Fishing with My Buddy Jake!

If you follow this blog, you know I like taking folks fishing.  What I like even more, is taking folks fishing that I don't get to fish with very often.  My buddy Jake is one of those people.  He's a good dude that comes from a great family.  In fact, his family bred a couple of German Shorthair Pointers, one of which was named Waylon who ended up becoming a member of our family.  I only bring that up to show that our families appreciate one another.  Like I stated, Jake is fun to be around and we have a lot of fun sharing a boat.  

The last time that Jake and I got to fish together was two years ago and it was a memorable one.  We trolled tandem streamer rigs for hybrid striper.  Not only did we catch some fish, Jake ended up catching two hybrids at the same time.  Since then, I have gotten a little better at catching these fish and I was hoping to give him another memorable experience.

As fate would have it, this trip was just as good.  We targeted hybrid stripers with chicken livers and then got the fly rods out to catch some bluegill, redear, and small bass.  The hybrid fishing started off with a bang!  I caught the first fish and it was the biggest hybrid striper that I have ever caught on chicken livers.  I was starting to think that the chicken liver strategy only worked on smaller fish because that's all that I had caught so far. Catching a 20+ inch hybrid was a great indicator that bigger hybrids will eat chicken livers as well.  

After catching the big hybrid, we picked up a lot in the 10-16 inch range.  It was a little slow but we managed to put a hybrid in the boat from time to time.  It was the kind of fishing that was just good enough to keep your interest but wasn't good enough to be called great.  Those are MY standards, but then again, I spend a lot more time on the water than Jake does.  To Jake, the fishing was amazing.  He told me that he usually struggled on fishing the lake we were on (Watkins Mill State Park).  It made me feel pretty darn good that he was happy and having fun.

Before we had to call it quits for the day, I wanted to help him catch some fish on a fly.  We rigged up a 3 weight with a 1/80 ounce jig and a strike indicator for him and I threw a streamer on a seven weight.  I figured he would put up some gaudy numbers on his setup and I was looking for one good take on my Low Fat Minnow.  Jake did indeed get into some fish but I think it was too late in the day for a streamer.  Again, Jake was happy to catch a mess of bluegill but one more surprise lay ahead.  Out of nowhere, Jake hooked into a redear.  I say "out of nowhere" because we hadn't caught one yet.  Jake had never caught a redear before and this one was a pretty one.

I'm lucky to have time off in the summer (I'm a teacher) and I'm blessed to have a boat.  I am grateful to have had a lot of very kind people pass along fishing techniques and effective fly patterns among other things.  I feel like it is my responsibility and duty to pass that knowledge along to others.  When others have success on the water because of what I've passed along, it's a darn good feeling.  

That feeling arose as we headed back to the boat ramp when Jake said to me, "This might be the best morning of fishing that I've ever had."  I was flattered and humbled at the same time.  Could Jake have learned what I learned on his own and found success without me?  I have no doubt he could have.  Did it feel good to help him and share some success with him in the process?  It felt so good that I can't wait to help the next person!

This Blog Just Turned 11 Years Old!

Technically, this blog turned 11 years old a few days ago on July 11 but that's alright.  It's better to celebrate a little late rather than not at all.  In keeping with tradition, I try to do a couple of things each year when the anniversary of this blog comes along.

First, thank you so much for visiting my little slice of the Internet and for reading this blog!  I mean that from the bottom of my heart because if people didn't read what I type, I would quit doing posting.  I am happy to say that people are reading this blog and viewing my posts more than ever.  Currently, I am averaging between 1,500 to 3,000 views per day which is AWESOME!  I celebrated the 1,000,000th view earlier this year and as of the time this post was published, this blog has been viewed 1,569,376 times.  Sure, some of those are bots and might even be AI, but I hope that a lot of those are real people.  

What is more incredible to me is that people are still reading posts on websites.  In a world that is aligning itself with more social media and videos, it feels good to know that folks are still reading.  More so, it feels good to know that people are reading what I type.  Speaking of typing, please know that every word that I put into a post is coming from ME.  I don't use AI to generate posts and I promise that is the truth.  The reason that I started this blog was because I wanted an avenue to share my fly fishing experiences.  Letting AI create a post takes the personality out of the equation and to me, having personality in a blog post is an enormous component.

Second, I like to share the same video each year.  This video was included in the first post that I ever published on this blog so it seems appropriate to share it if for nothing more than keeping with tradition.  It is a beautifully worded tribute to fly fishing with some breathtaking scenery.  The footage comes from Michigan and the words come from John Voelker.  If you've never seen the video, I hope you dig it.  If you have seen the video before, I hope you like it as much as the first time you watched it.

So thank you again for your support.  Thank you for reading this post.  If you've bought flies from the online store, thank you very much!  If you've left a comment on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, or Tik Tok, I appreciate your interaction.  Thank you for being a part of my fly fishing adventure and for helping me express how much I love fly fishing, fly tying, and being immersed in the outdoors!

An EPIC morning of Fishing with my Wife!

It has been a great summer on the water for me thus far.  I have had the pleasure to catch a lot of fish and different species of fish.  I have had the pleasure of taking out some good friends and family members as well.  I have used flies on fly rods and bait on spinning rods.  I've fished in my raft, from the bank, and from my jon boat.  Even with all that variety, one thing seemed to be missing.  I hadn't fished with my wife yet.  That got rectified on June 20.

When Wendy woke me up on a Saturday morning at 5:30 and said, "Are we going fishing or what?"  We had discussed hitting the water the night before but I wasn't sure how serious she was about the endeavor until she asked me the question.  I'm almost always up for going fishing, especially with my wife, so I sprang out of bed and started to prepare spinning rods with circle hooks and fly rods with flies.  Before you knew it, we were northbound and headed to Watkins Mill State Park.  

I decided that we would target hybrid stripers with chicken livers for the first part of the morning and then chase some bluegill and largemouth at the end of the morning.  It didn't take long to start catching hybrid striped bass on chicken livers in about 18 feet of water and about 7 feet deep with our baits.  When we hit a school, the action was fast and furious.  Between schools, we drifted with the breeze and talked.  While we didn't catch anything big, Wendy enjoyed the ferocity and action that the smaller fish provided.  We doubled up a few times and at others, our baits got hit before we got them down 7 feet or after reeling them to the surface.  If we hadn't caught any other fish that morning, it would have still been a good morning.

As the activity slowed down, Wendy said that she wanted to try to catch some bluegill in the shallows on a fly rod.  I was all too happy to accommodate her request, however, I had other plans for myself.  I was going to throw some mid-sized streamers for largemouth.  While she LOVES catching a lot of little fish, I felt inclined to try to get one bite from something more substantial.  I'm not saying that I was right and she was wrong.  It's just different strokes for different folks.

We headed to the north end of the lake in my jon boat with fly rods ready.  Right off the bat, she started hammering bluegill and even a redear sunfish.  She was happy and having fun.  On the other hand, I was not getting any bites on my olive wooly bugger.  We decided to change spots and I decided to change flies.  I had noticed that she was getting hits on her black, 1/80 ounce jig, and I decided that switching to a bulky, size 6 wooly bugger made sense.  I sure was glad that I did because the biggest fish of the day was caught at the new spot we moved to and on the new fly.  It a bass that maybe went 14 inches and close to two pounds.  It wasn't huge but it sure was fun to catch.

I also ended up catching a few big bluegill and a decent-sized red ear sunfish on this fly after we moved back to the west side of the lake where we had started with flies.  In total, we caught 4 species on bait, jigs, and streamers.  We caught fish in deep water and in the shallows.  We had moments where the action was almost unhinged and we had time to just laugh and joke around.  I love spending time on the water, and I love spending time with my wife.  When those two things intersect, well that's just a little slice of heaven that soak up as much as possible.  It doesn't have often enough for my liking, but when it does, I sure do appreciate it.  Oh yeah, it was fun to have Waylon in the boat too!

 

Low Fat Minnows are Now in the Online Fly Shop

Link: https://www.etsy.com/listing/4526205544/2-pack-of-low-fat-minnows-shad-imitation

Last week, I took a shad colored Low Fat Minnow to a local homeowner association pond with the hopes of catching some fish.  I wanted to make sure that this patterns is effective prior to putting some in my online store.  After catching some largemouth and a white bass, I feel confident that this fly will catch fish.  

The first fish that was caught on this fly wasn't even caught by me.  I gave a couple of flies to a couple of guys on the James River and they caught a couple of smallmouth on this pattern.  The fishing was pretty slow and this was the only fly that caught fish on that particular day.  At the homeowner association pond, I caught the biggest bass I have ever caught on that water with this fly.  Oddly enough, he at it in open water towards the middle of the lake.  A couple of days later, I caught two more bass in the shallows around cover with this fly.  I then caught a white bass in deeper water as well.  Since this fly has caught smallmouth, white, and largemouth bass, I'm going to call it an effective pattern.  And since it is effective, I am going to put a few in the online store.  

The following was taken from the description about the Low Fat Minnow in my online store.  I hope it helps.

This fly does not have any added weight which gives it a very slow sink rate.  While it is not neutrally buoyant, it is close.  As a result, this fly can be fished on floating line, sinking line, or sink tip line.  It can be fished in the shallows, around cover, and around structure on floating line and should not easily get snagged due to its slow sink rate.  On sinking or sink tip line, it can fished in the middle of the water column as well as in holes and pools in a river.  The best part about this fly is its profile.  It has the majority of its mass in the upper half of the fly.  The mass tapers to a point at the tail which makes it very realistic.  

This fly's color and action are also impressive.  The color is extremely close to a young shad/minnow and the flash in the head, eyes, and body get a lot of attention in the water.  You can see it well from the bank which means fish can see it even better.  When stripped, it has a great flutter and kick to it.  It looks like a young shad swimming through the water that is begging to be eaten.  This fly can be stripped on erratic strips or on a slow, steady retrieve.  I wouldn't sell this fly if I didn't have the utmost confidence in it!

This fly can be fished for largemouth bass, smallmouth bass, white bass, hybrid striped bass, crappie, rainbow trout, and brown trout.  This fly is tied on a Gamakatsu size 2 hook and is approximately 2 inches long.  I fish this fly on 6-8 weight rods and is easily cast.  It doesn't overwhelm a rod because it sheds so much water and has very little weight.  

Here are a couple more final thoughts on this fly.  This fly is an outstanding imitation of a small shad.  Do you know what eats small shad?  Almost every predatory freshwater fish in North America would eat a small shad.  Also, I feel like this fly could fill a void in a fly box.  I have a lot of big streamers like Braves, Captain Quints, and Lunch Moneys.  I also have smaller streamers for trout and bluegill like Taneycomo Tiger Tails and Wooly Buggers.  What I was missing was a mid-size streamer that could be fished for almost any species.  Also, this fly is two-toned with counter shading  as well, which you don't find in all flies.  It is characteristic that I am partial to because of it's realism which makes it close to "matching the hatch".

So if you find yourself in need of a streamer with a slow sink rate that can be fished for multiple species on multiple types of lines, this might be the fly for you.  I wouldn't sell it if I didn't feel confident in it.  I feel confident in it because it has caught fish for me!  So if you want to check it out for yourself, go ahead and click the link at the bottom or top of this post.  It would be a pleasure to send you some Low Fat Minnows.  Regardless of whether you buy some flies or not, thank you for reading and thank you for your support!

Link: https://www.etsy.com/listing/4526205544/2-pack-of-low-fat-minnows-shad-imitation

How to Tie a Clark Pierce's Low Fat Minnow

Link to Fly Fish Food's Low Fat Minnow: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ns6ndQRWDCw

A few months ago, I was happy with some Smallmouth Bass Streamers (SBS's) that I tied, However, I ran across a similar looking pattern called a Low Fat Minnow.  It is my understanding that Clark Pierce (aka Cheech and cofounder of Fly Fish Food) developed this pattern one day after he saw bass coughing up nearly transparent fry that they had gorged themselves on.  After watching a tutorial that was hosted by Cheech, I knew I had to give this fly a try.  I'm glad I did.

It is similar in a lot of ways to an SBS but without the dumbbell eyes, tied on a slightly smaller hook, and with a slightly different approach to tying in the different marabou colors.  I like the idea of having SBS's that are weighted and able to be fished deep.  I also like the idea of having some Low Fat Minnows that can be fished shallow or deep on a sinking tip line.  I am planning on tying them in different colors as well.  I tied both flies with a shad-like coloration but I'm planning on tying some in green and yellow (bluegill) and green and white (baitfish) color combinations as well.  I will post those when I get them wrapped up.  Get it?!?!  Wrapped up!  I crack myself up sometimes.

Link to Fly Fish Food's Low Fat Minnow: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ns6ndQRWDCw