Trip Report - 3-18-16

Overhand Worm   7
Overhand Egg       0

The Overhand Worm proved itself again, beating the Overhand Egg seven to nothing.

I can hear you ask "Overhand Egg? What's an Overhand Egg?"

The Overhand Egg is an obvious (at least, to me) next step after the Overhand Worm. Granted, an egg is not that hard to tie, but then, neither is a San Juan Worm. Just as the Overhand Worm is much simpler to tie than a San Juan Worm, tying an Overhand Egg is simpler than tying an egg fly.

First generation Overhand Egg (December 2015) - an overhand knot in Egg Yarn or McFly Foam, pulled very tight. Snagged and lost on the first cast. I'd only tied one, so the experiment ended quickly.

Second generation Overhand Egg - an overhand knot in Large Chenille. I caught two fallfish with this pattern a week ago, but the Large Chenille cannot be pulled very tight without breaking. About half the Overhand Eggs tied with this chenille came apart. Back to the drawing board.

Third generation Overhand Egg - an overhand knot in two strands of Standard Ultra Chenille. Didn't come undone, but didn't catch any fish, either. Using two strands was an idea I had gotten from John P in Ohio who has been using Overhand Eggs (although I don't think he called them that) tied with the micro chenille on size 20 hooks when fishing for micros. He says they are very effective.

So far, I have tried several different hooks with the Overhand Worm. I had settled on the Wide Eyed Hooks, but the Gamakatsu R10-B has real potential. The unusual shape of the bend keeps the knot of the Overhand Worm up and out of the way, leaving the bend open to hook and hold.

Out of the 7 fish I caught on the Overhand Worm this trip, 6 were caught on the R10-B. The hook is very sharp. It seems to stick on rocks more easily than the Wide Eyed Hooks but it does hold fish very well. I will probably start carrying the hook.

The fish of the day was caught with a Suntech FM-X Keiryu ZPRO 53 which is a newly introduced rod that I will have in stock soon. I will do a page on them when they're here, but as a teaser, they are more capable than the Suikei ZPRO, less expensive than the Aoi ZPRO and can handle any tippet from 10X to 6X.

First look at the FM-X Keiryu ZPRO 53. The grip section is silver, the rest of the rod is black.

The Tenryu Furaibo TF39TA also got a workout. The stream is wide enough that I fished it at full extension (3.9m) the whole time. I'll have the Tenryu rods (TF39 and TF39TA) in stock next month. The orange color of the rod certainly did not seem to scare the fish.

I also fished a bit with the Suntech Keiryu Sawanobori 53. Although not quite as light as the new FM-X Keiryu ZPRO 53, it is a more capable rod. I spent the day fishing with 7X, but the rod can handle stronger tippets and bigger fish.

All things considered, it was a pretty good day. It wasn't quite as cold as expected and the fish were cooperative. I was really surprised that the Overhand Egg didn't catch any fish. I suspect it might have had I fished with it all day, but the Overhand Worm started working almost immediately so it got a bit more time on the line. It's fine to experiment, but I do like to catch fish.

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