Night Fly-Fishing 9-19-09

Beautiful night last night...calm...mid-60's. No ducks or geese on the pond!! Great night for fishing, right? YEAH!

Well, really fishing was S-L-O-W. I fished for a about 2 hours...from 7:30pm-9:30pm. Caught 10 crappies, 5 bluegills...and a minnow.

A muskrat had been swimming along in front of me, and kept splashing everytime I would move or cast...but he'd come right back up and continue to swim around in front of me...like 20 feet away. Finally, it swam along the shoreline to my right and then swam to the bank, where I could no longer see him. Just a couple minutes later, I hooked something big...and it splashed a several times, and I was sure I'd hooked that darn muskrat. It swam across in front of me, so I turned on my cap light...and it was a fish! The minnow. BIG MINNOW!

It was a trick to land by hand, alone in the dark, but I managed. The "minnow" was a 29" Grass Carp. SWEET!!

Plugging the length into a couple of weight-to-length conversion equations specifically for Grass Carp yields an average calculated weight of 12 lbs. Not bad for the 5wt fly rod!

I used a yellow boa yarn leech pattern again, although I had started off the evening trying something like a Thunder Creek minnow pattern tied with yellow calf tail...(had some bumps on that, but no fish).

October 16, 2009

Wasn't sure if the weather was gonna get any better, so I went fly-fishing after dark on Friday. Air temp was around 43 degrees. Fishing was slow at the local public pond I elected to fish. I managed 6 crappies, 6 bluegills, and a 16.5" largemouth bass that provided a heckuva good fight! Also lost another good fish, that was probably either another bass, or possibly a catfish.


The fly I used was one that has worked really well for me on this particular pond all year. It is a #8 yellow boa yarn leech, which you can see in the bass's mouth below:

Sunday White Bass/Wipers 9-27-09

My buddy Phil calle to invite me fishing with him at Saylorville on Sunday. We trolled along a good drop-off area...that went from about 9' to 16' deep, and also a little bit of trolling on top of the 9' flat. I used a white Bomber crankbait. I had something big on…felt like a wiper…it just peeled drag going straight away from us…until the hook pulled out. Awhile later, Phill got a 19.5” wiper.

He also got a “double” white bass and wiper on his “hillbilly rig”.

I generally only keep fish to eat maybe once/year, except when fishing in Canada or out-of-state for walleyes. I kept some white bass in the 13”-15” range and cleaned them, cooked them up last night. Still have some leftover, but my daughter Kennedy and I were LOVING IT! Good stuff!!

Lunchtime Catfish on Fly Rod

I hadn't fished during lunch in quite some time. I did on Sept 24, 2009, however. I fly-fished a public pond not far from work. This is the pond that got hit hard this past winter by ice-anglers, which decimated the bluegill population. I tried for bluegills anyway. Didn't catch any.
I did catch a 21.5" channel catfish, which was really fun. Good healthy fish, excellent fight:

It was kind of a long fight, but I had time after releasing the fish to make some more casts. That's when I hooked this next catfish. Its a personal best for me, at 31" long. I ran the length through a complicated mathematical formula to come up with an approximate weight, which suggested just slightly over 12 pounds. What a brute! The pics don't do it justice...but it sure makes the fly reel look small! Awesome battle on a 5wt.

It was caught on a silver-ish boa yarn leech pattern tied on a #8 streamer hook.

Night Fly-Fishing 9-10-09

Had family activities after work last night. Got home from those around 8:20pm. It was such a nice night, even though it was dark already...So, I decided to go fly fishing at a local public pond.Used a yellow Boa Yarn Leech, and did pretty well. Fished for 2 hours, and stopped when I reached 40 crappies. Also caught 4 bluegills, and 1 channel catfish.The bluegills were smallish. The crappies were "medium-sized"....averaging around 9", but I measured one bigger one that went 11". The catfish was 20.5".

September 6, 2008 - White Bass

Went to Saylorville Lake one afternoon during the Labor Day weekend. Waded the Sandpiper area first...two different spots. Used spinning gear, hoping to find some White Bass action.

Nothing going on at those spots. Tried a 3rd spot, which we just fished from shore.

Success! The fish were very active in this area, and there was some good-sized whites around. Biggest I caught were 15".

I Finally WON!!!

I finally won the Central Iowa Anglers "Traveling Trophy", by winning our fishing "outing/tournament" on Saylorville Lake on Saturday.

A cold front had put the damper on fishing, and most boats/anglers had difficulty finding active fish. We found some, finally.
The scoring for our tournaments is a sophisticated "Points System". Fish of various species have to meet certain size criteria to be eligible for points, and species determines how many points/fish, and there is a maximum number of points per species possible. I blew away the competition.
The attached pictures show me with the biggest fish I caught...a nice largemouth bass. Also lost another nice bass next to the boat, caught some really nice 14" white bass (plus a few smaller ones), and also a small crappie and smallmouth bass. Beautiful day to be on the water!

The other pictures are of the patch I earned, and the Traveling Trophy that my name will be engraved on (in the picture with me with is Ron White, whose boat I fished from, and who worked hard to find us some active fish!).
I've come in 2nd place several times for our tournaments, its nice to finally WIN one!!

Fly Rod Grass Carp!

One of my "fishing goals" for 2009 was to catch a Grass Carp on a fly rod. With the help of some friends, I finally did it! Measured out at 36.5", and the calculated weight is @ 25 pounds!

Here's pictures from the battle (photos taken by Julie...THANKS!)

Jenni was the designated "netter". Tough job, but she did great!

And here it is!

The fish was returned to the water after the quick photos & measurements. I rescusitated the fish, and it soon swam of strongly.

GO TEAM!!!

Here's the fly I used. Its a boa yarn leech that I tied. The pattern was originated by Rick Zieger.

Another Fly Rod Carp

Hooray, LOVE catching carp on flies! This one sure fought hard, I was sure it was going to be about TWICE this size! It almost took me to the backing on my fly reel...just a couple turns of fly line still on the spool! Very fun...

First Fly-Rod Carp of 2009!

Tried the local reservoir for about 20minutes during lunch today. Conditions at this particular spot were NOT what I was expecting, unfortunately. Could have been worse though...because...HOORAY!!! Finally got my first fly-rod carp of 2009! Could not see the fish when it took the fly, but it held on long enough for me to detect the hit.

Variety on Flies!

Its been said that "if a fish eats, you can catch it on a fly rod!" There's still a few elusive fish locally I haven't been able to fool...yet. But that's one thing that keeps my trying! The challenge of fooling a new species on the fly rod!

Many people associate flyfishing with trout. But here in the central midwest, there's an abundance of warmwater species that can be a LOT of fun to catch on fly-fishing gear.

Largemouth bass:

Bluegills:

Hybrid Sunfish:

Crappies:

Channel Catfish:

White Bass:

Carp!

And even some of the exotic species that can be found around Miami, Florida...like Peacock Bass, Oscars, Mayan Cichlids, and Spotted Tilapia:

And there's more, too! I've also caught smallmouth bass and wipers (hybrids) on flies. I'm hoping to add gar and grass carp soon!