The Short Journey Back as Oppose to The Long Journey There!!

Guys I can’t tell you how glad I am to be back home after a 3 day 36 hour drive out to Marysville California. I never realized what a killer trip it would be when I told my son a couple of week’s ago that I would help him make the drive. We spent three days riding through extreme wind, sleet, heavy rain and lots of snow in Flagstaff and the mountains in California. In fact we were lucky to even get out of the Flagstaff Friday morning because of heavy snow. Let’s just say it was a trip that I will never forget; but parents will do most anything for their children and I am one of those parents. Jason owes his Dad a lot of fishing trips in the northern California streams after this journey. One of the highlights of the trip aside from the area that Jason will be working in is meeting one of my blogging buddies Mark of Northern California Trout he came up and we did lunch together on Saturday. Mark is one of those guys you feel like you have known for years. He and I pretty much covered the gambit of fly fishing over lunch. I hope things will worked out for us to meet again this summer when my wife and I fly out to visit Jason. This trip has kind of put a damper on my blogging for this past week, but I am back now and ready to read some interesting fish tails. I missed all you guys!!

 

One can't make a really quality picture with your vehicle moving, but this is an image of what we viewed from Northern Texas Oklahoma, Mexico, and most of Arizona. In fact, traveling 1-40 all the way to Flagstaff was summed up in that image above "desert".  When we entered Flagstaff we saw some beautiful country.

Lots of snow-capped Mountains

Not use to driving in snow like this, if you are from the South

Wind turbines are really big in Oklahoma, New Mexico, Arizona, and California

 

 

 

Three Day Road Trip to California



Today I am watching a light snow fall the first week of March in Jasper Alabama. That kind of weather is a little odd for this part of the country this time of the year. The temps never got out of the 30’s all day and for me that is stay inside weather. It gave me a chance to put together a collection of flies for my son to use when he moves to California next week. I will be making the trip with him to help out with the driving. It is a 3 day trip from Jasper to Marysville California, where he will be working as a travel RN for the next 3 months. After that assignment he will move to Oregon to do another 3 month stint. I am hoping he will find Dad some good streams to fish when my wife and I make the trip out there this summer. He will work a four day week so he said he will have time to explore. One of the flies I put in his fly box was the Auseable Bomber by Mark at Fishing Small Streams.  

A great dry dropper setup--I will have to give it a try as a stand alone dry also



 

Another pattern that I will put in his fly box is the Bomber pattern that Alan of  Small Streams Reflections fishes. I consider Alan and Mark experts when it comes to fishing dry flies--so any dry they are fishing I am on!!!



I have actually fished Alan's  Bomber this past season and landed a number of rainbows using it without a dropper fly. In fact my profile image is one of the best rainbows I landed last year using Alan’s Bomber.

Alan's Bomber worked magic with this bow.

I couldn’t end today’s post without sharing a clip using the dry/dropper setup. This will be one of the first setups I use this season

 

I plan on taking lots of photos on the way out, and hope to share some with you guys when I get back next weekend-----

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

View Cabelas New Fly Fishing Curriculum--"Fantastic"

I was on Cabelas website yesterday and discovered that they were featuring a fantastic curriculum dealing with just about anything one would want to know about fly fishing. This gets even better guys, after you have read the curriculum, you have the opportunity to register and join the Federation of Flyfishers; which in turn will entitle you to get their free online FlyFisher Magazine for a year along with all their E-news. I have gone through the Curriculum, and found it extremely helpful. I have also received my first edition of the magazine which has a ton of information dealing with fly fishing. The following topics below are covered in the curriculum:

Fly Reel Training

Fly Rod Training

Fly Line Training

Fly Casting

Leader Tippet

Entomology

There are numerous subtopics covered under each main topic above. Cabelas has hit a home run on this one, when it comes to educating one on the art of fly fishing.

Orvis Fly Reel and Framed Streamers

I am sure all of you are familiar with the Orvis Battenkill fly reels. I have been searching for the Battenkill II Reel for some time at a decent price. Well, I found the reel the other day on Ebay for the unbelievable price of 65.00 used regular price 145.00 plus tax. Just goes to show if one has patience when shopping for fly fishing equipment, good things will follow. I bought the fly rod that I was going to used with the reel some months back when Cabelas had a clearance on their Redington Trout Classic fly rods for 75.00, regular price at 150.00.

With this 5 wt reel/rod combo I’m ready now for those 14” to 15” rainbows on the tailrace and some huge bluegills on the lake. 

  The Poudre Canyon Special & Yankee Smelt by Alan at Small Stream Reflections --Alan does a fantastic job creating fly patterns that he has tied. I gave my son these streamers for Christmas and he had all four streamers framed.

The Brown & Grizzly with the Red Baron both by Alan--Sorry for the distorted frame size in the image; I have big-time trouble keep the glare out of the picture when shooting anything that has glass in it--any suggestions how to avoid that? Many thanks to Alan for tying these great streamers--my son has a special place on the wall for them.

Rivers, Streams, Water Falls, Food and More

I got an email the other day from Benton Gibson a viewer who had watched one of my video clips on stream fishing. He said he loves to use the fly rod to fish streams and rivers in his home state of Mississippi. He wanted to share a few images of the Bogue Chitto River in the Pearl River Basin off the Natchez Trace Parkway. This is an area he fishes often for bass and sunfish.

Easy to fish with the fly rod--wet wading in the summer months

I can see my fly drifting by the root system near the far bank. Benton has offered to take me on a trip down this river later in the year. He even offered to film the trip. I am considering his offer. I will keep you guys posted.

I also received an email from another viewer commenting about my Natchez Trace Post, where I featured Jackson Falls along the Trace.  I only showed you an image in that post; well I thought I would share the live video of Jackson Falls. My wife and I will make a trip here this summer. I will have to toss a fly below the falls while we are there.

This is another reason I love fishing in general, which is the food aspect. My wife and I had an awesome meal last night which consisted of baked bluegill fillets, baked french fries, coleslaw, and tomatoes. Notice I said baked, that is the route both of us have to go when eating fish or meats. Sorry, I can't share the meal with you guys, but trust me when I say it was delicious!!