went and messed around at a farm pond today to try and practice casting and maybe catch a few bass/crappie. Caught a few very small bass on a wooly bugger, then hooked something solid...took me a good few minutes to tire the fish down i had no idea what i had hooked...finally after what seemed forever i got it close enough to the bank to see it, and it was about a 5 lb. channel cat! I had heard of people catching catfish on a fly rod before but was a bit skeptical. About 30 minutes later I caught another one about the same size. They were a heck of a fight for my 9' 5wt rod, but was pretty fun nonetheless. Anybody else tried catching cats on a fly?

whatever pulls hard is my philosophy. i wouldn't think it'd be too difficult to target them since most catfish aren't all that picky. i imagine a slow retrieve w a clouser or something similar would prob work just fine.

i have been fishing this group of tarpon like 6 or 7 times now. only had one bite from a pretty big fish, id estimate it at 60-70lbs. i got two jumps out of it and then it pulled the hooks. used some live mullet over the weekend and hooked one more but had a leader snafu and it broke off. my buddy has been having success w all white flies back there so just tied up a bunch of white clousers and deceivers. had sworn the spot off after this morning's frustrating fishing but may give it another attempt in the AM.

edit: here are some crappy iphone pics

obv didn't catch any tarpon this morning

got bored and tried to tie some muddlers/dahlberg-esque divers. haven't spun deer hair in a while. stuff is hard to tie and hard to shape. first two were lol bad. getting a little better towards the end. i think they will catch fish though. i need a cauterizer so i can burn out some holes and put some plastic eyes on them. mostly for looks, i don't think it matters much for this type of fly.

thought these feathers were black and white not tan and white :/ oh well

here is the head before i made any cuts with all the hair spun

and finished product...def the best one.

Solid work with the deerhair. I used to tie some mouse flies in high school for big trout at dusk, but eventually I just gave up because I was slow and they still came out crappy more often than not.

How long does one of those divers take you?

From our "Pictures or it didn't happen" file:

Wild brown trout less than one mile from PokerStars HQ

Regards, Lee

^nice one lee

What if the guy at the fly shop says "They love San Juan worms", and then it turns out they do?

Regards, Lee
"My largest brown ever, San Juan worm"

Ya shaping definitely takes some work/practice. I just bought some curved scissors which should help as well. From start to finish I'd say one of those takes 15-20 minutes. I just tied some super neat bonefish sliders that have little deer hair heads. I think I took some pics somewhere.

Pretty work Lee!

san juan worms are like cheating. fly fishing is how far you take being traditional. trout love them as they are like fishing a worm.

i will stick one only occasionally when i cant get anything else to work or on a new river that i am not getting any hits to see what i am up against. but most times i can do better with a hares ear.

the most fun fly fishing is with a dry fly and watching the fish come up and take it on the surface. the worst is using a bobber and drifting your fly like you were fishing bait.

no, the most fun is getting a clouser into a striper blitz

Here are those Borski bonefish sliders. Actually took a little longer than the other deerhair stuff I was tying as spinning and tying the hair in around both lead eyes and a weedguard (and then shaping) was a little trickier.

fished one for a few minutes yesterday afternoon. drifting a pretty productive flat, my dad had just caught a nice red on a jig and i get a great bite and see a nice tail flash in the sun. but ended up being a big, stinky bluefish chewing up my fly. must have done a decent job though bc it was still fishable even after the blue.



just w all the hair

Just read the article about fly shops not being able to keep feathers in stock because hairdressers are snapping them up for hair extensions.

Um, LOL.

Also, it can feel free to STOP EFFING RAINING OMG

Christmas three years ago I received a fly making set from my Uncle. I have never used it, but I believe this thread has given me the motivation to do so. By the end of this week I will have some pictures on this thread...

Any good books I can check out from a library on fly making?

agreed. however I have never had this happen to me. yet

What species of fish will you be hunting? Also pretty much any book will get you started and you can find recipes and youtube videos on how to tie most flies (fly shop guys just love making fly tying videos)

www.flyfisherman.com has some good fly recipes and how to as well

Tying takes some of practice. For the most part all those recipes can be looked at as guidelines. Its a lot more fun when you add your own little touch to it and fish don't seem to mind.

I will be fishing this summer in Mammoth down in California.

Mammoth is all trout fishing. Rainbow, Brook, Alper's, and Golden.

If I remember correctly there is one lake there that is stocked and they bring up Brown Trout. I am not sure.

Anyways out of the 10+ lakes, and numerous streams only one of the lakes is stocked.

I have no idea what the basic flies are but figure out the standard 5 or 6 patterns that work wherever you are fishing. Buy one of each. Google the name of the pattern and there will likely be a youtube video that demonstrates how to tie it. I wish I knew more about freshwater so I could tell you some stuff that is easy to tie to get you started. Best thing to do is probably go to your local fly shop (if you have one) and a lot of them run weekly or bi-weekly clinics on intro fly tying and what not that can be very helpful. Just ask whoever is working there and they should be able to point you in the right direction. You will likely tie a lot of crappy flies before you find one that you think is pretty enough. Don't get discouraged and don't be afraid to throw what you tie, even if it's not quite as pretty as the ones from the store, you will be surprised what the fish will eat! And it's really awesome and satisfying when one takes a fly that you made. I remember the first fish I caught on my own fly--was juiced for the rest of the day. It's a great feeling and good luck.

Link to article? I was just at the store the other day poking around the saddles and maribou and this really dolled-up blonde comes over and is meticulously going through all the saddles. My initial reaction was "wtf, what a powerhouse of a woman" then she left and one of the guys who works there was like "yea, we have people calling all the way from california ordering our saddles for hair extensions. these ladies are in here all the time."

Here's one of several stories on the saddle feather "shortage".

Crazy phenomenon. Wonder how long the feather crazy will last.

Caught a big redfish yesterday. Went with a buddie to an area of the river that is a 'No Motor Zone' and we paddled/poled his Gheenoe around and found a bunch of big redfish that were tailing on the flats. Was really awesome sight fishing for these bruisers. They were mostly swimming in singles or pairs and I think this was like the 4th or 5th group that I threw to (and 3rd fly) before I got one to eat. Was about a 30 min fight till we were able to land him. Was so much fun, leaving for Mexico sunday but can't wait to go do that again.

Hit up the West Fork of the Carson River over the last couple days. Not much to show.

Two days ago, I tried dries/nymphs in the canyon downstream from the 88-89 interchange. Hooked a small trout on a beadhead copper john and lost it while fumbling for the net.

Yesterday morning, I parked at the last bridge on 88 as you head towards Caples and hiked upstream pretty much to the end of the canyon.



Water is high, clear, and cold. I read that one of the other rivers in the general vicinity (Walker) has a hatch from 11-2, so I might have actually left too early, but I tried prospecting with dries upstream and then nymphs/streamers coming back down. Nada.

Yesterday evening, I went back to the Hope Valley area and there was a decent hatch going on (I'm not a bug expert) I think they were spinners, but am not sure. Managed one small rainbow before it got too dark to see (no pic of that, but it was no more than 8").

Also got killed at Harvey's in a combo of poker+pit. Pretty standard these days.

ETA: Also, I did not bring any insect repellent, so on my rod hand (the one that is always occupied) I now count 9 separate mosquito bites

got to go bonefishing one day. found a guy who said he knew where fish were and he drove me up there in the boat and just dropped me off in the lagoon. caught 5 and was fricking amazing. god catching bonefish is so much gd fun. we literally pull up on hte beach, i jump out and cross the little spit of land that leads to the lagoon and i see tails in the sun. tie on a gotcha and fish on on my first cast. i also busted one off in the mangroves which was still pretty fun and exciting. casted to the fish in the middle of this little open space iwth mangroves on 3 sides. he takes it and runs straight at me, nearly through my legs and directly the opposite way straight into the mangroves and basically christmas tree's my fly line through like 15 diff branches before it breaks. fishing 12lb tippet not a whole lot i could do.

bonefish are about the most fun fish to catch. they are the fish that can empty your reel and not have a large fish on.

Probably going to grab some ribs in Reno this weekend...any suggestions on good places for shore access to the Truckee River? Ideally on the CA side. I'm assuming you can't really get to the water directly off 80

Great thread! I love these TR and pics