Summer Fishing

Even though it has been summer, and I haven't gotten much time to fish or to tie flies. Every so often I have taken some time at night to tie a fly or two. I have tons of fun doing it, though I think some formal training might help... and some decent materials. Right now I have been tying with feathers I find at a local petting zoo, and a few materials I have bought. I'm hoping to get some decent hackle soon.

I have been fishing twice this summer, and I can proudly say that I can add two more fish to my long list of fish caught. One was a bream that I caught on a camp out with some friends from church. We were in Rutherfordton on the Broad river. I was using a children's rod I bought for J-Man. I cut up some freshwater clam and was casting and reeling it in. It was a little thing, but I was happy with it. Janet and J had hit the hay about an hour earlier, and I wanted to join them.

The second was actually this morning at a friend's pond. We were over there to help chaperon a camp out for Activity Day Girls. It was an awesome experience for the girls (about 15-20 between 8-11 years old). It was a clear night so they all crowed in under a giant tarp that helped to keep the dew off of them. They went swimming, fishing, got on the pond in a little boat, helped cook, baited for snapping turtles, and the list goes on. Janet had to sleep under the tarp with them (it was set up like a tent) because Lara needed another woman to have the two deep leadership. I was there to be a priesthood holder along with Tony. He slept in the house, and I slept in their camper with J. Everyone was teasing us because it seemed backwards having the pregnant lady sleep on the ground (we brought three pads for her), but being a male I am not allowed to sleep with the girls.

Anyway, it went super well, and I ended up catching a bass that was around 10 inches. I fished for a while with a hopper-popper, but had very little luck with it. One bass slurped it up, but I didn't set the hook quick enough. I noticed the bass were sneaking up on minnows at the water's edge and then they would strike and storm off. So I tied on a zonker that I had tied that looked like the minnows. I hooked up on the second cast, but alas, the bass shook it off. I kept trying and finally hooked another bass. This time I brought it to hand. I'm super inexperienced with taking the hook out, and this one was deep so it took me a while to get it out. The fish seemed to be fine though as I released it. I love feeling that rod bend. It is so much fun. It seems like spin casting/bait casting rods don't let you feel the fight as well. I have so much fun fighting to bring them in. It totally made my day catching a decent fish, and seeing that my zonker was so effective.

I think the shirt may have been good mojo.

The culprit 

First Flies

Janet's parents were super good to me this Christmas and gave me a fly tying kit as well as a gift card to Bass Pro. I have been wanting to start tying really bad, so I was/am super excited for the kit. I had never been to Bass Pro either, so that was exciting to have an excuse to go and explore the closest one (about an hour away). That store is huge, and I only had time to go through maybe half of it. I'm pretty sure I could spend days there and not see everything.

Anyway, I have had some time with Christmas break to start learning how tie flies. It is much harder than I thought. I totally understand why classes are so highly recommended. I have issues with crowding the eye of the hook, and tying them off still proves to be a challenge. I had to look up another way to do it than my kit told me because I just wasn't getting it. I now have four homemade flies: two wooly buggers, and two rock worms. Here they are:

My very first fly - a wooly bugger. The tail is way too long and bushy.

Here is my first fly compared to one I bought at a fly shop.

Here is my 2nd wooly bugger (my 4th fly in all).

Here are all 4. The ones on the right are rock worms.