Spanish Pyrenees 2022

So after my previous trip to the Spanish Pyrenees in 2019 my fishing activities came to an abrupt halt due to Covid. A few days ago I finally got to wet my lines again. I chose the Spanish Pyrenees over my usual fishing destinations in the Alps, around the Southern Germany & Austrian border.

Due to the recent crazy gas prices driving to the alps sounded all the sudden a reason to reconsider. Yes I love the alps, but after almost 20 years fishing the streams and rivers of the Alps, Covid and high gas prices I felt this is the time to look for other destinations.

Looking back to my trip in 2019, my choice was easy. A two hour flight to Barcelona and I was picked up my buddy Norman at the airport for an enjoyable 3.5 hour drive to the Pyrenees. The Pyrenees is a huge mountain range going from east to west at the border of France and Spain. Basically it’s The Rocky Mountains of Spain & France. Due to the heat of my last trip to the Pyrenees I headed about four weeks earlier than the previous trip. Only to see that Iberian peninsula was in the midst of a heat wave... Oh what an irony!

Albeit not as hot as in July, the temps were still at a toasty mid 80's. Clear blue skies, small towns with historic buildings along the high way and we're back in business. As usual I picked out the rods matching the waters I wanted to fish, native browns in small streams. Two bamboo and two fiberglass rods, all travel friendly, were packed. Travel light so no vest but just a small hip pack made by the wife of my friend Mark in Bozeman Montana, my trusty breathable hippers and just one box of dries.

During the three days we fished several streams in the area. Ranging from gin clear boulder covered mountain streams to a more meadowy spring creek like stream. The scenery is breathtaking, my company is amazing and the Spanish cuisine is superb. The mediterranean streams are filled with wild brown trouts, locally known as zebra trouts. This strain of brown trouts have the typical vertical barring along the side.

Late afternoon on the second day the dark clouds packed around the mountains and it rained for almost 9 hours straight. We were doomed... But the next morning the dark clouds were gone and the streams were in surprisingly excellent shape. Game on!

We drove back to Barcelona after a wonderful three days of fishing. It's a huge contrast to the scenery that was etched into my mind. Spanish rhythm of life is typically mediterranean. Eating out with friends in a tiny local restaurant at almost midnight is something we northern European need to adjust, but it's easy once immersed during the three wonderful days. 

My next visit to the Spanish Pyrenees is most definitely fall next year.
Enjoy the pictures. Thanks Norman for the amazing days!

The Rocky Mountain Fly Highway

A very well made documentary with Tom Skerritt (the 'dad' in the movie A River Runs Through It)

Flooding of Yellowstone National Park area

Heavy rainfall this past weekend and rising of temperatures to melt the heavy snow pack of the winter and spring caused the Yellowstone area to flood to devastating proportions. It looks like the whole area will have major infrastructure reconstructions for quite a long time.

Pat Cohen tying bass bugs

Quality of hackle

This is a subject I’ve been a bit hesitant to discuss but I think it’s time. It’s about the quality of hackle. 

Hackle quality for me isn’t about ‘high barb count’ or how many flies one can tie with one feather and not even the color or shade. Foremost it’s the characteristics of the hackle barbs and the stem (rachis).

I often see hackle that has barbs that’s not stiff but rather soft. Sometimes it’s just the type of bird that just doesn’t have really stiff barbs (like most grizzly hackles from the Plymouth Rock breed). 

Sometimes I run into hackle that is so greasy the barbs are sloppy and matted. Hackle with greasy barbs are in my view unusable for tying well floating dry flies.

Another characteristic is barbs not being straight but having a curve. Barbs that aren’t straight is probably a minor ‘problem’, but still an aspect that defines a high quality hackle rather than a mediocre hackle. Hackle collars for for instance traditional Catskill style dry flies, a hackle wrapped with curved barbs is just ‘not done’. Maybe the least of an issue it’s still usable on parachute hackles.

Lastly but certainly not the least important is the flexibility of the stem. Thick and stiff stems makes nice touching hackle wraps more challenging. If the stem is really stiff and thick, it is even unusable for anything else than as wings on streamers and bass bugs.

I'll end this subject with the so called 'cupping'. It's not a feature or even a 'problem' but if you just look at the structure of the feather it's basically a technical error. Mostly cupping occurs with saddle feathers. I've seen extreme cupping with several colors like ginger, grizzly and cream. So I doubt it's exclusive to a certain breed of birds.

I've got a saddle that has dozens of cupped feathers. As you can see the whole feather has bent barbs in a V-shape at the stem. If such a feather is wrapped, the sharp bend of the barbs results in a hackle collar (or wrapped parachute style) with the barbs angled depending on the direction of the feather tied in.

Are cupped hackles rubbish? I don't think so, but for certain flies I won't use them. If I have the choice I prefer just 'flat' feathers. Buying hackle on the internet makes it impossible to check all the mentioned characteristics, unless you can let the seller know exactly what you don't want.