WindKnot
Steelhead
Headed out to a thin blue line in SW Washington yesterday evening.
I love fishing I small dry flies in places like this, but I often find my dry flies sink after a while, even with generous floatant and various methods of drying off. I hastily tied a few flies before my trip, including one roughly based on a small elk hair caddis and/or stimulator, but with poly pro yarn instead of elk hair. Basically just a peacock ice dub body, yarn, and wrapped hackle on the front (size 12 here). It was ugly, but ended up working really well for these undiscriminating small trout. The fly floated great all evening, and was plenty visible for me to follow in the water. Here's how the fly looked after a dozen fish.
All the fish I encountered were very small, but their spunk and constant action made for a fun evening.
At one point I looked in a small pool in a side channel and saw two white strands. They looked like string at first, but closer inspection showed they were alive and moving. Each was over 12" long, perfectly white, and very thin.
I pulled one out to get a better look. Here's a still from a video. It had interestingly worked itself into an impressive knot, but fully stretched out it would have been over a foot long.
My Google search indicates horsehair worms (sometimes called Gordian worms) looks like a possibility . I saw something similar last year in a Columbia River basin pond near The Dalles, but that one was darker in color. Similar long and thin body with a round cross-section though.
Any ideas on what it is?
I love fishing I small dry flies in places like this, but I often find my dry flies sink after a while, even with generous floatant and various methods of drying off. I hastily tied a few flies before my trip, including one roughly based on a small elk hair caddis and/or stimulator, but with poly pro yarn instead of elk hair. Basically just a peacock ice dub body, yarn, and wrapped hackle on the front (size 12 here). It was ugly, but ended up working really well for these undiscriminating small trout. The fly floated great all evening, and was plenty visible for me to follow in the water. Here's how the fly looked after a dozen fish.
All the fish I encountered were very small, but their spunk and constant action made for a fun evening.
At one point I looked in a small pool in a side channel and saw two white strands. They looked like string at first, but closer inspection showed they were alive and moving. Each was over 12" long, perfectly white, and very thin.
I pulled one out to get a better look. Here's a still from a video. It had interestingly worked itself into an impressive knot, but fully stretched out it would have been over a foot long.
My Google search indicates horsehair worms (sometimes called Gordian worms) looks like a possibility . I saw something similar last year in a Columbia River basin pond near The Dalles, but that one was darker in color. Similar long and thin body with a round cross-section though.
Any ideas on what it is?
