jamie shard

Maybe in these high-loss areas we could post (staple) a laminated paper sign... less costly to replace, but still the word gets out. What do folks think? -jamie s.

I've noticed a change in my tying this year, after about 5 years or so of tying. I'm tying less patterns and tying more of them. I'm going back to the basics: buggers, clousers, shenks in naturalish colors. These days I'll usually sit down to tie 6 copies of a proven pattern. Usually takes about an hour while "watching" tv. I'll tie once or twice a week. Next up: some half and halfs for fall fishing. Sometimes I'll tie a couple of a new pattern. No more than two no matter how much fun I'm having -- that's my new rule. I used to go crazy with new patterns, ugh! I'm also becoming more ashamed of my old ties. Al has seen my trout stuff- those are even worse than my smallmouth stuff. I've got a lot of hooks to recycle! I won't ever make the mistake of tying a dozen of an unproven pattern. -jamie s.

I know a lot of folks are using the William Joseph chest packs... but has anyone figured out how to use the tippet/line pockets with dispenser holes? <shrug> Maybe it's just me I've resorted to using the zipper feature. -jamie s.

Most of the wool head I've tried have sorta suspended. They don't get waterlogged and sink unless there is an insane amount of weight. How does this one fish Michael?

That's a great shop. They'll sell you the parts or repair it for you. Either way, make sure you do it right the first time, no sense paying twice. -j

I can tell there is more going on here in this conversation than just arguing about priorities. I don't want to know! But here's why I'm not renewing my membership with TU this year. I have a little bit of money to give to charity each year and some of it goes to humans and some of it goes to the environment. As far as the environmental side of things goes, I'm interested in ecosystem health and protecting native species. I want the organization I support to think carefully about the whole range of conservation and preservation priorities that are out there, and invest strategically taking into account the science of the present and predictions of the future. So an organization like The Nature Conservency or others is the kind of thing I support for this kind of priority. I also want to support the activities that I enjoy, including cold water fishing, but I recognize that it takes a healthy watershed for it to be a possibility. So I've supported TU in the past to promote work that is specifically on the ecosystem type that I enjoy _using_. That means I'm disproportionately funding cold water fisheries as compared to the whole gamut of ecosystems that an organization like TNC would address. The reason I'm doing that is because I like fishing, not because I think that cold water fisheries are particularly under-addressed by restoration activities. Now when it comes to access, yes it's true that it can be a real resource sponge... soaking up lots of funds that would go into litigation. But it's also true that it can be a real simple thing, like buying access rights to a small piece of land connected to a stream from like-minded landowners. What I want in an organization is some real critical thinking that can identify opportunities and do a decent job of risk vs. reward and invest wisely. Sure the perfect balance doesn't exist in the real world, but I'm not expecting perfection, I'm expecting passion and action. Frankly, the access thing came as a one-two punch. First it essentially said that TU is incapable of making wise decisions about pursuing access and will just ignore it. Secondly the organization acted like the membership was stupid for thinking that TU supported improving access in the first place. So I figure, now I know... and I'm changing my donations accordingly. -jamie s p.s. And as this relates to ISA... My main hope is that we recognize that there are risks and rewards when it comes to getting into access issues... and we consider each opportunity case by case. People recognize and support organizations like that.

Here's the link: http://www.windycityfishing.com/foxriveraccess.pdf ... and some other info: http://pages.ripco.net/~jwn/dupage.html http://pages.ripco.net/~jwn/fox.html I'm curious about your set up. Any pics? -jamie s

http://globalflyfisher.com/patterns/wiggling/ I like the use of both a beadhead and Magic Head. -jamie s

Al, I have been trying to figure out a similar trip. The easiest multi-day trips seem to be canoe-fishing-camping trips. But another option for multi-day backpacking/fishing would be the Smoky Mountains. If you are ever planning a trip like this, let me know and I'll split the gas money! (No worries about sharing a trail or not... I'm cool with solo-ing.) I've been doing some training trips at kettle moraine over the past couple years and I think I've got the lightweight backpacking thing down... combining it with fishing would be the bee's knees. -jamie s. p.s. My wife will now need the car to commute to work, so these days I'm really looking for ride sharing opportunties for mid-week fishing and multi-day camping trips...

To defrost it, of course.

Yipes, I'm deleting the post I had. Nothing more than mental games...

Were you googling yourself?

Mark, actually I do use those silver rings! And I use a little knot-sense on the knot to make it fairly weedless. But back to furled leaders... how long of a tippet do you guys use on them? I just can't get past how visable they seem... Am I giving smallmouth and trout too much credit? -jamie p.s. my fishing trip was a bust with this weather. Streams were running like chocolate milk in WI, then the cold weather hit.

Of course! I'll bet you could find some nice blanks on sale now that the rod making season is drawing to a close!

Heh, okay okay... Well, actually I'm going to be fishing pretty hard next week. I've got a week off and I'm going to look for some driftless trout. I've bought a few leaders to try on the trip, mostly RIO's this time. So maybe I'll have some new info to report, too. I did try a Maxima leader and I remember not likeing it that much, but I forgot why??? Hmm, I'll bring it along and try again. 7 hours till my vacation... -j

I hear you. One thing I'm starting to figure out about one-piece leaders is that the flexibility of the butt section changes between companies and between different tippet ratings 0X to 7X. So a 0X leader will have a much stiffer butt than a 7X leader from the same company/model line. As a result, one has to really focus on matching the butt section to the flexibility of the line, almost making the final tippet diameter a secondary concern. Yup, I'd say that's a strong argument for building your own leader. (An aside: I don't find turn over to be as big a deal with SM fishing, usually the clouser or sparkleminnow has enough weight to pull the leader straight.) But anyway I'm slowing finding a few combos that match perfectly. A Umpqua (sp?) 0x matches my 7wt line well. And a Frog Hair 5x "Slack Leader" matches perfectly with my 3wt line and lays out a fly with lots of nice little drag reducing wiggles. I'm still looking for a perfect match for a 5wt. Sheesh, maybe I should think about learning to tie my own leaders. I don't know if I'm being more or less lazy by trying to find the perfect store-bought ones... but I know that once I find it it will be discontinued -j

I think you're just casting really well! I could never make the switch to furled leaders... if anything I'm poisoned with the opposite extreme affliction: really long mono leaders. I've gone toward using 9 foot 0X store bought leaders. After the tippet gets eaten I loop on an arm length of mono. Looking at a furled leader, it looks like a continuation of the fly line to me. Why not just make a fly line with a radically thin tapered head and put on just 2 feet of tippet? <shrug> -j

Moving from clousers to elk hair caddis and back again always messes with me for a while. I'd say I like casting wooly buggers on a 5wt, that always seems to work fine. Lighter or heavier rods/lures takes some adjusting for me. But generally, I'm pretty much always using too much muscle. When things get ugly, I force myself to practice with as little power as possible. Usually that little trick helps give the feedback I need to correct whatever mistakes I'm making with my cast at the given time... the list is long and unpredictable! But it's great to be casting again, isn't it! -jamieS

I've been desperate enough to make one out of yarn and the top half of a spinning rod. I think it was about this time last year. Can you say cabin fever? What I found is that that you might have to tie a thick piece of yarn to a thin piece of yarn, essentially making a tapered leader. Yeah, and then I was rummaging around for some thick string to make a tippet... Sad really. I also found that it's pretty much better to go outside to a snow covered park and cast to the snow trout. But seriously, casting outside is about a thousand times better than using a fly-o. Hope that helps, -jamie S p.s. A 7'6" rod will work inside if you cast sidearm. Yeah, I figured that out last year, too. Then after knocking stuff over I figured I'd better head outside before I got in trouble... Thankfully spring was and is just around the corner.

Is it wrong that I get hungry when I look at those piles of crayfish?

I came across that factoid when I was researching colors for crayfish lures about a year ago. The reason I figure it might be a myth is that I only see it quoted on fishing sites! It might be that guys are out fishing during the bright nights and crayfish lures work... so they created a premise to fit the facts. I haven't found a journal article that says the same thing-- yet. So, Believe it... or Not! I'm still trying to get a handle on crayfish colors. Here's where my research left off: northern, Orconectes virilis: green to red brown body orange tip pincers with whitish knobs (can use white flash) up to 5" papershell, Orconectes immunis: pale grey green body (pale area down middle of top), males purple hued orange tip pincers, 2-3.5" also Blandingii actus, lakes, ponds, sloughs dark red with darker stripe down back, slender pinchers propinquis, riffles in streams rarely bigger than 2.5" dark and blue That's as far as I got. Seems to explain why olive and orange works... and maybe blue and black and maybe purple and black. Sometimes I can't tell if I like fishing because of the biology or biology because of the fishing! -j

Really, really nice! Luck be a lady! -jamie S

John, I was talking with Ken but we haven't met up yet. It's probably easiest for me to just bring them to the blowout instead of setting up a separate trip. I'm bringing six buggers and six rabbit strip thingys. -jamie s

I'm not sure if molting is synchonized, but I think they typically spawn during a full moon -- could be a myth. -j

--> QUOTE(jim b @ Feb 14 2007, 08:25 PM) <{POST_SNAPBACK}> I have an old fiberglass St Croix flyrod. I'm not sure if it's worth anything. Those fiberglass rods are becoming kinda retro-chic these days. I haven't cast a fiberglass rod, but I hear that they cast very slow, almost bamboo-like slow. I also hear they're pretty tough and don't snap like graphite rods do when their hit by beadhead, lead dumbbells, etc. So before you throw it away, let me cast it once or twice -jamie s