jamie shard

I used a lot of the tiemco large gap hooks (you know, the 10's that look like short 2's) for big sparkleminnows and shenk streamers. Almost all of the barbs broke off when I crimped them. All of the mustads that I've bent have been okay... until I get more than halfway down the shank. I was playing with increasing the gap on the mustads and bending them more than halfway down, near the curve... and the metal seems more brittle and the bend feels like it weakens the hook. The only hooks that have failed for me are trout hooks that have snapped at the barb... but no pattern/ brand that I can discover beyond that. For what it's worth... -j

Okay, so I finished the zombies... and some more normal flies, a flash sided olive beadhead wooly bugger with rubber legs. Just let me know how I can get them to Ken! -jamieS

My first rod was a nice 5wt redington 7pc combo (built right before sage bought them). A fast rod, acts more like a 6wt... but here's what I learned from it. 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. The reel I got with the combo was a silver click-drag style reel... and I've learned I like black silent drag reels. And then after fly fishing for a while. I realized I really like 3 wts for trout, no need for much more if you are casting insects... so I rarely use my first 5wt at all anymore... except when I just bring it "just in case" on road trips or as a back up rod. What I'm saying is my original do-everything rod is now... not doing much at all. I think I might throw a 6wt line on it and make it a trout streamer rod. -j

Heading to a shop is great because you can mix and match components instead of just buying what a pre-packaged combo offers. A good rod, a great line, an okay reel is a much better combo than a good rod, a good line, and a good reel! -j p.s. All my rods are 9'... or 7'6". Dang, another excuse to buy a rod! p.p.s. I think that 3,5,7 guys tend to like sportscars and 4,6,8 guys tend to like trucks.

If you are going to stick to small nymphs and streamers for both trout and bass, then the classic 5 wt is fine. That was my first rod. Works okay for most things, especially in the beginning, but.... If I did it all over again, I'd say a six weight is a good do-everything weight. If you need to have a delicate presentation, use a longer thinner leader on the 6. As soon as you want to go after big trout/bass with big lures or to fish large streams with significant wind... that's when a 6 is just barely enough. If you were buying two rods, I'd say a 5 and a 7. If you were buying three, I'd say a 3, 5, and 7. So... really the choice is between a 5 and a 6 for a first rod. If you are more focused on trout, 5 is it. For bass 6 is it. A safe bet would be to buy the most expensive 6wt combo you can afford. -jamieS

Cool! Will do. -j edit: Well, I got a little wild with the tying this AM... I'll be submitting a chartruse egg belly, rubber legged, dumbell eyed, black rabbit tailed, murry madtom tadpole helgrammite tied on a wide gap hook. Good dirty water fly (that way you don't have to look at it much). Most smallmouth will hit it because of the same instinct that drives humans to shoot zombies with shotguns. It just sorta makes sense. When you see em, you gotta shoot 'em -- or in this case eat them.

Is it okay if I do something sorta basic, like a rubber legged wooly bugger? -jamieS

Wow, it does sound like the largemouth bass is an invasive species in a sense, because it was introduced beyond its naturally occuring range in this case. I get the feeling that more folks are interested in protecting rare species and recognizing the limitations that go along with it... but I don't know for sure. What to you guys think? -jamie

Maybe post an image and then give multiple awards for the ties: Most realistic Most efficient tie (use of time/effort/materials) Most likely to actually catch a fish Most likely to scare a fish away Overall favorite etc. It may be that different flies get different awards or maybe one will win across the board. I know that these days I'm appreciating simple fish catching flies, although I'm always impressed by the realistic flies... even if they never get fished! -j

Yup, small bass like mice, big bass like rats.... but when a lake contains mostly mice a big bass will eat enough mice to make up for a lack of rats. Can I get a MS degree for that thesis paper, uh, paragraph? Tim, I'm curious, how do you deduce this from the graphs? Serious question, I'm trying to learn. -j

Well, a talking fish kinda shocked me. And the fish said, "You seem kinda shocked. Would you like to sit down and think about it for a while?" And I said yeah and sat down on the bank and started thinking about it. The fish very patiently asked, "Do you need more time?" And I said yeah. And it said, "Sucker! That's your third wish!" I rarely harvest smallmouths, but... I'm looking forward to the tying session! Work kept me away last month, but so far this month's meeting looks good!!! -j

Wow, great post Michael. Those are a lot of great patterns to tie and try! Michael has officially set the bar for a bassbugger arsenal! I haven't had great success with the DB... I think I need a different hook because I find my lure often is swimming completely sideways. Maybe I need to use a larger gap hook? Hmm, that reminds me. Have you tried tying the DB on a Meat Whistle hook? I used a grey over white DB with a dumbell eye and MW hook on the K3 this year... only caught one little guy on it, but it talked to me and granted me three wishes. It seems to fill a niche in my fly box: deep running, snag free, minnow lure. Anyway, thanks again! I'm looking forward to a winter of tying. -jamieS

I use some fingerless fleece gloves for the sorta chilly season and neoprene gloves for the cold season. I think I got the neoprene gloves ("Glacier Gloves" comes to mind) at Bass Pro. They have slits in the thumb and pointer finger so you can pull the tips of those fingers out and tie knots etc. Although the neoprene gloves work okay, I still don't have a GREAT solution. My hands still get cold and sometimes they need a little warm up (usually sticking the bare hands in the ol' armpits.) Maybe if I stick my lure there it will work as well as garlic-flavored plastics??? Okay, never type after coming home from the friday night pub... -jamieS

Whoa, it's in wheaton?!? Details please! What material are you spinning for the white sparkle minnow? I've been using a shenk minnow (spun rabbit) for my "white" minnows. -j

Yeah, I know everyone is out there catching the big'uns now... But I'm already thinking about next year and -- as I'm getting ready to order materials for this winter's fly tying -- I'm curious about what worked for folks this year. This year I didn't get out nearly as often as I wanted. But now I'm living out in the western burbs so my 1.5 hour drive to streams is now a 30 minute drive! Due to the limited size of my data set, all I can say is: Clean-ish water: chart over white clouser, black over grey over white (rapala) clouser Dirty water: gold-ish sparkleminnow : gold bead head, spun gold/sand angel hair and tan tail Now, in the hunt for big bronze: I'm throwing a basic clouser weighted, black rabbit strip thing. I call it a dumb bunny for lack of a better term. How about you? -jamie

Some cars smell better if you splash a little river water on them

Just some ideas... Maybe the most important thing is to fund pilot projects that establish stewardship groups that will continue to work on a given stream/watershed. The best projects are not ones that do activity X, but ones that bring together municipalities, water quality stewardship groups, home owners, politicians, regulators, and other recreation groups like birders, hunters, and canoe/kayakers... to do activity X together. A demonstration project is needed to give people something to focus on, but ISA funding should be given with the understanding that the funding is "seed money". We should expect to hear great things from groups long after the pilot project is funded. That said, some project types to include: * Restoration of natural flow regimes, especially increasing floodplan capacity. * De-channelization of streams. * Erosion control/stream bank restoration. * Fish passage and/or dam removal. I would be wary of doing pure "education" work. It rarely spontaneously translates into actualy on-the-ground work. It's usually better to fund a small on-the-ground project as a practical way to do the educating. For what it's worth!

Heh, yeah I keep them on... pull em down so they don't hit the seat. My big fear is if the car should burst into flames, I'd have to run away with neoprene waders around my knees I live on the edge.

In case you are looking for winter reading, I read "No Hatch to Match" while on my last trip to the driftless area. It's written by a guy who has fished that part of the world pretty hard. Dang, that book really confirmed a lot of things that were just starting to dawn on me. I wish I had read it before I was halfway through my trip. Still learning, -jamie

I can almost guarantee you that the main source is caffeine going down the toilet. The stuff isn't fully metabolized by humans... or treatment plants. -j

I just heard that the carp have moved 7 miles up river to the mouth of the fox river. Any sightings or confirmation? How far upstream into the fox could they move before hitting a dam?

I saved those images recently, but I have no idea where I found them. The hook is actually the kind used for plastics, a D-shaped shank and then the point points, as points do, back toward the eye. I remember them being called keel hook streamers, but it wasn't a classic keel hook, but rather a gammy hook or the like. Indeed the mylar belly material is only along the hook shank. -jamie s aha - I was multitasking and found where I got it: http://globalflyfisher.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=589

Food for thought:

From a fly guy: Gold sparkleminnow, weighted to go a foot below the surface. On the small side for dinks: size 10 wide gap hook (that TMC? hook, not a deer hair bass bug hook). Fished with a long-ish cast long along a long-ish current break, retrieved just slightly faster than current to keep contact. -jamie S

I really like this one! Minimalist. Hopefully we'll hear how it does on the water. I'd put my money on it doing great! -jamieS