Category Archive

Just so everyone knows, I will be trying to do updates once a week, if I can get to it. The new job and fishing have me tied down in other places that don’t include the internet. Hopefully I can find sometime soon and do a new post, until then, peace!

Took a buddy out to a private pond for some big bass. This pond has always been a good one, producing big bass year after year. He has been dying to do some pond fishing all year, and finally the stars aligned in both of our schedules and I got him to a good pond. He really wanted to fish Gurglers, Sneaky Petes and various other top waters, but not here. No my friend, this is Hawg Callin’ water; big streamers for big fish. We started off by the beach, and worked our way counter clockwise around the lake. I wanted to try a new streamer out and it was the only fly I fished all day. I caught my first fish on my third cast, and the pattern for the day began.

This pond is an old rock quarry, so it gets really deep really fast. The fish were hanging just on the edge of the drop off ambushing bait fish, which in this pond are schooling shad. It took my buddy a while to figure this pattern out, mainly ’cause he wanted no help. I like his style. I caught bass on 3 of my next ten casts, all about the same size.

After I sent that fish home we continued walking around the pond, catching a few smaller bass and some bluegill. Then all hell broke lose for about 30 minutes, with us catching four, four pound bass and countless others.

Pete started off with the first one.

This fish was fat as all get out, these pictures don’t do the fish justice.

Then I caught one, I wouldn’t have know the fish was there if Pete hadn’t caught a smaller one and it chased it in.

Pete then worked his way around the cove, and I hooked another good fish, Pete was around to get the photo-op so I had to improvise.

He then casted out a test pattern and quickly found out it worked… Well.

We finished the day walking around the lake catching smaller fish, but nothing real big.

I will post up the secret fly later this week. Getting a new job has put a crimp in my fishing and blogging.

I had left last Thursday For Spring City, Tennessee to spend the Fourth with family. Destination, Watts Bar Lake. From what I could find out about this lake, there was tons of good fishing to be had. But I found tough conditions, from the lack of rain, then sudden amounts of rain.

Fishing could have been better, but for me it was amazing for simple reasons. I got my uncle and cousin onto their first fish on the fly. Both of them caught hoards of bluegills. There weren’t many bass to be taken, but in the two days we fished, we got 10 bass. All of them were spotted bass. For me this was a fish I haven’t ever caught, and would be glad to catch them again. They are fierce fighters on the 4wt. They seem to be like smallies in the fact they never give up, even when you net them. The average spot ran about 15 inches, which I understand is a big fish for that specie.

I will call this post to an end, for the lack of pictures(dropping the camera in the water the first day will do that). I hope to return rather soon and slam them, this time with camera in hand.

For as long as I have been tying, I try to look at patterns for what they are, and try and go from there. For instance, I based this pattern off of the old stand-by wooly bugger. For many people, they bugger is a confidence pattern, and one they can tie on in the toughest of situations and catch fish. For me that pattern hasn’t ever been one of confidence, and I for the life of me cannot catch a fish on this pattern. I think in my entire fly fishing life I have caught one maybe two fish on the wooly bugger. It wasn’t even a standard bugger, it had rubber legs, tons of flash and a conehead. Needless to say it armed and ready for battle.

Many patterns are based off of existing one’s and the Modified Stripper Leech is no exception. For me this one has always been a real fish catcher, and I dont know why it is. It is simple and doesn’t look like much, unless you have it in the water, and that is what it’s most deadly (you’d have to be an idiot to not realize that). So here it is, for the first time to my viewing audiance the MSL:

Heres the Recipe For it:
Hook: Daiichi 1750 size 8-12
Cone-Head: 1/4 black or nickel
Lead: .030
Tail: Natural Rabbit Tail, any color will do
Body: Peacock Ice Dub
Wing: Natural Rabbit Tail in a dubbing loop

You can add rubber legs if you like, but I don’t like rubber legs on this pattern. Anyways there it is, simple as can be. Now go tie some and start catching fish! Good luck and tight lines!

I have been busy like a mo’ fo’ lately, hench the reason for no posting. 

The fishing has been pretty uneventful until tonight. When I caught this awesome specie: 

Caught some good fish. Also in one hole I got four different species on four consecutive cast’ . Overall it was my best day fishing this year yet, seeing as I caught over 50 fish in about 3 1/2 hours. Pumpkin Seed’s and Bass dominate this lake. But with the Green Sunfish in there now, it shouldn’t be long until they alone dominate the lake. Either way, this lake is great and I love it there. Here are the pictures of the four different species on four different cast’

regardless of size are tons of fun, especially on poppers. Hell, I will even take them on clousers. Proof positive it works is here.

Fished the Grand today for four hours and landed 6 fish. It could have been a better day, but I enjoyed the nice weather and the good company. We caught them on mostly everything we threw at them. Clousers, warm water mini fluffs, crease flys, stealth bombers and flashdancers, you name it, they hit it. It was a matter of keeping them on that was the problem. Especially with the crease flys as they would roll over them rather than hit them from underneath. Oh well, we enjoyed it… Even though the canoe hatch has happened early this year. Here are some pictures from today.

               Good fish, but not as big as the others, about 14″

        One of my three fish of the day, I rarely come from behind the lens

Yes, you read it right, I will be heading to Sebring Florida on May 26th. It’s supposed to be a family vacation, but luckily my cousin and uncle love fishing and we will be doing our fair share of fishing. I hope to head to the ‘glades for a day or two. I hope to have a fishing report or two from Ohio before I go there, so I don’t leave all my readers hanging. Tight lines!

custom of course, 9ft 7wt and 4pieces of love! Built for the smallies, but carp or catfish would be nice. I did a few things different on this rod than I would for a customer, I didn’t do a winding check, just thread and epoxy, no hook keeper and for a 7wt I didn’t do a fighting butt. I think it came out pretty nice.

Got into some nice crappie yesterday with my buddy Jeremy and his son. Nothing of real size. but we did catch about a dozen all on Clousers. I even had a few bumps on a prototype Ice Dubbing minnow I have been working on. I thought it would work and it proved me right. Now if I can get the bait profile right without messing up the way it swims. Anyways I will have some pictures of my new minnow prototype up tonight, but here are some pictures from yesterday.

are great flies. But I hate working with deer hair, so I rarely tie them. but I tied a few for an upcoming pickerel trip. They are very effective and they catch tons of smallies. Although I add my own thing to them. Instead of doing a flashabou wing, I buy hackle flash, and wrap that around the chenille instead. works great, and I like it better because I also don’t like working with flashabou. These act alot like Dahlberg Divers, but they also will sink if tied correctly and they will push tons of water and get any fish going. Needless to say I feel this pattern is on the same level as the Stealth Bomber.

Went to the Chagrin today without much hope of catching anything, and I was correct. Now many of you will say, “why even bother going if you know you won’t catch a thing?” The main reason behind todays outing was to introduce a new person to fly fishing. So we had fun, lots of laughs, some swearing and lots of looks as if; “how in the hell do I do this?!” He had fun and so did I, I did snap some pictures of some flowers. I was kinda of miffed at the weather though. Yesterday, 70* sunny, today 60* rainy. Gotta love Northeast Ohio’s version of spring. Tomorrow should be a little bit better for fishing. I wish I could just get into a consistent smallmouth pattern already… Although I guess it is still too early to get the consistently. A few more weeks and we will be there… I hope.

Here is the Stealth Bomber. For the body, I used black Ice Dub, and Waspi Oil Slick Foam. Great stuff. I also used white deer hair for the tail. I normally throw rubber leg’s and krystal flash in the tail. But I figure with this foam, and the flash in the Ice Dub, leg’s and krystal flash wasn’t needed. I really like how the fish blow up on this pattern. They absolutely tear it up, and normally I will go through a few a day just because the fish smash it so hard it will fall apart no matter how much head cement I use. I say for any place you are fishing for bass this pattern is a necessity  to have.

Well it’s been a long time since I last posted. I haven’t been doing a whole lot other than trying to find a new job, which I might add isn’t going too well.. This economy can’t get much worse I don’t think. But I’ve been wrong many times before.

I think I fixed my problem. I want to thank the guys at ultralightflyfishing.yuku.com they truly were a help and made my pattern a bit better, as I dropped the beadhead. But I will return to the beadhead son enough and make it grand. Here’s the new picture.

I am just learning how to tie these guys. I think mine look a bit off. Any help? Suggestons will be taken seriously. I think my hackle is a bit off, no?

because I will be at the Cleveland Cavaliers game, watchin’ LeBron and the crew “throw the hamma down!”. I hope every has a happy hump day!

So I couldn’t sleep tonight, so I tied up some scuds. Almost any fishery you go to will have scuds, wether or not they are a viable food substance for the fish will determine wether you should tie some or not. The only time I really get to fish them here in NorthEast Ohio is during the steelhead run. Other than that I use them on the tail-waters in Tennessee, Arizona, and Georgia. I will also use them on the spring creeks in the Drift-less Region, as there, they are considered one of the biggest food substances available. It is said that scuds are naturally earth tones, gray’s, tan’s, olive’s and black. It is when that they are near death or dead that they then turn into the bright vibrant colors; pink’s, orange’s and yellow’s. I would say of all the bug’s trout feed on, the scud is by far my favorite. I cannot describe why, maybe it’s their shape, or their color’s but to be honest I don’t know. Maybe it’s because when I start to run low on this pattern I can have two or three dozen, in several colors and sizes tied up in and hour and a half. .. Bah I don’t know, they are just a damn cool bug.

Got out on a new section of the Chagrin River today, we will refer to it as Bust Your Ass Creek. I got out with my buddy rick who caught his first smallie of the season on a fly rod I helped him build, and on a fly I tied. feels good to catch a fish on things you’ve put effort into. I also caught my first smallie of the season. He was about 10″ and not very spunky. Other wise it was a beautiful day to be out. We hiked about 6 miles on BYA Creek, and found lots of new, nice, undisturbed water. WE hiked from Sulphur Springs to Quarry Rock area. Very nice area, but we almost killed ourselves walking on slime covered rocks. We also saw tons of people once we got into the park. It’s a damn shame such a nice area was so trashed, but what do I expect from people. I guess the “leave no trace” signs have really done their job. WHat a joke the Cleveland Metro parks is. Either way a good day. Thanks for reading, tight lines!

I tie these patterns up for the smallies here in Northeast Ohio. They really love them. I call this pattern a Wool Head Sculpin, but I think the fish mostly see a goby. I could be wrong though. either way I love fishing this pattern on the more freestone looking areas as opposed to the slack-water areas. fishes good and looks even better in the water. Not to mention it only takes me a few minutes to tie one up.

I have been tying some mice lately, on advice from guide Matt Hynes. He says that they will produce year round, and for me that is a good thing; one more fly that can replace two or three top waters that are used seasonally. And what that means is less time at the tying bench and more time on the water. Here is my rendition of Matt’s pattern:

They have been my favorite fly to tie for a while now, not just black but every color. They can catch any fish out there and the look cool… And they make me look like a good tier! Here’s one from the bench tonight! 

So tonight I was sitting at the bench tying some new flies, using a new method. I was tying a really basic wool head sculpin. I will post some pictures tomorrow of it, I really like the way it turned out. Well now I figure if I can tie some wool heads that I could easily learn to spin deer hair. I have tried before, but it gave me all kinds of fits.

It’s been a while since I’ve posted here.

So things have been going slow. working tons of hours a week. roughly 50 hours a week. I am not complaining though, I enjoy the money.

Happiness is an emotion associated with feelings ranging from contentment and satisfaction to bliss and intense joy. A variety of philosophical,religious, psychological and biological approaches have been taken to defining happiness and identifying its sources.

Happiness comes in many forms. For some, it’s seeing someone, for others it’s doing something, and for the select few it’s doing…. Well nothing. So today I challenge you to make yourselves happy. Do what ya got to do, ’cause you only live once.

So alot has been going on in my life this year. The last two months have been good to me though. 

I would like to thank Jay Morr at flyfishermanforum.com for putting up a fly called the MacDaddy. It is relatively easy to tie, and from what I understand it catches big fish. so here it is; the MacDaddy: