A couple new ones...

Hey there, folks.

'Chuck S.' linked to a mighty fine looking little devil called the Infamous Pink Worm (with instructions).

This is a beautiful looking imitation, so I couldn't help myself. I tried two. 

Brown chenille with similar colored mohair sac.

Black woolly bugger chenille with red yarn sac.

Can't wait to try these out. 

But wait, there's more! The Orvis Book of Fly Tying (Rosenbauer)  has soft hackles mostly in hair's ear, so I tried a little bit of fox for a tail. Hackles were a little too short, though.

Got some serious chase from some green sunfish on this one today.

And guess what I found in my wife's sewing bag? Yep. Pom poms. You know what that means!

Egg sucking leech! Woohoo!

Then, I just had to tie another bomber, this one with a lighter helping of foam, a taller hump and a badger wing on it. I dubbed with red yarn. I call it the Winged Widow Bomber.

I will let y'all know how these do! Any pointers, let me know.

How-To: The Stealth Bomber

So, I got another gift card to Bass Pro. I used it to pick up some more supplies. I grabbed some materials for the Stealth Bomber, and using instructions from the internet, got to tying.

Ready your hook. I used a Gammy B10S #2 here.  A little too small on the foam for the size.

Tie in your tail material. Original calls for bucktail and flashabou or krystal flash. I used maribou and fox.

Using a template found online (FlyFishGA.com and look under tying), cut out your foam. Then, after making sure the part where the foam starts to spread is just behind the eye of the hook, tie the foam down at the rear of the shank.

Tie in dubbing and dub 60%. 

Tie down foam, and dub up to behind eye. I used black woolly bugger chenille. Tie down the foam again.

Dub the rest of the way, then tie down again.

Backwards wrap to get to the middle tie-down of the three, then fold the "tail" of the foam over and tie down. Remember, the higher the loop, the more bubbles created in the jerk.

Tie on an underwing of the material of your choice, then fold the flanged back and tie down. Tie in two legs on each side for a total of 8, and you're done after the finish of your choice.

I tied another one on the much smaller hook Jim gifted me. Lost one last night going after bluegill, so the smaller one is a good size for big panfish. 

Not that I lost it last night to a fish. I didn't. I lost it to a stump in the lake.

Went out to Cunningham two days ago and tried the Stealth Bomber with a Leech Bunny dropper. Hooked into a nice 13" bass with a decent tug. Blood on the tail fin. Looked like he'd been in a fight. 

Can't wait to try the darker color. I still can't seem to entice the cats!

 

 

How-to: Bead-head Woolly Bugger

14 seconds of me tying a Woolly Bugger

Watch that baby fly!

A great birthday.

So, today is my birthday.

I'm 9 years old inside. I really love my birthdays. I got lots of cool things, of course, and got to spend some time with my family after work. Here's the breakdown:

 

DisneyNature Oceans was my daughter Ruth's gift choice, which we watched before I went to BPS with my gift card (thanks Jenny.) That was fantastic. I highly recommend this when you have a young child fascinated by the natural world.

One sad part, the baby turtles hatched out of the sand and everyone was happy... then the birds started swooping in for a snack. My daughter, breaking into tears, urged that, "They have shells to protect them!"

Broke my heart having to talk about how Heavenly Father gave them shells to protect them, and also has to feed those birds. Sad that it has to be that way to a 4 year old.

 

Oh yeah, buddy. I wanted to go to BPS as soon as I got my card, but my wife told me to wait. And this is why: the plethora of patterns Tom Rosenbauer presents herein. 

Then I went to BPS. It was hard to choose what $25 should go towards. Here's what I bought:

 

For Bunny Leeches.

 

For Bead-head Buggers and soft hackles.

 

White buggers with olive hackle.

 

For buggers and bunny leeches.

 

... yeah, buggers.

 

The hackle. 

Word up. Tight lines, everyone!

Carp on the fly: live or die?

Dynamite on a fly rod, distributed in 48 states, and amazingly tough, Cyprinus carpio, the common carp, has such a bad reputation as a trash fish. They trash the sediment of lakes, uproot valuable vegetation, increase algal blooms with their phosphorous secretion and feed on gamefish roe.

Minnesota classifies Cyprinus as a regulated invasive species, meaning "introduction into the wild is prohibited. Fish caught while angling may be returned to the same water body."

But should we return it to the water? That was my burning question as I reached out to the Invasive Species extension of the University of Nebraska - Lincoln:

"If I angle for common carp, should I immediately kill them as an invasive species and leave them out of the water? Thanks."

 Cue the Jeopardy music.

Then, awesomeness from Karie Decker at said extension.

"Hi-

Sorry about the delayed response- I just got back to the office.

Common carp cards are a tricky species- lots of folks like to fish for them, but in some reservoirs, they can become invasive. Our main goal w/ common carp is to prevent them from spreading to other waters. And actually, I would even recommend learning how to fillet them for eating...they can be quite good. There is plenty of info online with directions.

Thanks for your interest in invasive species, I hope this has been helpful!"

I asked her if I could quote her on my blog, because I thought it was great to get some authority behind the question. She responded:

"Sure, I'd be fine with that...

And she continued:

"According to the 2011-2012 regs,

"It is unlawful to sell, transport or offer for sale as bait, any live carp, carpsucker, bullhead, buffalo, gar, quillback, gizzard shad, alewife, or bowfin. Live fish of those species may be used for bait only in the same waters from which they are legally taken."

While common carp are not-native, they are different than the Asian carp species generally referred to in the media. The 'group' of Asian carp generally refers to silver carp, bighead carp, grass carp, and black carp. These are listed in many states as aquatic invasive species, including Nebraska, and several states have laws against the possession/transport of live fish in this group. Nebraska just passed this law in April - prohibiting the possession/transport of aquatic invasive species."

 A big shout out to Karie from the UNL Invasive Species extension. 

Now, back to the original question, should carp be killed when caught?

(The following is my opinion and, although now influenced by Karie's comments, they do not reflect her professional opinion in any way.)

If its silver carp, destroy it, and here's why:

If it's not a silver carp, well... after watching this next video, I wonder if it wouldn't be better to throw on some classical, pull on some mesh and hack-and-slash. Or maybe, get out a hand grinder? No, kitchen shears should be sufficient.

Can't wait to catch one this year! I keep throwing out a double fly, one weighted soft hackle and one not. Haven't landed anything yet.

By the way, the Hairy Badger. Not a carp fly, but Bill asked for pictures:

Badger tail with eyelash yarn body. Actually dubbed black mohair under the yarn. Clipped a slot for the eye in the lower lip. Imagine this on a small Mustad, and you've got a killer bream fly. That was my first creation, and it really is killer on bream.

More to come!

Catch and Release: the Myth

To quote Kirk Deeter in his recent F&S article:

"How many fish are suffocated for photographs, put back in the water, only to die downstream?"

With so much information floating around out there about proper catch and release techniques, I wanted to echo some of the great information that I have found so educational and debunk the #1 myth about Catch and Release.

The three sources used in this post are Casselman (old and in-depth), Field and Stream  (the inspiration) and Michigan DNR (new and confirms technique).

This information answers many questions as to "why" catch and release fishing is still lethal to a percentage of fish, and what to do to limit fish fatalities if this is the method of fishing you prefer.

What? Limit fish fatalities with catch and release? That's right.

Myth: All fish "live to fight another day" when released.

That's right. A certain percentage of all fish released back into the wild die anyway due to causes directly related to your 45+ seconds of pleasure catching and handling them. Some studies suggest it is as much as 10%.

Here are some things to remember so that you can keep that percentage as absolutely close to 0% as you can, and become a more responsible catch-and-release fisherman or -woman.

1. Manage your "air-time"

One day, back when I flip and pitched more plastics than anything, I wanted to know how long I could hold a bass out of the water without "hurting it". I watched this video. (For your sake, start at 1:04)







Count the seconds he has it out of the water.

No, wait, I did for you. From beach to release, he held it for two minutes, forty seconds. That's 160 seconds.

According to Casselman, the amount of "air time" a fish receives adversely affects the internal organism of the fish, with the adverse affect compounding the longer it is held out of water. The periods of time in certain species that he cites tops out at about 90 seconds.

This guy held that bass out of the water for 160 seconds. Don't be that guy.

2. Reduce hook trauma

Hooks cause trauma. They break blood vessels, damage bone, reduce mucous covering, increase infections, reduce growth and otherwise hurt fish. They do this every time, to one extent or another.

This damage can be very drastically mitigated every time by simply mashing the barb of the hook down. 

Also, if you want to release what you catch, don't use live bait. Whether you do or not, a barbless hook is much less likely to cause long-term damage to the fish. 

Also, if you have a deeply hooked fish that you wish to release, cut the line. Survival percentages increase by doing so. Most fish shed a deep hook eventually, and they survive more often than forcing the hook out. I'm not making this stuff up. They test it in laboratories. (See Casselman.)

3. Use your hands, *not a net.

*If possible. A muskie or big pike will remove fingers if you don't use a net, unless you have one of these. If at all possible, use wet hands or moist cloth to handle a fish. They are coated in mucous that protects them from aquatic bacteria and infection. It's that stuff that makes your hands smell like fish.

Using dry hands or dry cloth will remove the coating and increase the fish's likelihood of premature bucket-kicking.

If you use a net, use only knotless or rubber coated nets, and never for a fish too big for the net. You will break fins.
 

4. If you fish deep... stop it. Unless you want to fish slow, or kill the fish.

Ever come up from 20ft down too quickly after normalizing pressure? Yeah, it hurts. It hurts fish, too. Actually, it kills them. Bring a fish up from 30 ft. down in too big of a hurry, and you will "pop" its buoyancy bladder and it will die eventually. Slow down, if you absolutely must fish deep, and plan on keeping it anyway.

This brings up another point. "Fizzing" deep caught fish kills them. Don't do it, unless you are keeping it.

5. Don't "throw fish back" or drop them.

Sure, they're still flopping around after hitting the ground, but what you can't see is the contusion on its brain or the fact that it can't see anymore out of the eye on the side it landed on. If you drop them, you decrease their survival rate.

If you throw them - literally, throw them - you are increasing "air time" as well as stressing the fish's muscles and physiology even more. I cringe about this, because I spent last night tossing bass fry back in the water at a local fishery. It will be that much less of a bass lake now that I irresponsibly handled those fish.

Closing thoughts

Read over those articles, and Google more. There are other great, useful, important tips to remember.

Now, all of the information brings up a great set of questions.

Is it right to fish at all if you're bound to kill at least some? 

Is it ethical to sell or promote fishing to others, especially children, knowing that they are damaging and ending life even while they enjoy themselves?

Yep, deep questions. Hope I didn't ruin the sport for you. The truth is, though, that you can properly and humanely reduce fish fatalities to 1% or less through education. 

That 1% will be the ones you keep and eat.

The occupy movement might like this post, although I think I'm talking about the survival of a different 99% than what they had it mind. They can keep their pickets, though. Give me my favorite fishing buddy and my 5w.