Mike G

It looks like Oris has them in polarizing starting at $125 or so. I like the cacoon or fitover concept. Unless I want things to get dark early, I have to have my regular prescription with me anyway. As the day darkens I take off my sunglasses leaving the prescriptions on. The wraparound styles give nice side shield protection also. To give it a try before sinking money into prescriptions, Wally's has a brand called Solarguard similar to Cacoons in most of their stores so you can find a pair that fits over your glasses for a modest cost. Then upgrade to Cacoons or prescription ground based on your experience. Last thought, consider how frequently your prescription changes. Continuing with an old prescription in your sunglasses with a new one for every other use is not the way to go. You have to get new sunglasses each time there is change.

53 vs 53. I guess Shabb and Summerset are a lot alike, Rich. I will have to start hunting Crappies. Steve, I have never seen a site that covers water temps on say all the lakes in a state. That info tends to show up in bait shop sites, marina sites, newspaper columns, website fishing reports, and lately blogs. Having a list of those sources for your favorite spots would be an awsome secret weapon.

I have an 8 wt Climax line that features a 1/2" colored mark where the head ends. The two toned line sounds a lot better since it is much easier to see the transition than the small mark on my line. BTW, Lefty sez, "Put a nail knot at the spot where the front taper meets the running line so you can feel where the spot is." I will be trying that this season. Since I tend to keep my eyes on the water from long habit, I can feel the spot instead of having to look for it. It reminds me of the metered lines than change color every so many feet so trollers know how much line they have out. It makes senses for a lot of fishing applications though I suspect there is an extra cost to make two toned and multi-colored lines.

Steve, It is good to see someone interested in temps since it is a good starting point for figuring out what may be active and what may work. I usually check water temperature at the surface sometime during an outing and will check deeper to see if there might be a difference. Though I do not always get fish, I almost always get the water temperature. I appreciate it when guys include that in their reports. That being said, After a cold start in April, the surface temperature of Lake Summerset finall reached the low 50s (52-53) on Thursday. For your reference, Lake Summerset is a 280 acre lake northwest of Rockford about 5 miles south of the WI border. In a lot of ways it is simillar to Shabona for fish activity. I hope this helps.

Maybe some of you ar able to pick up this free magazine a fly shop. I have not, but I can view it on line. Fly Fish America The home page currently has a comparison of flouro, mono, and bio filament lines that would be interesting to anyone who fishes. The archives are easy to work with after a little playing around. I like the fly tying clinic edited by Al and Gretchen Beatty which features flys submitted by readers. There are usually one or two warm water patterns that I can relate to. Take a look.

Take away the signature hooking system, and you have a Sluggo, Senko, Zero, Yum Dinger, etc. etc.... family bait. What is not to like? Some of the kits include Banjo Frogs which I think are really under-rated. I use them on keeper hooks instead of the signature hook. Great Bait!

Head for Amazon and check for low priced digitals. EBay is another possibility. A few years back there was a simpler solution, a single use 35mm for about $10.00 plus processing. You could get the pics put on a disc or have the jpgs sent to you zipped. But that made for a long delay between the snap and the pic. for instant pics you need a digital to keep up with the Joneses.

I found this in a J Stockard writeup: "Lead may cause cancer, birth defects and other reproductive harm. Do not ingest flies that you make with unplated eyes, or eat fish that have digested them." http://www.jsflyfishing.com/cgi-bin/item/SM-730020-0000/67000/Hareline-Lead-Dumbbell-Eyes.html Do you know anyone who eats flies? Wouldn't the hook...nevermind.

Mike, Eric and John seem to have figured it out. Largemouths are dominating. All those weeds are what they like. I would say, just fish for bass. Smallmouths will come along with the Largemouths if there are any there. This spring should tell the tale. Since both bass species are easiest to catch and shallow early in the year, you have your best shot at Smallmouths in the next few months. What you get will tell you, what the Smallmouth population is.

I was there in July about 15 years ago on a multipurpose trip. The creek is small similar to Kilbuck. I did a little fishing. The flow was moderate even without rain since the creek is spring feed. Crystal clear. I recall a series of classic riffles and pools with fish in the 10-12" range hitting live bait. From the high water marks along the banks, it looks like this one turns into a devil after heavy rains running out of its banks at 3 or 4 times its normal size. I speculate that high water would scatter the fish all over the place making the going tough. A light 7-8 ft fly rod or ul spinning would be my choice of gear.

Steve, It sounds like you have a great story just like Jonn's. Jonn was more public since his posts covered going from watching clients fly fish to picking it up himself. Since he was already tying jigs, he made the transition into fly tying easily. You say a lot when you say you enjoy the challenges. I appreciate your sense of humor too.

OK, this is all about humor. Though I did not know it them, Don was joking about himself as the one who spelled Jonn's name incorrectly. Unfortunately Gary took it more seriously. Jonn leveled the deck by pointing out his lifetime of patience living with other spellings. I sympathize because both my first name and my last name have been butchered all my lifetime too. Mike G also has a sense of humor. Don says I look like Yoda. That brings a smile to my face since it is the only role in Star Wars that I could ever play. Ironically I kind of like that character-not much to look at but a Jedi Master anyway. I guess all I need is the green makeup and a light saber. My hair is about right though I would need a lot of special effects to look like a master. More humor, I hope I am better with a light saber than I am with a fly rod. I still haven't mastered that force. PS I think I have cleaned up my posts.

OK, you go first Don. Delete the irrelevant post about spelling Jonn's name that sidetracked this whole discussion. I will unravel what I can from there. Say when you are done.

Supercaster A few years ago, Ray Scott made a big push for light spinning gear in for bass in BASS. Since it was reinventing the wheel, I do not think it lasted very long. The centerpiece reel for such fishing was the US Reel Supercaster. I always liked the concept because the large diameter spool reminded me of the reels we had before the so called "long cast" skinny spools became the fad. Though Ray's revival is in the past, the reel is still out there. Cabela's has some great deals $60-70 off- that is a $109.99 reel for $39.99. If you ever thought of trying this retro approach, check the Bargain Cave.

Well if we are picking a poster child for the fly rod revival, here's my choice though it may not be a fly rod in his hand in this pic. Jonn's long journey coming to fly fishing later in life after exploring other options has some depth. It comes across as a conscious choice that serves as an inspiration to others.

If you can get Cornwall to demo your bugs, you have arrived. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fl5ZJSZQ_J0

If I were you, I would look at these. http://www.jannsnetcraft.com/Sources/GetImage.axd?own=NC&imageid=118712 The Gobe color is a universal fish catching color even where there are no Gobes. Netcraft

Thanks for putting this up. Maybe someone can read between the legalize lines to say what this really means. On the one hand it seems to promise better water and flood management. On the other hand it adds a line to the old realestate tax bill. So I am for it if it does not duplicate something we are already paying for.

I see them. They're photobucket hosted. Some employers block that source; I used to work for one. By using photobucket, I hope to save space on the ISA server. But if a lot of people have the problem Eric has, I will try something else. That would be if you have the problem at home

Whodat Fodder Bendback Swim Jig Since the Whodat Fodder fly that I created to celebrate the Saints 2010 Superbowl Victory turned out to be a good producer, I wanted to make a Whodat Jig for my grandson for the next time we go fishing. His mom and dad are Purdue Grads which makes the Brees connection sweet. I figured I would tie the pattern on a 1/8 oz. Swim Jig until I found out that suppliers wanted $1.00 each for an unfinished head. Considering that little Michael might put the jig in a treetop on his first cast, I reconsidered. Could I make it on a jig from my current supply of jigs? I turned to some of my 1/8 oz ballhead jigs which cost 15 cents each. They are collarless sometimes called baitfishing jigs which, in spite of the name, work best for tying jig-fly patterns. I figured I could bend the soft wire hook shank to get the horizontal performance of the Swim Jig. Here are the stages of preparing the jig--select, paint, bend behind head to align eye along axis of the hook. Then we tie the fly. PATTERN Jig: 1/8 oz baitfishing ball head, #2 hook Rattle: 3 mm glass worm rattle Tail: 10 strands of gold holographic silicon skirt material Collar: Yarn Bee Gilt Eyelash, Color 20 (Midnight Magic) Flash: 3-4 strands of gold flash tied on each side behind head Side Wings: 5 strands of gold holographic silicon skirt material tied on each side behind the head.

Thanks for the report Terry. A lot of guys do not give us water temps as accurate as that. You kept your instrument in the water long enough to get a true reading. Good work. BTW, that chain link fence reminded me of an old trick for getting a supply of gear. Anchor a section of it in a good fishing hole on Friday afternoon. Return early on Monday with a grappling hook and haul it out. Over the weekend it should have collected a nice assortment of lures from unsuspecting weekend warriors. You have my permission to do a video on this one.

Paul F, That is a sad tale that repeats itself more than once in a while. But fly fishers are not jerks because they like fly fishing. They come by the jerk gene some other way. Jerkiness is pretty well spread around in the general population. That being said, we have to deal with it when we shop for tackle. I suspect that the big box outfits, try to buck up there clerks' self image by calling them sales associates though this may not overcome the jerk genes they carry. Even those without the gene, would probably get frustrated with my shopping habits. I shop a lot and do not buy much. An associate spends some time explaining a product to me; I pick up a pack of hooks or sometimes nothing and head for the checkout. I have not yet walked into a store with a combo I bought somewhere else, but I cam see that would make the associate's blood boil. It is nice that we still have a few places to shop. My recollection of conditions 50-60 years ago may help. I had one experienced flyfisherman to talk to-my very opiniionated uncle. The only shop with a decent selection of fly tackle was VLA-Abercrombie and Fitch on Wabash in the loop where salesmen wore suits and ties. That was an hour's treck from where we lived. Fortunately my uncle put me on to Herter's as a source for fly gear and tying materials though this did not make the local shop owners happy. Herter's undercut everyone as many webstores do today. It was also fortunate that I could pick up things from books and magazine articles. Those were the not so good old days.

That is a good start.