Fishing Report 25-APR-2017

The bite is on everywhere, so pick your species, grab your rod, and hit the water!

In the freshwater, the largemouth and smallmouth prespawn bite is currently underway, with most takes occurring on subsurface streamers fished slowly.  For largemouth in stillwater, go for suspending streamers like deceivers and CK Baitfish that can be paused, twitched, and paused again.  In moving water for smallmouth, go for bottom baits like the clawdad, that can be swung down current, or slowly moved through the deeper pools.  There is some topwater action, but the bigger fish are looking for bigger meals, so don't be afraid of putting on your 6"+ streamers.

Don't be afraid to throw your big streamers in the spring!

I also had the good fortune to spend some time down at the ocean to do some saltwater fishing.  This is always a mix of conventional and fly, and fun was to be had on both.  While the weather was fairly miserable, we did manage to catch several flounder, including the keeper below.  Remember, the only three colors you need on your bottom rigs for flounder are Pink, Green, and White.  Once I figure out how to catch these flatfish on the fly, I'll be sure to write up a report.

I've got to figure out how to catch these on the fly, but I'll take 'em anyway I can.

From the vacation house, we had pretty close access to the water.  We could actually fish from the lower balcony, and it was rare when a line wasn't in the water.  I threw the fly a few times, but the close proximity of the dock to the house made this very tricky.  We also wanted a static line that we could sit and walk away from, so a conventional rod was again deployed.  What I was not expecting was a massive chopper bluefish to hit the line!

These blues hit both fly and conventional tackle...but without steel leader they are near impossible to land

Given the relative abundance of these big blues in the bay where we were staying, I spent some time targeting them on the fly.  I had some success with a large red/white deceiver, but without steel leader I was only able to fight them for a short period of time before they cut themselves free....next time I will be better prepared!

This was the most successful pattern for targeting the big blues, and also works for striped bass, springtime largemouth, and northern pike.

Gearing up for Flounder

With the summer heat, bass, crappie, and the other lake fish are deep and lethargic during the daylight hours.  Unless you get out very early, or very late, you shouldn't expect too much on the surface, with the exception to bluegill, because, hey, bluegill are always up for hitting topwater.  Additionally, the heat brings major stress to our resident brook trout populations, so hitting the mountain streams should wait until the weather cools back down.  The end result?  Time to hit the saltwater.

The good news for me is that I have family near the coast, and they make a perfect staging point to hit the back bays along the Maryland and Virginia Coasts...and it's nice to seem them as well:)  One of my goals this year was to try and catch a flounder off the fly.  Obviously, flounder are not the most targeted fish off the fly, but they are catchable, and even a small flounder could be fun off the long rod.

There are two strategies for targeting flounder with the fly.  The first is to stick to the shallows, and use weighted flies.  This permits the use of a floating line, while still being able to get the fly into the strike zone.  Of course, this means there will be a limitation in the habitat and waters that will be fishable.  To overcome this, a sink tip, or even a full sinking line will be required.  For me, I will be using a full sinking line.  This allows me to fish all zones of the back bays; allowing me to target not only bottom dwelling fish like flounder, but also the mid and upper levels of the water column.  Remember, even though the line may sink, the moment you start stripping, the fly will come alive.  This still allows casting into breaking fish, with the added advantage of hitting the top of the boil, as well as allowing the choice to let the fly to sink to where larger fish may be lurking.

As for flies, the usual saltwater suspects apply.  Think clousers, deceivers, half-n-halves, but shrimp and squid patterns are also useful.  Granted, tying an all white clouser or deceiver may do a decent job of imitating a squid, and tying either in pink colors is a decent soft shrimp imitation (they are pinkish when they shed their shell), but having an excuse to tie something new is more than enough for me to have to break out the fly tying kit.

Tying a squid fly is a nice change from the typical trout and bass flies

There are plenty of good guides on youtube and the Internet to find interesting patterns and ideas for saltwater flies.  My search helped me to develop the squid fly above.  I chose to use dumbbell eyes near the rear of the hook to (1) invert the hook, and (2) change the action of the fly to more closely resemble a swimming squid.  I also used some of my holoflash, which has tons of different colors, and, I think, will more closely imitate the rapid color changes squids are known for...plus, it helps it look cool :)  Sometimes, making the fly look better to yourself actually makes the fly fish better, because you will fish it with more confidence, and throw it for longer.  A great quote is even a poorly tied fly will catch fish if you throw it long enough.

For shrimp patterns, I decided to try my hand at the crazy charlie.  This is one of THE patterns for bonefish, because it imitates a small shrimp or crustacean...hey, that sounds good enough to me.  I did tie mine a little larger than the average charlie, and added some colors that more closely match the shrimp in the back bays where I fish, including some touches of pink for one of the flies.  Believe it or not, pink can sometimes be the only color flounder will hit, and therefore I always make sure at least one of my flies incorporates this hue.

Some of the crazy charlies I tied for flounder

All in all, it will just be nice to get out and hit the salt.  I'll be sure to post an update, but, remember, getting out to fish is just as important as actually catching a fish.  Even if you strike out, you should always have a good time...I know I will.

Fishing Report 7-MAY-2016

It's been a while since my last fishing report update, and there is good reason, other than laziness.  My goal was to have a clever update to include a photo of a flounder caught on the fly...sadly such a photo was not meant to be...nor any real report to speak of.

This past week, my Uncle and I went to Wachapreague, VA to target flounder.  The trip started off well enough, with three keepers pulled in off of conventional spinning tackle.  The goal was to help put enough fish in the ice box before pulling out the 8 weight to catch a seldom targeted fish on the fly.  Unfortunately, those three flounder were the only caught of the trip.  The already poor weather turned worse, and our trip was basically a wash out.  The goal is to return to the VA Eastern Shore in the summer, and take another crack at the flatties.

The three flounder of the trip...but they were all over 18"

To make up for the busted trip, I took advantage of being near my family's farm in Maryland, and took an hour to fish for stocked trout in the Patapsco.  Believe it or not, this trip saw my first rainbow on the fly (caught off of a PMX hopper imitation).  In retrospect, it's difficult to catch a rainbow when you only fish native brook trout waters :).  While not large or spectacular in any measurement, it is still another milestone in my fly fishing scrapbook.

Always love catching trout off of a dry.  This particular trout did a backflip out of the water to take the PMX,

I was hoping to end the week with a trip up to a blue line stream in the Shenandoah, now that the Rocky Mount fire is out, but a day wasted waiting on a FedEx package, and a surprise project to replace my mailbox post postponed my brookie adventure to next week.

Oh well, sometimes just getting out is reward enough in itself...and sometimes just being able to get out can be a daunting challenge.  The good news is the weather is clearing, and the warmer temperatures are returning...next week should be better :)