Fly Fishing BS thread

My fat belly gets in the way of my elbows when I kneel down. Easier to hold the fish out in front. Lol.

 

I'm typically adjusting lighting to show off the fish best but you know alot of people are doing this.

 

Didn’t look arm length to me. Great fish.

 

Personally, I don't take many fish pics unless they're good fish based on how much I've fished (I know, I know, terrible problem to have ).

When I am taking pics I want the focus to be on the fish and less me. Lots of ways to do this, 0.5 zoom, portrait mode, holding the fish out so it's framed better, etc.). If it's an absolute monster and I want better perspective on it's size I'll change the pose but you can usually tell from hand size.....

 

I got to do a little fishing last weekend. Was a nice retreat from the heat we’ve been having at home lately.

 

A few fish on barbless chubbies out of the pontoon

 

Late night streamer eats

 

Bulls and browns in the same water body I'm jealous of that

 

If you want to find more bulls target white water with small streamers. That might be hard to do with a tenkara set up though. Everyone always says big pools for bulls but I catch most of mine tucked behind boulders in fast water.

That sounds alot like our headwaters Freestone creeks lots of cuts/white/bulls if they aren't damed down low then the rainbows get up there aswell.

But there is one creek that should have everything overlapping rainbows/browns/cuts/bulls/pike/whites/perch. No dams obstructing travel but there is a very defined line where the terrain and the species switch. The lower stretch has bows browns pike/perch it's far more muddy bottom with heavy grass banks in the low lying foothills but once it hits the rocky terrain it's all cuts/bows/bulls and whites. Over 9 years of fishing that area i have yet to catch a brown in the cooler waters higher up. I really thought the browns would of appreciated the cooler oxygen rich water but yet they seem to stick in the warmer slower waters.

Speaking of browns...



Also shameless non fly sturgeon plug. Because they are awesome.

 

The FISHWHIP, dear friends and I spanked very small numbers of very nice fish.

(Feed ‘em mice in the daytime!)​

Full trip report here, with pictures, in case anyone’s interested in some north woods shenanigans.

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/midwest-fishwhip-build-now-w-fishporn.808230/page-2#post-30721871

B

 

The misses is jealous of those brooks, our brookie fishery is pathetic and only getting worse from what I can see.

As I continue to fish this one river i have decided it was actually irresponsible to continue to fish my 10' 2wt that's meant for the mountain cutty streams any longer. Added a 10'6 3wt to the roster and I can see the value in the shadow x over the shadow 2. The front locking reel seat combined with the lighter blank makes it muuuch more pleasant to hold for hours on end.

 

Your glasses look weird

 

Very different locations and fisheries I suspect. Every brook trout is awesome, but definitely can’t compare little mountain streams to N. Ontario fisheries that were slowly pulled back from the brink over the past 40 years.

I fish 6-8wts. You’re 2-3wts. We’re both catching beautiful, special fish. Although I can selectively harvest a scarce few on some select rivers, without setting the wild population/genetics back. Most I can’t and won’t. Not sure what that looks like in your neck of the woods…but damn they are beautiful+tasty.

* Polarized *
“I spot ‘em I got ‘em”

B

 

Have been fishing the AuSable, trying to get back into it . The truck setup is nice and being able to move to different areas is really nice. Just need to learn how to catch fish
That’s a 18” ish Brown Trout just sitting in front of me

 

The issue is they have a cull on them here iv just been watching the populations drop over the years. Go from catching 60+ 10" fish with the odd 15 to now i am lucky if I can find 3 6" fish in a 10 hour day.

I'd like to point out i fish anywhere from a 2-11wt the 2/3wt I'm talking about currently are 10' euro nymph rods the fish about double compared to an equally rated 9'

 

JWC,
Congrats and don’t get discouraged!

While for some the seasons “best days” are now all but wound down, late summer terrestrials, fall+winter streamers, etc. can be a whole pile of fun! AuSable never closes (check regs)! Slamming a Steelhead or Atlantic below Foote is an absolute option. Just got to put in the work/time.

There are 2 more prime mousing windows between now and early fall too, although any moon condition will fish.

And finally, Michigan might arguably be the world’s “best” overall trout state. Former champion Brook Trout water (which is a mere shadow but rebounding). North America’s first Brown Trout, and I believe first Rainbow transplants from the W. Coast, which only take 1-3 years for wild genetics to start measurably adapting to specific location pressures, and have had 150 years to evolve (-although in so many of those places we’ve been diluting out those wild genetics with hatchery mutts- see PA, etc.)

Surprisingly, when I was an absolute Steelhead (or lake run Rainbow) nutter, realized that S. MI was the absolute best place on the planet to catch steelhead 365 days a year. You just had to be willing to drive the Midwest (relentlessly) and grind(relentlessly). I never made 1 steelhead a day for 365 consecutive days, but I was friggin’ close. Holding down a full-time job Made that extra tuff. I don’t think that opportunity calculus has changed.

Long story short, put the work in, and MI will yield you a spectacular trout. On your way there, you’ll probably catch a pile of whatever your “fun and respectable guys” are.

All the best MI fishing!

B

P.S. - Century Circle - 100 trout streams inside 100 miles. Surprisingly only in MI.

 

Veet - what general areas are you fishing? I imagined Eastern mountain streams? Total assumption!

When it comes to brook trout (and probably every other trout species) it’s always Habitat>Harvest>Pressure. In an extreme descending order.

Very familiar with it, but never CZK nymphed personally (although I’ve watched friends “run the table” on tailwater browns using the technique.) Deadly! I’ll need to try it some day.

Finally, a roughly paraphrased quote I found, used in a BT fly fishing presentation I used to give ages ago… “Sadly, it is no longer possible to catch a barrel of 3 pound brook trout a day”.

Yeah. Wonder why… 1850’s would have been wild to BT fish, although glad I haven’t worried about dying from dysentery.

Have fun. Be safe. Catch trout. Don’t snack to many BT’s!

B

 

OK, I'm dumb......What the hell is BT???