Sunday, July 28, 2013

Sunday Morning Bass'n

I went with Robert this morning to some of his ponds down in the northern part of the hill country. We arrived before daylight and did some night fishing with top water poppers. I was throwing a black pole dancer and caught 1 decent fish before the sunrise. The fishing was kinda slow but we we both caught several nice bass. Robert hooked up with a big fish for a few moments but the hook ended up pulling. Over all it was a great day exceptional since the morning started out in the 60s. Thats pretty much unheard of for July weather in Texas.

Robert hooked up with a big fish.

Fiesty Fish!

Robert with one of many nice fish caught this morning.

Jay Zimmermans' Texas Ringworm Fly works great on largemouth. Here's a tip. Notice the bullet weight on the leader. When I need to add some weight to get deep I will slide on a 1/16oz, 1/8oz, or an 1/4oz bullet weight to get my fly in the strike zone. I chose what weight I use depending on the conditions and the depth of the fish. This technique can be used on a lot of flies to add weight to get the fly down, but works particularly well with Zimmermans' Texas Ringworm.


Sunday, July 21, 2013

Ol' Stinky

I meet up this afternoon with my Buddy James over at The Yak Pond and hit a local pond he refers to as ol' stinky. Its just a little muck pond but holds some nice fish. James hooked up with a nice bass on the 2nd cast. I caught a few small gills but that was pretty much it for the afternoon. The fishing was slow but it is always good to get out and wet a line. Even if the pond your fishing covers your nice green flyline with nasty muck.

Look at the muck the bass splashed up on James' face. 


 An old beat up green sunfish.

Saturday, July 20, 2013

The "Game Changer"



The Fish-Skull® Articulated Fish-Spine is an innovative system of interconnected, articulated shanks that combine to form a multi-jointed, “fish spine” upon which incredibly animate and realistic baitfish patterns can be tied.  The future of articulation has arrived!

The Fish-Spine was co-developed with Blane Chocklett who is one of the fly fishing industry’s most forward thinking and innovative fly tiers.   By daisy-chaining a series of articulated shanks, Blane conceived of a way to impart incredibly realistic action into baitfish patterns that has until now been impossible to achieve. Multi-jointed “swim” flies with ultra-real action!

Blane Chocklett’s “Game Changer” baitfish imitation is the first commercially produced fly that utilizes the Fish-Spine and is available through Umpqua Feather Merchants. This revolutionary pattern is the perfect example of how the Fish-Spine will enable a new generation of streamers to be created.


I ordered some Fish Spines from the Flymen Fishing Company last week and got them in today. I tied up my first "Game Changer" this evening. I used CCT body fur to create the body. I used yellow streamer hackle for the tail to imitate the yellow tail of the threadfin shad. Overall it is a very easy fly to tie. All you do is put one of the multi jointed spines in the vise, tie in another joint, wrap the wire spine with the CCT body fur and tie off, repeat on the other segments till you reach the hook. On the hook you will need to tie in a loop to attach the Fish Spine. I used 30lb amnesia to create this loop. Then finish wrapping the hook shank with the CCT body fur. Then just trim the fly to shape and glue on your eyes.

Although it is an easy fly to tie. It is somewhat time consuming since you have several sections to tie to then tie off along with the trimming of the fly. I did also have some problems with the vise getting a good grip on the segmented joints since there is just a small portion you can clamp down on.

Overall it looks to be a good fly and we'll see how it fishes. I do plan on tying some more up this week; clouser style, kinky muddler and on some 60 degree jig hooks. I think I many replace the hackle with a marabou tail on some flies just to see the looks of it. So stay tuned for those pics. But overall there are a lot of options, I think attaching them to a Pole Dancer head  would work pretty good. 



Saturday, July 13, 2013

7-13

7 and 13 and two very lucky numbers and it just happens to be today's date. I went to the river this morning looking for some fish. I was really hoping to get into some smallmouth bass today. As luck would have it I found a large school of smallmouth bass congregated around some bait and the fish were feeding heavily. It was pretty cool watching their dark shadows charge into the bait ball. Bait was being chased all over the place as they tried to flee from Mr. Small Jaws. The first cast into the bait ball landed the biggest smallmouth of the day. I must have caught a dozen more very nice smallmouth in the next 20 minutes. All in all I ended the day catching 9 species of fish: smallmouth, largemouth, spotted bass, white bass, striper, buffalo, drum, catfish and a gar. I didn't take a lot of pictures today because I was messing around with the GoPro trying to get some good video. I'll be editing the video the rest of the day while I hide from the 100 degree temps.

The best smallie of the day



Saturday, July 6, 2013

Internet Scouting

A fellow fisherman posted a huge redear sunfish that he caught on one of the local forums that I visit. I noticed he lived right down the road from me and I was curious where he caught this gigantic redear sunfish because I have been looking to get into some redears on the flyrod. After a few private messages were exchanged we ended up meeting up this afternoon at the local pond that James caught his redear from. James also blogs so check his blog out at The Yak Pond.

This pond is maybe 2 acres and is loaded with redears, big bluegills and some nice bass. I ended the day with several nice bluegill, lots of small redears and 3 bass that were a hoot on the TFO Finesse 3wt with 4lb tippit and a size 14 woolly bugger. I lost one bass when he straightened the hook. James couldn't fish to long but landed a nice bass and had a long distance release on another bass. Some internet scouting turns into a new fishing friend and another awesome little fishing hole close to the house. It will be a perfect little night fishing spot for the upcoming full moon later in the month. 

I love how defined this fishes scales are. 

I spooked this bass out of a culvert twice, so I went and fished another section of the pond to let the fish settle down and return to his hiding spot. I eased my way back over to the culvert and made a long cast up into it. It didn't take long for my line to become tight. A great fight on the 3wt, who says big fish wont eat small flies. This bass took a size 14 woolly bugger.  

I love the bold and defined "blue gill" on the fish I caught out of this pond. 
   

Friday, July 5, 2013

EFFF Carp

No not really, carp are a lot of fun to catch. Today was pretty difficult fishing though. Had clouds and a lot of glare that made spotting fish pretty difficult. The fish we did see were very skittish, probably due to the low water levels. The carp were spooking off the rod, the line, the fly hitting the water, the fly its-self and probably their own shadow, or so it seemed. I started down sizing the fly and that appeared to help, but over all the fish were very skittish. I only landed 1 fish this morning. Overcoming the difficulties that the day brings is what makes fishing so rewarding. If it was easy it would be boring and the difficulties make you appreciate the days when everything lines up just right.  



Thursday, July 4, 2013

Llano Critter

Matt Bennett created an awesome pattern called the Llano Critter. Today was the first day I was able to fish it and I tore the bass up on it. It is a great pattern that should be in your fly box. Matt put together a great tutorial video on how to tie his Llano Critter.



Here is a nice bass I caught on the Llano Critter today. It was pretty cool watching this fish come off the sunken brush pile to inhale this fly.