Fly Fishing GIVEAWAY! Everyone invited

Fly Fishing Package - GIVEAWAY #1

I'm really not in the Christmas mood yet, but I think this may jumpstart "the Season of Giving". I said I would have 3 Giveaways between now and Christmas, and this is the first.

The first of the three parts of this giveaway is a FLY FISHING ASSORTMENT and consists of the following:
- 1 - Scientific Angler WF-5-F Lefty Kreh signature series flyline
- 1 - S.A. 9', 5x leader
- 1 - 25 meter spool S.A. 5x tippet material
- 2 - Seaguar 10 yd. trial packs Flourocarbon leader material - 1 each 8# and
10#
- 1 Plano Fly Box
- 38 flies from Montana Fly Company. The flies are listed in order of the way they appear in the fly box when you open the box, from top to bottom. In the picture, the order is actually from R - L. TOP ROW - Caddis - 2 each: Elk Hair Olive #14, Elk Hair Tan #18, Goddard #16, Olive Sparkle Pupa #14, Tan Sparkle Pupa #14. 1 each Taylor Gut Instinct, Kyle's Killer Caddis.
ROW 2 - Dry Attractors - 2 each: Royal Trude #14, Yellow Humpy #16, H&L Variant #14, Royal Wulff #18. ROW 3 Nymphs. 2 each: Bead Head Flashback Rubberlegged Copper Bob #12, Bead Head Pupa Prince #14, Bead Head Rubberlegged Prince #16, Bead Head Fast Water Prince #14, Spring Creek Olive Superflash Pheasant tail #16, Bead Head Epoxy Back Copper Nymph #20. ROW 4 - Hopper / Dropper 1 each : Bloom Parahopper, Oswald Head Turning Hopper. 2 each: Bead Head Rub-a-dub Olive Caddis Pupa #16, Bead Head Gold Ribbed Hare's Ear #16.


Montana Fly Co. Flies


It's my belief that Montana Fly Co. flies are the finest commercially produced flies available today. Their patterns are awesome, they constantly add new patterns, and my experiences show that the fish like them as much as I do.

Everything in this GIVEAWAY is new and un-used. You DO NOT need to be an experienced fly fisherman to win - this could be the package that jumpstarts your fly fishing career!

5 weight floating Flyline


Since I've never done anything like this before, I want to keep it simple. The winner wil be chosen by a random number generator next Saturday, November 28 at noon Central time. The comment that corresponds to the number generated will win the package. And, yes, I will ship Internationally.

Please limit your comments (for the purpose of winning / entering the contest) to 1 per person. I would like the comment to state:

A) are you currently a fly fisherman (or woman)
B) Do you primarily fish Warmwater (bass, panfish) or Coldwater (trout) or Saltwater
C) Any other comments or stories involving fly fishing, even if you just say you want to try it!

HAVE FUN - Let the Season of Giving begin!

Wolfy

The Blog Days of November, and some random thoughts. (And - maybe - A GIVEAWAY!!!!)

They say the Dog-Days of August are the worst times - too hot to fish, fish don't bite, everything is just lethargic. These must be the Blog-Days of November. For some reason, I find myself in blogging funk. I just have no drive to post anything on my blogsite, and I'd rather have no new posts than worthless drivel. I was commiserating my dilemma with Lizzy at From the Fisherbabe and she was echoing the same feeling. Her impetus for a new post came today when she received her new Cabelas catalog; mine came through our conversation. Nothing in particular - just the overall feel of the conversation. I came home from work and decided that my blog needed a jumpstart, fishing experience to write about or not.

I've decided That I need some enthusiasm and interest in the site, and nothing generates interest or enthusiasm like A GIVEAWAY. I will be putting together at least 3 separate packages to be given away randomly between now and Christmas. There will be one BASS assortment, one TROUT assortment, and one PIKE assortment. I will be posting details and pictures of all of these over the weekend - stay tuned.

One thing Lizzy and I talked about is something I've just recently paid any attention to, in the way of recently posted additions to my blog list. I have, what seems to me, an inordinate amount of blogs written by women on my blog list. We both came to the same conclusion - the blogs I really like to read are the one's where people show real emotion and enthusiasm for the sport, and I believe women convey that better than a lot of men. So I'm not really searching out blogs by women - it just happens that I like what a lot of them are writing. Ladies - keep on writing great stuff! I hope I convey the same amount of enthusiasm that I read in all the blogs on my bloglist!
[by the way - this is certainly not a knock on any of the blogs written by men that many of us follow. If I follow it, I like the content, regardless of the gender of the author]

So - keep reading. I'll be unveiling the Christmas 2009 Giveaway this weekend. Good luck to all of you!

Wolfy

55 degrees today - gotta fish

The lower pond in November


It was 55 today with a southerly breeze. I know there won't be many of these days left, so I went out to the old reliable pond over lunch today. The pond was stocked with trout a few weeks ago, so even if none of the other residents are cooperative, I figure I should be able to catch some trout.


Mepps Aglia Streamer


I started off fishing for the trout. I used the Mepps Aglia Streamer spinner pictured. Its become a favorite of mine, even though it is a little bit longer than I would call ideal. After 5 visible hits from trout, and no hookups, I decided i needed to go smaller. I went to the old reliable 1/16 oz. jighead with a 2" grub, and started after them. My grubs were Lindy Munchie, and I started with a watermelon color. the pond was very clear.


November crappie


All the trout were about this size


The fishing was a little slow, but I was only there for 45 minutes. Final tally - 4 trout brought to hand (and a few others hooked and lost), 2 gills caught, and 1 crappie. All were on the Munchie grubs, and all were on subtle colors. I threw a chartreuse grub, but found no takers. The watermelon and copper colors caught everything.


Good colors today


Not a day for the record books by any means, but a day on the pond catching trout ove lunch beats the hell out of the usual lunch alternatives!

I must have offended the Weather-Gods

I bought a plane ticket about a month ago to fly to Arkansas and do some Fall trout fishing. I should be there right now, enjoying the Ozarks and trying to set the hook on a few trout - maybe a trophy trout.

But I'm not in Arkansas. I'm in Illinois. And there are NO tailwater trout nearby.

Foiled again.

If you remember back about 2 weeks ago, there was a tremendous amount of rain from Texas to Illinois, with the system moving slowly to the East, taking the moisture with it. I watched the news over one of the weekends and saw cars completely submerged in Little Rock, ARK due to the flash flooding.

Uh-oh - that's where I was flying into to fish! No problem, I thought - 2 weeks will flush out the rivers and they'll be perfect when I get there.

Wrong again.

The dams have been releasing water almost around the clock. The conditions you hope for when fishing these tailwaters is for a long period of NO dam release, so you can get out and wade the shoals. Well, that's not going to happen for this fisherman in 09. I'll start making plans to try again in 2010.

But - all is not lost. I was talking to a friend at the trade show I worked last week, and he was GUSHING about how great Falcon Reservoir has been lately. This is a guy who fishes all over the South, and has caught a lot of big bass. So, I'm trying to set up a short trip to the Mexico border to sample Falcon. I'll keep you posted.

Back to the "Old Reliable " pond

I've been getting antsy to get out and do some fishing - ANY fishing, really. The weather in Illinois has flat out stunk on the few days I've been home. But, on Wednesday, the overcast, misty weather didn't seem like it would get any worse, so I snuck out to the ponds for an hour in the late afternoon.

As you know from reading this blog, I'm very in-tune with the fish in these ponds in the springtime. Well, Fall is a different story. I've caught some BIG bass here in the Fall, but have had difficulty patterning them. I really didn't care on this little venture - I just wanted to get out and cast a line. In addition to the usual array of fish found here - largemouth, bluegill, crappie, walleye, channel cat - there were a nice amount of big rainbow trout stocked a week ago.

I spent a little bit of time trying to catch a trout or 2. I used a Mepps spinner, and had 2 different trout slash at it, but they struck short. They were nice sized fish, and will be a ball to chase through the ice or in spring. I went back to one of my "go-to" baits - a 1/16 oz. jighead with a 2" silver grub - and started casting to the shallow dropoffs.

No great story to tell about the results - I got 2 bluegills, 2 small walleye, and 1 little largemouth. What is truly amazing is how good it felt to un-hook a few fish, no matter how small. The water looked nice, ducks were flying, and it was a great day to spend a few hours on the pond.

Don't forget, folks - Fall Fishing can be great!

Wolfy

Even a little fishing is better than no fishing at all

One of the "cookie-cutter" bass we caught



I spent Monday - Thursday in Pinehurst NC this past week. There was an industry fundraiser for the NSSF (National Shooting Sports Foundation) and the ASA (American Sportfishing Association). I actually got to play golf on Pineurst #2, one of the most highly rated courses in the country. BTW - I stink at golf, but periodically get to play some pretty good courses.

Anyway, an old friend of mine retired about 10 years ago and lives in Pinehurst. I hadn't seen him for years, and we managed to spend an afternoon together. That meant we went fishing on Pinehurst Lake for an hour and a half.

The lake is about 200 acres and is rarely fished on any serious level. It really exists to hold the pontoon boats of the residents and host parties. But there are some BIG largemouth bass in the lake - Roger has caught them over 10 pounds, and he (admittedly) isn't a bass fisherman.

To make a long story short - we got out, and caught a few bass. I believe we got 14 between us. All but one were the same size as the one in the photo. Roger got one about 2-1/2 pounds. We found them in 10-12' of water and covered the water with 1/8 oz. jigheads and 3" grub tails. The bass were very light / silver colored - the lake is spring fed and very clear.

The most interesting part of the trip - I asked Roger to bring a camera. His wife was on a trip with her sisters and had taken the digital camera, so all we could find was a Polaroid. I couldn't tell you the last time I saw a Polaroid camera. But it served it's purpose - he took a picture, I scanned it, cropped it, and fixed it, and here it is!

Stymied by a Winnebago

Well, our attempt to fish smallies on the Mississippi didn't happen. No, it wasn't my whimpering about the cold that brought our attempt to a halt. My buddy Gregg is the boat owner and guide for this venture. He has been as busy as I have recently, and hasn't had much time to prepare for this trip. But it doesn't really need much prep time - pull the boat, buy some minnows, and catch smalies.

I was set to leave the hotel at 8 am and meet Gregg when the phone rang - never a good thing. It was Gregg, sounding apologetic. To make a long story short - he went down the storage facility where he keeps his jonboat, and it was blocked in by 2 Winnebago's! Couldn't get it out for at least a day or 2.

(Before anyone asks - he has a larger boat for fishing the lakes in MN, but on the shallow upper Missisippi, he uses a small jonboat. It doesn't come out of storage until the Fall season gets here, so this was the first time he went to get it from the storage facility this year)

I've lost days of fishing when MY vehicles have decided to quit working, but never because I was blocked by a Winnebago. Until now.

Wolfy

Poor timing

I had planned to sneak a half day of fishing in on Wednesday. My annual, or almost annual, smallmouth bass trip on the Mississippi River above Minneapolis.

As I sit in O'Hare Airport, waiting out my 2 hour delay to GET TO Minneapolis - snow and low visibility in the Twin Cities - I'm thinking that odds of that little trip coming together are diminishing with the visibility. Not because the fishing won't be any good - on the contrary, it would probably be great.

The real reasons (there are two):
1) I didn't pack enough clothing to make it through a bitter cold day. Couldn't fit that much stuff in my carry on

2) I'm getting older, and the days of me doing ANYTHING to catch some fish may well be seen only in the rear view mirror of life. As much as I love to catch big smallmouth - and there are very few things I like more than that - I hate freezing my butt off. If it was a local trip, there would be no question about going - I'd don my snowmobile suit, Pac Boots, and be off. But on a trip - not looking promising.

But it COULD come together - I'll let you know

Wolfy

The little ones count, too

My quest to remove the 2009 Smallmouth Bass Skunk has come to its conclusion - I actually caught a few smallies on Sunday evening. 4, to be exact. I went down to the Fox River - only a couple of miles from my house - and started wading with a light action spinning rod and a couple of lures in my shirt pocket. Pretty basic assortment of lures - Rebel Teeny Craw, 1/16 oz. jigheads, 2" grub bodies. I started fishing with the craw - it usually is good for something on any shallow river.


Little smallmouth on a Rebel Wee Craw

The Fox, in my area, is relatively featureless. A noticeable riffle, or change in current, may be a series of rocks that goes from 2' deep to 1-1/2' deep. After a fruitless 1/2 hour, I got 2 hits in a "riffle" - hooked one and lost it on the jump, and missed the other hit. Both on the craw. Over the next hour, I landed my 4 smallies, the largest going a whopping 10"!!


Smallmouth on a little grub

Sometimes, the small fish are just as rewarding as the big ones. I look at the small fish, and see a healthy population, and possibly future big ones. They can't all be big!


A future river trophy??


It seems like all my posts have a "story within a story", and this one is no exception. This was a very short, unplanned trip, so I grabbed a rod/ reel from the garage and drove down to the river. Half way through my little excursion, I noticed the tip-top of the rod was not aligned with the rest of the guides. I immediately knew what I had done - grabbed a broken-tipped rod. Months ago, I had tried to glue the tip back on the rod (I had broken a tip earlier in the spring) but didn't really succeed. Now, after 3 small bass, the tip was spinning around the rod. I got one more fish before the tip came completely off on a cast. This really isn't a big deal, except when you stop to consider that, at last count, I have 52 spinning and/or baitcast rods in my rod racks in the garage - St. Croix, Loomis, Kistler, Fenwick, Falcon, ...

Why in the world I even had this broken-tipped rod at all is beyond me.

It was thrown out last nite, with the rest of the garbage.

National Hunting and Fishing Day

I should have made this post earlier in the week, but work has seriously overloaded me recently.

This Saturday - September 26 - is National Hunting and Fishing Day. It is a day to celebrate our love of the outdoors and all the associated goodness that comes from our passion. It is a great time to introduce a friend or neighbor to all that is the outdoors. In some areas, there are celebratory events. Near to me, at Silver Springs State Park in Yorkville, IL, is then largest NHAF Day event in Illinois. Tents filled with exhibits relating to hunting and fishing (and trapping) are on display for all to see and participate in. Rods and reels are available for kids to fish. Canoes, too. The trap range is open. It is a very well attended, very well run event. Even if you don't have a local event to participate in, be sure to pass along the good word.

Albert Rasch over at The Rasch Outdoor Chronicles (clck the link on the Bloglist on the right) posted a pdf that gave great examples of the impact of the American Outdoorsmen (and women) - with his permission, I've included that URL below:

http://bassprocorp.com/BPS/Userfiles/19/file/Hunter%20and%20Angler%20Fact%20Sheet%281%29.pdf

Also, the National Hunting and Fishing Day website:

http://www.nhfday.org/

Celebrate being a Hunter and/ or Fisherman tomorrow! (Actually, we should celebrate that fact every day, with tomorrow being the Annual Holiday!)

Meanwhile, I'm still trying to catch a smallmouth bass. Of course, I haven't wet a line since posting that I WILL catch one, either. Makes the actual catching sort of tough when you don't fish. Maybe on NHAF Day???

Wolfy

More on the "Followers" widget

I just went to the other blogs I follow - looks like the FOLLOWERS widget has imploded - everyone has a blank area un der their Followers.

FYI

What happened to my "Followers"??

I just logged on and checked my blog site, as I do every day. The section on the right side of the posts - my FOLLOWERS - is gone! It says "Followers", but there is nothing there. At least on my monitor.

Now I wish I actually had some inkling about how this thing works. I've been subscribing to the "Ignorance is Bliss" school of thought re: how this whole thing actually works, but now I am pissed off!

Anyone know what might have happened? Any ideas on how to recover / relist the Followers piece? Maybe it was just some temporary thing and it will pop back on.

Any help is appreciated

And, if you happen to be on this blogsite and see that it is indeed there, I SWEAR it was gone today at noon!

Wolfy