Relax the Cast

Tightline Fly reel

2011-10-31T06:21:00.000-07:00

I was poking around on line and came accross this interesting reel called the Tightline fly reel.Looks of course like the famous Ari Hart Remco reel.I really like the look of this reel, and it's avaiable in custom colors and the price point is very tempting! The company website is thightlineflyreels.com I hope that's correct, I think so.

True loss.......

2011-10-29T20:31:00.000-07:00

I know this is coming in as a pretty late posting.I found out quite late, couple months ago that Shane Stalcup had passed.I know he was having some surgeries some time back and I had wondered in the back of my mind if it was anything serious?I was shocked to here of his early passing.I think he is one of the most innovative tiers in the last couple decades. I loved his design,all of his flies had a very realistic look and profile to them and were very durable as well.The materials he used, mix of synthetics and natural and they were all relatively easy to tie.I wrote him in 1999 to request a copy of his catalog, I was really impressed with alot of the flies in it, there were some patterns for bass that I really loved.I called him to place an order for a couple of them.The"Fly Rap", I believe it is called and a foam frog pattern, the name escapes me at the moment.I asked for a custom color for two Fly Raps, purple and yellow, a popular local lake color.I have fished the Bass colored ones a few time and have caught several bass on it.I kept these in my bass box, after I heard of his death I decided to pull them out and I plan on framing them or something special.I thought I'd post these to share with others and you just don't see these patterns very often.

Contact info.

2011-10-27T14:46:00.000-07:00

I'm not sure why but I can't seem to post a comment/response to comments you leave for me.You can email me direct to fourstringgod@yahoo.com any questions about these rods or otherwise, thanks,Brian

Lilly Pond Bass Bug rod.

2011-10-27T13:15:00.000-07:00

This has been a bit of a journey for me, the idea started actually last winter.I live in the burbs of Chicago and as such I don't get to trout water as much as I would like, always been this way. I spend most of my time on the water chasing bass.I love glass rods for there ease of casting, it fits my casting style very well.I have owned a number of heavier rods that I fished for bass but wanted something I thought is somewhat bass specific.The idea came and went last winter and then popped back into my head this past spring.I needed to get the blank made for this rod, the first thought was glassmaster Mike McFarland .He had said last fall he was not selling blanks anymore so I thought this was a real long shot.I wrote him with my idea, a rod designed for bass fishing, throwing big deer hair bugs,lead eye things etc..maybe eight to nine feet in length and an eight weight if possible.I sent that email off with the thought of no response.A few days later Mike wrote back and said he'd like to do this project, he thought it was a cool idea and he had an idea for it.He asked if I would be interested in having them rolled in black S glass, he said he had enough material to do a limited run of these, I thought it sounded awesome.I had the blanks getting started and was thinking of the reel seat, I wanted exclusive to this rod line. I talked to Joel Lemke of Lemke Concepts to do this seat, I like his hidden thread design alot and asked if he could do it in all metal, he agreed, some photos and design adjustments later I had my seats.I have finally got the finished rod together of the viewing public to see.I'm call this the Lilly Pond Bassbug rod. It's 8 1/2 feet2 piece, 8wt and a cannon! It will serve the needs of bug fishers and alight saltwater as well, yet to be tested there though.I hope you like this rod.

Finally, they arrive!

2011-10-05T15:02:00.001-07:00

I have not posted anything new recently because nothing was happening, nothing new anyeay. I hatched an idea last fall and it fell by the wayside during the winter months and resurfaced again this Spring.Being in the North suburbs of Chicago I spend most of my time chasing Bass.I'd love to get up to the driftless more often but can't afford to do so.I've been fishing glass rods for years now, and this season having sold my primary Bass buggin'rod I've been fishing the old Loomis GL3 9 foot 7 wieght, nicerod but not close to my old Vintage Scott yellow glass!I spoke to Mike McFarland of the McFarland Rod Co.to see if he would be interested in taking on my project. Some months earlier he said he was not going to be selling blanks anymore, I thought for sure I'd get shot down,a few days later Mike wrote me back and said he would like to help me out, I was pretty happy with that! We worked out some details and he agreed to start amking the blanks for a Glass Bass rod.
The Blanks are made of Mikes stock of S Glass he had form his purchase of the old Daimondback blanks making equipment. He thought it would be a good match for a rod of this type, I agreed.I also wanted to dress the rods a bit different to set them apart from alot of what's seen out there. I turned to Joel Lemke,a fantastic reel seat maker,formerly with Struble.I explained what I was looking for and he said he had a design already made and he'd send me pics of them,they were just what I was looking for.He said he had a few small tweaks to make in the design and they would be ready for production.I recieved, after a long wait the blanks from Mike today, and the reel seat last week. I'm offering the rods, they will be 8'6" 8wt.2 piece configuration. I'm going to wrap them in Black,REC Recoil guides.I'm not doing a full custom rod to try to make these an affordable rod.Any questions please feel free to email me.

Pen to Paper.......and flies!

2011-08-02T15:04:00.000-07:00

Just thought I'd post these up, every now and again I get around to a little drawing,I do most of these in my car,waiting to start work, I have to wait occasionaly for co workers to arrive so I do some scetching while I wait.A couple of trout and my first Smallmouth Bass.I tied a few interesting sub-surface Bass flies, new designs, hope to test 'em out soon!

More Bass Bugs.

2011-07-25T14:01:00.000-07:00

I have gone sort of off the deep end with the bugs!!!I've rerally been enjoying getting re aquainted with deer hair,trying different color combos and skirt materials,I have many ideas for more bugs just need to find the time to tie 'em!

I must be insane!

2011-07-25T13:50:00.000-07:00

Went north on Saturday for one of only a few trips to the Driftless each season.I got on the water around 6:30 am, beat the heat a little bit.I found the fish to be very easy to bite the fly, the Pink Squirrels and Copper Johns were the ticket, the Pink as usual did very well. I don't know why I go up there with my pack full of everything I could need, I fish the same three patterns the whole time I'm there, I jusy need a Sucrettes box with 6 of each pattern and tippet material.I fished one stretch of water that I frequent and took around 20-30 fish there,like I said they were very agreeable! Met up with my father-in-law on another stretch of water around 10:00 am,caught several Browns there then moved on to a spot further downstream, I was only able to land one nice Brown on a hopper pattern.The sun was getting high in the sky by this point and I was on FIRE!!!!I called it quits for the day, time to get out of my waders and into my street clothes and chug a lot of water.I thought I must be insane to be out there boiling, no water, in waders!!!!

More bugs.

2011-07-06T15:06:00.000-07:00

Spent some of the last couple days fooling around with the deer hair, as I said in my last post I don't spend a lot of time working with deer. I'm really starting to lov working with it, I finally got it down so I don't have a huge mess on my table after all the bugs are trimmed.I'm gonna fish some of these soon. These have no eyes on them yet as I want to get a cautery tool to burn some eye sockets for some nice eyeballs!!

Stackin' n' Packin'!!!

2011-06-30T12:48:00.000-07:00

I was asked by Cameron Mortenson of the Fiberglass Manifesto if I could tie a bass bug in a red,white and blue theme for his 4th of July post on the Manifesto, I was happy to tie something up for him and send it off right away.I don't do a lot of deer hair bugs, I usually keep them simple on ly one or two colors and don't reallt do anything complex. After doing Camerons fly I started playing with a bit more complex stuff than I normally do.

Blast from the past (kinda)

2011-05-26T08:32:00.000-07:00

Well seeing I'm home form work this week I thought I would post a bit of past tying. I was at a tackle shop buying some materials one afternoon and was thumbing through some tying books and stumbled into Paul Ptalis' "Century End" a book on classic and contemporary salmon flies, the big fancy fully dressed kind. I was blown away by this. I had left the shop and the pages of that book haunted me for weeks until I went back and picked up that book.

I was hooked so to speak, I started accumulating books and materials like I was going to die soon!I had been tying for a long time by that point but tying these gems is an all new discipline in fly tying to say the least.It took me a while to churn out a decent fly probably a year or two. At this point I was on a layoff so I was working on these flies for five or six hours a day! I think I tied nearly nothing but these patterns for a good five years, it's a slippery slope indeed, the hooks are hand made, not by me, though I have a made my own, they are pricey as well as the materials needed to dress these beauties.Here's a few examples of my acceptable dressings. I have sold,donated and giving almost all the patterns I've dressed away, these are all I have to show for my efforts!

Leapin' Lizards!!

2011-05-18T15:06:00.000-07:00

Got out today after work for a bit,went to a pond I've been given permission to fish a few years back.The weather was pretty lousy but went anyway. I went mostly to try some new bass patterns that I had come up with recently, I'm going to be adding them to the Lillypond FlyDesign web page soon. It turns out they were a success! The Lizard pattern is actually the second season it's being fished and it's a killer!! Also fished a new marabou twister tailed pattern and caught a couple on it as well.I really looking forward to the weather warming up and the action to get better, have lots of patterns to try out and add to the web page.

Wind,cold and Pink Squirrels.

2011-05-15T18:46:00.000-07:00

Had my first trip of this year up to the Driftless region, the cost of gas these days is going to be quite prohibitive for my getting up there to fish, I only for see one maybe two more trips this season, kind of a bummer but I have a family to take care of.

I got up there Saturday morning at 7:30 and hit one of my favorite streams, lots of Browns and Brookies in there. Fished the section upstream from the bridge I park at, no luck there,unusual in that I normally hook and land a dozen fish in the first hour but nothing at all. I went back and fished downstream from the bridge for the first time, very nice stretch of water, walked to a section warning people of the private property a short distance away, I got in the stream and started working upstream.

Fished through a large pool,had a lot of takes and landed a half dozen small Browns 10 inch range.These were all caught on the Pink Squirrel, very popular pattern up there, rightly so, I've caught more fish up there on that fly than any other pattern in my pack.I'm not sure why I have a pack around my waist, I could get along just fine with a shirt pocket box with Pink Squirrels and leech patterns!I fished up a bit further came upon a bunch of downed branches and stuff like that, nice deep hole, tossed my leech into the pile of dead tree below and on the second drift hooked a good Brown maybe 18-20 inches, a big fish for this stream.I fought it for 10 second or so and the fish got tangled up in the mess below and snapped off the leech.I didn't actually think I was going to land it in that tangled mess did I? NO WAY.

Fished my way back to the bridge landing a few more,couple Browns and a Brookie about 10-11 inches.Moved onto the next spot, Got on the stream and hooked up with two Browns that were in the 12-14 inch range, both were able to throw the fly and swim away. Worked my way downstream further than I've been before, was able to hookup and land a number of smaller Browns again in the 10 inch range.They were on Pinks Squirrles and a Copper John, small, maybe size 18. The water was crystal clear and the fish were fairly spooky.I made a couple short stops after leaving this spot bot like a switch was flipped,the fish were turned off.All and all a decent day albeit windy at times,cloudy and intermittent rain,was a good first outing of the year, I look forward to getting back of course but that wont be until well into summer.

New site up and running!!!!

2011-05-06T14:52:00.000-07:00

I've been trying to get aroung to this for the last year or so and finally started today."Lillypond Fly Design" is now my flies for sale site. I'm now offering my bass patterns for sale with nice pricing! It's just a tadpole for now but will be adding in the coming days and weeks.

Sand country weekend.

2011-04-25T19:00:00.000-07:00

This past weekend, me and the family went north to visit my in laws,They're up in the Wausaw, WI. area.This gives my father in law and I the chance for some Trout fishing in the streams of Central Wisconsin.We started off fishing some somewhat well known irrigation ditches with no luck.We decided to try Lawrence creek at the suggestion of an acquaintance of mine who said there was good fishing there. We arrived almost mid morning to a small sandy bottomed stream with a lot of Brookies. I'm still cutting my teeth on these sandy streams and still find them a tough nut to crack.After slogging through some wet marshland we got to some nice sections the stream, I was able to hook one in a small pool that quickly shook loose from the leech pattern it ate. A short time later I was able to land one small Brookie,beautifully colored on a black and Grizzly Wooley Worm. My father in law Jim,after getting stuck in the Marsh landed a very pretty Brookie that was lured out from a deep undercut bank.

The Following Day we went to investigate the Tomorrow River around the town of Amherst. We found a nice stretch of river with abundant insect life but no fish.I did see one small-ish something dart under some rocks.The Tomorrow is a beautiful place to fish and I look forward to future visits to this stream.

New Bass flies.

2011-04-21T20:03:00.000-07:00

Had some time to tie up a couple ideas I had for some small clear tubing.I got it at work, I know I couldd do something with it but did'nt know what, I figured out what to do with it.Check out these bugs.They should work pretty good for Large and Smallmouths!

New flies,no fish.

2011-04-12T12:21:00.000-07:00

I finally got out this weekend,up to Paradise Springs it turned out to be a beautiful day but no fish at all. Got up there at 7:00 am, lots of Midges coming off but not a lot of fish taking them off the surface.I started with the usual tactics,midges and leeches.I usually do good with those but no luck yet, tied on a number of midges with different leader configurations all with no results.Tapered my leader back to fish leeches,damsels,dragons and streamers with no luck also.After three hours of beating myself to death it was time to pack it in and head home. Better luck next time.

I've been tying a lot of flies as of late with Spring coming in. I've tied up some Bass bugs, nymphs and streamers. Worked out a cool-ish Pheasant Tail nymph with a bright bead head and an epoxy back with fine glitter it the mix.Also a couple Bass "jigs" and a bunch of Pink Squirrels for my Wisconsin trouting in May.

Streamers for 2011?

2011-01-09T14:22:00.000-08:00

I've been tying alot of streamers, bugger types, not sure why, I don't fish alot of them, here and there. I had a pack of hooks from Cabela's just thought I'd burn through them.I getting itchy to head to Paradise Springs, it opened up on the firts of the year but it's been pretty darn cold scince we got back from vacation, hopefully in the next week or two I'll get up there, I'll have to tie up some midges, thinking about some Mercury Midges, or in that style woth the clear/silver bead.The lake fishes good, lots of midges come off in the morning so I'll have to give those a try.

Swampthing articulated!

2010-11-04T15:54:00.000-07:00

I was playing aroung with the craftstore yarn the other day and tied up an articulated version of "Swampthing" this should be killer for bass and trout alike! I really like this yarn, I need to get it in bright colors, I think this would be a good Brown and Steelhead fly too.

New Bass flies

2010-11-01T12:35:00.001-07:00

In the last post I was talking a bit about some yarn a was working with, I thought I'd put up a few more pics of the results of the yarn trials.

Not much going on.

2010-11-01T12:23:00.000-07:00

As the post title says, not much going on 'round here.The Wisconsin season is closed now so I wait for the chance to get up for Steelies and Browns coming in from the lake. I n the mean time I've been playing around with some new "materials" I found at the local crafts store, I really like the way these look,the range of color i nt the yarns is amazing, giving alot of depth to the fly.I've just been clpping it into inch and a half segments and putting it in a dubbing loop, I'm a huge dubbing loop guy.

Season Closer

2010-09-27T16:23:00.000-07:00

Well, all good things must come to an end and with that it was the last trip up to the Driftless for the season. I was lucky enough to get away for the weekend thanks to a very wonderful wife who tollerates my obsession.
I met up with my father-in-law, Jim, on Saturday morning at the motel we would be staying at. We geared up for the day and hit the water. The first stream we fished was one we've been on before. We had some success with the usual patterns, landing several small-ish Browns. Fished for a few hours and thought to get to the Motel for check in. We took care of that then on to the next spot. Again, another stream we have fished before. I thought I knew what to expect, come to find that I was totally wrong. The stream had been blown out by some flooding a couple months ago, an almost foreign landscape. I never thought that there could be so much change to a stream by a flood. I guess I'm just not that familiar with what floods can do to a stream.
We fished through there for hours and caught many fish, all Browns on the usual Leeches and Pink Squirrels. We did some scouting and hit a small stream for some quick Brookie action and then headed in for dinner.
The next day brought us to a stream we had not fished before and was a blast to fish. It was small, narrow and had beautiful deep pools with Browns and Brookies alike!
After that we made our way to a different stretch of the stream we fished the day before and had about an hour to fish before heading home. I was happy to have caught a couple more Browns out of this section, one small 10-11 incher and one decent 12-14beautiful Brown in Fall spawning color. I guess it will have to keep me happy until next season.............

Some news.

2010-08-31T17:38:00.000-07:00

Not alot to report this past weekend.I had sent some of my Bass flies to Cameron Mortenson at the "Fiberglassmanifesto" a couple weeks back, he had a post up on his site about them and that I would be having them for sale soon. I've been working on this, sourcing boxes for the flies and working on the logo design for stickers etc...
I have settled on the name of "Lilly Pond Fly Design" I'm going to be getting pics up and starting a new page for the sale of them. I will be keeping pricing very friendly, I plan on offering well tied innovative flies for people who fish them.
Enough for now, please keep posted for the details.

Back to Paradise, I mean hell!!

2010-08-22T15:27:00.000-07:00

Went to Paradise Springs this morning for a few short hours, I'm not a big fan of getting out of bed early on the weekends but the seasons gonna be coming to a close soon so I try to get out at any opportunity.
I arrived and the mosquitoes were THICK, ridiculous!! I almost turned around and went back to bed. I forgot the OFF with 300% more deet so I had to use that crap called Repel, not a good bug spray for swarms of bugs. I got on the pond and saw the usual trout swimming about. I first tried my favorite leech pattern to no avail, not a single hit or even a follow up. After that I tied on a Damsel nymph of my own design; I did land one Brown on that one, a chubby guy maybe 12 inches or so.
Tried that Damsel for a while at different depths, the pond gets pretty deep, crimped on a split shot to get it in the range of the fish but no more hits on that one.
Switched to a Mercers' buggy Hex, just for kicks, bigger fly; just to see what might interest them; hooked and landed another good Brown. Continued to fish that pattern with no success. Tied on the beadhead rubber legged hares ear; brought another Brown to the net on that one. By this time my lousy ass bug spray was not doing the job and I was getting bit all over any open patch of skin; So I packed it up and headed back home! Hopefully I'll get back up there again before the season closes.

Paradise Springs today.

2010-07-10T18:55:00.000-07:00

Went to Paradise Springs today with my wife Jessica and our son Myles, it was their first trip there. It was a short visit, shortly after arriving the sky was opening up and some good rain was coming down, we hightailed it out of there before it got nasty.I was able to manage a good size Brown caught on a big olive dragonfly nymph.I had tried the usual leech patterns with no luck, switched to a hopper pattern, thought the surface might work, no luck there either.I thought maybe a big juicy nymph would turn some heads and would'nt ya know,it worked!
I was fishing my Steffen Brothers 8 foot 4wt glass rod, it's a wonderful casting rod and belive it or not it was'nt too bad casting the big Dragonfly nymph!It's a 8 foot 3/4 wt 3 piece rod, I have it strung with a Cortland 333 DT peach line, J.A Forbes reel and it's a reallt nice combo.The rod has a nice medium action, I would'nt consider it on the faster side though, at least to be casting, it feels to be a real medium action rod.I'll have to get back there soon, the short time I was there was challenging, I like that!

Browns, Tigers and Brookies, Oh my! pt.2

2010-06-28T17:30:00.000-07:00

After fishing the most of the morning we packed it up and went to the place we were staying the weekend, The Mayfly Lodge, to check in, after taking care of business we went back out for more action. Went to some streams I'd fished on previous trips and a new one that Matt Wagner at the Driftless Angler told us about.The second stream we hit produced several Browns, Brookies and the elusive Tiger Trout, the cross between a Brookie and a Brown, a beautiful little fish, I was very happy to have caught this fish!!
After fishing almost to dusk we headed back to the Lodge to clean up and go get some dinner.We found oiut to uor disappointment that most of the good dining in the town close up at nine oclock, we were left with the option of Subway, not what we were looking for but it's better than not eating!!
In the morning we went out to see if there was any streams running semi-clear, there were storms againg the night before, we went back to the stream we ended on yesterday, it was running a little cloudy but not too bad, we fished for an hour, caught a few Browns and Brookies then it was time to get back to the so called real world, I had to work Sunday night so we had to get a move on so I could get some sleep. Had a great time on some great water and I'm looking forward to another trip or two before summers' end, By the way, Jim(father in law) is most definatley hooked on flyfishing and fishing the streams in SW wisconsin!!

Browns, Tigers and Brookies, Oh my!

2010-06-28T17:07:00.000-07:00

Went on my first trip up to the Driftless region of Wisconsin, this time I was'nt alone, My Father in law was along for the trip, after having limited success on his home water I had invited him to fish the SW Wisconsin water.
We got up there Saturday morning around ten am, stopped at the Driftless Angler fly shop in Viroqua picked up some patterns, they had storms come through that week and night before,grabbed some leech patterns and got on t he water.My father in law is getting re aquainted with fly fishing after not having done it a a few decades.Having not fished this typr of water, I gave him some tips and advice, guided him through some of the first few holes, he was off!!!!!
The waters were up a bit from the storms but not too much and was clearing pretty quickly, we had hookups pretty fast and that set the pace for the rest of the morining.

Hot bass fly

2010-06-04T19:11:00.000-07:00

I posted a week ago or so about some bass fishing I did.I thought I'd share this fly with people, it's a very good looking creature underthe surface.I just came up with it as I tied it, turns out to be a bug with a ton of action.The bug swims and wiggles, the twister tail draws bass in from a distance, the legs move and puslate, it really looks alive!! I really pleased with this fly.

Weekend at the inlaws.....

2010-05-31T20:45:00.000-07:00

My wife,son and I went north to visit with the inlaws,we hung out, did some swimming, our son Myles' first time in a pool, he was avery cool cat in his floaty boat and kicking a bit and getting a workout. My father-in-law Jim and I went to a river an hours drive away to fish for some Brookies.
We fished through a few spots and after a slip of my worn out felt soles I wound up taking a bath! We did manage to catch one small Brookie each.We went back out today for some of the same, this time tried a different spot. After a lovely climb down a very steep hill to the banks of the river we worked our way downstream and did not see a fish, oh wait, I did see one sucker.The place was teeming with life, saw alot of little black stoneflies and lots of life under the rocks.The river had alot of beautiful holes and runs that one would think for sure theres fish there but it was not to be.I guess to make up for the lack of fish we did have gorgeous weather and wonderful scenery.

Got out for a bit this week.

2010-05-29T05:34:00.000-07:00

I was able to get out this past week for some Bass fishing on a couple local ponds, fishing was pretty good, caught al;ot of fish, Iwas able to finally get some pics of Bass caught on a foam tube crankbait,I'm glad cuz I wrote the article for it but had yet to get some pics with it in a fishes mouth! I guess I can go ahead with the article now.........I fished my McFarland/Scott yellow glass 8'6" 8 wt, 3 pc. It's a really nice rod capable of thrown big wind resistant bugs with EASE, thi is the Bassbug rod!! Also fished a Custom Steffen Bros, 8' 3/4 weight 3 pc I traded to a fella a few weeks back. very nice rod, medium action, have to findthe line that makes it sing though. I fished it with a Air Cell Supreme dt4 f, it was okay but could'nt find the sweet spot.

Later thismorning We'll be going north to visit family over the holiday weekend and I'll be doing some trout fishing with my father-in-law at some local water, gonna bring the Steffen again with a Cortland 333 peach DT4F we'll see how that works for the rod, also bringing the Diamondglass 7' 4wt, the rod that does it all....I'll post more upon returning........................................................

Fatherhood and fishing......

2010-05-29T05:24:00.001-07:00

It's been a while scince I've posted, on March 1st, our baby son came home, named Myles Fisher Ebert, he was born two months premature, he stayed in the NICU for one month and he's doing just amazing scince coming home.

The day he came home I was able to get over to Paradise Springs for a bit of Trout fishing in the morning. I caught several but had a couple good ones, caught a nice Rainbow on a size 22 green midge pattern and stalked another Brown for a while with a Sculpin pattern, after several casts he/she finally bit!

Paradise Springs today

2010-01-16T18:19:00.000-08:00

Went back to Paradise Springs today, had some sucsess in this cold weather. When I got there I started out fishing midge larva patterns, I did'nt have any luck at all with those and I thought I'd trim my leader back to a little heavier tippet and try a bead head wooley bugger.

I was casting in all areas of the lake trout were following up the fly and would be snapping at it but no hook ups...After losing a couple buggers in the trees I switched to a leech pattern I've fished there with luck before. I was seeing alot of fish chasing it and bitting the fly, still not too many hook ups. I was able to land three fish, two Browns and one Rainbow.One of the two Browns was short a nose, not sure what happend to it but I felt sorry for it.

I lost one more Rainbow I was fishing parallel to the shore, casting toward the deck. Rainbow grabbed the leech, I played it foe abit and it got into some downded tree branches and was able to get off.

I have yet to crack this place, don't know the secrets of Paradise Springs, I've only fished it four times now scince early September but I am having a great time working it out....

Flies,flies,flies

2010-01-10T17:26:00.000-08:00

Well, the weather has sucked a bit as of late, I thought I'd tie some stuff for the spring and summer.There's also some things in here that I've tied in the past.Most of these are Bass flies/bugs. I'm not able to get up to the trout water as much as I'd like so alot of the fishing I do is for bass and panfish. Here's the bugs!!

Paradise Springs

2010-01-05T19:19:00.000-08:00

Went to the spring pond Friday morning, nursing a slight hangover from new years eve, I made a stoopid mistake, more on that in a bit. Got to the place and I was suprised to see several people already there.It was really cold bu in the quest for trout, cold is not an issue.

Saw alot of fish rising, I think they were taking midges just below the surface.Back to my mistake...I was going to put a new leader on my line the day before, I knew I was going to be fishing midge patterns and would fish with 6,7 ,8X tippets.Well I could'nt manage to get the leader on the line, I thought I'd just adjust the taper of the leader and I come to find out I did'nt have the right leader materials to do this. I tapered the leader from 6 or 8 lb test to a 7X tippet, bad idae, I was snaping off tippets left and right.I was just having a really herd time getting a leader to work well wich of course made for shit presentations!!

It was nice to get out even in the fridgid cold, met a couple nice folks, bs'd about glass rods for a bit. All and all I had a good morning.

Cold,cold,cold

2009-12-30T13:04:00.000-08:00

Went up north yesterday, the river was high and looked like chocolate milk, no surprise.Fished for an hour saw on fish come up but that was all, no hits or nothin'. Franks and I decided to pack it up and go get some lunch!
Off to another spot on New Years day, a spring pond in Wis. hopefully it won't be too cold or snowy...I guess I don't care, gonna go either way( That's if I'm not too hungover from new years eve!)

Freezing Tommorow

2009-12-28T21:29:00.000-08:00

Heading up to Wisconsin tomorrow to give a try at the Steelies and Browns. Hopefully it will be good, gonna fish a couple rigs for 'em, more on that tomorrow. Have a good supply of eggs,nymphs and sculpins, streamers as well. One has to work, right?