4.27.2010

Take Your Kids Fishing...

...you won't regret it!

4.26.2010

A New Tie

Nope, not one of those fathers day gifts you never wear...a fly I have been playing with and after a minimal amount of testing has been successful so far. Some tweaks will come but for now it looks like this:
It's simple yet effective. I do think that a black bead at the head would make it a pretty good emerging caddis pupa imitation. That is the next step here but for now the recipe is here.

Hook: TMC 2457
Bead: Silver
Thread: Black 8/0
Tail: Partridge fibers
Body: Grey/Olive Turkey Biot
Thorax: Natural Possum
Wing: Partridge fibers

4.24.2010

More Bugs

Well I made it out to the river yesterday but things are still a bit out of sorts from the raised water levels. There were bugs of all sorts, Blue Wing Olives; Pale Morning Duns; and Calibaetis, floating down the river but not a single fish rising to them. Instead I got to practice my bug photography.

4.18.2010

Fishing Journal-Week 10

April 15
Fished today in the same place I came back to last week that yeilded a fish in the slow eddy. There were very few fish up this day though as the water levels have been rising for irrigation and it takes a few days for the fish to adjust. I did find a fish feeding in the same eddy though and I threw a Skwala pattern with a zebra midge dropper and he was all over the midge soon after it hit the water. Here are some pics of the day.
Photobucket
There are still a couple skwalas on the water

Showdown!


The fish was a healthy 19 incher


Until next time!

4.11.2010

Fishing Journal - Week 9

April 05

Par for the course it was another windy spring day on the river. There were sporadic rises but nothing too constant. Any bugs hatching would be immediately blown off the water. I decided to stick to an old standby rig for this time of year, a skwala adult pattern with a midge pupa dropper. The flies I filled that formula with though were a little different than I normally use. I went with a foam hopper pattern that used black foam and for my dropper used a RK Emerger rather than my standard Zebra Midge. I wanted a fly that would keep a float despite being swamped by the waves the wind was kicking up on the river so that was my reasoning for choosing the foam pattern. Another new thing I tried where some tapered leaders that I made by a method I saw a video on late last week and twisted some up over the weekend. I liked how well the leaders turned over the big foam fly even in a strong wind. I still struggled placing the fly exactly where I wanted it with the wind blowing so hard. Finally I moved downstream to a favorite big eddy where there are always plenty of feeding fish. Sure enough I found a big female willing to eat the big foam bug, and she immediately took a big run peeling some line off my reel. She turned out to be the longest fish I have caught this spring up there, a solid 22 inch fish. She put up an outstanding fight as well. Another awesome day on the water.


April 9
I fished a different area that I haven't fished yet this year but where I had a few good days last year. The water moves pretty slow here and I have found that the fishing can be great if they are visibility feeding on the surface but if they aren't showing themselves there is an awful lot of water you would have to cover. It helps to know just where the fish are instead of hoping in this vast slow run that your fly will just happen to end up in front of a fish. I stopped in just to see if any noses were up and sure enough I spotted some rises along the far side.

Now the last couple weeks I have gotten away from my favorite dry fly pattern for this river and been trying to branch out and try some new things. It turns out most of those experiments hadn't yielded much. Today I decided it was time to go back to old reliable. It is a Biot body, CDC Sparkle Dun, but I use a few strands of Brown CDC fibers for the tail shuck instead of Z-lon. Pretty basic, but when BWO's are out I have not often had this one fail me.
The hardest part of fishing these fish was anticipating which way they were moving around the pool after seeing a rise. They were cruising. I finally got my cast in front of a fish I could see moving around the run and sure enough it took the little fly, but I busted the tippet on the hook set. It's been a while since I did that. At least I knew this fly was working. I tied on a new length of tippet and a new fly and made another attempt. I focused on a fish that was cruising closer to the bank that was working the water there pretty good. Again it took a couple tries before I got the movements of the fish pegged and the fly in it's path. This time when the big nose slurped the fly it stuck and the tippet held. The fish bolted and I wondered how many feeding fish it spooked out of the hole but I wasn't too concerned. After landing this one I was heading back to the office anyway. Another nice lunch hour fish. No pics of this one though. He took the fly a little deep in his mouth and required the forceps to reach in and get the fly. I figured he had been through enough and revived and sent him on his way without subjecting him to a photo op.

4.10.2010

Fishing with the Kid!

It's about the best thing in the world as a dad to see your kids smile. And one way to make sure that happens is to take them fishing. This first picture is after about an hour of casting from a dock and catching nothing. Note the size of the smile still on his face. Proof he is a true fisherman.

Finally I figured we may as well move to a new spot since nothing was happening off the dock. On the first cast in the new spot with the 2 foot long "Cars" telescoping fishing rod the bobber starts dancing. I happened to still be holding the rod at this time as I had just cast it out there for him, so I quickly handed him the rod and he muscled this crappie in.
After that fish I pretty much handed him the rod right after I got it cast out there and he did the hooking and the catching. It was pretty much automatic after that. He had about 10 fish close enough to the bank that I counted them caught over the next 20 minutes. We both had a good old time, whooping it up with high fives, and fist bumps after every fish. These are the moments I wish I could bottle up forever. Thanks for taking me fishing son!

A cold little boy heaving up another "lunker."

4.07.2010

Sleeping in the Dirt

Check out Sleeping in the Dirt. It's a great e-zine with an emphasis on the visual. Good pics and no ads. Issue one was good and issue two is now out, and even better. Good stuff and worth taking a look, for sure.

4.05.2010

Making Twisted Leaders

This video got me going this last weekend and I made a handful of leaders using this method. Very quick and easy. Today I tested one out on the river and was very pleased with the results.

4.04.2010

Fishing Journal-Week 8

March 30

I got blown off the river today. The wind was bad. I tried several flies before settling on the fact that I just needed to stick to a Skwala pattern with a Zebra Midge dropper. I was still having no luck and working overtime trying to deal with 30 mph gusts that would blow up river for a couple minutes then switch around completely and blow down river. Finally as we were getting ready to pack it up and leave I noticed a small rise across the river in a deep slot with some foam floating. Looked like a good feeding line. I put the cast up there and sure enough, my Skwala disappeared as it entered the vicinity of the feeding fish. I set on a nice fish that took the midge. Finally. It turned out to be one of the fine cookie cutter 20 inch fish that inhabit this river.

4.02.2010

Quigley Cripples and Floating Nymphs

I did a lot of tying tonight. Made my first try at some Quigley Cripples. Some bigger aimed at the Callibaetis, and some smaller that will be used for BWO's. Also worked on a couple nymphs that will ride closer to the surface, and hopefully work as an early emerger pattern.