First Open-Water Fish of the Year-February 25, 2012

My friend Ben wanted to fly-fish some open water on Saturday morning.  Lots of choices as far as the local public ponds were concerned, since most of them had become 100% ice-free in the past week.  Of course, late in the previous week we got hit by a snowstorm and a brief return to colder temperatures.  How would this affect the fish?

We met at one of the ponds, fly-fished for about an hour.  We each caught one tiny crappie.  First open water fish of the year!  :hello2:

Then we headed to another pond.  We fished for a couple hours before Ben had to leave.  It was slow...we'd each caught at least 2 crappies, and missed several other fish.

Since I was there, I decided to stay after Ben left to try a couple other spots.  I ended up trying just one spot, and stood there for another hour, and caught a total of (at least) 16 crappies.  THAT was fun!

Yes, it was cold...had to fly-fish with gloves on, and also had to clean the ice out of the line guides every 2nd or 3rd cast.

It was very fun, great to finally catch some fish on fly-gear from open water again, and the fish fought well.  What caught fish for us was chartruese microjigs under an indicator.

Twist on a Crayfish Fly Pattern

I was watching a Barry Reynolds video on YouTube about fly-fishing for carp.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L5eAF-ZztGM
One of the patterns he likes is Dave Whitlock's NearNuff Crayfish.
http://www.madriveroutfitters.com/p-4994-whits-near-nuff-crayfish-size-8.aspx
That's a great-looking pattern.  In searching for the tying instructions for that, I stumbled across Davy McPhail's carp-crayfish pattern video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZPZd7d_YmIo

I liked Davy McPhail's pattern in that it didn't bother with claws.  Studies have shown fish will attack a crayfish without claws before striking one with claws.  I made this pattern even easier by omitting the eyes.

I think this is a good-looking pattern as well, is VERY easy to tie, and stands up nicely.  I tied these on size 8 and 6 hooks.  I can't wait to try it on some fish once the ice melts off the local waters!

Another crayfish pattern, the Foxee Red Clouser, also looks really good.  I've tied some, but haven't put them in front of fish yet.

Ice Fishing, 2-19-2012

Crazy cell phones.Why is it that I rarely hear/feel my cell phone buzzing away in my pocket...yet far more frequent are the times I  can feel it buzzing, when it really ISN'T?  Phantom buzzing?
I'd been thinking I should call my buddy Jay and see if he wants to ice fish today.  Well, here it was mid-afternoon, and I hadn't made the call.  I checked my phone.  Jay had left a couple messages before noon, and I hadn't noticed even though my phone had been in my pocket the entire time.

I returned his call, and we made plans to ice fish the next morning, as I had other plans in the afternoon.
We were on the ice and started fishing around 8:30am.We had 8" of pretty good ice under us, as well as some sunken cedar trees with fish around them.  Fishing waxed and waned, but there was always some "chasers" or "lookers" to keep it interesting.

A friend of ours joined us out there around 10:30am.  We all caught plenty of fish.  Very conservatively, I'd say I caught at least 45 crappies and 5 largemouth bass before I left at 12:30pm.  Jay caught even more than I did.  The crappies were very fat and healthy.  I measured a half-dozen of my larger ones (all were released), and they were 11.5-inchers.  Jay's biggest was a fat 12.5-incher.  Most of the bass were small, with the biggest one being  a chunky fish of maybe 12"-13".

I caught some fish on a small Salmo Chubby Darter, but by far the most fish were caught on a Swedish Pimple spoon, which I usually tipped with a Gulp! 1" Fish Fry.

Very fun morning!

Me, happy to have my first crappie of the morning!

Crappie that hit a Salmo Chubby Darter.

Chunky crappies!

Love the subtle colors of a crappie!

Jay, with the biggest crappie of the morning, a 12.5-incher.

Fly-Fishing Lessons Learned in 2011

I try to do this after each year, in hopes that I will remember SOME of what I thought I learned from each year's fishing adventures.

Here's some of the things I learned:

-Stream Trout.  I had never fly-fished for stream trout before.  I discovered that I really enjoy it.  Too bad the nearest trout streams are a 3-4 hour drive away, and there is so many other good places to catch fish that are much much closer.  Anyway, I learned at least one way to catch these fish.  I used a large nymph pattern and an indicator.  I fished pools, deeper slicks, and bank hides.  I look forward to doing this again in the future, and start exploring more streams.

-Carp Riddle Solved.  One behavior of local river carp that had perplexed a handful of local fly-anglers is when carp will line up along the shoreline or current break just beneath the surface.  They often appear to be snacking on nothing, or maybe the foam that is floating on the surface.  A variety of techniques were unsuccessfully tried on these fish.  I decided to try fishing a nymph extremely shallow beneath an indicator to these fish.  The belief was that the indicator would scare the fish away.  Carp are pretty smart and wily, after all.  Turns out it worked just fine.  I'd fish the nymph just 8" to 18" beneath the indicator.  I tried a variety of wet fly patterns, and all worked.  I used a Thingamabobber, which is translucent like the foam on the water.  After losing several fish to lines that broke at the Thingamabobber, I've decided to try a different style of indicator.  I'm certain it will still work.

-Channel Catfish/Bread  Connection.  While attempting to improve my success with flyfishing for Grass Carp, I discovered that chumming with bread in the local ponds during the summer can be effective in bringing the catfish to you.  Once they are nearby and feeding, you can often (but not always) be successful in enticing the catfish to hit artificial "bread flies" or white streamers.

-Channel Catfish and Streamers.  I discovered that the "Jumpin' Catfish Nymph" works for catfish.  I also learned that white streamers are very effective for Channel Catfish.  I used white hair streamers in two situations...the "bread" situation in ponds that I discussed above...and when the catfish are chasing shad in a large local reservoir.  I can't say it was the MOST effective method of catching these fish, but it DID catch some, and it was F-U-N!!!

-Walleye on Flies.  Catching a walleye on flies was a goal of mine this year.  I figured my best chance was during our fishing trip to Canada in the late Spring.  Before I could get there, I "lucked" into one in Iowa while fishing a lake for sunfish from my kayak.  I did end up catching something like 5 or 6 on flies while in Canada, both nymphs and streamers.  And then I caught another one in a local river here in Iowa in the late Fall.  How cool!

-Smallmouth on Poppers.  I FINALLY tried fly-fishing a central Iowa stream for smallmouth bass.  I'd caught smallies on fly gear before on a stream in Illinois, but hadn't really tried it since moving back to Iowa.  So I went, during the middle of the afternoon of the hottest week of the summer, and the river level was about as low as it gets.  I tried Clousers, nymphs and streamers.  I worked at it pretty hard and landed a couple of fish, but it was TOUGH.  I decided to try a popper.  First cast had barely hit the water before I had a fish hooked.  It worked really well, and I caught several more fish on it. And of course watching fish crush topwaters is always exciting!

-Stocker Trout.  Weeks after the trout had been stocked in a local lake, typically the trout get hard to catch.  I took a day off work and tried to see what I could get to bite.  I had solicited suggestions on my favorite fly-fishing website.  One suggestion was to try the "Blue Thunder" streamer.  I tried a few other patterns first with less than satisfactory results, then tried this streamer.  It worked GREAT!  I've used it a few times since, and it can be hit-or-miss...but it is certainly worth trying, and plus its a fairly easy and good-looking streamer to tie.

I also caught my first stocker Brook Trout, and learned that I REALLY like these fish!  Its not that they are much different than catching a rainbow trout...but they are a Char, rather than a trout, historically native to Iowa, and such a colorful fish.

Icefishing for Trout, 1-28-2012

I went to Lake Petocka, near Bondurant in central Iowa, on Saturday to ice-fish for stocked Rainbow Trout.  A fresh batch of trout had been stocked last Thursday.

I thought it would be easy to catch 'em, but I was wrong.

There was 8" of good ice on the lake.  I didn't take any live bait.  I planned to spend most of my time fishing near shore over 4'-7' of water, and aggressively jigging lures to draw the trout in.  I started out with a Reef Runner Cicada blade bait.  After missing 5 trout in a row that hit 2-3 times each, I switched to a Salmo Chubby Darter.  The first trout hit the Chubby Darter a couple times, then took a tungsten jig tipped with a Gulp! Alive! Fish Fry.

All the trout I saw came up to hit within 2' of the bottom of the ice.  When in the shallows, I didn't bother using the flasher.  When I ventured out to deeper water, I did use the flasher, but saw very few fish, and none that were willing to strike.  I did get a couple of "looks".

It had been slow all day....long periods between sightings of fish.  I did eventually catch another trout on the Chubby Darter.  This one was a bit larger than the first, and its fins were not clipped, indicating it was probably from a previous stocking back in October.

There were quite a few folks out fishing, but nobody was having much success.  A couple of guys fishing deeper water with minnows apparently caught 3 trout.  The DNR arrived and checked licenses.  A few people left right around then.

The big question...probably around 1500 trout had been stocked 3 days before I fished...SOMEBODY should have spotted decent groups of trout somewhere in the lake.  Nobody did.  Where are all these fish??

REAL Teal Blue Silver

A generous fellow fly-fisherman & fly tyer from Oregon sent me some Teal feathers...HOORAY!
I'm not able to tie a BONA FIDE Teal Blue Silver!  Check back a few blog entries to see my "variations".

He sent more than just the barred feathers.  He also sent some Teal feathers that each sport a single spot.  I figured that spot would make a nice "eyespot" on streamers.  So, I tied up a #4 Black Ghost streamer using those eyespot feathers for the "cheeks".

I also tied up a few more of the Teal Blue Silvers....two #8's and one #12.

The Muncher

This is a fly pattern created by Ian Colin James.  It looks great, and Ian claims to have incorporated 3 "triggers" into this fly that will encourage fish to bite.  Those triggers are:
1. Horizontal Legs - move better and more lifelike in the water.
2. 2-Tone Body - more effective than a single-color nymph.
3.  Double Wing Case - anglers claim the double wing case gets more strikes than a single wing case.

Here's a link to Ian's write-up about this pattern:

http://www3.sympatico.ca/ianjames/muncher-nymph.html

Fishing opportunities have been scarce recently. Leaves a bit more time for sitting at the tying desk pondering what to tie/use for the coming open-water season. Here's a few items I've tied over the past week.
First up is a "Skip's Anatomical Nymph":

Next up is a Deer Hair Bass Popper:

My buddy Jay had found some fly-tying materials at a garage sale a year or so ago.  He gave it all to me.  Included were some size 12 and size 10 cork bodies for making bluegill poppers.  I hadn't used them, but for some reason I was compelled to pick out a size 12 and "give it a go":

The dark spot behind the eye is an imperfection in the cork surface.  No biggie.
Here's the same fly under a UV light:

The next one is just a streamer I threw together.  Can't decide if I like it much:

And last...I'm following a blog called "[url]http://missouriflies.com/[/url]".  Interesting guy...fly-fishes around the north side of St. Louis, often from his kayak in backwaters off the Missouri River.  He catches mostly Grass Carp, Catfish, and some Wipers.  I'm fascinated...he doesn't usually try to imitate plants for his grass carp flies (even when fishing under ripe mulberry trees)....usually he just uses his own design of nymph and swims it back in.  So...here's a couple of his more productive patterns:

The top two with the softhackle legs he calls the "Rabbit Tail Dragon".  The bottom one is basically the same pattern without the softhackle legs.  I used rabbit for the tail on this one too, but he uses black turkey feather barbules for the tail.  He calls it the "Black Ops".

That's it for now!  :icon_salut:

Teal Blue Silver....sort of

I'm still re-perusing The Fly-Tying Bible by Peter Gathercole.
Another streamer pattern caught my eye, the "Teal Blue Silver".

My main problem is I don't have any teal feathers.  Mallard is SORT of similar, but without the nice barring. I tried it anyway.
Would this be considered a "Mallard Blue Silver"?

I'd never tried the "folded wing" before, and it turned out much smaller in profile than I wanted.  Something to remember and improve upon for next time.

Next, I tried using grizzly hackle feathers for the wing.  ("Grizzly Blue Silver"?) This turned out ok.  I did coat the heads with Clear Cure Goo.

First Fishing Report of 2012

On Sunday, January 22, 2012, I finally made it out fishing.  It had been over a month-and-a-half since I'd been fishing, which I think is the longest non-fishing spell I've had in the last 6 years!  Mainly to blame was the weather, which couldn't decide if it wanted to be Winter or not.  But at last, we had reasonably safe ice for ice-fishing.

My buddy Jay and I planned to meet up at a local public pond.  I arrived first and started drilling some test holes with my new Strikemaster Electra 2000 electric auger.  The ice was a good 6" thick everywhere.  As I walked back to my car to retrieve the rest of my gear, my friends Ron and Jim were waiting in the parking lot.  Awesome!  This particular pond has some pretty nice bluegills in it, plus I caught-and-released a 14" crappie and 27" channel catfish here in 2011.  There aren't a LOT of fish, but the potential for a nicer-sized one is fair.  The tough part would be FINDING them, so I was happy to have all the help I could get!  Jay soon arrived as well.

I drilled areas where I hoped to locate fish.  There were a lot of fishless holes!  One of the first holes I tried fishing got a few "lookers", but they wouldn't strike.

First, I should say that I had made a decision to NOT use live bait during this ice-fishing season.  I would try fly-fishing flies, plastics, and even scented plastics like Gulp! or Powerbait....but no minnows, waxworms, or maggots.  Why?  I dunno, I just wanted to challenge myself, and work more on "fooling the fish instead of feeding the fish".

Anyway, I drilled a lot of holes, fished a lot of spots.  Most places were fishless.  A few spots had fish, but they would look, smell the Gulp!, and SPOOK!  This went on for several hours.  Ron and Jim eventually left.  Apparently Jim managed to find some fish and caught a fair number of Bluegills.  Ron wasn't as fortunate.  Jay had caught 5 bass using jigging spoons.  I was skunked.

I moved back to the main basin of the pond and searched holes we'd already drilled, looking for fish.  And I drilled some more.  One hole I was checking had some "used" waxworms laying on top of the ice.  I picked 'em up.  I moved to the far end of the pond, where none of us had yet fished.  I tipped a 4mm tungsten jig with one of the waxies, and caught 2 bluegills.  HOORAY!  I wasn't skunked!

Jay was exhausted and decided to head for home.  I fished just a little longer, then decided to head to a 2nd public pond not far away.

When I arrived there, one other shack was on the ice.  They left after about an hour.  I drilled some holes in areas that typically held fish during the winter.  I wasn't disappointed.  I used up the other two "used" waxies in catching 2 more bluegills.  I kept the same jig on, and tipped it with a Gulp! maggot.  This worked pretty well.  I also took a Powerbait Honey Worm (Honey Grub?), a sliced it longitudinally into 3-4 thin strips.  This also worked well.

I ended up catching at least 16 bluegills here and 2 bass.  One bass was small, the other one was at least 15.5".  I hooked it on my wimpiest rod, and it peeled drag a bunch of times and fought for a long time.  THAT was fun!  I ended up calling it a day before it got dark.

Here's the little bass:

And here's the bigger one:

the "Garry"

I was looking through "The Fly -Tying Bible" by Peter Gathercole.   This streamer, called the "Garry", caught my eye.  I love the colors.  I have to admit I tied this up just for fun, not to fish with it.  Its too pretty to fish with!  :)

Fly-Tying Mid-January 2012

Here's some more junk I've tied up recently:
A Craft Fur streamer with a Clear Cure Goo-covered head:

Some "bass worms" made of feathers...I tested these in the sink, and they weren't 100% dried yet when I took this picture:

An innovative Gar fly pattern designed by an angler in central Iowa...the top one is tied on a clipped hook shank, the bottom two are tube flies:

A yellow Jumpin' Catfish Nymph:

A Stalcup's Gilled Nymph:

A favorite of mine..size 10 Gartside Sparrow:

A Chironomid I plan to try out on bluegill through the ice soon:

Fly-Tying, Early January 2012

Ug.  I haven't fished since November.  Due to an unforseeable and lingering series of unfortunate events (weather), I've been in the "no man's land" of fishing.  That is the period when the area lakes have frozen over, but the ice isn't thick enough to safely fish on/through.  Normally that period last 2-3 weeks.  This year it has lasted for about 7 weeks.  It appears to be nearly over, as the ice is finally getting thick enough...but then again, there are some 40-50 degree days being forecast in a few days, which might prolong this fishless spell.
What's an angler to do?  Thank goodness for fly-fishing and fly-tying!  No, I can't fly-fish right now, but I can tie up fly patterns that I will be able to use in the coming open-water season AND I can tie some fly patterns or "lures" that I will be able to use for ice-fishing.

I don't have the time or attention span to sit and tie a handful of one fly pattern.  Which is unfortunate, since I hear that is the best way to get GOOD at tying that particular pattern.  This explains a lot.  But the gist of this is that I tie one nymph here, then a streamer there, then a foam topwater, then a bass bug, then a softhackle wet fly, then....you get the picture?

Here's a small sample of some of the things I've in the past few weeks or so (pardon the hodge-podge disorganization):

Morrish's Anato-May

Some generic BH nymphs for ice-fishing (or open water)

Craft Fur Thunder Creek Minnow

Rick Zeiger's Goldie Jr variants

Muddler Minnow

Deer Hair Bass Popper

Goldie Jr's (silver)

Scud

Muddle May

Generic Soft Hackle

UV Nymph

Craven's Gonga

Misc. Streamers

Ice Flies!

More ice flies

Craft Fur Clousers for Bass

Wiggle Worm variants

Calftail Wing Streamer

Fox fur Streamer

Deer Hair Bass Popper

Rootbeer Diamond Braid nymph



Unweighted flies for ice-fishing "Michigan Rig" style