Wednesday, April 27, 2011

3 things I want in a nymph right now



Anyone within a 50 mile radius of me right now can tell you that the water flows have not been cooperative for fly fishing. Just as it's clearing up today, I currently hear thunderstorms rolling through. It never ends. I'm just going to have to deal with it and make the best of the conditions.

That being said, I wanted to find a nymph pattern that will work in this messy water. I want it to:

1.Be a general representation of a natural food source, but nothing too specific. I dont think it needs to be detailed. The water is fast and murky. The fish aren't going to examine it in detail.

2.Be heavy as hell. It needs to slow down during the fast flows to have a chance of getting a strike.

3.Have some type of flashy attracting characteristics.


I think I found the one I'm looking for. I found a John Barr pattern called a Tung Teaser. He said he based it off a prince nymph, because the fish love the color scheme, but he still wanted it to look somewhat natural. I did a few tweaks to his original, but I can't wait to try it out. I love the flash under the thin skin. It gives it just enough sparkle, without making it look unnatural. I kept the biots a little longer to give it a tiny bit more movement. In hindsight, I might have overdid it with them, but I'll try them out anyway.

Size 16 Tiemco 2XL nymph hook (sorry, I forgot the exact #)
Tungsten bead - gold
.015 lead underbody
Uni-Thread 8/0 in brown
White goose biots
Jan Siman peacock bronze dubbing
Gold wire ribbing
Pearl Flashabou (bottom wingcase)
Mottled turkey thin skin (top wingcase)
Indian hen feathers (legs)
UV Epoxy (over wingcase and part of bead)

(click on the images for hi-res detail)

Tuesday, April 26, 2011

Monday, April 25, 2011

I've got some catching up to do..

I've been a bad blogger. I haven't had an update in almost a week. A long cold winter stuck indoors with plenty of time to blog and tie flies has given way to birthday parties, doctor appointments, surgery, sick kids, funerals, longer hours at work, evening fishing trips, mowing the lawn, planting trees, taking my son to the park, etc etc. Life happens and sometimes there's nothing you can do about it. I apologize for the lack of action. Hopefully you'll still stop back on occasion.

So, here's a brief update of what's been going on..

Fishing
I know it's the best time of the year to be out on the water, especially for trout, but it's just been awful in PA, at least for me. All of the rain has made every moving body of water look like a chocolate milk shake with some branches stirred in it. As soon as it starts to clear, more rain comes along. I haven't even really been having luck at night.

On Saturday, I tried some streamers in the creek behind my house for some leftover stockies. After 20 minutes, I was sick of chocolate milk and snagging debris, so I opted to hit the local lake. I've mentioned this place in previous posts. It's full of largemouth, crappie, pickerel, bluegills, and bullhead cats. I got there at dusk, hoping for some nice bass, or maybe a pickerel. I started stripping a black bugger with some blue flash along the banks and after about a dozen casts, something hits it really hard. I lock on to the fish and then realize that it's not a bass or pickerel, but maybe a crappie or gill. Turned out to be a pretty decent bluegill. A few casts later, I hit another one, maybe about an inch bigger. Not what I was hoping for, but still fun on a 4 weight.



About 20 minutes later, I hooked in to a nice pickerel, about 18 inches on a white bugger, but he did the death roll at my feet, spit the hook, and swam away smiling. Oh well.

Besides that, it's been skunkville for me. I need some trout in my life.


Tying
Not much to report here either. I knocked out an army of rubber legged CJs. These things take me about 8-10 minutes to tie each one and they take too many materials for my liking, but they do work so I suffer through the time on the vise.


I also have been meaning to try out Shark's caddis larva. I was going to dedicate a whole post to this, but Gaeron over at TreartonFly beat me to it. These things don't look that great when dry, but they look just like a bug when wet.




Family
Well, Easter came and went and that damn bunny left my son like 4 baskets of candy, various Thomas trains, clothes, and books. Everyone loves to spoil him. He had a blast with his Easter egg hunt.




Not sure if I mentioned this, but Michael is obsessed with cows. There's a farm down the street from us that we stopped by while taking his great grandmom home after our family gathering. The cows run right up to your car. He was in heaven.


Now, here's some advice. Next time you buy a mower, go self-propelled! Mine finally died last week so I splurged in a 4 speed Troy Bilt 75 XP. I love it. I had some help while mowing tonight.



Also, before I go...Feel like winning a $50 Cabelas gift card? Then swing on over to TROUTRAGEOUS and play along.

Monday, April 18, 2011

Back in business with a new caddis pattern



Well, I had a minor surgery today, which lead me to pass out on painkillers most of the afternoon so now I'm wide awake with a very sore mouth. I sat down at the vise to see what I could come up with.

I caught a video a while back of Aaron Jasper tying his cased caddis jig hook pattern so I thought I'd try it out. These turned out pretty cool. I'll let you know how they work.

Dohiku barbless jig hook, size 14
Ultra Chenille - chartreuse
Wood Duck (I actually used real teal flank for this)
Dubbing - mix of grey squirrel and fox squirrel
Copper ribbing
Tungsten black nickel bead



Of course, I'll need to actually fish before I can try them out. Our trout streams are still feeling the effects of the 2 inches of rain we got in about 4 hours on Saturday. This sucks. Although, they are stocking tomorrow again behind my house. Maybe I'll make it out for an evening trip for easy pickings. It all depends on what time this little guy decides he's ready for bed.

Saturday, April 16, 2011

10 tips for fly fishing at night

Edit-this is a post I started working on a week ago and I forgot to publish. Expect some more posts soon. I know I've been slacking, but it's been a tough few days for me.
-Mike








Let's face it, fly fishing can become a frustrating experience during the day. At night, it can get even worse. Heading to the river at night is not really ideal, but for some of us with full time jobs and young children, it's the only time during the week where we can wet a line. I've spent the past few weeks making a few trips to the stream at night and it has paid off. I was out last night landing fish around 11pm on slumpbusters.


Here's some tips to help you avoid wanting to break your rod in half in the darkness.

1.Location
You should fish an area that you know well and I would choose something close to an urban area if possible to help with lighting. Many streets have lights next to the bridges that cross over water. These are great locations. It gives you just enough light to see what's going on, and you might even be able to scout some fish from the bridge.

2.Scouting the water and banks
You should definitely know the water and scout it out in advance. You most likely won't be able to tell that you're casting through a deep pool or a set of really soft riffles at night. Also pay attention to the trees and bushes around you. Casting in the dark is really tough and it helps if you know there's a branch 8 feet up over your left shoulder that you can't currently see.

3.Lighting
I don't know how many times I've rigged up at home and then realized half an hour later while on the stream that I can't switch flies because I forgot a flashlight. Bring a flashlight or headlamp. But here's the main point. Only use it when needed. Don't keep your headlamp on the whole time while you're looking at the water. You will definitely spook fish. When you need to use the flashlight, turn away from the stream and point it away from the water. Also, keep the flashlight clean because you'll most likely be holding it with your teeth to tie on some more tippet if you dont have a headlamp.

4.Look before you leap
Before you make your first cast, spent 4 or 5 minutes just sitting still and observing the water. Some fish will be much more active at night, especially browns. I bet you will notice surface action close to the banks either right in front of you, or on the opposite side. This brings me to my next tip.

5.Fish close
Many fish will roam the banks at night looking for some easy prey. Casting right through your deep honey hole in the night might not work, because the fish are out hunting under the cover of darkness. Try stripping streamers up and down the banks. It can work wonders, even in a foot of water.

6.Don't wade!
As I said above, fish could be in shallow and wading will ruin it for you. Since they can't see at night, they'll rely on their other senses. You'll just spook them. Plus, if you fall in at night, there's less of a chance that someone will see you and/or come to your aid if needed. Don't be stupid. Stay out of the water.

7.Dealing with the 5-0
Typically when I fish at night, it's in a public park that closes at sunset. About 75% of the time, I get stopped at least once by a police officer who sees my parked car along the side of a road or in an empty parking lot. When this happens, don't be a jerk. Yeah, they'll probably shine a light on you, get out of their car and talk with you, but they are just seeing if you're drinking or doing drugs. As long as you're not drunk or high, they will most likely let you go. Just tell them you are just there to fish, not causing any problems, and ask permission to stay for a while. They always say yes. Remember, saying please and thank you will help the next time he sees you out at 11pm in an empty park.

8.Sub-surface - go dark and big
Unless there are a ton of rises, the fish won't see your size 22 midge emerger, or your tiny pheasant tail. You need to get their attention. Since there's no light to reflect, white and bright colors won't work. Think dark and big. Black is best because it will still be a slight contrast against the night sky. Try black woolly buggers, slumpbusters, muddler minnows, and any other chunky streamer you can think of. I've found that fish will be more willing to chase a streamer at night. I get twice as many hits on them as I do during the day. You want something to move water and get their attention. Double streamers will accomplish this as well.

However, if you are in an area with some street lighting that is bright enough to let you see fish in the water, an occasional glowbug will work.

9.Movement on top
If you're seeing rises, it still doesnt mean that they'll take your size 18 olive. Bigger will be better. Try some bigger dry caddis, terrestrials, or big dries like a Royal Wulff. Anything with rubber legs is great. Definitely give the fly a twitch every 5-10 seconds. Another thing with dries at night is that you might really have to work a fish. I've already found a fish rising in front of a downed tree and it took me about 20 casts to get a strike. Persistence pays off.

10.Zip it up
Make sure all the pockets in your jacket, chest pack, tackle bag, etc are zipped up. I've lost quite a few items while rummaging through my chest pack for floatant at night.

I know some of these seem like common knowledge, but you'd be surprised how easy you can make mistakes while fumbling through the pitch black woods. Hopefully you at least learned one or two things you can take with you the next time you fish at night.

Wednesday, April 13, 2011

Who knows about switch rods?

After a weekend of chuck n'duck nymphing and a really sore shoulder, I'm ready to make the jump to a switch rod. I'll primarily be using it for Steelhead a few times a year and for fishing big local rivers like the Lehigh and Delaware, with a few occasional casts at a lake or two.

Nick just picked up the Cabelas LSI switch in a 7 weight, 11 ft this week and after I got to mess with it last night, I really like it. It's definitely the cheapest way to go for a decent setup.

But, I've been exploring my options. I've been looking at the Echo 10'10" 7 weight, the Redington CPX, St Croix Imperial (I already own two SC rods and I do love them), and Scott's line of switch rods.

So, I'm asking for the help of all my blog readers. Does anyone have any input or any of the rods above or switch gear in general? I'm still new to it and I want to make the best decision possible. I'm trying to keep it around the $400-$450 range for the entire setup.

I really wish I could afford to spend $1-2K on a setup. A Hatch reel would pair up perfect with this Sage TCX.

Monday, April 11, 2011

It happened again

We brought home a skunk. The Salmon River trip was fun, but the only fish we brought to hand were two tiny brown trout, about 3 inches long. I'll get to that in a minute. (By the way, this is pretty much a post about me complaining so it won't hurt my feelings if you close the browser right now)

Friday

We got to Altmar around 1pm and noticed it was relatively dead. That place is always packed so that was a little scary. I didn't see one person from Schoolhouse down to the Wire hole. Odd. We decided to hit up Melinda's fly shop to get the scoop on conditions. She told us that the rush of warm weather caused a ton of runoff to hit the water, which unfortunately meant really cold water temps and fish that weren't budging. We did notice that once we hit Cortland, there was still patches of snow on the ground around the dense forests. It became more predominant as we drove north, and was apparently melting fast and making for poor fishing conditions. The river was running around 1200, which is high comparing to some of the winter flows, but nothing compared to the 20,000 we hit during the flood last fall.

We worked our way down about 2 miles from Altmar and stopped right before we started to get in to Ellis Cove. We had a few taps along some gravel bars, but nothing to write home about. I hooked up once on a black stone at the downed tree past the Wires, but that didn't last too long. He spit the hook. Right after that happened some guy walked in immediately downstream from me, made 2 casts, and landed two 8 lb. steelhead on green eggs. Luck of the draw I guess...

We fished until about 6pm and then decided to head to the trailer to unpack. On our way back up to the car, we crossed a little spring creek that feeds in to the Salmon River. I had noticed that there were some size 16 (yes, 16! seems huge to me compared to what we get around here) midges flying around, and when started to cross the creek, I saw hundreds of small fish jumping out of the water and gorging themselves on them. It was so cool to watch them clear the water chasing these bugs that I had to bend down in the stream and get it on video.


I had a size 22 BWO in my magnetic fly drying box and some 7x tippet, so I decided to see if they'd take the fly, just to really see what the hell they were. They were definitely small browns. I caught two in two casts and they would be the only thing's I'd land all weekend. They were beautiful. Look at those marks on the side of them!


We headed back to the trailer, unpacked, and then hit some local redneck bar for some sub-par food. We came back, tied up a dozen flies, and crashed out sometime before midnight.

Saturday
We were up at 5am and on the water by 6:40am. We decided to hit the upper fly stretch. I've never fished this water and when I got there I could have kicked myself for not checking it out before. It was gorgeous! The only problem was, there was no way in hell we were crossing it. The runoff had it raging.


I started working this deep plunge pool in front of a rock cliff. Jack decided to head downstream and hit a run under some low hanging branches. I connected with about a 9 lb fish on my 4th cast. He took a size 12 rubber leg stonefly with pink ribbing that I tied the night before. I worked him for about a minute or so and then he got out in the main current and I knew I was doomed. Yep, he was gone ten seconds later.

We both headed downstream and found a really nice gravel bar with a nice long deep run that we knew were holding fish. The problem there was, everyone else knew it was holding fish. We squeezed in where we could, in spots that most likely didn't contain fish, or were snag central. I wound up losing about 25 flies there.

I walked downstream a little more to shake off my frustration and there it was. The salmon shrine from my earlier post. It was sick and twisted, but I have to admit, it was also somewhat funny.

If you've ever fished this river after the salmon are done spawning, you'll spend your day stepping over carcasses, or dodging half-dead zombified 40 lb kings who are swimming sideways and bashing in to you, almost knocking you down into the drink. They smell awful, and creep you out. You'll be standing on the side of the river talking or rerigging and one will just beach itself right in front of you and start flipping out. It gets annoying, and even after you unpack, your car smells like rotting salmon for about a week. The funny part of this was that as people were walking by it, they kept leaving a fly in it's mouth. When I walked by on Sunday before we left, his mouth was a virtual tackle box.



I caught up with Jack and we headed back up because we saw people leaving. Jack got a spot in some prime water. There was a nice 20 foot gravel bar that you just knew the steelhead were going to spawn on, surrounded by some really deep water where they were waiting. He hooked in to a nice colored up hen that was about 10 lbs easy. He connected to her on a woolly bugger, fought her for a good two minutes, and she finally threw the hook.

It then slowed down so we headed back down to Altmar. It was just ridiculous. The spin fisherman were out in full force, complete with their skin tight Cabelas camouflage waders, giant pickup trucks with the ducks unlimited bumper sticker, 8 foot ugly stick rods, cheap beer, and pink Berkley power worms. The thing that annoyed me the most was that half of them were dragging a giant steelhead on a stringer that was most of the time still alive. I don't like when people keep beautiful fish like that, but if they do, they should at least put it out of it's misery.

After that spectacle, and a slowdown on the bite, we decided that we had nothing to lose by hitting the tribs. We headed out towards the lake and hiked the Grindstone. Jack brought a small trout up to his feet which then broke off. I started hiking upstream around beaver dams, seeing an occasional steelhead hugging a log. The problem was that these streams were only about 8-12 feet wide at the most, and crystal clear. The second the fish saw you, they were gone. I did see some crazy huge sculpins though.

We then hit up Sage creek, which is a tiny spring creek that runs in to Lake Ontario near the town of Mexico. This thing was even small than the Grindstone, but really fun. We found a really deep narrow pool under a bridge that we could see fish swimming around in. Jack finally hooked in to a 2 foot steelhead on a black bugger, which once again threw the hook.

We headed back to the trailer, and our gracious hosts prepared a very nice steak dinner for us, which was much appreciated after two days of nothing but McDonald's, BK, and Arbys. I don't think I've ever been so tired in my whole life. I was out cold by 10:30 and slept until about 6am. It felt awesome.

Sunday
We packed up so we could hit the road right after fishing. We headed back to the upper fly stretch and there were even more people than yesterday. The good thing was, we did get some good spots and around 9am, the bite picked up. Jack gave me this bugger he tied with a deer hair tail, which got me into a fish for about a minute before it ran upstream and spit the fly. A few guys around me hooked up at about the same time and one landed his fish.

I then proceeded to literally lose 15 flies in the next hour. It was trees, rocks, breaking off fish in a 5 second fight. You name it. If it's a way to lose a fly, I did it. My box was looking empty.

We then hit up Ellis Cove for a few hours. It was starting to warm up, and I think the runoff was finally starting to die down, because people were really starting to hit fish. It was crowded so we fished a little too far upstream and only had a few taps. It then started to rain so we packed it in around 2pm.

All in all, I had fun, but goddammit, I wish I landed at least one. I'll be back with a vengeance soon enough, I'm sure.

Thanks to the Lutz family over at Jon's Little Salmon Tackle for being such awesome hosts and putting up with us. If you ever need some great lake fishing supplies, Jon is definitely the man to see. He has more trolling gear that I've ever seen in one place!

I was so happy to see my family when I finally got home 5 hours later. My son greeted me with an Easter egg he painted himself, and I noticed a few packages for me.

Feathercraft finally sent me the dubbing dispenser that was back-ordered, and I got a care package from Rip Lips Fishing containing four 100 packs of tungsten beads! I have some nymphs to tie! If you need tungsten, you should check them out. 100 packs of tungsten beads in all kinds of sizes and colors are only 12.99 each. Tell them I sent ya! Thanks to Ethan for the hookup!

Well, if you made it through this post, I'm impressed. Thanks. I'm off to slam a beer and hit the sack.

Saturday, April 9, 2011

37 is.....

The amount of flies I lost today. Snag central! SR was dead after 2pm so we fished the grindstone and sage creeks in Mexico. Jack lost a fat steelhead in a stretch of water only 8 ft wide. There are still salmon carcasses everywhere. They just add to the stench of our skunk.


Well, I'm off to take a shower, tie more flies, and pray that we land fish tomorrow.


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The Salmon shrine

Some people are sick.


Currently in the upper fly stretch. Two hookups so far but we lost them both. Stones and buggers. I already lost about 15 flies. Temp is nice but water is FREEZING. Awesome.






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Friday, April 8, 2011

SRNY Day 1- Not Skunked (kinda)

Look at this monster.....



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Thursday, April 7, 2011

Watch out Steelhead...

I'm finally packed and heading to the Salmon River in NY to chase some pre-spawn Steelhead and monster browns. I spent some time filling the box tonight with more woolly buggers because I heard they were killing em' right now. I did some barred rubber legs for the tails mixed in with the marabou. They look pretty sweet. I'd take a picture but I already packed the camera. Expect some streamside blog posts and hopefully some hero shots with some chrome as long as I get some cell phone reception.

Wish me luck. I gotta break this streak of getting skunked up there. It's been two times in a row now.(Although the last time wasn't our fault. The river was running at 20,000 CFS!)


If you're up there this weekend and want to grab a beer, drop a note in the comments.

-Mike

Tuesday, April 5, 2011

Feel like winning a free gift package from Rise including a new rod?


Head on over to the Owl Jones Fisheads forum for your chance to win some sweet gear from Rise Fishing. You'll need to sign up on the forum, which is good because you can stay and hang out.

The stuff he's having people do is insane. Expect a lot of weird, zany posts from me. I want to win this thing. Plus, tell Owl he should make a guest post on my blog. We need a crazy video up in here.

Also, congrats Mr. Jones on your appearance on Moldy Chum.

This message was brought to you by Sculpin IPA. My buddy brought a few bottles over on Saturday. Besides being named after the coolest baitfish ever, it's one of the best IPAs I've ever had.

Weekend Recap - Outfished by a 2 year old!

Yep, my son turned two on Sunday and he outfished me this weekend, even with opening day!

Nick and I were on the road with the boys by 7:20am on Saturday to make it to the kids trout derby before the 8am start. We got there and it was ABSOLUTELY MOBBED. I've never seen anything like it. The place was a small pond, about 1/4 of an acre at the most. There must have been over a thousand people surrounding it.

The derby was supposed to be for kids 16 and under and the only thing adults could do was cast the line for the kids. We got there and noticed all the adults that were supposed to be "watching" the kids fish had rows of chairs set up to block out their area. Plus, there were quite a few 17/18 year olds there fishing. No one would let two little kids in to wet a line. It was disappointing. We finally walked all the way around and some nice guy let us squeeze in a tiny 3 foot space to let the kids cast, one at a time. Once 8am hit, it was amazing to see how many adults were just "holding the rod" for their kids. That really pissed me off.

Anyway, Nick takes Rowan over to wait on the picnic bench, I rig up Michael with a nightcrawler on one of my old ultralight spinning rods and cast out. I remember trying to get him to fish last year and he couldn't grasp the concept of reeling in. I handed him the rod and to my amazement, he had no trouble at all. Another line caught us so I reeled him, untangled and cast back out. I hand him the rod again and he starts ripping in line like crazy, doing a great job. All of a sudden I see his rod just bend and start bouncing! I kept telling him to reel in faster, and he did. What he brought in wasn't a trout, but I've never been so proud of him in the last two years. We took a few quick pictures before letting it go.





He kept jumping up and down clapping and yelling "Fish! Fish!" It was awesome. Then we backed up to let Rowan have a cast. By that time, everyone was rigged up with lines in the water and it was next to impossible to do anything.


Nick trying to avoid the 1400 other lines in the water


As soon as they got their line in the water, Rowan ran off because he had to pee, and Michael had enough and wanted to leave. This was at 8:07am. :) We packed it up, took the kids to the playground, and then to a diner for a nice big breakfast.

Later that afternoon, I thought I'd hit the stream behind my house for some stockies. I got there around noon and it was pathetic. The night before, I had scouted a pod of well over 100 fish with some pallys mixed in holding in a small run above a foot bridge. By the time I got there at 12:30pm, there were two fish left in that hole. One was a pally, which had literally at least 20 guys throwing gobs of powerbait the size of Ohio at it. Very depressing. I walked upstream and it was the same thing. Two pallys with people literally hanging from tree branches to get a cast at them.

I found some stretches of open water and had a few taps, but that was it. I headed home to prepare for Michael's birthday party the following day.

My little guy turned two. I can't believe it. Time flies. Happy Birthday Michael. I love you! We got him a Thomas the Train Hot Wheels bike, among other things, and made him his favorite breakfast, chocolate chip banana pancakes.


His party was a blast. There were like 60 people and the kids were going insane in the moon bounce all afternoon. He was so tired from not napping and going crazy all day, that he was miserable on Monday morning. We had planned to take him to the Phila Zoo, but we opted to stay local. We went to this giant kids playground in Doylestown called Kids Castle. He had a great time.


After some lunch, we took him home for a nap and I figured I'd FINALLY get to do some fishing without all the rednecks in camo jumpsuits and hot orange baseball hats. It took me twice as long to get to the spot I wanted to fish because I was stopping and picking up trash along the way from all the weekend warriors. I found 8 cans of almost empty powerbait. Awesome.

I finally got to the run and to my surprise, there were fish rising like crazy behind a rock in this channel. No bugs on the surface..The only thing flying around are size 26 midges. hmm....I opted for a size 20 Adams dry. After 3 casts and 3 rises to my fly it was obvious that these weren't trout. I got in closer because I no longer worried about spooking them and realized that they were big shiners! I took off the dry fly and moved on.

There were still about 20 other people out so my usual open spots were mostly still getting hammered. I tried swinging wets, streamers, and a few natural looking nymphs with only a few taps. Then I figured I might as well throw some junk. All the powerbait I saw floating downstream was either pink or chartreuse, so I opted for an orange egg, followed by a pale yellow one.

I popped on a thingamabobber and settled in for a boring afternoon bobber fishing slow water. Then I look upstream and see this guy coming past me.



Seriously, who kayaks in a 15 foot wide stream when there's much better water around? It actually turned out that he was good luck. A minute after he went through, I FINALLY caught my first fish of "trout season". It was a little stocker bow, who was really spotted up.




So yeah, I did catch one fish, but it was the start of the new week so my son still outfished me!


Also, expect some posts from the land of Steelhead this weekend. I leave for the Salmon River on Thursday night until Sunday night.

Here's a peak at some of the new ones in the box.

I've been on a soft hackle kick recently. Here's a big soft hackle Stonefly. This thing is a paperweight.


Also did a version of the hot wire prince nymph with some palmered feathers from a pheasant rump.


Filled the box back up with some size 12 Copper Johns. I know these look pretty bad. I was definitely in quantity over quality mode when I knocked these out.


And last but not least, Nick tied me a few woven golden stones. These things are sweet!

Saturday, April 2, 2011

Opening day

LOL






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Well, It's opening day

And honestly, I couldn't be happier. I'm about to take my son to catch his first trout. We're going here for a kids trout derby.

I'm sure it's going to be a ton of screaming children and tangled lines, but I'm sure he'll have fun. Nick and his son, Rowan, are going as well.

I do have to say, it's been a while since since I messed with spinning gear for trout! I went through all my spinning tackle last night and couldn't really remember what size hooks I used to use for bait! I decided on some small red Gamakatsu circle hooks. I also put on my headlamp and stalked the back yard for nightcrawlers. I'm not as fast as I used to be, but I did manage to catch a dozen. I also got the powerbait, bread, and corn all ready to go.

I'd like to get out to do some fishing later on today after the weekend warrior worm dunkers hang up their shakespeares, but tomorrow is my son's 2nd birthday party and there are 65 people coming to the house. I need to get the man cave cleaned up.

P.S. I'm really glad I have a son to do things like this with. It could be worse.

Friday, April 1, 2011

A quick and easy tip for terrestrial indicators

I learned this in class the other night. We were tying basic foam beetles, just black foam, peacock body, and whatever you wanted to do for the legs.


It's a great little fly that will get the attention of fish in the heat of summer and into fall. The only problem with it is that it's a tough fly to see on the water. I've tied in extra foam indicators behind the head, but now I know that it's an un-needed extra step. Plus, there's a chance the fish can see it from the side.

Go to a craft store and get yourself some 3D fabric paint. The stuff I got was called Scribbles, and it was $1.19 at JoAnn Fabrics.


Just take a small drop of it and place it right on the back of the beetle. It should almost look like a miniature hersey kiss. Instant indicator with no additional materials to tie on!


The only thing I'll say is that you should be careful when using it. I got a drop on my nice pair of work pants on Tuesday night and I now have a neon circle on my right upper thigh. It doesnt come out of clothing at all. It will also take about 12 hours to fully dry. So tie them at night and let them sit until morning.

Here's a bunch of them with rubber legs. I kept one with a foam indicator so you can see the difference.


Maybe I'll get a chance to test them out if it would ever stop SNOWING! Seriously, it's April 1st. Mother nature needs to get over herself.