50,000 Views - THANK YOU!

I noticed this weekend that the views on my blog have now exceeded 50,000 views.  A big THANK YOU to my followers!  :)

Weekend Flyfishing, 11/17 & 11/18/2012

Flyfished for trout on Saturday morning.  It was tough.  The fish were definitely in a negative mood, the way they reacted to flies.  Still managed to land 8 Rainbows, but it took 3.5 hours to do it.  Beadhead Buggers fished really slow worked best for me.  Took some pictures of my friend Dale G., who arrived ahead of me and definitely caught more fish than I.

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Flyfished a City pond late afternoon Sunday, from 3:45pm-5:30pm.  Targeted Bluegills.  Uses a glass beadhead woolly bugger pattern for awhile.  Caught some nice Bluegills and a chunky bass.  Switched to a chartreuse microjig under an indicator, and caught quite a few more dandy Bluegills.  Ended up landing 28 really nice Bluegills (up to at least 8"), and the one fat bass (guesstimated 13").

The Bluegills and Bass all fought REALLY well.  As usual, I was impressed with the size of bluegills in this particular pond.  We've ice-fished it in the past, and for some reason the fish are always extremely hard to find in this pond.  One thing I noted was that some of the bigger bluegills had some sort of lesions...that looked like globs of slime stuck to them.  I've seen it before in other places, not sure what the cause is.  Also caught one 'gill that had it so bad that it had a large open wound on one side of its body.  Strange.  Again...with all the fertilizers and herbicide/pesticides that run into these ponds, I sure wouldn't ever EAT any of these fish.  :icon_puke_l:  Still great fun to catch, though!  :toothy4:

Here's some pics:

Lunchtime Flyfishing, 11-16-2012

Rather than chase those nice crappies again today during lunch today, I flyfished another public pond instead.
It was slow going, but the Bluegills were decent.  Several shook free partway in. I used the same setup as yesterday.  I landed 8 Bluegills.  This pond is looking good as a potential spot for ice-fishing this winter.

Lunchtime Flyfishing, 11-15-2012

Different day, same pond, similar results.  Flyfished during lunch at a City pond.
Caught a few trees on backcasts...lost a microjig, tippet and indicator.

Wind was out of a slightly different direction, and not quite as strong.  It was more breezy than windy today.  Sunny!

Used the same color microjig as yesterday, about 2' under the indicator.  Landed 9 Bluegills, 4 Crappies.  Lost one nice Crappie that I watched throw the hook underwater.  The Crappies were all 10"+, with the biggest being a VERY strong-fighting 13-incher.  I compared it to yesterday's 13" Crappie, and determined today's is a DIFFERENT fish!  That is GOOD!

Here's the first Crappie of the day:

...and a pic with the microjig in its mouth:

And this is today's 13-incher:

Lunchtime Flyfishing Report, 11-14-2012

Forecast said 11mph winds today...I guarantee is was closer to 20mph!

Still, it was a decent day, so I went flyfishing during my lunch hour.  Visited a nearby public pond that I hadn't visited for about a month.

Started off really slow...not catching much, then found a current break and started catching a few bluegills, and missing a lot of strikes.  Continued working my way around the pond until I ended up on the downwind side.  Tough casting into that wind!  I noticed a narrow mudline that extended out away from shore for 30' or so, which I assumed was caused by geese, since there were some hanging around the pond.  Now I'm thinking it may have been caused by wind...but whatever the reason, there were fish around it.  I caught several more bluegills, including one really nice fat Bull, and I also landed 3 surprise Crappies!  The first Crappie was 13", and the other two were 10"-12" range.

Everything was caught on a 1/80 oz Springbrook Wunder-style microjig tied with an Olive Glimmer Chenille body, and grizzly marabou tail.  I fished this about 2' beneath an indicator and retrieved slowly.

I took a couple pictures of the 13-inch Crappie:

Fishing Getting Tougher?

I went flyfishing today during lunch.  Probably should have tried for Trout, since they seem very active right now.  Instead, I tried for Bluegills.  Fishing seemed really slow compared to my previous trip to this pond.  Probably a sign of the season to come?  I landed 4 decent bluegills, rolled several others on botched hooksets, and had one or two instances where a missed hookset felt pretty heavy!  Could have been some other fish species, or ..maybe not.  Gotta love that "who knows?" feeling!  Makes you want to go back and try some again.

10% of the Stocked Trout in 1 week!

10%...its official!

So, if you've been following my recent blog (s) about flyfishing for stocker trout at Lake Petocka… 5 (trout caught during Thursday stocking day) + 64 (trout from Friday) + 78 (from Sunday) = 147.  I needed 3 more trout to “officially” catch 150 trout…10% of the 1,500 Rainbow Trout the DNR stocked into Lake Petocka.

I went flyfishing during my lunch hour today.  HOLY CRAP WAS IT WINDY!!!!  It was bright sunlight and the wind was blowing almost straight out of the south.  Weather service says wind speed was 16mph, but there is only open harvested farm fields around the lake, no wind breaks at all, and it always feels much windier there than anywhere else.  Only one guy fishing when I arrived, there were at least 8 when I left!  Because of the drive time from where I work, I could only fish for 20 minutes.

Flyfishing was tough.  Couldn’t cast far, no visible trout activity anywhere that I could see.  I fished near the area in the NW Corner where Dale G. and I flyfished on Sunday.  I cast straight out, and I also cast more parallel to shore. I managed to catch 3 Rainbows, and lost a 4th.  The fish all hit within 5’ of shore during the parallel casts.  Used a #8  black woolly bugger with a 4mm gold bead.

Other interesting stats…it took me 12.33 hours to catch 150 trout…a rate of over 12 fish/hour…or an average of 1 fish every 5 minutes.

Sound like bragging?  It is, and I hate bragging, unless its all in fun.  And I DO fish for fun...I'm not a guide and I'm not fishing for food.  I fish a lot...catch plenty of fish, and it isn't often that I impress myself.  But for some reason this impresses even me!

Lake Petocka - Nov. 1-4, 2012

Lake Petocka was stocked with 1500 Rainbow Trout on Thursday at Noon.  I took Thursday and Friday off work to fish it.

Thursday morning I fly fished a local public pond to waste some time before heading to Bondurant (Lake Petocka).  Using a chartreuse micro jig,  I landed 100 small fish...81 Crappies, 15 Bluegills and 4 Green Sunfish.  Not bad for two hours of fishing!

At Lake Petocka, fishing was tough after the stocking.  Most folks left fishless.  Maybe one or two caught their 5-fish limit.  I did better than most, and caught 5 trout and 1 chunky Largemouth Bass, but it took me all of 2 hours to accomplish that.  I also fished my way around nearly the entire lake.  I didn't keep any.

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On Friday, I fly fished Petocka for 6 hours.  I fished one corner of the lake for awhile.  Caught 10 Trout there, before my friend Dale G. called and said he'd been there awhile longer and had caught 18 fish where he was.  He told me to come down and fish with him, if the action slowed where I was.  It did slow.  I caught one more trout before heading over to his corner of the lake. I saw a few small pods of fish working quidkly along the top of a drop-off, and landed 2 trout from those groups.  Then the action died at that spot.  I saw some more fish further down the shoreline, so I started following where I could see fish.  I caught quite a few more fish, at least one from almost every small group that came down along the shoreline.  Dale came down and fished by me.  The action slowed.  I headed back to the corner of the pond where I had started the morning.  There were fish there...quite a few!  I was catching fish on nearly every cast for awhile, and Dale came over to see what was up.  We both caught fish here.

For the day, there were lulls in the action, but overall it was fairly steady.  I used a variety of fly patterns.  White was a very effective color this day.  I ended up catching and releasing 64 Rainbow Trout.  Some were caught by casting straight out with beadhead White Woolly Buggers.  Others were caught on Blue Thunder Streamers worked along the top of a drop-off when small groups of 3 or 4 trout would come along the bank.  And others were caught on unweighted white Woolly Buggers cast really shallow along the shoreline when small pods would come in and search for food within 4-5' of shore.  And still others were caught on a gold Springbrook Wunder microjig suspended about 10"-12"under an indicator in a small pocket of water with 2-5' depth.

This one hit an unweighted white Woolly Bugger.

This one hit a glass beadhead dubbed-body softhackle.

This one hit a Blue Thunder streamer.

Hard to see...but a number of fish had sort of rosy-pink bellies.  I assume this might be the coloration of a spawning male Rainbow Trout?...since most of the fish with such bellies were dripping milt.

This was Trout #60 of the day!

Dale G. And I fished together much of the time.  He even supplied some buffalo meat sticks to help re-energize us after noon.  They were tasty, thanks Dale!

I finally left when a very rude Dad used his 3 year old son as an excuse to cast into the small area we were fishing.  Really irked me.  Don't misunderstand, I thought it was great the guy brought his son out to try for trout.  But fishing really close to other guys and then casting the son's rod (with a huge bobber on it) over in front of those other guys into the area they had clearly been fishing for some time, and then moving himself between the son's rod and the closest guy and start casting dead-center where the established angler had been casting and catching fish.  Dale was that guy first...and he left without complaining.  So then the Dad picked up his gear and moved over by me and repeated the same situation.  Each time he would cast his son's giant bobber over in front of me, I'd turn and look right at the dad.  He wouldn't make eye contact with me at all.  But it was ridiculous and obvious what he was doing, and it was outrageously and sickeningly rude.  What a horrible example he was setting for his young son!  I just reeled in and left as well, and saw the  dad then move into my position and start casting over by the guys that had come down to fish on my other side, but were not crowding me.  Unreal.  I'm still pissed.  The Dad finally hooked a trout, and handed the rod to his son to reel in.  THAT was a good move, and I admired him for that.  But with a lake full of fish and tons of vacant shoreline to choose from, to crowd out people who are catching fish is still unacceptable.

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Unexpectedly, I found myself with some time to go fishing on Sunday, Nov. 4.  I headed back to Lake Petocka.  The sky was overcast, with occasional light drizzle.

I first fished the last spot where I had caught fish on Friday. Not much going on there.  I had only made about 10 casts when I got a phone call.  Dale G. was at the lake again, and had seen my car.  There were fish where he was, so he invited me over.  Fish indeed!  The two of us were soon catching plenty of fish.  Guys next to us bottom-fishing with bait just looked on and shook their heads.

Because of the weather, I had my hoodie hood pulled up over my cap.  After awhile, I became aware that I was being watched.  I looked to my left, and there was a guy standing about 6' away, facing me and just looking on with a scowl on his face.  "Hi," I said.  He said "I'm just going to watch you."  Weird.  "OK," said I, and turned back to the business of fishing and catching.  The guy just watched me for about 20 minutes!  At one point he asked to see what I was using.  I showed him, and went back to fishing.  He finally moved about 25' down the shoreline and fished.  Turns out he was using spinning gear.  He was casting into an obvious pod of trout, but not catching any.  Over about 1.5 hours, he did land 3 or 4.  That's him in the background of this picture (of me holding a rather fat toad of a trout!):

Dale caught plenty of Rainbows as well:

Fishing eventually slowed.  Dale had to get on home.  That guy to my left who had been watching me caught one more, and decided to leave.  His pod of trout were still there, so I moved over and caught a bunch more fish from that pod before it slowly moved beyond my casting range ( plus I was casting into the wind).  I ended up catching 78 Rainbow Trout in 4 hours!  Pretty good day!

Dale pointed out later that my total trout caught over 2 days (64+78=142) amounted to nearly 10% of the fish that had been stocked!  Actually, I need to catch just 3 more trout (since I had caught 5 on Friday, so a total of 147) to make it an official 10%.  I think I can "get'er done"...if I can find time to get back over to the lake!  :)

Fish Photo Tips

A friend from Central Iowa Anglers fishing club asked about why my fish pictures look so good (usually).  I thought I would repost my response here in case others might find the information useful.

It helps if you can start off with a good picture, and that usually means HOLD THE CAMERA STILL WHEN YOU SNAP THE PHOTO.  This will at least give you a good image to start with.  Snapping several pics of the same fish improves your odds of getting one that is sharp.  Remember, it really costs NOTHING to take more digital photos!  Also...if you old digital camera doesn't take good photos to start with...GET A NEW ONE.  Do your research...if the camera will be used primarily for fishing, I recommend a waterproof camera, of which there are several good brands that are affordable.

So...starting with a good photo...Here's what I do.  I used a program called PhotoScape (v3.6.2).  Its a GREAT program for pictures.  You can view, edit, create GIFs....do all sorts of things.  Its free, you can download it here:
http://www.photoscape.org/ps/main/download.php

After you've downloaded the pictures from you camera to your computer, I start up the PhotoScape program and click the "Editor" option.  I navigate to the folder containing my fishing pictures.  I open a new picture.

Step 1.  I click the "Crop" tab and crop the photo to show just the desired area.

Step 2.  Click the "Home" tab.  I click the "Resize" down arrow and reduce the size of the photo so the long edge is 1280 pixels.  If its an excellent photo that I might want to use as my computer desktop, I might go with 1600 pixels on the long side.  I do this mainly to reduce the size of the file.  Since most of these photos are posted on the computer, they just don't need to be huge in size, like they would be if you kept the original 8 or 10 MP photo from your camera.

Step 3.  I hit the "Auto Level" button.  If the photo looks better, I continue to the next step.  If it looks worse, I click the "Undo" button, then continue to the next step.

Step 4.  I click the "Backlight" down arrow and try a few variations (usually 50% or 75%....just hit the "Undo" button to revert back one step) to see what looks best.  This step reduces shadows and brightens the background a bit.  Going too far can give a weird "halo" effect around the fish, so watch out.  This is step can especially improve photos taken in low light conditions, even if you used a flash.

Step 5.  I click the "Sharpen" down arrow, and select a choice.  Usually a "2" is all I need.  If the original started blurry, nothing is going to make it look sharp, but bumping up to a "5" can sometimes help enough.


There's a lot of other things you can do with this software.  You can make classic Ansel Adams-style B&W images from your landscape photos, for example.  On rare occasions if I have a really dark photo, you can "brighten" the picture. It generally washes out the colors a bit, so its usually a last resort in trying to salvage an otherwise useless picture.

Have fun!

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Addendum.  Its only fair to show an example of what I mean...
The picture below was taken of me by my friend Dale G. while we were fishing.  He downloaded it from his camera and sent it to me electronically.

This next picture is the result after I've cropped it and adjusted the backlighting and sharpness a bit:

The backlighting helps bring the face out of shadow a bit.  Improving the sharpness makes it a cleaner picture with less "blur".  In my opinion, its a better, more accurate and representative picture.

Lunchtime Flyfishing Report, 10-24-2012

Air temp at 74F.  Overcast sky.  13mph wind from the South.  Might be the last day of the year for 70+ degree weather.  Gotta fish!

I visited a public pond not far from work.  This was a pond I had made my first visits to earlier this year, but hadn't revisited since May 1.

I started out with a yellow Boa Yarn Leech on my line.  I caught a small Largemouth Bass, then had a few tentative strikes.  I switched to an unweighted black Woolly Bugger.  Action picked up then.

I ended up with a "baker's dozen" of decent Bluegills.  They were colorful, so I took pictures of a few of the males:

Some of the bluegills are reaching 8", which is what this chunky female Bluegill measured:

And one pleasanst surprise on this trip was to discover a CRAPPIE in this pond!  Excellent!

Halloween Costume #1

This isn't my costume...its my son's costume.  It looked fun though, so I had to try it on.  It was a tight fit for me...and then my HEAD FELL OFF!!

Flyfishing Report, 10/21/2012

Saturday was an absolutely perfect, beautiful day for fishing.  So of course I didn't go.

Sunday was nearly as good, and I managed to head to the Skunk River north of Ames for an hours-worth of flyfishing in the late afternoon.  The river looked better, our recent rains have made a small improvement on the river, and there is now a small current flowing in the river...it isn't just stagnant pools anymore.  Its still really shallow, though.

I was hoping to find some suckers, but didn't see any.  I wet-waded, and my feet got cold, so this is probably the last wet-wading trip of the season for me!  Despite my polarized sunglasses, the glare on the water prohibited me from sight-fishing.  I was casting blind.

I started out fishing a small wet fly, and caught 2 Smallmouth Bass.

As you can see on the fly, I was dredging up plenty of gunk even though the fly was lightly weighted with only a small glass bead.  Since the water was so shallow, I switched to a foam topwater...a Chernobyl Ant/Hopper pattern.  I caught 8 more Smallies on that, lost at least half that many more (barbless hook), and also caught one decent Bluegill.

Build-up for Trout, Oct. 19-20,2012

The DNR would be stocking trout in Banner Pits on Friday.  I got the day off from work.

In preparation, I decided to fly-fish Lake Petocka on Thursday evening for some "legacy trout" that may have survived the Summer.  It was cold miserable drizzly conditions, but I dressed for it.  I tried two spots.  I saw a fish dart away from shore at the first spot.  Not sure what it was.  At the second spot I landed 2 chunky Largemouth Bass.  Then it was too dark to bother, so I went home.

I finished tying up some flies I hoped the trout might be interested in the next day.

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Friday was again cool, breezy and with a light drizzle off and on throughout the day.

Since the trout wouldn't be stocked until noon, I decided to occupy my morning with a goal of catching 100 fish before I headed to Banner Pits to fish for trout.

I visited a local public pond where I had caught 58 fish during my lunch hour on Thursday.  Fish weren't quite as easy to catch on Friday morning.  I only caught 77 fish on micro jigs before I had to leave for Banner Pits.  That total included an even 50 Crappies, 13 Bluegills, 12 Green Sunfish, one Largemouth Bass, and one Yellow Perch. The fish were mostly small.  The biggest fish were a 10" Crappie and an 11.75" Crappie.  I also lost another really nice Crappie that managed to throw the hook.

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By the time I got to Banner Pits, the stocking truck was about halfway done dumping the trout into the lake.  The shoreline was crowded.  I picked a spot next to the stocking truck simply because it was the only open space...and it afforded me room to fly cast.

I tried several different fly patterns, and found a few the fish liked.  I was soon catching fish.  In the next two hours I landed and released 21 Rainbow Trout.

Compared with those anglers around me, I am happy to report that flies outfished PowerBait, live minnows, and nightcrawlers.  I could have fished longer...but I felt like I had fished enough for the moment.
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On the way home, I tallied my fish total for the day.  98.  So close to 100, it would be a shame to waste that opportunity.  I realized I would need to fish one more spot to catch enough fish to push me over  triple digits.  It was time for the schools to be letting out for the day.  I had to take my kids to piano lessons, which lasts an hour, so I decided to wait and fish after I had dropped them off.

I fly fished a public pond I often just drive by.  It was still gloomy and drizzling.  I donned my rainwear and headed for the water, fly rod in hand.  Fishing was slow here.  Using a microjig under an indicator, I squeaked out 7 Bluegills, 5 Green Sunfish, and 2 tiny Largemouth Bass.  By tiny, I mean like 2" young-of-the-year Bass!

So, those 14 fish put my total for the day at 112 fish and 6 species.  Satisfied.