I started blogging in
2/11 2010; back then there were more bloggers on the net as opposed to now. Some
have moved on to Facebook, or simply quit blogging. I deleted a number of blogs
from my roll the other day simply because they have stop posting. Some have
been in my blog roll for 1 year or more. I still add blogs to my roll that are
interesting, but not nearly as many as I use to, they are becoming less and
less.
Blogging for me has become somewhat of a hobby; it gives me a chance to
connect with individuals who love fly fishing as much as me. As I sit the other
day working on a future post I was thinking of how many individuals I know in Jasper
who fly fish, two! Both fly fish the lake with me but only one fishes the
tailrace. Most of the time I go by myself, which is ok on the tailrace, because
I’m never alone there; I never fish the lake anymore by myself. So I guess what
I’m trying to say is I’m thankful I have all you guys I blog with about fly
fishing daily. When I starting blogging I was trying to learn everything I
could about fly fishing for trout; I’ve learned a lot these past six years from you
guys. I’m still learning about the sport; so thanks Howard and the rest of you guys for making the process
a lot easier.
I hope to use this blog as an avenue to express my thoughts and adventures of all of my fishing expeditions and any other journeys I may undertake.
Friday, May 20, 2016
Blogging Buddies-----Hard to Beat!!!
Saturday, May 14, 2016
Quality Rainbow Landed On the Sipsey
I know all of us who fly fish have had days when you ask
yourself, could it get any better than today? Well a couple of Wednesdays back
I kept asking myself that very question. There was only one other fisherman in the
gouge that day fishing in the 50 degree water with a gusting wind from the north at
10 to 15 mph. Lucky for me the wind was blowing with the current making a drift
much easier. I had 2 ½ hours to complete my mission today and I wanted to make
the most of the trip. So I made a beeline for one of my favorite holes that
always seem to have a good rainbow. Little did I know that today those good
rainbows would be some of the best trout that I’ve ever landed on the Sipsey. Numerous
trout were taken today using the bead-head nymph.
Some weeks ago I landed a number of trout with damaged
gill plates; this trout today had a red nick on its outer gill plate.
The videos below sums up the action for the afternoon; trout landed about every 10 to 15 minutes. I started the trip without my
Contour Video camera, but the action was so good, I decided to walk by to the truck and
get it. I lost a good 20 minutes of fishing time, but I made up for it after I got
back to the gorge and started landing rainbow again.
Sorry the sound didn’t record for this video, don’t know
why---I added some music that I thought might complement the action of this
trout.
This video is a little long because it took me quite a
while to land this rainbow. I was using a 6X tippet in the super clear water. This
fish is one of the best I’ve ever landed on the Sipsey. One will land more
trout here if they use a lighter tippet. I hope you guys enjoy it!
Monday, May 9, 2016
One Fish Can Make a Trip
My first trip to Smith Lake this morning had a slow start; no bite for an hour. The Boggle Poppers
were not working at daylight near the banks; so Ivan and I decided to move into
the nooks. I had to use my trolling motor to get us in a position to fish the
nooks because the starter on my Mercury motor went out right after we launched
the boat, bummer. Once we made it to the first nook the action started with
some nice bluegills landed and the prize of the morning for me. I managed to
get some footage of Ivan’s fish of the morning so we both left the lake, happy
fishermen.
When larger poppers are not producing, go to tiny poppers; you will get a reaction!
You guys have read some of
my posts concerning the Red-eyed Bass; well this bass is the best example I’ve
ever caught. This bass was a native to the tributaries flowing into the Sipsey before the dam was placed for Smith Lake.
This spot was supposed to be
caught using my 6 weight fast action, but no bass would touch the big poppers
throughout the morning. So Ivan and I decided to go after the bluegills with our
3 weights using our tiny poppers; little did we know that the bass was turned
on to size 12 poppers as well. This is the largest spot I’ve ever landed using
my 3 weight fly. I had quite a fight on my hands trying to keep this fish from
breaking my 5X tippet. This fish is why I love fly fishing so much because it's
you against a fish that is superior to your gear, in this case, my 3 weight.
Sometimes the fish wins and rightly so and sometimes the fisherman wins, today I
won. Ivan didn't notice the sun rays crossing my face when he took the picture.
Wednesday, May 4, 2016
Shirts, Pants, Hats, Shoes the Works to go Sun Free
As I get older I have become more aware of the damage the sun can have on
your skin. When I was younger I would fish all day wearing a short-sleeve
shirt, shorts, flip flops, and a cap. The sun would blister me the first
couple of outings but after that my skin was so brown I hardly ever got a sunburn the rest of the season. I was lucky I didn’t contract Melanoma in those
early years. Nowadays I battle the sun's rays by wearing a long sleeve shirt,
long pants, vented hat, vented shoes, and finger exposed sun gloves. All these
products are listed below, with links to the website.
I wear all these products when I am on the water. I am a sticker for a good
hat and this hat has to be my favorite of all I wear.
Friday, April 29, 2016
The Orange Nymph?
I wanted to fish the
Sipsey yesterday before the rains that afternoon. Generation was scheduled at 3PM so that gave me about 3 hours to wet a fly. Never
think especially on the Sipsey that you’re going to land trout on the same
pattern day in and day out there; yesterday proved that statement correct. I
went through numerous nymph patterns with no success. After exhausting my
options I tied on an orange nymph Alan of Small Stream Reflections had mailed me sometime back. I kept
trying to figure out what this pattern duplicated in the insect world while I
was casting it. After I got home I googled orange nymphs and found the Milkweed
Assassin Bug. Strange I didn’t see any such bug while I was fishing but this
little orange nymph proved a winner today.
The third cast in a slow
run produced this healthy rainbow using Alan’s orange bug.
The Milkweed Bug and the
Red Ant
There must be a clan of
these damaged gill plate trout in the Sipsey, or I am landing the same trout
every time I fish this place.
Super clear fast water
pouring into small pockets held the trout below; the orange bug continued
to work its magic.
Never overlook any fly in
the box; high sticking the little orange bug worked in the small pockets. Who knows
what pattern will be hot on my next outing here.
Saturday, April 23, 2016
Huge Bluegilsl Landed on Walker County Lake
I started by bluegill quest this past Tuesday
with early morning temps in the mid-forties, quite chilly. Overcast skies kept
the temperature cool most of the morning, but it didn’t affect the bluegill
bite. I had the lake to myself for a couple of hours, which is always a plus
when fishing Walker County Lake . As I have told you guys numerous times this is one of the most pressured
small lakes in the state. My plan was to fish the east side of the lake where
there is no access for bank fishermen. I know where most of the spawning beds
are located year in and out on this lake; today held no surprises for me. What
did surprise me was most all the spawning beds were void of fish. At my first
stop, I counted close to 40 beds, after I landed 3 nice bluegills.
The sweet spot on this
bank was located near the fallen log lying in the water. The bluegills had clean
out close to 40 spawning beds to the right and left of the log.
The first gill of the
morning, which nailed an Orvis size 12 legless tiny popper; a lot of fun on the 3 weight.
This fish loved the little popper, the very next cast produce another strong fish which hung my
little popper and the fish in a tangled mess of underwater brush; so much for
that popper. Wouldn’t you know it that
was the only one in the fly box, another trip to Orvis?
Another group of gills
was located at the end of this moss pad in deeper water; again lots of spawning
beds but only a few bluegills left to fish for. The live bait guys did a great
job plucking each and every bluegill out of their beds.
The Bar Nunn popper got
the attention of this bull after my little Orvis popper bites the dust. I was
able to land a number of bluegill from the moss pad area that someone actually
left for me. As I moved from spawning beds to spawning beds I felt like I was
cleaning up what was left of this spawn.
This guy was having a time
landing catfish using chicken livers as bait. In fact, he was hauling one in
when I snapped this picture. He had 7 or 8 rigs all hanging over the edge of
the boat.
I left all my drinking water at the
house so I had to make a trip to the bait shop and purchase a couple of
bottles. As I was leaving the shop I noticed this lady painting a beautiful scene
of the point area in the distance. She told me she had finished a number of paintings
of the lake this past year.
The Pelican now has padded seats as opposed to those hard plastic seats I used for a couple of years.
This is the 10 ft. version and will handle two fly fishermen really well-------as
long as my line is down on the water and their line is up in the air or vice
versa---I think you guys know what I am talking about!!
These are the best of the
best for a very successful morning; these 10 will put a dent in my bluegill quest. I
added 8 more that kept me filleting bluegill for a couple of hours after I got
home. I will go after the big bulls on Smith Lake next week. I am now 40 away from my 50 quests; could this be my year to
make it???
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