Top 10 Reasons Why my Favorite Fishing Hole is Special

Well, Dave has his top ten lists, so it’s time for Bill’s top ten reasons why my favorite fishing hole is special.

1.  The scenery is out of this world, something changes to enhance the beauty every time you are there.

2.  It always brings back some fabulous memories of fishing buddies and  nice fish landed

3. The weather seems to always be perfect when I am there and on the water

4. The water is always clean, clear, and fertile.

5.  I always catch fish there even on the worst days.

6.  My confidence level seems to hit a high when I am in this place

7.  If no lure or pattern is working I can always count on my old stand by lure to produce

8.  An abundance of wildlife is always a bonus

9.  Not a lot of fishing pressure

10. This place simply has that “it factor”

So there you have it. When you are out there on the water this winter, spring summer, and fall; you might think of a few more reasons why you lose sleep over that special place you can’t wait to get to at dawn.

Buying American Made Products--Are You In???

My last post dealt with purchasing some bargain fishing equipment. What I neglected to tell you guys that I was actually looking for Made in America fishing products. I knew I was going to follow up with this post. I did find some catfish bait made in the United States, but the other items were made you guessed it in China. One item was made in Japan. That post got me to thinking about the newscast the ABC Nightly News has been broadcasting for the past couple of months. They have been doing news segments on how one can help create jobs in this country by simply buying American Made Goods. An example of one of their segments recently was to spend 64.00 of your Christmas dollars on American Made products. That 64.00 would produce as many as 200,000 jobs in this country: just think about that. If the general population in this county would spend that amount for Christmas what an impact it could have for the unemployed. After watching the segments I find myself now being more conscious of things my wife and I buy. I am now actually checking to see where the items are made. Of course, a large majority is still made aboard, which in reality is just one of the problems that have caused the deficient problem we are facing now. ---not to mention the gridlock in congress---I checked my fishing tackle recently and found that I have only one fishing rod made in the US which was a crappie pole made in West Point Mississippi. All the rest was made in China. ABC News has been asking the question to the viewing audience are they in when it comes to buying American Made Products; well I am in. My question to all my fishing buddies out there is are you in?  I hope you guys will buy an American made product next time you are at your local outlet store. Who knows some of you might even do a post concerning the product you purchase. BUY AMERICA MADE PRODUCTS!!! 

Making the Case for the Okuma Fly Rod

Every once in while I like to a make an unexpected road trip. My wife was at our daughters today in Tennessee, so I decided I would make a trip to some of the sporting good outlets in Birmingham. My first stop was a place I seldom go which I like to call the overpriced club, Mark’s Outdoors. It has all the usual name brands fishing tackle, but a bit over budget for me. I also made a stop at Dick’s sporting goods, which has some fishing tackle but caters more to the outdoor and sporting goods enthusiast. Of course I stopped by the Bass Pro shop and waded through the crowds. Bass Pro is a great fishing and hunting outlet but I seemed to get somewhat overwhelmed when I am there because of the enormous selection of everything. I finally ended up at Academy Sports. I wasn’t really looking for anything in particular to buy but came across some great deals while I was there. One was an Okuma fly rod 8 ½ ft. 4/5 wt. with medium action. I really like the lightness of this rod, and the rosewood reel seat. The best part was the price, 35.00 clearance. I have used Okuma reels and micro light rods over the years and have never had a problem with their performance. So with that thought in mind I bought the rod. I know I needed another fly rod like a dog needs ticks, but it was such a great deal I just couldn't pass it up. Another item I found was Lake Fork Fishing Shirts by Magellan.  I really like these shirts because of the vents in the back and the large storage pockets and clips hooks on the front. I bought a couple last year and was impressed.  These were 12.00 bucks clearance in the store but 17.00 on the website. I paid 25.00 last year for the same shirt. So I purchased a couple short sleeves. Of course there were all the clearance items on flies, lures, reels, tippets and a host of other items. Academy seems to always have an abundance of clearance items. So to make my point I left there with some shirts, rod, and few flies tippet and a couple of leaders that my wife decided would be Christmas for me, which suited me fine. Sometimes guy’s road trips don’t involved landing fish.

REACHING THAT 100 FOLLOWERS MARK!!!!

A couple of days ago I reached the number 100 fisherman who joined up with Fishing Through Life. It just seemed like yesterday I started playing around with the blogging scene. I really never thought that I would get anyone to respond to any of my nonsense, and was really surprised when I got a few replies after my first couple of posts. I started blogging responding to other posts.  I continued that pattern for at least a month before I created my own blog. I can remember how cool I thought it was when I actually got someone to leave a comment on my first post. That first post got me hooked. This has become my way to communicate with some of the best fishermen in the world. I have learned so much from all you guys about fly fishing since I started that first post. I would like to thank all of you who have responded to my post over the past couple of years and most important all those who joined up with Fishing Through Life. I considered all of you my fishing buddies and know I can count on all of you for great fishing information anytime. I actually feel like I know all of you personally because we all have that one thing in common FISHING!!!  

Thanksgiving And All That Food

I thought I would give everyone a chance to digest and absorb all those calories before I did this piece. You know where I am going here, that day we all love to stuff our faces with as much fats and carbohydrates, as we can. Thanksgiving is probably the one day throughout the year we throw out the rule book when it comes to eating. I can remember growing up as a child my Mom would always cook up an astonishing Thanksgiving meal each year. She always looks forward to Thanksgiving and Christmas, because that was her chance to show all of us how much she loved us, and that was through food, where she always proved her point. Thanksgiving and of course Christmas is a time for family and friends to come together and reminisce, and yes enjoy good food. Our family did that very thing on Thanksgiving, only with a different twist this time. My wife decided she wanted to enjoy the day without having to prepare all the fixings, so we all had our dinner at the Cracker Barrel. The meal was a feast to say least. For 9.00 the meal consisted of sliced turkey, and ham, with the dressing, cranberry sauce, green beans, sweet potatoes, and hot biscuits, rolls, or cornbread. The sweet tea came with the meal as did a huge slice of pumpkin pie with a whip cream topping. You just can’t beat a meal like that even if you are sitting there thinking, how many pounds am I adding to the waistline here? Now I will spend the next two weeks in the gym trying to work off those fat calories I stuffed in on Thursday. On well it’s the holidays enjoy!!  

Sipping Trout Below the Dam at Smith Lake

I have been waiting for two weeks to get to fish the tailrace below the dam at Smith Lake. The constant flow below the dam has been off for much of the month. The engineers at the dam are installing a new pump system that will produce a constant flow 24/7 instead of the off and on again flow that has been occurring for the past 6 months. My son, son-in-law and I all made a short trip to the tailrace Saturday evening and found the engineers had solve the problem and the water was moving perfect for some mountain like trout stream fishing. The water temperature was around 55 and there was not much of a rise. We landed one each for the afternoon, using the size 18 dry gnat and a 22 midge. The trout were feeding at the surface, but it was not the aggressive takes one would see this time of year. It was more like a sipping motion. I have seen this before and have never been able to figure out how and what to use to get the take, when this is happening. I can't tell you how frustrating it is to see the trout and not be able to get any takes. We tried a number of patterns but none seen to produce on a consistent basics. True we all landed one trout each, but it seems in this particular case the trout know when the pattern is fake and the action is over. I do know that fish turn on and off as far as feeding cycles is concerned so I guess this was one of those off cycles. Thanks for stopping by today and I hope everyone has a save and hearty Thanksgiving. 

  

Nice bow on the 3 wt. This trout had some width to it. After the picture it swim off to fight another day

My son off in the distance right after he landed his trout for the evening

This little guy was helping us get our gear together, of course he let us know it was not fair he didn't get to go.

Ancestry Research Mixed With Fishing

Well for the past three days I have been in Mississippi trying to catch some crappie with my brother. The first day we battled high winds and only got a couple of nips and that was it for an afternoon outing. We decided to change lakes on the second day and moved to the upper smaller lake only to find the wind was gusting above 20, so we didn’t even bother to launch the boat. So both days as far as fishing was concerned was a complete washout -----but not quite as far as one of my objectives were concerned.

That objective was my work on our family tree. I have been working on this project for the past year and have really got into the Ancestry thing. I suggested to my brother we travel back to our old home place.  Choctaw County Mississippi was where both of us were born. I wanted to try to complete some of the information I was missing to finish my research. We spent the better part of the day at three different cemeteries locating individuals dating back to the early 1800s. I have traced and have photos of tombstones of our Great Great Grandfather and Grandmother. Beyond that, I am using Ancestry.com to find the other generations. This has been one of the most interesting things I have ever worked on and I've learned a lot about our heritage. For those of you who have never attempted this, I suggest you give it a try, you might be amazed at what you find out about your heritage.

This is the headstone of my Great Great Grandfather--this grave was in the family plot by their old home place

My Great Grandfather's gravesite in a local cemetery in Mississippi

I hope I didn't bore you guys with this post.

Great Bargains on Fly Fishing Equipment Check it Out!!

Who doesn’t like great fishing deals? Here are some fantastic deals on fly fishing equipment that one would pay double or even triple in most outlets. From time to time I am going to start posting what I think are some great deals concerning fishing? I hope some of these items will make it into your fly fishing arsenal.

On sale at Cabela's for 5.99

Great beginner combo on sale at Cabela's for 29.99

Great price at Leland Fly Fishing

26.00--2.50 off as a Trout Club Member

Temple Fork Professional Series on sale

104.90

From Cabela's on sale 7.88

G-loomis 3 from Amazon 100.00--this reel will be discontinued after this year.

Extremely light with the free spool action

Fish Caught Using the Fantastic Road Kill Flies

I just had to get out Tuesday and try some of my new flies I got from J & M the other day. I recently did a post on how impressed I was with the detail work on these flies. When you are fishing this time of year one can expect extreme weather from one end of the spectrum to the other. Tuesday was no different, warm in low 70’s with the rest of this week in the low 60’s. In fact a couple of nights this week are below freezing. I was fishing a small lake about 20 minutes from our house. The water temperature was 62, and most all the fish was 6 to 8ft. deep. I was using the Road Kills in three different colors red, orange and white. I caught fish on all three colors but the winner turned out to be the white. These flies have a slow sink rate and most of the hits came as I moved it slowly back to the boat. I did try other flies but the Road Kill produced the most hits. I think the detail on these flies is the reason it gets the attention of the bluegills and bass. If this fly produces now just think what I can do with it in the spring and summer.      

                                           Sorry about some of the images the sun was in my
                                           eyes when I taking some the of pictures. Also the sun
                                           was shining on the screen of the camera at times.

                                                                                                                  

                                           Even the bass got in on the action. A lot of fun on

                                           4 wt.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          

                                           A nice Shellcracker which put up a good fight.   

Fast, Medium, Slow Action Fly Rods Which do You Choose???

I can remember back when I first started fly fishing. I wasn’t concerned with rod action, fly presentation, casting distance or the lightness of the rod. It didn’t make any difference how the popper touched down on the water or the speed at which the rod propelled the popper to its target. Notice I said popper not fly here, because back then I only fish poppers in warm water areas. All I wanted to do was get the bug to a point on the water and hopefully land a fish, in other words I was not interested in the mechanics of the sport. Well after getting into trout fishing four years ago I have learned that all the above factors play a big part in being successful on the water, especially trout fishing. I think for me the most important factor when it comes to fly fishing is the rod action. The most common rod action and the most used is the medium action rod. This type fly rod can be purchase at your local Wal-Mart or any other discount outlet. If you are looking for diversity such as fast action, medium fast action or a slower action rod you will have to go to your local fly shop or purchase on line at your bigger fly rod outlets across the U.S. All these action rods have their places on the water. I know for me I use my fast action rod for heavier nymphs or bigger poppers. I use my medium action rod for med size flies or nymphs. I don’t own a slower action rod, because I really haven’t found a need for it as of yet. I guess in time I may need to look at this type rod if I keep landing those stocker trout below the dam. Temple Fork has a great definition for the action of the fly rod on their website.

The action of a rod is determined by where it bends with a given amount of weight. Fast action rods bend nearer the tip area and medium action rods bend down nearer the middle of the rod. Slower action rods bend all the way down into the butt section and look parabolic when bent with that same given amount of weight. All you really need to know is that faster action rods are stiff in the butt and flexible in the tip, because you will use a great range of weight when you cast varying distances or when using larger/heavier flies.

I am curious as to how you let the action of the fly rod determine the way you fly fish?

Exceptional Flies in my Latest Fly Order

I just got my fly order from J & M at Fly Fishing and Tying Obsessed. The detail is unreal on these flies. He got the color combos I told him I liked perfect. The Road Kills, which is what these bugs are called, should be the perfect fit for the spots on Smith next year. They should entice some monster hits from those large bluegills on the lake as well. I also ordered a couple of poppers in the smoke and black/white combo that I think will get the top water action going really well. I like to order different fly patterns from great fly tiers and J & M are some of the best on the net. Ordering from my fellow bloggers is a great way to support small business and to follow one of my favorite blogs. I really enjoy his post especially the ones where he is using his Road Kills and Poppers. Can’t wait for spring to get here to try these bugs out.

I can't say enough about the detail tying on these flies, really exceptioanl. Show me a fish that would not break the water for one of these kills.

Lanyard Verses Fly Fishing Vest Which Do You Choose

When is the best time to use a fly fishing vest verses a Lanyard on one of your many fishing outings? I know some may say that if it’s a short trip you might as well go light and use the Lanyard over the vest, but just as sure as you do you get on the water needing something that was left in the vest. On the other hand sometimes the Lanyard is just what you need for that hour trip or is it? That is the question of the day for you guys. I would like some input on your reasoning why one would use the vest over the Lanyard or the Lanyard over the vest.

I do know for the money these items are cheaper than your traditional vest. I must confess I have never use a Lanyard. I do know the vest can get fairly heavy if you are on the water for a while.

I thought I would throw in this clip of an outing in a country setting enjoy!!!!

Super Midges in Unique Colors

I was at our local fly shop the other day and notice these unique midges. The thing that impressed me about these little guys was the color combos that the flies possess. Randy at the fly shop told me that he has landed nice trout on all of the colors, especially the red and blue. I will be getting all colors to try out on the tailrace in the next couple of weeks. Some of the individuals I have talk to say the size 18 is their favorite. I think both sizes have their place just as the different colors will work better on certain days.

I did promise a post on my trout fishing trip below dam at Smith today----“BUT” the constant flow was off meaning there was no water movement at all, which makes it really difficult to attract a take. Alabama Power gave no reason why the water was not moving. So no trout today but trust me I will be back. Have a great week everyone.

Has anyone used these bugs??

Reversing a Slow Day on The Lake

The closer it gets to cold weather here in the South the harder it is to find and land a quality fish on any body of water. That was the case Monday when I ventured out on Ryan Creek which is one of the main creeks that Smith Lake possesses. I was going to fish for crappie under the docks in water 30 to 35 ft deep using a small spoon jigging it up about two feet and letting it flutter back down, but that proved useless. The only thing I landed was a small spot that hit the spoon on the fall. So I decided to change tactics and go with the 5 wt. fly rod, which I had rigged with the 6 size Boogle Bug. This setup was the only thing that saved an otherwise slow day. I was fishing right before a cold front that was pushing through that night so there was a bit of top water action for a couple of hours after lunch.

This will be my last warm water fishing trip for this year. I will retire my bugs and rods until next spring. I intend to continue my trips below the dam for trout, so keep an eye for those post. Have a great weekend everyone.

Still after the Boogle Bug even in water temps 70 degrees

This Spot inhaled this Bug as if it was Spring Time--I need to work on building up my right arm because I know come Spring I will be landing Spots larger than this guy.

The weather was even warm enough for this guy to get some sun.

Enjoying Some Fall Fishing

Well for the past couple of days a couple of my fishing buddies and I have fished some of the local waters near home. The trips were more of getting outdoors and enjoying the great weather we have been having here in Alabama, than landing fish. The fishing this time of year in the South can be slow for the gills and bass, and the recent trips prove that to be true. I am looking forward to next week's trips because we should be able to get into some crappie deep around the floating piers on Smith. This time of year the crappie move up under the piers and feed on the minnows and small shad that are found there. The long crappie poles and tube jigs are excellent for fishing the deep water in confined quarters.



This gill buried this popper down deep

A little variety here with the catfish on the olive bugger. It put up quite a fight on the 4wt.

Jeff landed this nice one on the same colored bugger on the 4wt.

Fluorocarbon Leader/Tippets a Winning Combo For Me

I have got into the fluorocarbon thing as far as leaders and tippets are concerned.  I like the fluorocarbon leaders and tippets much better than anything I have ever used because of the stealth technology and its strength. Another thing that impresses me about this leader is the non existence line twist that the tippet possesses. On most of the leaders I was using especially when fishing larger poppers for bass was the tippet twist. Most of the poppers I fish are the number 4 and 6 with the concave face. These type poppers will twist most conventional tippets when working them back to you. I switched to the fluorocarbon tippets recently and eliminated the twisting effect with a 3 and 4X size. Not only did these tippets work to perfection for me but I get the added bonus of the stealth technology. I am referring to the Fluorocarbon Mirage Leader/Tippet combo from Orvis. I really like the loop to loop connection for added ease and quickest of the setup. Orvis has got these combo’s at a great price right now for 9.00 instead of the 19.95 original price. When researching leaders lately I discovered Orvis offers a great Guide Chart to help you determined the correct leader and tippet size for any type fishing you might be doing. Check the chart out it is well worth the look. Have a great week everyone.

Why Didn't I Catch Fish The Last Couple of Days???

I spent the last three days this week in Mississippi, crappie fishing with my brother. The fishing was tough to say the least. We fished for two days using the Spider method, and were able to land only five crappie.  For those of you who not familiar with Spider Fishing check out the link for a trip I did with my brother back in the summer.

When one makes a trip like I just made and only lands a few fish in a number of days it makes you wonder why wasn’t the fish biting? Well there are lots of factors that can affect the fish bite, and usually it is not the lure alone. Wind out of the east, high barometer, lake falling, approaching cold front, and cold water temps and last most all the fish were under lily pads located all around the lake and covering the back area. So when some of you guys are out on the water and not landing any fish, you might want to consider some of the factors mentioned above before blaming it all on yourself.

The Realistic Craw From Pat at SUPER FLY

I recently order some Crawfish flies from Pat at Super Fly. I got them in the other day and have not have a chance to use them as of yet, but I will be on the water with them next week. This week will be taken up with a crappie fishing trip to Mississippi. I have order these Craws from Pat before and was really impressed with the number of bass I landed with them. These Craws are especially good in the late fall and early spring on Smith when going after the bass and spots. These are some of the most realistic Craws I have fished and of course they are tied by the best fly tying Guy in the US. Pat’s work is phenomenal I have never seen flies tied with the precision and care he takes to turn out these masterpieces, and to me that is what his work is. I can’t wait to get out on the water next week and give the Craws a try. Thanks Pat for sharing your work with the entire fly fishing

community.

These really look like the real thing!!!

Super Realistic

Masterpiece

Another unbelievable tie

Another awesome color pattern

Awesome Streamer