Tag Archives: fishing

The Others

December 2, 2023 tcujsp303 Leave a comment

For anyone that is a sports fan out there, you are probably familiar with “the others” concept when it comes to a team. For those that might have absolutely no clue what I’m talking about, “the others” is a term that is used to explain role (or bench) players on a team that are still needed to win games. Although “the others” are not the all-star, multi-million dollar, or biggest players that will sell out tickets in the stadium, they are often times the deciding factor in the outcome of any given game (as they will always swing the score by a couple of points, and bring the element of surprise along with them).

When it comes to fly fishing, “the others” are the awesome fish you catch that you were not anticipating to show up and that can save the overall day by making their presence known. For those who have read this blog, you know that I am slightly obsessed with catching all different kinds of species on the fly rod. I firmly believe that fly fishing should have no boundaries when it comes to the type of fish being pursued, and I also believe that many times people won’t pick up fly fishing because of incorrect assumptions that they live somewhere that isn’t ideal for it (i.e. “there are no trout where I live so I can’t fly fish”).

For capping off 2023, I thought it would be fun to highlight some of “the other” fish that I ran into this year in hopes of encouraging line to be thrown wherever you might be. By no means were these all of “the others” (as most outings are accompanied by surprise fish), but these were some coming to top of mind!

Bowfin – A fan favorite of mind. Prehistoric and pull like crazy. On this day I really was fishing for anything, but this guy made the morning special.

Redear Sunfish, Bluegill, Crappie, Green Sunfish, Redbreast Sunfish (in order below) – Sunfish in general are some of the most under-appreciated fish due to their size. Bluegill and Crappie are specifically are one of the most common freshwater fish to find in the US. Always fun running into these guys on a day of searching for Bass on a lake, or throwing small flies into creek systems just to see what is around. I even did some fish “saving” this year as was finding a ton in drying up pools of water at the end of the summer. Redbreast Sunfish are really unique from both a geographical standpoint and their overall looks.

Chain Pickerel – known also as a Slime Rocket, Ditch Pickle, or countless other names. These guys attack and eat flies like a baby Musky or Pike, and get way too much hate considering how fun they are to catch and how good looking they are.

Atlantic Pollock – These fish are a hoot. Ran into a pile of them while Striper fishing in Maine, and they kept the action steady in between Stripers. They pretty much will hit anything small and yellow it seems!

Croaker and Baby Redfish - Was able to get the paddleboard out on some flats for a hour here and there on two separate trips this year, and these guys made it worthwhile. The goal was to find some “big” Redfish up shallow, but the wind and dirty water had other plans (especially challenging with no boat). Regardless, these fish showed up and we appreciate the cooperation!

Bottom line here – appreciate what you catch. Every single fish is a “nice” fish. No need to discriminate or downplay, especially if you are putting the work and effort in to get out on the water (no matter how much time you have or what the conditions are).

Tight lines as always!

Joe

Uncategorized

Carp – Never Out of Style

September 1, 2023 tcujsp303 Leave a comment

Surprise, surprise, we have another post about carp. For those of you upset about it, not sorry. For those of you happy about it, I love you.

But for real and on a serious note, this past year was the definition of *elite* when it came to the carp fishing. Not only did the local waters fish excellent and produce some of our best fish to date, but I also had the opportunity to fish the famous canals around Scottsdale, Arizona and check out the carping scene there.

Let’s start with the Arizona carp. For starters, was there for a bachelor party weekend not focused on fishing, but still made it happen in less than desirable conditions. Best case fished for 2-hours each morning (early) as the hangovers were wearing off for the rest of the gentlemen and scholars at the AirbBNB. It was an unseasonably cold weekend in Arizona, but the fish did not seem to mind at all.

Not having fished in Arizona before, my best friend was Google Maps, and Uber’ing to a local park that had a handful of canals/ponds surrounding the premises proved to be the move . After about a 10-minute somewhat uncomfortable ride with the driver not understanding why I had a fishing rod with me, I entered a quiet residential park with practically no one else there. Literally upon exiting the vehicle and rigging up my 4-piece 6-weight rod, I was already seeing carp surface in the water around me. I also noticed some creek channels extending out of the ponds, to which I chose to explore those as the water was shallow and clear, and saw some fish moving. Within my first 10-minutes, I already was hooked up to a nice carp on one of my specialty home tie flies. Per usual carp fashion, the fish put up a great fight, and I was able to land a second fish shortly after in the same creek. The biggest fish of the morning came from one of the ponds themselves - a fish sunning in maybe 3-4 feet of water. Drag and dropped the fly right on its face, and bam. What a morning and one of the photos I was able to takee from it below:

As for the local carping this year, it continued to be one of my highlights for the summer. Although there were the recurring challenges with river conditions and clarity, when the water was clear and the sun was up, the fishing was unparalleled. Similar to last year, I found that late April and May produced the most fish (as they provided the largest schools I have ever seen – I’m talking 30+ fish in each school), but that fishing remained consistent until early September.

As always, the most effective way of catching these fish was on the micro skiff/stand up paddleboard, and exploring the backwater creeks off of the Chattahoochee river. One “newer” positive this year was that I caught more fish super shallow – i.e. less than a foot of water. Typically I am fishing for floating fish that are still over water that is 10+feet deep (which can be exceedingly challenging with the fly rod, as they can disappear upon desire), but now have some waters where it really is a true “flats” feel where wading is even possible if desired. One area I look forward to testing more in 2023 is trying to figure out the Grass Carp – there are a plethora in the river system that I fish, and although I’ve had some minimal luck, would be a ton of fun to figure out how to consistently hook into these fish. Have some plans to test out dry fly scenarios more with lighter tippet.

Was fortunate to have several outstanding sessions for the carp over the summer, and below you will find some of the best/highlighted fish we ran into. Overall, the favorite flies of the summer consisted of small damselfly nymphs, cottonseed patterns, as well as the occasional “wormy” looking thing when the conditions were right.

Thanks for the read and hope you are searching for some carp near you in 2024!

Bass, Uncategorized

Transitions – Year Round Bassin’

May 1, 2023 tcujsp303 Leave a comment

For those of you who have followed this blog for some time, you will know that I am a fan of A) convenience and B) simplicity. Although the annual trips to exotic locations chasing big fish will forever bring excitement to all of us that love the fly rod, the reality is that making the most of our opportunities close to home are crucial when needing a “quick fix” away from work, life, school, etc. Not only this, but we need to be able to fish whether it’s rain, shine, or lord knows whatever else might be brewing out there. When I lived in Utah and Colorado, trout were my year round local fish to go after. Now that I have lived in Georgia for 5+ years, I have had to learn to treat bass as a year round option, and this past year was paramount in getting more familiar with the winter to spring transition periods.

For a quick summary – Georgia has a plethora of bass species. Everything from Largemouth, Spotted, Smallmouth, Shoal, and even Redeye bass. Although the Shoal, Smallmouth, and Redeye bass are a blast, these typically are “warmer” weather fish that are easiest to catch in Georgia during the late spring to early fall months. So for the “colder” weather in winter and early spring, it’s all about the Spotted and Largemouth bass for me in the local lakes.

Let’s start with the winter (I’m talking late November through end of February). After countless hours on the water (with no boat) exploring the best bass fishing lakes that Georgia has to offer, I have found that there are really three (3) keys to success during this season:

Find the rocks and the sun
Smaller flies > bigger flies
Deeper is better

In the winter, Bass are trying to find any spot on a lake where they can collect some warmth. Even if the water temp is just a few degress warmer, these areas are bound to have more fish than the cooler areas of the lakes. I have found that large boulders and rocks majorly assist in providing some “sunning” opportunities for these fish, and would go so far to say that 90+% of the bass I catch in the winter are associated with large rocks, rock ledges, or rocky points on the lakes. In addition to this, I would say that 75+% of my winter bass are caught on smaller flies (no bigger than a size 2 hook) and on intermediate sinking fly lines. These fish really don’t want to put in overtime to eat during the cold, so make the “meal” of a fly as manageable and convenient as possible to them. Get the fly deeper into the strike zone, and make it a bite sized snack.

Here are just some examples of the beautiful bass I have caught in the winter:

Now for the real fun…SPRING! It is warm, birds are chirping, the sunfish are out again, life is good. Hands down (in my opinion) this is the best time to target bass in Georgia/the south. For those of you that are keen on sight fishing and didn’t want to brave the winter, this is the time for you to dust off the fly rod and get after it. In 2023, the spawn took place earlier than usual it seemed, as I was finding huge Largemouth on their beds by mid-March. With that being said, April was a record for the amount of spawning bass I was seeing, and it actually led to my largest Largemouth I have ever caught (easy 8 pounds).

I tried some newer techniques this year for spawning bass that proved to be productive, and some that also overcomplicated the situation. Similar to how I provided three keys for winter bass, I would say these are three keys for spring bass on the fly:

No such thing as too shallow
Don’t be afraid to Super Size that fly selection
If you see one bass, there probably is a second (or third) that you can’t see

This past spring, I caught countless bass sitting in less than 2 feet of water. Moral of the story here is to use caution by the bank…don’t go clunking up right to the water’s edge as there might be a fish sitting there. You don’t need to be a psychopath and crawl up the bank (like some ridiculous trout guides will preach back West), but definitely give yourself 10 feet of space from the bank to monitor the situation. In addition to this, if you do find an aggressive bass that is sitting on a bed (or is just ravenously patrolling an area attacking sunfish), don’t be afraid to tie on a larger fly. Get their attention, strip fast, and hold on. Lastly, I have found that more often that not the bass will school up a bit shallow in the spring. So if you are sight fishing to one bass that is being spooky/difficult, make it a point to throw some blind casts around it as another might be lurking. OR even better, be prepared for another bass to come side-swipe your fly while you are sight fishing a different fish, as this is how I caught my largest Largemouth ever this year (was throwing a larger bunny strip, olive looking leach thing).

As always, thanks for the read and hope that this provides some insight into how to get on the bass before the dog days of summer kick in. Tight lines!

Joe