Monday, March 18, 2024

March 16, 2024

 With my Bowfin spot finally open for the year, I was excited to give it a shot, and check out the water levels, and what the recent rains may have affected.

I'd tied up a few Bass Master flies... and then realized I forgot the rubber legs on all of them!


At the first spot I fished, I caught a small female Eyetail Bowfin, and lost a slightly larger one.  Success!
I moved to the 2nd and 3rd and 4th spots... Caught a Bluegill and a half-dozen or so Green Sunfish.
At one spot, I spotted a fish in the opening of a shallow weedy area.  Decided to try for it.  I put a microjig in front of it several times, it appeared interested and looked, but did not eat.  It moved to another spot in the small cleared area.  I put the fly in front of it repeatedly, and got it to eat the fly at least 3 times.  It spit the fly out so fast, I wasn't able to set the hook quickly enough.  Frustrated at wasting time on this Silver Carp, I finally just foul-hooked it.  DON'T JUDGE ME! 😜😅
At the next couple areas, there were lots of (mostly pretty small) Common Carp feeding in very shallow water, their backs often out of the water.  Tough to fish for them, it was VERY windy, and strike detection was nearly impossible for me.  I managed to hook 4 of them, but I think all may have been foul-hooked.  After WAY TOO LONG, I gave up.
I did get to meet another fly angler on my way out, and as luck would have it, we follow each other on Instagram, but had never met.  Jack is super-nice, and a much better angler than me!  Very glad to have met up!


Monday, March 11, 2024

March 10, 2024 Micro-Flyfishing

 Tried a different section of the same creek yesterday, with the micro stuff again.  Caught 29 fish.  13 Striped Shiners, 4 Creek Chubs, 3 Bluntnose Minnows, 3 Bleeding Shiners, 1 Northern Studfish, 2 Longear Sunfish, 2 Bluegills, and 1 Green Sunfish.  Finally had a couple Darters hooked, and several Topminnows hooked, but all fell back into the water instead of into my hand. Rats... would have loved to have gotten pics of them!

This looks like it would be really easy to catch these little fish.  Sometimes it is (for the Striped Shiners and Creek Chubs), but its also a lot of work and time, and patience when trying to get the smaller-mouthed fish to strike something that isn't real.  Many times I see fish come up and look and decide my offering is NOT FOOD.  Frustrating.  Equally frustrating is when a fish finally DOES hit, and somehow manages to not get hooked on the tiny hook.  You only get so many shots!

Friends were consulted again to help me I.D. some of  the fish.  

The Bluntnose Minnow was a new species on fly for me.

Bleeding Shiners:
SU78D.jpg

Bluntnose Minnows:

SU78V.jpg

SU78Z.jpg

Creek Chubs:
SU78t.jpg

Northern Studfish:
SU781.jpg

Striped Shiners:

SU7RK.jpg

SU7RH.jpg






Monday, March 4, 2024

March 2, 2024 - Micro-Flyfishing

Having reached my goal of 100 U.S. Freshwater Fish on Fly, I've considered changing my stance on micro-fishing.  It wasn't something I was particularly interested in, although I DO like seeing some of the cool micro species folks catch, such as the beautiful darter species.  Most Micro-anglers use bait, often a tiny chunk of worm or even a piece of a grain of rice.  I'm going to try it with micro "flies" on a fly rod.  Something artificial (not bait) tied on a very small hook.  Trout anglers have been using very small hooks for some midge dry flies and midge larva nymph flies for many years.

Anyway... So I looked into micro-fishing a bit.  Many micro & minnow species have TINY mouths.  Gotta have a tiny hook they can get in their mouth.  For my first go at this, I bought some Tanago hooks that are pre-snelled on a length of line/thread.  I tied some material to 3 of the hooks (so far), each one a bit different material and different color.

I took them fishing to a new-to-me creek.  I fished for at least a couple couple hours, caught at least a dozen fish.  Lost 2 of the 3 tanago flies to overhead trees after missed hooksets.  Might be a little too aggressive... hey, I'm just learning! :)


One of the reasons micro fishing didn't previously appeal to me, was that minnow species can be pretty hard to distinguish from each other.  Today was a good example.  There were 4 species I recognized (3 I'd caught before on larger flies), and then there were some I was not sure about... and still am not sure about.

These 2 are Creek Chubs.  Much smaller than I'm used to catching:

Mottled Sculpins:


Southern Redbelly Dace (just one):

Striped Shiner:

Some or all of the following may also be Striped Shiners, or not...I really don't know.






Addendum.... I just got a pack of Daiichi 1130 #26 hooks.  Close to the same overall size as the tanago hooks, but the tanago hooks are finer gauge wire and the distance from the hook bend to hook point is about 1/2.


Monday, February 26, 2024

February 25, 2024

 Got out fishing for just the 3rd time this year.  Warmer weather recently had me thinking the Golden Shiners might be willing to strike, as they often do early in the year.  Hoped for other species as well, but you never know this early in the year what else might willing to play.

So, went to a pond that has Golden Shiners.  Used a microjig that was made by a local angler, on a #14 hook.  Missed some and lost some fish, but managed to catch 5 Golden Shiners, plus a couple small Redear Sunfish, a few small Bluegills, a Green Sunfish, and a little Largemouth Bass.

Golden Shiner on Fly





Redear Sunfish

Green Sunfish

I stopped at a creek on my way home.  Water was low, clear, and slow.  Didn't see many fish at all, which isn't unusual this time of year, but also somewhat alarming given how clear the water was.  I did see a couple grass carp.  I tossed a beadhead woolly bugger their way.  They seemed to be following it, but I lost track of where the fly was, and felt it had sunk to the bottom, and they were unlikely to eat it.  I made some more casts, but didn't see those fish again.

I did manage to catch one bass at the creek, it had excellent markings!


Monday, February 5, 2024

February 3, 2024

 First "local" fishing outing of the year.  I like going after the Koi especially, since they remain fairly active when the water is cold, plus they fight good and can be very colorful.  What's NOT to like??

The takes were generally more subtle this trip than in warmer months.  I was able to get the fish to start feeding by throwing some cat food out onto the water.  Took awhile to get some takers to come to the surface.  Before that, there were almost no fish seen anywhere.

Used a microjig under an indicator, the microjig tied with white rabbit fur tail and eggstasy chenille body.  The Goldfish hit that as well.  Ended the short session with 6 Koi and 4 Goldfish.




Goldfish:



Monday, January 29, 2024

January 26-27, 2024

 Drove the 6.5 hours from St Louis to west-central Arkansas to fish with a buddy.  He'd previously scoped out the location, and the plan was to get me my first Striped Bass on fly, and hopefully get both of us our first Blue Catfish on fly.  Goals were achieved, despite the cool wet weather and the water being more muddied up than usual.

I tried a number of fly patterns...but ended up catching EVERYTHING on this trip on the fly below.  Pearl estaz grande body, silver flash and white peacock tail, on a 1/8 oz jighead (Waspi Super Jig Head).  That heavy jig wasn't easy to cast very far on the fly gear.  I did do some fly casting, using a sink tip and also floating lines, but in the end vertically jigging this heavy deal to get down and stay down on the bottom got me the fish, plus I've been having elbow issues in my casting arm, so this technique was easier on me.  I tell you what...when those Drum would thump the jig, and I'd set the hook, those dudes are STRONG and definitely sent pains up my arm!  Fun!

I didn't catch big numbers of fish, but they were strong fighters.  I caught 5 Freshwater Drum, 4 Striped Bass, (3 French Hens), 2 Blue Catfish, 1 White Bass, 1 Largemouth Bass.

Day 1:

Striped Bass on Fly




Freshwater Drum on Fly

Day 2:

Blue Cat on Fly




White Bass on Fly

2nd Blue Cat on Fly

The Striped Bass and Blue Catfish enabled me to reach my goal of 100 U.S. Freshwater Species on Fly.  This also put me at 115 Species on Fly.