Skunked.....again!

Good morning folks,
  It's been a little while since my last post, but I have a good reason. Much like the rest of the country, Georgia has been getting an awful lot of rain lately. Since my last post, I've only been fishing twice.  I got skunked both times. I've been spending some time learning to tie flies and packing for my upcoming move to a new apartment.  We've been pretty busy at work recently and on top of that, there's only a few weeks left until school starts back.  Where did the summer go?
 I took the kayak out to Lake Lanier the Saturday before last.  The morning was very overcast, there was a pretty stiff wind on the lake and the water had a pretty good chop to it.  I had my 2 weight TFO rod and fought the wind with every cast.  The fish must have been down deeper than I could get with my floating line. After 3 hours on the water I only had two soft strikes. I didn't hook up once. I threw every fly I had that my two weight could handle. Then started throwing the flies that it couldn't!  Finally, I tied on this big, black streamer-/woolly bugger-type fly that I bought too long ago to remember and noticed bass nipping at its tail. I'm a fan and follower of the teachings of Tom Rosenbauer and the Orvis Fly Fishing Guide Podcast and one of his most often reiterated pieces of advice is that if the fish are showing interest, but make a last second refusal, change size first!  Well, that's all well and good, but I didn't have another size of that pattern. After about 20 minutes of watching the small fish try to school with my fly, I paddled back to the launch and called it a day. Skunked. But, with a plan.
  I spent the next few days listening to the rain fall and researching fly patterns and tying recipes (when I wasn't at work, anyway).  I decided to try my hand at tying up some woolly buggers, but most of the recipes I could find were for larger hooks, sized 6 through 10.  I wanted something smaller.  I determined that I could follow the instructions I had found, and just scale it down to a smaller hook.  Then, I stumbled upon instructions for tying wooly buggers on a size 14 hook and I decided that it could be done, pretty easily.  I bought the needed materials (I thought tying flies was supposed to be cheaper than buying them?) and spent an evening at the tying vise.  I'm a beginner at fly tying, so it took me a few hours to come up with a half dozen flies, but it's a very easy pattern to tie and probably a very good one for a beginner like me to get started with.   I've read that black, brown and white are the three preferred colors for wooly buggers, so that's what I tied.  I didn't use bead heads, but did put lead under the body to weight the fly down.
  So, armed with a half dozen, newly tied mini-buggers, I hit the lake again this past Sunday. The weather seemed a bit more cooperative, big clouds about, but mostly sunny and not nearly as breezy as the weekend before.  I spoke to a couple gentlemen bank fishing and learned that the fish weren't biting.  In the two hours they had been there, they only caught one fish a piece, both catfish on bait.  I pushed off from the boat launch and started to paddle back to one of my most productive spots so far.  I stopped and fished some along the way, but got no bites.  I was amazed at how few fish I could see in the water.  Normally, it seems, you can see bream and small bass swimming amongst the rocks in the shadows.  I paddled into a grassy area to fish around a fallen tree that has produced good bites in the past.  Not even a bite.  At one point, the best fish I had seen in a while showed themselves.  In about 2 feet of water there swam three carp that were each, easily, 18" long.  Swimming directly under and around my kayak, with I good net, I could have grabbed them!  They showed absolutely no interest in my size 14 wooly buggers.

Size 14 Mini Bugger

  I paddled on to fish around the rock dam where I've had some luck before.  I pulled up into a small inlet where I've caught a few bream in the past, and dropped my anchor right in the middle of the mouth.  From this spot I could fish almost the whole inlet.  There's a sloping dirt bank on the left and a steeper rip-rap stone bank to the right.  I was starting to see some more fish swimming around, so I thought, surely, I'd have some luck here.  The water was nice and clear and smooth and I could really see the action of my mini bugger as I stripped it in.  I was working it in every way I could think of, long fast strips, short slow strips, short fast strips, long slow strips, you name it, I tried it.  I would occasionally see small bass following the fly, but no bites.
  In the three hours I was on the lake fishing, I got two soft, but splashy, strikes.  I had things to do at home, so wasn't able to put in any more time.  By the time I made it back to the car, I had paddled almost 5 miles.  You tend to feel paddling that kind of distance more when the fish aren't biting.  I loaded up and went home.
  I got skunked, two weekends in a row.  See now why I haven't posted?  So, what have I learned?  If you're not going to catch fish, you should at lease learn something about fishing, right?  I need to do some more research, but I'm guessing that due to the cloud cover over the lake the fish must have been holding deeper than I could reach with my mini bugger and floating line.  At one point I had crimped on a small split shot to my line.  That seemed to garner the most attention.  I think I'm going to spend some time tying some more mini buggers, but this time I might try some tungsten bead heads.  I also might have to look into investing in a spare spool and some sink tip line.  One of the purposes of the original wooly bugger was to imitate leeches.  From what I've read, freshwater leeches tend to prefer living in and around rocks.  I need to tie my mini buggers so they will get down into the crevices of the rocks and can be worked in and around.  The buggers I tied had 5-7 wraps of .015 lead wire, but with the chenille and marabou it just wasn't enough to take the fly down more than a foot and a half or so.  Even to reach that shallow depth required me to wait probably a full minute.  Being that I'm still new to fly fishing, coming off of years of fishing Texas rigged worms on spinning gear, I'm not used to waiting so long for my lure to reach the bottom.  A bit more weight on the fly and a sink tip line might just do the trick.
  Hopefully soon I'll have some caught fish to share with you.  I'll post a photo tutorial on the mini buggers that I tied.  I'm still working to get them right and practice my tying skills, but you folks can critique me on how I'm doing so far.
  Thanks for reading.  Tight lines and Happy fishing,
      -Nick




Jim Misiura - Wooly Bugger Tutorial
Tim Cammisa - Wooly Bugger Tutorial
The Orvis Fly Fishing Guide Podcast

Today's Equipment

Flyrod: Temple Forks Outfitters 6'6" 2wt
Fly Reel: White River Fly Shop 3/4
Line: Rio 3wt WF
Flies:
    #14 Mini Wooly Buggers asst. colors

Knife:
Kershaw Ken Onion Scallion

Some random kayak photos.

Good Evenin' Folks,

  I was looking through the pictures on my iphone earlier today and came across this set from my first trips in the kayak.  These are all just kind of random.  The best part about the new kayak is that I can finally use my fly rods a bit more.  The stream and lake banks around this area tend to be so over grown that I end up just using my ultralight spinning rod.  I have a pair of waders, but they're sock foot and the boots are shot.  On top of that, even though it's been a pretty cool summer so far, neoprene chest waders are still too damn hot!  I'm hoping to put the kayak in the Chattahoochee soon, but that fast moving water makes me a bit nervous.  I've been looking into some kayak classes, so the river may have to wait until I get some swift water training.  I have really enjoyed the little bit of paddling I've been doing around some of the coves.  I've been watching lots of videos on YouTube to learn some of the techniques to get me going.  It's really way easier and way more stable than I ever expected it would be.  I don't think I'll be standing up on it any time soon, but I'm sure I'll have to try that at some point, too.   I'll do a good post on the kayak sometime soon and put up some pictures of it.  I picked up a few back issues of Kayak Angler while I was in The Outside World in Dawsonville over the weekend.  I'm amazed at the accessories and modifications available to kayaks to make them more conducive to fishing.  I feel like I'm doing pretty good with the built in rod holders and my old belt pack to hold my fly boxes.  I'm on a very, very limited budget, but I'll try to show the modifications I make as I make them.  An anchor trolley system will probably be my first big mod, along with a good milk-crate setup to stow my gear.  The hardest part is dealing with the fly rods.  The boat came with two built-in rod holders, but they are tubes that go into the deck to hold spinning or bait cast type rods.  Since fly rods don't have the long butt below the reel, the rod holders won't work.  I end up bungeeing the rods to the side of the boat, and I'm afraid that's just going to lead to a broken rod tip.  There is a kayak accessory company called Scotty that makes some really nice looking, and highly rated, fly rod holders, but at $30 a piece, it'll be a while before I get one.  But, I should save all that for another post.  This was supposed to be just a quick post to share some pictures!

  Hope you enjoy.  Tight lines and happy fishing!

               -Nick

The new kayak on the day I brought it home.  Still need to find a better way to haul it, it tends to rub on the roof!

One of the parks on Lake Lanier where I launched the kayak from.  This one has a sand beach, picnic areas and bathrooms.

An accidental photograph. I was trying to film a video for YouTube and pressed the wrong button!

First fish in the kayak!

Quite possibly the largest fish I've ever caught!

I found a rocky shoreline in the shade and these guys seemed to like my popper.

I love the mobility the kayak allows me.  I never could have fished the bank in this area.

Tried to take an artsy-fartsy picture.  The iphone isn't the greatest camera, but I still like the way this one came out.

Zooming with the iphone really ruins the resolution.  I wonder what the lake looks like from a hot air balloon's vantage point.

My First Y.A.B.O. and it's a twofer!

Evenin' Folks,
  Just thought I'd share a package opening video (or YAPO) that I did for my YouTube channel.  Please enjoy and share any thoughts or opinions.
  Tight lines and happy fishing,
           -Nick

A Gorgeous Day for a Swim!

Mornin' Folks, 

      It's a beautiful Wednesday morning here in the suburbs!  First, I'd like to apologize for being so slow with the blog posts.  Things have been rather busy around here the last two weeks, I had difficulty finding time to fish and even more difficulty finding time to write about it! To be fair, I told myself when I started this that I wanted to do a post every two weeks, so I'm not too far off.
      It seems that here in Georgia we're getting back on the afternoon storm cycle for the summer.  The weather has been pretty unseasonable for the most part lately, but this week we're supposed to hit some 90 degree days.  So, fishing after work has been out of the question.  I was able to fish for a few hours this past Saturday evening over at Lake Lanier and the Saturday before I met a friend in Dahlonega to fish the Chestatee river.  The original plan for the Chestatee was to rent kayaks from a local rental place and spend the day paddling and fishing.  I've never been in a kayak before, so I made sure to take zip top bags and waterproof things as best I could.  Unfortunately my friend was running a bit late and by the time we got to the rental place they had rented all the kayaks they had for the day.  After a brief discussion we opted for a canoe instead, which suited me fine.  When I was young my parents owned and operated a campground in South Carolina for a few years and I learned to paddle a canoe on the lake.  This would be my first time with a canoe in moving water, but I felt pretty confident in my ability.  "My friend" (who shall remain nameless), on the other hand, had never been in a canoe before, and I'm not convinced had ever paddled a boat before at all!  All of about five minutes into the trip we hit a rock sticking out of the water. "My friend" was unable to maintain balance and the canoe rolled.  I'm sure, much to the amusement of the gentleman sitting on his back porch watching the river.  Luckily, we were only in about two feet of water, so righting, draining and getting back into the canoe wasn't too difficult, however, our lunches were ruined and "my friend's" phone took a bath.  Since, at this early point, we were wet, we decided to stay where the boat turned over and wade fish the opposite bank for a while.  With absolutely no luck, we got back in the canoe and continued our trip.
     For the next half hour or so we just spent time paddling, trying to give "my friend" a feel for the canoe and for me to try to gently coach better technique and how to shift position and keep balance without tipping....again.  {"There you go, gently." "Try only putting the tip of the paddle in the water" "When you have to move, lean forward or back, not side to side." "Good job avoiding the rocks, but watch out for the submerged tree!"}   When we finally had the hang of what we were doing, we started to fish.  At first we would stop the canoe, beach it, and wade to fish.  Assuming that would be safer than trying to cast from the moving boat.  The issue with that was the number of other people in canoes and kayaks.  It was a beautiful day for paddling such a gorgeous stretch of water.  I was fishing my 6' TFO 3 weight with a wooly bugger in the riffles and around tree branches.  Every time I would get into the groove another group of kayaks and canoes would come down stream.  There were a few polite "Anything bitin'?" questions and a few inquiries about my fly rod, but the best was an older lady who loudly exclaimed "I'VE ONLY SEEN THAT DONE IN THE MOVIES!!!".  It gave "my friend" and I a pretty good chuckle and I'm pretty sure I saw the lady's husband shaking his head in embarrassment.

First fish of the day.  About an 8" bass.  He put up  a good fight!

  As we continued our way downstream the water began to get deeper, so I switched to my ultralight spinning gear to make it easier to fish out of the canoe. We were able to wedge the bow of the boat into the crook of a fallen tree so we could sit in one spot and fish a bit.  That resulted in the first fish of the day, a good looking little bass that put up a great fight for my ultralight. 
  Right after catching fish number one, I got my lure hung in a branch of the tree we were using as an anchor.  While trying to free my lure from the clutches of the old dead tree, I managed to get the hook in my finger.  Luckily, I always fish barbless for just such an occasion!  For the next hour or so we slowly drifted along in the current, fishing as we went, and trying to stay close enough to the bank to cast our lures to.  I decided to tie on a new lure to see if I would have any better luck.  Well, luck wasn't on my side at that point.  I was concentrating on tying on a small Worden's Rooster Tail, and not paying much attention to the tracking of the canoe.  When I did finally look up, we were heading straight for a fallen tree, this one still with leaves, and it was too late to try to correct.  I was able to slow the boat enough to turn the boat side ways and drift into the branches.  I grabbed a handful of leaves to help stop us from plowing straight in to the trunk.  I passed my fistful of branches back to "my friend" so as to go back to paddling to get us out of the tree.  By the time I put my paddle in the water, I was in the water with it.  I'm not really sure what happened, it took less time than the blink of an eye.  "My friend" says that there was a submerged log that we hit and that caused the boat to roll enough to take on water.  I never saw a submerged log and I'll leave it at that.  The water was a bit deep here, I could tip-toe to keep my head up, so a bit of swimming was necessary to get the fully swamped boat to a low bank.  We were able to save all of our gear, except for my fishing towel and one life jacket.  At least the PFD was just a rental.  A nice family canoeing by picked it up and offered to return it for us.  They were still dry.
  We set off once again.  We came to an area of the river that was absolutely stunning.  To the right side there was a sandbar where a few kayaks had stopped for lunch under the shade of some trees.  To our left side was a shear rock face that was probably 30 or 40 feet high.  We were able to sidle up to that rock face and found a place to wedge the boat to fish a while.  The water seemed quite deep in this area, but I couldn't make a guess at how deep.  I do know that the rock face continued down in the water as far as I could see.  This looked like a great spot to catch some fish and I was hoping that there were a couple of submerged ledges for the fish to take cover in.  I wasn't too far off the mark, this is where I caught fish number two.  He's no record setter, but again, these little bass put up a good fight for an ultralight rod. 

Fish number two.  I swear it's two different fish!

  We stayed next to this wall for a little while longer.  At this point we had been on the water for about four hours, we were both soaking wet and getting a little tired.  Plus, "my friend" had an engagement to get to later that afternoon.  I got one more good hit on the wall, but this fish threw the hook as I got it to the boat.  Seemed to be about the same size as the other two.  We decided to start doing a little less fishing and a little more paddling to make it to the take out point.  We had no other mishaps, we even successfully navigated some small rapids.  

  It made for a great day, even with the spills.  The Chestatee is a gorgeous river, and I've been told its even better further north.  I really look forward to fishing it again.  I'll even fish it again with "my friend", but never again in the same canoe!  

  If you're ever in the Dahlonega, GA area and want to try the trip that we took, check out Appalachian Outfitters.  That's where we rented the canoe from.  They seemed like a good bunch of guys, they knew the river well, and they put the canoe in and take it out of the river for you.  So no portage! 

  I've decided that from here on out, I need to put in each blog what I've learned from each fishing trip.  I've always thought that if you're doing something without learning, then what was the point?  On this trip I learned to be more discerning about who to get in a canoe with!  Just kidding.  We had a blast and will, probably, do it again sometime.  Maybe.  It'll be a while.

            Tight lines and happy fishing!

                           -Nick

Today's Equipment:

Rod: Shakespear Ugly Stik SPL1100 4'8" ultralight rod
Reel: Shimano Sahara 750FB - a hand-me-down from my grandfather 
Line: Berkely Trilene XL Smooth Casting 6lb clear
Flyrod: Temple Forks Outfitters 6'6" 2wt
Fly Reel: White River Fly Shop 3/4
Line: Rio 3wt WF
Lures: 
Johnson Beetle Bou Marabou Jig 1/32oz ; white & chartreuse
Joe's Flies Short Striker Glo Trout #231 in size 8
Worden's Rooster Tail 1/24oz assorted finishes
Flies:
    #14 Parachute Adams
    #18 Inch Worm

Knife:
Kershaw Ken Onion Scallion

Pipe & Tobacco:
Ruined:-(

Inexpensive Rod Storage Idea

Hey guys!
  I thought I'd post a video about my $5 fishing rod rack.  Those store bought racks get pretty pricey, but the one I made is fully customizable to fit your space, your style and your budget.  Shoot me a comment and let me know what you think.
        Tight lines and happy fishing!
                  -Nick

                 

Trying to beat the rain.

  After a week of on and off rain and little time, I was finally able to get out on the water today.  I headed out this morning to a stretch of Suwanee Creek that I hadn't yet fished.  It was a mostly clear morning, some clouds, but a good enough day to fish (aren't they all?).  The temp was in the low 70s F with a slight breeze signaling the incoming rain for the afternoon.  According to the USGS Water Data site for Suwanee Creek (see the links below for the USGS website), the water temp was about 70° F and flowing 45 cubic feet per minute.  I walked about a half mile northward along the Suwanee Creek Greenway carrying my fishing pole, smoking my pipe and wearing my pack full of gear (and getting funny looks from all the joggers and bicyclists!), before I turned to follow the city's sewer outfall along the creek.  From that point on it was a fight with privet and underbrush.  The telltale signs of the recent flooding were everywhere and numerous, like basketballs stuck in the trees over my head.  I only take my ultralight gear to Suwanee Creek because the banks are so overgrown and the creek depth changes too much to wade.  I found a spot where I could make some decent casts, tied on a Worden's Rooster Tail in the rainbow finish and got down to business.  The privet in this stretch of the creek seemed unusually thick compared to other areas I've fished, so finding a suitable spot to make a cast ended up being quite difficult and time consuming.  In the three and a half hours I spent fishing, I was only able to walk about 500 yards downstream, and it seemed I spent more time walking than fishing.
  Over the course of the morning, I think I fared pretty well.  I was only able to land 3 small fish (one bluegill and two redbreasted sunfish, I think, my ID is still rusty), but I got a lot of strikes.  Using an ultralight rig, even the small fish are fun to land!

One of the two redbreasted sunfish (I think).  First fish of the day, caught on a Joe's Flies Short Striker.

Fish number two the little bluegill.  Caught on a Worden's Rooster Tail.

The last fish landed, the other sunfish.  Caught on a Beetle Bou Maribou Jig.

  It's amazing to me how wild an area can be even though I'm in a suburban area.  Whenever I change lures (or tie on a new one after a snag) I tend to take a short break, step back from the stream, light my pipe and just look around.  It's just a small patch of woods on either side of the creek, but I've seen lots of birds, fat squirrels getting ready for the next weather change and chipmunks scurrying around.  Today I even saw two baby racoons and walked up on a gorgeous horse pasture that I didn't know existed.  Even though I was within sight of the city's sewer outfall and within a few hundred yards of a big industrial park I still feel like I got the calming and restorative effects of spending time with nature.  I recommend you try it.  Look for a small stream in your area and get out there and fight the privet!  Let me know how you do.
         Tight lines and happy fishing.
                              -Nick

Today's Equipment:

Rod: Shakespear Ugly Stik SPL1100 4'8" ultralight rod
Reel: Shimano Sahara 750FB - a hand-me-down from my grandfather
Line: Berkely Trilene XL Smooth Casting 6lb clear
Lures:
Johnson Beetle Bou Marabou Jig 1/32oz ; white & chartreuse
Joe's Flies Short Striker Glo Trout #231 in size 8
Worden's Rooster Tail 1/24oz assorted finishes

Knife:
Kershaw Ken Onion Scallion

Pipe & Tobacco:
Missouri Meerschaum Washington Bent corn cob
MacClelland's Frog Morton's Cellar

Links:
USGS Water Data Site
Worden's Rooster Tail
Joe's Flies
 Johnson's Beetle Bou
Corn Cob Pipes
Frog Morton's Cellar Review

YouTube Intro

Hi guys.  I thought I'd try my hand at a YouTube video.  Let me know what you think. This is my first video, so I have a lot to learn, but I can only improve.  Right?
  Tight lines and happy fishing!
              -Nick