9-25-10

If the only reason that I went out fishing was to catch fish, today would have been a disappointing day.....The fishing seems to be a bit off the last two days....The fish have begun to play a different game...A few days to adjust and it will be back to good catching....I managed a little tiny baby smallmouth...I don't mind catching the little guys from time to time..The fact that they are there says that the fishery has promise in the future....


I am beginning to take pictures of the skeletal remains of creature on the river banks...I'm not sure why, but it intrigues me...So I will share...


I sat down at the bench last night after a 10 hour day tattooing the world....I wanted to create an adult Dobson fly to dead drift in the flow....This needs refining and retuning still...but here is the first draft....let me know what you think....

9-24-10

Being a warm water fly angler requires a diverse set of fishing skills...You must be flexible in your abilities and willingness to change plans...I have never fished the same river twice....Even back to back days on the same stretch can drastically change overnight...My morning today proved just that....Yesterday was a fine morning of fishing...The water temps are beginning to cool....It was in the 80s yesterday afternoon, and again today...This has changed the river situation....2 days ago we were in the 60s....The smallies were clinging to bottom today and barely moving....Very slow presentations, small flies, and sinking line were required to hook up today....When I left my house this morning I brought an extra rod just in case...One for a float, one for a sink....A black marabou leech was the ticket to tight lines today....I managed to work three fish to the boat....Be prepared...you just never know what the fish are going to do.....

9-23-10

A fine morning with a beautiful sunrise.....

I decided to fish a spot that I usually pass through on my way to a favorite section of creek....I put my yak in and paddled up to a pool that usually produces big smallies for me...On my way, for the first time I saw a snapping turtle hanging in the shallows...It freaked a little when I tried to follow it to get better pics...I momentarily contemplated trying to pick it up, but reason overcame and I left it alone....A tattoo artist wilth missing fingers is an unemployed tattoo artist....


I moved on...caught some smallies....Missed a walleye twice...With two different flies...They were on minnows today...grey and white clousers....white sparkle minnows....Nothing even looked at my crayfish bounce today....Times they are a changing...The water is still very warm...They haven't gone into super aggressive feeding mode quite yet...It's not that far off though...




My attempt at an action smallmouth jump photo....

Till tomorrow....

foam bream flies

some flies for a man in Florida....he chases bluegills and wanted to check out some bass bugs...I figured this would be a good collection of buggy looking flies to send to him....

9-21-10

35 degrees this morning...frost on the ground...it is that time....I went fishing anyway.....I caught the largest fall fish I have ever caught....2 smallies landed...1 monster smallie that actually for the first time ever broke a hook on me....bouncing crayfish patterns off the bottom real slow...caught them all in about 4 feet of water....took a picture of a carcass of some sort....hanging by the stream....

9-20-10

Some of the streamers that I was tossing yesterday...and a frog

9-19-10

17 rock bass.....5 smallmouth.....1 walleye......3 fall fish.....not what I had planned....but it would be difficult to complain over it....I went searching for pike and tiger muskie.....others were found....An excellent day with my brother, who I never it seems get to spend enough time with, his friend Andrew and Rich from Cortland Line Fly Shop.....I have decided that if I am going to attempt to chase these fish with monster flies, a bigger fly rod I will need...thinking a 10 weight is in my future....A few pics from the afternoon....

9-15-10

My fishing days are getting less and less it seems....I live in the Northeast and self diagnosed my allergies to the cold weather....The mornings are dark, cold, uninviting...I like to fish early mornings before work everyday....6 am brings chilly conditions and inactive fish....It picks up between 8 am and 9 am, when the sun begins to warm the surface temps again....about the time I need to start thinkig about getting out of the water.....Fall is a great time to fish, in the late mornings and early afternoons....Sundays will soon be the only days that I go out....Tying flies will be the focus until the spring...I need a more moderate climate....

Some deer work for a swap

So these are some flies I made for a man in Louisianna....He makes some of the most amazingly beautiful hand painted hard bodies poppers I have ever seen....I hope he enjoys these as much as I liked the flies he sent me....

9-12-10

I was an invited guest tyer at an outdoors expo yesterday in Cortland....A good time was had...My brother hung out with me all day...My youngest niece decided she wasn't as scared of me as usual and her sister was my fly tying assistant all day...So the first fly ties was a Nemo for all of her hard work...She was very fascinated with the Golden Pheasant skin I had...She walked around with it like a pet for part of the day....It was a perfect day actually....I sold some flies....I did a casting demo....Ate some good food...Met some nice people....Great contacts were made....Quality time with my brother and his family....Sunny and warm....Good times....

propeller fly shapes

some new shapes I've been messing around with

9-6-10

A little sore from yesterdays adventure...I went out again this morning with a buddy of mine and his pop....Mu buddy Luke caught 12 bass, his dad rocked out 18 and I caught 11 bass and 1 monster walleye....Not too shabby for 4 hours of slamming dirty ass brown water.....I was off to a pretty slow start...Chuck was pounding them in to begin...10 fish out of the first pool we hit....I changed tactics...They were throwing crank baits...Hitting fish at about 5 feet...I switched to a sink tip, switched colors of flies and bing bang boom...On fish....I have fly fishing friends that laugh at the stuff I bring with me into my kayak....You never know what you are going to need....I am not one of those 1 fly box guys....I have 3 Plano boxes customized to fit flies, full....stuffed into a book bag with everything else I can fit into it....Sometimes being over prepared is the day saver....Get bronzed....