Esox, I know exactly how you feel , those big bass just staring at you can drive any one insane, but they are catchable...... I have beed down the road of matching the natural baitfish without luck........but then I tried something different...a #10 red tailed black woolybugger - and the big bass just slowly swam forward, and inhaled the bugger......
might be worth a trie.....just make sure the fish don't see you.
Tight lines !
I was supposed to leave for Kola late July, I will probably reconsider my plans :((
Now that I've seen your beautiful flies I will re-read Rays book again. This time with fresh eyes. Wonderful art and dialogue. Thanks for sharing! Back to the vise with renewed vigor.
Very nice flies. I find soft hackles and flymphs to be among the most successful and pleasant-to-fish patterns that work nearly every time I use them.
Wow! someone owns more klinkhammers than me!!
What sizes do you tend to use? Anything really tiny?
wish we had a few here in our limestone streams.
Great picture !
Did you play around with the coulor of the sky ? the pixels around the horizon look a bit strange - like when you use the lasso tool in PS.
Try Airrus rods. He had to change the business name -- probably forced to by Hardy...
Henk
Last year I went to Patagonia to seek their illusive trout and had a wonderful time. I would love to go to Iceland to pursue those beautiful brown trout. This trip sounds like a beauty but having no idea as to the cost of such a venture I will just have to put it on my wish list.
Taking your dogs along when you are fishing obviously reveals new sides of the nobel art.
The other day I was fishing a tiny river, along with our two labradors. Both dogs are trained and works as shootingdogs, but they have never experienced fishing before. Especially the youngest one (a two year old bitch) showed interest when I hooked a couple of fish, and it took great efforts to hold her back from jumping the river.
At some point I got into a school of perch. I instantly got one and seeing it was deep hooked I thought what the heck, and allowed the dog to go. She fumbled and struggled a bit with the fish, but managed to get hold of the dorsal fin and landed the fish. She dumped it to the ground, where she inspected the new and surprising catch. The fish was unharmed and I released it.
New cast, new fish and this time she brought the fish without hesitation. I made four cast, got four nice perch around the pound, and all four of them were correctly retrieved to my hand. I bagged the fish for a nice family dinner, and both me and the dog had a big smile on our faces, when we walked home through the meadows.
Let us hear other stories about fish-retrieving dogs.
Hans Jacob
Martin,
Had a close one with one of my dogs on the river this weekend. You've not met her yet, shes a cocker spaniel with long floppy ears, who just loves the water. I was walking the bank and she was hunting the bushes along the rivers edge.
I realised I couldn't hear her and went to investigate by forcing myself through the bushes where I last heard her, only to find her hanging by her ears, tangled in the thorns of an overhanging a bramble bush, totally submerged in the current, and not moving a muscle.
I jumped in, ripped her off the brambles and threw her up onto the bank. Where she remained completley still. However, picking her up by her back legs and a good thump on her back did the trick.
After throwing up half of the Usk river and a bit of whining and coughing she seems none the worse for the experience. Though Im not sure she appreciated the rough treatment!
Take a look,
5 days to go and nearly ã50.00 including postage!
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ORIGINAL-GENUINE-CHADWICKS-477-YARN-GRAYLING-KILL…
Im not sure Id pay ã50.00 for some yarn. Having said that I have some capes that easily cost that. Whats the difference?
I have a really high end pair of Browning 5 MM neoprenes I've owned for 15 yrs. They were a real blessing after years of vinyl and rubber waders, especially for duck hunting in the winter. However, I haven't worn them for the past 5 years or more, since I got a set of lightweight breathables. Mine are Cabela's midrange priced GII's, about $100. US. Admittedly, we havent had many really cold winters lately, but I've worn these when we were breaking 2 inches of ice to set up decoys,late winter in Idaho. I wear polyproplene from head to toe-sox, mid weight long johns, hat. Then I layer fleece over it. I make sure I don't overheat during the really physical parts of carrying gear in, setting up etc. And I DON"T GET COLD!
I just looked up the bleak to see what it looked like. I would think that one of the bait fish imitations tied with braided mylar tubing, with some sheet foam to deepen the body shape, and maybe a cone head to off-set the bouyancy would be a perfect imitation.
FYI- Fly tyer Magazine, Winter 2003 has a good article on making foam bodies by gluing sheets of craft foam together, then cutting the bodies with a sharpened tube hammered thru the stack of foam. Some of mine were OK, but I do a terrible job of shaping them with a knife. The current edition suggests impaling the bodies on a needle, put the needle in a drill and shape conical bodies with an emory board.
Colin,
There isn't much recipe to the fly, actually: mylar tinsel in any color(s) you fancy, a hackle in front of that all tied in the back of a medium large pike hook - size 2 to 2/0 will probably work well.
Martin
Johan,
Follow the links in the fact box above these comments and ask the outfitters Upstream Flyfishing and FlyCastaway directly.
Martin
Great. I should have asked for the recipe. I am really enjoying the site Colin
Hi could you please send us price list in (euro's) for one week fishing and staying at the camp for 2 people.
Regards
Johan
I wish I could the same about my black lab.
She's been fir hooked, tail hooked and more often than not, spooked by a passing fly.
My lab Karmen, will quietly enter the water without warning and many times I have been wading, she's swam by or swam in circles in front of me as if nothing was wrong!
Lately she's taken to resting on the shore until I hook a fish, then all hell breaks loose!!!
Rip
Colin,
This would work on pike anywhere. Pike are not exactly picky.
Martin
Bob,
He is a very good dog, and since this unfortunate incident he has only been "fur hooked" with no harm caused. He is still a bit anxious when under a low back cast, but most times he will just roam the beach, or lie or sit down behind me waiting for me to come back in.
The only time he really keys in on me is when I hook a fish. That wakes him up, but won't make him enter the water.
Martin
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