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.

 

Project Healing Waters second annual 2 fly tournament

 

Dispatches from the Potomac covered the sixth annual two fly tournament for Project Healing Waters. This is such a phenomenal group, and I hope my local chapter calls me or emails me back. Soon.

The author, Ed, did a I fantastic job describing the touching wins that happened all day long. His pictures tell a better story still.

Read the post here.

Project Healing Waters Fly Fishing

Thanks to my new Outdoor Blogger Network friend, Mel, for posting about this organization.

As an appreciative United States citizen, my hat goes off to every man and woman who fights for their country, and especially those that sacrifice their lives or limbs in the line of duty.

To quote the introduction on their website:

"Project Healing Waters Fly Fishing, Inc. is dedicated to the physical and emotional rehabilitation of disabled active military service personnel and veterans through fly fishing and fly tying education and outings."

Website: Project Healing Waters

Like them on Facebook to support.

Once again, thank you to all servicemen and women, from the bottom of my heart, and may fly fishing help you through whatever pain you face.

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!

A short visit and a short fuse.

This past Saturday, I had the opportunity to lose my temper. It is with great shame that I admit that I took it.

My twelve and 8 year old nieces (twin 8 year-olds) came to visit from Friday to Saturday. They stayed the night, and we all hung out at our house. It was great fun, and we had a good time playing instruments and chatting.

Saturday morning saw the opportunity to go fishing. My nieces talked about it a lot during their stay. They were very avid about getting out on the water. I was really excited to show them a fun time fishing as well, thinking that it would be as simple as getting a hook on their pole, showing them where to cast, then letting them go. You know, self-sufficient. Independent. Powerful.

Then the tangles happened. And the stuck reels. And the lures wrapped around poles because of failed casts, and the inexperienced logic of, "Well, maybe if I keep flailing it frantically, the lure will magically fly away from me and light upon the water."

I remember those days as a kid, but I seemed to have forgotten them as an adult.

My wonderful 12 year-old niece loves to fly fish. Who could have asked for a more wonderful opportunity? All personal temper tantrums associated with that particular day aside, I am amazingly blessed to be part of a family of people that dig it. We practiced on our front lawn for a little while.

 She flexed her skills on the water and landed the first green sunfish of the day.

The other two started kicking butt after a couple mishaps with reels and lures. 

Below is a chunky green sunfish.

A beautiful purple bream.

An even bigger, beautiful purple bream.

All three girls caught more fish than these pictures depict. I caught a fingerling large-mouth on a red-head Black Ghost.

It was a great day on the lake. The only whitecaps were the ones on my infantile patience. But, they were forgiving. I'll do better next time. The most wonderful nugget of the day, though?

My wife standing near me and saying, "Oh, this makes me want to go fishing so bad."