Some new toothy Friends

After my Sunday long run of fourteen miles (a weekly ritual), Charles called me saying we should drive a ways up highway 74 and go fish Sugar Creek.  I didn't argue.  Sugar is one of the best smallmouth fisheries in the state and has plenty of other fun fish around too. 

We settled on parking at a popular kayak takeout and fishing downstream.  

Immediately after getting there I realized I'd forgotten something important.  Gar flies.

I had tied up some rope flies with the intent of catching some longnose gar, but had left them at home.

We started fishing the holes and spotted an insane number of suckers, quillbacks, and buffalo.  They're so tough to get to eat.  I walked across the creek and picked up two little smallies behind a tree on a squirrel tail clouser, then I saw a gar drifting towards me.  I threw in the hole and got a green sunfish.  By the time I unhooked the slippery little potato-chip sized fish I couldn't see the gar. 

Then suddenly, he crept out from under the log 2 feet from my shins.  I dropped the clouser a foot from him, then he lunged forwards and grabbed it.  After a short thrash about the surface, we were able to grab the fish.  I got very lucky and pinned him in the roof of the mouth with the upturned hook.

Charles picked up a good gar as well.

We continued hiking downstream to a big bend.  We threw our heavy clousers immediately below a tree.  I tried something different and let my fly swing in the current.  I almost got the rod yanked out of my hands on the end of the swing, but didn't hook up.  We kept swinging clousers and picked up a few nicer smallies up to 14".

A fun day to be sure, we revisited this spot a lot during the summer for smallmouth.

Appalachian Adventure

May 24-31

With the coronavirus looming, my summer study abroad in Spain cancelled, and Josh's internship all online, we decided we needed to get out and have an adventure.  We settled on camping around and hiking in the Blue Ridge Parkway area in western North Carolina.  It's a fantastic area I've spent time in before and wouldn't hesitate to go redo this trip all over again.

Essentially, every day I woke up at 6:30, ran 4-6 miles to keep up with my training, and then we would make breakfast and pack up camp.  We drove to trailheads and parks to hike most of the day, then would drive to a different campsite and spend the night.  We repeated this for a full week.  We meticulously planned out this trip beforehand, prepping food and gear weeks in advance.  Thankfully, most of the area had opened up from the initial lockdown, and we were able to stay away from society and other people.

I'll only share a few pictures from the camping and hiking on this trip, but rest assured I could write a post with highlights for each day of the week we were gone.

The best campsite I've ever seen, bar none.  Linville Gorge Wilderness area

View from the top of Table Rock Mountain overlooking Linville Gorge.  Really cloudy most of the trip but we got to enjoy cool views like these.

Dupont State Forest waterfalls.  A hidden gem.  The most spectacular falls I've ever seen with a short but rugged hike to hit 5 different waterfalls.

One last view of Linville Gorge.  I loved this day of the trip

We did get one day of fishing wild trout streams in, and that was supposed to be the topic of this post.

On day one, we camped and drove to a spot I'd been before, called graveyard fields.  This area has a small rocky creek flowing through it full of pocket water with rushing water, boulders, and wild brook trout.  Josh and I spent one day fishing in this area.  I, like a fool, brought my uncle's borrowed 4 weight and my 6 weight for us to fish with.  Really wished I had a short 3 or 2 weight for this creek.  It's tight quarters and small fish.

I threw on guard socks and wading boots and Josh fished in beat up old sneakers.  The water was pretty chilly but no deeper than knee depth.

I stupidly tied on nymphing rigs to start with and then realized that brook trout don't care.  I threw a larger royal Wulff and got an angry, splashy hit that didn't quite take the fly.  I quickly switched to a patriot dry fly in size 18 and the bite opened up.  I quickly stuck two small brookies in the 5-7 inch range.  Not big but fun fish to watch smack dry flies.  

I switched my fly to a purple Adams and gave josh the patriot.  We both started hooking fish in the largest, flattest run by casting tight to the bank and mending well.  Josh picked up the biggest fish of the day and his first trout.  I was pretty proud of how well he casted and fished having only fly fished bedding bluegills once before.

Near the end of the day, I was able to find rock seams in any pool where fish were located.  I saw a seam, set down a dry fly, and got hit.  I wasn't able to hook a lot of fish, so I'll need to work on my sets on dry fly eats.  Otherwise it was a fantastic day and unrealistically good fishing for how little preparation we'd made to fish.  We ended up fishing longer than expected and only taking one short hike to finish off the
day.  

A Long-Needed Update

It's been quite awhile.  In the time since my last post, I've been at school.  I just recently finished my freshman year at the University of Notre Dame.  So far, it has been a fantastic whirlwind of emotions and catastrophes.  We are planning on returning to campus in the fall, but actual plans seem to hinge on the school administration's decisions. 


Over the winter, I went steelhead fishing numerous times with the fishing club.  We have a used Clackacraft drift boat we bought secondhand off a fishing guide a number of years back.  We fished the Dowagiac twice in December and January with little luck besides one of the guys nailing this cool brown on a spinner.

The Dowagiac is a pretty sketchy river to row a drift boat on and we've gotten into a number of hairy situations.  I've had to hop out and pull the boat upstream out of laydowns more than once.  It's been quite the experience.

Hopefully steelhead fishing on this river will be better in the spring and Fall this year, assuming we're allowed to make the short drive to go fish it.





I've been fishing steelhead with a new set-up.  A retired lawyer brought a 9'6" 7 weight Sage SLT into the  fly shop I work at and told Mike to find someone who'd use it.  It's a fantastic rod for swinging larger steelhead flies and drifting nymphs.

I've done quite a bit of fishing this year, so expect more updates.  Hopefully I'll have some free time to write them right now and then post daily after today.

Surprise New Species!

August 20, 2019

After work today, I got a call from Bobby asking to go fish somewhere.  I met him at a local pond that often has carp patrolling the banks.  Although the sky and water were cloudy, I figured I had a shot.  After about 30 minutes of patrolling, we didn't see any carp.  I flipped my fly around for fun and ended up with a few nice bass, but nothing too nice.

After a short session here, Charles called me looking to go fishing somewhere.  I told him he was in luck.  Bobby and I packed up our stuff and met him at another pond for some bass fishing. 

There were few bass active.  I fished a blue boogle bug popper, a favorite of the shop owners, but none of us could find a bass.  I occupied myself with a few fat green sunfish I found bedded up in a corner of the pond.  Their mouths were just big enough to take the popper, and it's always fun to watch fish take on top.

We decided to move once more to another pond I haven't fished before.  Charles tells me there are big bass here.  We arrived close to dark and fished for only about 15 minutes before deciding to pack it up.  As I made my last five casts, I felt a weight on the line and strip set.  Whatever ate cleared the water a few times and I imagined was a nice 2 pound bass.  I pulled in a 14 inch shad instead.  I snapped a picture removed my crayfish jig fly from its oddly shaped lip.  An odd catch on the fly for sure, but a new one for the species list.  Then, we went and enjoyed burgers and shakes at Culver's.

Solo Creek Fishing

August 16

College has been busy.  It's been a long first semester, but football season has ended and I've finally got some time to update.   I haven't gotten around to updating since the summer, so this will be one of a few entries.

I had a free day, and unfortunately Charles had a family event to attend.  So I decided to go to the creek solo.  This turned out to be an amazing move.


I hopped in at the same bridge we usually fish.  I initially wanted to try out a new crawdad fly using Kiley's Exo Skin, a new tying material.  This fly has been a proven producer for one of my guide friends.  It turned out that that fly was not the ticket today.  I wish I would have known earlier.

I started fishing this fly through a few holes, including one which is usually has monsters in it..  I had no luck.  I moved on to a hole behind a small rock that usually produces smallmouth and plenty of sunfish.  I didn't even get a look.  Right here I switched to a small swimming nymph fly.  I immediately caught around 5 tiny smallmouth and a few pretty green sunfish.



I continued moving on to what is typically one of the best spots in the creek.  One side has a gravel bank, while the other is a steep wall cut out of the shale and dirt.  I approached the first shallow pool and within 15 minutes caught 6 more of the tiny smallmouth.  The 8 inchers are tiny, but fight harder than many fish.  Creek smallmouth in my opinion are the hardest fighting freshwater fish pound for pound.  They really battle until the bitter end.  These fish were so much fun.

I continued for a few more minutes and got a fish that actually had a little heft.  He cleared the water twice, and I saw that it was a decent smallie, maybe a pound or so.  This fish tanked me for about 3 more minutes until I lipped him.  After this, I finally started moving down to the more productive end of the pool.

This pool is amazingly good.  At the tailout of the run there is a downed tree by the steep walls which feeds into a pool with one submerged rock.  I fished this pool for two minutes and caught 3 smallmouth right off of the rock.

All were small, about the same size I had been catching, but they were fun.

Then I got a nice one. This fish pulled back line when it bit, so I knew it had to be decent.


After a few absurdly high jumps, some tail walking, and a tough fight, I brought in a feisty 13 inch about 1 pound smallmouth.  Not a trophy by anyone's standards, but so much fun on a 6 weight in a tiny creek.

I continued on to the next hole, a short run next to a downed tree ending in a large, evenly deep pool full of isolated rocks.
I made one cast and drift with the nymph next to the fallen tree.  I hooked immediately into something nice.  It burned out 30 feet of line to get itself onto the reel in mere seconds.  I was almost frightened of the power this fish exhibited.  After 5 seconds of chaos, the fish jumped 2 feet into the air, and I could see it was a smallmouth of gargantuan proportions, surely close to the 20 inch mark.

As I was in awe of it crashing back down into the water, the fly popped out of its mouth.  Dejected, I stripped back in to find my fly, frazzled but fishable on the end of my leader.  Trembling with adrenaline, I checked my tippet then made another cast, this one to the rocks in the pool.  Immediately I pulled a 7 incher out.  I continued this for 15 minutes, casting to an isolated rock and catching small fish.

I made another cast and hooked up with a fish I could tell was big.  It didn't jump, but fought down deep for over 5 minutes.  After the chaotic fight, I lipped a nice 16 inch smallmouth for a few pictures.  This was an especially pretty fish with beautiful dark markings in certain lights and a smooth mossy bronze side in others.  After enjoying the pretty fish for awhile, I released it and made my trek back to the car.

While not the best evening for size,  I did catch a lot of fish end enjoyed a solo evening on the river before my night with friends afterwards.

Blue-Lining

I was in Colorado for two weeks on a camping trip and did not get to do any fishing.  On the upside, runoff was horrible, so it looks like I didn't miss anything good while I was there.

After my return, it was immediately back to work and scheduled fishing.  On Sunday, Charles and I had the bright idea to leave and go fishing at 4 in the afternoon.  We drove down past town and parked at a church, then made a half mile walk down to a bridge where we were able to hop into the creek.

After a few minutes, Charles stumbled on a territorial fish that seemed to relate to an area.  You could still see a cereal bowl-shaped beds where the fish had spawned.  Of course Charles was continually saying that the fish were bedded.  It is now July and the water is 75 degrees.  The spawn is long over, and these fish were not bedded.

Charles spent a solid 15 minutes trying to hook this fish.  He went through numerous fly changes and finally elicited a strike.  The fish immediately ran into the brush by the side of the creek, and tit took charles a few minutes to get him out.  The fish was fairly skinny, but probably went 17 or 18 inches.  I used a waterproof phone case to get an underwater release video.  We tried to do this with every fish.  Hopefully I can put some of them into a video edit on my youtube channel.

Charles found me one fish isolated by a rock patterning the same way.  I switched flies ten times and did not get the fish to swipe once.  Charles came over, took one cast, and hooked up.  I took a good look at his fly and immediately switched to clouser.

My next cast shot under the trees into a shady hole, and a nice 14 incher took my fly.

Charles was working on a nice female hiding behind a rock.  He switched flies multiple times and took plenty of time casting to this fish.  I got my payback on Charles and hooked this fish on my first cast.

It had been so long since I'd caught a nice smallmouth, I forgot how fun they were on a 6 weight.  This fish ran up the flat into 1 foot of water, then caught 4 feet of air on his first jump, almost hitting the tree branches above the creek.  He fought for a few more minutes then I grabbed him for a few pictures.

We continued walking downstream, catching more fish and then came to an area where the creek had scooped a 6 foot wall out of the shale on one side.  Here, we fished a good run, but with no success.

Dark clouds started to move in, and Charles knows from experience that being in the creek during a storm is dangerous.  The water starts to rise quickly and the current combined with the rock gardens can become dangerous.  We turned and high tailed it back to the bridge we hopped in at.

After checking the radar, we realized the storm was going to slide around us, so we continued upstream the opposite direction we started in.  I found a small run with a few gorgeous little longear sunfish and passed some time catching them.

I switched to a clouser tied with entirely gold ripple ice fiber.  I tied it from sample materials we received from a Hareline Dubbin shipment.  I swung it straight under the bridge and hooked up with another decent smallie.

We fished down to another area with more steep shale walls.

We continued fishing here, each catching two more nice smallmouth before it eventually became dark.  We ended up fishing for around 4 hours on a spontaneous trip that became one of most fun days of fishing I've had in awhile.

I miss just hopping in a creek and following it to catch fish.  I'll have to find some friends in college to enjoy the same thing with.  We ended up getting 15 smallies averaging about 15 inches apiece, which is very nice, especially for the size of this tiny creek.  We'll continue scouting new holes out and chasing them on google maps.

I expect we'll be back soon for more smallies, and maybe one of us will figure out how to catch redhorse suckers by the end of the summer.  They were everywhere but don't like looking at flies.  Until next time.

New Records and Hybrid Sunfish

Charles and I planned our fishing for the morning today.  After a lot of discussion, we planned to go to a pond with a few grass carp and tons of bluegill, but there were baseball games in the nearby fields, so we had to find new plans.  We instead started fishing in a pond for carp.  Upon arrival, we found a very muddy pond.  Plumes of mud from tailing carp were everywhere.  The only problem was, we couldn't see any fish.  There was one massive grass carp in the middle of the pond, but we decided not to mess with it.  We threw our carp flies at the bass, but only managed a few small ones.

We shortly left to go back to my main pond.  Everything was out and about, but few bass wanted to look at our flies, especially after the fishing day yesterday.  





We spent a little time messing around with the bluegill beds.  They were still on fire, and we spent a bunch of time catching one after the other.  What else are days off for?  Charles and I killed time, caught multiple doubles, and daydreamed about a bag of deer jerky to enjoy while doing it.  Maybe some other time.

We continued our quest for bass, but only combined for two or three bass on flies as well as the jigs Charles started throwing.  We felt it was time for a throwback technique: live bluegill.
Only one problem: all the bluegill in the pond were too big.  I remembered the bluegill in the carp pond were significantly smaller, so we went straight over there, fly rods in hand, to put a beat down on some bluegill.  Charles carried a walmart grocery bag to put the fish in.



We got there and started catching bluegill in the 4-6 inch range.  These fish were perfect for bass fishing.  After a few fish, however, we noticed something strange.  Some of these fish were not purebred bluegills.  Neither one of us is sure what they are.  I talked to someone who thinks they may be hybridized with redears, but I'm not sure.  If you have any clue as to what this species is, let me know.

We caught a few of these mystery sunfish then released them.  In the end, we had two bluegills in the right size range for bass bait.  Just perfect.  Although their spines kept poking holes in the plastic bag, we kept them mostly safe and well watered.  After we got over to the main pond, Charles put one on a big bait hook on his 7' 3" heavy bass rod.  I just continued having fun catching bluegills and missing the occasional baby bass on a san juan worm fly.

A few feet down from me, Charles hooked into his first bass.  It was a very nice fish, probably over 4.  We never weighed it, but it was one of the bigger bass we've caught recently.  He ran to grab his last bluegill while I wrestled with more big slab sunfish on my 6 weight.

Charles camly walked over to the other side of the pond where he believed he saw a large fish earlier.  He later told me he had sight fished, and how he was able to do this without making a sound is unbelievable to me, knowing the way he is.  I know moments later I heard a yell that this fish was a monster and I had to come.





I was in the middle of a fight with another nice bull bluegill.  Once I unhooked him, I ran to the other side of the pond to see the fish.  Once I saw it, my jaw dropped.  I may never see another bass this large this close to home again.  Wow.

We had a short photo shoot then I ran to grab the scale while Charles held the fish in the water.  When a fish is this big, you have to weigh it for accuracy's sake.  By the time I got back, a homeowner was on his lawn mower near us.  He had been out mowing for a good amount of time, and he obviously had seen us fishing.  Even more surprising, he has lived there for at least as long as I have been fishing the pond, and has never once said anything before.  He had clearly seen the fish and I detected a tinge of envy in his voice.  He told us we were on private property (we were on grass that he has never once mowed right by the bank) and asked if we lived in the neighborhood.  When I responded with yes, he merely repeated that we were on private property and told us to "F off".  Some people just cannot stand to watch idly by while others have fun.  I motioned for Charles to come follow me and we walked across the property line to another yard, one whose owner has personally told me to fish there whenever I feel like it.


There, we finished our photo shoot and finally weighed the fish.  It topped the scale at 7 lbs 1 ounce. (Likely because of that bluegill it had just swallowed).  This fish was something special.  At only half the state record, it is still the biggest bass Charles has ever caught and the biggest I have ever seen in the state.

He finished up by releasing the big girl back into her home.  These fish may still be prespawn, but we suspect this fish may be too old to spawn any more.  Charles and I both looked at each other speechless.  Almost immediately after, we heard thunder.  We raced back to our gear, broke all our rods down, and sat in the car while it poured.  Overall, an amazing day, and one I won't soon forget.





A quick thank you to all to all those soldiers who fought for our freedom and gave the ultimate sacrifice.  This Memorial Day was well spent.