2023 Fish-Pic-O-Rama

[stapes]

Haha Rasputin. I appreciate that story!

I too have found crankiness on the water attracts shit like that, and can perpetuate itself. I’m sure we’ve all been guilty of it. I know I have…

Sometimes that one fish is all that matters too.

[GiantManta]

Got out a few weeks back with JSJ from Hog Island and buddy of mine who recently joined the dead dads club and needed to get away. A bit slow due to the fact we suck at fly fishing. Did mange to get a few to the net and JSJ snapped this pic of my buddy.

[Rasputin]

Camera angle and all aside, that hog looks like you could stuff an apple in his mouth and roast him on a spit.

[Mr. Mike]

C’mon down to Boblandia and I’ll float you around.

hopefully next year for 4/20.

[tgapp]

lately the biggest draw for me in fishing my local water has been finding the most unique trash I can. here are some of the highlights:



a full closed cell foam sleeping pad



some random phone seggs ads from the 90s






and some hungry hopper eaters


inb4 danno says "OMG this thread is not marked NSFW muh sensibiliteez r so hurt!!!" and then "sorry man i won't stop ppl from saying homophobic, racist, violent shit bc free speech" while furiously scribbling the numbers down

[Percy Rideout]

Great shots everybody!

The fishing has been getting better and better here in central CO with the dropping water levels.

The closest spot to me with good access and multiple holes is also the spot all the local guides take the wading clients. Lots of pressure, but the fish are still biting on my mediocore presentations. No green drakes up here yet, but they are coming soon.

[plugboots]

lately the biggest draw for me in fishing my local water has been finding the most unique trash I can.

I assume you’re exaggerating a bit with the biggest draw, but I totally get this. The shit I find on the side of the river and clean up is beyond.
Rednecks are frankly such a pigs it drives me nuts. The thing that takes up the most space in my clean up is just metal shit, like car parts, that have holes in it from using as shooting targets.

[MarsB]

TGapp, you'll have to step up your game. I've found a drone and a laptop in that stretch.

[Rasputin]

I got up today before 6am so I could get to the river early without being in a rush, I didn't want to forget anything. As I rode my bike down the road I thought about what neckdeep said about Fish and Game checking licenses around town........oh crap, I forgot my wallet, and license. I'd already gone three miles, so after a six mile bike ride I decided to drive the truck down there, and arrived at 8am.

I didn't get a pic of the first fish of the day because he was small, definitely not because I couldn't hold on to him. He'd taken a mahogany parachute, which was the closest thing I had, to the mayflies I saw pooping out eggs on the water. The second one took the same fly, and was a little bigger.





Since I had a couple fish caught, I decided to walk toward where I'd lost my streamer in a big fish on Monday, lo and behold, there he was sitting in the shallows with the streamer still in his lip. I stepped away and started swapping out leaders to a heavy one I made up for streamers. Then suddenly there was a huge splashing sound. Right across the river from where I'd caught my fish, a lady had thrown a stick half way across the channel and her two dogs were going to get it. The fish I was stalking hadn't moved. SPLASH, the lady had moved up stream, and thrown the stick directly toward me, but the dogs splashing was still seventy five feet or more away. The fish was still there. Splash, splash, honk NO no no. One of dogs had attacked a Canada goose that was a bit too close to where she'd thrown the stick. The goose, being injured swam across the channel as the lady's fine, verbal leash took hold on the dogs.

The goose swam right toward me hanging its head in pain. A passing raft of folks floated by and I asked it they had a phone, describing what happened and pointing at the stick throwing lady, who had done the responsible thing, she moved down the river and kept stick throwing with her dogs. The goose climbed up on the rock bar, apparently having a broken wing. I thought about leaving, to call the Audubon society, but the folks in the raft said they would, so I went back down to where the fish were rising at the confluence, giving the goose his space.





Later, I saw the goose get up, go to the water, and drink a bit. Then it got in the water, and started heading down river, last I saw it, it was floating backwards.

I kept fishing, and just before a large tuber colony floated by, I caught another one, and got to show it off while I was reviving it, I received applause.





After quite a while longer I caught another one on a PMD trailing behind a elk hair caddis. It struck just as i was complaining about elk hair caddises, because everyone says they're all that, and are high floating, and all they do for me is sink and never get a rise. The elk hair caddis got revenge on me, by getting caught in my hair, as the little fish thrashed about wildly to avoid getting his picture taken, which is the reason his head was turned toward the camera.





After catching that one, a group of four college girls on tubes floated directly over where the fish were rising (where I had just casted as well), then realizing that I might not want them in my lap, started paddling the water wildly with their hands. I said dryly, "That is sure to make the fish bite", then tried to laugh it off. One of them said sorry thinly, as they floated down the confluence.

I continued casting and changing flies, I was starving, as it had been six hours since I had eaten my seriously sharp cheddar wrap (with smoked porter mustard). My back hurt, and my head was swimming, as I'd been standing out in the sun for over nine hours (it hit 93 today), and I kept telling myself that this would be the last fly I tried. Finally, I tied on an olive sparkle dun, and asked it to work its magic as I worked up toward the point, finally resolving to quit for the day, because I'd finally crossed the threshold between fanaticism and masochism, when BAM! The dun done worked its magic, and the battle ensued. I had to be careful because I had tied on 5x tippets because the water was shallow and the fish skittish, but eventually I landed a loverly 16" cutty. It was a good day.

[kokomas]

Great night at the ranch

Sent from my Pixel 7 using Tapatalk

[Harry]

Speaking of Northern Pike, the other day I was targeting Musky in River X and accidentally caught a 47-inch pike.

[Percy Rideout]

Speaking of Northern Pike, the other day I was targeting Musky in River X and accidentally caught a 47-inch pike.

Holy shit that's a beaut. What kind of fly rod/rig you catch that massive pickerel on? I am imagining a half hour battle here on light gear. Impressive.

[Underoos]

I posted a video a while back of a trip that jcpm and I did with a friend.
Here is that friend's video, which is quite different than mine and more enjoyable to watch.

[Rasputin]

I posted a video a while back of a trip that jcpm and I did with a friend.
Here is that friend's video, which is quite different than mine and more enjoyable to watch.

That was wildy different than your video! I think you friend is a bit of a poet.

[Harry]

Holy shit that's a beaut. What kind of fly rod/rig you catch that massive pickerel on? I am imagining a half hour battle here on light gear. Impressive.

For musky we use 12wt 9 foot one-piece fly rods, I prefer this one by the Chippewa Custom Rod Company. These rods are beefy AF. Tom the rod builder used to work for St Croix before starting his own biz. Cool guy, he lives just down the road from my Grampa’s old place.
https://crcustomrod.com/products/predatory-fly-rod-810


For line I use a 12 weight Sink 7 to get down deep real fast.
https://muskyfool.com/collections/fl...42793109717218


Leader & Tippet = steel wire. Musky have piranha type teeth and will bite right through any mono or flouro.


Musky flies are huge, 8 to 16 inches long, and expensive. Often articulated with dual treble hooks (I do barbless). I get mine wholesale in bulk from former Big Sky local Nick, a guy Underoos knows. In a fly shop they are $25 to $35 per fly.
https://muskyfool.com/collections/musky-flies?page=1



Maggot StealYurFace has visited me and we went Musky fishing. He can verify that casting that big rod with heavy line pushing a big fly is not easy and can really wear out your shoulder. I do rotator cuff exercises to keep in shape.

Note in the pike photo, that’s not me holding the fish. I’m the dude behind giving the thumbs up. I did catch it though. Guy holding the fish is non-mag Captain Josh, another friend of Underoos. He attended 4/20 at Boblandia (he was in the blue Adipose boat with Underoos) and now we have been regularly fishing together here in WI.

[Buster Highmen]

Canaduh haz the fishes.

Sent from my SM-S918U1 using Tapatalk

Skeena? Kispiox? Babine? Bulkley? Sustut? Morice?
One of these days I'm going to get up there, maybe even this year.

I'll need to find a more commoners way though, most of those lodges cut into retirement savings too far.

[Underoos]

Skeena? Kispiox? Babine? Bulkley? Sustut? Morice?

Can't you tell by the rocks that it's the Dean? I thought it was obvious.

[Buster Highmen]

Can't you tell by the rocks that it's the Dean? I thought it was obvious.

Maybe you could ask your buddy, Mr. R. Haig Brown?

[GiantManta]

My shoulder hurts just reading that description especially when I think of musky as a fish of 10,000 casts.

For musky we use 12wt 9 foot one-piece fly rods, I prefer this one by the Chippewa Custom Rod Company. These rods are beefy AF. Tom the rod builder used to work for St Croix before starting his own biz. Cool guy, he lives just down the road from my Grampa’s old place.
https://crcustomrod.com/products/predatory-fly-rod-810


For line I use a 12 weight Sink 7 to get down deep real fast.
https://muskyfool.com/collections/fl...42793109717218


Leader & Tippet = steel wire. Musky have piranha type teeth and will bite right through any mono or flouro.


Musky flies are huge, 8 to 16 inches long, and expensive. Often articulated with dual treble hooks (I do barbless). I get mine wholesale in bulk from former Big Sky local Nick, a guy Underoos knows. In a fly shop they are $25 to $35 per fly.
https://muskyfool.com/collections/musky-flies?page=1



Maggot StealYurFace has visited me and we went Musky fishing. He can verify that casting that big rod with heavy line pushing a big fly is not easy and can really wear out your shoulder. I do rotator cuff exercises to keep in shape.

Note in the pike photo, that’s not me holding the fish. I’m the dude behind giving the thumbs up. I did catch it though. Guy holding the fish is non-mag Captain Josh, another friend of Underoos. He attended 4/20 at Boblandia (he was in the blue Adipose boat with Underoos) and now we have been regularly fishing together here in WI.

[I've seen black diamonds!]

Topwater largemouth action from Cape Cod:

[swimmy]

Dayumm, checked out for just a couple of days and come back to see this thread is fire. Nice work everyone.

Mostly hiking the past couple of days with my wife with not much fishing. But these are each loaded with brookies or cuts, all eager to take a dry fly.

[Rasputin]

Wow swimmy, beauty hiking, and that little stream makes me want to go fishing elsewhere, and I discovered today, that the State of Montana rebated me a bunch of money, so I can see an out of town trip in the near future. However, yesterday I was ignorant of the fact that I wasn't quite broke, so I rode my bike to the usual spot.

The water has become clear and shallow, and I saw some fish rising when I arrived (late though, having slept in until 7:30am), so I started out with what had worked the previous evening, an olive sparkle dun, and found a very feisty little taker:




After the little guy, I didn't get any more rises, and decided to go deeper; I rigged a beaded emerger pattern dropping 30" off of a chubby. I prefer chubbys for indicators since they are very sensitive to nymph takes, and also can get big takes themselves. I had a few takes over the next couple hours, and a couple briefly on (one of them showed me the flash of a big fish), but I didn't keep anything on the hook. I saw some fish rising again, and started cycling through drys so I could get a second fish for the day. I often use a large indicator for a double dry, because my eyes are not very good, even wearing prescription polarized sunglasses I have difficulty seeing small drys, but I began wincing at the plop of chubbys in the now shallow waters of the confluence, so I went to single drys. Nothing worked, so I decided to go to my go-to, the venerable Renegade.

I didn't mention, in my post about fishing Wednesday, that I found that my old friend Dumb-ass likes to sit in less than a foot of water, and periodically rise to sip bugs, all day long. I think there is something wrong with that fish, if I can see him, certainly the osprey and eagles that soar above the lower Bitterroot will get him eventually. I tried to tempt him a number of times but he wouldn't take and would swim off. One time he rose up and mouthed my fly line before sinking back to his resting position. After struggling to thread 5x tippets through the size 16 hook eye of my Renegade, I decided to see if old Dumb-ass would take it, since he ignored all the other drys I floated over him. It took me a couple casts, trying to stay far away (and using eleven feet of leader) to get a cast to drift over him without it hanging up on the shore five feet to his left, but once I got it to float straight over him, he lazily rose and took it, unable to resist the power of the Renegade.

I felt a bit ashamed to be honest. His fight wasn't very lively, as if he knew it was a temporary inconvenience. As I held him reviving him, I admonished him to stay outta the shallow waters during the day light so a bird wouldn't get him, and promised him that I wouldn't try to catch him again. A group of floaters drifted by as I held him up for a broadside pic. A lady said "nice fish", I felt no pride at my catch. I was happier about the five incher I caught later, as I made my way up to the boat ramp.






The dark area which makes old Dumb-ass so easily identifiable. Maybe I'll just call him "Spot".

[Mr. Mike]

June trip to Mexico (XFlats--let me know if anyone is considering and wants info).

[John_B]

I caught this fellow on a Chernobyl after seeing him take a couple swipes at my streamer. It's a good reminder of how cool it is seeing a nice trout hitting a dry fly.

[Rasputin]

Good golly Miss Molly, look at the shoulders on that one, what a beast of a cutty!