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From Ice Off...To Ice On. Written and illustrated by Mo Bradley. Self published. No price listed.
Mr. Bradley is a guide, fly fishing instructor and master tier. He is obsessed with catching Kamloops trout, and with understanding the insects on which they primarily feed. His imitations are tied with such attention to detail that he even insists you take the tails on Mayfly nymphs, and gently curl them up by running your thumbnail along the barbules. In From Ice Off...To Ice On (the title describes his fishing season) he provides information on how to tie and fish chironomids, Mayfly nymphs, damsel and dragon fly nymphs, sedges leeches and shrimp. In other words, if you get a copy of this booklet, and tie the patterns he recommends, you will be perfectly equipped to go after Kamloops trout. His fishing tips are short and are to be taken to heart, because he has learned the hard way, by spending years fishing on the lakes around Kamloops, in all kinds of weather. He has his own ideas about spelling and writing style, with which some might take issue, but the information he is trying to convey can’t be criticized. “Most lakes around KAMLOOPS have large areas of what I would call active Cheroniment water,” he writes. “From ‘ICE OFF TO ICE ON’ there are very few days that CHERONIMENT are not hatching. “What I do when I arrive at a lake I haven’t fished before, is take time to investigate the ends and quiet bays. When I have located what I class as CHERONIMENT water, about 4-12 feet deep, I look for the drop-off where I will anchor. I then have the best of two worlds, shallow water on the one side and deep water on the other. “Another place that CHERONIMENT will emerge from are sunken islands. If you can locate one, anchor in deep water and cast onto the sunken island. I would fish such water with a full floater and a long leader. I prefer a full floater because I can control the Retrieve better. The retrieve must be very slow. When a bloodworm or cheroniment move they do it slowly, therefore slow down your retrieve. Then slow it down some more!” Or take this simple advice on how to fish a Mayfly nymph: “When you arrive at your favorite lake, (anytime from May-September) you could see MAYFLY around. If so, try to find a weedy area, with water 5 to 20 feet deep. Cast a long straight line towards SEDGE GRASSES or weeds sticking through the water surface. After your cast, lower the rod tip a few inches from the water surface, and at an angle to the boat. Retrieve very slowly and watch your line for the slightest movement.” A few seasons ago I had the good fortune to fish next to Mr. Bradley on Tunkwa Lake, near Kamloops. He fishes the way he writes - short and to the point, with no wasted energy. And he fishes exactly the way he advises his readers to in From Ice Off...To Ice On. It was a pleasure to watch him playing trout after trout, while others on the lake were getting skunked. -MH Fly Patterns of British Columbia. By Arthur James Lingren. Frank Amato Publications, Inc. $29.95
The depth of knowledge he brings to the subject, adds to the pleasure of both creating and fishing these patterns. In correspondence with living fly fishers, and by gleaning the diaries or reading the books, magazine articles and fishing club bulletins written by others, Mr. Lingren has been able to find an anecdote or two to illustrate the history of almost every pattern. Of the Edwards’ Sedge, a popular dry fly pattern for B.C. rainbow lakes, for example, Mr. Lingren quotes from an article written by Jim Kilburn, in the Totem Flyfishers newsletter, of 1968. From the entry you learn how the pattern was adapted from a fly that was popular in Britain. “When I intend to imitate the scampering stage (of the sedge) I choose a different fly - the Edwards’ Sedge. . .fashioned by Captain Tommy Edwards (the then British fly-casting champion) for use on the River Usk in England. . .In an attempt to adapt the Edwards’ Sedge to local conditions, I have made a few alterations. One such adaptation is particularly favoured by lake rainbows. Whereas the Edwards’ fly calls for bodies of chenille or fully-wrapped pheasant tail, I use medium green wool or seal’s fur,” writes Mr. Kilburn. In an entry on the Bloodworm, Mr. Lingren quotes correspondence between Roderick Haig-Brown, and Bill Nation, a legendary guide in the Kamloops region of British Columbia, concerning chironomid patterns. Mr. Nation developed B.C.’s first chironomid imitation in the 1920s, but in the 1930s, Mr. Haig-Brown wrote to him, suggesting a bloodworm pattern might be worthwhile. “Your chironomid is very much to the point,” wrote the Campbell River author. “How about the colour of the bloodworm. A sort of orange-red, more red than orange, in a similarly slender body. I think there’s a lot to be done in chironomid imitation.” Mr. Lingren notes, however, that Mr. Nation wrote back to Mr. Haig-Brown, dismissing the suggestion, saying that “bloodworm (was) seldom found in stomachs of the rainbow in higher altitudes.” Mr. Lingren notes it would be 25 years before Jack Shaw, a well known B.C. tier and author, recognized how significant bloodworms are, and began imitating them. With excellent pictures, clear pattern details and historical entries like that, the book is a must have for anyone who fishes in British Columbia’s fabled trout waters. -MH
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Maybe it’s stretching things to call this a book. It’s only 14 pages long, and is stapled together between a simple heavy paper cover. But in that amount of space, Mo Bradley manages to pack a wealth of information. If you fish stillwater for rainbow trout - in particular if you fish for Kamloops trout in British Columbia, this little booklet is hard to beat.
As an amateur historian, and an expert fly tier, Art Lingren had the perfect skill set to put together this book. Not only has he collected many of the great patterns used and/or developed in British Columbia, but he’s also researched the angling history thoroughly. This book is really more like a fly fishing encyclopedia, for B.C., than it is a mere guide to fly patterns.
