Delayed Harvest Fishing

Got out and fished some Delay Harvest water for the past couple of days and had good fish counts. In the past 3 days I have caught 143 trout. Not bad for spending a couple of hour out on the water. I have noticed that there are a lot more Brown trout in the delayed waters this go around and I love it. Most of the Browns I have caught have had some of the pretties colors I have ever seen on stocked fish. Now most of the fish I have been catching are in the 10 to 12 inch range with a few in the 14 to 16 range. Yesterday I hooked into a monster Brown that looked to be in the 22 to 23 inch range but it decided to take my fly back to the rock it was hiding behind. I know where it is so I will try to trick it again in a couple of days to see if I can get it the net.
Last night we had a large amount of rain and the river and streams are blowed out bad. It will take a day or so for the water levels to drop and clear up a little. When we get rains like this it moves the fish in the delyed sections which is a go thing. When the state stocks they just dump a lot of fish in a couple of places and the fish then move on the own. With the high waters it helps move them.
Hopefully the next post I can post a photo of  the monster Brown................ Tight Lines to everyone.....

Fishing with a my good friend Rob

My good friend Rob and I fished a river yesterday that I fished when I was just a young fellow. This was Rob's first time fishing this river too. It was great day to be out fishing. The sun was shinging brite and the air was a little cool but still a great day.

Here is Rob fishing a nice run.

This first section of water we fished we didn't even get a strike. But this section is fished quite a bit so I guess thats way. We moved on up the river to another section that channels down to a small run and I knew there would be some fish there. I told Rob " Go ahead you hit it first ." Rob got in postion and started  casting to the upper part of the run. After a couple of cast " Fish on" and it was more than fish on it was a double with both fish being browns... I went to hollaring " Double you have a double on ." Now get this - ( Rob was fishing with his new Sage rod and what a way to break it in - with a double... ) Rob fought the two fish for a little while until the bottom brown decided to take Rob's fly back home and broke off. Rob did net the other brown and it was around 12 inches.

After this we moved on up river to try another section of the river to see if we could catch anything else. Not long after we started fishing again the wind picked up and it turn cold fast. Rob landed a couple more fish before we both decided it was just to cold for this and we headed back to the truck.







It was a GREAT DAY fishing with you Rob. I can't wait to hit the water with you again...

Midges and more Midges

I have been tying and sorting midges for over a week now. I got two new fly boxes and I have already filled one with midges, and I am over half way filling the other box. After looking through the containers that I put the flies I tie in it looks like I will have to buy another fly box just to put of them in. I counted the midge flies I had about a year ago and I had close to 900. Well if I was to count them now it looks like I would have well over 1400 midges that range in the sizes of 18 to 26s. Can't have to many........

If you didn't know by now I use midges all the time. Well at least 90 % of the time. It seems that I catch more fish on midges than I do on say size 14 nymphs, and I catch big fish on these midges too.

Here is just one of my new fly boxes loaded.

Fishing with my 2wt.

Decided to hit the water today to see if there was any hungery fish. This has been the first day the river here hasn't been frozen over and I was ready to do some fishing. I armed myself with my TFO 8 foot 2wt. and I hit the water. Fishing was slow at first but I managed a couple of small rainbows. I caught around 9 rainbow in the 8 to 12 inch range in an hour. Then the fish just stopped baiting so I moved to another run just below where I had been catching those rainbows. I made a couple of casts and nothing. I was getting cold and my feet was starting to hurt alittle from the cold water. I thought to myself " cast a couple more time just to see if the is a fish holdind there ." I made another cast and bam fish on. This fish wasn't fighting like the little rainbows. This fish was staying on the bottom and I knew it was a brown, and what a brown. This fish was heavy and pulling line. I tightened up the drag on my reel. Man what a fight on my 2wt. I fought this fish for about ten mins. before i got it in the net. I use a mesure net and as I looked in the net I saw a male brown trout with a nice hook jaw that mesured 20 inches. Man what a day, a 20 inch male brown on a 2wt fly rod.
I want a picture of this fish but I didn't have my camera. I had my cell phone so I called my dad to bring me a camera. He show up and we had a little photo shoot with this big brown. After the photo shoot I release the fish and he swam right back to where i hooked him.

I hope this is a sign that 2011 is going to be a good year fishing.

Caddis Larva Fly

This is a caddis larva ( we can them stickbaits ) fly that I tie. It is a fish catching fly here in Western NC. The photo below is proof. This 16 inch fat brown trout hammered this fly....

Fellowship and Fly tying

Meet up for some fellowship and fly tying today with some fellow Christain fly fisherman. I had a great time meeting those that showed up today. At around 10 am we had some bible study ( loved it ) and then everyone asked for prair request for those who are in bad health, unemployed, and in need of some help. Then everyone started tying some of their own fly patterns and other patterns. I was the one showing how to tie some of the midges I tie all the time. I tied several patterns and show everyone in details how to tie these flies. I also learned how to tie some dry flies that I have been having some trouble tying. All in all this was what I have been needing. The fellowship, and bible studies has helped me stay on the right path of living my life right.

The only thing that would have made this day any better would have been able to try the flies out on the stream. With the cold temps. we have had lately all the streams and rivers are frozen over. 

Tying Flies

For the past week it has snowed none stop. The rivers are ice covered and that means no fishing. So what do you do in times like this? Tie flies and tie more flies. I have been tying so many flies that I am tying flies in my sleep. I use midge patterns 90% of the time and that what I have been tying. Most of the midges I fish with are sizes 18 to 24s. After tying 2 or so dozen of these flies it gets harder and harder to see what you are doing. When I get in this shape I take a break and let my eyes get back to normal before I start tying again. I tie for around 3 to 4 hours everyday, and in that amount of time I crank out a lot of midges. I have tied around 16 dozen different midge patterns this week and I have to get another fly box just to hold all of these flies.  This just a few that I have been working on.