Today was a good fishing day

Went out pretty early and found some nice water that was mostly glass-still. Little troutskis couldn't hide this morning.

The fly I tied the other night and call it Frantic Fly...basically a few barbs of feather for the tail, grey rabbit dubbing for the body, with stiff hackle wound round and then some nice webby soft hackle. Hooked up with three but was only able to land the first, by the third one, the tippet broke...oh well, a trout a day keeps the reaper away.

Thanks for stopping by.

It was a crappie day

Raining all day. Some significant gusts. But on the way out the door I had time to admire some rotting tomatoes

 As I find my parking spot I am happy that no one is around and I got the whole joint to myself. Casting at this venue is difficult enough.  My back cast is over two lanes of traffic. On the back cast I also have trees and high voltage wires.

After casting around for about two hours I figured I was here too late ... (fisherman's excuse #348). So, heading to the next chapel I was seeing a lot of these

So, I slowed down a bit because everyone seemed to be drinking coffee and talking on their cellies. After all, I don't want to interrupt them by stopping in front of them at a light.

Having safely arrived I began fishing in earnest. I had saw a rise on the water and recognized 'my lochness'... I was prepared but alas, we didn't hook-up. So I began catching the crappie. They seem to suck up anything in front of their mouths

To test my theory, I tied on another one, a size 10 nymph hook with a piece of bug skin tied to it.

An while tying another one on, the random fall of the line reminds me yet again - it's all connected. 

And so, I had to end to go do a computer gig. Another crappie day on the water. Thanks for stopping by.

Fished With this line for

about ten hours today. My first impression was it's a heavy line and feels like plastic in my fingers...
I was using a 12 foot 4x nearly all day which I cut down a tad. I could make somewhat delicate casts with the line, but it really wanted to fly. So, i let it fly. Distance was no problem. The line performed admirably under repeated blistering shoots of forty feet and under.

The nymph didn't fair too well:













 I didn't care for it at first with underhand casting, but after a while I got the timing figured out. It stayed relatively high floating all day. It was pretty good in the wind of 6-8 mph. The color of the line isn't a startling chartruese, but close...Compared to the AirFlo lines I normally use, and the recent Barrio line that is on the broken Ballan reel, this Sage line is stiff. We'll see how I am with it tomorrow. Going to try some river fishing...
Later.

12/06/11 note: fished with it for the majority of the day and finally got it working for me quite well.  It still feels like plastic, I'm enjoying the slight stiffness of the line today, I was working on loops and off shoulder casting. 

Got some new line

I couldn't resist, Cabela's was selling Sage fly line for 29 bucks. How horrible could it be? The line is in 5-weight, weight forward,  Sage Ultimate Performance Taper Freshwater. I'll string it up in the morning and report back in the evening. Why a new line? Well, a new reel. My Ballan reel handle broke off  when the rod blew over on a wood deck while I was adjusting the tippet.  So I got a Pfleuger to hold the new line until I can fix the Ballan reel.( Have to find a tap and die set small enough...hmmm, maybe Sears or Harbor Freight might have it.)

Any how, the weather seems to be okay so far...can't wait till the morning...have some new wading boots coming as well. I'm really chomping at the bit to get in the Peconic. Laterz

Another good fish story

                                          Got them both to hand. Crazy when it happens...

and then this guy on the same fly.

                                     Different water, same result...fish like to play "chase the fly".

gee...don't know what he was chasing...maybe it was practicing on the grass before he actually went fishing...

I think it must have flown out in front of a vehicle. It was remarkably fresh, eyes intact, no insects. And an opportunity to examine it. Beautiful birds. I've photographed hundreds, but never this close.  My first thought was that it had choked on one of the trout...so, back to the water I went to make sure the heron saved me a few. Thankfully, it had...and so ends another beautiful autumn day.  

 

                                           Ride This

Well, I finally saved enough pocket change to buy a Sage rod. Took about 5 months. Having never cast one or fished with one, I have to say it certainly is put together nicely. I had my jaw set on the Sage Flight, 8'6" 5 weight. Found it at Leland Fly Fishing Outfitters for 275.00. Interestingly, when I hit the "Buy" button, the price went up to $280. So, I wrote Leland and asked them to honor the price as originally posted. They did and conducted themselves professionally. Also, very helpful and friendly lot of folks over there. They stayed in touch via emails keeping me up to date on the arrival. My final price on the rod ended up being $271.00.

I was figuring that the less expensive rod would still have some of the 'niceness' that all the Sage rods reportedly have. I haven't been disappointed. I have about 20 hours casting with it now and dozens of catches of all sizes and the rod handled them all with authority. The first couple of hookups saw the catches pulled out of the water for a moment - such is the backbone of the rod. (And the fluorocarbon tippets :) really made for a positive take. There was no, "oh, did something touch my fly?". I could feel it throughout the rod.)
 Even though the line is less than optimal for the rod, I could toss some very handsome loops of several shapes effortlessly. The rod loads with certainty and shooting line with the slightest of hauls was indeed fun. I'm looking forward to getting a lot of use out of this rod and can see myself getting another one maybe next year if the donuts are right.

I paired the rod with a beautiful Bill Ballan reel and some really cheap fly line. I have ordered a line from The Fly Line Shop the GT90 weight forward floater. I've heard very good things about the line from all over, and from Carl McNeil who also had positive things to say about it. It's coming all the way from Scotland, so I don't know when it will arrive. The price point was very good and free worldwide shipping. So, if this Sage casts well with a very cheap line, it will probably cast very nicely with a better built line.

They'll be aerating the golf course where I work, so next week I'll have three days off. One of those days I'll take the Sage out and put it through some paces with distance in mind and see how it performs, and hopefully, also get a lot of hours in the water with it. I'll report back here. In the interim if any of you owns the Flight or have cast the rod: What were your impressions?

Up pretty early this morning, drove to Artist Lake and it was a fun morning. Bluegills, bass, and crappie.

 this starts the morning, first cast.

 and such a lovely morning it was

 fifty to sixty feet in every direction was plentiful

 caught one of these - crappie with attitude.

 I did have one beefy hook up with a big boy while I was reeling in a small bluegill. But, I couldn't land him. Booger took all the fly line and some backing out the tip, and then...nothing. Got himself a nice brunch tidbit
and I got my favorite drug, the tug.

So, the sun is up and I left Artist Lake and drove to Upper Yaphank lake. The water was absolutely still and crystal clear. Always walk to the water softly and there's 8 or 9 nice bass just lolling around. This is a serious problem to solve. If I spook them they're gone. Damn, the shadow from the line just disturbed a few...so I add about four feet of 4x and a size 10 gr Hare's Ear. Very nice cast  laying the nymph right on the fringe of the cover and barely a breath passes and a fair sized bluegill takes the nymph and a few wiggles later this hefty largemouth chases it right outta the water and next thing I know the characteristic zing of the Bill Ballan reel echoes in my brain.

He got his gill and his picture on my blog. A worthy battle thru twine thick matting and pressure on his lip never relaxed. C&R successful.

Now time for a nap. Thanks for stopping by and taking a look.

it's gonna be years before this one is a keeper

 Pitch black out and targeting whatever is in the darkness...

Thought I felt something gobble it.  Smallest largemouth I've ever happened upon.  The weather has been pretty
toasty out the last few days. Today is expected to be the hottest of the year.  Oppressive, hot and hazy and heat advisory. I don't blame the fishies for not being more active ...

alrighty then ...

Fishing has been about the same, the weather has been upwards of 17 mph winds with 70-90 F. degree air temps. The fatties have went to different climes. Water temps are in the 70's F. This morning the municipal landscapers were at it. While it was instructive watching all the startled fish and their locations, only the most ballsy fish broke cover to chomp the fly.

Went over to my son's new place for dinner. Which happened to be quite delish. While I was determining what
the malfunction was with his computer ... I saw this bag of mice...so many things came to mind ... and there are no
female mice in the bag...

Well, time to go to work ... hopefully fishing afterward.

The fishing was well, fishing.

But the sunset certainly closed the day out nicely and even caught an 8 ounce bluegill! ;-P

The water was fairly warm, the sun has been beaming, the wind moderate. Was stalking the chain pickerel, but I couldn't find where they were stalking. Did have a 'run in' with a huge Mute Swan. She was like fifty yards away (picture right) and came flying at me about three feet off the water, (she must have been thinking it was her lake) and then banked sharply about ten yards in front of me...that's why I say, "All the best pictures are in my mind." 

Went out fishing three times today

i just have to chalk it up to the water being cold, and the wind was really blowing...nothing was biting anywhere.
Well, I did get one

 But most of the day was spent pretty much watching turtles watching me. :)

There's always tomorrow.

Brrr, the water was cold

Went out fishing in my backyard today for about 4 hours. The water was distinctly cooler by at least 15 degrees.

There's such a food supply for growing fishies. :)

I don't know what it is with damsel flies and my stripping hand. Today they were flying and landing in tandem.

So, it was a little slow. There was also a baby chain pickerel and largemouth...and sadly, one that got away.

got out a little earlier

started off with the 9' 4-weight, a pink hares ear beadhead....then went to olive...then a black woolly bugger...
different retrieves, depths, 'skipping stones' presentation (side-armed bouncing the beadhead off the surface), another sip of coffee (that must be the problem), change rods a 4-weight 5' 7" with a olive hares ear beadhead, cast under some bushes and pick up a bluegill

Some more retrieves later and still not as busy as I would like. Put on a size 14 or 16 caddis and back under the bushes we go, I 'know' something has got to be there.

Okay, that's more like it. :-) Some more casts parallel to the right shoreline, and trying an over the shoulder curve cast, but that's crazy, settled with left-handed  roll cast and a little help from the wind blowing my way - to try and get around this big bush sticking out there, let it settle and twitch, and a few more bluegill to hand

Okay, time to head back home...

after these gents moved on, I was fishing there. Tricky cast around that big bush. :-)