New Pictures Added To The Show Me Fish Page

A nice channel cat and some bass caught by the cutest little red-headed girl I have ever seen have been added to the "Show Me Fish" page.  Your pictures are always welcome so feel free to email me or upload them to our Facebook page.

Missouri Department of Conservation Auction

I recently found out about an auction that the Missouri Department of Conservation is holding on October 15 in Salem, Missouri.  They will be auctioning off boats, outboard motors, tractors, trailers, farm equipment and vehicles.  I have never attended one of these events before but you might be able to get a sweet deal on some used equipment.  Here's the link to the site.

Link: http://mdc.mo.gov/newsroom/mdc-holding-auction-oct-15-salem

Here's another thought, Salem just happens to be home to Montauk State Park which offers some outstanding trout fishing.  Being able to do both things in a weekend sounds like a pretty good deal to me.

Laboring on Lake Taneycomo

Last weekend my wife and I headed down to Springfield, Missouri, to visit some friends of ours.  I say "ours" because the husband and wife we were going to visit have been friends of my wife's since college and friends of mine since I met my wife.  Needless to say, I am a little bit of a fourth wheel if there is such a thing.  You can only imagine my excitement when on Saturday morning my wife and her friends were all but pushing "poor Mr. Fourth Wheel" out the door to head down to Branson and Lake Taneycomo to do some fishing.  "Okay guys.  We'll do everything YOU want to do!" was my response as I walked out the door.

After picking up some Combos (pepperoni pizza of course) and a fountain drink at the local Casey's, I was southbound and down with a mile-wide smile on my face.  It didn't even matter that I was going to be fishing during the slowest part of the day on top of the fact that two generators were running.  None of that mattered because I was in southern Missouri and I was going trout fishing.  It's hard to argue against that scenario regardless of conditions.

Things were a little slow but that is to be expected.  I hooked 6 fish and landed four.  I missed one brown that I was sight fishing and lost a rainbow about 20 feet from the net.  I did however land a 14 inch rainbow and another rainbow that pushed 17 inches.  There were plenty of fish to be seen in the shallows and near the outlets, but they didn't seem interesting in what I was throwing (or what anyone else was throwing) but that was alright.  I caught some trout on a fly rod at my favorite fishing spot in the world and it was a beautiful day.  I even got to brag a little bit to my wife's friends which I am sure they appreciated on a deeper level than I can imagine.

Flyfishing: Night Mousing Dos and Don'ts

I like Joe Cermele.  Not "like" in the sense that I would pass him a note in third period math in 8th grade (mainly because Mr. Mifflin would have caught me), but I like so many things about what he does on fieldandstream.com.  He's a good writer, has a fantastic sense of humor, and knows his way around a fly rod.  He is an outstanding fly fisherman that has a lot more knowledge and tactics that me, but he doesn't present his information in an intimidating or daunting manner.  He keeps things simple and you can tell that he genuinely has fun when he is on the water.  This guy loves what he does and it shows.  His recent video compilation spells out how to throw a mouse for trout at night is vintage Joe.  I hope you learn as much about mousing as I did, and I have GOT to do this some day.  I don't get on trout water as often as I would like, but this looks and sounds like and adventure!

Link: Flyfishing: Night Mousing Dos and Dont's | Field & Stream

Bass Poppers

To me, Labor Day officially marks the start of "Popper Season" for largemouth bass.  Don't get me wrong, I know guys that start fishing with poppers in June, but to me, it makes sense to fish poppers at this time of year.  Again, I am not saying that this advice is the end-all of popper instruction, it is just what makes sense to me.  I could be wrong.  I might be wrong.  Okay, I'm probably wrong but I stand by my thoughts.

1. This time of year usually signifies a change in temperature trends.  Football has stared, we are in early September, and the days are definitely getting shorter.  As temperatures fall, so do water temperatures.  This plays a large role in bass behavior and can make a slow and sluggish bass into a feeding machine that wants to put on some pounds prior to winter.  That means they are wanting to feed up while still holding to shade, cover, and structure.  "What will they feed on" you ask, well lots of things.  Here's a thought that makes sense though.

2. All summer long, critters like frogs and insects have had time to grow and get larger.  They aren't going to get any bigger than right now prior to dying off or hibernation.  That means they are big meals that provide a lot of calories for bass.  As temperatures are cooler in the mornings and evenings, that means these organisms are losing body heat and slowing down as well.  Doesn't that sound like the perfect recipe for an ambush predator?  Big, slow meals becoming bountiful with an added increase in aggression.

In closing, grab a 7 weight fly rod, tie on a popper, and hit your local bass spot.  You just might catch your biggest bass on a fly this year.  Aside from being a strategically prime time for popping, it just might be the funnest way to catch largemouth.  Attacks can range from sips, to slurps, to all-out breaching for flies.  I included some videos below to get you started if you are new to popping or if you want to learn to tie a couple of simple popper patterns.

Link: The Midwest Drift: Psycho Toad

Find Your Water: Season 2, Episode 5: Alpine Rises

Another great episode from Redington.  Beautiful scenery, prettier fish, and some sweet takes on dries.

Find Your Water: Season 2, Episode 5: Alpine Rises from Redingtongear on Vimeo.

Tandem Streamer Rig

Last weekend I was watching an episode of The New Fly Fisher on PBS at some unholy hour that my 1 year old son decides to awaken most mornings.  On this particular episode, the host (some guy with a Canadian accent) was fishing for Largemouth and Smallmouth on some river in Canada.  He started off fishing deer hair frogs and poppers but eventually switched over to a streamer pattern.  I think at this point my son must have needed a diaper change so I missed what happened next but when I returned, all I heard was "He got the front fly."  Now I new the guy was throwing a streamer so my first thought was "What in the world of Canadian bacon and maple syrup are you talking about?"

The gentleman then went into an explanation that a tandem streamer rig was the go-to set-up on this particular river system for these particular species.  At that moment, the room must have lit up because a light bulb went off above my noggin.  The host then showed an up close look at his rig which included a seven foot leader that connected to a heavily weighted streamer pattern with about 2 feet of tippet tied from the bend of the hook to the next streamer that was smaller and lighter.  See the picture below for a visual representation.  The host went on to explain that the tandem streamer rig was to imitation schooling baitfish or to entice a fish with two different sizes or even species of baitfish.

Upon hearing this revolutionary idea, my next thought was "What in the heck have I been doing for the last 13 years of fly fishing for bass?"   It was a moment that made me question all that I had ever done in terms of throwing zonkers and woolies at bass.  To be honest, it made me feel kind of stupid and unimaginative.  But that's when I started to consider all of the possibilities and combinations of flies that I could throw at bass in the coming weeks to make up for all the time that I have seemingly lost.  I started to fascinate about double wooly combinations, a zonker trailed by a wooly, a sculpin-type fly with a muddler minnow chasing it down.

After I wiped the drool from my mouth and the drool from my son's mouth (he's teething), I started to resort back to my pragmatist way of thinking.  I wanted to see what others had done with a dual streamer rig and if there were any practical combinations that others had employed.  My internet searches led me to many results but the links below seemed to have the best information and tips.  Many of these articles describe how to go after trout with dual rigs, but the approach would seemingly be the same for bass.  I hope you find them useful and if you don't employ a dual streamer approach, I hope you give it a shot.  If you do, email me or leave a comment below and let me know pros and cons of the set-up.  I plan to give this rig a shot in the very near future and write about my findings.  Good or bad, you will hear about this again and hopefully it can help us both put some more fish in our hands.

http://1source.basspro.com/index.php/component/k2/67-fly-fishing/2959-how-to-fly-fish-tandem-streamer-rigs

http://www.orvis.com/news/fly-fishing/Tuesday-Tip-Tandem-Streamers/

http://www.outdoorlife.com/blogs/gone-fishin%E2%80%99/fly-fishing-5-top-tandem-rig-combos-tough-trout

http://www.flyfisherman.com/how-to/tactics/two-fly-nymph-rig/

http://therockyriver.com/the-complete-guide-to-the-tandem-rig/

http://www.hatchmag.com/articles/5-tips-better-streamer-fishing/7712015

Mentions Bass

http://www.floridasportsman.com/2016/02/09/tandem-fly-rigs/

Cultivated Carp 'Reverse Evolve,' Grow Scales Back

This is a fascinating article about selective breeding the scales off of common carp and essentially the creation or mirror carp.  What these fish were able to do was incredible and honestly, a little difficult for me to comprehend.  A very interesting read and thanks to my friend (and soon to be guest author) Busch for sharing this with me!

Cultivated Carp 'Reverse Evolve,' Grow Scales Back | Popular Science

This article reminded me of the capabilities that domestic hogs have when they escape into the wild.  This article goes into a little bit of detail about what they can do once they escape captivity.

Feral Hog Article Link:  http://blog.mlive.com/flintjournal/outdoors/2007/11/domestic_pigs_quickly_revert_t.html

Show Me Fish Page Updated

I just got done adding some new pictures to the "Show Me Fish" page and there are some dandies. There is a link on the right side of this page but I am including a link below.  Feel free to email me any pictures you want shared or post them to the site's Facebook page.  All I need is your first name, location, and weight or length of the fish.

Facebook Link: https://www.facebook.com/showmeflyguy/

Show Me Fish Link: http://showmeflyguy.blogspot.com/p/show-me-fish.html

Email me your pictures: showmeflyguy@gmail.com

Emmrod

This is a crazy idea...crazy like a fox!  My buddy Busch, which you will be reading more about in the very near future, passed along an interesting product that he found online the other day.  The name of the company is called Emmrod and they have a very unique fishing rod.  You can see more pictures as well as a link below and it will definitely get your attention.  While I don't think I will ever purchase or use one, I can definitely see some practical applications and the idea looks to have some merit.  It seems like the perfect rod to pack while hiking or fishing out of a small boat.  If anyone owns one of these rods or has had any experience with one, I would love to hear and post your thoughts and experiences.

Link: Emmrod