Sunday, January 1, 2012
Saturday, December 10, 2011
Test photos of fly patterns
So I wanted to improve my fly photography by improving the mini-studio I built for taking pictures of flies. I did a little research online and then picked up two new lights from National Camera Exchange to replace the old convoluted system I was using.
I am now just using those two lights and a reflector inside a light box. Before, I was using the light box, a reflector, three lights, an on camera flash hooked up to secondary slave flash via a cable, and the full kitchen table with two leaves in it. Now I'm down to using a third of the kitchen table without the leaves in it.
Here are some photos of tonight's practice session (click on each to enlarge).
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| sparkle soft hackle |
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| tungston zebra nymph variant |
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| zebra stable (7 different variants): fresh off the vise last weekend |
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| wet fly on bamboo background |
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| wet fly on oak background |
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| streamer with maple background |
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| streamer with dark stained wood background |
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| double midge fly |
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| double midge fly 2 |
Sunday, November 20, 2011
Reminders...
After spending several hours in the initial attempt to straighten out the Fly-tying/man-room last night, and waking up to fresh snow this morning I definitely have trout on my mind. So I just thought I would send out a post with a couple of reminders.
Fly Tying related:
Consider supporting a newer organization that has been in the works since this summer called the Namekagon River Partnership. Their mission is to celebrate and conserve the cold water fishery of the upper Namekagon River. This group is made up of citizens, business owners, and government conservation entities, and non-profit organizations. I wrote a check out this morning to them in hopes it will help the Partnership pave their way in protecting this great Wisconsin resource. If you've never fished it, you are missing out on one hell of a great north woods experience.
Fly Tying related:
As winter sets in and we restock our fly boxes, keep in mind that the St. Paul Fly Tier's meet every week on Thursday nights at Schroeder's Bar & Grill in St. Paul. It's great way to get out of the house, socialize, and keep you motivated in your fly tying.
The Fly Angler has a variety of Tying Classes you can sign up for during the winter months to develop those skills of yours. They also have been hosting an "open tying" night once a month where you can bring your own vice and materials to tie whatever you want in the company of other like minded fisherman. And if you forget something, they probably can sell ya whatcha need right there.
Fishing related:
Fishing related:
If you are getting twitchy, there's always a trip down to Iowa where the fishing season never closes. Otherwise the MN Winter catch-and-release season opens to a select number of rivers on January 1st.
For the love of the trout:
For the love of the trout:
I know the past couple of years have had a bumpy road financially for the nation, but don't take it out on the trout. Personally, my donations this year have been significantly less then in years past however they have been more strategically picked. So I limited myself to only three or four organizations/causes rather then a dozen that were a little lower on my social responsibility radar.
1) December 8th, 2011 from 6-10pm is the Annual Holiday Dinner and Fund Raising Banquet for the Kiap-Tu-Wish chapter of Trout unlimited. Buy tickets in advance and save a few dollars so that you can spend it on the silent auction! This can be an excellent opportunity to pick up a Christmas gift for that special fly fisherman on your list. Hope to see you there!
2) February 11th, 2012 is the Annual fund raising event for the Twin Cities chapter of Trout Unlimited. This has been a a great "Date Night" in years past for my wife and I, loaded with tons of energy, excitement and friends while donating to a good organization. And who knows, maybe you''ll find a unique Valentines gift for the loved one in your life.
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| Fall day on the Namekagon |
Monday, November 14, 2011
Deer camp
So two weekends ago, I went up to visit deer camp over opener to see old friends and my dad. It was good to see the usual suspects and that they were all doing pretty well. It had been a year or more since seeing some of them, and it was nice to hang out and bond with the traditional card games, story telling, and good natured ribbing. Hunting-wise, the weekend didn't turn out so well, one eight-pointer (shot by Dean) out of six deer hunters in the 20-25mph winds is all we got. I didn't do to well either, instead of deer hunting I bought a small game license and brought the 20 gauge over & under in hopes of getting a grouse or black squirrel for tying flies. I find that grouse hunting is more enjoyable to me because I can relax as I put less pressure on myself when I am not competing for a deer in an acreage that isn't exactly overpopulated. I only flushed one grouse, and it was gone before I could get a bead on it. I also kicked up deer twice in some thick underbrush. And both times I could not hear it running off into the woods even though it was within 20 yards of me. I watched it's white flag bob back in forth out of sight completely stunned that I didn't even hear so much as a twig snap. The odds were not in our favor this time.
Even though the hunting wasn't so great, I did get to see a bald eagle circle over me just above the tree tops. The highlight of the weekend was Carmi's video footage from her deer stand. She captured a couple minutes of a grouse by her stand and almost ten minutes of footage of a bobcat chilling out. It appeared to know that Carmi was there, but really didn't care. It napped, it stalked a bird, and it stared at the camera, before scooting away. Earlier in the day, the land owner had seen two adult bobcats and a kitten from his stand. Very exciting stuff!
As for the increasing stories and evidence of wolf sign in the area, I was not as impressed. One pack of wolves actually treed an acquaintance of ours a few weeks earlier when he was bow hunting for deer across the lake from where we were hunting.
As of last night, I heard that Dean got a button buck, making for two deer total for the camp. Dad is still up there, so hopefully with a little luck he will get one too. I'll cross my fingers for him anyway.
Steelhead closes tomorrow and we did not go fishing for them since my last post. So now we wait till next fall to resume that game. This weekend consisted of prepping the house for winter and freeing up space by bringing a lot of stuff over to our storage unit. We did a pretty good job with our to-do list, but I am saving the Fly Tying room (a.k.a. the man room) for this coming weekend. It might only be one room, but it needs a lot of attention. It is in total disarray with fishing stuff, camping gear, and hunting clothes strung all over. I think I can see what color the carpet is, sorta, maybe. Okay, I can't. But, I do have memories of what it should look like once it is back in good order and prepped for fly tying season.
Tuesday, November 1, 2011
End of our steelhead season...probably
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| Photo taken by J. Rawls |
I had reached out to several of my fishing buddies for reports of happiness, but sadly their fishing stories also lacked any significant catching.
So unless the river gods "wave" a magic wand to change the "tide" of the "current" conditions, our season has "plunged" to an end for this year. (bad pun, but I thought it was amusing)
Saturday, October 29, 2011
another steelhead weekend
So we are back up for a three day weekend steelheading. Friday night was fun. The Kro had a comedy show, and after that two Tequila models from Eau Claire, WI were there pimping shots of a new tequila (I don't remember the brand but keep reading and you'll see why) on behalf of their distributor. I met a local gal who was a retired post office mail-woman from Superior, WI who introduced me to a few people around us and chatted with them for a while and they bought me a beer. Then the bartender bought me a beer cause we fried the keg. Then the Tequila models were back and we ended up talking about fishing for awhile (as I "sampled" their shots). Then Paul and Mother Feiker walked in close to 11pm just in time for the Tequila girls to ask them to take a picture of the three of us before they moved on with their night. Not sure why they wanted a picture with me, but who am I to argue with a request like that. So I did my part, stood in between them and smiled pretty for the camera as they hugged me. I know, I know, I know what you're thinking and yes, it was a hard job standing up after all those drinks, but I persevered so as to not disappoint the models. Then Mother Feiker bought me a beer. Mind you, I still bought plenty of my own Leinie's Oktoberfest and shots of Parton in between all these gracious gifts of barley. As you may have guessed, we were there till 2am, before they closed and we had to call it a night.
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| Photo by Waring, Michael |
Saturday's fishing was slowwwww. And by slow I mean that it was slowwwwww. But, we did watch a muskrat for awhile on the opposite bank of one our fishing spots. He was cute, but not as much as the otter that visited us a few weeks ago. The otter was very curious as to what we are or what we were doing. He was swimming up stream on the opposite bank and would stop every few yards or so, pop up on his back legs and gave us look as if to say "whatcha doing mister?" It did that all the way up stream until it was out of our site again.
Maybe fishing will be better tomorrow.
Tuesday, October 25, 2011
This past weekend, low and clear
Jen and I went up again this past weekend even though the river was still low and clear and still no rain. What can I say, we are addicts to this game.
We found Peter a couple of doors down from ours at the motel. He fished that day and lost his fly box, so there was some flies being tied as we chatted with him. Which still totally sucks to lose a fly box on the river. But if anyone finds said fly box, please send to me so that I can see what his secret flies are.
Jen and I went over the Kro-bar for supper where we were joined by Mike, Phil, and David who also just pulled into town for the weekend. Talk about perfect timing! And the all you can eat fish fry wasn't too bad either with a side of Leinie's Oktoberfest of course. If only someone could have tripped over the cord of the horrible karaoke that was taking place on the stage, it would have been so much better.
Jen and I had zero luck on Saturday, not even a strike. We fished till dark with no rewards from the river gods. Peter had walked by us about mid morning Saturday and reported landing a very nice steelhead just upstream of us. So we knew they were in river, just not on the end of our lines. Before going out to dinner as we all gathered at Olie's motel room for a warm-up beer, Jen and found out that we were the only unlucky ones out of our group of eight. Good for them, but I say Grrrr to our luck.
The blueberry ribs at Deep Lake Lodge in Iron River, WI is still the best ribs I've ever had and they once again did not disappoint, unlike the Badgers football game that we could hear in the background on TV. At lease the Packers beat the Vikings the next day. Poor Bucky Badger.
Sunday, we had a little bit of a late start as we were not in a hurry since there was a 60% chance of rain in the forecast for the day. But when we opened the door to get going, it was dry and overcast. Jen and I headed to a spot we knew that fit our latest steelhead theory with a Mountain Dew in one hand, and snickers bar in the other (which by the way is a four-star fisherman's breakfast). We spent most of our time at one spot insistent that we were right and then we were proved right. I was lucky enough to catch two steelhead about an hour apart from each other! WhooHoo!! Shortly after, we gave up the spot to another gentleman and headed back to the truck just in time for the rain to start. Lucked out again! We changed in the parking lot and headed for home happily.Monday, October 24, 2011
A Good fall so far
On Sunday, the weather was the same as the day before, which was sunny and windy, with a windchill in the low 30's. Louise had to leave by a certain time to get back home in her final hour before she had to leave the river she landed a 26" chrome steelhead. She was very excited! Congrat's Louise!!!
On Monday, I had the day off and had planned to go fishing with Mike and dad for smallmouth. Dad and I met up with Mike as he was doing final prep work on the boat at the landing. Everything went pretty well except someone turned the wind machine on HIGH. We struggled through some pretty heavy wind and it made for a challenging situation. But the three of us had a great time joking around and we did have a few bites. Mike landed a few smallie's and I managed to land one, but dad lost a very nice one. NO, I didn't cut the line on him. We did get a glimpse of it, and it would have made for a good picture. Instead, I have put in a nice photo of dad and I with a bass and the lure we caught it on. The funny thing was he was convinced the white lures were not on the menu for the bass that day and that chartreuse was the ticket...oops!Sunday, August 28, 2011
Link to Vacation Pictures
Hello all! I know, I know, it's been a while since my last post but here we go. Jen and I just returned from a week of camping in West Glacier in Glacier National Park in Northwest Montana. We had a great time taking photos, going on random adventures and hikes. As our reward, we caught Yellowstone Cutthroats, Brookie's, and even a Bull trout! Saw both black and grizzley bears, columbus ground squirrels, almost got run over by a ram, and enjoyed lots of things made with Huckleberries or bison.
We took a lot of photos...a LOT of photos! The place is breath-takingly beautiful, especially if you get off the asphalt and put on the hiking shoes (or waders in some cases).
So without further delay, here is the link to our photos of the trip, I hope you enjoy them.
Monday, December 27, 2010
This post is not really fishing related, but there is fish art pictures
So not really a fishing post, but it's been a while and I didn't want you all to forget about me. So for Christmas, I asked Santa Clause to talk my brother into bringing his suitcase of pain tattoo equipment home. So Santa did, and "B" brought home his Needles of terror tools of the trade, and I now have more ink. Check it out!
Yin Yang Trout with a Japanese kanji symbol meaning "little treasure" on my arm. This was inspired by a painting I had seen at a restaurant we stopped at for lunch out west on one of my Montana fishing trips.
Thanks again for doing this for me B!!!
Yin Yang Trout with a Japanese kanji symbol meaning "little treasure" on my arm. This was inspired by a painting I had seen at a restaurant we stopped at for lunch out west on one of my Montana fishing trips.
The other one I had done on my leg was from a Chinese scroll painting that I saw years ago and fell in love with it's eye catching simplicity. This particular image of the black and red koi according to Chinese symbolism means Success. Additionally, In Buddhist thought, fish represent freedom. The enlightened state of Buddhism allows for unrestrained movement in the world, you will not be held back by life's illusions. Not to mention, it's just cool looking.
Thanks again for doing this for me B!!!
Saturday, December 18, 2010
Monday, October 25, 2010
Steelhead (Part 4)
Saturday morning, the Jen and I left home about 4:30am to chase steelhead up north. It was pretty overcast, and windy, but the rain didn't start until 2pm. We were on the water fishing by 8am, and generally enjoying the day. Jen snagged one in the rear pectoral fin and it gave her a pretty good fight. When it got close enough to net, about the same time that I spotted how it was hooked, the steelhead turned down river into the rapids and broke off. It was gone, with a very upset Jen on the other end! On the ride up we had mentioned that we need to start landing more of these guys. Guess we were foiled again. We messed around on a few other spots throughout the day, and then drove down river to a different stretch of water. About a half hour in, I hooked into a steelhead and it fought pretty good until it jumped out of the water and spit the egg fly out at me. Seriously! We really need to start landing these things! The only things landed were three smolt I caught, and well....that's not exactly what we were looking for. The three of us ended the day at the Twin Gables for supper, with a quick stop into the Kro. But the long day got the best of us and we were sawing logs by 9:30pm, maybe it was 9pm. Either way, it was way early by our usual standards.
We arrived to our first choice anglers parking lot, but it was full, so we headed down river a couple spots and found a pretty empty parking lot that I expected to be full. So we wadered up and headed down to the river in the drizzle. It pretty much rained constantly all day, classic steelhead weather. We found Peter at the first place we went to. He insisted Jen and I take a few casts so we of course did. Peter laid out a bet that we would buy a shot for whoever caught the first steelhead. Within ten minutes, the Jenorator hooked and lost a steelhead and then landed a very nice and chunky 22" brown trout. Guess she won the bet!
About mid-day and a few spots later, the three of us were fishing a spot when two guys we saw earlier walked by. Which meant that their fishing spot was open, so Peter hopped up to try his luck and he did pretty good. He hooked into two steelhead with in minutes of each other, but wasn't able to land either. Jen was no longer the only person on the board now. :) There was hope for the guys! Which was nice, cause the spot we had just spent 45 minutes fishing and chatting with guy had ended the convesation with "I've never seen anyone land a steelhead here, and I've been coming up here since the fifties." It would have been nice of him to mention that earlier, but I guess he liked company. Anyway, maybe those two fish wouldn't have been there for Peter had we just skipped the steelhead-less hole and not chatted with the nice ol chap.
We moved on to another angler's lot, Jen and I went to one spot, and Peter went to check out another favorite hole he wanted to fish. I hooked one about a half hour in, but it wasn't able to get a good hook set and I lost it about ten seconds into the fight. Didn't they get the memo? We are supposed to be landing these things! In the last two hours of light, I tried to coax another strike by calling the steelhead "chickenshits" and making various clucking sounds at the river in front of me. Trying my best to taunt them, the Jenorator just shook her head at me and kept casting her fly. I guess it didn't work, because I didn't get anymore action before dark. They were too afraid to battle me I guess.
Egg flies still seemed to be what they were hitting on. The water was clouding up pretty good and slowly rising. I took a temperature reading of 44 degrees on Sunday. The rain was much needed as the guy in town said it had been 22 days since the last rain.
Next week, we are going up again, and hopefully landing some steelhead for a change! I'll keep you posted.
Next week, we are going up again, and hopefully landing some steelhead for a change! I'll keep you posted.
Monday, October 18, 2010
Fly tiers Steelhead Outing (Oct 16 &18)
We came, we fished, we've had better successes. The higher numbers of fish that I had hoped for failed to produce for the club outing. But that didn't stop the gang from having lots of fun on a great fall weekend!
Jen and I went against our normal pattern and after a late night at the Kro, and short night at the hotel, we found ourselves fishing a little after 7am. Which proved to be a good for both of us, as most of our hookup's for the weekend happened before 10:30am. Jen lost a nice one after a long battle, I made the choice to touch the leader and snap it to save the steelhead. It had taken her into a tough spot between two trees into deeper water. It was that or kill the steelie. We were majorly disappointed, but soon after we had another strike, then we gave up the spot to a Andy and his friend. We had our fun, so why not share it.
It wasn't till the five o'clock hour that I had tied into another steelie, but it made short work of me and the line went slack. Damn it! Oh well. What were the taking this weekend you ask. Pretty much the everything seem to be on yarn flies this time. Earlier in the afternoon I pulled a bone headed move and walked off the plank bridge at one parking lot as I wasn't paying attention at all to where I was walking. Now I have a nasty rug burn on my elbow from it as well as both my knees now sore and bruised. Beautifull, that will match perfectly with the popped blister on my toe and broken eye glasses.
The evening was crazy with everyone back at the cabin, and with the addition of several visitors, there was a lot of excitement and conversations. Chef Tony had been working on Supper since noon according to Rick and Rayanne, and it was pretty much the full Thanksgiving spread. When I went to drop Jen off at the motel before going over to the Kro, I bumped into Peter. We shot the breeze for a bit, and shared the news of our groups general lack of success. I also gave him some of my "secret" colored yarn for him to tie up some egg flies with, and wished him luck for the next days fishing.
I haven't heard yet how the fishing went for the gang on Sunday, but look forward to hopefully hearing some good news at this weeks club meeting.
Next up, a three day weekend on the river is coming up and hopefully some more stories to share. Oh, and did I mention that a couple weeks ago that I caught a muskie on a fly rod? Well, I did!!
Steelhead on! (Oct. 10th & 11th)
Beep beep beep, whack the snooze button! Beep beep beep, whack the snooze button! Two hours later of that, and we got up and raced out the door at 6:30am last Sunday. We were out the night before celebrating at a friends wedding reception and may have been enjoying ourselves a little bit more then the anticipated 3 hours of sleep could have cured. Jen and I headed up North to chase steelhead for two days. Jen was really antsy to get up there and to cure her steelhead fever, which I found really amusing. She had the fever bad!
We got our trout pants on and were in the water by 10:30am. It was warmer then it usually is as was noted by something I normally don’t run into while fishing for steelhead. MOSQUITO'S! Anyway, we headed to a spot we knew to try our luck and within two hours, the Jen-orator had hooked a steelhead. I was one hole down from her chatting with Mother Fieker when we heard yelling through the woods from her direction. We ran up the trail to see what was going on and Jen was in mid fight with her opponent! She worked it perfectly to the net and it was a NICE 26” Buck with all the dark red colors on the cheek and sides. It was awesome! We popped the flask for shot in celebration, and I had a cigar on her behalf, and it was only 12:30p! 
We simmered down and got back to business fishing. Jen had a heck of day, as she had many more takes and battles, (eight in all) but wasn’t able to get them under control and landed. I admit that by early evening I was getting green and agitated as I hadn’t had so much as a head-shake while she was getting all that action. But about 5pm, I had a steelhead strike, I set the hook and it was landed after some serious racing in both directions up and down the river and several acrobatics in the air. I was just along for the ride and had little control over where it wanted to be. It was a 22" bright silver steelie. I was feeling much better after that. We fished a bit longer then went back to the truck just before dark. As for what they were biting on, they were hitting nymphs and eggs pretty much equally. We changed into some dry clothes at the Brule Motel, and then headed over to the "Other Place" bar and grill for supper and cocktails with Mother Fieker.
Sunday was a little different flavor. Jen caught lots of snags, trees, and frustration. She hadn't had single hit to add to her frustration. I missed a couple, and then when fishing one of the tougher spots I know with a lot of snags, I hooked into a Steelhead. And she like going downstream....Alot! Every time I reeled in the line to get it close, she would shoot down river again. I ended up wading after it a good ways until I could get it beached. Another fresh chrome, this one being about 24 inches and heavy.
I really like fighting these guys! We fished a bit more then called it half way through. We had a good weekend and knew we'd be back again in four days with the club thinking the peak of the run is yet to come! If only thier run lasted the whole year! Wednesday, October 6, 2010
Fall fishing, closing one season and starting another!
Brookies, Browns, Muskies, and Steelhead, Oh My!
I left early morning and headed southeast to Vernon county to close out the inland trout season. There was much uncertainty the night before at the Fly Angler trying to decide where to go since so many rivers have been impacted with all the rain, but I rolled my dice to see what I would find. I rolled into Viroqua, WI and headed straight to the Driftless Angler fly shop for some local intel. The guy at the shop was way helpful with where to go, where to avoid, and what the hot flies were. Turns out the rivers North of town were cloudy to blown-out and the rivers south of town were clearing up really well.
At the end of the day, I set up camp and then went to town for a great German beer at Chilito Lindo, the local Mexican restaurant, run by a frazzled Asian girl. I know, odd three-way combination, but it all seemed to work out okay. Especially since my order was messed up the least by the cooks. They must have been new. I returned to camp shortly after and fell asleep to the sound of the Amish horse and buggy traffic driving through town near the campground.
Thursday:
Anyway, I found and paid the nice lady for using the campground and for my new membership to the West Fork Sportsman's Club. After shooting the breeze with her for a bit I headed fifteen minutes West to fish, where I caught a really beautiful fall brookie that made my trip that measured twelve inches in a very hard place to fish with crystal clear water on a pink squirrel.
After a less then satisfying day at work, I headed up to Peters cabin in Northern Wisconsin
met up within ten minutes of his arrival, we settled in, set up our fly tying vises and cocktails and tied Steelhead flies until late while catching up and swapping stories.
Saturday:
Peter made a great fisherman's breakfast with the added bonus of some good tea that I brewed up. We were out the door an hour later to our meeting point with Wendy from the Hayward Fly Fishing Company for a day on the Flambeau River chasing muskies.
We moved on back to the cabin and with a little inspiration from our celebrating, some "interesting" flies were tied and then we talked ourselves into retiring for the evening so that we would be ready for more fishing the next day. And maybe spend some time dreaming of the Muskie that I caught.
Sunday:
With the fading smell of the muskie slime on my hands from my first muskie, we packed our stuff up and closed the cabin down as we were not returning. We arrived in Brule, WI where we stopped first to look at a potential fishing cabin in town that was listed at an attractive enough price for me to actually think about it seriously. It could pass for a nice fishing cabin, but it is in the middle of town, which could be both good and not so good. After a quick inspection we headed to the river to try our luck fishing.
The morning started out slow, but it was beautiful. We had seen a ton of turkeys everywhere we drove over the past two days and the fall colors were putting on a show for us. It was perfect fall weather in Wisconsin. We decided to drive to a different location which proved to be the right thing to do. Peter landed a 22" chrome Steelhead mid morning on a caddis nymph and I had missed my first take of the season, which made me confident that I was doing something right and that they were in there.
The very few people we ran into said they hadn't had any luck, which wasn't encouraging, but
in the last hour of light of the day on the third stretch of the Brule further down river, I "got on the dance floor" as Peter put it. I briefly caught and fought a Steelhead long enough for it to launch clear out of the river and spit my fly back at me. I am pretty sure he stuck up his middle fin at me too while laughing at me. And that was pretty much the end of the action for the day. We changed out of our waders at the local gas station and headed for home very happy with ourselves.
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