Swampthing articulated!

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

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.

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

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.

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!!

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.

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

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!

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

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.....

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.

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......

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

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

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

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.