bryan hulse
Forum Replies Created
-
Posts
-
Nice essay! It is sad that the Smokey Mountain haze is, for the most part, a lot of pollution now. It is still a beautiful area and once under the canopy most of it is forgotten.
You have a beautiful little photo assistant and fishing buddy there. “Take me fishing because my wedding will be sooner than you think.” That’s only one of many reasons to pass on fishing to our children.
Thanks for sharing.
Zach,
Are you starting to lose sleep due to the anticipation? I hope you get on a lot of fish and some with good size. My brother fished for peacocks in FL last April and had a ball but without the adventure. Great looking flies too, by the way.
On a side note, my youngest brother contracted malaria while visiting Thailand a few years ago. The symptons didn’t really show until he had returned to Seattle. It had been years since a hospital in the area had seen a case. His room became a pit stop for all of the interns. Here’s to hoping the only fingers poking at you are Laurens.
Best wishes.
Bryan
The June issue of Fly Rod & Reel rated/listed what they consider to be the best fly rods for bass. Not surprisingly their was a representative from all of their advertisers. Prices ranged from as little as $70 for an Albright 2 piece
Hi Bill,
This is a cool site. Zach does a great job. I lived in Lafayette for a while as a boy. My dad’s family are spread across the state: Maringouin, Baton Rouge, Chalmette, NO, New Iberia….LA is a beautiful state and offers some great fishing.
I bought my first hand held GPS six years ago after a red fishing trip with one of my elderly uncles. He motored us miles into the middle of some bayou, and would pull up to a clump of grass and say, “We caught lots o’ fish here last year.” We were sidling up to one such bank, he mopping the sweat from his forehead when he told me that if he had a heart attack I would have to get us back. We had taken some Candy Land path to get where we were. For as far as I could see there was nothing but saw grass and mosquitoes. I decided then and there that $120 was a pretty cheap price to pay for some measure of assurance.
Sorry for being long winded.
Bryan
-Kid,
Look for videos from a fellow named Chris Helms. Feather Craft, Madison River Fishing Company, and The Fly Shop have pretty extensive on-line book and video libraries. Then there is always eBay and Amazon. But, you would learn a lot from wathching or seeing his work.
bd,
I’d almost bet my next month’s salary that before the week is out I will read excerpts from your post on another board. It will look something like this, “I carry a gun…because… of… obnoxious idiots from time to time…I…use the gun…on them.”
splitshot
I read where Lefty Kreh has all of his reels (fresh and salt) set for about 6 pounds of startup inertia. He also said a pretty good test for an ideal setting is to adjust until you can comfortably pull line off the reel with your lips.
Skipjack are from the herring family, too. I’d think it would be pretty easy to get on the books with one as most people throw them back or use them for bait. Anything over two pounds is a pretty nice fish.
First it was the Da Vinci Code and now you trying to test or diminish my faith in saltwater fishing. I think I hear an echo from deep inside.
Say when and I will hammer it out with the Mrs.
I sure hope no one thinks I care one way or another about the genetics of Mike’s fish. I’ve caught both in limited numbers, and nothing as big, and felt almost punch drunk from the experience.
Mike, do you think something like a tarpon setup would help with catching those river fish with a fly. Something like a 10 or 12lb class leader with 3 feet of 40 or 50lb flouro for a shock tippet for the runs to the trees?
Mike,
Is that a hybrid? Aren’t you supposed to be able to tell by the broken lines vs. straight on a striper?
I have limited experience fishing CO, Brian, but was pretty successful everywhere I fished for do it yourself guide trips. You are bound to hear that the fishing is very technical. By that what they mean is small, especially for the harder hit tailwaters like the Blue, South Platte, Fire Hole, etc. The places I’ve fished I’ve started with size 18’s and 20’s then generally did better the smaller I went.
I’ve only fished a couple of the big tailwaters–two sections of the South Platte and the Fire Hole. I seen the Blue and the Eagle, which are in the area you are going to and can tell you that the Little River in Townsend is twice as large as any I’ve mentioned with a lot of the same character. They don’t look like tailwaters at all. The only non-touristy place I fished was the Crystal River (it is a freestone stream).
Check back repeatedly with the reports on VFS, especially given that the Rockies had a normal snow pack this year. Last year I spent a week in early July and some of the rivers (the freestones) were still high.
Have some caddis patterns in your box, some bwo’s, and some pmd’s/sulphurs–but mid June might be too soon for full blown pmd hatches, you’ll know by mid-afternoons. If you fish the tailwaters within a couple of miles of the dams have some mysis shrimp on hand. It will be a little early for the green drakes, which is a shame, because that is pretty cool.
I hope for your sake that Poudre River–which would be a fairly short drive–and his buddies chime in.
It depends from river to river, but is usually one of the following: a zebra midge (18-22), a blood or disco midge (18-28), or a scud (14-18).
I enjoy tying flies about as much as fishing and have tried dozens of different recipies, but my nymph box is filled with less than a dozen patterns. Same can be said for my dry fly and streamer boxes. I experiment a lot more with midges–they are my favorite to fish.
Mike,
Jay Clementi from our local TU showed me a scud pattern a few years ago that used deer or elk hair as a
This first photo is a bass worm using the hair scrunchy from Goody. They come in packs of six, the colors are bubble gum pink, purple, chartreuse, blue, white, and yellow and cost about $2.50 at my local Kroger.
The fly you see is probably 7″ long and there is still enough material left of the chartreuse to make two more flies. The band is made of cotton with a sold rubber band core. Out of the package it is kind of heavy so I think at least an eight weight rod would be needed to carry the heft. I’ve coated the band with some glitter glue, but would have preferred to use softex and glitter to give it more lip appeal.
A couple of years ago Fly Tyer magazine featured an article on bass worms for fly rods. They used chenille and estaz like materials, doubled them and twisted them to create a curly worm like body. Those work really well, but my tails eventually became unraveled and lost some of their appeal. I thought this hair band thing might make an even simpler alternative.
The second picture is a pheasant tail nymph with a sequin head. For reference, it is a size 16.
I tried to do the photos the right way this time. I don’t have the same knack for macro work that several of you do, so I apologize for them kind of sucking–especially the heavy handed post work.
Zach,
You probably catch more fish than someone like me. I usually reserve the tippet diameter and depth experiments for the times when I’m “really” fishing–like if I’ve driven longer than three hours or jumped a plane to get somewhere. I did, though, until recently, tie my own leaders and carry a full wallet in my pack for changing fishing situations. For a few hours on my local water (the Caney Fork in Tennessee) I pretty much expect a fly change to cure a-l-l my fishing
