2023 Fish-Pic-O-Rama

[Rasputin]

Doood, that sucks!

[swimmy]

Sacrificed my D850 to the river gods today when it fell out of the boat.

Fuck.

[swimmy]

I've lost all kinds of shit over the years but this easily tops the list.

[tgapp]

I've lost all kinds of shit over the years but this easily tops the list.

Fuck man. Fuck. I am so sorry.

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[east or bust]

Fuck, that sucks.

Time to check out FM


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[L8APX]

Dry fly SZN Vermont edition

[teleee]

I've lost all kinds of shit over the years but this easily tops the list.

Right there with ya brother, launched Thursday afternoon with Mrs Teleee for a short float, she breaks off in a tree in big water, pulled over and dropped anchor to re rig, go to pull anchor it’s wedged tighter than your mom. End up up cutting er loose. Get to the take out and pulling rods out and I break the tip off my brand new Helios. Should have stayed fucking home.


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[swimmy]

Should have stayed fucking home.

No shit.

[swimmy]

Dry fly SZN Vermont edition

Way to get us back on track. Very nice.

[plugboots]

You guys are killing me with the stories. At least my M-I-L is staying w/ me. (So it could even be worse for you guys.)

[lifelinksplit]

Right there with ya brother, launched Thursday afternoon with Mrs Teleee for a short float, she breaks off in a tree in big water, pulled over and dropped anchor to re rig, go to pull anchor it’s wedged tighter than your mom. End up up cutting er loose. Get to the take out and pulling rods out and I break the tip off my brand new Helios. Should have stayed fucking home.


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Shit. I've been "lucky" enough to only cut an anchor line once(on not whitewater). I've also watched many a person swim to get an anchor. I'll have to get the old ladies pics but its starting to be lake/reservoir time in Montana. Missed a huge bull trout this weekend. Yeah worthless without pics..

And yeah wedged anchors in big water gets sketchy real quick.

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[tgapp]

Right there with ya brother, launched Thursday afternoon with Mrs Teleee for a short float, she breaks off in a tree in big water, pulled over and dropped anchor to re rig, go to pull anchor it’s wedged tighter than your mom. End up up cutting er loose. Get to the take out and pulling rods out and I break the tip off my brand new Helios. Should have stayed fucking home.


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Ahh shit dude. At least I am not the only one breaking nice rods. I might be the only dumbass to buy my rod second hand though.

Glad you're both okay!

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[Rasputin]

Dry fly SZN Vermont edition

Wow, what a beauty!

[I've seen black diamonds!]

About fifteen years ago my step father, who passed away last fall, had to cut loose his anchor in the Nantucket Sound when it got tangled on something. This was on a 46' motor catamaran that he had taken up to Northern Maine and down to the British Virgin Islands. I thought he'd be pissed off, but he just said, "I'll come back and get it tomorrow." I thought he was joking. But the next day he loaded his scuba gear on the boat and we headed out toward the pin he'd set on the GPS. It took him about an hour to find the thing, dislodge it, rig it onto the winch, haul it up and refasten it properly.

But he wasn't your average boater. He raced small sail boats for the Italian Navy, raced large sailboats with the Italian Prime Minister, designed yachts in Viareggio, and created the first commercially available GPS system. The aforementioned boat had a wing that was too tall to fit under a bridge between the Sound and his house at high tide.... so he cut it off and fabricated a new one that could be raised and lowered. He thought cutting his anchor loose and going back to find it later was fucking fun. Excellent skier too:


Here he is at 70 and full of cancer after he said to me, "I think I want to go ski that one more time:"




Weird taste in ski clothes, though. And not much of a fisherman. But he was good at driving the boat while other people caught fish. RIP

[lifelinksplit]

About fifteen years ago my step father, who passed away last fall, had to cut loose his anchor in the Nantucket Sound when it got tangled on something. This was on a 46' motor catamaran that he had taken up to Northern Maine and down to the British Virgin Islands. I thought he'd be pissed off, but he just said, "I'll come back and get it tomorrow." I thought he was joking. But the next day he loaded his scuba gear on the boat and we headed out toward the pin he'd set on the GPS. It took him about an hour to find the thing, dislodge it, rig it onto the winch, haul it up and refasten it properly.

But he wasn't your average boater. He raced small sail boats for the Italian Navy, raced large sailboats with the Italian Prime Minister, designed yachts in Viareggio, and created the first commercially available GPS system. The aforementioned boat had a wing that was too tall to fit under a bridge between the Sound and his house at high tide.... so he cut it off and fabricated a new one that could be raised and lowered. He thought cutting his anchor loose and going back to find it later was fucking fun. Excellent skier too:


Here he is at 70 and full of cancer after he said to me, "I think I want to go ski that one more time:"




Weird taste in ski clothes, though. And not much of a fisherman. But he was good at driving the boat while other people caught fish. RIP

Sorry for your loss. He sounds like my type of person.




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[Talisman]

Tangles, broken rod and two species of rising fish ignoring what you are tossing. If only there had been biting mosquitos or black flies and you would have scored a 9.0 to 9.3 on the misery index.

Drove over to a local pond after my kids went to bed. The plan was to fish topwater for either stocked rainbows or largemouth. Trout were rising when I arrived. I started by breaking my 5 weight while I was rigging it up. Sweet. So I switched to my 7 weight and tied on a beetle and a light colored mole fly with a white wing that vaguely resembled the yellowish midges flying around me. A trout hammered the mole on the first cast, but I broke it off. It wasn't a big fish, so it was probably a bad knot. Nice work. The rest of my moles were dark with grey wings, but I tied one on anyway. The trout were not interested. I tried 7-8 different small emergers and dries. Nope. Made a bunch of shitty casts trying to throw small flies with a rig set up for big bass bugs. Got tangled. Again. Tied on a big caddis pattern that resembled the moths that have inundated this area. Uh uh. They were all over the midges.

10 minutes after he sun set the bass started to rise. Every 30 seconds or so I'd hear the big "thunk" of a largemouth sucking in a meal off the surface. But they were all around some structure about 120' off shore... in a pond where wading and boats aren't allowed... with limited backcasting room. I tied on a chartreuse gurgler and chucked it as far as I could. I could only shoot it about half way there. Roll cast? Same result. Trying to over-cast, I had another nasty tangle. The gurgler was so thoroughly cocooned by my leader that it resembled a half-mummified frog. I cut it free, fixed my leader, and walked to a spot with more room for a back cast, but now I was farther from the rising fish. I was fishing on a prayer. I tried fishing a spot closer to shore where the bass sometime feed in the evening. Nope. Nothing.

Now it was fully dark. Tied on a couple streamers and chucked them around half-heartedly. It's hard to fish well when you are convinced you won't be successful. Thought about going back to targeting trout, but they weren't rising much and casting midges at night with a 7 weight isn't that great. So I went home and had a beer, ordered a new section for my busted 5 weight, and tied up some yellow mole flies with white wings.

[Phall]

Posted in the wbt fishy boat thread, but I've got a brand new, in box Star Outlaw 140 that I'm looking to offload, $2500 is the non-mag price. In SLC.

[swimmy]

I also broke my wading staff yesterday.

But hey, managed to catch a 14" brown on a wire worm. Yippeee!

[I've seen black diamonds!]

Tangles, broken rod and two species of rising fish ignoring what you are tossing. If only there had been biting mosquitos or black flies and you would have scored a 9.0 to 9.3 on the misery index.

Wasn't so bad. I learned something, including the fact that I fuck up too much when casting more than 40', which is how much room I have in my back yard and about as far ad I ever cast on the small-medium rivers I mostly fish. I'm still searching for a good place for evening bass fishing. The solid spot I was fishing last spring was drained out pretty low over the winter and I think a lot of the fish died. I'm going to check out some ponds in the middle of a new housing developments this week. I see herons hanging out when I drive by so there is hope. Hopefully no local Karen calls the cops on me. Also...

I might be the only dumbass to buy my rod second hand though.

The rod I broke was a 2nd hand Douglas Upstream Plus. They cost $550 new. I ordered a new section Friday night. It cost $65 shipped. They sent me tracking info this morning. I'd say that's beyond good customer service. Excellent rod too. Similar action to the Scott G series and some Winston rods that are full flexing but not gutless, but made in Korea and less pretty.

Anyway, good brand and if you bust one they'll sort you out quickly and cheaply.

[stapes]

Getting in some time on the water past month or so.

[tgapp]

Getting in some time on the water past month or so.

damn, beautiful!

i wish i had rivers that weren't blown out...

guess there's always the green )

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[skuff]

Casting a blue and silver Cleo, had 1 fish hit, almost pulled the fishing rod out of my hands. Didn't set the hook

Fished for another hour, nada

[I've seen black diamonds!]

I saw a memorable trout this morning.

I was fishing a stretch of creek that isn't all that great. But I rarely see anyone else fishing it, even though a ton of people live in the area. So that actually makes it a little bit great for me. It isn't stuffed full of trout. And most of the fish are small. Like this guy I caught this morning:


But since I seldom encounter another angler I can move quickly and focus on the water where I'm pretty sure fish hanging out. Which is what I did this morning. The flow was just right, the water was off color enough to make fish feel safe, but with enough visibility for fish to see flies within their typical feeding range. It was looking like a nice way to spend a couple hours.

I caught a couple on nymphs right when I arrived, then it was slow for a while. I switched to dries when it warmed up bit and then fishing was good. Fish weren't rising, but they were willing to come up eat on the surface, especially along the shadier East bank. It was fun, and I hadn't even reached the best stretch yet.

Then I saw something big and dark waving from side to side at the bottom of a nice pool. At first I thought it was too big to be a fish. Maybe it was an old Hefty bad stuck on a submerged log and oscillating in the current? Nope hefty bags don't drift over to the left side of a pool, then swim back to the center. It was a fish. A trout. And probably a bigger trout than I've ever caught in any of the more highly regarded rivers around here. But what was I going to do about it?

I thought about just throwing the caddis dry that had been working so well for the last 30 minutes. But the FISH was hanging out pretty deep. And a FISH that big got that big by eating big things. So I set aside my creek rod and rigged the Euro rod that was strapped to my back pack in case dries weren't working. I tied 5' of 2X to the tippet ring and jig streamer to the 2X. I almost let her rip into the pool right then, but I remembered that usually takes me a few casts to get things right when switch between casting fly line and casting mono + weight. This was a time when fucking up the first cast was unacceptable. So I walked 30' back down stream and took a few practice casts. I let out just the right amount of line. I saw how long it would take the streamer to get down to the right depth. I was ready. So I walked back up toward the FISH along the bank. Slowly. Silently. And I made the perfect cast. It plunked into the head of the pool and was drifting right at the behemoth's face. I gave it one subtle twitch...... and..............

He knew exactly what was going on. Some dumb fisherman was trying to fool him and he was unimpressed. He was too cool to flee in fear, but he wagged his tail a few times and began shrinking upstream. I wanted a better look at him, so I dropped my rod and ran along the far side of the trees that line the back. I arrived a the next little pool at the same time he did. We looked at each other. He was still unimpressed ( I think he may have rolled his eyes at me), but let himself drift back down stream into a dark spot where he became invisible. But I got a good look. A dark brown trout. About 22" and fat like a bass. I'll probably never catch him, but I'll try. If I spot him the same place I think I'll try drifting a streamer down stream toward him. There is a big old dead tree I can hide behind. He'll probably unimpressed again.

[Rasputin]

Way to spin a yarn!

[L8APX]

Now it is your responsibility to go back and fish that water with nothing but your eyes for several days. Get to know the fish, sounds like he was feeding on caddis pupa when you first saw him with the shifting left and right. Trust me, not hero arm chairing you, I would have done the same thing you did.