A Site for Grandpappy Glasses

I'm starting to understand the need for good optics. This is crazy!

It was about 6:30 when I made it out to Big Lake a couple weeks ago to look for carp. I headed for the spot by the railroad tracks pictured here. There was something wrong. The distance between the weeds and the water had gotten wide.

This was a view from about 100 yards from the road looking north on that first picture linked in the article.

This is a picture of a small area where water was seeping in from the main body of Big Lake. I'm facing East.

The level of the water was way low. This made me excited, because it bode well for visibility. (I don't have my grandpappy glasses yet.) If I can see a tail fin, I can guess on where the head is.

Saw a lot of fins, but I was mistaken on  what they were, for the most part. A couple were golden beauties, but with globs of catfish fry near shore, other fins were other fish.

Alas, the carp didn't want to play that day, but the gar sure did!

Foul-hooked in the back. Woops!

Legitimately pursued and ate the fly. Because of the construction of its jaw, they are nearly impossible to hook. It came in because it didn't want to let go.

Last and largest of the day. Also not foul-hooked.

Not much to a gar as far as fight. Big and floppy like a pike, but not near as energetic. Hooked into a monster at one point, but they just feel like wavy logs moving through the water. The smaller ones like to run for a little bit. 

I took the girls to the companion pond there in Big Lake yesterday and they both caught fish! Eva's was about 3 inches long. It got off before I could snap a picture. Here's Ruth's:

Self-casted, self-reeled and self-held. Not self-removed yet, though.

The cool thing about yesterday's trip was that Ruth, unprovoked and with confidence, said, "I want to try and hold a fish today."

Not too many days hence, and this girl will be unhooking her own fish.

This morning I went out to the really low area and looked for more carp. Water was even lower. Didn't get to cast to carp fins until it was about time to leave. Had a large gar try to grab on to a bunny leach I had as a dropper. That was kind of scary, actually. They are very shark-like and it was near my legs.

I have some gear reviews to do still, but man I wish I could do a review on those grandpappy sunglasses. I am dying to be able to see what I'm casting to! The fins I cast to at the last were in such a position that, had I been able to see below the surface, maybe I could have gauged the length of the fish better. If I build it, they will come.

It was a huge fin. What a site for grandpappy sunglasses. 

Week of 5/20 - A Good Week of First and Foremosts

The week of 5/20 was a good week of firsts and foremosts.

My favorite 'first' was taking care of getting my good friend, Josh Kennedy, rigged up with his new rod and reel set. He had mentioned several times that fly-fishing was interesting, but he actually took good steps to making it happen.

Josh and his boy Samuel last year at Big Lake

He bought a Redington 5W something-or-other (retail $180, $50 steal on Craigslist) that casts great, plus an old Marlboro Pflueger rewards reel his father had won. Just found the reel, backing and line kicking around his basement.

We hit Pony Creek down by Pacific Junction to try for some catfish on hotdogs Wednesday, and we got him on the water in the dark. Made me nervous. No fish on his line quite yet.

I was really happy for his messages the next day, however. He caught two teeny-tiny bluegill on the fly the next evening. As far as I'm concerned, they might as well have been 1 lb. blues. I was so excited for him! (He subsequently went out and bought a vest and a couple a pack of new flies.)

Another first that I enjoyed was my first lunch-break Largemouth Bass.

13 inches, nice solid fight.

I'll also call it a first on good work-break fishing. Nice chunky blues that run like the dickens! Check it out, FishNDave!

All-in-all, this was a good week, full of activity. Josh keeps fishing his head off, improving and practicing his cast. Recently caught about 6 tiny crappies. Kept them and buried them in his garden for fertilizer. The little blighters are helping his tomatoes out, plus it helps thin the population in the stunted pond he's fishing.

The foremost event of the week, though? My bro-in-law Zach asked me to be a groomsman. Of course I said yes! Happy to do so, bro. Congratulations.

Zach and Stephanie

Dave 'n' Fishn...Dave

Today's feature: FishnDave's recent post regarding the Bass Gurgler.

Three of Dave's creations, #4 on the left two, #2 on the right.

Everything and its fishy mother chases this fly. At least in warm water they do. Go to Dave's blog and read the last few posts that feature the use of this fly and you shall see things beyond awesome. 

As he states in his post, the original credit goes to a fellow poster, Jim Smith, on FAOL. Rather than hang on walls, buildings, and billboards, this poster gives out great fly recipes. (Cue the seal laugh. It was punny! *Ar Ar Ar*)

When I bought my first fly tying kit and materials, I found that I had enough to try this fly as well as the Dirty Rat, with one exception: I didn't have eyelash yarn, only chenille. But, I gave it a whirl, and man o manny wammy, Sammy, do these flies produce. Here's my third attempt at the fly, chenille body only.

 

And here is the second and third and fourth and... well, several more real-life testimonials to the effectiveness of this fly.

 

Tie it. Toss it. Love it. Thanks Dave for the great post, and thanks Jim for the great recipe.

 

My First Flies

With the new job and everything, being on the water in the early morning has been hard to get to because I would rather get every ounce of sleep that I can.

As I mentioned in my previous post, I got my first vise. Of course, I started tying some flies.

 I opened up my Ultimate Guide to Fly Fishing and followed the instructions to tying on for the first time. The bobbin is stiff and nonadjustable, but who cares? I know I didn't. I started wrapping away.

First on the list was the Dirty Rat. I followed the instructions, got down to tying the nose, then was pleasantly surprised by my wife snapping pictures. 

 

 

And....

Voila! A Dirty Rat.

It's so cute! The face ended up thin and the tail a tad short, but not bad for a first go round. Had to tie two, of course.

Dirty Rat #2. Wider face and a more prominent nose, plus a longer tail.

I set aside an hour this morning to hit the water before my wife wanted me to be home to let her go running. We both slept in instead.

Tonight, the wife - after dealing with her less than pleasant job and a boss that sent her home because of a business casual t-shirt, the reason why being beyond me - is out with her ex-roommate Lanae watching television and eating junk food, so I decided to jump on something I had gotten in my email: Dave's test of a Bass Gurgler. 

 

After following his link to FAOL, I clarified as to whether I could use chenille, pulled out my razor foam and:

Attempt #1: foam not long enough (it tore on the back) and funky maribou, but fishable.

Attempt #2: Better maribou, foam definitely long enough, deeper body.

Attempt #3: Best maribou yet, chunky little chugger!

Probably the coolest thing so far after trying just two flies is seeing how the different steps in the process come together to form something that looks segmented and alive. Such a cool feeling. Do you remember what it was like when you felt that the first time?

Store-bought plus five hand-tied

I can't wait to get these out on the water. The water I fish is primarily bream, hybrid and Green Sunfish laden, so the aquatic fare for the bass is pretty limited. I'm pretty sure we're looking at noisemakers or frog wannabe. We'll see how they do. Hopefully I can have a day like Dave's!

(By the way, Dave, I think your coloration on that chugger contributed to your awesome day fishing because the breast on those greenies gets pretty yellow, and their fin gets extremely dark during the spawn. Maybe the flash of yellow against the black was just too much for them.)

I graduated with a bass thumb!

That's right folks. Chew marks.

Bass thumb!

Got up early this morning as promised and hit the pond with my brother. I threw a deer hair mouse and hooked into the first bass of the morning with a quick release right at shore. My brother kept having green sunfish smack onto his.

Little chubby. The fish, not the fisherman.

We moved down the shore, fishing weed lines on the way. I dropped the mouse about 6 inches outside the surface weeds. Had a bass explode on it. (No picture, but wow, what a feeling!) 

Good landscape, and Mike landed another bunch of green sunfish. I hooked into two more largemouth at the favorite spot before we went home. No pictures. I was more focused on my bro, and getting the fly on the water.

Can't see it... nice greeny, though.

The pond.

Then it was time to eat, shower, and graduate from college. My family was very supportive and it was a whole lot of fun. Here is my lovely wife who carried me all through college. She graduated too, just as much as I did.

She's also really buff.

Love you, honey.

Just so everyone knows, the Cabela's deer hair poppers are a new fave of mine. Also, caught a bass on a pencil popper for the first time. Good fun and good memories.

 

Dead week ends with a little warmup.

My family is in town for my graduation. My dad, his wife, Diane, and my brother, Michael, all drove in from near Provo, UT to spend the weekend.

My bro and I have already planned some time on my favorite pond.

Turns out we had a chance to hit the water a little early. We took my daughters up to scout the fishing.

There was a big Asian family harvesting massive amounts of Green Sunfish. One other mother and son shared in the awesomeness of this pond, and we mutually swore secrecy against telling anyone about it.

My bro introduced me to the Muddler Minnow and a couple new little bass and bluegill bugs, which we promptly lost. We didn't manage the hook-sets and the fights right, since he had his trout leader on. Got some pictures of the fun ones, though!

Mike hooked into some big green sunfish first. I had to explain the difference between those and the common bream, or bluegill. 

Then, my 4 year old explained that she needed to go potty. I held her just right off in some privacy, only to feel my right leg getting warm. No sweat, though! I'll take one, as a Dad.

After that, we got down into my favorite bass waters. (Yes, pee on pants and all.)

They are definitely much more active as the water hits just the right temperature and the fare explodes for them.  Mike and I traded off on the pole after I hit the first one. Dropping those chuggers in the water amongst some weeds and watching the bass smash them made that adrenaline kick in for the both of us. It was wonderful to share that with him again.

We had a blast! That's my 1.5 year old on my back.

Last bass of the day took the last bright green foam chugger of the day. Darn that blasted trout leader.

On the way back up to the car, we walked past a gentleman with a tripod headed to take pictures. He is from Colorado, and we chatted for a little bit about hitting 6 lb. rainbows at midnight in some of those lakes out there.

All in all, a great time, and we're just warming up.

White River Fly Shop® Hobbs Creek® Fly Line

About a year ago, a fly-fishing enthusiast passed me in the hall at church. 

Having noticed my  Facebook posts about recent investment into the hobby of fly fishing, he stopped, smiled and commented on my recent purchases. I had bought 10 lb. monofilament, some flies, and a nail knot tool.

We chatted, but I was dying to find out his preferences on something specific. Fly line, of course!

So, I asked him:

"Hey, what kind of fly line do you buy?"

"Oh," he said, "I throw the cheap, $20 stuff. I figure if I can cast with that, I can cast awesome with the good stuff."

Amen, brutha. Amen.

White River Fly Shop® Hobbs Creek® Fly Line 

 

I LOVE THIS LINE. 

It's yellow, it's cheap, and it has more memory than your iPad. It stretches, it catches, and, with love, it shoots like an arrow.

Pros: 

1. Cost: 
• It's only twenty dollars.
2. Castability: 
• See my friend's comment above. It is smooth!
3.  Durability: 
• Given the cost, I bought it two years ago, and it's still going great! Great return on not a lot of investment.

Cons:

1. Opportunity cost:
• I don't have any idea what I'm missing in a more expensive fly line.
2. Memory:
• No, seriously. More than your iPad.
3. Memory: 
• Can't stress it enough. A massive coil at your feet is hard to deal with, and I have it every time during my 40 ft. casts.

Anyone else have similar experiences with it?

Let me conclude by saying, again, I LOVE THIS FLY LINE. I really do. As a beginner doing my best to get by on a limited budget, I could not have wished for a better line.


*NOTE: I am blogging about this because of how I really feel about it. However, if you do decide to try this line out, try ordering using the link attached to the above picture. I admit without any shame that doing so would contribute to my love of the sport monetarily, as I am an Amazon affiliate for this stuff.

By the way, when I say the line needs a good stretch, I mean go catch a ton of fish on it.

Cheers.

Job change and dead week.

Goodbye, US Cellular.

4 years of experience in retail wireless. Just finished my last day about two hours ago.

On to Business Account Management at Terminix!

This week, as mentioned in my previous post, I am graduating from College. I like to call this dead week. The best thing I can do for our home and family right now is help my wife juggle all things that must be accomplished before family comes into town, and that means no fishing.

Be expecting some product reviews. I've got a Panther Vision cap I got from my sister that I want to review, plus I might do one on the fly line I use.

In the meantime, check out River Hunter Flies new creation, the "Gut Buster"! Read his post about it.

Looks great for warm water! Shoot, I'd eat it. If I did that sort of thing.

The Redington Blackfoot River Fly Fishing Vest

Christmas has always been a big gift-giving/gift-receiving time for our family. My wife and children and I received many and gave many last Christmas, but none of mine was so anxiously kept safe for three months than this, bestowed by my mother and sister:


  Redington Blackfoot River Fly Fishing Vest  
When I opened it, I felt giddy. I felt excited. I wore it around my sister's house. I considered wearing it during the hour-long car ride home.

With my fly fishing adventure beginning to unfold in force after two seasons of carrying around a box,  I marveled at the technology that was the fly vest. A tackle box you can wear. How exciting!

So far, I am very passionate about the utility of this Redington vest. I have taken a swim in it before - not that I wanted to - and it dried very quickly.

There are plenty of pockets for all of the different tools and gear that I currently carry, with more for when I have everything else that I might need in the future for fly fishing.

I love it, and I recommend it to anyone looking for an inexpensive starter or one that will last you a long time.

Please take a minute to comment on some questions:

• Do you use any Redington gear? If so, what do you think?
• Are all vests created equal? Why or why not?
• Was I a weirdo to get so excited about it that I wore it around the house during Christmas?

Discuss.

Early morning fog, and a putz (Updated)

I rolled into my favorite fishing hole bright and early, about 5:30. Leader was too short, so had to tie a double surgeon's and add a couple feet. It was about 39 or 40 degrees out, but the water was warmer from the day before.

Heavy, amazing looking fog. I have to admit, I felt a little freaked out as I crested a bluff and only saw about a hundred yards.

Dropped my black topwater by some familiar structure just at the beginning of the pond, had a bass pop it on the second cast. Too dark for a picture. A nice porker, about 13 inches. They obviously have been feeding very heavily, because I have been catching them with fat bellies.

Fog cleared up down the bank, so I pocketed my fears of mist-born killer pumas and walked to my cove down the shoreline. Started dropping my popper around structure, had some big green sunfish hit it. Nothing else.

Second bass was caught at the end of the morning off of a point. Dropped the popper six feet from shore, and wham!

 

About 13 more inches. Once again, very chunky. I suppose they could be females about ready to spawn.

Headed back to my car to end my day, and caught site of some amazing wildlife:

the elusive putz,  Muchus idiottus. 

It was male, and it locked it's keys in the car. 

Again. 

For the second time in a week. 

I was able to grab a picture before he broke down into tears.

 

Wife came to the rescue, and I learned how to break into my own car using a shim and a coat hanger. What a day!

Product Review: "The L.L. Bean Ultimate Book of Fly Fishing"

Macauley Lord, Dick Talleur and Dave Whitlock joined forces several years ago to create the L.L. Bean Ultimate Book of Fly Fishing. Fly fishing for beginners can be difficult, but this book offers wonderful insight. And its entertaining!

There I was, July 2, 2011. My birthday. My sister and her daughters had come down from the Loess Hills of Iowa. My mother gave me a gift card to Bass Pro, my sister had given me a hat with a LED headlamp built in, and my beautiful wife gave me this book. I was thrilled. My fly-fishing experiences were just beginning, and I was hungry to learn more.

My wife researched heavily before buying this book and found it to be the best rated for beginning and intermediate fly-fisher people. There are great things in it, however, that I'm sure even experts can benefit by reviewing.

This book contains:

• A very high quality introduction to fly fishing as a sport
• Hand-illustrated diagrams that show:
• Casting basics
• Fly knots
• Fish species
• On a special note, I especially love this part as a father, because I have sat down with my 4 year old and 1 1/2 year old on several occasions to look at the pictures. They love it!
• Beautiful photographs of landscape, habitat and the authors with their catches
• Detailed instructions for several types of warm, cool and cold-water fly patterns

I highly recommend it for anyone that is beginning a fly-fishing journey or that just wants to expand their library with something they can improve from, as well as something they can introduce to younger generations and children.

If you didn't catch the link on the picture, here's one directly to the Amazon listing.

Happy fishing!

Remember Water Boy with Adam Sandler? And, a knife fight with a deer? WTFrench?

Ok, so do you remember in Water Boy when Adam Sandler's character starts getting really mad at the quarterbacks as if they were talkin' bad about his momma?

This week featured a rare double-header. (I don't count Monday's attempt at fishing because the weather was so bad. It was great to hang out with John for a bit, though.) By double-header, I mean I went fishing two mornings in a row.

This morning I was on a mission for topwater bass again. I was throwing the same black chugger that I did yesterday.

Turns out I can't find my deer-hair mouse. Sad.

Anyway, success with the Double Haul casting continued today. It makes life a lot easier. I was casting to the fringe of some underwater weeds looking for the ambush when I noticed to my left out on the water a large log. I assumed it was fairly shallow, but it could be several feet. 

As I was chuggin' along the shore to my right, I heard movement in the water by the log out to my left and saw a big furl tear off towards the middle of the lake. 

My eyesight was clouded by the imaginings of enormous bass. Of course, I double hauled my butt out to that part of the pond. 

Back to Water Boy. The log is the backfield. A small spot of moss floating three feet to the right of the log is the line of scrimmage. My chugger is the quarterback, and he just dissed on that fish's momma like you wouldn't believe.

I know I couldn't believe what I saw. Three chugs through the water, and the bass actually cleared the water up to its lateral line to cross the moss and land its fat mouth on my chugger. It was the most amazing take I have ever seen.

And the crowd goes wild.

I hooked into some more big green sunfish this morning.

Also, before I caught this bass, I heard something behind me that sounded like a bull snorting. I snapped my head around, thinking, "Oh no, I'm going to be eaten by a mountain lion," but didn't see anything right away. Sure enough, though, I heard it again, and about 40 yards away, a whitetail deer popped its head out, stared right at me and snorted again. I checked for antlers to make sure I wasn't going to have to get in a knife fight if it tried to charge me. No antlers, but the creature started hopping around and acting all funny. I didn't know what to think.

No more fishing this week for me. Man, what a fun sight that was.

Early Morning Fly Fishing Report 4/18

Light rain and scattered thunderstorms were in the forecast when I looked at it last night. I woke up at about 10 minutes to 5, listening to a steady spattering on the roof. I saw one or two lightning flashes while in bed, but no thunder.

Perfect for an outing, in my opinion.

I got up quietly - if you want to call the horrible, horrible creaking of my floated, 50 year old wood floor quiet - and hurried downstairs. I grabbed a poncho out of the basement, threw my smartphone in a plastic baggy and left.

Without my LED light, I made sure to tie this morning's fly on while at the car. Shown below. I call it my "black foam chugger." My brother gave it to me.

 

Almost immediately, my practice and visualization with the Double Haul paid off, because it finally clicked! I found myself feeling the load of the pole and being able to shoot line effectively this morning. I dropped the chugger over a few well-known parts of the pond without results, before heading to my favorite cove. 

 There, I began depositing it on the backside of some lightly submerged cover. I waited with held breath, listening for the gurgle that meant a fish had taken it. It surprised me when it happened!

The fist got caught in the branches of the cover, so I had to take a bit of a swim, but I got it out. Probably about a foot long. About 2 lbs. or so.

 

After my swim, I tossed further into the cove, and hit some big green sunfish that took the chugger off of the top.

 

Finally, as I told one of the other bloggers I met on Fly Anglers Online, his blog found here, I tied on a Royal Coachman and tried for more sunfish. I landed one more green sunfish, shown below, and two bluegill a little further up the shore. They are definitely starting to spawn.

 

Can't wait to continue my adventure on that pond. I just need to get my wife out to walk with me!