Dad..I love fly fishing.

I took my daughter out fishing today. She told me "Dad, I love fly fishing. I can feel every little nibble and bite. Oooohhh. Look it jumped out of the water for the fly."

It was an awesome day!

Pure Art

A few weeks back Owl Jones over at Zazzy Pop had a naming contest for some of the poppers he makes. I threw in a suggestion and was lucky enough to win. That really surprised me, as I never...really never ever win anything. After waiting for what seemed like forever, they arrived on this first football Saturday.

 Tearing into the package to get to the treasure that lay inside was a hassle. They sell some good envelopes down south, that's for sure. After opening the envelope, the first thing I see is a business card.

Then on to the good stuff..

Look at 'em.. they are too pretty to fish with.. I'm really afraid that I'll lose them to some evil fly eating tree.


Thanks Owl... these are just pure art

Getting older

Well this year is going to be interesting. My oldest daughter will be a senior and my youngest is going into second grade. I never really stopped to think about it till just now. I'm getting old...:(  It seems like yesterday that I was in high school myself.

Up to my knees in it.

This afternoon I went fishing at a lake nearby that I had not fished since this spring. I was just amazed at just how low the water level had become. It had dropped 3 to 4 feet since this spring.

However with the water so low, it meant more area to fish from. Since I don't have a boat I have to fish from shore. I could walk right along to shore without anything getting in my way. So that's what I did.

Some of the new shoreline is soft, as I soon found out.  Walking to a new area that I had not fished before I quickly sank up to my knees in soft mud. I'm quite lucky I could pull myself out of it.  I thought about taking some pics but I just wanted to get that stinky mud washed off as soon as possible.

I did catch a few chunky bass nothing huge but thick for their size, and one made off with one of my favorite flies.

Finally

Since first learning to cast a fly rod a little over a year ago. I can DOUBLE HAUL!!!!

Its not that I need to use it as most to the fishing I do is close to shore anyhow. Its just something I wanted to learn how to do. I've trying and trying for quite a while and finally the clouds parted and reviled the hidden art of double hauling to me.

Also Ava wanted to fish with me today again. I was so nice to have her along. I'm a lucky father to have a little girl that likes to go fishing (plus she gets to go play at the playground when she gets bored).  However the wind wasn't really on her side today but we managed a few fish.

Where would you take Build #100?

My submission to the TFM Where would you take Build #100? contest.

Where would you take Build #100?

Hummmmm.... good question..

Not here.. It's been bone dry for 2 months now..

I might try here..

Great bass and bluegill lake, but its a secret location and a pain to get to. That's why its a great place.

How about here?

Nice crappie pond.

but most of the time I would use it here.

its just down the street from me. And since I taught my seven year old to roll cast I may never get my rod back again.

Product Review - Scientific Anglers Headstart Fly line

 Here it is. I love this line, really. Honestly this is the most expensive line I've bought to date. But it cast like a dream. 

 I ordered it on Monday night after finding that my old line (which I purchased only 3 months ago) was cracking. I was hoping that it would get here before the Memorial Day weekend, 'cause daddy needs to fish. 

Low and behold after come home from work tonight there it was sitting on the table waiting of me. While dinner was cooking I just had to put it on my reel. Right after dinner I headed on down to the pond to test it out.

I decided to try out some poppers that I bought last year and see if I could get a bite. Well I did, I never knew a bluegill could swallow a popper, but I do now. In the process of removing it, I destroyed it. Turns out the popper was made of wood, all this time I though it was foam.

Back to the line... I can cast this line out almost 60 feet with a decent amount of accuracy. Best of all I can feel it load the rod, now perhaps I can learn to double haul. I really think I have a shot with this line. I'll post a follow up on the line after the holiday because I plan on putting this line to task.

The Hammer

This one is called the Hammer and let me tell you the crappie hammered this thing to nothing. My friend (hope he doesn't mind me calling him that) gave me one of these at the same time he gave me the greasy monkey.

The nice thing about this fly is it rides hook point up so you can fish it on the bottom without too many snags.

Not sure what more I can say about this fly, so on to the video.

http://vimeo.com/18903083

Greasy Monkey

About three weeks ago I got the chance to fish with a guy from a fishing forum that we belong to. He gave me a few flies that he tied up and one of them he calls the greasy monkey. Now this fly is quite interesting as it is fluorescent yellow. This thing is a 'gill and bass magnet. 

I was catching bass like this on it. This one happened to be 17" long and the biggest I've ever caught in this pond.

and the 'gills were like this one.

Anyway I love this fly and just had to tie some up myself. On mine I used chartreuse hackle but the fish don't seem to mind all that much.

Well here's the video if you want to tie some of your own.

http://vimeo.com/41821191