The Epical 2025 Fishing Yarns and Photo Thread

Holy crap, nice one! ^^^^


I went out yestereve, and caught a couple trout, a small cutthroat and a healthy rainbow, and also caught another 18 inch whitefish. While I was landing the rainbow, I looked down and saw my first skwalla of the year parked on my leg, so soon fish will be looking up for them bugs.


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Today I fished, and repeatedly tangled my rig, ranting and cursing, through a furious grauple squall, which then turned into heavy wind driven flakes almost a half inch in an hour. After it passed, it became a beautifully sunny, but windy, afternoon. The fishing was slow, but eventually, once I made it to the area which has been yielding big fish, I was treated to a couple of them, including a hard pulling 18 incher.


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Originally Posted by I've seen black diamonds!

Tried something new:https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...acd5eef4db.jpg

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They’re perfect for learning saltwater. Juuuuust hard enough.

Yep - they are the gateway drug to the salt addiction.


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Hooked up with and landed a black drum today after several failed attempts. Made one of the better casts of my life at a sheepshead and had a solid eat from but didn't have a solid hook set. Man, this was fun. Started seeing the fish much better on day two, but still struggled to identify which way they were facing if they weren't moving. I definitely cast at a few fish butts.

For trout fishermen thinking of taking a redfish trip: what I was least prepared for was the shortest casts. I practiced casting with fly in hand quite a bit before my trip but not enough. I should have practiced more short casts to all angles, starting with fly in hand with a chair in front of me to simulate a trolling motor and a step ladder behind me to simulate the guide.

I only trout set once but it cost me what would have been the biggest fish of the trip.

I wish I had a couple more days to keep learning/getting better. https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...6fa6e3c17c.jpg

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Quote:

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Originally Posted by I've seen black diamonds!

Hooked up with and landed a black drum today after several failed attempts. Made one of the better casts of my life at a sheepshead and had a solid eat from but didn't have a solid hook set. Man, this was fun. Started seeing the fish much better on day two, but still struggled to identify which way they were facing if they weren't moving. I definitely cast at a few fish butts.

For trout fishermen thinking of taking a redfish trip: what I was least prepared for was the shortest casts. I practiced casting with fly in hand quite a bit before my trip but not enough. I should have practiced more short casts to all angles, starting with fly in hand with a chair in front of me to simulate a trolling motor and a step ladder behind me to simulate the guide.

I only trout set once but it cost me what would have been the biggest fish of the trip.

I wish I had a couple more days to keep learning/getting better. https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...6fa6e3c17c.jpg

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This is the truth. Peeps (myself included) get so focused on double hauling, sending long casts, etc that you get worked on the short finess stuff. Much easier for me to send one 60' into a headwind between a couple of mangroves than a 10' quick draw with a 5mph side breeze. It's the short stuff.

Today's haul.https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...0b7d847737.jpg

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Awesome to see all the salt stoke! And pictures working again. Mrs and I got our first taste of it as well this winter as well And I’m absolutely hooked.
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The Permit game has me absolutely mind fucked. I had many really good shots. Only to fuck it up in soo many different ways. Even got a couple eats and fucked those up! . Mainly nerves leading to poor casting, tailing loops, slack in line, bad swimming of crab, blown hook sets. Then when you do make the perfectly executed cast, presentation, and swim, the fish wants nothing to do with your fly.

It’s really a crazy game. You just have to be perfect with every piece of the execution. Soo much fun. And really pushing me to improve before my next trip.

Also just exposed how I’m not very good at this sport. Basically playing little league trout fishing all these years. I spent one day fishing with a buddy who is an exceptional angler. Watched him throw two cast and catch two Perms. He then had to spend the rest of the day watching me blow opportunity after opportunity!! They are such cool fish!https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...4f8d45beaf.jpg





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Quote:

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Originally Posted by jpcm

The Permit game has me absolutely mind fucked. I had many really good shots. Only to fuck it up in soo many different ways. Even got a couple eats and fucked those up! . Mainly nerves leading to poor casting, tailing loops, slack in line, bad swimming of crab, blown hook sets. Then when you do make the perfectly executed cast, presentation, and swim, the fish wants nothing to do with your fly.

It’s really a crazy game. You just have to be perfect with every piece of the execution. Soo much fun. And really pushing me to improve before my next trip.

Also just exposed how I’m not very good at this sport. Basically playing little league trout fishing all these years. I spent one day fishing with a buddy who is an exceptional angler. Watched him throw two cast and catch two Perms. He then had to spend the rest of the day watching me blow opportunity after opportunity!! They are such cool fish!https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...4f8d45beaf.jpg





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So well said. Welcome to the addiction...crack rock ain't got nothing on permit.

I am fortunate in that we do a family vacation in tarpon heaven. But at the risk of sounding spoiled, I'd trade five days chasing tarpon for an hour of permit flats.

That said, I had more fun today than I have had in months.

Took the girls (5 & 9) out on a friend's ponga and they straight murdered sea trout, Jack's, cuda, snapper and even a snook. I told them we could leave at any time but we stayed an hour longer until their fighting over the rod became too much. Mission accomplished and civiche enjoyed!

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I caught a fat 19 inch rainbow today, after first reaching many states of hysterical ranting, good times.


https://i.postimg.cc/zDwNcRVx/32325.jpg

Been a minute since I fished a certain tailwater here with some really shitty access issues going on. Went to an old reliable and had issues keeping the bigger fish on the hook. Had a few take a wdfifty I tied up which were the first ears of fly I tied besides a worm. Bwo’s started popping at one ish and caught a few on dries before realizing I had been fishing for five hours and didn’t have my water bottle.
Photo uploaded fail,sorry!

Pardon the shameless plug. Come party at Rancho with me, eat some good food, laugh, and win some guided trips and sweet gear in the raffle.

https://hugeflyfisherman.com/product/huge-fest/

Seems I can't embed videos anymore, so here's a link.

https://youtu.be/snPbBrvWDrA

Sounds fun!

It does sound fun- got out for a few days finally. It was good to get on the water and catch some fishes



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Attachment 511932

Seeing if this works or if I need to figure out the 3rd party thing


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Yep need to figure out 3rd party to post photos

^^^^ Doesn't work. And when I try to respond to your post it quotes Underoos' post.

First weekend on the river this season. Weather was great, clouds of bugs, and hungry fish. Going to be a good year!
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Strong work!

Looking for a place to fish? You can pay this youtuber and he'll tell you his fishing spots:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wR-y7SPAnc0

Flows and weather finally good to go on the local. Went out for a float on the wife's bday. Didn't take many pics but put quite a few in the boat. I really need new rubber for my boat net too. Walter like the muddy dirt road.https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...d9ecfe430b.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...f1ccddd161.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...1078be8eaf.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...f366e34586.jpg

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Figured I would put up a pic before this place shits the bed.https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...ee2e094ec9.jpg

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https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...56b353a2cf.jpg
Post them while you can!


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I usually like to shut off while camping but it was game 1 of playoffs and wife is a huge Avs fan.

Hope you fellas are having a good 420 on the green!https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...8e909c07ce.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...e7f8481b59.jpghttps://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...82d2d24a6d.jpg

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Henry’s Fork caddis eater on our way to the Smith.


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Going South for some saltwater fishing.
Got a new T-shirt for the trip:
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Nice shirt Plug!

I have not been able to get on TGR for weeks, and since the local rivers blew up with runoff I have not had much to report.


However I will throw out there, that one day, I caught a nineteen inch whitefish, and a nineteen inch pike minnow, within twenty minutes of each other, and another day a beautiful, fat, cutthroat in the confluence of two mighty Montana trout streams.


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Also the last fish I caught was a twenty inch pike minnow, which is the biggest one yet.


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Other recent trips have not been fishy, whether I was throwing a nymph rig, double dry, dropper, or streamer, I have not been doing any catching the last two or three times out. Saturday will mark the opening of tributaries, so perhaps I will make it out to big cutthroat creek, and see how my luck is there. Hopefully the speed with which TGR loaded today means that I will be able to post pics again.</p>

Nice! Good to see things up and running. Made my annual tarpon run. Managed a couple silver kings and my first ever permit on the fly. Crazy catch, out night fishing for feeding tarpon and threw a popper into a school of feeding tarpon and I will be dammed if a permit didn’t come out of nowhere to eat it. Still in shock.
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Yea photos still don’t work.https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...6c1afba93b.jpg

That’s cheating on that permit. You know it.

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Originally Posted by plugboots

That’s cheating on that permit. You know it.

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Yep - it sure is, but if you aint cheating you ain’t trying momma always says.


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How many have you had on before? I’ve had 4 on, (and I can tell you all the details), and landed 1. I prolly have had 25 follows.

wow, im able to get on the forum!
heading back east today to hang with dad, fish the Cheekey schoolie tournament and meet up with Brock Landers for some stripers. Photos to hopefully come.

I have had [emoji639] on prior - can also tell you all the details. Have had more follows than I can even count. My house in Belize is close to some prime permit fishing. They are frustrating fish. And I don’t care how cheating it was I’m counting it.


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My best/worst was: one ate, (it was hard to see the actual take), I strip set, fish on, and then the line just kinda came back to me. Dang!
Right away, just near there, was a mud, so I cast into it, and on the second strip, another take, only the line came back quicker. I checked, and the fly had the hook broken at the bend, (the first permit crushed it).

Ignorant as I am about saltwater fishing, I thought all this talk about permit was about a fish you needed a special permit to fish for, but I looked it up today, and now I am a more educated reader. I do not understand this talk of cheating by catching one when trying for something else, it is not cheating, it is luck.

If not for luck I highly doubt I would ever catch any fish of any sort, including those I am trying for. Fish are often incomprehensible in their motivations, aside from the fact that they eat things they think are food. However I have had enough takes on indicators, dry flies I was retrieving against the current, and even jigs hanging above water off the edge of a boat, to believe that luck, or as I prefer to call it, divine intervention is what allows fisher folk to catch fish, and not our mastery in being artfully tricky.

I know, I know, accusing a fellow fisher of cheating is a tease born of friendly envy, and I am overly literal at times, but I like to act as a foil between the teasing and the coming to believe it to be true.

As the saying goes, I would rather be lucky than good. This does not mean that I think that there is no skill in fishing, certainly there are many barriers to catching fish by clownishly flailing in various ways, and thereby frightening the magical underwater denizens we pursue interaction with, but ultimately, the decision to engage with the often ridiculously unrealistic lures we throw is up to the fish, and to the Fisher of souls who animates the fish and fisher alike to do the dance in and on the waters which we love, and are frustrated by.

Not for me.
I only want to catch the fish I am casting too. Even on a destination trip, I have left many places when the only option is to blind cast or, (non-sight), nymph.
I’m 65 and started fly fish at age 8. The randomness, (or whatever), just isn’t interesting to me.

Flu fisherman are a bunch of elitist judgmental mother fuckers. I loves stalking and catching the individual fish I am actually chasing, that being said permit are world class pricks and I have no problem “cheating” by your standards to fool a permit to eat a fly. As many times as they have fucked with me I have no problem getting one over on them.
I too have been fly fishing for as long as I can remember and have come to realize if the fish gods want to bless me with an unexpected gift who am I to argue.


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I’m kidding about the cheating

Heh, heh, fishermen are easier to get to rise than fish. Sorry, plugboots slow day for me.

We've had a cold front and rain the past few days, and water levels in the big rivers have dropped a few inches over the past forty-two hours. I think I'll try fishing at the mouth of a local creek tomorrow and see what the Almighty will do to help me catch something.

Some other stoke from a week in the salt.
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Did the guide kill that tarpon with those gloves?

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Originally Posted by plugboots

Did the guide kill that tarpon with those gloves?

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Never touched it - grabbed the fly and quick release. Not a guide - I don’t fish with guides.

Edited to say sorry I missed the point of your comment, I agree with everything you wrote below.
My TRG sacasta-meter is rusty after the long layoff.

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