jamie shard

Catch of the year!!!

Just wanted to say this was a great thread and I learned a lot! Hope to see you all on the water this spring!

FYI - I put this up on Craigslist...

Be ready for spring! First $750 get's it!

For sale is a lightly used 16'5" folding canoe. The frame is aluminum tubing, the skin is made of the same material as whitewater rafts, and the skin is tensioned by two air bladders running the length of the canoe. (A top spray skirt is included which allows it to function as more of a watertight kayak.) The 55 pound canoe packs into a single 43"x16"x10" backpack (also included). Capacity is about 650 lbs. Registered with title in the State of Illinois.

You can find more information at: http://folding-canoe.com/

Retail price is $1525.

Location: Wheaton, IL

Wow, thanks for the responses!

I guess a good follow-up question would be: what would be a great boat for this kind of fishing/upstream paddling? My searching so far suggest a 12 or 14ft Native Watercraft Manta Ray is probably a fail-safe purchase. Too short? Any other suggestions?

I did a search and didn't quite find an answer to this question...

Is it a realistic expectation that with a 12-14ft kayak, I would be able to put in to the Fox or Dupe and paddle upstream and fish back down? Or are downstream floats (with shuttle cars) about the only way to fish from a yak?

Another way to ask it, on a scale from one to ten... How much fun is fishing using the shuttle system... How about the paddling upstream system? Am I going to be too exhausted to enjoy the fishing?

Thanks in advance!

-jamie s

PM sent

I like using nice rods with trout flies and cheap rods with clousers and other dumbbell weighted lures. I can't relax when it feels like some flying lead could snap the rod at any time. So most of the time I now use a $90 Redington 5wt rod that I bought for my wife when I'm fishing for smallies. I don't care if it breaks... much.

It's funny, I was searching for some rod recommendations and I came across an old post of mine. It's funny because I was searching for rod recommendations because I finally broke this rod!

I didn't care much... except I didn't bring a back up rod. Short trip this morning!

-j

Manta Ray SOT.

Jude,

Are you referring to the LiquidLogic brand or the Native Watercraft brand?

-jamie s

Since space it at a premium in my tiny house, I use this method...

First all my material is stored in drawers in my basement. I use several sets of plastic "flat" files (stack on left side of picture) for feathers, flashabou, rabbit hides, hook storage boxes, deer hair, etc. I use a set of plastic pull drawers made for screw/nail storage (on middle shelf on right side) for beads, thread, wire, rubber legs, and other misc. small stuff. All my flies are stored in another set of plastic drawer cases or tackle boxes (top shelf and middle shelf left side). So it is all packed into a small area.

Like craig, I tend to tie one style of fly at a time. I grab all the material I need for a given pattern and then find a nice place to sit. I've recently started attaching my vice to a board, so I can really sit anywhere in the house. My vise has a small light attached, so lighting is always good no matter where I'm sitting.

That's it! Hope that helps.

-jamie s

p.s. Yes, that's my bobber collection hanging from the cieling. If I'm not catching a lot of fish, I like to hunt for bobbers.

A question for veterans of this expo... Are the prices at Canoecopia essentially retail, or are there some savings to be had? I hear the selection is amazing, but are there also some bargains?

Oh and another q: Do they have stock on hand to drive home with... or do you typically place an order there and get it shipped?

Thanks!

-jamie s.

It won't be an "one size fits all" pattern.

Gotcha, I've started to realize that in the little info I've come across for individual species. What actually got me started on this was I was researching cold water info and started building a little table that had trout/char/sucker species spawing times and egg color/sizes. Then I started wondering if there was a classic text/reference that lays it all out from a multi-species, multi-season perspective for warm water fisheries. I haven't seen/heard of one, so I'm just picking up pieces here and there.... It's a long winter and I'm looking for some geeky reading.

-j

Wow, perfect! Thanks!

Okay, now do I dare to dream? Ideally, I'm also looking for something that describes the seasonality of fish movement/reproduction in a "warm water" river. Any suggestions?

-j

I remember hearing about IL DNR having some good free or nearly-free references that provides an overview of the forage base in a few rivers. I couldn't find it with Google.... Was this just a dream or can someone remind me about these documents?

Thanks!

-jamie s.

Great story, got the juices flowing on this winter day!

(edit)

It was a good fish. It was a big fish. It was a good fish.

(Just warming up )

40# Mono straights?

That's what it says on:

http://www.aswf.org/saltwater_flies_for_we...bob_rabbit.html

I assume this means Mason mono and the sort???

From the website, cool idea on using thick mono to prevent rabbit tail from fouling:

-j

Mustad 3366

I really like those hooks. They are standard length, so sometimes they're a bit short for streamers (not enough body length on the lure), but they work great for bucktails and other applications. The #2 is pretty similar to the #6 TMC 8089 if I'm remembering right. I actually use the mustad popper hooks for my clousers. I put the dumbell in the first bend.

Great timing for this thread!

please don't tell me chartreuse over white.

Heh, just finished tying my first batch of clousers this winter. I won't tell you what color

Next round will probably be "seafoam" over white with green flash. (Got the seafoam bucktail at a saltwater fishing site, it's a good blend between olive and green and grey).

Next might be rapala colors: black over grey over white with silver flash.

And finally I might try an all black clouser this year. I don't know if it makes sense to have something 4-5 inches and all black and I'm not sure what, if any, flash to use.

That's it so far, but I'll bet I'll learn a combo or two on this thread!

-jamie s

Or throw it with a 12wt?

Thanks for this! One page on the site presented a solution to a problem I had faced for a long time... how to get a mylar tube over a big foam body. Dang, what an easy technique. See #4:

http://www.danblanton.com/RonDongCFinst.html

This is somewhat of a dodge, but maybe it's worth mentioning... Casting a weighted line (aka fly fishing) was created to solve a problem: how to I get a tiny weightless lure waaaaay out there? But there just is a point where I gotta admit that I'm casting a weighted lure. Maybe I can overlook it when it's a bugger or a clouser on the end of the line, but eventually I just got say... look ma, no back cast! So this bassbugger's answer to the thumper is... grabbing a spinning rod and casting the thumper.

Diving popper, I'd say

What are the logistics about funding the gauges? Is it a matching fund issue or something else?

The reason I ask is because I'm pretty sure there was a funding issue a few years ago... That was solved by groups lobbying congress for full funding. Does that ring a bell?

I would hate to pay for something that really should be funded at a national level. I know that USGS has faced a lot of budget cuts, I'd rather see them funded than picking up the piecemeal funding of gauges.

Anyway, sounds interesting.

-jamie s

" inside the house this winter I can decrease the need for the heat pump "

Brilliant!!!

"buy those knotless leaders....they are impervious to wind knots! "

The only downside is you can't tie on your fly either. I use duct tape.

-j

To apply Newtonian physics to the original question, law numbers 1 and 3 perfectly define the answer. “For every bended in the fly rod, there is an equal amount of unbend.

Oh Michael, it if was only that easy.

You and your perfect world of Newton, believing in fairy tales and calling them true... It's so childish. As I'm sure you know, the efficiency of harnessing mechanical energy is less than perfect. So for every bent rod, there is a slighly less amount of unbend. The rest of the energy is released in the form of heat.

So the answer is "unbend... and release heat."

If you doubt this, just take a rod and go outside and whip it around for a while. Not only will the rod bend and unbend, but there will also be a slight increase in global temperatures.

Yes, global warming is from too many fly fisherman.

So switch over to spin casting -- or stop with all those false casts -- or the earth is doomed.

Respectfully,

-jamie S

p.s. Really, the actual answer is a rod will "unbend, cause heat, and lead to a multiple web page conversation... Oh yeah, and beers for Tim.