Hello James,

It's nice to be with you once again after quite a long time without a newsletter. As Kurt Vonnegut used to say “And So it Goes”. 2022 was a great fishing year for me, my friends and my clients. I had a couple of early season freshwater outings on the West Branch of the Delaware River with my good friend Bob Hines and our very capable guide Brian Sheppard. Shortly thereafter another good friend, Steve Key, and I had two really fun days on Connecticut’s Housatonic River. Then following my worm emergence charters in Ninigret Pond, Charlestown, RI, I again had the opportunity to fish Spednic Lake in Forest City, ME in mid-June. Unfortunately that trip got cut short and more on that later in the newsletter. Then in August Steve and I rejoined our guide Rob Nicholas for a couple more days in western Connecticut, the first day on the Housy and the second on a private lake near Lyme, CT.

Over the last couple of years I have been making a concerted effort to do more personal fishing, something many fishing guides don’t get an opportunity to do. For 2023 I have rough plans to repeat some of those Housatonic River trips, an early spring trip to fish the San Juan River in New Mexico, another mid-June trip to Maine for their incredible smallmouth bass, and in July a trip to fish Montana’s Big Horn River with three good friends.

This newsletter contains a variety of articles starting with an update on my availability for guiding during Rhode Island’s Worm Emergence which takes place in May and early June. Following that, are articles on my 2022 recreational fishing outings, and my absolute favorite smallmouth bass fly pattern, the Ol’ Mr. Wiggley. In the Casting Corner I offer some guidance on Line Management (one of the significant keys to successful fly fishing), a short article on "Knuckleheads" which is a product that’s been around a while, a product that will prevent your knuckles from getting banged up during those blistering false albacore runs. I include a short piece on fly casting with kids, another product article that I call “I Said ‘NO’ to Stripping Baskets”, and concluding with my perennial reminder of what I offer in the way of fly casting instruction. Fly casting lessons by the way, make a great holiday gift for friends and family. I produce for clients a gift certificate, which is emailed and can be placed under the tree…. There’s still time!

Also 2023 will be my fifteenth year guiding in Rhode Island salt waters, and it will likely be my last. I really enjoy those recreational outings that I talk about in this newsletter and I want to do more of that as I get closer to “retiring from my retirement job”, and beyond. It’s been a good run, in fact a great run and I look forward to seeing my longtime clients again in the 2023 season, as well as making new contacts and friends.

I hope you enjoy this newsletter and that you have a great holiday season.

I hope to see you in 2023.

My Best to you and your family

Jim

Jessie Keenan put all my spring worm hatch clients to shame with this 36" striper this past May 21st when she was fishing with my son, Jim. This was a gorgeous evening, warm air, flat water and we found a little spot tucked away from the other boat anglers where there were just the right amount of emerging cinder worms as well as rising fish. When I lifted this bass into the boat I yelled out a shriek of enthusiasm... what a fish! It was Jessie's first time fishing the cinder worm emergence. My son Jim also had a personal best that night, he's wearing the hoodie in the photo below. Another shot is of Jim and Jessie with their double. It was a big fish night.

My spring cinder worm emergence charters are starting to get booked. Currently the following dates are reserved:

May 21, 22, 23, 24, 30

June 3

The week of May 14-20 is historically a good period and this year we have a bonus with a new moon starting about May 15 and continuing to about May 20. New and Full moons bring big tides and lots of moving water and generally produce very good fishing.



The early June dates up to about the 8th are also historically good and typically produce the largest stripers. I would expect to pull the boat from Ninigret Pond about June 10 at the latest and return to Newport.

Once the early June emergence is over, the worm activity will not start up again until May of 2024, so now’s the time to contact me if you want to give this unique and really fun topwater game a try. 

Contact me at JamesBarrRI@gmail.com, 401-465-8751

Links to a couple of good videos on fishing the cinder worm emergence:

Worm Emergence 1

Worm Emergence 2

Prior to the beginning of my guiding season this year and part of the way through it I had several opportunities to get into the freshwater scene and do a little fun fishing… being guided by three great guides who also double as good friends, Brian Sheppard of City Guide Service who guides on the West Branch of the Delaware River, Rob Nicholas of Housatonic Anglers on the Housatonic and Farmington Rivers in Connecticut, and Capt. Mark Danforth of Wheaton’s Lodge, in Forest City, Maine.

West Branch Delaware

Brian Sheppard of City Guide had Capt. Bob Hines and me for two days in late April on the Delaware River. Bob and I have both fished the West Branch in the past so we were not unfamiliar with the size and anatomy of the water. This April the water was BIG, the river was wide, deep, moving quickly and the weather was COLD. It was far from conditions we have experienced in prior outings there. Both days were long drifts, and it was a bit windy and cold and we didn’t move many fish, however we did catch a few nice trout, but we worked really hard for them. Bob and I are big time dry fly anglers so the conditions were disappointing as we mostly streamer fished. Brian worked his butt off rowing his brandy new Clackacraft drift boat, alternating both banks, changing our fly patterns, keeping us well fed and hydrated and with his terrific personality, kept us chuckling, engaged, and focused on the mission at hand. On day two we got off the water too late to make it to dinner at any of the very few places to in Deposit, NY- so Brian called a friend who works at the local supermarket, ordered some steaks and other goodies, and getting the order placed just in time before they also closed. Brian then had us over to his place where he prepared a wonderful dinner. WOW! … talk about going the extra mile for his clients.

Brian’s river conditions report video he sent to us the day before our outing:

https://youtube.com/shorts/izPtF4hfheM

Housatonic River- Cornwall, CT

In very early May prior to my Cinder Worm emergence charters my good friend Steve Key and I met up with Rob Nicholas of Housatonic Anglers. We had two great days fishing with Rob on the Housatonic River, again a river that I’ve fished before on my own, this however being the first time that I was guided and in a drift boat. Steve has fished with Rob for many years and with good reason, he’s a terrific guide.

This was another two days of very cold conditions but the fishing was excellent. We caught many gorgeous and chunky rainbows and browns. I even went for an early season swim in the river. Rob lost his makeshift anchor in some rocks and we were still a couple of hours away from the takeout, so a little innovation was necessary. He rowed the boat to the railroad track side of the river and tied it off to a bush and went on the hunt for a couple of discarded steel plates that are used to anchor the rails to the ties. I offered to assist in the hunt and carefully made my way up the fairly steep grade to the track. Rob found two plates in short order (I think he'd done this before!), and then descended the gravel slope to the anchored boat. I followed suit but despite Rob’s warning, caught a foot in the underbrush and launched head first into the river, turning to my side with an outstretched arm to absorb the blow, just in the nick of time to prevent a serious injury. However I went head-first into the river and simultaneously hit the drift boat. I was very lucky. As I attempted to regain my composure and breath from the 45 degree water, Steve being the helpful friend he is, recorded the moment while simultaneously extending a helping hand to right Mr. Nimble. We all got a great laugh, and the red wine that evening never tasted so good. All in a day of fly fishing in New England.

Video of Steve hooked up to a nice rainbow trout

https://youtu.be/LogQFKYWBJg

Smallmouth Bass- Wheaton's Lodge, ME

In mid-June following my run of worm emergence charters Steve Key and I set off for Wheaton’s Lodge in Forest City, ME, a smallmouth bass trip that we have taken every June for the last several years. The plan had us arriving at Wheaton’s in the mid-afternoon of Saturday June 11, fish there through the afternoon of the 15^th, then relocate to Lincoln, ME for the next two days drifting the Penobscot River with Kevin Tracewski of Tracewski Fishing Adventures. 

Steve and I had a great day of smallmouth fishing on Sunday, the 12^th on Spednic Lake with Mark Danforth, our very capable guide. We had a wonderful dinner that evening back at the lodge, and turned in for the night as it was just getting dark. We were beat and pumped for the next day’s fishing. The nex morning just before the breakfast bell, I developed a bloody nose for god knows what reason. No big deal, as I’ve had them before, but this one just wouldn’t stop. After nearly an hour of a heavy flow, Mark, our fishing guide, morphed into an “ambulance driver” and drove Steve and I to the Penobscot Valley Hospital emergency room in Lincoln. WTF!

By the time we arrived at the hospital I was able to stop the bleeding, and the nurse and doc in the ER cleaned me up, gave me some precautionary guidance on what to do if it happened again, and off we went for the 75 minute (60 mile) drive back to Wheaton’s. No fishin’ that day. Dinner that night was a bit of an embarrassment as word had gotten around camp about our day, however we hit the sack early as usual but the next morning, same deal, another nose bleed but this one was much worse!

Back to Lincoln we went. Mark brought a supply of towels for me to use to help stop the flow, and he covered his front pickup seat in an old blanket. By the time we reached the ER, the front seat looked like a crime scene. This time the doc inserted a "Rhino Rocket" in my nostril, inflated it, cleaned me up, told me it would stop the flow, and to have a doc remove it in a couple of days. That night back at camp I told Steve I thought it best to return home the following morning. I felt bad that I had screwed up his fishing vacation, but being the great friend he is, he was in total agreement and the next morning we left for Rhode Island. So, that was our Maine Smallmouth Bass fishing vacation, an effin’ disaster!

So a big thanks went out to Mark for doing all he did in ferrying me 240 miles over two days to the hospital, to Steve who played medical technician and for being incredibly understanding of my situation, and to my ENT doc in Providence (who is one of my fishing clients) who saw me a couple days later to remove the nose bandage and assure me I would be fine.

Housatonic River Smallmouth/ Private Pond Largemouth Bass

Following my recovery from Maine, Steve and I met up in mid-August with Rob Nicholas once again for a couple of days fishing in western Connecticut. The plan had been to revisit the Housatonic River both days, this time for some smallmouth bass angling and maybe a shot at a northern pike. Day one had us as scheduled on the Housy, but the water level was very low. Rob had cautioned us on the leadup to our charters that the summer drought had dewatered a lot of the Housatonic and that drifting it might be a little “boney”. That was the understatement of the year, as we were bumping the bottom the entire five hour outing. Nonetheless, we did catch some beautiful smallmouth on a very hot summer day.

Rob called an audible for day two, having contacted one of his friends who lives in nearby Litchfield Hills, CT one town over from Cornwall Bridge. Rob’s friend has a sprawling property that contains a gorgeous little pond that was loaded with largemouth bass. We accessed this fairly remote pond by towing Rob’s driftboat as we crossed through woods and pasture land, and launched it through the cattails that surround the pond. Over the next four hours as Rob rowed the driftboat around the pond’s shoreline, Steve and I pounded the bucketmouths with our 7 and 8 weight rods and floating lines using a mix of topwater poppers, wooly buggers, and Ol' Mr. Wiggley's. What a blast! I hadn’t targeted largemouth with a flyrod in probably fifteen years, and that day we made up for it in spades…. and as a bonus…. No bloody nose!

In Dave Karczynski’s and Tim Landwehr’s book, SMALLMOUTH- Modern Fly Fishing Methods, Tactics and Techniques, they discuss a variety of fly patterns used for fishing smallmouth bass, in both still and moving water. I purchased that book last winter, kind of in preparation for the several smallmouth bass outings I had planned for spring/summer of this year. I really don’t like to fish subsurface for Smally’s, much preferring to take them on top. I love the visuals of seeing a smallmouth bass take note of a surface disturbance when the fly pattern lands, rise to inspect the fly and to then destroy it. Good stuff!

I have a lot of different floating patterns in my bass fly box but what I didn’t have was a pattern these guys raved about in their book, a pattern that Landwehr uses frequently on Wisconsin’s Menomonee River, the Ol’ Mr. Wiggley.

Click: Box of Mr. Wiggley's video

So, in the leadup to my Maine smallmouth trip I tied a few of these patterns in anxious preparation for the Spednic Lake smallmouth bass. As things turned out I only had one day of fishing due to my schnoz issue, however the pattern worked like a charm. I gave a few of these patterns to our guide Mark Danforth as Steve and I were departing prematurely for home, and later circled back with Mark and learned he too had great success with Ol’ Mr. Wiggley. He asked if I could whip a few up for him as the few I gave him had gotten pretty beaten up. What color I asked Mark… he responded let’s try pink with black legs. So a few days later the postman delivered the package and Mark had great success. So, they’ve become my favorite pattern as they also worked wonderfully on the Housatonic in my August trip.

Fly line management is absolutely key in fly fishing, in both fresh and saltwater. To contrast it with spin and conventional fishing techniques, where there isn’t any “loose” line, as it’s neatly wound around the spool of the reel and secured by the bail, in fly fishing we ALWAYS have loose line that we must manage. Think about it… in fly fishing there is no such thing as a bail which can be thought of as a gate for the passage of line on the reel spool. When the bail is open the line is free to cast or run if a fish takes the bait. When the bail is closed, the line is prevented from unspooling (unless through the action of the drag system it is restricted to slow the fish).

Elsewhere in this newsletter is a short article on a product called the Flexistripper, that assists the angler with a critical aspect of line management, that is, storing the line temporarily as the angler retrieves the line as part of swimming the fly in pursuit of a hookup. Apart from this there are other aspects of line management that are critical to fishing.

1.      Maintain contact with the fly line when shooting line… don’t let it go!. Releasing the line inside the “OK” sign. When you are presenting the fly to the target, don’t let the line go free. Allow the line to flow out inside an “O” that you create with your line hand which not only acts as an artificial stripping guide that helps align the flyline with the rod (giving you greater distance), but also allows you to maintain contact with the line so as the fly lands on the water you don’t have to go looking for the line to start your retrieve. In some cases, the fish may hit the fly as soon as it lands on the water and if you don’t have control of the line you will be unable to set the hook. I’ve had charter guests who are good casters, but they let the line go when presenting the fly, thinking that they will get additional distance. What little distance they think they may gain from allowing the line to go free, they will lose from the line slapping the rod as it finds it’s way to the first stripping guide. https://youtu.be/zVTC4gXaxIQ

2.      Stretch your flyline. Fly line will develop “memory” when wound on the reel’s spool. This memory will present itself as kinks or tight loops that look like a slinky toy. Many fly lines have a monofilament core that must be stretched before and perhaps periodically during a fishing outing. Most of the newer fly lines have a braided core and are far less prone to memory issues and the frequency of developing coils. Fly lines can also develop “line twist” during the casting process. If the caster does not maintain a “straight line path” or SLP of the rod tip, but instead uses an elliptical or oval path, that will introduce line twist and you’re back to the slinky toy.

Part of line management is preventing coils from developing in the first place, and removing them before and during your fishing outing. The prevention part comes from using a SLP in your casting stroke. The remedy is stretching the line before and during the fishing outing. Before the outing, loop the line around a tree if you’re by yourself, or have a buddy hold the line as you walk backwards stretching it as you hold the reel from spinning. During the fishing outing, the most efficient way of removing coils, is to clip off the fly and pay out your fly line behind the boat and allow the tension of the line against the water to stretch the line and because there’s no fly attached “unravel” any twist you have introduced due to your oval casting stroke. In any event, a coiled/twisted line will significantly reduce the distance you will be able to cast.

3.      Maintaining a Clean Fly Line. Periodically during the season, clean your fly lines by pulling line off the reel, soaking it in warm water and mild soap (Woollite works great), and then running the line between folds of a clean cloth. You will be amazed how much dirt is removed. A dirty fly line reduces casting distance.

4.      While casting in the boat look down at your feet before every cast. You may be stepping on the line. If it’s warm enough, fish barefoot as you will readily feel the line pinched between your foot and the deck.

5.      When retrieving line after a cast if not using a line management container or Flexistripper, strip the line from the rod using large loops. Be mindful that tight loops at your feet can tangle more easily than large ones.

6.      After making the cast, immediately drop the rod tip to the water’s surface and remove all slack line. Slack line equates to a lost fish. In order to set the hook using either the traditional “trout set” or in salt water, the “strip set”, if there is slack line, that slack must be removed before you can move the fly and hook the fish.

7.      When fishing in moving water from a small stream to a large river (fresh or salt) you need to remove slack line. If dry fly fishing or surface fishing with a floating fly, you need to remove slack line. If dry fly fishing it’s equally important to get a drag free drift and remove excessive slack. https://youtu.be/XspbF4T8CaQ and https://youtu.be/ad8ilEvSOs4

8.      Line hand positioning is critical. Keep your line hand away from the butt of the rod as you false cast and shoot line. Having the line too close to the rod can shorten the casting distance and potentially allow the line to wrap around the butt of the rod or catch on the reel. https://youtu.be/f85kwEeuGOg

Once you have made the cast and are in process of drifting, retrieving and/or stripping the fly, we need to utilize the proper hookset for the type of fish we’re targeting. For trout, we use the “trout set” which is a high rod set, and for the stronger fish (fresh and salt) we use the strip set, or strip strike. It’s hook setting, but it’s also line management… sometimes they comingle! 

https://youtu.be/afN9i6gEhe