It just looks like a fish, Ray.... lol.

Nice pics and very jealous, jsnipes

Back to the small fish division

I went to the West Carson River and fished in the evening yesterday and the day before...what I've noticed is that my casting is a lot like my golf swing - smooth action, good tempo, it's all good (except when I'm admiring my cast and trying to mentally capture what I did - that's usually when a strike happens and I miss it).

"Swing" too fast or too hard and I get tangled leaders and wind knots instead of hooks and pulls. One gust of wind is all it takes

Anyway, the water is low and clear right now, and I'd read a few reports that anything besides the morning and the evening is a waste of time. The river looks like an aquarium under each bridge, so I walked upstream of the Hope Valley area, trying my best to be stealthy because of the conditions - I hooked and released a tiny rainbow and a slightly larger brown before settling down (literally, I was sitting on the ground) at a small pool. As soon as I hooked this guy, he blasts through the whole pool, so presumably spooked the rest of the fish that had been rising.

many years ago i used to fish that river alot. there are some big fish in it, you have to find the deepest holes and spots behind rocks. put a large bushy fly like a wooly worm there and hang on if you can get the fly down on the bottom.

There were still some large fish hanging out under the 88/89 bridge for sure. There was a guy there with a two-rod stamp dunking nightcrawlers and tossing some kind of fly, but this was still in the afternoon, and I can't imagine they would buy what he was selling when they could just see him there.

Alpine County also plants some large fish every year, although I think that happens mostly by the resorts. I do wonder how much those fish end up moving from the planting site.

Drove from the Bay Area out to the Merced River a couple of days ago, just for a few hours. I fished the C&R section above the Foresta Bridge, but still outside the park. I managed one small rainbow on a PMD...anyone in the area, I highly recommend going up there as the crowds have thinned out and it's really beautiful this time of year as the fall colors are starting. I guess the October caddis should kick in in a couple of weeks, as well.

it's a wonderful time to be in the sierras with a rod.

i used to float the Madison with my Dad in a little rubber raft with toylike oars back in the day. we'd go every summer. well i was back in Yellowstone this July for a week with the family. i wasn't going to take any guided trips but the wife talked me into it. fished the Madison twice, once with a noob. a great friend but these are 6-foot casts and on his first he tied a bird's nest that had the guide blinking in horror. it got worse from there. i managed a few trout, mostly overexcited 5-6 inchers hitting dries, and a couple handsful of whitefish wading while the guide clipped leaders to shreds retying flies for my buddy. my wife could tell i was disappointed so she sent me again alone.

great day. i had a pretty hyper guide who kept trying to get me to fish dry. he said in the six years he had been guiding his best was a 24-inch trout. i told him the very last time i had floated the Madison on July 2, 1988, i boated two browns over 24 inches within half an hour during a two-hour salmon fly orgy and caught a solid 15 more over 20 inches. doubt he believed me but before the whirling disease the trout were just bigger, and that was the best day of trout fishing in my life, nothing but pigs.

this trip was really good. brought my 5-wt Sage XP - great rod. i boated at least 40 fish and probably hooked a dozen more. things had changed in the 20 years since i had last done this. the leaders are much stronger now, so you don't really play the fish, just haul them in. the guide popped a vessel when i let line loose on an 17-inch rainbow, my biggest trout of the day. it was pretty funny. he started lecturing me about hurting fish and i couldn't resist but say, "Fish don't feel pain." took him a while to figure out i was messing with him. beautiful day on the water. despite the crowding and smaller fish, the Madison remains a spectacular fishing river. if i lived there i would walk it every weekend.

the madison has gone way down over the years since i fished it first in 1973. you use to see a couple of boats in a days flot or fishing. then it went to many boats and now almost you are never out of sight of multiple boats.
still some of the finest country to be in.
the fishing in canada surpasses it by far.

So, I'm about to graduate and plan on playing poker for a while and want to travel around and just do some things I've always wanted to do but never had time. When I was a kid, I used to go fishing all the time with my dad and grandfather. I LOVED going to fishing in Colorado. We would usually just use your standard rod/reel setup with bait like salmon eggs/powerbait and catch trout. It was a blast being out there. Anyways, recently I've been looking into getting into fly fishing because I love fishing and especially trout fishing and fly fishing has always intrigued me, but I've never got into it. Well, now is that time. I've been reading around and am thinking about starting out with this rod/reel setup: http://www.cabelas.com/catalog/produ...T.mc_id=k68563

Prob going to go with the 905-4 as that seems to be the most versatile from what I've read and should be decent for me while just getting started.

That being said, I'm prob looking to take a week or two (maybe more) sometime this spring (or even winter? i'm not sure how fly fishing is in the winter) and head up to colorado and try it out. Anyone have any recommendations for early spring (or winter) locales in colorado for some good trout fishing? (also if anyone would be interested in hitting up the stream/river for a few days or w/e that'd be cool too).

Spring is a horrible time to fish as the run-off from snow makes the water levels too high and the silt to thick for fish to see anything. From what I understand, winter isn't much better as the fish aren't very active due to colder temps. That being said, I don't pond or lake fish at all so you may be able to do that in the spring.

Sweet spot for fishing in rivers/streams is from late May (depending on snowmelt) through October with best month maybe August.

Rod looks good for a starter but all depends on what your use is. I mainly fish small streams where I wet wade so a 5 weight is way to heavy. I love my TFO 1 weight 3 piece as it has perfect action for me and works great when I backpack. That being said, heavier line tends to be easier for beginners to cast and a 5 weight is a good starter if you will be fishing full on rivers. Personally I think the sweet spot for an all-around rod is a 3-piece 8" 3 weight but that is based on where I fish (i.e. no big rivers, no lakes, never need more than hip waders if at all).

any warmer winter day brings out some bug activity in rivers. and fishing picks up. usually in the early afternoon. winter fishing is great as the fish havent been bothered much and will hit more as they are hungry and not scared as much.

an 8 1/2 or 9 foot five weight will take care of 90% of river and lake fishing.
as you get better and specialize you can pick up two more rods to fill in.

My wife got me this for Christmas...it's pretty cool, and not awkward to cast. Alas, the room we have with the most room has a hardwood floor. I've yet to cast a knot into the yarn leader, but just give me time.

yea you will have fun with that. you can also practice with just some line in your hand. or a small stick with line.

that thing you got is from steve rajeff. he was a distance world champion many years ago at casting. i fished with him one day in idaho back around 1980 i think. i was ashamed how far he casted as compared to me. i caught more fish though.

does anyone here frequent any fishing/flyfishing forums online? i am trying to get back into the swing of things a little and have no idea what the good forums are. specifically in the NE, I just bought a new desk that has a lot of space gonna start tying some flies again i think. been looking at fish pictures for last 45 minutes pretty juiced to go fishing and wishing there wasn't 3 feet of snow outside.

Go ice fishing. I've been killing the perch and gills here. I just recently switched to a fly reel for my panfish pole (okuma 4/5). Works very well with preventing jig spinning and line twist. Now I just need to disable the clicker.

icefishing website = iceshanty dot com