asherman

Scott, Are the two openings for August 24 to August 26th still open? I will swap the dates that have on the 13th and 14th and John Loebach and will take the 24th to the 26th. Let me know. Alan

Scott, Put me down for two days as long as it can be during the week of August 13th.

It could be that the fly fisherman that you ran into had a sinking/sink tip line for his seven weight rod and not for his six weight rod. I have a 5 foot sink tip line for my six weight rod and a 10 foot sink tip line for my seven weight rod along with an intermediate line for my seven weight. I also carry sinking leaders to use when I am on the water with a floating line and I want to get flies down in the water column quickly. Fly fishing can get complicated if you let it.

I'll be there.

Good sunglasses are important for fishing. Last year I purchased a pair of Cocoons Photochromic sunglasses to fit over my prescription sunglasses. I bought these glasses with amber lenses to replace an older pair of amber lens Cocoons that were scratched up after years of use. http://www.cocoonsusa.com/photochromic/ The Photochromic Cocoons with the amber lenses seem to work better in low light than the older pair that were polarized without the lenses. These are the glasses that I wear for most of my fishing. I prefer a pair of grey lens Cocoons for driving or fishing in bright, sunny weather. The downside to Cocoons is that they are not the greatest looking glasses. At this point in my life, I would rather look like the geek that I am and spend money on more fly rods than buy expensive but better looking polarized, graduated bifocal prescription sunglasses.

I have had a Peak vise for quite a while. I like it but with the standard jaws it does slip with hooks larger than size 2 and it is not the best vise for tying deer hair bass bugs. I have used it to tie trout flies as small as size 16 I have not not bothered to replace the Peak Vise or get the jaws made for larger hooks because I don't tie that many flies larger than size 2.

I would call it a lure. It looks like a beetle spin and it would be more to fun to fish that particular beetle spin on a light spinning rod than with a fly rod. Casting that thing on a fly rod would put some serious line twist in your leader. It could also do some damage to your fly rod tip. Using a double haul with that lure on a fly rod ought to generate enough line speed to make some very interesting noises. I saw a TV show a few years ago where Larry Dahlberg was fishing a lake in Canada for ice out pike. There were three people fishing in a small aluminum boat. All three anglers were using big bunny leech flies tied on 3/0 hooks and they were using light spinning rods to catch bunches of large pike. It was a windy day, too. You certainly couldn't have three people fishing with fly rods using those big, heavy bunny leeches in a small boat in the wind. It looked like fun to me despite that fact they they were using spinning rods to fish flies.

I've been using the RIO sinking leaders for years in a variety of lengths and sink rates. They work very well with a minimum of hinging. The five foot leaders are great for for fishing in shallow Illinois rivers. The downside is that the mono-filament tip where you tie the can break or get messed up to the point that you can't use it. When that happens, I just tie the loop in black part of the leader. The heavier weight leaders made for bass or steelhead will last longer than the trout weight leaders if you can find them.

I have lawn cast the Sage Smallmouth rod and seemed to cast pretty well. I own the Ross Fly Styk in an eight weight, and it casts well with larger flies and requires a minimum of back casts with the RIO Clouser line that I use with it. I like using the Fly Styk from a boat but not so much when I am wading. The Flystyk is great for repeated casts of the same length, which is what you do when you pound the banks from a drift boat. I think that guides using drift boats like using shorter rods because they are easier to handle and less likely to get broken by clumsy clients than standard nine foot rods.

Thanks for the compliments, but I have you guys fooled. If anyone is interested in actually getting a line class record on the books, it involves a process that involves getting the tippet that was used validated, witnesses, a certified scale and a whole bunch of other stuff that would be difficult to do when the fish is caught a twenty or thirty minute wade/walk from a car. I am not interested in having a line class record, but I am also too lazy to go through the process to get the record. On the day after I caught the big smallie, I ran into a local fly fisherman that told me that he had caught bass larger than the one that I caught.

I don't remember exactly what type of tippet that I was using for the 23 inch fish. It was either 10 or 12 pound tippet RIO saltwater tippet. The fish was full of eggs, so there was no way that I would have kept the fish out of the water any longer than I did. I really don't care about a line class record. I have the memory of catching the fish and the memory of the trip along with the picture. Releasing a trophy fish full of eggs is way better than killing a fish or stressing it so it could die later on to get my name on list.

The Echo Edge 9' seven weight has seen the water once and has been yard cast a few times so it like new. This rod was a replacement for a Echo II rod that broke, so when Rajeff Sports replaced it, they gave me an extra tip like the Echo II came with. $145 plus shipping. Send me an IM if you are interested.

I have some loose categories of types of flies that like to have with me when I'm smallmouth fishing so I'm able to give the fish a variety of presentations. The actual patterns that I use within the categories change depending upon what I have been tying. One category is heavy weighted flies (often olive colored) that can be hopped or dragged on the stream bottom. Hairy Fodders, Fuzzy Bugs, Meat Whistles, and crawfish patterns probably look like crawfish or sculpins to the bass. You need both subtle colors and bright colors depending upon the water clarity. Another category is minnow flies. I carry weighted sinking patterns like clouser minnows along with unweighted minnow patterns like Murdich Minnows for fishing high and low in the water column. I like to have a least a couple of flies that have lots of flash because sometimes the flash triggers the fish. A third category is surface flies. I have some loud surface flies like hard poppers or block heads, along with more subtle surface flies like tarantulas. The fourth category is nymphs, which are smaller flies that are dead drifted. Clouser swimming nymphs, small wooly buggers, and other nymph patterns often work well when larger flies don't.

Count me in. Alan

Even if I got decked up with a shiny machined Abel Fly reel with a fancy anodized pattern most chicks would not be impressed and they would still consider me to be a fishing geek. I'm fine with that. http://www.abelreels.com/store/Limited-Edition-DeYoung-Brown-Trout-Flank.html I do like fly reels that are light, durable, and able to work well after being gunked up with sand or grit. That is more important than a super drag system for fishing around here.

The Float N Fly does work on the Kish, or at least it has worked for me in the past. My biggest Illinois smallmouth (19 1/2 inches) was caught on the South Branch of the Kish on a olive over white Float N Fly on the Saturday of Thanksgiving weekend several years ago. In my experience fishing the Float N Fly on the Kish I've done best in calm or slow moving deep water that was close to stronger current. That kind of water is hard to find on the Kish now. Several of the spots where I have successfully fished the Kish late in the season (including the spot where I caught the 19 1/2 incher) were so low and clear a month ago that I could clearly see most of the stream bottom and the fish that were in those spots. If I waded into the these spots now, I would certainly spook the fish. That is the main reason why I have not tried any late season fishing on the Kish this year. If I wanted to try fishing the Kish now, I would try some type of extreme finesse presentation, such at as tiny 1/32 oz jig fished on a ultra light rod or a #12 trout nymph fished with a small indicator. I have caught smallies with these presentations in the the late fall and early spring. With the extreme low water, I am concerned that a harsh winter could result in a winter kill. The water has been so low this fall that some of the bass in the Kish and other small streams in Illinois have not been able to move to deep water spots where they can survive the winter. I'm hoping that we get an early winter rain storm that will raise the water levels.

Breaking a rod while landing a large fish is not such a bad day. Breaking a rod by slamming it in a door or some other equally dumb manner is bad day. I've done the dumb alternative more times that I should admit.

I don't own a textured line, but I have fished with a Shark Skin line with a borrowed rod. There is no doubt that the Shark skin line shot line better/easier than than a regular line. My thoughts after the fishing with the line were as follows: 1. It is noisy but I could probably get used to it 2. It is abrasive and could easily wear grooves into the skin on your stripping finger or worse. You need to wear something (gloves/bandaid, etc) to protect your finger. 3. It is not worth the price to me. My attitude about fly lines is that they are disposable and they are best purchased at a discount. I've ruined a few fly lines in my time so I would prefer to avoid trashing a line that cost me a hundred dollars.

I'll be there. I will bring some chips and salsa.

I have been using 10 pound test fluorocarbon fishing line as tippet for a long time and break offs have never been a problem. In all likelihood, the 10 pound test line that I have been using has a breaking point higher than 10 pounds anyway. The diameter of this line is probably larger than using fly fishing tippet, but the bass don't care and a 200 yard spool of fishing line cost far less than tippet. The Fluorocarbon line is much more abrasion resistant than most mono lines.

I fished the main branch of the Kish on Sunday and the river was low and was full of floating green slimy foam that is shown in your picture. The water had about 12 to 18 inches of visibility. As the day went on and the sun came out, the slimy foam increased. Eddies that that were about 20 percent covered with the foam in the morning were 90 percent covered in the early afternoon. My fishing partner's tan colored waders turned green, and my rod, fly line, and reel were covered with green slime. I washed my waders thoroughly when I got home and the water in the utility sink had a green tinge to it. I have seen the Kish turn dark like this in low water summer conditions, but this is the first time that I have seen green slime make the river look like a lake. The river could use a charge of rain to clean the slime out of the river. Most of the fish that we caught were caught in high current areas. My partner caught more fish on swim jigs and spinner baits than I caught on on flies, probably because the vibration of his lures was triggering the fish in the stained water. I had quite a few short hits on flies, but I did catch a couple of sixteen inchers along with some smaller fish.

I have caught a few gar over the years, but this guy in Texas caught one that was a bit bigger. http://www.grindtv.com/outdoor/blog/33939/texas+fisherman+prevails+in+epic+battle+with+enormous+alligator+gar/

PM sent.

A fast sinking fly line is not going to keep up with the sink rate of a quarter ounce jig in fifteen or twenty feet of water. At eight inches a second, a fast sinking fly line will take twenty to thirty seconds to get close to the bottom. Your buddy's jigs will be banging the bottom in a fraction of that time. My experience with this scenario is that the abuse from my spin fishing buddies while I am wating for my line to sink is worse than actually waiting for the line to get deep. That being said, I like fishing sinking or sink tip lines in the right situations. Instead of using full sink lines, I fish with a Teeny T series line and an intermediate RIO Outbound line, which have long, sinking integrated heads and floating running lines. I prefer casting this type of line over full sinking lines.

My thoughts and prayers are with Don's family. What a great guy. Every time that I fish the rehabbed section of the Dupage river I smile when I remember how proud he was of the work that done on the river. He will be missed.