A lot of fishing…
And not any catching… Came home for the weekend and decided since the flats go dry during the winter, it was time to hit the home waters. The weather has been crazy here in Ga and most of the waters were blown out, so I decided to hit the hooch Tailwaters. I hit Settles by 8am and was breaking ice heading to the water. I tried Settles for a little over an hour and had no luck and no prospects for anything. So I decided to switch to the Dam and give it a try. I fished there for about an hour and only saw one riser and nobody catching fish. By 1030, it was time to pack it up. I will say it was great to hit the water, although it was cold as can be. It was 33 degrees on the way to the river…
This is awesome…
How many of y’all can do this??? Walk from your front door right to the flat, this guy right here can. I checked out this flat last weekend and hit it today hoping to find some late season redfish. Sure enough after about 30 min without seeing much action I saw a disturbance in the water. I threw my crab fly out there and over shot it a bit, but he turned around and smashed it. After a good fight I landed this guy right here…
He stayed around for a few pics and I let him go. I ended up seeing one more red due to almost stepping on him and that was it for the day. One fish to hand, landed on a fiberglass rod and it made one heck of a day…
Chasing tail…
…and getting some action. Hit the flats early this morning in hopes of finding some tailing reds. I got to the flat as the sun came up and the tide was starting to flood the flat.
I waited a good hour and was getting eaten alive by bugs before the flat started to come alive. Finally with enough patience I finally had a tailer in casting distance. I cast my shrimp Razmatazz over to it…
…the fly landed right next to him, he spun around and with a quick strip set, FISH ON!!!! After a great fight with some knuckle busting runs and getting tangled in the grass I finally landed this guy. Took a quick picture and sent him on his way. One great way to start a Sunday…
I ended up seeing only one more tailer but it never got close enough to cast to. I must say catching a tailing red can get quite addicting…
Turned 30 today…
And it was one heck of a birthday…to get things started my wife once again out did herself and surprised me with a guided trip from LowCountry Fly with ScottyD…and I must say for those of you that haven’t taken a trip with Scotty your missing out…the first flat we hit and there were tailers everywhere…unfortunately they were being a little hardheaded, but after a bunch shots I hooked up…and sure enough landed my first red on the fly…that hookup I’ll never forget…we tried for a bunch more no dice…we hit a few more flats and landed a trout…we tried one last spot and hooked up with another one and he tore off into the grass as we followed and he u-turned out into the flat and broke me off…all in all it was a trip I’ll never forget…
From Trout Bum to Salt Life
This weekend was a big weekend for me…first and foremost come Wednesday I’ll be moving to Charleston, SC! My wife recently moved up there to finish her bachelors degree and I’ve had to wait until I found a job to get up there and those prayers were answered last week. So I wanted to get as much trout fishing in this weekend as I could. Yesterday I hit Buford dam for most of the day and was covered by bait chuckers. With all the crowd though I still ended up with around 8 or 9 to hand and missed at least that many.
Most came on a soft hackle, so last night I made sure to tie up some more.
Today I hit settles bridge and it was a good thing I tied up those soft hackles last night…I picked up 8 today on a size 20 hares ear SH. All in all it was a great weekend, now to the lowcountry for some redfish.
The proof is…
The proof is in the pudding, hit the dam today with a new fly for some testing. The wind was blowing something terrible all day, plus it was well in the high 90s all day. Thankfully with a long sleeve SPF shirt and a Hoo Rag I was able to handle the sun without getting burnt to crisp. Fishing was slow most of the day I hooked into 4 fish and had 2 hang around for pictures. I ended missing a good bit as well. I hooked 2 with my zebra midge that I coat with CCG and the other 2 on my CCG Copper John. All in all a great day on the water.
Dukes Creek Heaven
Hit Dukes Creek this afternoon and this was by far one the best days of trout fishing ever. I hooked up with well over 30 fish and probably landed around 20. Most were bows and a few suckers. I hooked up with a bruiser that went a couple good runs and went to land him and a quick release. Never in my life have a needed a net as much as today. What made it better, I was using a my 6’6″ Wright & McGill 5 wt glass rod. It was a great day, I can’t wait to hit it up again.
Memorial Day Fishing
Hit the lake this morning with my father in law for a little early Memorial day fishing. I ended up catching two on the fly rod while he was out getting some bait. We hit the lake a little after that and ended up catching one more spotted bass on bait. So all in all a great start to memorial day.
I see gold….
Got out on the lake tonight…and finally hooked up with some golden bones…I picked both up on my super Y2K. I got one 8wt and finally broke it in and the other on a 5’6″ 5wt glass rod…needless to say it was a better challenge on the 5wt…all in all a great night
A quickie on the lake…
Headed over to the lake today for some fun. First we took Houston to do some swimming and boy did he have some fun. I threw for him, let him play some and even let him chase after a duck.
After that I decided to wet a line for a quick minute. I started out throwing a foam hopper with soft hackle hares ear dropper. I picked up 5 bream one right after another. Then I found a spotted bass guarding a bed. So I switched to a Beefus Swimming Carp nymph. After a few casts he finally took the fly and after a quick fight and a quick release he was back to guarding. A few minutes later I landed another little spot. So all in all 7 hooked and 6 landed it was a good day.
It’s been awhile…
It’s been awhile since I’ve posted on here…I’ve been too busy working, but things are starting to slow down so I’ve been hitting the vise lately. These pics are great due to them coming from cell bu you will get the idea. I recently bought some Clear Cure Goo and have been playing around with it. Now if you’ve never heard of this stuff the quick and easy of it, is that it’s a one part epoxy that with the help of a UV light it cures in 10 seconds. Once it cures just hit with some clear nail polish and it’s tack free and ready to go. Here are some of the patterns I’ve been playing around with lately…
The Thingamahopper
If you nymph fish you probably use an indicator of some sort, if your like me and most other fly fisherman you use what is called a Thingamabobber. It was developed out west from guides using small gallons for indicators. Recently I purchased some Thingamabodies made by the same company that that gave us the Thingamabobber. So I started playing around tonight continuing with the hopper theme and came up with the Thigamahopper. Now I just need to hit the river and test all these flies out.
Somebody has a new hopper…
So I ordered a River Road Hopper cutter set…here is the results… I must say I’m ready for spring to try these out…
My new stick…
I just finished up my new fly rod! A TFO TiCr-X 8wt 4 piece, it’s got snake guides, a full wells grip, and fighting butt. Now I just need to get on the lake and catch some stripers and carp…
Trying out the Trout Nom Nom…
I got a chance to hit up Settles Bridge this morning…it was slow fishing but I got to test a new pattern; the Trout Nom Nom(TNN) Nymph. I was tying up some flies yesterday and I decided to let Anna chose all of the colors for the pattern and this is what she came up with. So out I went to test it out, I dropped it off of a Two Bit Hooker and sure enough, I only had one fish for the day but it was on the TNN It was rough fishing and really foggy all morning, but one to hand was a good morning.
Amicalola Delayed Harvest
I got to hit the Amicalola Delayed Harvest this past Friday for a quick hour. Fishing was slow I saw Kevin and Brandon from NGTO on the way in and out and between the two of them they only caught 2. I spoke to 3 other guys and they had no luck whatsoever. I ended up bringing 1 to hand with a Y2K, so all in all it was a great day on the water. I’m ready to get back out there again now. Here is a quick slideshow of the day.
Buford Dam 9.18.11
Got a chance to hit the dam this morning; when I got out there I strung up my Wright & McGill 6’6″ 5wt that I just refinished. I got strung up and got down to the water and it looks like the lake is turning over. That always makes for rough fishing, so I started out with a copper John and a egg pattern. I lost that rig and saw a riser so I switched to a Doculator and pheasant tail. With still no luck, I moved down to Bowman’s island and switched back to a copper John and hooked up with this guy…
I few casts later I got this guy again on the CJ…
I ended up trying the CJ a few more casts and switched to Hooch Hopper and got one to rise and about the time I grabbed the leader and he came off. After that it was time to head home, so all in all a great day on the water.
Wright & McGill 6’6″ 5wt 4 Piece
I just finished refinishing a Wright & McGill 6’6″ 5wt 4 piece Fiberglass Fly Rod. I’ve had it sitting in the basement and just haven’t had the time to really work on it. So this past week I started working on it, I decided to try something different with the thread. I originally wanted to alternate 2 different colors on each wrap, but when I purchased the thread I bought 2 different sizes. I also didn’t want to just do a trim wrap or the spiral wrap that I’ve done in the past, so this time I did a spiral wrap up and a spiral wrap down. I used a larger black thread and a smaller red thread that was the spiral. When I put the finish on the red almost went translucent and was a happy surprise.
A close up of the thread work and single-foot guide.
I also added in a feather inlay down near the grip.
So far this rod looks great I’ve got to get a replacement tip top for it then it will be ready for the water. I think this will be a fun small stream rod especially for it’s size, it has Dukes Creek written all over it.
Settles Bridge 8.20.11
I got to hit the Hooch today around Settles Bridge…man it was nice to be on the water again. It was definitely a hot one, I was glad to have my Simms Convertible waders which makes it much cooler. I started at one of my honey holes and I must say that today wasn’t one of it’s better days. It did produce me a one brown, it took five or six good drifts I got to watch him rise and chase it a few times before he took my EHC. I tried this hole with not much luck and decided to move up stream to another spot. One my first good cast I missed my indicator going down, so I shot another long cast and hooked up. This time I brought in good rainbow trout. I tried a little more at this hole with no luck and decided to do some exploring up above the bridge. I found a few good holes that I’ll have to try next time I get to go up there.
Workout of the Day…
It’s the time of year again…we are vacation at Hilton Head Island! It’s been a great week so far, lots of beach fun, relaxing, and plenty of eating. One annual tradition is the annual guys fishing trip and in Hilton Head, the primary target is shark. Now last year was a hard trip, with not much action and very rough seas. This year was a complete turn around, the water was almost like glass and we had fish biting. After catching some bait, we had one bite, but he got off. We had that happen again, before we had a solid hookup. Gregory had the first good fish, a Black Tip Shark probably well over 5′ long. He put on a show, jumping 3 or 4 times and a couple of blistering runs. Now before we got started Gregory told the guide he wanted something that could tear his arm off, I think that this fish heard him, because he was giving Gregory a run for his money. After a good long fight, he got him to the boat, we got a couple of pics and the shark bit through the leader and was gone. Now, it was my turn, my first try we must have foul hooked him. The reel was screaming, then nothing, I pulled in the line and the bait didn’t have a scratch. So we rerigged and had another good pull down. This time I made sire that I set the hook in deep and the fight was on. Let me tell you, when I say it was battle, I’m not lying. This thing wasn’t letting up, I’d let it run, start pulling and cranking and we went back and fourth. Finally, I started making some progress and got a look at this monster and it was no fish…sure enough I hooked about a 4.5′ wide 100+lbs stingray!! Of everything in the ocean, I hook up with a stingray; after getting a look at him, it went back down and it was on again. This time I was pulling and nothing wad happening, the guide figured that the ray, had settled on the bottom. So he started playing with the line like it’s a banjo and he said “that will get him going…” and sure enough started moving. So we fought back and fourth a little more and, brought him back to the boat and we finally popped the line, because no one in the boat wanted to reach down for that hook. 2 down and 1 to go, now it was time to get Anna’s dad on to a fish. After a few tries he finally hooked up. After another good long fight he brought another Black Tip to the boat. Again pushing well over 5 or 6′ long. All in all it was a great day, no seasickness for me and we all boated one. The best thing is we still haves fe more days of vacation to relax.
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