First Flyrod Fish of 2013!

Got back from a family Spring Break vacation earlier this week (will blog about that soon!).  Finally, the local ponds and lakes are starting to open up.  Some still have ice on them, a few are completely ice-free.

Wednesday (March 27) after work, I visited a local pond with my flyrod for about 45 minutes.  There was ice covering about 1/4 of the pond.  I walked beyond it to start fishing.  First cast with a chartreuse microjig/indicator resulted in a Crappie.

Not a jumbo, but fun all the same.  I ended up with 10 crappies and 4 bluegills.

On Thursday, I flyfished a different pond during my lunch hour.  That pond was 60%+ ice-covered, and the open water shoreline was ringed with about 20' of floating weedy/algae/gunk.  Messy fishing.  I landed just one Bluegill.

Thursday evening I flyfished the same pond as the previous evening.  All the ice was gone, although a neighboring pond about 100 feet away was still 50% ice-covered.  I flyfished for @ 2.25 hours.  For awhile it was a fish on nearly every cast.  I ended up catching at least 30 Crappies and at least 23 Bluegills.

The fish were in shallow water near shore and were aggressive.  Most fish came on the chartreuse microjig/indicator rig, but I also caught a few of each species on this:

I am SO glad to once again be flyfishing in open water!

Tying with Odd Materials

While the season/weather conspires against me actually doing any flyfishing, I continue to tie a fly or two.

This past week, I went to a Michael's craft store to pick up some items for a project my son wanted to do.  While there, I walked through the yarn section.  They had the usual great selection of wool yarns...but the yarn skeins that caught my eye on this trip was their excellent color selection of Patons Bohemian Yarns and Martha Stewart Glitter Eyelash yarns.

The Bohemian yarns are a really thick, heavy chenille-type yarn.  Some really great patterns that use this material are Rich McElligott's Wonder Worms and Shannon's Streamer.  I have some white already, so although I turned an appreciative eye towards the other colors I saw, I didn't buy any.  I think I might go back and remedy that this week, though.

I've never been a fan of Eyelash Yarns.  I personally don't think their action is that good in the water for what I would use them for.  On the other hand, I did see some pretty cool "bass jig flies" tied with the stuff, and it looks like that would be a perfect fit for this material.  The GLITTER Eyelash yarn has a lot of mylar flash built right into it, and it started some ideas in my head, so I bought 4 colors:

I've only tied up a few flies with it so far.  Here's what they look like dry:

...and here's what they look like AFTER getting wet:

I like the wet look on these.  I think they will be especially good fished quickly in still water...or in the river, since the current will help them keep a streamlined shape.

In the clearance yarn rack, I saw a single skein of a HUGE yarn called Loops and Threads "Festive Fur"....in an excellent chartreuse color.  (To quote Left Kreh...."If it ain't Chartreuse, it ain't no use!").  This is a super-thick yarn that makes Bohemian Yarn look malnourished. I measured the Festive Fur...and it is 1/2" diameter when dry.  I wasn't sure how best to show scale of this yarn, so I stuck a pair of my fly-tying scissors in the skein:

Its so thick...I envision using this for heads on baitfish patterns.  It should really push a lot of water.  I also tied up a furled-tail pattern that I hope fishes similar to a Senko.  One problem is this pattern might be pretty heavy to cast once it gets soaked with water!  We shall see.  I'm hoping the bass will LOVE it!  The smaller fly below...I hope is small enough to attract Crappies.  It should work great after dark, when the fly pushes a lot of water making it easy for the fish to find at night.

The color is perfect..it definitely lights up under a UV light!

I'm open to suggestions anyone might have on patterns to tie with ANY of these materials.  For example, I think the orange-colored Glitter Chenille might make a decent body on a crayfish pattern...it already has built-in legs!

Crayfish Fly Patterns

Confession....I have only used crayfish fly patterns a couple of times.  The first time, a large fish broke me off just a few seconds after the hook-set.  Crayfish are a great food source when fish can find them, so I keep looking for better patterns to tie...with plans of eventually fishing them.

Last week I was searching the web for fly patterns for Largemouth Bass, and I ran across a pattern that REALLY caught my eye.  Although the colors are different, as near as I could determine that pattern is called May's Clearwater Crayfish.  I couldn't find a recipe or tying instructions, only pictures on the Orvis website, where they are sold.  Here's a screen capture of the one that I saw in a video that originally caught my eye (its the one on the far right):

The Orvis website shows this:

I did the best I could with trying to figure out how to tie the pattern, and made some material substitutions.

Although the pictures appeared to use a 60-degree jig hook, I used Mustad 32756 90-degree jig hooks.  The first one I tied on a #4 hook.  I made my own eyes for these.  On this one, I used Turkey as the carapace.

Really doesn't look much like the original.  Hey, it was a first attempt!  :)

Next, I tied one on a #1 Mustad 32756 90-degree jig hooks (#4 and #1 were the only sizes I had).  For this one, I used brown Furry Foam for the carapace:

I tied up a 3rd one, also on the #1 hook, and once again I used Turkey for the carapace:

I compared the last two:

I like them both.  The Fuzzy Fur is easier to work with, and a softer feel for the fish.  But I like the mottled color of the Turkey carapace.

Here's a comparison of those crayfish (which as you may have noticed do NOT have claws, but are still unmistakably crayfish), and some of Missouriflies.com "Rough Dub Crayfish" that I tied (if they don't look good, its my fault).  My Rough Dub's are smaller in overall size than my May's Clearwater's.  The Rough Dubs also have claws, and are MUCH quicker to tie.  I like them, too.

I'd still like to figure out how to tie them so they look like the one on the right side of the 3rd picture in this post.  For now, I like the May's Clearwater AND the Rough Dub crayfish patterns....so I guess I will keep tying a few of both.  And then hopefully I can try them out on the fish later this year!

February 2013 Fly Tying

The local waters are still ice-covered, but the quality and safety of that ice has been questionable.  So, I haven't been fishing in weeks.  I really haven't been tying too many flies either, but I have gotten a few done.

Mostly, I've been tying flies for crappies, and also for largemouth bass.  The crappie flies are my usual top-producers...nothing really new there.  For Largemouth Bass, I had some good success with a topwater pattern last year.  Now, I've been trying to tie up mostly bluegill/baitfish imitations to see if I can coax some nicer fish from my local waters that might not be willing to strike the topwaters.  Some of these I've tied before...I just have never used them much.  My plan is that I actually WILL use these more this year.

Anyway, on to the flies:

I tied up some #2 size EP fiber bluegill patterns:

I've also tied up some Craft Fur Minnow variations (these may also work well for white bass/wipers):

...and some zonker strip worms:

Well, I might as well show what I've been tying for crappies.
Chartreuse Springbrook Wunder-style microjigs:

Chartreuse Woolly Buggers:

This fly is experimental.  I thought the big deer-hair head would push a lot of water, and also help the fly suspend...in short, this should be a great fly to use after dark!

And these featherwing streamers just LOOK great!

Ice-Fishing, February 3, 2013

My buddy Jay and I headed to Big Creek Lake on Sunday morning.  We fished from 8am to 2pm.  Weather was decent, mostly cloudy and high temperatures in the lower 20's Fahrenheit.  Ice thickness was a solid 12" of quality clear ice.

Jay used his handheld GPS to locate an old brushpile.  We drilled several holes in the area before locating the brush, then drilled more holes to cover the length of the brushpile, which topped out near 12' of water, and was placed on a slope that dropped down into around 27' of water.

I fished a great hole, and the fish were active.  I had plenty of good solid strikes on jigging spoons tipped with plastic, and tungsten jigheads tipped with plastic.  I could not hook any of these fish!  At most, I had fish on for less than 2 seconds, or two feet of vertical reeling, before they shook free.  It was fun to be getting so many strikes, but frustrating not be able to land any of them.  Jay used a jighead and waxworm, and landed a half-dozen bluegills, mostly chunky 7.5"-8" fish.

The bite died there for both of us...the fish seemed to just disappear.  So, we headed across the lake to look for some other fish.  The first think I noticed was that the water clarity on the west side of the lake was excellent.  I could see my jig down at least 10'.  We drilled a lot of holes, and found some good-looking structure, but no fish.  We drilled some holes in featureless areas, and actually saw some fish that would move in, and quickly move back out again.  We suspected these were White Bass, which can be a lot of fun to catch while ice-fishing.  I used a jigging spoon tipped with plastic, and Jay used a jigging spoon tipped with a waxworm.  I caught two White Bass, and missed several other good strikes.  Jay landed at least 3 White Bass, before these hyper-active fish disappeared.  My biggest White Bass measured 10".

Before we left, we stopped by the brushpile where we had started the day, to see if any fish had shown back up on it.  I didn't find any fish, but Jay managed to catch one or two more nice bluegills.

Weekend Ice-Fishing Report - January 26-27, 2013

I got out to do some ice-fishing both days this weekend!

On Saturday, my friend Jay and I visited a local public pond.  We fished from 8:15am to 11:45am.  The fishing dropped off noticeably after 10:30am.

Using a 4mm tungsten jighead tipped with a Micro Nuggie plastic, my first fish of the day was a 13" Crappie!

I ended up catching 5 Crappies, total, and the others were all in the 10" +/- range.

I also caught at least 14 Bluegills (nothing big...up to 7.5").

Using a Swedish Pimple jigging spoon tipped with a green Micro Nuggie plastic, I landed 4 Largemouth Bass (chunky 13-inchers).

A couple bigger bass got off at the hole after some really long and excellent battles.  I got to see two of those bigger ones, since the ice was clear, and both shook the hook just under the hole, or even up into the hole.  I guessed one to be at at LEAST 17”, and the other one was just enormous…easily a 4lb fish, possibly 6lb range, which is pretty darn big for Iowa, especially in a public pond.   

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On Sunday, Jay and I braved the ice-covered roads and fished the same pond again.  Overall fishing seemed just a little slower, and once again the fish seemed to noticeably hit less frequently after 10:30am.  I used the same gear as on Saturday.

This time, I caught a couple tiny Bluegills before hooking my biggest Crappie of the day, another 13-incher!

I caught a total of at least 6 Crappies (including one on the jigging spoon), and the others were in that 10" range again.

I also landed at least 13 Bluegills.  The bigger ones showed up under my ice-hole about 3'-5' deep over 9' of water.

I only caught 3 Largemouth Bass on Sunday, but the biggest one was a healthy 17-incher.  The others were the chunky 13-inch fish.

I enjoy smoking a cigar while I am fishing.  I don't inhale the smoke (at least, not on purpose), I just enjoy the flavor.  Sometimes when icefishing, the enjoyment factor is marginal.  When icefishing inside a pull-over portable ice-shack, even with the ventilation flaps open, the smoke can get rather painful on the eyes.  Several times, it just got to be too much, and my eyes were just stinging and streaming tears, making my nose run like a faucet.  What a guy will endure just to enjoy a good cigar!  I smoked 2 cigars on Sunday.  During the second one, I saw something large swim under the relatively clear ice.  It was moving towards my ice-hole.  And then it swam UP the icehole, and the MUSKRAT poked his head up and perched his front feet on the lip of the ice, facing right towards me.  It was comical.  After swimming around under the ice, it must have needed a few breaths of fresh air.  Unfortunately, it probably got a lungful of smoke and stinging eyes for his efforts.  He only stuck around for 5-10 seconds before diving back down and swimming away under the ice again.

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I thought I’d share a gear review.

For the last couple of seasons, using fly-fishing reels for ice-fishing has started to become very popular.  The fly reels don't coil line nearly as bad as spinning reels do, so there is less lure-spin down in the water below the ice.  I’d bought the Black Betty ice-fishing fly reel, and mounted it on a used St. Croix ice rod I bought from my friend Mike G.  That Black Betty reel sucks.  I absolutely hated it.  Even with the spool loosened as far as I could, the reel needed too much effort to reel backwards to let line out.  Its an attractive reel, it just isn't for me.  I will be getting rid of that reel at my earliest opportunity.

As a replacement, I bought the Ice Hopper Tight-Liner reel from Sportsman’s Direct.  (I just looked, and it appears to have been taken off the website?  Must be out-of-stock?)  I unspooled the line off the Black Betty, and respooled all that backing and line onto the Tight Liner reel…and mounted the reel on the St. Croix rod.  I put a Swedish Pimple jigging spoon on it, tipped with a green Micro Nuggie.  I used it Saturday and Sunday this past weekend.  Both days I caught bass on it, which all went on some amazing runs.  Even the one crappie I caught on the spoon fought well!

(See the top picture of this thread to see a picture of reel, along with a bass caught on it.)

I LOVE that reel!   Its exactly what  I was hoping for.  Fits great in the hand.  To let line out, you just reel backwards.  Sometimes the mono sticks on the reel (gets wedged between other line wraps, or whatever), so you have to manage the line a bit so you don’t end up reeling it backwards back onto the reel!  That’s not the reel’s fault, though…it would happen to any fly reel.   When a fish takes off running, you palm the reel to put some pressure on it (I had the drag set pretty light, but those bass were pretty strong.)  I landed 7 chunky bass, the biggest was a 17-incher.  Lost a couple larger ones (see the report above from Saturday).  Also caught at least one crappie on that set-up.

Early 2013 Ice Fishing - Trip #2

Ice-fished some brushpiles on a local reservoir on Saturday, January 5th.  My buddy Jay joined me, as well as our friend Chris and his son Nathan, and another friend Jim.  The ice was 9" of  solid, clear ice, with just a dusting of snow on top in most places, and bare ice on the rest.

A Conservation Officer checked up on us, which was nice to see.  He visited for awhile, hoping to see us catch something.  We'd fished for over an hour before he arrived, and drilled plenty of holes over several brushpiles, but hadn't even SEEN a fish yet!  I finally caught a Largemouth Bass before the Officer left us.

Jim was the last to arrive, soon after the Officer left, and located a brushpile that hadn't been fished yet this season (no old holes over the top of it), and he started catching fish.  He called us over.  He caught more fish. I caught a few Crappies up to 11", another bass, and a bluegill  here.  Then the action died.

Black Crappie

White Crappie

We drilled more holes around that brushpile, but no more fish were located.  Eventually, Jim, Chris and Nathan left.

Jay  covered a large area with his electronics, and located another brushpile that hadn't been fished yet.  We were on fish immediately.  I caught another crappie or two, a couple more bass, and lost a nicer bass just under the ice when it tangled in my transducer cable.  The action here ended abruptly, just after both Jay and I had some huge 18"-2' of solid red (fish) show up, then disappear.  Whatever it was spooked the other fish away.  We couldn't find a single fish after that.

It was odd how few fish were on these brushpiles.  Last ice-season, the fish were stacked on them.

I used only jigging spoons tipped with ice-fishing plastics (no live bait), and ended up with 7 Crappies in all, plus the 4 Largemouth Bass and 1 Bluegill.  It was fun, but considering how much time we spent, the catching rate was not good at all.

New Year's Day - 2013

Last weekend, I could have gone ice-fishing.  I had the time, my gear was ready...I just simply chose not to. Very weird!

But I did go ice-fishing yesterday (New Year's Day).  I visited a public pond in town that I had not ice-fished before.  I had fly-fished it during open water, and thought I knew where the fish would be holding.  I was wrong.  Since I marked no fish at the first 5 spots I tried (4'-7' deep), I decided the fish must be in the deeper water.

Turned out the fish were scattered in small groups or singles, and constantly on the move.  They were in 10'-14' of water.

I drew a nice fish in using a jigging spoon, but it just followed the spoon up and down without striking.  I switched to a tungsten jig tipped with a Gulp! Waxworm.  Live waxworms and maggots are great ice-fishing bait, but over the last couple of years, I've determined to weed myself off the crutch of using live bait, even during ice-fishing.  I've discovered live bait isn't necessary, even during the tough conditions of winter.

I fished about 4.5 hours, and most of the time was spent waiting for the next group of fish to show up.  If they didn't show up for 10-15 minutes, I would move to another location.  I ended up landing at least 14 Bluegills (biggest I measured was a fat 8-incher, and all were really close to that length).

I also caught one crappie, which was cool, because I'd just caught one crappie during the open-water season here...and supposedly they were never stocked here.  I also caught a largemouth bass of about 12", and lost another just below the hole that looked considerably larger.

I discovered that releasing a fish back into the hole would immediately make the small group of fish beneath my ice-hole disappear.  I could NEVER catch more than one fish from any group of fish.  So, one time I tried just putting the landed fish on the ice until the group moved away, to see if it made a difference.  That time, I caught about 6 fish from the group before it moved on.

There were a LOT of Canadian Geese flying around most of the morning!

Also, the ice was a very safe 7" thick everywhere I measured.  Air temp started out in the morning at around 5 degrees Fahrenheit, and was supposed to reach 17 degrees F (I never checked to verify that).

Variety - Flyfishing in Iowa!

Flyfishing….its not just for trout!

Folks get started in flyfishing for different reasons.  I first tried flyfishing in about 2000.  I lived in Illinois at the time, and flyfished ponds for Bluegills and Crappies, and a nice stream for Smallmouth Bass.  I didn’t fall in love with it, and soon put the fly rod away in favor of spinning gear.   I started taking flyfishing more seriously back in 2006, well after my family had moved back to Iowa.  It was the answer to a problem I was having of presenting a small lure to Bluegills and Crappies with a very slow retrieve.  With ultralite spinning gear, I could cast as small as 1/64 oz jigs, but the retrieve was still often faster than I wanted it to be.  Using a small bobber helped to fish slower and cast lighter lures, but often spooked fish when it hit the water.

I reasoned that with the fly rod, I could fish a small unweighted fly extremely slowly…exactly the presentation I was looking for.  I bought a new flyrod and fly reel, line, and leader.  I bought some flies that looked like something I thought the fish would eat. I put the equipment together, and decided I should practice casting it to teach myself how to deliver the fly to the fish.  And, of course, what better place to “practice” than at the water’s edge?

Casting fly line is a different concept than casting lures with spinning/casting gear.  But anyone can learn it if they have a desire and the patience to do so.  There is an ever-changing rhythm to it.  I was soon catching fish, and the experience was everything I’d hoped it would be.  Presenting the fly, getting a take, setting the hook, fighting and landing the fish were all very enjoyable with flyfishing gear.  While casting wasn’t as quickfire as using spinning/casting gear, it was actively engaging, and entirely FUN!

Discovering how much I flat-out ENJOYED flyfishing, I began to expand the fish species I would chase with this gear.  I found myself taking flyfishing gear along on a trip to Florida, and catching such exotic freshwater species as Peacock Bass, Oscars, Mayan Cichlids, and Tilapia. Total blast!

The good news is, you don’t have to leave Iowa to catch some awesome fish species on flyfishing gear!  You just have to do your homework.  You DO need to understand the fish you choose to pursue.  Where do they live?  What do they eat?  Once you’ve gotten these two questions answered, then you can move on to field testing and answering the third question.  What does it take to get one to strike?

For many, figuring all this out is a big part of the FUN of FISHING, so I don’t want to be that annoying person that tells you the ending of a new movie before you get a chance to see it.  I will, however, endeavor to open your eyes to flyfishing for some fish species you may not have considered.  How about using fly gear to pursue some of these species of fish that are found right here in central Iowa?

There’s the obvious species to pursue, like Largemouth Bass:

Bluegills:

Crappies:

Smallmouth Bass:

Hybrid Sunfish:

Green Sunfish:

All of the previous are reasonably common species.  How about these less common fly-fishing targets?

Grass Carp (possibly the most challenging fish of all to fool...but well worth the effort):

Common Carp (you’ll get a new appreciation for carp when you’ve fooled, fought, and landed your first one on fly gear…strong fish, yes sir!):

Smallmouth Buffalo (these were a delightfully unexpected reward caught while targeting carp):

Bigmouth Buffalo (disclaimer…this one was foul-hooked in the nose.  I’m still trying to solve the puzzle to hook one of these plankton feeders in the mouth with a fly):

Shortnose Gar (the gist of targeting these is that it is more like HUNTING and then casting to visible fish…very fun!):

Channel Catfish:

A trio of “yellows”…Yellow Bullhead:

Yellow Perch:

Yellow Bass:

..and White Bass:

Wiper (Hybrid):

Redear Sunfish:

Freshwater Drum:

…and even Walleye!  I’ve caught a few Walleyes with flyfishing gear in Iowa (in both lakes and rivers), but didn’t photograph any of them.  I did photograph some I caught on flies in Canada, however, so I’ll substitute one here.  The point is…it can be done.:

I started off saying that flyfishing isn’t just for trout.  It IS a good tool for trout, of course!  The Iowa DNR does stock trout in Central Iowa as part of the Urban Trout Program, so you can add the traditional flyrod trout to the list of possibilities for central Iowa, like this Brook Trout (not normally stocked for the UTP, but did get stocked at Lake Petocka in the Fall of 2011):

…and, finally, the more commonly stocked Rainbow Trout:

This would take us out of central Iowa, but if you don’t mind traveling to NE Iowa, you can add Brown Trout to your list:

I have also caught Northern Pike on a fly, but not in Iowa…yet.  They are in the Iowa River, and I’ve caught some on spinning gear in the Des Moines River and Raccoon River, so catching them on flyfishing gear is certainly a possibility.  They may be in other nearby rivers as well, so do your homework if you want to pursue Northern Pike on flies in Iowa.

There remains a number of other Iowa fish species I’m still looking forward to fooling with the fly rod, ranging from the Creek Chub to Flathead Catfish to Longnose Gar and a variety of suckers.  Asian Carp (Bigheads and Silvers) have invaded the Des Moines River to below Red Rock Lake.  It is unfortunate.  I’d love to be able to catch some of those large fish on flies too (even though this is unlikely since they are plankton filter-feeders), thus making lemonade from such lemons.

It has been said that if a fish eats, it can be caught on a fly.  I'll leave it to you to determine the truth of that statement.  Iowa abounds with a variety of fish species that you can pursue with flyfishing gear.  What kinds of fish do YOU want to catch?