Posts

The Golden Missile

By -
Image
----The Golden Missile---- I had been looking forward to the summer of 2016 for quite some time.   For the same reason, the women in my life were both anxious and nauseous as they dreadfully imagined what was to come.   I had been excitedly, if not impatiently, awaiting their arrival, tracking their progress and scouring the internet for sightings as they started to emerge from their double lives underground.   The shell casings of their former selves abandoned on every tree big enough to have seen a couple decades.   Their awkward, uncoordinated flight like a tiny drone flown by a drunken pilot.   The deafening chorus of chirps.   It was music to my ears.   From the time the first spring peeper sang its tune, all I could think about was their arrival.             It had been 17 years since the last time they made an appearance.   I was 9 years old and had not yet found the love for fly fishing that was making this a totally different experience.   The last time they had e
Post a Comment
Read more

Grass Carp on the Fly

By -
Image
Been trying to get a grass carp to take a fly all spring in the lake where I live.  I caught a couple last fall on acorn flies, but hadn't gotten any to take any bugs or creature flies.  Finally got one to take a black leech-like fly with an orange mop piece tail.  Took me about 15 minutes to land it.  Thankfully someone came walking by and retrieved my net for me, so I wouldn't have to go near the dock and risk getting tangled. Right at 30" or so. Here's the fly it took, after the catch and release.  Articulated shank in front of the hook with dumbbell eyes.  Hook is size 6 scud hook, mop tied on and black ice dub over the front.  Articulated shank is wrapped with black zonker up to the eyes, and then black ice dub to form the head.
Post a Comment
Read more

Elk Creek 5/15/17

By -
Image
Drove by my favorite local spot on the way home yesterday to check the conditions.  Finally the water level was down enough to be able to float and fish.  I tried once before this spring, but I couldn't get any fishing in with all the paddling I had to do.  The water was that perfect color where it is plenty clear for fish visibility, but no so clear they see you a mile away.  The fishing was awesome.  Missed one before I put the SUP in.  Caught one in the first hole and then another 5 or 6 in the first 50 yards.  It was non-stop action.   All fish were caught on these baitfish patterns that suspend and glide right below the surface.  Size or color didn't seem to make any difference. Here are some of the fish.  Ended up with about 15.  All smallies except for 2 rock bass.  Two 15's, a few 13's and a bunch around 11.  The smaller rock bass hit the big game changer.  The one rock bass was nearly 10 inches and FAT. This guy had some
Post a Comment
Read more

Cicadas, mops, and baitfish.

By -
Image
The three patterns I've been tying the most lately.  Here's some samples from the weekend. Two double barrel bodies with a nice coat of epoxy.  Hoping this will be small enough for carp to get ahold of well and durable enough to last. A couple weighted, articulated mop patterns I'm hoping will work for carp.  Should work for smallies if not. This guy will definitely work for smallies.  Tested it for largemouth at the lake late last evening.  No bass, but did get one small, ambitious crappie. And a bonus, one nice bass from the weekend on an articulated baitfish.
Post a Comment
Read more

Mop Fly Experiment...Success!

By -
Image
I've been seeing mop flies pop up more and more in some forums I frequent.  Stopped by the dollar store and picked up a couple car wash mitts and tied some up.  I was hoping to see a grass carp cruising to see if they might go for it, but no luck there.  However, the big bluegill loved it.  I caught several that were in the 8-9" range and fat.  One big girl stole the show though.  I've been chasing a 10" bluegill.  I didn't have my hang trough to measure, but I'm pretty sure this one eclipsed that mark.  The rod is 11 1/2" to the end of the handle for reference. Here are a couple where you can see the mop fly that did the trick for me.     Here are a couple other shots of some of the nice bluegill I was into.  Check out the girth on that last one.  Several of them like that yesterday.
Post a Comment
Read more

Walter

By -
Image
About this time last year, I lost a huge bass at my home lake.  I nicknamed him Walter (probably a her) as a joke in reference to On Golden Pond.  I spent lots of time trying to find him again or another big bass.  It's a short season for bass here.  The lake is shallow and gets hot fast so they don't come up shallow for long.  I even bought a 7 wt after losing a couple big boys on my 4 wt last year. I've been hitting it hard this spring whenever I get the chance.  Yesterday evening in the missing rain, I went out to throw some articulated streamers in the shallows after dinner.  Caught one tiny bass and had seen some grass carp cruising but not much else.  Then I saw what I thought was a small carp cruising by.  Stripped in across the fish and boom.  It first even took off like a carp, but then he came up and gave a jump and head shake, and it was clear it was a largemouth.   The adrenaline started to pump and my heart was racing.  It took out a good bit of line an
Post a Comment
Read more

Carp on the Brain

By -
Image
I've been toying with some ideas for carp flies.  The one most highly recommended by a friend of mine from various fishing sites, Jeff Creamer, is an all black articulated deer hair bug.  I am nowhere near the deer hair artist that he is, so I've been brainstorming different ideas to get a similar action in the water.  I could get the deer hair fly done, but it would take me a while and not be nearly as neat. One idea he mentioned was using foam in the tail section to make it stand up from the bottom instead of deer hair.  This got my wheels turning, because foam is a medium I can work with from tying hundreds of bluegill bugs and cicadas over the years.  So I very loosely adapted his pattern into a very different variation using a foam tail section with a buck tail red attractor tail.  For the body he also used deer hair, but I went with some dubbing and some rubber legs. I know my flies aren't up to your quality, so sorry if you don't want my fly attached in any w
Post a Comment
Read more