Enduring The Aches and Pain to Land Fish

As we get older whether we are the young guys or the more seasoned anglers, we experience some aches and pains. With each aging year brings another arch mainly in our backs, legs, necks, or shoulders. There are numerous prescriptions to help with the pain in the form of pills, shots, therapy, and as a last resort surgery. I watched my Dad, Mom, Father-in-law, and Mother-in-law all use one or more of these prescription pain killers mentioned above with limited results. The end result is one can’t fool time and we all will eventually succumb to old age.

Why I am rambling on about such a depressing subject, because as I get older I feel all these aches and pain, whether I am doing yard work or out on the water casting my favorite fly. I have noticed the past couple of years I have more tendonitis in my knees and arms, but what is really annoying is the tendonitis in my shoulders. It really acts up in my right shoulder on days when I am on the water for four or five hours. So to help ease the pain on those fishing days, I decided to do some research concerning shoulder tendonitis. I found that there are ways one can help relieve shoulder tendonitis, by a simple rub message or a back stretch exercise. I have tried both procedures and they have helped relieve the pain in both my shoulders. No way is a little pain going to keep me off the water!!!

The Gnat, Beadhead and the Popper

Tuesday’s trip involved using numerous flies to attract some hits from some early spring bluegills. I only got to fish a couple of hours, so I had to make the most of what was given to me. The fish today were in a sluggish hitting mode, from the results of freshwater, and some cool nights.

I did manage to land my first crappie using my 3 wt. and the black gnat. I always heard where there is one crappie there is more but not today.

My one bass of the morning using the Betts popper, nice fight on the 4 weight.

 The beadhead grub got this female's attention. After a brief pause for the photo she got her freedom.

My one counter of the trip using the Betts popper; got to love landing these gills using the fly rod!!!

Is There a Weedless Nymph???

The Wooly Bugger was my choice of fly on Smith last week as I searched my fly box for something to get some hits. As you recall in my previous post my original plan was to crappie fish that day, but all that went out the window when the crappie failed to show up. What I didn’t mention in the post was the loss of numerous flies due to hang ups in submerged brush plies and underwater fallen trees. As I was trying to retrieve some of the flies I wondered if it was possible for someone to tie a pattern in the form of a weedless nymph. I have search the net and haven’t found any such fly. True one can find weedless poppers, streamer type patterns for warm water species, but no weedless nymph in a size 8 or 10. The black grub in size 8 was used that day as was the bugger, with both patterns being lost due to hang ups. The verdict is still out using weedless nymph’s trout fishing. The guard might inhibit the hook set. This weedless hook thing is another one of those curious thoughts that go through my mind when I’m trying to figure out how to land more fish. What are your thoughts on weedless fly patterns, especially nymph patterns?

This grub and the black and cream are the ones I used a lot in the early spring to fish for the big bluegill, which are still in deep water. Most of the time they are located near or over brush; resulting in the lose of numerous flies. Sliding one of these grubs over submerged limbs in brush piles would be deadly if the fly was tagged with a guard. True there may be some trouble landing the fish, but it be would fun trying.