Fly Fishing....

We have had some inquiries into the possibility of opening a fly fishing section for the Irish Bass Festival this summer. We have no problem in opening a fly fishing section as long as there is enough interest. If you would like to fly fish during the festival please inform us and if we get enough numbers we will be happy to open a fly fishing section. 

Granted conditions are the key for fly fishing so if on the Friday of the festival we think that it will not be suitable for fly fishing you will have the option of entering the lure section...simple. However you cannot fish lures and fly you must decide on the opening day what it will be for you for the weekend. 

The fly section for the festival all depends on whether we get the interest, so please let us know so we can try to arrange it and publish it onto the website asap. 

_________________________________________________________________

The pictures below are of Nick Hart who last season out fished us lure guys spectacularly during an afternoon session. It was one of those days, the sun high in the sky and the sea was calm and clear. The bass simply refused to look at all manner of hard and soft lures we chucked at them. 

Nick fished in between us and was using one of his very subtle sandeel patterns. He proceeded to land some fine bass while us lure guys blanked. 

If conditions are right the fly is certainly a very effective method of catching bass and has to be up there as one of the best ways to catch bass through the sheer exhilaration of the fight.  

So let us know if you would like to see a fly section in the Festival this summer.

Tight lines,

James.

January Conger Bashing!

So i ventured out a few times last week my plan was to fish Tuesday, Wednesday,Thursday & Friday only few hours every evening in search of a decent Conger! The first night we tried a new spot. Alex Plaster had x2 Congers 16lb 3oz & 17lb 12oz So Biggest conger of the year so far for him! :) Was pretty hard landing them in the swell might i add!

Alex with the 17lb 12oz 

After being gaffer boy i went reel in to pack up and look what was on my hook! lol!

my 4th Conger of year year yes i am counting it :)

So the next night Myself & Rob Dingle went to another new mark, we both knew that Congers can be caught here aswell as Red Mullet. So i went for the Eels he went for Reds. He had one decent bite which could have been a Red but missed it. My rod on the other hand wouldn't shut up, kept on screaming off id strike the fish it was on then it would come near the surface and off it came. It did this a couple of times and i knew it was a Eel! I must not have been setting the hook properly. But a sorted my self out and got the bugger in the end.

14lb 3oz i think it went! So it beat my previous biggest of the year of 13lb! but still not the one i was looking for! Had one of my previous traces in its mouth the greedy bugger! :)

So that was Wednesday night...still got two more nights to get a bigger one! Thursday is upon us met up with Alex again and Rob went down yet another new mark! 

Was very quiet not many bites happening was thinking about moving round corner but we stuck to it! Alex said i think if we get one it will be a decent one! Rob left us to it and not long after my rod pulled down, i didn't want to mess this up it was being proper gay... little pull downs every minute! I hanged on 5mins plus before i striked into it and Boom! Fish on felt like a good one! now only problem was gaffing it in the swell, but Alex managed it within a couple mins! soon as i saw it i knew it was over 25 maybe 30 we was saying :) 

On the scales at 28lbs Bang on! Was perfectly gaffed in chin so not much harm to fish and released pretty quickly :) 

So Mission Accomplished! I did try Friday for 1 hour but wet and windy called it a night pretty quickly and Scott Ballards bag went for a swim in the sea with a Expensive camera, Tili Lamp, all of his gear, a jacket, nearly a broken reel, and a ripped bib and brace! Expensive night for him :) Dropped down 30ft Drop before getting washed away in swell! i really did feel for him!

Well that's it :) Next mission i think is Undulate Ray Thanks for reading

So What Are Your Buddies Doing in Pennsylvania?

A picture is worth a thousand words and we would agree when it comes to these pictures, taken today aboard "Rebecca", of Maurice Bower from Montourville, Pa.  He released this beauty at Destiladeres after a 45 minute battle.

Does this look like love or what? This fish looks extremely healthy and is estimated at 170 lbs. Caught on a live caballito.

Now fully on board, you can see the pure joy this catch gave Maurice as he gets to briefly hold the fish. The crew handles the fish expertly so as not to damage it and you can see deckhand Luis, on the right, loves his job. Fish was safely released.

Apropos Of Nothing

MIDWINTER ESCAPE

The Lowlands Beckon

we respond

Headed into the promised land.
Few folks fish up'ere in the winter.

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.. It's a fur piece of road between here and there. It's a bit of burned hydrocarbons and furry eyeballs to get there and back over a three-day weekend. In the winter with snow in the air and ice on the roads it's a bit over seven hours of safe and sane driving. That uses up most of one day.
.. Getting situated and scoping out the possibilities and contingencies finishes off the first day and demands a bit of well-won sustenance. So that's what we did.

Three Fly Arsenal.

.. Up at dawn to a great breakfast at Pourman's Cafe - chorizo con huevos and other gut bombs to get through a long day. Then to the river road.
.. It's possible to fish downtown but it's better up the road a piece. So we get going to a place where the neighbors know us and the water is clear and the snow ain't too deep.
.. There's ruts and mud and ice and mud and ruts and ice. We knock on the door and accept the invitation for coffee. We're on the water by 9:00 AM.
.. Just three flies are ever necessary here, (well four, if you count the size 8 elk hair caddis that serves as an indicator.) The fish are willing and hungry all year long. The water, in winter, is never colder than about 40° F. Sometimes it gets to over 50° F in the shallow and sunny spots.

The Place.

.. We fish all day and even take a few. Big rainbows of 14" with shoulders like Gibraltar. They look like lake fish with their small heads and substantial girth. The air is cold. It freezes our guides, and hands, and ears, and warms our epitome.
.. Dark comes a little later down in the lowlands. It still comes too early and we're back in town by 7:30 PM. At our age it means an early dinner and bed. We do it.
.. We get up on day three and have the same breakfast. We fish a bit closer to the highway and downstream from town for a few hours. Then back in the trusty horse and gas up.
.. It'll be dark as we enter the mountains at 4-corners. That's O.K., we know the road and it's treachery very well. We look forward to the vacant wheat fields and the company of monster trucks and the neighbors' pickumups.
.. Home at 9:00 PM. Crash shortly after eating a couple of racks of Baby-Back ribs from the deli, (got there just as they were locking up - perfect timing.)
.. We'll sleep-in tomorrow.  Don't have to be at the salt mine until 2:00 PM. Our stomach growls as we snooze on the couch - typing this is exhausting.

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Heading home. A view for Mark in Texas.

Latest Fishing Update

These January mornings have been beautiful. This is the mouth of the marina, with bait boats waiting to sell their catch from the night before.

January 14th to 27th, 2012

Overall Catch Success Rate for All Species Combined 85%

BILLFISH: Fishing in Cabo for marlin has improved a lot but still has a long way to go; nevertheless we had some encouraging daily fish reports this period. Blue marlin season is from July to mid November, nevertheless pretty much without exception a blue marlin, usually very large is caught in January. Well this year was no exception though the fish was small, right around the 200 lb mark, caught aboard “Adriana” on January 18th after it took a purple lure 18 miles out from the Old Lighthouse by Jeff Bliss from Lapeer, Mi, the blue was released before Jeff went on to catch six yellow-fin tuna. Our other 28 ft boat “Andrea”, also did very well, fishing on the other side of our fishing spectrum at Destiladeras on the Cortez, where they released three striped marlin and caught three skipjacks for Glen Burmeister and John Nelson from Colorado. Richard Patrick from Lowestoft, England had a good day releasing a striped marlin and catching four dorado and three skipjacks on January 26th. This same day “Rebecca” produced the goods for Kyle Hammling and Alan Klein from Manda, North Dakota; releasing two striped marlin on live caballito, two dorados and six skipjacks. The day before this “Tracy Ann” was the top boat with three striped marlin caught and released between Punta Gorda and Destiladeres on the Cortez, one dorado and three skipjacks for Karry Allison from Davenport, Florida. “Rebecca” rounded out the week with a double marlin day at Cerro Colorado fro Jeff Kernochan from Los Angeles. We are starting to see some big stripers, “Ruthless” reported a 170 lb’er released at Destiladeres for Stuart Drummond from Vancouver. Looking over our numbers for this period we see that the majority of marlin were in the Sea of Cortez, quite unusual for this time of year, whilst tuna and other game fish tended to be on the Pacific. Pisces anglers thirty two percent of charters caught marlin this report, resulting in 16 marlin released.

Crew of Tracy Ann, Julio and Martin took out La Brisa and got fifteen tuna for Edwin Holman & Co. from Atlanta, Georgia.

OTHER SPECIES: We are known for picking up on unusual fish stories, they somehow find their way to us. This period we were advised of a strange fish found, by the boat Viviana, they brought the fish to us to examine and to keep for scientists; this is now the third of this species that we have seen over the last few years. The odd looking creature is a chimera or ratfish and judging by what we’ve seen before this one is a female, as it lacks the clasper on the forehead sported by males. These are deep water fish, never seen here before until three years ago. They are usually found on the surface where they are dying and just scooped up and taken aboard. As of now we don’t have all the details but will follow up with them as soon as we locate the fishermen on board and will post the pictures at that time. In regular fishing news dorado fishing was actually quite good with half of the boats catching from one to eleven up to 25 lbs; they took live bait and green lures, with most found on the Cortez side. Our total dorado tally was 75 fish. Yellow fin tuna catches were fair with twenty eight percent of our boats catching from one to seventeen up to 25 lbs. “La Brisa” caught fifteen but had to travel thirty three miles off of the lighthouse to find them- cedar plugs were the most effective method of hooking up. Lots of skipjacks around but the black type not considered good eating. Some roosterfish and sierra.

WEATHER CONDITIONS: Clear sunny skies, seas calm on Cortez, some choppy days on the Pacific.

LOCATION: Golden Gate, 20-30 miles off of Lighthouse, San Jaime, Destiladeres.

AVERAGE WATER TEMP: 68-70 F

BEST LURES: Live caballito, jurelito, green, petrolero, huchis, cedar plugs.

Based on the catches of Pisces by Tracy Ehrenberg



Tuna Fishing Venice, LA!

This upcoming weekend we are heading down to New Orleans for a family cruise on the Carnival Elation with all 25 of my brothers, sisters, kids, and parents. Well, we finally talked the ladies into letting us head down a day or two early and go out fishing for Wahoo, Tuna, Sharks, and Amberjack! That means we are headed South Friday morning as opposed to Sunday morning!!!!!!

I looked at every fishing website in Venice and talked to pretty much every captain who answered his phone getting the scoop on exactly what the fishing scene is like down in Venice this time of year! Out of about 20 captains I narrowed my choice down to what I thought were the best 4 and then I hounded them for 3 straight days before finally getting an opening for Sunday morning! I talked about their boats, their experiences, their preferred method of fishing, read all their blogs, websites, photo galleries, facebooks, outdoor forums, articles, videos, tv shows, etc, etc. Basically when it comes to researching a fishing trip I dont sleep until I have all of my questions answered. I now know more about the guides down in Venice than all the guides down in Venice know about themselves and their peers....

So anyhow, this upcoming weekend the moon phase is going to have the Wahoos and Tunas feeding a bit more than normal and all the good captains were booked up. Thats where the whole 3 days of pestering comes into play and finally we were able to work out a deal with the best guides that shuffled some things around and we are headed out on this 36 foot yellowfin with Captain Trey! I dont know if you know much about yellowfin boats, but they cost about twice as much as my new house going up... Here is the boat we are fishing on:



If your looking for more information about offshore fishing in Venice, these are the guys I would recommend talking to first! Deepsouthcharters.com and Voodoofishingcharters.com. We booked Trey through Captain Josh Howard with deep south. Josh has an awesome fishing blog via his website where you can research in depth the archives of what he fishes for during the time of year you would be able to head down to Venice!! Captain Trey texted me this pic of a big yellowfin they caught last week:

Captain Josh caught these 9 yellowfin a couple weeks ago:

Here is a pic of a wahoo we hope to run into first thing in the morning:


So we fish Sunday morning lord willing and then I am going to UPS ground the fish meat back home Monday morning in New Orleans before getting on the cruise ship. When I am somewhere not able to take meat home, I use my UPS account to save about 30% off retail shipping rate and get insulated boxes that usually hold around 40 lbs of meat and some dry ice. Hoping to send about 10 or more of those boxes home with fresh Wahoo, Amberjack, Tuna, and maybe mako shark, grouper, etc!!!!

So I definitely am going to be posting pics after the trip either Sunday night from the hotel or Monday night from the cruise ship! Also we will be filming the trip, but that video will take a couple months to turn around.

Anyhow, the forecast wasnt great for this Saturday here at home, so I took Friday off work and set the trusses on my house then instead of Saturday. We got em all up on Friday afternoon and then Brook and I headed downtown Peoria at 6 pm to volunteer on a work project at the renovation of the Family Core Foster Care center. Got home about 10 pm and spent the rest of the night researching Venice fishing and then back out to the house at 6 am Saturday morning. The house is starting to take shape:


By saturday night I was pretty tired and I fell asleep a couple times in church this morning. Getting home from Church I conked out for a couple hours and now am ready to rock and roll for this upcoming week! Gonna be one of the more hectic weeks, since I have to get friday and saturdays work done in mon-thurs now due to the last minute fishing trip. If this week wasnt jam packed though, I would go crazy waiting in anticipation of the vacation. Instead its gonna fly by.

Only one team in Ayrshire

Had a day out at the League Cup semi final yesterday and there was some banter to be had with some of my Ayr sea angling club mates.

It took an extra time goal to beat the "Honest Men" The pictures got worse as the day went on so sorry about the blurred images of the female contingent of our party of merry supporters. It was probably how the actually appeared to me at the time....out of focus and furry around the edges

27/01/12 - Lavington - Merretts

Weight – 60lb 8oz (12lb 0oz – silvers)
Catch – 19 Skimmers, 8 Carp, 1 Roach
Weather – Frosty start. Mostly sunny, slight breeze. Showery later.
Water Temp – 7.1c – 7.7c

With nothing planned for the weekend, I got an e-mail from Mark asking whether I wanted to go fishing, because he couldn’t go during the weekend because he was laminating his kitchen floor.

As the week progressed the weather was getting colder and the cold I picked up was getting worse. I woke up at 2.30 feeling rough, so decided to watch 3 episodes of Battlestar Galactica, cooked myself a sausage sandwich, before driving to the lake, hoping some fresh air would do me some good, although Mark kept his distance most of the day.

Mark decided to target the carp on corn. Me on the other hand wanted to improve my soft pellet fishing, so settled on fishing 4mm expander and occasionally a JPZ pellet at 13m over micros. My rig in the 7ft deep swim was a HB 0.4g frostie, .10 bottom and 18 silverfish pellet hook. I also had a 0.2g frostie to fish the 4ft deep margin swim, but with .13 bottom and 18 B911, since I was expecting some carp. Over my 13m line I was hoping for skimmers, however I wasn’t sure if they would feed after yesterday’s cold rain and today was cold, bright and flat.

It was nearly an hour before I got my first fish, a skimmer at 13m, but by toss potting a pinch of micros every put in I had a run of skimmers. As the session progressed, whenever the pole line slowed and needed a rest, I would try the lead & corn.

I caught 3 carp on the lead and 3 at 13m. As for my margin, I had been feeding micros all day and eventually caught 2 carp, plus a skimmer late on. My 8 carp weighed 48lb, plus 12lb of skimmers. Whilst Marks 8 carp weighed 40lb. A really enjoyable day despite my permanently blocked nose!

Went out for some local fishing today and wasn't disappointed, this silver beauty really wanted my hard bait.

This surprises me for the following reasons...

1, I was finishing off my retrieve quickly at the time the fish hit, to lift the lure over an obstruction in front of me, so the fish was willing to give chase.

2, The sea temp was probably sub 10c and the air temp was around 5c

3, Its January!

To delight me even further a few cast later I hooked a rare West Cork Sea trout of a decent size, on the drop, that put on an acrobatic display to rival the King (Tarpon) and I oh so nearly landed until it threw the debarbed Size 1/0 Gamakatsu assist hooks at my feet...

I've had much worse fishing in summer!

pistakee lake night bite

night bite crappies on pistakee lake

We just got settled in at home after a nice two hour night bite excursion to Pistakee Lake on the Fox Chain. Me and Lucas gave them hell for the hour and thirty minutes we fished tonight. We proceeded with some extra caution due to the recent warm temps we have been experiencing the last few days. Also, we were the only two out there and to tell you the truth, ice fishing is kinda creepy alone at night. Following the light of our lantern we made our way out to about fourteen foot of water and dropped a hole. I flipped over our hut and moved inside to share a seat with Lucas, this is cozy for now but in a few years he might be a little big to share a one man with. After pounding bottom with a glow tungsten jig the fish moved in fairly quick. We stayed on fish for the entire time we were there and probably caught and released eight crappie in our short outing.

Ice Depth- 5 inches
Water Depth- 14
Fish Location- suspended at 10

Welcome to the night bite ice fishing club son! I'll be back after em in about 7 more hours. Stay tuned...

Snow's Building Up -- Slowly

Our snow is building up in dribs and drabs.
It's a bit wetter than normal for this time of year.
We're still 40% below normal for this date.

Z Fish Report (1/26/12)

Long line pangas confiscated!

The 80° blue water is still hanging close to the 100 fathom line between 5 and 6 miles off the beach. Early in the week, for sailfish, dorado and blue marlin, the fishing was fantastic. But, these last few days has seen a complete turnaround with few boats catching fish, and no reasonable explanation. The fishing shut off like there had been an earthquake or a major drop in the barometer…but neither of them happened, so we should be getting back to good fishing again soon.

A nice saifish about to be relesed by Francisco
on the super panga Huntress

Early in the week, Francisco on the super panga Huntress, went out about 9 miles, released 4 sailfish and a blue marlin, and was back at the dock by 10:30. A few days later, they released a couple of sails, and lost a huge dorado. Then went out yesterday and got zip. It was the same story for Cheva on the panga Dos Hermanos. He did excellent early in the week, and then zip yesterday.

The biggest news is not about our current fishing, but about the future of sport fishing on this coast. After several current meetings with authorities and demanding action, the sport fishing captains finally got some results. This week the Mexican Navy went out and caught red handed 11 pangas illegally fishing with simbras (long lines). The boats and all gear were confiscated.

There is a lot of anger in the port right now. These long liners have been illegally fishing for years with impunity: They actually feel they are the victims of a corrupt society. More than one sport fishing captain is sleeping on his boat right now. The probability of retaliation is a reality.

Also remember, the fishing community here is basically only a few families. So we are taking about cousins Vs cousins, and brother-in-laws against compadres, etc. For more explanation on this, please review the following link, which is a chapter from my book about fishing here on the West Coast of Mexico…. http://conservationandthefuture.blogspot.com/2012/01/long-lines-and-gill-nets.html

Note the hook in the coner of the mouth on
Francisco's release

The inshore fishing for huge jack crevalle and large sierras is still holding and very good.

Ed Kunze  - IGFA Representative

To order a copy of my fishing book about fishing here on the West Coast of Mexico: http://www.mexperience.com/store/vuitem.php?itemid=13&sc=KUNZE-13
For a decent explaination to the seasons and best fishing for each species here in the Ixtapa /Zihuatanejo area check out this web site. http://calendarforfishing.blogspot.com/

  

one angler i know...

One angler I know has been waiting patiently since getting some new gear for Christmas...

working some fish with a Ice 35 flasher

the result of his efforts 

"flag up" he called it 

Looks like he got his ice fishing season started, more to come from little Lucas's ice adventures of 2012!

We All Knew It

.
.

Actual Ice Fishing Update w/ Pics

On Saturday I was putting up walls at my house all day, but my dad and Steve Ryan and his buddy Doug were out at my lake ice fishing most of the day!! I knew with the warmer weather in the forecast all of this upcoming week that the safe ice was only gonna be around till Sunday, so I actually skipped church Sunday morning and went out ice fishing! That perhaps could be my only ice fishing trip of the entire winter????

Here are some pics from the weekend ice fishing:

Reports around the area said fishing was generally good on Saturday, but very inconsistent on Sunday.

The ice is not safe any longer, so dont even think about ice fishing this upcoming weekend. Speaking of this upcoming weekend, I will have a crane at my house on Saturday setting trusses. Anyone out there with nothing to do come on over and get some fresh air. Last weekend my brother in law's parents Barb and Tony came out and helped us set walls all day long. They were invaluable! I can't thank em enough for helping out!! (Their new 4 acre pond over by wildlife prairie park is gonna be extra awesome, I can tell you that for sure!).

Here are some pics from Saturday:





We were able to get all of the walls up and straightened on Saturday! It was a looong but very productive day! We figured out a way to set the exterior walls with the skid steer so that helped tremendously!! Justin has been going to town on the new skid steer. It is a 90 HP beast! This winter he has been pushing snow, planting trees, grading lots, and he has a couple big timber clearing and trail clearing jobs for hidey hole food plots with the new machine. Already have over 200 hrs in just a couple months which is awesome!

This week I have been finishing the remodel of a cabin at Oak Run and the rest of the week I will actually be setting trusses at a big new house we are also building at Oak Run. We custom design and build the coolest lake houses and cabins on the planet!

Just 9 more days and we are heading to New Orleans for a cruise to Cozumel! I should have been a travel agent because planning action packed trips on a dime is my forte. I found a 5 day cruise from New Orleans for $209 per person and with taxes, etc. it came to $247 each. My parents and all of my brothers and sisters and all of their kids (25 of us in all) decided to head down and cruise to Mexico! It is about a 12 hr drive to New Orleans and we are staying just a couple miles from the port. All food is included and let me just say that the Herman family will eat their moneys worth in 5 days on that ship.....

I found every fishing opportunity from New Orleans to Venice to Cozumel to Progresso and every patch of water in between, but the women said absolutely no fishing on this vacation....Is that possible to be that close to the Ocean and not go fishing??? Seriously, the full moon is gonna have the Wahoo's and Yellowfin Tuna feeding like crazy off the oil rigs the day before the cruise leaves! Amberjacks which are my favorite are piled up near Venice in February.... Spearfishing in Cozumel looks sweet, and the only Captain in Progresso who speaks english is available to go to the big shipwreck bottom fishing the day we are in that port. Then on the way back some backwater redfish fishing near New Orleans would have topped it off on the way home......I just dont know how I can be so close but with no cigar......

shaping up

Everything is starting to fall in place in the “new” newsroom. The NEW Blog newsletter is taking form but we still need our fans to get signed up. Costa announced its cool contributions. This week’s episode is sure to give you chills. Let’s go now!

Made in the shades

Costa caught everyone’s attention with the ad campaign last year that featured sculptures of tarpon, billfish and bass hand built from their own sunglass parts. Costa announced that two of these sculptures have been donated to worthy organizations. The tarpon piece can now be seen on display at the International Game Fish Association (IGFA) in Dania Beach, Florida. The blue marlin sculpture was donated to The Billfish Foundation (TBF) which plans to have the fish on display in its booth at the Miami Boat Show in February. Check out the Costa behind the scenes video on how they built these innovative creations. “See what’s out there.”

Streamlining

AF is making some changes for 2012 and we need your help! You might have noticed a slightly different look to the format last week as we are converting over to a blog style newsletter. Now, with three ways to get signed up, we are on a campaign to make sure no Mogan Maniac gets left behind. Getting signed up is easy! Just click this link for the AF Mogan Blog and enter your email address. We’ve included the link in the email notifications we’re in the process of sending out (check your SPAM folder!). You can also sign up at AddictiveFishing.comat the top of the page where it says “Enter Email for AF Newsletter.” Don’t get left out of the conversion or you could miss out on Mogan Prize Pack giveaways! Congratulations to Terri Johansson – she’s this week’s winner.

Coming up on Addictive Fishing

What do you get when you ship a Florida Cracker to Colorado in February? A “Frozen Mogan.” Capt. Blair visits the Wright & McGill factory in Denver, Colorado and fishes for lake trout on the ice with Capt. Bernie Keefe. Catch the excitement Monday @ 6 am, Wednesday @ 4 pm and Saturday @ 8:30 pm on Sportsman Channel. Can’t get enough Addictive Fishing on the tube? Subscribe to the AF YouTube channel. It’s FREE and airs any episode at the click of a mouse 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

Mogan of the Week

That’s not Austin Powers but he’s got the mojo! Our longtime Mogan Maniac, Austin Rouse has been going crazy on the fish in the No Motor Zone. Austin made it difficult to choose between his 39-inch redfish and this gator trout. Good stuff, Austin! To see more photos and interact with other fans, stop by the Mogan Lounge and tell us your tale.

Breaking a sweat,

BillBird

Festival Website....

The Irish Bass Festival Website is now live and hopefully you will find all the information you need on the following site.

www.IrishBassFestival.com

 If you have any questions please contact us.


Tight lines.

T-Rav and The Sledd

Yesterday I fished with my Man T-Rav and his buddy Sledd. We had some major stormage the night before and I was a little worried the river would reflect it. Fortunately the river looked good. Real good. We started the morning off doing some nymphing and put the hurt on them! Caught a couple of nice browns and tons of bows. At lunch we moved the ship to an upper river ramp and decided to take advantage of some clouds. We got out the meat sticks and started pushing water. We had some awesome action. Fish were moving off the banks and aggressively swinging at our flies. We ended up catching several nice fish but truly the excitement came from watching these fish get so angry at our flies!

Blonds Have More Fun

WEIRD NEIGHBOR SCORES

Walmart Duster Rules

such a simple thing

Crazy kid used the wrong color !!

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.. The catching on the Madison River between the lakes is picking up. There are packed trails in the snow rather than parallel rows of post-holes.
.. The fish are after the midges on occasion. And, on occasion, they will be taken on the top. But, truth be told, blonds have more fun.
.. Hereabouts there's a small, ambitious, energetic, and slightly off-center group of local residents that refuse to believe that fishing with a fly is only a 4-month proposition. These kids are not habitues of the dusty aisles in the local fly shops. They are hard working sons and daughters of folks that have lived here for a few decades, (or more.) They wear shorts and sometimes go barefooted through December.
.. They fish with worms and flies and spinners, and anything that catches fish at the moment. They cherish their time on the water, (or ice,) and don't fool around with the arcane minutia of proper fly fishing. Just can't be bothered!

.. On rare occasion they will travel to the glorious catastrophe that is Bozeman. Of course they head straight for Walmart. Prices are good, selection is extensive, and the produce in the grocery section makes the local fare look like . . . well, unmentionable poop.
.. On a recent trip Tommy, (his real name,) found himself near a trash bin and spied a genuine, ole-time feather duster.
.. He grabbed it and found a "sales associate" and asked if the duster was really being thrown out.
.. Long-story-short: through several levels of the store hierarchy he continued to ask the question untill it was determined that the bit of fluff on the stick was indeed used-up and being thrown out. He smiled and poked it in his rear pants pocket.
.. Being deeply inculcated in local lore, Tommy knew that he had secured a treasure beyond belief. This was the stuff of legends. A real feather feather duster. He had several years' supply of fly tying material.

.. Upon returning home, Tommy was assailed by his mates. You foolish dolt! The color is all wrong.
.. Our neighbor Wally, (his real name,) used the dark gray or black feathers when he invented the FEATHER DUSTER FLY.
.. Well, Tommy, being of the working class, was not going to let a bit of color stand in the way of his feather dusters. He tied up a few dozen and passed them out to his friends at the local pub.
.. Of course you know the outcome. The off-color flies worked just fine. In fact they are the current neighborhood rage. It will die down in a month or two - OR - a year or two, who knows?
.. But for now: BLONDS HAVE MORE FUN, sticking fish in their mandibular parts.
.. We bring this bit of information to you as a public service. There are too damn many hungry trout between the lakes. They are begging for blond beauties. Natural, of course!

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It's getting deep in town.