Jim Witham
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Buzz, glad you like the Cocoons. Just bought a pair today to use for salt water and then saw your post.
Thanks for the suggestion, Zach. I contacted Costa and prescription sunglasses, which cost three times as much as non-prescription sunglasses, are only under warranty for two years. Non-prescription sunglasses have a lifetime warranty. Go figure.
I like that idea. Might be a bit tough, though, to thread a size 22 hook after several local brews. But such an event could lead to some interesting flies.
Thanks for the comments. I’ve seen vises in fly shops out in public areas before but had never thought of asking about this because I’ve got my own hardware at home. I thought, Well, maybe that’s why you see vises out in public areas, so the public can try out materials they’ve just bought, but I’d better ask first. Probably if I’d pressed the guy, he would have said OK. But his first reaction was definitely negative. I would think fly shop owners would help their businesses by encouraging customers who have bought materials to use their equipment and maybe even offer a little coaching and instruction – if they want to get more people to buy materials and tie flies. The pattern I’d bought the materials for was one I’d been searching for for a long time. I’d found it on the internet and it uses silli legs material to create a fly that appears to look and act in the water very much like a plastic worm, which are killers for largemouth bass. I’ve been searching a long time for a fly that would catch bass like plastic worms do on spinning tackle. I’m really psyched to tie this fly and try it out. I’ve got the material now and will see how far I get tying it without using a vise. I may need to go back to that fly shop and ask again.
In response to Zach’s question about the Cumberland…clarity at the moment is fairly good. Water temperature since late spring has been in the low to mid-60’s. I’m not a biologist but possibly the warmer temperatures have promoted some algae growth. Back in March and April, there was a certain greenish-gray siltiness to the water. This was when the was temperature was colder. A couple river watchers I know thought the discoloration was caused by grout escaping from the repair work being done on the dam. If we have a prolonged dry spell again next year starting in the late summer, as we typically do here in Kentucky, and the Army Corps drops generation down to its present level, I’d recommend you give the Cumberland another try in the Fall.
Actually, the Cumberland has been quite good, the past few weeks. Generation is down to 540cfs. I’ve been taking my canoe to use as an access boat, then getting out and wading gravel bars. It won’t last, but for now it’s the best it’s been all year.
For those photo-journalists on this board, I’d say there’s a book here waiting to be written, judging by the responses.
You guys with Brittanys are lucky. I’ve had two and love them both. But both of them would have been nervous wrecks in a canoe or a boat. And if I were wading, off they’d go and I’d never see them again.
I have to wonder if the eye-strain issue is a bit over-stated. Many of us sit in front of back-lit computer screens all day and read stuff off them without getting a headache. In the course of work day, we probably read the equivalent of half a novel and don’t think twice about it. But I don’t read novels on a computer screen, maybe because to do so would remind me too much of work. It’ll be interesting to see if one of the Ipad’s chief features–you can sit in an easy chair and hold it in your hand–will change the psychology of what you read on it. The economics of the publishing industry are going to drive books and magazines away from paper into digital files, just as mp3 files pulled music away from cd’s.
Zach, You’ve probably already told your advertisers this, but a fly-fishing podcast is the perfect program for us anglers to listen to in our vehicles on the long drives we make to our fishing destinations.
For salt water fishing, try McArthur State Park, just north of Palm Beach. You can rent kayaks there. However, it’s totally tide dependent. At low tide the lagoon where the kayak rental is becomes a mud flat. The Boca area itself has no bonefish flats, as there are below Miami, and the nearest wadeable grass flats begin north of Lake Worth. Good luck.
A good place to fish for bass and panfish in that area is the Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge, just off Route 441 in Boynton Beach, about five miles up the road from Boca. There’s a canoe rental place there and the water is filled with fish (also alligators, so be forewarned.) I was there last week and did quite well. Right now, the water level is very low, due to a prolonged drought. A few inches of rain will fix that.
Took a bunch of the wacky worm flies I tied up to my local creek to test them out. They cast OK and seemed to have good action in the water but after about three casts most of the fuzz on the chenille had melted away and I was chucking bare thread on a hook. I was using the same kind of chenille I use for wooly buggers but I guess the thread wrapping around the chenille on the hook shank keeps the fuzz in place. I guess it’s back to the drawing board.
Guys,
thanks for the ideas. The rubber worms I have the most success with are a color called watermelon–very dark green with sparkly red flecks. I’ll bet there’s a way to reproduce that effect with a fly. It’ll just take some playing around with materials.Thanks for the report. I’ve thought of going to Otter Creek myself recently but we’ve been in such a long dry spell that I figured there’d be no water in it for fish to swim in. Your photos suggest otherwise.
I know this is an ignorant question but I’ve not done much salt water fly fishing: why doesn’t the angler get these fish on the reel as soon as possible? I understand in a mangrove environment you want to pull the fish away from the root tangles right away and the best way to do that might be to yank in several yards of line following the strike. But this guy never lets the drag on the reel work the fish, once he’s got it out in open water. Also, on my one guided fly fishing trip down in that area, the guide told my buddy and me to avoid false casting. The guy in this video seems to false cast half a dozen times before laying the line out. Just wondering if the no-false-casting rule is widely held or if it was just this guide’s personal preference.
