steve154
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For the first time in a long while I didn’t get anything fishing related for Christmas. I did get a neat metal detector and we are about to head out to try it out on the beach. It is now 45 degrees and all the snow is long gone. I should be able to fish tomorrow if we don’t get anymore rain today. No work til New Years Eve!
Carter, don’t forget to take a look at Old Florida reels for that Scott.
Cameron, I got the Benchside Rereference a few years ago for my birthday. It is worth every penny.
Mike,
You should never feel guilty for keeping a few fish that you will nourish yourself with. I always feel a little remorse for killing, but thank God that I am able to. I really believe that we should all keep some once in awhile to remind ourselves that we are hunters and that other things have to die so that we can live. It is easy to forget that when all of your meat comes wrapped in plastic from a nice neat and clean display at the store and we are so far removed from the process of death.
Kill swiftly, offer no appologies and soak up the wonder of it all when you sit down to enjoy your meal.
Steve
My thanks to Mike for this post. I practiced the Davey knot and used it exclusively yesterday and it was perfect with Orvis Mirage 3 and 4X. Not a single fish lost to a failed tippet to fly knot. (several lost to one or the other of 123 million things that can go wrong) It is the best fluorocarbon knot I have used yet. Simple to do(even with numb fingers) it is small and really does seem to be near 100%. Perfect.
Steve
Silver Doc,
You are about 4 hrs from my AO. Let me know if you ever get to hankerin for some tributary fishing.
Frozen waders mean you had fun 🙂 Do you wear neoprene in cold water? I have to. There is nothing I can do to keep my feet warm in stockingfoot breathables, but stay nice and toasty in neoprene bootfoots.
papafish,
When the air temp is 25 and water is 33-34, sticking your rod tip in the water is as useful as the old wives tail about rubbing frostbite with snow to treat it.
Zach,
I have never fished in crampons/snowshoes. I do like the idea of a pair of snowshoes to get back to some of the areas I fish that require a little hike. I have never built a fire streamside. Again, a great idea to have the capability to do just in case. Most of the time I am fishing areas that require me to travel over private property. (I could digress here big time about pressure and this access quickly evaporating) Starting a fire would probably get someones panties all bunched up. I like the idea though…getting warmed by the fire, a sandwhich and a few pulls from the flask while discussing the fate of the universe with a good friend. 🙂
notmo,
Here are my top below freezing pointers from years of arctic like conditions on Lake Erie tribs.
1. Stay home and do some tying.
2. If you are insane in the membrane and must go out, stick to shortline/high stick nymphing and keep as much fly line out of the water as you can and try to strip as little as possible. My casts are just flips back up stream with the same amount of line out. This keeps water out of the guides and you don’t get ice build up as quick. Trying to cast and fish any other way is an exercise in futlilty (for me anyways)
3. Pam cooking spray(as Zach said) does work, for a while. The ice-off pastes are worth the money and work reasonably well and last longer between applications than Pam. You only need to apply it to the first couple feet of line and guides if you follow tip #2.
4. When you do get ice build up in the guides either take the rod apart at the middle and bring the tip back to you to work on it, or set the reel end down out of the water and work on the tip. NEVER try to hold the rod in the middle and reach up to clear ice. Do that enough times and I will guarantee you will eventually turn your pretty little 4 piece in to a 5 piece. Don’t ask me how I know.
5. When clearing the ice soften it with heat from your bare hand before trying to remove it.(a chemical hand warmer works great) See #4 for extemporaneous rod modifications.
6. Keep your reel dry. A dunking in ice water is a disaster for any reel. “My drag is sealed” Put it in the water and it will be sealed alright, with ice.
7. Keep your line in good shape. Any cracks will allow water to soak the core and freeze. I like to water proof my line to leader connection with
TC, you rock! I saw some of them there little buggers in the FC catalog and was wondering how well they worked. Just have to find some now.
Thanks of the idea.
Sorry if I didn’t make my question clear.
When I make a surgeons loop in fluoro the line always breaks right at the loop. It just seems to be very weak. My typical nymphing rig consists of a 3 ft. butt section of 0X mono and I place my indicator on that section. It gives me 3 feet of adjustment room. I double sureons knot a 2-3 foot section of 2X mono to that and loop to loop whatever length of tippet that I need. I have been using fluoro quite a bit lately and as bd said, it blows to constantly loose several feet of fluoro at a time when the loop  constantly busts at the knot. When using mono for a tippet I use the same system and if I break off it is usually at the tippet to fly knot.
Steve
I have tried them all and keep going back to a little corky skewered with a tooth pick. I am drawn to fast riffle and pocket water and have found that a corky floats a couple of flies and BB’s the best. A nice additional advantage is that the tooth pick always points to where the shot are and offers a nice aid in visualizing what is going on with your flies.
I have tried the Frog Hair indicators and really liked the system. I think the ones I have might be the small size and are just not big enough for what I want them to do. Maybe some in a bigger size are in order for a field test…
Mike,
Thanks the info. We have 3 Cabelas rods. 9wt FT, 8wt XST and a Prestige combo that belongs to my daughter. I am happy with all of them and glad to hear that at least one is made in the USA. I imagine that if the FT is, the XST probably is too.
I also got on the online chat with a Cabelas rep. and asked about the jacket. She told me that the only thing I can do is send it in for evaluation. I asked evaluation of what and she said “the jacket”. Um, OK. Kinda sounds like I am going to be in the market for a new jacket. I will send it in though. It looks like it is new and has obvioulsy not been abused, or even used that much. I will wait and see what happens.
Guys, thanks for the input…
I am going to call Cabelas and and see what they have to say about the jacket. I am not happy with it and they do say that they have a 100% satisfaction guarntee. We’ll see what they say and exactly what that means.
As far as the scissors go, I agree that I probably shouldn’t have been using them for what I was, but I am talking about REALLY fine wire that is not much, if any, thicker than 3/0 thread. I do have
Zach,
When I think fall and big brown trout I am thinking egg patterns. Maybe this doesn’t apply for resident fish, but it sure does around here for migratory fish that grow big and fat in the big lake and then blast up the streams to spawn in the fall. What are the water temps? Browns won’t go to the gravel until it gets down below 50 degrees. Anywhere near that? If it is I would try an itsy bitsy egg.(I won’t get in to fishing for actively spawning trout and am not suggesting that. Just looking for fish getting in the mood, or having finished and
She is already talking about some boy in her class that “picks” on her…and she is almost grown out of her waders. I hope that I need to buy her several more pairs.
Zach,
You can get the Walmart net, take the bag off it and spray paint the bass bubba gold handle any color you want…
I have a wood Pacific Fly Group net that I like quite a bit. It’s the Steelhead size, but it really isn’t big enough for anything much over 22-24″, or so. It has held up well though and it was around $40.00(I think)
