John Gillio

Amen.

I had a problem last night. Fine today.

Thanks Steve.

Very fitting.

Cool! Thanks for sharing.

Thanks Gordon, smallies of any size would suit me just fine.

Has anyone fished the Zumbro River at Rochester Mn. I may be up that way and have a chance to toss a fly for a short time. Any advice or info. would be helpful.

Very nice report Rob.I would say an 18" spot is a fine fish. For many an 18" smallie is a fish of a lifetime. Spots are rare around me. A hefty 18" spot would make my day.

That dance can always make me smile Terry, but can it slow the rains? If it does I'd pattent it.

Thanks for your service Mike.

Congrats Dan.

http://www.tu.org/blog-posts/clean-water-rule-unraveled We seem to be moving in a dangerous direction.

They look deadly.

Those are beautiful! Nicely done. Mike, would something like this work? http://www.mudhole.com/Pac-Bay-Molded-Polyurethane-Foam-Grips?quantity=1&custcol_grip_style=35&custcol_grip_material=2 or http://www.mudhole.com/Pac-Bay-ReadyForm-Rigid-Core-Rod-Grips?quantity=1&custcol_grip_style=13

All above comments make good sense. In my experience my hook-sets with my 5 1/2' ultralight paired with mono result in many more poor sets than my 7' medium light rod paired with mono or braid. Some days they just get away even with a strong set, a long rod, a line with little stretch, and the ability to properly play the fish. If the money is there, buy the rocket. You will be helping the economy, enjoying a new piece of gear, and adding a new weapon to the arsenal.

Many cane rods are like that too.

I haven't fished carp in the Fox, but I have had good luck sight fishing common carp with size 8-10 crayfish patterns (seems like any work fairly well). Also any size ten or so black nymph works well when they are tailing. You just need to get it in front of them and watch your line well to see the take. I've had luck with ants when carp are feeding on the surface. I've had some luck with flies tied to look like cottonwood seeds when targeting grass carp when they are focused on them. I have also had good luck sight fishing them in the local river with size 1-4 bead chain Clousers tied with tinsel instead of deer hair. Tom Loos foxy works quite well for smallies in the Fox and anywhere else I have used it. Small crayfish patterns are good too. You can't go wrong with what Nickk had to say.

Was out today with the yak and the 8 wt casting the lake for pike. The flies looked great in the water. Very nice motion even with the larger deer hair version though it ran much closer to the surface than its smaller craft fur cousin posted above. Nice action in the fly, but the fishing was a total lack of action. Even my two go too flies struck out. One hour, two hours, three hours and I was out. Eyes were tied on using Rob's method. The flies kept their round full body look.

I have been hoping to try the pike thing out of the kayak the last few weeks but 20+ mph winds or stormy weather have kept me off the lake. The forecast for this coming week looks pretty good. Maybe I can give the above flies a try soon. Glad to hear you are getting some action on them Rob.

Rod & reel look nice together. Hope the hopper is a winner.

Interesting article. Thanks for sharing it Bart.

Aquatic mantis

Thanks for the info guys. I strongly appreciate it

Thanks Ron, that's nice to know. I've been tossing an Echo Ion 7 wt when using larger flies. I'm very happy with it.

Jim I took it that Mike meant red and white flies. That is what I was referring to anyway. At any rate, the Ray Raynor white Demon is a nice looking fly. I wasn't able to see Ray very often. We just had an antenna TV and we were just far enough out of range that there was usually more snow on the TV than there was Ray. It was a treat when we could manage to get good enough reception to see him.