2012 the year of the bass?

So I'm not giving up on trout in the new year.  Trout fishing around here is just not as abundant as some of the other local fisheries, but I do think I'll do more trout fishing in 2012 then I did last year.

The biggest fish of 2011 and she was a porker brown.   

That being said, I have found a new love for catching bass - bass of all shapes and sizes.  This year I will be targeting them even more with the fly rod then I did last year.   Sarah and I are already saving up for kayaks and with them should come even more reasons to take a fly rod or two.

With a little help from this guy and some of the my co-workers I hope to make 2012 full of fish like that.

Bass fishing is also opening up some new doors in the fly tying world as well. From foam and cork poppers to five minute epoxies and deer hair bugs - these big and exciting flies pose new challenges in tying, casting and fishing.

A small sample of the new flies I'm tying.

Last - and most importantly - bass are readily available everywhere. They are available where we are located near a couple ponds, as well as multiple brackish water ponds and rivers. This means large mouth and stripped bass are right out my back door! So with the challenges these fish bring both on the water and at the vise I am simply going to fish to them more.

Not to mention the occasional boat trip on the bay.

Hopefully 2012 will be full of these colors!

Happy New Year

Bruce

Merry Christmas

So I have not been the best blogger lately. Maybe my new years resolution should be to blog more. Well this post is to show I am alive and I will be posting some of what I have been tying lately.

As for tonight I just wanted to say Merry Christmas and I promise to post before new year.

Oh lastly look at what my wonderful wife got me for Christmas. It has been on my wish list for a while now.

Bruce

A good start.

I have a few minutes for a quick post so here we go. I am on my lunch break but felt the urge to share this mornings action with my fellow fishing addicts. Knowing I had to work at 10 I dragged myself out of bed early to hit my trout pond.

As I pulled up to the pond and slid into my waders I noticed the water looked disturbed. There were trout just under the surface and they were feeding. I set up a midge larva just like last week and got fishing.

It was not long before I landed two trout. I had a couple blue gills take the fly as well. After making my 4 or 5 last casts I packed it up and headed to work. It makes the day go by a little faster knowing I caught fish that same day. I feel luck having a pond on my way to work and hope to use it till it freezes!

Bruce

A Productive Week

Last week was a big week for me on the water. The local pond(that's right pond I'll explain that in a later post) I had been fishing finally produced some fish. I brought two nice rain bows to hand and helped two friends with theirs. My bows came on midge larva along with one other my friend/coworker Dan caught.

Then there was Sunday I met Bob(he is also a coworker and works in the fly shop with me) in Plymouth at a kettle pond. I have never fished in an ecosystem like this before. It is a really unique and intriguing kind of fishing. These ponds have light or white sand bottoms and are spring fed. The edged can be wades and that makes it a little easier to fly fish. The stocked ones have good trout fishing in spring and fall.

So Bob and I decided to meet up and fish. The problem we were faced with was the windiest day of the week. I hooked up with one but it shook me lose. So as the sun was setting I thought we'd be skunked, when I noticed Bobs' rod was doubled over. He was hooked up and it looked like a good fish. As it was getting dark Bob reached down and pulled up a large male rainbow. It was a beautiful fish and I was content to let the night end with this guy.

Results are in!

This was my first give away of what I think will be many (it might be monthly or bimonthly) but it was not perfect. I was not specific as to which post to comment on and people commented on two. This is okay because I just looked at the time and date stamps on the comments to make my list.

This is the list:
1) Trout Magee
2) Tim
3) Kev2380
4) AZWanderings
5) Brk Trt
6) Fin Follower
7) Manual of Man
8) Shes a maniyak
9) Rebecca

Thanks all of you for reading and commenting on my blog. Much like OBN I used Random.org to pick my winner for me. Also I like how they posted pictures of the results. So here you go.

The winner is number four AZWanderings. Sorry the results were not at 7 when I said they would be but there was a service I needed to attend tonight.

Last Chances

So there is only a little time left to get your name in for the fly box give away. I will pick a winner tomorrow at 7pm. The box has gotten a few additions this weeks as it has been sitting next to me vise. I have made a couple muddler minnows, some midge larva, and a couple buggers. At this point this box is stream ready so if you have not commented please do so.

Thanks for reading along.

Bruce

Monday Off

I have been lucky enough to have Sundays and Mondays off since starting my job.  Sarah works a lot including Sunday but has been trying to take Mondays off.  So we try to do something on Mondays weather it is cleaning the house, going to Plymouth, getting up early to watch the sunrise or any number of other things.  Well today we were both shot from a long week and a long weekend so we slept in and then relaxed all morning.  I starting getting antsy around 11 or so I made lunch and with Sarah reading I decided to go hit the water for a little while.  I thought maybe I could find a late season bass or two but with only a couple light hits I decided to go to the shallows and look for pickerel.  

They were near the top soaking up the sun but that made them spooky.  So with lots of frustration after scaring a bunch of pickerel and the fact that at 3:30 pm the sun was starting to set I headed to one last cove near the road.  I set up and started to look for places that a pick could sit and wait to ambush a bait fish.  After making a good cast with a light landing I gave a couple strips and saw the wake moving toward my muddler minnow.  I kept my retrieve cadence the same and then it happened.  Pickerel have one of the fastest takes in fresh water.  When someone says lightening fast I do not think of lightening because you can see lightning, I think of a pickerel finishing a strike.  The strike happened and I set the hook hard after a head shake I knew I was hooked up.  

Pickerel have a fast, aggressive and often times violent attack followed by a big head shake.  I am told the bigger fish will continue to fight hard but the smaller guys tend to give in after the head shake.  Today I took an old fiber glass rod (its like a wet noodle) and an old Martin reel so that added to the fun of the fight.  This fish was about 13 or 14 inches but it too gave in pretty quick.  Once I got it on the canoe I understood why.  It had a hook in its mouth where it had taken someone rig from earlier this summer.  The hook was pretty rusted but did not snap when I gave it a light tug.   So I trimmed the extra mono back as far as I could and told this little guy to be careful as I released him back to his weeds.  To put a great end to the night before Sarah had to go to work she read me a section of her book that had us both crying in laughter on the couch.  So not a bad Monday off if I do say so myself.     

Give Away

This is a friendly reminder that a week from today I will be picking a winner for my first give away. Another fun fact is that I will continue to put tried and true patterns in the box until I ship it out.

Last post I did not have many pictures or a good description of the box the winner will receive. This box is straight from work and it is a really nice looking box. This box is a White River Raise (Bass Pro Fly brand). It has the slit foam so you are not ripping it when you remove flies. Along with the slit foam this box has a built in threading system as well. It is olive or forest green and has room for close to 200 flies if you use every slit plus the threaders.

Okay well depending on how this give away goes I might buy something else from work and give it away as well. Here are some pictures and let's keep those comments coming!

Fly Tying and a Give Away!

Fly tying has been this evolving thing for me over the years and just like fly fishing I am learning that the learning never ends. Lately I have been more and more confident in my tying abilities. On the same note I am working on and improving in the skills I still have troubles with.

This never ending evolution of skills paired with new materials, new waters and new species are the reasons fly tying is just as addicting to me as the fishing can be sometimes. This past summer I really targeted bass on my fly rod. The hard core trout guys might wrinkle their noses at it but I had a blast starting to learn what makes these large and small jaws tick. With the new fish came bigger hooks and in turn bigger flies. I am now spinning and stacking deer hair bugs. Also with these fish came new streamers and a higher love and respect for bunny strips.

That is just one example of new and exciting things happening at my tying desk. I am also starting to fish for stripped bass and still would love to land that first carp. All this excitement about fly tying has been pushed further lately with bad weather and cold mornings and nights.

So this long winded post is leading to something. I am thinking of tying some flies for people but first I am going go give some away. I have been putting some flies in a box all summer and it will be the prize of my first ever give away. The plan is to put is few more flies in it but not fill it. To get in on the give away action just leave a comment and I will use one of those random draw sites to pick a winner from the bunch. The winner will be picked next Friday and the box will be in the mail Saturday morning (if the winner is prompt about getting his or her address to me).

If it seems like an odd time to get a box of flies think of this. WINTER is coming and a half full box could be a great tying project to get you to spring.

Lastly I am willing to tie flies for anyone who does not tie their own or sees something on my blog they would like to have in their box. So if you want me to tie some flies for you feel free to send me an email and we will start a conversation about want you want.

Bruce

I'm still here!

Hi readers and fellow bloggers. I am at work on lunch reading many blogs and thinking that it has been a long time since I have posted on my own blog. So this short post is just to say I'm here and I'm still fishing, tying and and working. I'll try to get back again soon to give a little more detail on my life in the outdoors.


Bruce

Striped Bass Full Story

Last week my work schedule was different because my co-worker was off and Friday I had the late shift. So I got up early to chase striped bass again. Since starting at Bass Pro I have been met a lot of great fishermen and they have been helping me with plugs and tides. Friday I got it right. I hit the river on an out going tide, overcast sky's and a lot of luck. After about 45 minutes of fishing I had my first missed hook set and had the plug figured out.

Then it happened I caught my first striped bass ever! It was on my 7 foot medium spinning rod with a 3 1/2 inch topwater plug. Then after a little longer I had a few more missed hooksets and started moving around a little.

I crossed under a bridge that was near by and took a couple casts. There it was number two, three, four, five and six! Six striped bass on a spinning rod and a plug but something was missing. On one if my last casts I saw a striper come up and turn back to the bottom. So I quickly grabbed my fly rod and hit that same spot and bang! My first striped bass on a fly rod.

Now the hard core striper guys will say oh those are just schoolies but I was thrilled. These fish hit hard and pulled hard for their size! If you are a fly or spin fisher and you have access to a striper fishery you need to try it. I think I am hooked and truthfully I can not wait to get back and fish for schoolies again.

The first!!!!!

I told Sarah the other day I was not going to post till I finished the fly box I am planning on giving away but I did not really plan on this!!!!!

First striped bass ever! Full story to come later, because I am off to work now...

The Bright Side

So, even though it cuts into my fishing time, I guess I don't mind having a full time job if I get to talk about fishing all day.

I have learned something new almost everyday I have worked here.  Last week my co-worker Bob taught me to use the reel winder and I am feeling more confident on it every day.  It really is not hard to use, but I was still glad when Bob left me some combos to set up.   

The process of putting line on a reel.  Just take your time and tie good knots.

My most recent fishing trip was yesterday.  I decided to hit the salt and try to catch a blue or a stripped bass.  I fished a river in the morning, but after a couple hours of nothing decided to switch gears and spots.  After driving to a park about a half hour away, I grabbed my spinning rod and a snapper blue popper.  I fished from some rock and did okay.

View from the rocks.

Here is one of the snapper blues(one of about six).  I really would love to catch something a little bigger in the saltwater because truth be told I have caught bass and trout that would eat this fish.  Saltwater fishing is a different monster.  I know I need to put my time in but honestly I would be more willing to put in my time if I knew how big these things really get.

Go back into the bay and grow little one (try not to get eaten).

That is it for now friends.  I will be bringing the details of my give away by the end of the week.  

-Bruce

Two Weeks In Photos

Well everyone I am still here!  That should be enough but if you need some specifics I can give them.  How about some photos showing what the last two weeks have thrown at me?

So Bass Pro has been good and bad, I have a list a mile long of fishing gear I want but on the plus side I have been getting ideas for new fly patterns to tie. 

So after my first week was over a storm rolled in and they closed the store.

This is what we thought was the reasons we had no power for a week. 

It turns out it was not the reason but did I mention we had no power for a week (okay a work week '5 days')

So I bought some materials I have never worked with and some that I just didn't want to send money on before and started tying flies by candle light.

While I was at work(with electricity)  and it was slow I was leaning about some new fishing spots near where we live.

Then on about day 3 or 4 of no power Sarah was so sick of hearing out neighbors generators that she came to work and shopped in Patriot place, and we went out for dinner.  I had a beer and felt smelly and stinky but refreshed.

There is my wife in front of Gillette stadium.

I found another pattern that I wanted to tie. 

Then in the candle light I tied a couple along with another bass bug. 

This is the other bass bug.  It latched onto this candle (Oh and check out Sarah''s puzzle in the background it's the Atlanta skyline)

Then we got new furniture (because what else do you do with no power but move furniture).

Somewhere around here we got power back and I finally unpacked my glass collection into our new hutch.  This was rounding out the second week of my new job and I had remembered how hard it was to fish when you have a full time job.  It is a funny trade working somewhere that I enjoy what I am doing versus actually fishing.  So Sunday after church I borrowed John's kayak and hit the pond to chase bass.

I did okay scoring two large mouths on a home made foam popper. 

This was my good one.  I caught it while standing on a rock near an island.  It was really windy and with no anchor I was having a hard time setting up on fish. 

Proof that it was a good fish.

Another short coming from working a full time job again is that fact that I now see my wife even less then when I was home all day.  Our lives do not  match up any more so Monday we both had a day off and jumped at the opportunity to see some more sites we live near.  So this past Monday we when to Plymouth to hang out and sight see a little. 

Thought this was cool.

We walked out on a jetty.

Saw lots of people using their boats

Walked in a cool historic section of town (by historic I am talking 1600's).

Sarah took a lot of great pictures and some of them can be seen on her blog (The Strength of Faith).

Well that is what I have been up too these couple weeks.  Sorry it was a lot of pictures but I thought that would be better then me babbling on for a couple internet pages. So I am going to try to be better about writing on my blog, and about fishing a little more.  Lastly look for a give away very soon. 

Thanks for reading
-Bruce