Showing posts with label Musky. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Musky. Show all posts

Wednesday, July 10, 2019

G. Loomis Musky Rod, ICAST 2019

I visited the G. Loomis booth to find their new Musky rod. This stick is packed with all the features that those freshwater predator fishermen have been asking for! Extra, larger and stronger guides, strong backbone and a rubber/cork composite grip designed to help with the figure eights by the boat! .

Sunday, April 27, 2014

Winter Is Finally Over!!!

Hey there Folks,
  Thanks for checking in with me.  Now that winter is truly over and another semester of school is coming to a close, I can focus on the really important things in life...FLY FISHING!!!!  I'm afraid I haven't done much of anything fishing related in quite some time.  Last weekend it was finally warm enough to put the kayak on the water in Lake Lanier, so look for some pictures below.  I tried to stay abreast of what's going on in the industry, but since I live in the south, there is no steelhead run, no monster pike or musky and I don't own a decent pair of winter weight waders any more.  But, it's warming up, we're back into the 80s some and I'll be able to wet wade the mountain streams very soon.  So definitely keep checking back, because I plan on getting the blog up and running again in a big way this summer.  I'm still working on a post that covers the water access laws for the state of Georgia, so look for that soon.  Plus, I've noticed that with all the wonderful fly tying instructions that are on the web, in books and in magazines very few of them actually tell you how to fish the fly once it's tied, so, I've begun trying to track down that kind of information.  I'm still fishing my 6' 2-weight TFO rod, and still absolutely love it, but I've decided I'd like to get something bigger.  Not necessarily heavier, I love fishing an ultralight rod, but for casting out of the kayak on the lake I want to find an 8' or 9' rod.  I've got a very tight budget on that, so I'll try to keep updating my research progress here.  I've also been doing some research on Crappie and Bluegill.  Since I do most of my fishing in the lake and don't get up to the mountain streams as often as I'd like, I figure I need to get a better understanding of the fish that I'm catching more often.  Many flies that work on trout also work on panfish, but I'm pretty sure I could find some better flies that will target the lake slabs, and not just poppers, either!  
  I hope you all had a tolerable winter and are looking as forward to getting on the water as I am.  Thanks again for checking in and please keep coming back!
  Tight Lines,
   -Nick
If you follow me on Instagram you might've seen that I won a 3 month subscription to PostFly Box Co.  This was my first shipment.  Very nice looking flies!
  
Our first nice evening on the deck.  Enjoyed a pipe, had a Shiner Farmhouse Ale and added my PostFly Box Co. flies to my boxes.

First day on Lake Lanier this season.
This is the first and largest fish I took last weekend.  I'm pretty sure this is a male Bluegill, he took a black ant fly as soon as it smacked the water.  Hard hit and a great fight. Can anyone confirm or correct on species for me?

Sunday, November 03, 2013

WoodCraft Atlanta's Open House: Hand Crafted Fishing Lures

Evenin' Folks,
  I wasn't really sure if I'd have anything to blog about this weekend.  I spent the whole past week preparing for a couple of tests at school, so fly fishing hasn't been at the forefront of my thoughts.  It's never very far off, though!  I've always had an interest in hand tool woodworking, being the son of a master carpenter, the love of wood was instilled in me at a very early age.  Men like Norm Abrams and Roy Underhill were bigger heroes to me than Wade Boggs and Kirby Puckett.  Most of my working life was spent in construction or a construction related field, so now, working on a computer all day, I've been seeking a creative outlet to work with my hands.  I've been slowly collecting some hand tools lately, preferably vintage, American made tools, to get some small projects underway.  I've got some things in the works, like a fly tying supply organizer, a bench for my patio and a small step stool, but I've been looking for things I can make from wood that are more fishing related.  I decided to try making a presentation fly box.  Not having a scroll or band saw, and preferring hand tools anyway, I've been searching for an acceptable coping saw.  I received a flyer in the mail for an open house at WoodCraft Atlanta and on special, today only, was an English made, wooden handled coping saw that I thought would fit the bill nicely, until a vintage American model can be located.
   The open house proved to be quite popular, the parking lot was almost full when I pulled in before 10:00 this morning.  The store had some great show specials and discounts, including an additional 10% off your purchase if you arrived before 10am (sweet!).  As soon as I walked in I nabbed the last coping saw they had off the shelf and started checking out the demonstrations.
  The list of demonstrations for the day was pretty extensive: offset woodturning, bowl turning, scroll saw use, band saw tuning, hand plane tuning, hand plane use, and decorative inlay.  And those were just the morning demonstrations on Saturday, there were at least as many after noon and also when the show started on Friday.   But, the exhibitor I was most curious to see was Brian Richterkessing, from the Lure Foundry.
  The listing on the flyer only said "Hand made fishing lures", so I really didn't know what I was going to find.  As it turns out, Brian lathe-turns large, hardwood muskie lures following vintage designs and patterns from the 1920's through the 1950's.  These stunning lures are all colored using the various hardwood species.  Brian doesn't use any dies or stains.  As Brian says, these would make great display pieces for the cabin or lake house, but they also catch fish.  Each lure is tuned to match the swim patterns of the vintage lure they're based on.  Brian is even experimenting with different densities of the hardwood to get the lures to swim at different depths!
  When you purchase a lure from the Lure Foundry, it comes packed in  a hand made, hardwood display box padded with burlap.  There is also a multi-lure box if you purchase more than one.  Or the granddaddy of the group, the Ultimate Tacklebox, a hand crafted box that holds a minimum of 24 of these big predator catchers.  If that's not enough for you, the Lure Foundry also crafts wooden rod tubes and traditional style floats with the same care and attention as the lures.
  Brian let me take some pictures of his lures at the open house, so I'll just let them speak for themselves.  If you're interested in seeing more, or in purchasing from the Lure Foundry, you should check out his website, LureFoundry.com.  I hope Brian doesn't mind, he's inspired me to try to make one of these lures for myself.  While at WoodCraft I picked up a couple pieces of hardwood to give luremaking a go.  Keep watching the blog, I'll post some pictures when I get it finished up.
  Tight Lines and Happy Fishing,
       -Nick
A three piece set of vintage style Muskie lures made of Redheart and American Holly.

A finished lure, three blanks, and a box lid in progress.

A single lure in it's presentation box.

The Ultimate Tackle Box, three cedar lures and you can see a rod tube to the left.

Some awesome looking floats in their presentation box.  I may have to try making one of these boxes too!