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!

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."

Tangles and Strangles

My mother-in-law, while on one of many bays of Leech Lake in Minnesota, said to me, "A bad day of fishin' is better than any day at work."

I thought then that such a thing didn't exist - a bad day of fishin' - but this morning came close.

Tried the deer-hair mouse with a woolly bugger dropper idea again, this time choosing black instead of olive. Within the first 15 minutes, I had wrapped my flies around my pole like one of those gladiator wrap-around-the-other-guy's-legs weapon things at least twice. Got snagged. Twice. In the same place.

Anyway, it was beautiful morning just the same!  Just a few hang-ups with those usual tangles.

I found a little cove further down the edge of the little pond I've been trying out, so I headed down that way a little later on. I switched from the dropper right to a single big foam chugger, black. Don't know what it is called. Started casting it into some brush, without a single tangle.

Had a bass smack it once. Failed hookset. First action all morning. Heart's pounding.

Redelivered my chugger to nearly the same place, and several casts later a bass hit it again.

Succeeded on the hookset this time.

Alas, no picture, because this is the part where the "Strangle" of this story's title comes in. Turns out I had set the hook slightly into the gills of the fish.

Several days previously, while running along the bank, I had dropped my pliers, so I had to use my fingers to navigate the hookset.

Turns out the bend of the hook had wrapped around one of the many rakes and slightly punctured another. I backed the hook out, angled it away from the rakes then pulled the lure free. A lot of blood loss, from what I could tell, but I didn't know how bad.

The whole process took what I thought was too long to save the fish. I lowered the fish into the water, moving it back and forth to move water over the gills. All of the blood washed away and stopped flowing, and the fish woke up, swimming off slowly. He was struggling a bit, so I helped him along.

I wished him the best, and kept moving down. Last cast of the day, got snagged, took the line down to the backing trying to find the right angle to unhook (since I can't afford to lose ANY bass chuggers), then reeled it back in.

Got the chugger back. Passed by where the bass was struggling, and he was gone. Wasn't skunked, but lots of tangles, almost one strangle.

Until next time.

Largemouth Bass on a streamer? Of course!

Today's story begins nigh on ten years ago, maybe more. It was junior high and high school time, and I was on a private swim team during the summer. To make things interesting, my then coach, Jeff Stalnaker, decided he would let me don a t-shirt and jeans for most of the daily workout.

Swimming while in clothing is like running while pulling a cart full of bricks.

Why mention this on a fishing blog, you say? Well, because trying to cast a dropper rig comprised of a deer hair mouse and a #6 Olive Woolly bugger is like running while pulling a cart full of bricks.

Went out very early this morning and started pulling in gorgeous true bluegill, or bream. Large-bodied with bright orange breasts, they are one of the prettiest species I have caught. I usually catch them pretty stunted, too, but these were great. Above is one example. Caught this on that dropper rig.

This one was caught on the dropper rig, as well. Couldn't feel the strike until I lifted the pole slightly on accident, then set the hook.

After about 30 minutes on that rig, I removed entirely and tied on a #5 streamer of some kind my bro gave me.

Remember swimming with clothes? Yeah, when I took the clothes off, I flew through the water. Same with casting. So much more pleasant under 'normal' circumstances. 

Caught a few more bream on the streamer, then this one.

I love warm-water fly fishing.

Opened a can in 2012, but not a worm in sight.

It was a misty morning and I had finished up with a team meeting around 9:30.  

"I'm goin' fishin'," I tell one of my associates. 

"You're not going to catch nothin'! It's too nasty out."

And I believed him, too. It was a rainy, nasty day. Water temperature couldn't have been above 45 or 50 degrees. I figured I was just going to go out there and open up the 2012 can - minus the worms - with some practice casts.

My brother was gracious enough to give me about 100 flies last year, one of which is a deer hair mouse. I tried a dropper technique for the heck of it: #2 Olive Woolly Bugger dropper on the mouse. The casting was funky, but thanks to the L.L. Bean Ultimate Guide to Fly Fishing, I knew to cast bigger loops.

Third cast in, I pulled the largest Green Sunfish (Lepomis cyanellus) out of the water that I have ever seen. Not saying much, but they are usually stunted little fries. This one was 6 inches long and about a quarter pound, and I didn't catch many smaller than that in the dozen or so that I landed.

Yep, I said dozen. Definitely wasn't just practicing casting.

Second to last fish of the day was my actual quarry on this dropper. She was a spawning female. I must have landed right on top of her prespawn bed, because the mouse barely touch the water before flying across the surface as she took the Olive Woolly. 

Nope, no worms here. 

Also had the wonderful opportunity of enjoying the morning of my good friend's 2 year old son's birthday by going fishing. Father and sun had a good time, and I'm glad I got to take pictures.

 

As for my baby girls and their fishing experience? I look forward to adding more and more memories. Below is Ruth holding a little bullhead in the net Meredith got me for my birthday. She wasn't sure what to think about it.