Panfish Over Carp

Today was a bit to windy for sight fishing, at least for my tastes, so I did some dapping for bluegills and crappie. I saw some carp now and then, but feeding was clearly not on their agendas. I used some dries and some nymphs for the panfish, and it was just plain, old fashioned fun. Could have done it with a pole and meal worms and had just as much fun, maybe more. Tomorrow: my first ever attempt to really target sea run brown trout. Wish me luck!

Dry Fly Day

It's that time of year. Bugs are out. The water is getting warm. Time to float flies over wild trout. Today was warm enough that I was comfortable wet wading. There were caddis, mayflies, and midges FRICKIN EVERYWHERE!
I don't often find consistently rising brookies in these types of small streams, usually just some sporadic rises, but I saw this guy come up at least ten times in the same spot. He was a bit picky too. He refused a bomber and an elk hair caddis before finally taking an ant.

*I'm going to try to incorporate more videos in this blog, some may be really cool, some may have crappy editing. It's going to be a work in progress, I hope you all enjoy it though.

I didn't use one subsurface fly today. What a feeling! Two streams, tons (about 15 in total) of gorgeous little natives, and not one shiver. Terrific.

I have Friday off, and I plan to do an early sea run brown trip. Hopefully there will be some other species around too, maybe shad or bass (smallmouth or largemouth, maybe even stripers). I have a commitment that will take up all of Saturday, but Sunday I may either go for sea runs again or do some small stream wild brown dry fly fishing. 

Muck

I did a bit of carping today. I had a very brief window while fish were cruising through the flats. I stopped to watch one fish when I noticed the my line was moving. I set into what was clearly a foul hooked fish. I let the line go slack and fortunately the fish came off. To avoid the skunk I ended up catching some redbreast sunfish out of a rather disgusting little spot. It was short sleeve weather today!

Crafty Bottom Feeders

No,  not my personal favorites the carp. Catfish. Specifically black bullheads. Bullheads are not actually named for the body color, but for the color of their barbels. These ones have black barbels, therefore they are black bullheads despite the yellows and browns of the body. I forget what day this outing was, but it wasn't today. I went out late in the day to tempt these bottom feeders with clouser minnows. Interestingly, few of the fish I caught were actually hooked. They had just clamped down on that fly and refused to let go. They did the same thing to my thumb. As small as these fish are the can clamp down on your fingers and WILL NOT let go. Unless you offer them their freedom.

Wild Trout in a Few Good Spots

Today I fished, hiked, and explored some new terrain. I fished four streams for wild trout, and had some success with both native brookies and a few wild browns. The streams I fished were gorgeous, the water clean, and the green of spring is showing more and more now. I hiked with two good friends and we had a good time. It was warm. The birds are out. SPRING IS HERE!!!!! Hendricksons and Blue Quills are here with it...

This is one of the best fish pictures I have ever taken.

Fat, fat, fat!

A Good End to the Day

I haven't targeted carp in a little while. With plenty of daylight left to kill today and the perfect weather for it, I went out to fish flies for the golden ghosts. They were a lot easier to see than ghosts today. It was about 20 minutes before I hooked up. A decent fish was cruising, I sunk the sucker spawn pattern I had on a foot in front of him, he slowed, sucked in the fly, and the fight was on.
I have yet to get into the backing this year. don't get me wrong, I got a hell of a fight out of that fish. Short runs, splashing, even a little somersault out of the water on the hook set. But the cold water still means these fights will be shorter and less grueling. I released the fish and looked around hoping I could get another, but the flat had been vacated.

Salmon River Streamer Slam

Today I fished the Salmon with David Gallipoli. We had some luck this time! Though there were bugs hatching, including caddis and a few different smattering of mayfly, throwing big stuff and getting it down on the bottom was the way to get fish in the cold, cold water. And it was big streamers that pulled the fish off  the bottom today. I had a three fish trout slam: a small brooky, a decent brown, and a big rainbow. David also caught one salmon, if a tiger had found one of our flies we would have had every Salmon River salmonid possible.

That just happens to be my biggest rainbow trout. He was a beefy boy. Lots of chases, including some from very big browns, and lots of fun. The hit from that bow was as solid and powerful and any. A good day on the water. 

A Fascinating Meteorological Phenomena

Mammatus clouds are formed small downdrafts, pouch like formations named after breasts (mammary). They are not very rare but are typically not well defined or large. Today was an exception, and a particularly eerie display leading a dissipating storm front gave me a fantastic opportunity. I'll let the photos speak for themselves.

What Happens When I Forget My Hat

Carp everywhere. Big ones. Little ones. Fat ones. Skinny ones. Feeders, cruisers, sun bathers, leapers, oh my! And because I forgot my lucky fishing hat only two takes happened and both fish came off early. Had I been well hatted, I may have had a four or five carp day. Damn.
Well, I know at least that they are out and about.

But after all the carp went deep, I went home. I got my hat, then I went back to the water. I caught the first bullfrog of the year and some gorgeous yearling bass. Did my fishing hat really effect my fishing? Probably, but in a different way than luck. Comfort and attitude is everything in fishing.