The Legend of Eddie Rivard

I had the pleasure of sitting in on the Brown Trout and Bridge Beers Podcast while they interviewed fly fishing Legend Eddie Rivard.  This had to be one of my favorite podcasts that the 3BT crew has put out.  Eddie is great fly fisher-person, canoeist, adventurer, drive thru orderer, and blogger.  Here are some photos from the night.

The Legend Eddie Rivard.

Eddie talked about brown trout, musky, and how he used all of his free time exploring new water with his canoe.  He also talked about how he and Eddies Army regulate the internet and social media platforms for the #muskyonthefly hashtag.  If you're using it, you better be using it right, because, Eddie is watching.

Grant in his 2nd natural habitat.

Matt Ebbers amongst the Hamms.

The Legend Eddie Rivard

LINKS

- Eddie Rivard Instagram

- Eddie Rivard Fly Fishing Blog

- Brown Trout and Bridge Beers Podcast

- Brown Trout and Bridge Beers Instagram

- Grant Meyer Instagram

- Matt Ebbers Instagram

Final Hops & Hoppers of 2019

Tuesday December 17th marked the last Bob Mitchell's Fly Shop Hops & Hoppers open tie night of 2019 at Lake Monster Brewing in Saint Paul.  The turn out to these open fly tying events is usually good, and there's a lot of diverse fly Tyers that attend to tie flies, drink craft beer or soda, and talk about past and future fishing trips.  It's also a great excuse to escape the house and shake off the cabin fever if ice fishing or winter trout fishing is not your thing.

Lucas Gluesenkamp aka Strange Bugs sits amazed that a ziplock baggie appeared on Jim's vise.

Lucas Gluesenkamp whipping up some bass bugs that are not strange.

Bobby Regan lining up some feathers 

I cannot remember the last time I brought my vise to an open tie.  I've learned over the years, that I never tie flies at these things, and I spend more time taking photos and talking to others.  I'm okay with that.  I prefer to tie my mop flies in the comfort of my own home, so, no one can steal my secret mop fly recipe.

Mike and Sam focused on their bugs.

Micah Crider tossing the whip finish on a winter trout streamer.

Micah Crider getting ready to start another fly.

All kinds of flies were being tied.  Trout flies, musky flies, dry flies, and streamers.  The only consistent thing I noticed on this night were the laughs.  There were a lot of them.  I think we all need to get out and fish.

Driftless Drew whipping up a bug the same size of a Driftless brown trout.

Armone Vang tying a chironomid that ended up in one of my fly wallets.

Looking forward to future open tie night, but more importantly, I'm looking forward to 2020.

Cheers to all of you!

Fly Tying Season

Snow is now on the ground, and based on the future forecast, it's not going anywhere.  Enter fly tying season...and half assed ice fishing season. I'll most likely spend more time tying flies than sitting on the ice.  I'm really good at catching trees during the warmer months, so, I need to get those boxes filled back up.

Vedavoo Fly Tying Wallet keeping all of my tools organized. 

My Bench Basin is always near my vise ready for scraps and whatever else I toss in it.

My fly tying gear you see in the 2 photos above.

1. Vedavoo Bench Basin - Perfect if you go to open fly tying events, trips, friends houses, or other parts of your home.  Also works great for an on the go dog bowl.
2. Vedavoo Fly Tying Wallet - Great for keeping all of your tools organized at home or on the go.
3. Vedavoo Pinch Pouch - Another great piece of gear for organization.  Perfect for keeping all kinds of small things together while you're on the go.
4. Rite Bobbin Half Hitch - My favorite bobbin to use for all of my trout, bass, and similar sized flies....I even use this for my pike and smaller musky flies.
5. Rising Stellar Scissors - Hands down my favorite pair of scissors out there.  I've been using them for years, and have several pairs of them.

I probably sound like a broken record, but I'm definitely not giving up on this blogging thing.  I really need to contact the Google and figure out why I cannot "reply" to comments in the comment section.  It's not recognizing my Google account name/log in information.  Maybe it's because I've been neglecting the blog.  More to come.

Glass Is Not Dead

#glassisnotdead - The Fiberglass Manifesto

Picked up a new/used Cabelas CGR fiberglass rod (5'9" - 3 wt) at a recent gear swap at Bob Mitchell's Fly Shop.  It had a broken tip, but that was an easy fix.  My homie Drew was building himself a new rod, and he was putting together an order, so, I had him add a new tip top guide to shopping list.  The new tip top fit like a glove, and my new glass rod had a new life.

Perfect for the #icatchsmallfishtour

Since I already own a 3 wt rod set up I got years ago, I didn't need to purchase a new line or reel for the glass rod.  I'll just use the reel for both rods, and that is A-okay with me.  It actually fits the rod perfectly, and I was able to take it out right away to test it out on a local lake before all of the heavy weeds grew in.

So many bluegill were caught.

Bunch of crappie this size.

Rod bends in to the evening.

It was a fun time out there with this rod, and I'm looking forward to using it more and more this summer.  It's crazy how much bend there is!  It's the perfect rod for the #icatchsmallfishtour

LEM Boulevard Bike Helmet

This Summer I plan on riding my bike a lot more.  With the more bike riding, I got a new bike helmet from LEM Helmets.  One of my plans for this Summer is ride around the Twin Cities, spot fish a bunch of places, and stop at some breweries.  My homie Grant of the Brown Trout and Bridge Beers Podcast is an avid rider of bikes, and he's down.  Should be a lot of fun!

Fun colors on the box

Lots of air holes to keep my head cool

Safety and style

Slapped a CARF Creative sticker on the new helmet, because, that's what I do.  I have stickers, and they need to be stuck.  Here's a short video of me working on my magic skills.  Let me know what you think! 

View this post on Instagram

Worked on my magic skills to make a new @lemhelmets bike helmet appear on my table. Going to be riding a whole bunch this summer. Anyone else down to join @meyer.grant.d and I for a bike, fish, and brew tour around the Twin Cities one of these days? 🚲 🎣 🍺 • • • #LEMhelmets #lem #helmet #safety #cycling #mountainbiking #commuterlife #fishing #beer #brewery #magic #magicthegathering #abracadabra #minnesota #midwest #beer

A post shared by Justin C A R F A G N I N I (@justincarf) on May 6, 2019 at 7:28am PDT

Gear Swap at BMFS

Bob Mitchell's Fly Shop in Saint Paul had a gear swap.  There was a lot of cool stuff there.  There were also a bunch of cool people.  Here are some photos I took while I was there.

Outside of the shop.

Outside of the shop Patagonia was showing off their new wading boots, and then under the BMFS tent the grill was going and there were hot dogs and chips for all.

Steelhead Talk

There was a lot of fish talk going on, and in the photo above Mr. Sherlock was talking about steelhead, per usual.  He likes to toss an egg pattern first before using a streamer - I'm kidding.  That's how you get him "triggered" haha :). 

Hot dogs and chips.

Sam trying to get Aaron to give him all of the goods for free.

There was a lot of old gear that found new homes, and will find new fish.  There were so many fly rods this year! So many!

Inside the shop

The Legend - Wilderness Bill

The Man, The Myth, The Legend - Wilderness Bill made an appearance to the gear swap.  He's known to wrestle Canadian gators in his sleep, and chug bottles of maple syrup by the gallons, and destroy Costco sized pizzas with 1 bite.

Wilderness Bill scores!

Wilderness Bill is also good at hunting down some seriously good deals!

Big thanks to Bob Mitchell's Fly Shop for the hot dogs, and hosting a fun event!

FYI - I don't know what is going on with my Google account and blogger, but it won't let me traditionally reply to your comments.  I have to instead create a complete separate comment to reply back.

TenCARFa

We're getting to have a Spring here in Minnesota, and I have been able to get out and enjoy it.  Other than the trout in the State Parks of Minnesota, the only fish I am able to get out and target are currently panfish.  With it being Spring and all, I went out for a walk around a local lake, and decided to bring my Tenkara rod.

With a beaded San Juan Worm tied on the end of my Tenkara USA Hane rod recommended to me by The Tenkara Master Blaster himself, Troutrageous (Tenkara Angler Magazine), I went out and dominated the sunfish!

#icatchsmallfishtour

During the walk I stopped at the Como Park Zoo & Conservatory.  Within the conservatory there was a Japanese garden and there were so many Bonsai Trees.  I was thoroughly impressed, because, I have never seen one in person.  Since FOREVER I thought a Bonsai Tree was a specific species, but I was completely wrong.  I had no idea that it was an actual art form of growing much larger trees, but stunting them to be mini.  I was amazed, and conducted 30 minutes of research when I got home, and purchased a Bonsai Tree seed kit for Colorado Blue Spruces.  Soon, I will be a master of Bonsai.

I hope I possess the skills to Bonsai.

Also, I must give a shot out to Cheech of Fly Fish Food, because, he dubbed my style of Tenkara as TenCARFa, and I think it's RAD.  Thanks!

All the cool kids are raving about TenCARFa.

VIMEO

YOUTUBE

Ted Hansen Art

Recently, I stopped by Ted Hansen's studio to pick up some stickers and a smallmouth bass canvas print I had ordered from his Etsy shop.  During my visit we had a beer, ate some Girl Scout Cookies, spun some Hank Williams and Bob Dylan on the record player, and bounce around some ideas for this summer.

Classic.

During out chat, Ted set up a blank canvas on his easel and started to paint the entire thing red.  I'm really looking forward to seeing what comes of that piece since I got to see it from the start.

Blank canvas meets Ted Hansen and red paint.

At the beginning of the year, Ted has taken up a challenge other artists have done in the past to invoke some new ideas.  He has been doing a daily piece - Study a Day.  After he was finished painting the base layer of red on the blank canvas, he grabbed a pencil and a pad of sketch paper (I think), and began whipping up daily study #97 of 365.

Working on daily study #97.

Ted Hansen is incredibly talented artist, and all around rad dude.  You should totally check out his art, and give him a follow on the socials.

Ted Hansen Socials/Website

Instagram

Facebook

Website

Etsy Store

Minnesota Fly Fishing Artists

Instagram

Facebook

Brown Trout & Bridge Beers

I sat down with the guys from the Brown Trout & Bridge Beers Podcast to talk brown trout.  Per usual with me, it went off subject rather quickly and we found ourselves chatting and laughing.  The conversation went from talking brown trout fishing, to whales, dolphins, mop flies, marabou, and I gave some tips on how to succeed out on the water.

Give it a listen to below.

Would love to hear some feedback.

Where you can find the guys of Brown Trout & Bridge Beers:

Soundcloud

Instagram

Facebook

Grant IG

Matt IG

Vedavoo Torchbearer Spotlight

Hello all of you beautiful people out there who still visit.  I am still alive, and I assure you that I have no intentions of ever throwing in the towel here.  Like Stella, I just need to get my groove back.  While I haven't been writing/sharing over here, I have been writing/sharing.  I had a short Q&A session with Matthew over at Vedavoo not long ago, and the interview has been posted.

Click on the link to be brought over to the Vedavoo Workshop Journal to read the interview.

>>>>>  VEDAVOO TORCHBEARER SPOTLIGHT <<<<<

LAKE FLOAT (JUNE)

Back in June I came across some free time, and decided to get out in the raft for a Twin Cities Metro musky hunt.  The homie Travis met me at the boat launch and right when we were about to launch another small water craft pulled up and it was my other homie Lucas.  He was about to call it a day, but decided to stay out on the water and float around with us and fish.

It was a good day on the water, because, Lucas and I raced our watercraft against one another...and I won.  Lucas does have plans to add flames to his watercraft, which in theory give him a few extra ponies, but I still think I'll be able to take him.  We shall see.  Oh, and Travis caught his personal best northern pike on the fly!!  Well, at the time it was his personal best.  He has since caught bigger, and he's totally getting addicted to the warm water game.

Here's a short video from the day.

Travis Instagram - @The_Ravvit

Lucas Instagram - @Strangeflies

Lucas also does art and here's the link to his website -> CLICK HERE

FLAG DAY RIVER FLOAT

Took the Flycraft Stealth out on the Rum River in search of smallies, and gators on a glorious Flag Day.  I tested out how my trolling motor faired against the current of a river, fished some new fly patterns, had a good time, and finally saw some Minnesota beaver.

What'd you all think...I'm pretty smooth when releasing fish, aren't I?!   :)

MY GEAR

Camera - http://amzn.to/2hnMwkD

Lens #1 - https://amzn.to/2LzJ1B0

GoPro 5 Black - https://amzn.to/2JrjSHY

GoPro 6 Black - https://amzn.to/2LuA8IO

Microphone - http://amzn.to/2oGSMEq

Trolling Motor - https://amzn.to/2sVNrKB

*The above links are Amazon Associate links**

*

45 POUNDS OF THRUST

The CARF #icatchsmallfishtour2018 just received a power boost.  A boost in the form of an electric trolling motor for my Flycraft Stealth.  Little fish beware, I am now able to find you faster!

Minn Kota C2 45

The maiden voyage for the new trolling motor was a local lake.  The sun was shining, and I was armed with a 7 and 10 wt rod, a Ziplock bag full of flies, a fully charge marine battery and a new trolling motor.  The table was set for me to dominate, and dominate I did.  These small fish never had a chance.

Pig Farm Pinkie holding up a 10 lb Larry

The trolling motor worked great, and I was able to get out to the spots I know that hold small fish so much faster than before.  They never saw me coming.  I was tossing a small black woolly bugger-esk fly with a conehead, and I SLAYED.  I even slayed while LIVE on Instagram.  If you don't follow me, you should.  There will be more live fishing outings in the future.

5 lbs of crappie

There was a point in time where I was hooking up with a crappie almost every cast.  I must have caught like 347.5 crappie of all different sizes.  If I had a bucket, I might have taken a few home for some table fare.  They were much bigger than the 5lb crappie I am holding in the picture above, but I decided that I'd let them see another day.  I have their address, so, I'll be revisiting them in the future.

The CARF Fish Slaying Water Craft

The trolling motor works great, and is more than capable to scoot the Flycraft around the lake.  Looking forward to getting it out on a river to test it's ability against some current.

MY GEAR

Trolling Motor - https://amzn.to/2sVNrKB

Net - https://amzn.to/2Jz54He

Camera - http://amzn.to/2hnMwkD

Lens #1 - http://amzn.to/2hhdHJS

Lens #2 - http://amzn.to/2CLhwQZ

**The above links are Amazon Associate links**

BOW & ARROW BROOK TROUT

One of my friends saw that I was on the Carf #icatchsmallfishtour2018 and invited me along to go fish some of his favorite brook trout waters.  In typical CARF fashion I forgot the reels to my 3 and 5 wt rods, so, I had to borrow Cody's spare 5 wt reel.  It seems I'm always forgetting things.  This one time my friend Jim flew up from Chicago for work a day early to fish, and when I picked him up from the airport we immediately went to the trout streams.  I told Jim not to bring anything but his waders and boots.  Well, I should have told him to bring his fly box, because, I forgot all of my flies at home on my desk.  Ha!

Enjoy the short video, and be on the look out for a longer version of the video by subscribing to my Youtube channel.

LINK - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b2tl6hO4GM4

Let me know what you think of the video in the comments on the Youtube page, and don't forget to give it a "thumbs up" because it really does help in letting me know if it was good or not.

PIKE FOR LUNCH

The snow and ice have melted, and I've awoken from a bit of blogging hibernation.  There is so much to catch up on around here, and especially out there with all of my fellow bloggers.  Yesterday (May 15th) during lunch I opted to not eat - what a lie! I never eat during my lunch time.  There's more important things to do with my time like fish, edit photos/video, or nap.  (I just eat while I'm working.  I mean who doesn't!?!)

So, during lunch yesterday, I stopped by a spot really close to work.  I didn't have any fly rods set up and I wanted to maximize my time fishing, so, I grabbed my casting rod and tossed a swim jig with a paddle tail trailer.  I was sure to have a steel leader on, because, I know there are gators present.

Stirred up quite a few of these during lunch, it must have been the new gator hat from 720 Fly.  I even managed to cast my rod and reel into the water!  Hilarious!  It wasn't hard to retrieve out of the water, so, that's a plus.  It is full of dirt and sand, so, I'll definitely have to clean it up.  I have it on video, so, be on the look out for that sometime in the very near future.

After work, I decided to head over to the same spot with my fly rod.  I hooked several trees and thought I was going to break my fly line each time I was trying to rip my fly line out of them.  I managed to hook up with one gator, and I'm pretty sure it was one I had hooked earlier with the swim jig.  It's great to be fishing in short sleeve again.  Shorts were needed.  It was too damn hot out for my jeans.

Hat - 720 Fly

Net - Rising Fish

***Below are Amazon Affiliate Links***

Camera - https://amzn.to/2L48Idj

Camera Lens - https://amzn.to/2KvIJdR

Favorite Lens - https://amzn.to/2Ipr5aR

GoPro 5 Black - https://amzn.to/2Ipxk2r

GoPro 6 Black - https://amzn.to/2GmyINu

 Favorite Mini Tripod - https://amzn.to/2GotoJl