Pogo, the continuing saga.....

[Ruard]

This is the indicator system I referred to earlier. I like it as it is totally adjustable, removable, re-usable and simple to use.

I ordered one and It seems to work.

greeting

[Old Hat]

I feel a Pogo Swap coming in the near future.

[Mataura mayfly]

The guys that make the indicators just put out a small instructional video on how to use it, that explains the system a whole lot better than I can type it out.

https://vimeo.com/63412360

I have no financial interest in the company or product and if I am crossing any boundaries, please remove the link.

[hankaye]

Mataura mayfly, Howdy;

Strange how some things have a way of 'popping-up'.
When one lives in a small space such as I do you would
be inclined to believe that you should be able to menataly
place everything and so, finding things would be less complicated
than in say, Buckingham Palace or the Pentagon........
While rummageing around looking for whatever it was, I lifted up
something and discovered an old copy of "Flyfishing & Tying Journal"
from back in the Fall of 2011.
Started flipping through it and on page 62, I found an article by Bob
Reynolds "Are Your Nymphs Dead or Alive".
At the bottom of pg.63 he discusses Neutral Buoyancy Nymphs.
Well therein is mentioned the same 'Pogo nymph' and gives credit to
your Pal Stu Tripney. He also mentions the 'Dancing Damselfly'. He dosen't
show any photos of it as he had his own version that he was touting in the
same breath.
Just thought ya might like to know.

hank

[Mataura mayfly]

Hank, yep- I have mentioned all the way through I am not the inventor as such, I just added the soft hackle and told Stu I had done so and noticed some improvement. He has a whole series of foam based flies he has invented- Winter is long and cold in Athol!
He put it all together in a DVD called Foam Odyssey, which is kind of fun, kind of quirky (the guy shoots foam dries with a 12ga as they sit on a puddle- just to prove they will float through pretty much anything), shows some nice scenery- nicer fish and tying instructions for each of his foam specials.

His Pogo is a straight nymph. It has developed to have rubber legs, but no hackle. His King Pogo has a strip of some white/flash material over the wingcase of black foam, still no hackle though.
Be interesting to see if a hackled version hits his shelves for next season.

[Mataura mayfly]

OK, I tried a variation- standard Pogo nymph, no hackle and the back of the foam wingcase "dressed" a little with a dab of silver glitter nail varnish.
Didn't work.
Not only did I not get a touch from any trout, the only thing it caught- was me.



I have only myself to blame, using a very soft glass rod (love soft sensitive glass rods for wet fly fishing) lazy pick-up from below/left of me- with a change of direction to directly in front of me in one hit, it was blowing and the front nymph was rather heavy. I just wasn't paying attention- and paid the price.
Have only ever done that once before and that was when I was a kid teaching myself to fly cast. The first time was also with a barbed hook, but not in the face, that one stuck fast into my right upper arm. Ahhhh, tailing loops- you gotta love 'em.

I did not know how to remove hooks from ones self back then and it caused a lot of pain and a scar I still have from yanking it out. I have since learnt the "loop over eye to bend, press down the eye and yank the loop" method. I was going to do a pictorial step by step on the removal, but being the only one in the house when I got home- the photos were not worth posting.
Ideally one should remove as soon as possible, while the nerve ending are still shocked from the hooks entry, not wait another hour or two fishing with a spare fly in your face hoping to do an instructional photo shoot afterward. Still removal was fairly painless- no bleeding and after an hour or so you would not know it had happened.

In the mean while, I had swapped back to the VXP with a soft hackled version rig and managed this one before I went home.

[Ron Eagle Elk]

That was worth the wait and any extra minor pain. Nice fish! We all have days like that.....well, not me, perhaps, but most folks. We need a knocking on wood emoticon.

[Old Hat]

Just blame it on the trees.

At first, I just thought it was one of those velcro fly patches.

This type of thing might make some squeamish. I worked for 3 years at a kid's fishing pond at a sportsman show. I think I have pulled more hooks out of people's body parts than out of fish.

I do know if I hooked myself like this though, the last thing to come to mind would be to take a picture of it.

[Mataura mayfly]

Old hat, as I said, I have only done it once before to myself and this time was owing to complacency and not paying attention to the task at hand. I took the photo mainly so I could see just where the dang thing was! Hard to see that part of your own face without a mirror.
I cannot blame the trees, that was on a stretch of stony bank about 300 yards long and 200-300 feet deep without a tree in sight (apart from the remains of one large willow flood debris in about the middle of the beach).
Only thing I can blame was the "nut behind the butt" lifting the line from below/behind and casually rolling it behind and over me without enough lift so the line came low over my left shoulder. I felt the weighted nymph graze my hat, ducked- but too late.
Worst part was, I was standing in fast current and when the hook struck I de-powered the cast pretty fast, the line belly fell onto the water- being carried down stream pretty quick. Consequently the line became taunt faster than I could draw a pair of scissors to snip the tippet and set the hook well and good!

Thanks Ron, he was worth holding out for, a nice Jack brown that was in excellent condition and I dare say full of milt ready for spawning. I did prick another from the same riffle- but missed the strike. Of course the second one was bigger!

Main reason for the whole hook in face addition was a reminder, your American season is just getting under way, remember- this can happen- if not to you, maybe someone else on the water. It pays to know how to remove a hook from flesh, you may never have to use it, but it is hard to google removal instructions after the deed is done and you are standing in some remote out of service water way with a fly hanging out of your face.

[William Anderson]

I'm glad you named this thread a continuing saga. It certainly has been that. What's next?

Beautiful catch, by the way. The brown, not the scruffie beast.

w