Stolen Fly Rods and Fly Reels Recovered

The detective that was handling my thief case concerning my fly fishing equipment called me Thursday morning. He wanted me to come down to the police station Friday and identify some fly fishing rods and reels he had recovered from a house in a county north of the county I live in. Naturally I was at the station at 8 AM Friday, ready to take a look at the equipment. I was thrilled and kind of disappointed at the same time because what I found was two of my Redington fly rods and two fly reels those being my Redington 2/3 wt. and one of my prized Gloomis fly reels 3/4 wt. What I was hoping I would find was my Greys Streamflex 3 wt. with the Gloomis 3/4 fly reel, but I was still happy they recovered the two I took back home with me.

There was an article in our local paper a couple of weeks ago concerning an elderly couple who lived in downtown Jasper that had their house burglarized. This happened when they were at a friend’s house one weekday morning two weeks ago. The thieves stole over 15,000.00 dollars of antique glassware. The police in Jasper working with the Winston county police department discovered that this burglary and others that were occurring in the area was a huge theft ring operating in three counties in around the walker county where we live.

There was a search warrant issued to search a house in a neighboring county, who they believed belong to one of the thieves. Upon entering the house they found most of the glassware, and numerous other items that had be stolen the past couple of months. The individual who lived in the house was not there. My fly fishing equipment was found in that house with all the other stolen items. The police are still investigating the case and hopefully some more of my equipment will be recovered soon.

The handle on my 7 ½ ft. fly rod looks like a mouse had nibbled on the cork. The fly rod was found in a closet in this run down house out in a wooded area some miles away from town.

I was especially pleased to get my 8 ½ 3 wt with my Gloomis 3/4 reel. These reels are hard to find and when one goes up for auction on Ebay it is gone in a matter of days. I am very lucky to have recovered any of my fishing equipment and I hope my Greys is the fly rod they find.

 

 

 

 

My Best Day Ever Dry Fly Fishing on the Sipsey Tailrace

When I left the house today at 12:30 I knew I was going to be nymph fishing at access five on the tailrace. I also thought I knew the generation schedule, but when I arrived at the parking lot I saw that the water was high. I don’t like to fish high water on the tailrace, but I was here so I thought I would make the best of the trip.

This area today was too deep to wade; it is usually a 10 ft. wide shallow wade through with plenty of room for backcasting. Notice the guy in the shorts, that tells you it was quite warm for March here today at 71. This guy had a buddy up the channel fishing the spin-cast. He and his buddy will play a role in today’s post as I fish through some of my favorite spots up the channel.

I was really surprised to find water I could wade at access six, and even more surprised to find a small hatch just above the water surface. If you look closer you can see some surface ripples in the deeper section of this stretch. As I waded to the huge rock boulder I kept looking to the right and left and discovered I was all by my lonesome. The surface activity causes me to change from my Prince Nymph to a 16 Adams.

My second cast at 2:30 produced this rainbow, my first trout after an hour of filtering through higher water. Notice the shoes in the picture, this is the guy at the first access point I met when I arrived. He and his buddy had followed me to this area. They both told me that they were from Birmingham and were new to the tailrace and hadn’t caught anything. They said they were trying to land enough trout for a dinner meal. 

As the hatch pick up motion the bite did too, so I tied on a smaller pattern in the form of a Renegade size 18 dry. I landed a couple more trout in this same area that missed the camera shot before this image shot. My two newfound buddies fishing above me kept watching as I landed numerous trout using the dry, and one suddenly asks if they could have some of my catch to carry with them. They still had not landed a trout so I agreed to let them have what I thought would be seven or eight trout for the afternoon. So for the next couple of hours, they would come over and remove my trout for me and put them on their stringer. It was not that these guys were not trying to catch fish on their own, using spinners, but for some reason, they couldn’t muster a bite; so I became their ticket to supper, which I didn’t mind.

I worked this trout onshore so my buddies could handle it better. I am amazed at the surface activity at this point.

Another trout made easy for the guys. I am not taking pics of all the trout I am landing as I move slowly up and down a 100 ft. stretch. The guys are now wading out to met me in their shorts to get my trout and carefully remove them from my net; with every trout given they thank me repeatedly.

Now I am seeing more of a hatch and the trout are feeding at a fast pace in the front and to both sides of me.  I can’t remember seeing this much surface activity ever on the tailrace. I know I am now well over ten because that is the number I have given my buddies who are getting ready to leave. The limit per person on the tailrace is five, so with their limit, they thank me again and left.

I have now moved closer to the dam where there is more shade, which is where I pick this guy up. I noticed that if I used a delicate surface presentation with my fly I tend to get the take much faster. At this point, I am landing trout about every three or four casts. The hatch is still going strong.

The Renegade is located in the top of part of the trout’s mouth; I notice that all the trout with the fly taken in the top part of the mouth were the ones that really exploded on the surface to take the dry.

I am now down to my last two Renegades, with this trout landed. I have lost 3 two in trees and one on a break off in water too deep to retrieve from a limb. My catch lost ratio is still on the plus side, but is fading with numbers of fish missing the fly.

The hatch at this point is winding down and this was one of my last to inhale the Renegade. I am standing near the dam at 5:30 PM and it is really overcast. With the forecast for tomorrow being 10 to 20-mile hr. winds and turning cold with temps in the 30's Wednesday night---could this be why I am having this kind of success???

This fatty was my last trout of the day. It ended with what I like to think was my most explosive take of the afternoon. At this point, the hatch was over for a lot of trout with full bellies.

The water level was getting close to normal as I made way up to the stairs. In 15 minutes the generators would be pumping full blast.

The long walk up these stairs and back to the truck was worth it for me today, because I like to think on an afternoon such as this, the fishing Gods had to be with me.

FINALLY My First Fishing Trip for 2014

I have been waiting for that so called perfect day to kick off my 2014 fishing season. Well Sunday was close to perfect on the Sipsey Tailrace. The temperature couldn’t have been better at a warm 70 degrees with a slight breeze out of the northeast. The approaching cold front on Monday was an added bonus as well. We were expecting temperatures in the mid twenties Monday night. That is usually the case for early spring in the deep south this time of the year, warm one day and frigid cold the next day.

I had plenty of company from the pump station all the way up to the dam. Nine vehicles were in the parking lot which meant I would encounter a bunch of fly fishermen when I got to the water.

High dingy water was flowing from the dam with no trout rising at all which kind of dampened my spirits. All the usual hot spots were taken, so I settled for an area I had not fished in a couple of years.

 

My first trout of the 2014 season, which took a super nymph on an extremely slow, retrieve. I encounter numbers of short takes before I finally got a solid take from this trout. I was using my new Grey’s Hardy 9 ft. 3 wt. with my Gloomis free spool reel. I have found that the best weight fly rod for this tailrace is as 3 weight, anything above that would be over kill.

The Seal Leech was the prey for this nice bow that nailed the fly less than 7 ft. from me. I had fisherman to the right and to the left of me the couple hours I fished. There was no escaping the crowd today. I was really surprised I was landing trout with the amount of fishing pressure here today.

The renegade was the only dry that produced today.  The dry action was not explosive; but hey I will take this size trout all day on the 3 weight.

I ended the trip with this colorful rainbow which went airborne a couple of times. I feel good about today’s trip because it forced me to forego some of my usual hot spots for a couple of areas I seldom fish. So I guess I could say I have discovered some new water.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Memories, Ponds and Graveyards

This past week I spent a couple of days with my brother and his wife in Mississippi. Sorry to say it was not a fishing trip. The purpose of the visit was to clean up an old Trussell cemetery that was located in the back woods of Choctaw County in the Northeastern part of the state. We spent the better part of the morning moving small trees and brush from the 15 ft. by 30 ft. area. The cemetery is actually where my Great Great Grandpa is buried with his wife, one of their sons, and three other unknown individuals. Their graves only had rock markers with no names. During that day and time, the cemetery was usually located near the home.

We used marker tape to fence off the perimeters of the area so the timber company wouldn’t destroy the place later this summer. We will go back in a few weeks to place a permanent enclosure around the area. The graves date back to the 1840s.

This is a long inscription here on my Grandpa’s grave describing what he expected in the here after.

While we were in the area we decided to ride by our old home place about 10 miles from the cemetery. The house was located on this hill. We were both raised up here as boys and had fond memories of fishing in the pond that was located down below our house.

It had been over 40 years since my brother and I had seen this pond. A lot had changed as far as the area itself, but the memories remained where we went swimming, caught some of those large bass and super size bluegills. This pond is where Dad taught my brothers and me to fish.

I can still see my Mom landing huge bluegills using green grasshoppers that my younger brother and I would catch for her to bait the hook. We would bait the hook for her and she would let us land the fish. We were no more than 5 years old. A long cane pole taught me the art of playing a fish then.

The spring that feeds cold clear water into the pond was still pumping. We drink a lot of water from this spring over the years while fishing on those hot summer days. I know one can never go back in time, but if I could this would be one place I would surely visit.

Snow, Nymphs, Reels, and Fly Rods

I don’t know about you guys but I am beyond ready to get on the water.  I can’t wait to try some of the Super Nymphs that Luke over at “The Young Man and the Stream” mailed me last week. He did an exceptional job at the bench. Thanks Luke for helping me replace the last batch of flies that was stolen from me back in December. I found out last year that this fly is not only an awesome bluegill pattern, but a killer trout fly as well.



  Luke threw in three extra flies that will be tested early this season. I am impressed with double bead eyes not only for the weight factor, but the attention these flies will get from the bass and bluegills.

My new 8 ½  3wt. Tempt Redington fly rod with the matching 2/3 Redington reel will be perfect to fight some of the trout on the tailrace in the next couple of weeks. I lost this same combo in the burglary.

We seldom get snow this far south, but this year was an unusual year for bitter cold and yes snow. Bring on Spring!!!

 

 

  

How to Use One Leader All Season

Today’s read is a follow up to my previous post concerning the leader loop. I discovered through that post that all you guys change out your leader from time to time during the year. The majority of you change your leader using the loop to loop connector method. I used the loop to loop for a short period of time last year until I discovered that it was wearing the fused loop in my fly line some, so I decided to clinch knot the leader into the loop. By doing this I eliminated the rubbing of the leader loop against the fused loop of the fly line. The constant bending of the two loops caused the wear; the clinched knot solved that problem for me. I never changed my leaders at all last season on any of my fly lines. The tippet ring eliminated changing leaders often during a fishing season.  

This handy little gem has not only solved interchanging leaders, but it has also saved me money. I can purchase 20 tippet rings 2mm for 5.00 that will last me for 5 years or more. The following paragraph will explain the one leader per fly line theory.



 

My new 9 ft. leader is used until I snip off at least 7 to 8 inches of tippet due to changing flies. Once the leader is less than 8 ½ ft. I snip 2 ft. from the leader and tie in my tippet ring to the remaining leader and connect 3 ft. of tippet to the ring. I have found that 30 yards of tippet will go a long way during a fishing season. I use this leader for the rest of the season, only changing out tippet as needed. The leader is changed if abrasive places show up in the leader, which didn’t happen this past year. I have been experimenting with these rings for a couple of years and found that the best size is the 2mm. It is ever so tiny; you will need to leave the ring on the pin until you thread the leader through the ring. Once you have the leader end through the ring remove the ring from the pin and tie the leader to the ring; then simply tie the tippet into the ring and you have your leader. The ring doesn’t affect the action of the leader or the presentation of fly. It is so tiny that it becomes fused into the two lines. Guys you might want to give this set-up a try this season it has worked well for me.
 

The Leader Loop a Handy Little Gadget

Over the years I have used various ways to connect my leader to the fly line; my first method was using a simple clinch knot to connect both lines. This was years ago when I was using a heavy 5 weight fly rod with a cumbersome South Bend automatic fly reel. One could get quite a workout when paired with this combo all day. The knot was satisfactory as long as I kept it clear of the tip guide, where it would usually hang up.

 

My next method was the fly line pin, which was a booger bear to insert into the end of the fly line. My Dad wouldn’t use anything but the pin. He liked the pin because it would run through the guides with ease; I would always get him to pin my fly line.

 

I eventually moved from the line pin to what I would call a combo connector, that Scientific Angler introduced which included the connector and the leader in one package. Scientific Angler had all the leader sizes from 7X to 3X. My only complaint was the hang up that resulted with the connector and tip guide. This leader connector combo has been discontented. I finally moved on to my next connector.

My next adventure with the connector was the loop that is manufactured by numerous companies. I have two complaints with this connector; one is the sinking of the loop after it becomes water logged. The other is the loop itself not being flexible enough to close. This connector can be very difficult to connect to your fly line. I tried this connector less than a year. The loop has a tendency to disconnect from the fly line.

My present connector is the fused leader loop into the fly line, which I consider the best I have found for me. I will never buy another fly line unless it has the loop built in the fly line. The loop is found in most fly lines priced above 40.00. Cabela has some line in the 30.00 range with the loop, if you don’t mind the bright orange color. The only color fly line I use is olive or green. What is you connector preference and why?

 

 

 



 

 

Check Out These Awesome Links Concerning Fly Fishing

As most of you know I like anything dealing with fly fishing. I recently came across the following sites that has a world of information dealing with fly fishing for trout and super size bluegill. I think you might want to bookmark some of the following sites for future use:

I was drawn to site because I was looking for some decals to place on my Pelican boat. I was surprised to find an assortment of items here dealing with fishing.

If you love bluegill fishing with the fly rod, then this is the site for you. If you want to see some super size bluegills, check this site out!!

Flyfisher is a site similar to the bluegill site but much more detail when it comes to fly fishing for trout. This place has an insane amount of information for the avid fly fisherman.

Eastern Fly Fishing is a subscription magazine published six times a year with some fantastic articles on fishing the eastern part of the United States. They are presently running a 90 day free trial.

Perfect Fly Fishing Journal is actually a free publication that I get free, even more information concerning fly fishing.

 Hope everyone finds something useful scanning through these sites that will be beneficial for you come spring.