Lunchtime Report for... yesterday.

Ok, a day late. Sorry!

Went to the SW corner of Cunningham by the dam. There is a drain station there loaded with flotsam. It is a DREAMY carp flat with dolphins flopping everywhere 30-40 ft away from shore. West side of drain station is a cove, max depth of about 18-24". Perfect for bluegill, and they are big this year. I think I'm actually pretty grateful for bucket brigades on this water.

Started throwing a white Walmart popper by itself. It was about 15 mph headwind, so I would imagine the fish weren't paying attention to the surface.

Tied on a bead-head soft-hackle and BAM.

Little green sunfish. Bad picture. 5 inches long, maybe.

I kept getting strikes. The bead would pull the walmart popper down, so it was a slow steady descent. I put it in deeper water and would let it sink before "popping" it under water.

I knew there was action to be had right by the outflow of the drain station, so I dropped it right in front.

These were little flies, people! This was the first bass to hit. It was a thrill to see it fight on such a small fly. 

I cast around for a while more. Didn't want to try to cove because I was working and afraid of ticks. No luck. 

Put the fly right by the front of the drain again.

All in all, a great lunch break... now WHERE are those hungry carp?!

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.

 

Justin, my new vise, and the experience at Bass Pro

Ok, so I'm super stoked.

Yesterday after work, I went and picked up the munchkins and went to Bass Pro. My sister gave me a $50 gift card for my graduation and said to buy something "big, that you normally wouldn't be able to buy."

I went straight to the fly fishing section, with visions of poppers, rattle frogs, nippers and a whole lot of little stuff I otherwise wouldn't be able to buy dancing through my mind.

Then I stopped.

In the display case was a bunch of fly tying vises. Had my eyes deceived me? $14.97 for a vise? No way!

A little ways up and to the right from that vise was the same vise, but sitting in a box with a bunch of tools I recognized. Ok, seriously, $19.97.

I quickly switched gears and went around the corner, baby on my back and 4 yr. old in tow. I needed help finding materials, and an opinion on the $20 kit.

I found Justin:

Justin with Bass Pro Shops, Fly Fishing Department, Council Bluffs

More on Justin later. What I found, though, was that he looked very familiar.

He began to explain his experience with the kit, which he owns and uses as a travel kit. I must have started foaming at the mouth or something. Not that he said anything, I just... felt like doing so.

I whipped out my smartphone and showed him the pattern for the Dirty Rat . We both kind of mumbled about how we didn't know what 'chickabou' was before deciding to go with good old maribou. He helped me compile the ingredients, with pointers about different adhesive and eyes.




The goods.

As we were discussing thread or something, I realized where I recognized Justin from.

"Did you teach the fly casting classes at some point?"

"Yes I did."

Turns out, Justin was our instructor when my wife and I first took casting lessons about 18 months ago! She was pregnant with our youngest at the time, and needless to say I was impressed then with his helpfulness and courtesy then. He hit another home run last night.

I will be forwarding a link to this post to his manager with top marks for his helpfulness. If anyone needs help in the Omaha/CB area, head to Bass Pro on Tuesdays and ask for Justin. (He mentioned that he ties a LOT of flies, and was using them in Colorado just last week.)

After awkwardly informing him that I had a blog, and asking to snap the above picture to give him credit, I took the babies to see the fish tanks.


Ruth diggin' the fish tank.

 Ruth (eldest) was such a good girl. She listened very well and held my hand and/or stayed close the entire time.

And, ladies and gentlemen, I now own a vise and all ingredients and tools I need to tie the Dirty Rat. Expect fly reviews, pictures and product reviews on the kit in the future.

Hopefully, I can get a picture of my flies in the mouth of something this size.

In Weight Watchers, they would call this the "before" picture.

On my "must tie" list: The Dirty Rat

Poor, recently-graduated-from-college, enthusiastic fly fishermen dream of the day when they can begin to tie their own flies.

I am no exception.

So, I have herein decided to begin a "must tie" list, which I will refer to personally when I forget all about the amazing patterns I see online. I figure it may also be useful to those of you who read this.

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you:

The Dirty Rat

 

Many thanks to Jackie Treehorn of Hatches magazine for turning the morbid observation of rodent immersion into an amazing looking pattern.   

Fly fishing for bass with a mouse pattern is definitely a lot of fun! I plan on trying it with Northerns this year sometime, too.

Tie away, my good friends. Tight lines!

P.S. The only other fly I've seen fish take as or more aggressively on top of the water is the Chugger. Check that one out while you're here!

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.

Graduate? Don't mind if I do. Or am.

What a crazy month! As I organize the mass of experiences I have gone through or will be going through in the near future, 'graduate' is the perfect word. It applies right now in four different ways. Fly fishing is mentioned in two out of the four, although flies have something directly to do with 3 out of the 4.

1. College

First, college.

Yes, ostrich, grammar does matter. A big thanks to Jenna Johnson for sharing this really funny tumblr feed. Just click the ostrich to see them all!

I will become a graduate next Saturday. From college. That's right, folks... it's been 9 years.  B.A. in Foreign Language - Spanish Emphasis from UNO, next Saturday. Woohoo! 

2. Fish species caught on a fly

 I went out with a good friend this morning, Brett Carruthers (featured below), who introduced me to Bennington Lake here in Omaha. He introduced me to the pond on the West side of 180th on that map.

His weapon was a spinning rig alternating between a jig and a large spinner. Hooked into a big one right at the beginning: I'm a witness! It got off like 6 feet from him, so we'll call it a quick release.

How did I graduate in species? Well, I landed a nice, chunky little largemouth first thing on an olive weighted Woolly, switched to a white Wal-Mart popper and caught something new.

Chalk the Black Crappie up on the list of fish caught on a fly.

Then I caught this beautiful little guy. Caught a few of them, actually, but this was the biggest. The beautiful purple coloration is really starting to pop in these guys.

I was very grateful for the action this morning, and to enjoy it alongside a good buddy.

  

3. Awareness of how fishing can help those who hurt 

I absolutely have to give a quick bump to my post about Project Healing Waters, as well as include more organizations that help those who hurt through fly fishing.

Project Healing Waters

(Also, Wounded Warrior Project, a site unrelated to fishing that allows you to contribute to the care and recovery of wounded soldiers in general.)

Casting for Recovery

4. Employment

On Monday, April 30th, I begin new employment as a Business Account Manager for Terminix.

Terminix. Flies. Get it? Okay, maybe it was a long shot, but hey.

Gotta love graduation.



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!