Flyfishing Pics from Todays Outing!

Everyone was invited to come out flyfishing today at the Fishing Park! Our group of instructors was led by the stream stalker Jonn Graham, the flyfishing pastor Curt Eber, and a handful of other characters for whom I have no fancy name for yet.

We had a group of about 25 anglers out today learning and teaching the art of casting flies and battling fish. Very diverse group of characters. Anyhow besides the Alwan Brothers burgers and chili glazed trout for lunch, the highlight of the day would probably either be the beautiful weather or the fact that we caught hundreds of pounds of trophy rainbow trout! You had to work to get em to bite, but when you did they were big and powerful!!

Before I post the fish pictures I would like to personally thank a group of caterpiller folks who came down to help me out. They untangled and restrung 75 of our fishing poles we use for kids fishing events! They also helped everything run smooth today at the park! Many thanks to Jake, Josh, Jennifer and all the other guys and gals whose names I don't remember:

Ok, here are the pics. I will let them tell the rest of the story:

Check out this sequence:

Today was just a picture perfect day for teaching and learning how to flyfish. While I wont be having anymore events at the park for this season, I do plan on having more flyfishing days next year. Also if anyone is interested in private flyfishing lessons at the park during the winter, I do have some expert guides willing to donate their time in exchange for a donation to the fishing parks 2011 operating expenses. Our springs stay free of ice all season long and their is no better place on the planet to learn how to flyfish.

Pea Gravel, Food Plot and Dam Pictures

Well, I am up in Delavan, Wisconsin typing on my laptop in a Super 8 motel while the Boise State football game is playing in the background. Sometimes you score big time with a priceline unnamed bid of $50 per night and sometimes not so much... There is a funny smell in the room and its not my feet or britches. The internet is free though. Anyhow, I finished the flyfishing seminar about 1 pm and headed up north.

Sunday morning my dad and I will be Salmon fishing out of Milwaukee harbor well before the butt crack of dawn and then about 10 am we are going to head over to Lake Delavan for some pike fishing. From there we go back to Super 8 and will head over to Palatine Monday morning for an electrofishing survey for a lake association in the suburbs. Then head for home to watch the Bears get annhilated by the green bay packers monday night. They may be 2 and 0 right now, but they will have to beat the Packers before they will be considered legit.

Here are those Dam pictures I talked about in the title. This dam we helped put in will turn a 30 acre lake into a 55 acre lake!


This pipe will spill over the extra water into the other lake to make a couple extra acres of water over there as well.

Here is a fall food plot I went to check on back in the woods:

Here are some pics from earlier in the week, I shot 35 tons of pea gravel into this 10 acre lake over near fairview to help the bluegills spawn better which will help produce more forage which will help the bass have more to eat which will eventually make those skinny bass FAT!

We electrofished this pond for the new owner and found out it was full of large fancy goldfish!!! I am working on a plan to salvage the pond and still grow some big desirable other fish. Anybody interested in some big fancy goldfish I know of a 2 acre pond that is chucked full of them!

Here is a pic held up by a serious future fisherman from an electrofishing survey over near lewiston:

Here is just one pic from flyfishing day today.


Here is a pic of a bluegill replica my good friend Richard made me for my office:

I will start a new post for the rest of the trout fishing pictures from today and also a new post for hopefully some fishing pictures from Sunday! It has been a busy week, but tomorrow I fish for fun!!

Family Time

FAMILIES LOVE IT - FISHERS HATE IT

Too Damn Sunny

oh well !

"I'll fling you in the boiling water if you're not good!"

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.. Fish can be caught on these gentle, soft, and salubrious days of late September - if you work at it. Yellowstone National Park is putting on an autumn show well worth experiencing.

"Look honey, here's one."

.. There are, sunny days, crisp nights, blue skies, bumper to bumper traffic, and elbow to elbow fishers. Come join the fun. There's another week and maybe more of this wonderful weather.
.. The Baetis are occasionally present in all the usual places, particularly on the Firehole River. The caddis are small, prolific, and late during the warm afternoons. The hoppers are vanishing rapidly. The ants go marching three by three. The beetles are hiding until late afternoon. The runners from Hebgen Lake are taking their time moving up the Madison River. And; all is well with the world.

Zephyrus embracing Chloris

.. Catching on the Firehole River is steady and occasionally easy with a small caddis followed by a soft hackle. The hopper/dropper approach is good for some fair-sized fish, and small Yellow Woolly Worms dredged in the dark water can bring a large dance partner to the net.
.. Along the Madison River fishers are abandoning the deepest darkest parking spots for conventional searching. The resident fish are very active right now and willing to take just about any properly presented fly. Success in both the morning and evening is drawing our stodgy neighbors to the river in unprecedented numbers. It's just too good to be true.

"YEAH? - Your mama!"

.. Friday's anticipated cloud cover blew away with stiff zephyrs about mid morning. The wind-riffled waters were tough on the surface fishers as the winds played with fly lines, leaders, and still pools. Cagey fishers sought out the sheltered water with apparent foam lines and found willing fish all day.
.. A few persistent neighbors have stuck with their spey rods and there are reports and photos of runners being caught. There are also reports of fishers, (apparently unaware of the reach of a spey cast,) walking into pools being fished by the deep dredging streamers of the faithful.
.. Remarks about courtesy should not be necessary - yet, the mystic of "FLY FISHING" in Yellowstone Park draws both the expert and the uninitiated. Confrontation is seldom violent - but verbal exchanges can be, and are frequently heated. It just might behoove us all to pause and see what's happening before plunging into the river with our nine best friends.

.. Expertly fished nymphs are the key to numerous catchings right now. The old standbys are proving their worth. Prince nymphs, Hare's Ear nymphs, Feather Duster nymphs, Casual Dress nymphs, and the small 'dips and dipities' are doing well in attracting fish.
.. Small R.A.M. Caddis and Goddard Caddis can be fished on the surface, in the film, and drowned like an old boot. All will work well right now in the afternoon and evening. Many rigs are showing a pair of flies. Big 'n ' Little, Same 'n' Different, Light 'n' Dark, etc. are all employed and seemingly all successful.
.. Get here in the next ten days and enjoy the weather. Fish a little too, after all October is never this nice - but the catching is better.

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Thank you letter from Bill Rose and friends

A quick note to all there at Pisces. Thank you so much for an incredible two days of fishing. All four of us (Bill & Patty Rose of Houston, TX and Mike & Debi Clendening, of New Port Richey, FL) couldn't have been happier with the results of our two days fishing, the professionalism of the entire group at Pisces from you, Alejandra, and Oscar, to the crew of the Tracey Ann, Pisces made the trip a very memorable one.

We fish enough to know that the "catching" is a bonus, however with the way that the "Tracey Ann's" crew, (Captain Julio, Martin and Julio Jr) worked to find and then get us to the fish, was nothing short of magic. Mike made the observation that Capt. Julio is not a follower, he is a leader, and he proved that during the two days we fished with them, and the results - 2 marlin released, 3 more sighted, 1 sailfish released and 2 others sighted, 12 tuna caught and 3 dorado.

I appreciate the special attention to my request for "light drags" and a spinning rig, and it worked out great. Most importantly Mike (an avid inshore fisherman) had never caught a bill fish, and on this trip, he caught and released two Striped Marlin. I even managed to catch and release a sailfish. We both brought home over 35 lbs of tuna and dorado filet's, but more importantly many great memories that will have us coming back again and we will certainly be using the Pisces fleet and the Tracey Ann with Capt Julio.

I am sending pics of Mike and Debi, with one of his Marlin that was released, his other Marlin at the boat, and one of Patty and I with the sailfish that we released.

Please share with Capt Julio and his crew.

Thanks again

Bill and Patty Rose  from Houston, TX  and Mike and Debi Clendening from New Port Richey, FL

B.A.S.S. meeting.

Met up with fellow B.A.S.S. members Tony, Laurence & Steve last night for a chat. We talked all things fishing (Including Tide Minnows) and a good time was had by all, especially the whiskey drinkers !!
Enjoy the rest of your trip Tony & Laurence.

Z Fish Report (9/23/10)

The steady rains have been off for two days, and then back on for two days. From the heavy river outflows, this has pushed the 85° blue water out past the 1,000 fathom line and 30 mile mark.

       Other than a few dorado under floating debris, the offshore fishing has been very slow.
       The one highlight is the light line and fly rod action around the rock pinnacles in front of Ixtapa and down at the White Rocks. There has been excellent action on jack crevalle, green jacks, pompano, and black skipjacks. The schools of game fish are chasing a very small sardine; so the best lure for spin fishermen has been small 3” Mega Bait metal jigs, with fly anglers using a small 2” fly, almost like a small bonefish fly.
        The coastline is still to murky for roosters.
        Ed Kunze

           The following knot illustration is provided by: http://www.fish4fun.com/knots.htm

This week is the Albright knot. Most people know the blood knot to tie two similar sized lines together, but when there is a large difference in the size of lines, this is where the Albright knot is best. We use it all the time when fly fishing to tie a 20 pound leader to either a 100 pound bite tippet for sailfish or a 40 pound bite tippet for dorado, jacks, and roosters

fly fishing the fall run (root river,wi)



fair hooked headshot (look close)

Low flow early fall fishing on the Root River in Racine, Wisconsin. This fish was fair hooked on a pink estez that I bounced past her. She was sitting in a pool with a gorgeous brown and a big king. We saw almost a dozen fish today and all were below the weir. This one’s coming home for the smoker!

a root river early fall steelhead