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Newest Fish Tale
 Idaho Fly Fishing: The ''Highway To Heaven'' Leads To The Salmon River
Posted by waterwhippa on February 05, 2010 (152 reads)
Few places I have visited capture my imagination like central Idaho. My introduction to the area was in the late 90’s, never having traveled to the Rockies, I was absolutely floored by the wide open space, infinite sky and unadulterated landscape. Since the maiden voyage I’ve made it a point to get back there every few years or so. This trip my wife joined me for a nice summer getaway. We flew into Boise, hit the grocery store, filled a few coolers, rented a car and made the three hour push east on Route 21. Appropriately named “The Highway to Heaven”, the panoramic views of jagged, rock studded peaks along the switch-back road left us feeling very small and insignificant. We stopped for lunch halfway at a groovy restaurant in Lowman, on the Payette River. The views from the deck were stunning and this being my wife’s first time out west, she was absolutely mesmerized and blown away. We reached our destination in the late afternoon, a sweet little cabin on the Salmon River. The next eight days would prove to be nothing less than spectacular, the conditions were tough for fishing with high and unseasonably cold water due to a super wet spring. We fished a bunch anyway and made the best of it, rode horses, hiked, soaked in the hot springs, visited some old ghost towns and had an unforgettable time in the process. Things just seem to move a little slower up in the mountains out there, a very welcome pace compared to the hustle and bustle of the
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Fly Fishing: Refining & Redefining Our Definition Of Fly Fishing
Posted by bfly on January 30, 2010 (361 reads)
There comes a point and time in a fly fisherman's life that defines him. For example: Do you continue to fish the way you always have, and pursue and catch the same fish in the same way? Or do you challenge yourself to push the envelope and experience fly fishing from a new perspectives? Probably everyone on this site knows exactly what I'm talking about.
Some friends of mine and I decided to take the latter approach. We chose to fish when weather conditions would normally dictate poor fishing to say the least. And we chose a very technical piece of water where light rods, fine tippets and small flies are the norm.
So, what did we do? We met at a spring creek in upstate, NY for a morning fly fishing session. Air temps were struggling to get above 10 degrees and everything in upstate NY had been frozen for a while now, except for some tail water fisheries. And even those waters were struggling to stay above freezing. A certain spring creek, however, stays at a fairly constant temperature - hovering somewhere around 50 degrees (plus or minus a few degrees) all year long.
The fishing started off a little slow, with a fish here and there for the first 45 minutes. Then, it started to "warm up." We made some fly changes and things really started to heat up. Our indicators started dipping more and more and we would even have times when we would hook up with a fish on 3 or 4 consecutive drifts. We even
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Florida Fly Fishing: Giant Tarpon Attacks Fly Fisherman!
Posted by marshalld on May 15, 2007 (2640 reads)
I'm on the bow of Capt. Kevin Mihailoff's flats boat deep in the Florida Everglades with my friend Roger, sitting behind me. As we silently turn toward a laid up Tarpon, Kevin quietly says, "Straight out in front, 30 feet, put it in the air, I'll tell you when.” So, I do just that and then Kevin says, “Ok, drop it." The black 3-0 fly plops just behind the head of the resting fish and I strip short pulses easily back over her back. Five strips, and she sees it, her wake bulging behind the fly. The enormous fish chomps down on the hook and erupts with her mouth opening. Shaking her head, she looks directly at me and turns down and away, I strip-set twice to drive the barb in and Kevin yells, "Yes!"
After less than a minute, I have only 1/8-inch of backing left on the reel and Kevin abandons poling to the fish and starts the motor. Twice we chase down the Tarpon as I recover line and renew pressure to make the fish expend energy. Kevin urges me to put maximum pressure with the 12-weight on the fish and as I added some more torque to the already stressed rod. I could feel the mood of the giant fish turn ugly. I had pissed off this fish.
Suddenly, the huge Tarpon raced 20 yards to my left sending a rooster tail of water behind the fly line. The fish then ran at the boat, straight at me, vaulted into the air, struck me on my left hip, driving my knee into the front podium, and passes over the boat behind me and in front of Roger who is sitting on the cooler behind me. There's slime all over the deck and it's a brief frenzy of team line clearing as the three of us yell, "Woah, Holy $#@%!" and other stuff you only say when you've never seen something as extraordinary. That fish hit me!
I recovered all of the slack pretty fast, thanks to Roger and as he toweled up the slimy deck I slithered for good footing, the Tarpon made another
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Bonefish Paradise: French West Indies, Tailing Bones At Sunset
Posted by alexismt555 on January 27, 2007 (1663 reads)
On Friday January 19th I got on the flats from 16 H to 18 H 30 and the
tide was just starting to "downstream." The sun was already low making it fairly difficult to spot the Bonefish. I started walking to a part of the flats that often holds Permit. The wind was very calm. As I arrived at the spot, I spotted a permit cruising opposite of me with very low profile, no tail or V on the surface. I tried my luck with a first cast but was unsuccessful. As I was preparing to make a second cast the Permit disappeared into a depression on the flat and I never saw the fish again. I decided to stay on the flat for a bit, waiting for another fish to show. A Half an hour pass and nothing. No tailing, no nervous water and no tell tale V wakes on the surface. I headed to shallower water. This would enable me to reveal some tailing bones or any suspect activity in the water. Now, it was 17h30, the tide had only dropped a little and the visibility declined again. My last hope was that one of those Gray Ghosts would do me a favor and show a tail. There, Nervous water! I cast, strip, strip he missed. I only saw the tail of the bone as reached deeper water and he was gone!.
Now it is 18 H and my luck had really gone away and time had passed without me even knowing. In half an hour it would really be night time. I took off my polarized lenses as it was too dark for being useful. I walked down the flat following the tide for a last time before getting in the
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