The Stoneflies Are Coming

This time of year I become restless from the long winter and start dreaming of the fairer weather and fishing to come. The hours at my tying bench spent dreaming of the upcoming hatches drives me insane. I’ve been busy tying sulfurs and cicadas but the first real insect emergence I focus on is the winter stoneflies. Tying anything else is really just my own method of transcendental meditation to escape the cold short days.

My friend – and one of my fishing hero’s – Matt Grobert has made a great video of a little black stonefly I like to tie. Matt’s video is out on the Riversage Journal. I’ll admit that I’m late to the party on this on-line publication. It looks pretty cool and their contributors are top notch. I’ve saved the link into my favorites. 

Matt’s video can be found at Riversage Journal

I have to say that I’m extremely flattered that Matt has shared this pattern. I’ll also note that his fly is a beautiful tie! Mine are more “quick and dirty” but get the job done.  If you don’t follow Matt on his blog, The Caddis Chronicles,  and social media, you should. For those who aren’t familiar with Matt, he’s a phenomenal tier living in NJ and surrounded by streams where I learned to match hatches for trout myself. He’s got some patterns (the Pumpkin head midge has saved many days for me) and even has a fantastic book: Fly Fishing New Jersey Trout Streams. 

Tie up a half dozen of this great stonefly. While you’re at it, whip up some of Matt’s PumpkinHead Midge and my Fast Caddis, and you’ll be ready for spring.Thanks for making the video Matt!

A fly you can use

Winter is a hard time for fly fishermen. For me it’s more about finding daylight hours to hit the river. With all these holiday obligations it’ll be Christmas before I get out again if I’m lucky!  

So, to keep out of trouble I use transcendental meditation – aka: fly tying. I’ve made a short video with a simple white bugger that I use for both trout and steelhead. You don’t need 3 shanks or wire or trailer hooks or anything crazy.  I’m looking forward to getting out in the snow soon!

Enjoy,

Micah

Materials:

  • Hook: 2x long nymph hook size 4 or 6
  • Thread: white 6/0
  • Eyes: dumbbell eyes 
  • Tail:  white marabou, flash, fine rubber legs
  • Body: white “kracken enhanced” dubbing 

It Was The Winter

So now the summer of 2018 is in the books. This sure was a wet one! Since Knee Deep’s beginnings in 2010 there hasn’t been a summer when it rained this much. It wasn’t all bad. Some summers I pray for rain. This year, I prayed for time to air out my gear in the back yard. The fish still took flies all summer and I had a great time sharing cover with lots of new and old friends. 

I’m looking forward to making some tying videos this winter. I can’t wait to share them with you. You can check out a few over at Youtube.com. My favorite “Fast Caddis” is a great one. All my videos are made while trying not to wake up the family. Those who know me well know that being quiet is hard for me unless I’m fishing. 

I hope you enjoy! 

Micah

I Cant Quit You, Fishing

All you have to do is say you’re “taking it easy this summer” and the next thing you know, you’ll be fishing like crazy. I’ve been lucky to spend the last few weekends on the Big Gunpowder Falls and down at the beach near Rehoboth. I’ve had a great time fishing with clients and even with my father and brother. It’s a great time to hit the river.

Follow KneeDeepFlyFish over at Instagram

With fall here, I’ll be posting a bit more on kneedeepff.com. I have been working to make some short videos showing the how-to on some of my favorite flies.

I made this one to share with the crew from Delaware-surf-fishing.com showing off Ken’s Crazy Ant. It’s a killer pattern by someone I consider a good friend (I can call him at 7:00am and he’ll actually answer), Ken Walrath of Ken’s Custom Flies. Don’t be fooled – Ken was working this fly years before anyone else! I showed him my video and he wasn’t offended by it so I’ll take that as a “job well done.”

Keep checking back this fall – it’s caddis and “tiny stuff” time. I’ll post more updates as the days get shorter. Watch our pals over at Delaware Surf Fishing for some more stuff as well. Oh yeah, and the fishing is getting good. Let’s get out there.

Keep your tip on the water!

Micah

We’re off to NJ

While we’re headed to visit old friends at the Fly Fishing Show in NJ this weekend we hope you’re following us on social media. Frankly it’s replaced our regular “blog” updates. We can’t wait to see you there but if you can’t attend follow along with us on your smart phone, computer, tablet, car, refrigerator…whatever has a screen!

Keep in touch with us on Facebook. Like the page to follow along with the latest shenanigans.

If you’re into tweet-er-ing over on Twitter you can get your tweet on by following us over there too!

How hip are you? We’re betting you’ve been on Instagram for a ling time. While we’re just getting warmed up on that one we’re snapping away with all things related to our day on the water and – often times – totally un-related content. Follow us over there too!

We’ll see you all in NJ.

Let The Show Begin!

We’re hitting the road for the show season again this year. While we skipped The Fly Fishing Show’s stop in NJ last year we’ll be back in the Garden State this year.

The need for an NJ fix is a strong one. There will be a lot of pizza and bagels consumed while staying there. Best of all we’re looking forward to catching up with everyone and seeing a lot of old familiar faces.

Next up is the Lancaster Fly Fishing Show  March 4th and 5th and my favorite all tying event Lefty’s Tie Fest right down here in Maryland. I’ll have more on that one as we get closer.

Hope to see you at the shows this winter!

Micah

Thanks Everyone!

No, I didn’t update my website before I left DC and headed to NJ for the International Fly Tying Symposium. YES, I caught a lot of grief for not doing so.

After a crazy summer where I managed to guide and be home enough that my children recognized me I didn’t update kneedeepff.com much. My log-ins were so infrequent that I had to reset my password. I promise to try to update more often so you have something to do this winter.

So, was the symposium good? No. It was GREAT! Seeing everyone after so long is like going back to camp for us adults; though I never went to camp.  “The Tying Show” is a unique opportunity to share some time watching the originators of the patterns you fish with actually tie them in front of you. If you came to my table, maybe you even got to tie one yourself. That was a riot and I appreciate everyone who took me up on the offer. Thanks to Peak for getting me a second vise on the shortest notice ever! I also couldn’t have done it without the help of Dr Slick who keeps my supply of sharp scissors going strong.

After such a great weekend tying with my heroes (do you guys feel old yet?) the high comes to quite a crash after I get into the truck and hit the road for a few hours by myself. Suddenly, I find myself alone and listening to Christmas music, somewhere on the Turnpike. After 4 hours I’m home unpacking and taking out the trash wile tripping over toys again. It only makes me appreciate the crowd that came out and the family that travels with the winter show circuit even more.

Thank you to everyone who came out, everyone that set it up and tore it down, and the family of tiers and exhibitors that makes the shows such a great time. The entire community (new friends included) makes up a great family that I look forward to catching up with every season.

I’ll see you all in February back in Somerset!

Micah

PS:

Did you know we’re on Facebook, Instagram, and even Twitter?  Check us out and friend/favorite/follow us!

Who want’s “real” bagels?

Any time I talk about taking a trip to NJ  I ask “Who want’s real bagels?” If you’re not from up north you just don’t get it. You may even think the bagels at the grocery store are just fine. I get it. You just don’t know.

This weekend is your chance to take a road trip to NJ and get hip to the best of the best in the world of fly tying AND get a big bag of bagels form the Garden State! If you’re headed up, look for yours truly and say hello!

We can’t wait to see everyone!

Keep in touch for updated on the winter’s “show travel” coming up.

-Micah

What a Long Strange Trip!

It’s been busy over at Knee Deep Headquarters for the past few months. We’ve added a second intern here at the “office” and the buildup kept us pretty busy for a while. Now that there are two interns here, we’re having a ball cleaning up spills and changing diapers.

It was great to see everyone at the NJ Fly Fishing Show. Thanks to everyone who asked to see baby pictures and brought me coffee! I was lucky enough to sit with my old pal Matt Grobert. We rarely get to see each other outside of show season but it’s like it was last week every time we catch up. He’s been a good role model of mine since I was a kid (he’s not that old) and nobody enjoys sharing the art of fly tying and fishing more than Matt. I can’t wait to see everyone again at Lancaster!

 

Bromance
Bromance

 

Hey, you East coasters, there’s a new book out by Tom Gilmore just for us and I’m IN IT! I can’t believe it either. Tom must not have been thinking straight when he asked for some input on The Big Gunpowder; I’m grateful for his lapse in judgment. Call your local shop and ask them to get you a copy…then plan a road trip to some new water. It’s got all the info you need on the how and where andsome great extras like real maps! (imagine a guide book with usable maps!)

I'm in a book!
I’m in a book!

We’ll see you at Tie fest and Lancaster soon!

-Micah and the expanding crew

 

 

Lets talk streamers this year!
Lets talk streamers this year!

The International Fly Tying Symposium is this coming weekend and you need to get yourself there. If you’ve never tied a fly but want to learn, this is the place to see the world’s best tiers and talk to them about technique as well as pick up a few flies for your box along the way. If you’ve already got the bug and have been thinking about making the trip to ‘Jersey for the show, you owe it to yourself. There’s no better place to pick up hard to find materials and spend some time talking to the people who raise the birds and dye the fur.

I’ll be there, sharing a table with my good pal Ken Walrath. Stop by and say “Hi”.  If you don’t already follow Knee Deep on Facebook and Twitter, this is a good time to connect. We’ll let you know what isle we’re in and post some pics for the folks who can’t attend.

See you at the show!

Micah