A lot of the bluegill I have caught on Laura
Hill Lake
in Lawrenceburg is smaller than what I am used to landing, so this 2 weight will
compliment those well. The total weight of the Redington 2/3 reel and the Redington
rod weights less than 4.6 ounces; my kind of combo for sure!!
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.
Thursday, May 18, 2017
Fishing the Feather Light 2 Weight
For those of you who follow my blog know that I am a huge
fan of Redington Fly rods; mainly because of their lightness and most important
their purchase price. In my opinion, there isn’t a better quality fly rod for a
reasonable price on the market than their classic series. I decided a few weeks
ago to purchase their 2 weight Classic Trout mainly to fish some of the small
streams in the Smokey Mountains .
I found out last week that it matches well with the
rainbow on the Sipsey Tailrace in Alabama .
I knew I would be landing trout in the 10 to 12-inch range and the 7 ½ ft.
moderate action graphic rod got quite a workout that afternoon. I found this 2
weight to be a bit more forgiving than my 3 or 4 weight fly rods I fish with. I was surprised with the degree of stiffness it had which helped it handled a couple 12” rainbow I landed that afternoon quite well. True I didn’t horse that size
trout in quickly using it but with a bit of patience I brought both to hand. I
did lose numerous trout that day mainly because of a hook set and slow reaction
time. Fishing a lighter fly rod could have contributed to the hook set issue. I
kept forgetting I wasn’t fishing with a moderate fast action fly rod. The rod
proved what I already knew when it came to placement and presentation of the
fly using a 6X tippet. As most of you know the lighter the fly touches the
surface film the better chance for a take; this fly rod meets that test. The
slight breeze that afternoon didn’t affect my casting but I could see problems
in moderate or heavy winds.
Tuesday, May 9, 2017
Going Light on The Sipsey
I’ve been waiting about a week to make today’s trip to
the Sipsey because my game plan was to go super light using my new 7 ½ ft. 2
weight. I purchase the fly rod mainly to fish in the Smokies, but I decided I would
use it today to break it in on the Sipsey rainbow. June of last year was the last
time that I wet a fly in the Sipsey since we moved to Tennessee .
Upon arrival, I found one other truck, so I knew I would
have the place pretty much to myself most of the afternoon. The skies were a
crystal blue with a slight breeze out of the northeast most of the afternoon. I
entered the gorge at access six and saw no surface movement, so most of the
afternoon was spent fishing nymphs. I did manage to take a few trout on top but
I think the trout were annoyed with the presence of the fly as opposed to really
eating the fly. The drift had to be near perfect to get a take on any pattern.
I’m really glad I had numerous boulders to sit on because I did a lot of experimenting
with different patterns most of the afternoon. A lot of fun takes and a lot of
trout lost today.
This was the size trout today that broke the 2
weight in on its first outing. I kept wondering on the way home why I missed a
lot of takes today; could be slow reflex and learning to fish a lighter fly
rod. Whatever it was I enjoyed the afternoon on one of my favorite tailraces.
Special!!
Wednesday, April 26, 2017
Childhood Memories
Cathey and I made a trip a few weeks ago that
really brought back a lot of childhood memories. We were in Bryson City North
Carolina getting ready to ride the Great Smoky Mountain Train Express through
parts of the Blue Ridge Parkway and the Great Smoky Mountains. The scenery on
the train ride was spectacular along the Nantahala River , but what really got
my attention was the huge Lionel Train display in Bryson City . The display was a
theme recreation of the ’50s and 60’s complete with a working drive-in theater
and numerous other displays that were present in those early years. I spent over
an hour filming and talking to the conductor of the six trains that were
running and viewing the hundreds of models that Lionel has on display there. The
little model train sets my brother and I played with back in the day were not
on this level.
Monday, April 17, 2017
Exploring Another New Lake
The Shellcracker Lake near Columbia was my target lake this past Tuesday to explore. One
drawback to this lake is no grass area to slide the Pelican into the water.
Lots of concrete including the launch ramp; lucky for me there were a lot of
fishermen there to help me get it launched. The polyurethane material this boat
is made of will not take concrete slides often.
This is a 75-acre lake
nestled in a deep wide valley with a huge dam holding back a flood of water. After
getting on the water I counted 16 other boats scattered around the banks. I
found out really quick that the majority of fishermen were fishing for the spawning
bluegill. The big difference between me and them was the fishing technique. Again
I was the only one using the fly rod, while the rest were using the crickets
and worms. The live bait fishermen were landing lots of bluegill and
catfish. I did manage to find one small spawning group of gills located near
the base of some small maple trees that were willing to give the 3 weight a workout.
Bluegill will sometimes spawn in very unlikely places and this group was
located under the overhanging branches of the trees; presenting a bait of
any kind was a challenge for any angler. Using a low side cast help me connect
with the fish. I counted four orange corks tangled in the branches that didn’t
make the connection.
I landed a couple of small bass holding in the back of this nook. Other boats were
waiting in the wings to give the area a try.
Blooming dogwoods signals crappie season in the south!
I worked hard to land this
bluegill from under the maple branches. In fact, I was impressed with my
placement of the popper to attract a strike. Time after time the Bar Nunn popper
hit its mark to hook up with this group of spawning bluegills. This is a good
bull bluegill, but I’m still looking for the really big gills. I hope I can
land a few before the spawning season is over.
Wednesday, April 5, 2017
Making up for Lost Time
I can’t believe it’s been nearly seven months since I’ve
fished from my Pelican boat. Too many things too mention have kept me off the
water, with moving and relocating to a new town and house as being the major
obstacle.
I landed numerous gills this size today; all were taken using
the Barr Nunn popper around the fallen trees in water 55 degrees. The bigger bluegills were still in the deeper water and won’t move into the shallows until the water
temps reach the low sixties. A good workout for the 3 wt. 9 ft. and the guy who
was placing the popper!!
This past Wednesday was my day for me to relax and take
in the beauty of Laura Hill
Lake in Lawrenceburg.
I spent the better part of five hours reacquainting myself with my Redington
and exploring areas that I know will hold fish in the coming months. Simply
put; it was good to just be back on the water after a long hiatus.
Laura Hill is surrounded by rolling hills and numerous nooks
loaded with subsurface fallen trees; which is the ultimate fish attractor. I
got some strange looks today using the fly rod. The lake caretaker told me no
one fished the lake with the fly rod. That bit of information really got my
attention.
Monday, March 27, 2017
Fishing McCutcheon Creek for Rainbow
Fishing McCutcheon Creek near our home in Spring
Hill last week brought back memories of fishing some of the warm water streams
in Mississippi years ago as a boy. Those early years found me using a cane pole and
worms landing sunfish and catfish in a lot of the streams I fished there. Last
week I was armed with my 3 weight Redington; ready to land a few stocker
rainbows. I notice I was the only one using a fly rod. There were a lot of eager
fishermen waiting with a spinning rod and reel ready to “clean plow” fishing the
small stream. The majority of the 150 trout that were stocked on that Friday
were all caught and taken home for a meal by the fishermen at the end of the day.
The trout were released in 2 to 3 ft. depths
Nothing like seeing the thrill on a child's face once they land a fish
Colton with his first rainbow on the fly rod---congrats Colton on a job well done!!
Colton help me land numbers of rainbow this size, all were release for other kids to enjoy
Colton with his Dad Wesley after they landed this huge rainbow using the spinning reel and a crappie nibblet as bait. Colton's dad told me he had never fished for trout before. We watched it swim away after a hero shot.
Ken, the Hatchery director told me when they arrived that he bought 10 of these big fish for the young kids to land. What made me really sick was seeing 4 of these big trout in metal nets dead caught by adults. A lot of metal nets were filled with trout before I left for lunch. The practice of catch and release was not in place on this day!!!
McCutcheon Creek
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