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