filled with fry.”

Pink and chum fry were stacked

up with their heads popping out ofthe gravel and their gills barely in thelittle water that was in the hole. Seilerlifted several rocks and under each hefound dozens more fry in the samevertical position. “I realized that thewhole gravel bed we were walkingon must have been alive with salmonfry,” he said. He spent the next halfhour filling his hat with fry andtransporting them to the river.