Redneck Bass Fishin'

Today the wife and I packed up the kayaks and went redneck bass fishin'. I only call it redneck because we both returned home with pretty bad sunburns on our necks, no disrespect to the bass fishers. After catching a little pike and spooking a few big bass I hooked into this beastly bluegill on a purple rubber worm. He measured in at 10 inches.

After catching a few bass in the 15-17 inch range I landed this 18 1/4 inch tank. He put up a great fight and as I leaned over to catch my first glance of him I noticed another, larger bass chasing him around.

This solid bass took the purple rubber worm but was no match for my $20.00 Fleet Farm special. Shortly after catching and releasing this fish I snapped off on one that must've been at least 20 inches!

By the end of our trip I landed around a dozen largemouth bass, the biggest bluegill in the lake, and the smallest pike in the lake. My wife tried her darnedest but couldn't shake the skunk.

Trip Report: Muddy Water Brookies

I have a lot of vacation time saved up so I decided to take off today and Friday. My original plan was to fish all day, both days but after getting a ton of rain yesterday/last night and much more in the forecast I saw my only chance to get out fishing this morning. I arrived at one stream and hiked a ways upstream hoping to find cleaner water on a tributary. I arrived at the confluence and muddy water was pumping into the main river from that tributary. I walked back to the car and headed to the headwaters of that tributary. The water had a good stain to it which gave me good cover to stalk the copious trouts only a few feet in front of me!

This brookie took the pink butted pheasant tail. I was high sticking and pulled him out of the water with a quick jerk. Although I couldn't see to the bottom of the pool it was likely there were more fish.

The sun shone bright but again, the stain on the water kept me concealed. This brown put up a pretty good fish in such skinny water.

This chunker came from the same spot. After catching a good number of both brookies and browns from the same pool I was hoping to catch a glimpse of a tiger trout! No dice, but I did catch a few more brookies.

 After catching around 1 1/2 dozen trout on the pink butted pheasant tail I switched to a pink san juan worm. I landed another dozen or more on that fly before switching back to the pheasant tail for a few more. This spot always has a ton of fish stacked up but unless it's fished in low light conditions or with a good stain on the water the fish scatter before you can get within 50 feet of 'em. I'll have to keep this spot in mind next time I'm aching to fish when most water is blown out.

Stay tuned: I hope to get out fishing again soon but I have never ending fly orders and a few rods to build.

Trip Report: Fishin' With Mike and Beazer

This morning I got out fishing with my brother in law, Mike, and my dog, Beazer. Mike has fly fished with me before but this was Beazers first trip afield.

With temps in the low 80's and bright skies I was completely unsure what to expect. We arrived on stream around 930am and found lots of others out fishing. We spotted a few sporadic risers throughout the morning but no bugs hatched with enough consistency for us to try dry fly fishing. We rigged up with the pink butted pheasant tail and dredged the bottom of all likely water.

Mike struck first with this beautiful speckled brown. We switched off passing between the rod and the pooch on her leash. Beazer is a black lab/basset hound mix which leaves her low to the ground. She was ok with the water but it definitely took some coaxing.

I landed this beastly brown from the last pool we fished. After the release we decided to let Beazer off her leash to see how things went. She stayed within a reasonable distance and was way more water friendly after losing the leash.

The wife found a few ticks on her while giving her a bath. Overall it was neat to see her so adventurous and well behaved. She slept all afternoon and remains passed out next to me as I type. I however worked on the garden before heading back out to chase some trout.

 I used the same fly rig from this morning. I landed a few smaller ones and missed three nice trout before hooking into this guy.

I wish I'd have gotten a little better picture of this guy. He was thick! After a great fight he still had the power to flip out of my hands so I clumsily directed him back into the drink. After basking in the glory of this catch I moved on.

This guy came to hand a short time later. He was hiding in a nice deep run that I've always thought looked good, but never yielded me a nice fish until now. I'd guess he would measure around 16 inches. After a short period of rejuvenation he returned to the depths.

Overall it was a great day of fishing with some great company. I hope to get out again soon but I've got some gardening and rod building to do over the next few weeks.

Trip Report: Little Bit of Fishin'

Today I got out for a little bit of fishin'. Temps surpassed those forecast which made for a hot and sweaty day in the neoprene waders. The sun shone for most of the day with intermittent clouds passing in the afternoon. After the last couple of days of rain throughout our area I expected a nice stain on the water but arrived to a small local stream to find water clear and low. 

I tied up a bunch of San Juan Worms in anticipating of cloudy water but spent most time fishing a Deer Hair Skittering Caddis and Pink Butted Pheasant Tail. Caddis dropped eggs throughout the day and fish rose eagerly to them. 

 The first pool I approached was LOADED with trout! I switched back and forth between the pheasant tail and caddis dry. At least two dozen fish came to hand before moving on. 

This beautiful holdover Rainbow took the pheasant tail out of a fast, shallow run. He put up a great fight. I continued to find fish stacked in pools and was able to land multiple fish from each prime run/pool. Today I fished a section of private property between two easements. I kept my feet wet but couldn't avoid some counseling from the curious land owner. He gave me his phone number and requested that I call him before fishing on his land. I politely agreed to do this while reminding him that according to MN stream access laws I was/am well within my right to fish through private property as long as my feet remain wet. Overall it was a great day of fishing. No big ones but fish averaged 10-12 inches. Although I didn't keep track I caught at least a million fish.

Stay tuned: I'll be doing some good fishing and building a few rods over the next few weeks!

Sweet Fly Rod!

I built a new fly rod to add to inventory at my website: Whitewater Valley Flies

The rod is a medium action 8 foot 6 inch 5 weight, ideal for bass and trout!
Click to enlarge!

Trip Report: Minnesota Mountains

I've been missing the Mountains a lot over the last few weeks so I've tried hard to pay more attention to my beautiful surroundings in the Minnesota Driftless. The fishing has been a little tougher than usual for the last week but I managed a few trout.

On this day I landed around a dozen in an hour and  a half. I fished a dead drifted gray skittering caddis and although the caddis hatch is waning fish were happy to keep chasing the few lingering ones.

 I was beginning to get concerned that I hadn't seen any BWO Mayflies, but today I spotted a few coming off. The trouts were happy to eat a parachute dry or RS2. A few also ate the pink butted pheasant tail.

Yesterday I shared one of my favorite little scenic creeks with my friend Tim In The Woods. His name is Tim and I met him in the woods! Here Tim is fighting a massive brown trout, or was it a rock? After we fished here he took me to another scenic little creek.

This creek was pretty but the fishing was a little slow. There were quite a few people fishing up and down this stream.

At this point the weeds are still pretty short but within the next few weeks it's gonna get tricky to move around the shoreline. All the fairweather fisherman will be done chasing trout and I'll again have a lot of water to myself!

The butterflies are out again too!

While I may not be able to climb to the top of a mountain, chase grizzly bears, and bother big horned sheep, this area is beautiful in it's own way. Stay tuned, hopefully I'll get out fishing again soon.