Baby Gaspereau
February’s half over,
days are getting longer, and our thoughts turn to fishing huge brown trout. It’s time, folks, to start getting ready.
We’re truly thankful that we won’t be wasting any precious time lying on some Caribbean beach, worrying about
not being prepared for fishing and drowning our sorrows with rum.
Instead, we can daydream about those Guysborough County river systems that are blessed with large sea-run
brown trout, feeding voraciously in our nutrition-rich estuaries each summer. Many of our local anglers regard them as the
most challenging of all our sportfish, experiencing great satisfaction from the rare achievement of catching one of these
trophies on a fly. Once per lifetime is probably about average for a feat of this magnitude.
To fly fish these big trout effectively, we
must learn about their habits. This requires careful observation and collecting samples of their menu items. We must learn
what they are feeding upon in order to imitate it realistically (size, color, water depth, speed and action) with our fly.
As this knowledge is accumulated over a few seasons, we begin to understand more, observe feeding patterns, developing effective
flies, and enjoy more success with these fish.
.
Around the first week of August, big schools of baby gaspereau descend the river and head for the ocean,
much to the delight of brown trout in the estuary. Baby gaspereau are beautiful little bright, flashy, silver fish with an
emerald green side stripe and dark green back. Length is about 2”. When they are available, big predatory brown trout
seem to prefer them to all other food, slashing through their schools in wild feeding frenzies.
I created a fly around 1979 to imitate this tasty
little baitfish and have used it successfully ever since. It caught a 6.5 lb brown on its first trip out, the largest brown
trout I’ve ever caught. Maybe it will catch a big one for you too!
Baby Gaspereau
Thread:
Black
Hook:
Mustad 34011 stainless steel saltwater streamer hook, size 1
Body:
Silver Diamond Braid (rust & tarnish
proof)
Wing:
4 strands of silver Flashabou,
over which is emerald
green bucktail, over which is dark green or black bucktail, over which are 2 grizzly rooster saddle hackles.
Throat Hackle:
Webby fluff from the base of a white rooster hackle
Head:
Black
Eyes:
Holographic Stick-On Eyes coated with 2 coats of Angler’s Corner Wet Head Cement or Dollarama 5 minute epoxy
Please stay on the line …
