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 Alaska: Salmon & Rainbow Trout On Big Articulated Streamer Flies
Posted by shubacka on August 24, 2008 (149 reads)
The Alaskan landscape was astonishing from the time I could see Anchorage inside the plane until I was unfortunately departing. In my short week I was able to explore some fly fishing around the Talkeentna/Mount McKinley area as well as a few days inside the Kenai River System. From fly fishing across the Russian River brown bears to countless chum & pink salmon hookups on the mouth of Montana Creek, I now see how one could easily drop everything and move to Alaska for the endless fly fishing opportunities and vast unexplored water systems.
All trout in different geographical locations and individual streams for that matter have different tendencies, feeding habits, etc... and trying to understand how fish behave in their own waters systems often provides the key to success followed by pure excitement and times of disappointment. My experience in Alaska was nothing different and it was truly a learning experience. In talking to the few locals I stayed with and others that I met along the way it seemed to be common knowledge that many of the rainbow trout in Alaska travel many miles to feed on different types of food sources during different parts of the year which is mostly due to the world famous salmon runs. We spent many hours fishing over water that we expected to hold good numbers of trout only to go fishless but we kept moving and did finally locate fish.
Because of the available food sources in most of the waters we ended up mostly throwing big articulated streamers for the majority of the trip instead of your typical dries & nymphs in a size 12-18. I am a streamer junkie so I wouldn't have wished it any other way. These were definitely the most aggressive rainbow trout that I have ever fished for, catching a 10'” rainbow on 5”-6” inch fly gives you some indication of how these fish survive, behave, and quickly grow to double digit size fish.
All fellow
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Wisconsin: The Bronze Destroyer
Posted by flyeyes on August 16, 2008 (207 reads)
It was the last day of school and I just finished up my last final exam. I drove home from school bursting with excitement. I ran up to my room grabbed my 8 weight rod, reel, and backpack and jumped into the car. My dad and I were off to NE Wisconsin for a trip chasing the Bronze Destroyer, commonly known as the smallmouth bass. The drive took a few hours but as soon as we reached the river, I knew we were going to have a great trip. The first night we kayaked the river for a few hours and caught a couple small fish on streamer patterns. On Saturday, we woke up and drove through the back roads to a boat launch north of where we were staying. We put in the boat and began a great day of smallmouth fishing. Within fifteen minutes, we had caught and released four nice smallies with are white streamer patterns. It is always amazing to fish with patterns that are visible to the fisherman because the violent takes are so fun to see. After a couple more casts up into the bank, a 6 pound Northern hammered my streamer. I was uncertain that I was going to land him because I did not have the correct leader. We did get the pike in just seconds before shriveling my 10 pound leader. The day was filled with many more great fish including an eighteen inch fish on a popper. Of course any day has to come to an end and this one was no different. Our takeout was within sight and we thought the day was over. But as it turned out we were so wrong. Just then a monster smallmouth attacked my popping bug and somehow I missed the hook set. I could not believe it. After that we went a little past our takeout to fish another nice stretch of the river. I made a cast tight up against the bank and twitched my popper once, as a huge fish slurped it down. I set the hook and the fight was on. The fish
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Bonito & Albies: Sharks Love 'Em Too!
Posted by Simpson on August 02, 2008 (463 reads)
This morning Jeremy and I met before the sun came up with the intention of putting something big on deck. It was one of those mornings when dawn lights the sky with a glow that has a mirror reflection on the water’s glassy surface. The ocean was absolutely flat calm and it was a perfect day to run and look for surface feeding tuna. The night before, Jeremy had been fishing with Rhodyflyguy and they saw a few small pods of bluefin tuna and Jeremy hooked up to his first bonito of the year. The bonito are such cool fish and always great to see their return to inshore waters each year. But we had a goal to venture a little further off shore and it was the ideal day to go further out. We marked the GPS put the throttle down and pressed on. After running for a while with land clear out of sight we began to see signs of off shore life. Large schools of small bait were being harassed by sea birds, monster bluefish, false albacore and bonito. Now, on any other in shore day the false albacore and bonito would be a coveted find and a very rewarding fly rod hook up. But in this water these fish are the bait and we started to keep a few just in case we needed to chum up some tuna or draw in some sharks. The stern of the boat became a bloody mess and we pushed further on. We saw a few pods of bluefin tuna pop and while we were slowly moving and waiting for them to surface again, we saw a fin in the distance. It was a shark just free swimming on the surface eating what seemed to be an easy meal left behind from a commercial fishing trawler. Jeremy slowly nosed closer, shut off the engine and tossed a small chunk of false albacore in the sharks direction. Then another small piece right near the boat which the shark lazily inhaled. It was a nice blue shark and with 2 small pieces
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Striped Bass: Clear Water & Tricky Fish ... He Ate It!
Posted by jeremy on July 29, 2008 (532 reads)
Striped bass are a dynamic species of fish and I am constantly amazed at the different methods I learn to fly fish for them. In the spring I fish for striped bass in raging rivers where the fish wait in the fastest of current possible waiting for herring to prey upon. Then, the fish move out into the bays and open ocean; often traveling in both small and big pods. During these times the fish will corral up bait and feed with almost reckless abandonment. Then the fish spread out and some stay in packs while other fish stake their claim on rock piles, structures, humps and flats. When the stripers are on the shallow crystal clear flats eating crabs and/or micro bait or in clear shallow water grass flats or boulder fields; they can often be difficult to trick. This past weekend found me in a really cool environment; fly fishing to some of the biggest striped bass I have ever seen. The water was crystal clear and we were fishing in depths ranging from 5 to 10 feet. While standing on the bow I could see solo stripers cruising on the bottom moving across the sand highways. Austin and I watched in Amazement at the fish below. I got on the bow and tied on a big olive and white bunker type fly pattern. I saw a few fish cruising and threw a long cast ahead of them. The fly hit the water and I began to strip a varying speeds. Immediately one of the big fish started tracking the fly and then 2 others joined him in pursuit. I stripped the fly all the way back to the boat. The fish went wild, nipping at the back of the fly but they wouldn’t commit. This happened time and time again and it was so exciting to watch these big fish track the fly and come oh so close to taking it; but turning away at the last minute. It was a total sight fishing experience and a subtle game of trickery between fisherman and fish. I could
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Gar On Hook-Less Flies: ''You're Doing What!?''
Posted by westy43 on July 24, 2008 (536 reads)
I am alway trying to push the boundaries of fly fishing to the limits. I like finding the most crazy, out of this world things to do and trying them. So, when a local guide called me and told me that some Gar were active on a bay of one of the major Great Lakes, I was in. Not really knowing what to expect, and only knowing a little about Gar, I was nervous as we launched and headed toward our first spot. 8wts, sinking and floating line, and hook-less rope flies was all the tackle we needed for tangling with these monsters. The flies were simple - white nylon rope unwound and combed out with an epoxy head. No hook. Gar have a long narrow mouth that is just bone and teeth, so hooking them is nearly impossible, so when one hits the nylon rope fly it just gets tangled in their teeth and they are "hooked". Gar are prehistoric fish (thousands of years old) and have an air bladder that allows them to gulp air off the surface in order to breathe. Since they were always on the surface, when fishing for them we would look for "rising" Gar in schools of up to 100 fish, and put our fly right in the middle of a school. Not too long into our first few casts, a local New York State Department of Environmental Conservation officer came up to our boat and was doing a fishing survey - the usual what are you fishing for, how long have you been out, and have you caught anything. Well, when we told him what we were fishing for he nearly fell off his boat - "You're doing what?!", he
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