Badaxe Design

Stopped by one of my local fly shops - Chicago Fly Fishing Outfitters - just to look around and kill some time. Sure enough I walked out with a few items...hooks, forceps (mine were bent out of shape), and a zinger for my Abel nippers.

I also, was surprised to see that they carried a few items from Badaxe Design. Jonathan is a real cool dude, who has some serious artistic talent. I ended up picking up the same hat I bought from him a year ago. It will serve as my back up, in case something happens to my favorite fishing hat.

I've had the first one for over a year now, and it has seen a lot of water. This hat's been through everything, and it's gotten quite a bit of character along the way.

How can you not like the patriot trout design!?!

I don't think I have to tell you which one is which.

Here are some of the outings it has helped me look good.

Small creeks of Illinois

Current River in Missouri

Driftless Area trout streams in Wisconsin

Various lakes of Illinois

Flambeau River in Wisconsin

Gulf of Mexico in Fort Meyers, Florida

Looking forward to bringing it along on many more fishing adventures.

New Toy

Received some awards points from my employer to use towards a prize/gift/small bonus.

I cannot wait to start using this for my fly tying. I have a lot of foam and balsa wood that needs shaping.

Exciting things are on the horizon at my fly tying desk.

Frogger

In a recent post, I mentioned that I have never caught a bass using a frog lure with my bait caster. I have tried countless times only to come up empty. I am the only person to blame for missing over a billion hook ups with a frog. I just get so damn excited seeing that explosion underneath the frog, I tend to set the hook way too early, and pull it away from the fish.

I finally thought that it was time to put line on my old bait caster once I started seeing the spool show after a long cast. It's been paired up with the same 30 lb test braid that I put on when I bought it...say 8.5 years ago. Not bad, huh!

So, 2 days after I had it relined my reel, I ventured out to my honey hole, because, I really wanted to work on my frog techniques, and I knew that the bass there would cooperate, and help me out. I ended the day going 2 for 12. I can honestly say that 8 of those missed bass were due in part to my drag getting changed in the relining process at Dicks Sporting Goods. I had some monster hook sets, because, the frog was so far out, but failed to hook up, because, my spool just let out line, in turn, letting the bass spit the frog, and get away.

I should also give a shout out to my homie DANK for inspiring me to use a frog lure, again, and give another shout out to my other homie Fat Gordo who told me some key advice when fishing the frog. He said, "When you see the bass hit, just keep telling yourself - "don't f#@king do it! don't f#@king do it!" and just wait until you feel some weight on the other end before setting that hook."

Pre-workout bass fishing - Got this one at 5 AM at sunrise. Missed at first, but came back.

Short visit to the big pond

My second visit to the big pond (Lake Michigan) this year.

Had an appointment to be somewhere at 09:30, so, I decided to leave extra early to beat the morning traffic, and to fish 31st harbor. It's a new harbor that has fishing piers, and was nearby where I was supposed to be.

What a beautiful harbor. I was a huge fan of the fishing piers. I didn't need a long net, because, I was practically on the water. I was the only one there, and that kind of threw me off, because, the lake is a popular place to fish....at the other harbors. I didn't mind though. I rather enjoyed the solitude, because, I really don't know what I'm doing when it comes to Lake Michigan. No one can witness my follies ha

I started out casting a small berkley swim bait on a small jig, then a small shad colored flicker shad. I was able to hook up with a few small smallmouth bass, and a few small rainbow trout.

Then I decided that I wanted to cover more water, and tied on a silver and blue spoon. After a few casts I had a follow from a HUGE brown trout, I twitched the spoon and he was aggressivley swimming toward it every twitch, but just wouldn't commit. After another cast, he followed, again, but just wouldn't commit. The next few casts and he was no where to be found.

Beautiful day out there. Cannot wait to return to the Lake, because, the perch have started moving in, and I love perch fishing in late May early June.

DIY - Scupper Plugs

So, I didn't get scupper plugs with my kayak. (The seller forgot about them, and I forgot to ask at the time. He doesn't know where they are.)

Had to make due. +BrookField Angler told me to go to the pet store and purchase foam balls found in the cat toy section. I went, but did not like the sponginess of those balls. (I just laughed.)

Today when I was walking around  Walmart, I seen the answer to my scupper plug dilemma, in the form of foam/spongy yellow practice golf balls. They were not as squishy as the cat balls, so, I think they will do a better job, and for $2, how could you go wrong. Worse comes to worse, I could make a floating key chain for any small tools, or keys with those foam golf balls.

4 Pack Foam Practice Golf Balls - My local Walmart had a 6 pack for $2....I have 6 scupper holes. It was destiny.

I also, scored a milk crate at work. Slowly but surly I am modifying this yak to my liking, and on the cheap!

Next project...sealing those 2 hatches to make them water tight. There was some water that came in with the rain we had the past 2 days. Not much, but it's supposed to be a dry hull....not a wet one.

Change of mind

I had all the materials out on the desk ready to tie a bunch of size 14 / 16 flies. Before opening up any of the materials, I stared at my vise for a few moments, and a certain fish that has eluded me crossed my mind.

Musky.

The big hooks in my hook storage were just calling to me it seemed. So, I packed up all of the materials I had already placed neatly on my desk, and begun to pull out some 5/0 hooks, foam, buck tail, flash, and grizzly hackle.

The end result.

This should attract some bass, pike, and hopefully, musky.

This is the year.

An Icy Wade

I went fishing.

Checked out my favorite creek in search of some early season smallies, but the outing didn't last long. Much of the creek was still covered in about 3 inches of ice. I spent 1/3 of my time pretending to be an ice breaker. That stopped when I couldn't break any more ice to wade through, and when I got bored of watching the mini icebergs float down stream. (Also, because, I realized that I probably looked like a clown out there.)

No fish were caught.

No fish were seen.

Went home and took a nap.

Yawn.

Musky.

4/0 - 6/0 hooks, grizzly hackle, buck tail - and lots of it. Musky was the focus of my thoughts the past few months, as I prepped for a 3 day trip to Flaters Resort in Holcombe, Wisconsin. The resort is located where the Chippewa and Flambeau rivers intersect. It's a small family owned/operated business with some great people. I recommend it if you're thinking about going up to the area.

Day 1 - Friday 10/11/13
We arrived early, and decided to wade and fish a dam on the Flambeau River. We were skunked. They didn't have any of the turbines open and the water was low. Should have listened to the guy who just unloaded his boat when he mentioned that the fishing would be tough for us near the dam with no turbines open.

The Fat Gordo, Fish Dank (with duck face), and myself

Shortcut! - Didn't feel like wading back up river.

After checking in, and getting dropped off with the boat only halfway in the Flambeau River, The Fat Gordo was the only person ready to fish. While Fish Dank and I set up our gear, Gordo was greeted on his first cast by a 30" musky following his buck tail spinner to the shore. Then after 10 minutes of floating Gordo gets another follow, but from a much bigger musky. It was an extremely windy day, and it did not help my mediocre casting abilities (I am the only fly fisherman. My other 2 friends were tossing big lures.) The day ended with myself and Gordo landing 2 smallies. The wind proved to be too much for me toward the end of the float. My fly came in contact with my rod 1 too many times while casting, and I broke off the tip section of my rod. (Possibly the fly hitting it. Thank goodness for that Redington warranty)

Love me some smallies

The Fat Gordo with a fat Wisco smallie.

On the hunt..

The one that got away.....in my dreams. I just love it up there!

Day 2 - Saturday 10/12/13

Floated the Chippewa River for about 9 hours. Fish Dank was the only person to land any fish - 2 northern pike and 1 smallie. No fly fishing for me, but luckily I did bring my bait caster and a small lure box. We saw tons of adult and juvenile bald eagles. We also got to see 3 deer cross the river in a rather deep stretch - pretty cool! The wind had us behind in schedule, and we floated down river in the dark for 1.5 hours - not cool - depending on me and a small head lamp to search for possible dangers ahead. We made it out safe, and to Flaters 75th Anniversary party. Free booze and sloppy joes! Can't beat that!

Blue skies in the morning.

Fish Dank and his smallie.

Northern Pike and Fish Dank

One of many bald eagles we saw. Absolutely beautiful!

Fish Dank transformed into the Gordon's Fisherman

Watching the sun set on the Chippewa River.

Day 3 - Sunday 10/13/13

Short float on the Flambeau River. Fish Dank tossed a buzz bait and hooked up with a pike. He also, had a few blow ups from another pike and a smallie. After we checked out, we stopped by another dam and fished from the shore. Saw a guy in a boat in the middle of the river catch a fat 45" musky. 

...and that concludes my trip. I miss those rivers, already. I cannot wait to return to them next year. Hopefully, multiple times...with a spare fly rod! I have a custom 10 wt being built very soon.

Enjoy some other pictures.

Maybe Santa will bring me a better camera :)

Love the colors of fall in Wisconsin.

Friday's dinner - Lamb steaks and Revolution Brewing Anti-Hero IPA.

Damn, that was my favorite shirt.

Gave my buddy Fat Gordo ring to see if he was free to fish, and he was. We decided to fish Poplar Creek, again. It's been awhile since I fished that creek, and I was feigning some smallmouth action. After a quick Cabela's stop for some fly tying materials I needed.

Smallie was caught under that bridge.

Catch

Release

The water was low, and the fishing was tough. I thought that the cloud cover of the day would definitely work to our advantage, but it didn't. Oh well. I still managed 1 dink smallie, and a decent LMB.

Not only was the fishing bad, but the wade was, too. Rocks just kept sneaking up on us. First the Fat Gordo went down, and came back up okay, and no water in the waders. Then I went down not 5 minutes after that. I was rewarded a nice welt on my right shin. 

Once we decided to turn around and make our way back to my car, I went down, again! This time I was rewarded with 3 very nice gashes in my right forearm. I didn't even bother to check what it was that gave me this glorious wound, but I just have my fingers crossed that it wasn't a hunk of metal. (Unfortunately, I think it was a hunk of metal.) I was just worried about stopping the bleeding. They were some pretty deep gashes, and I had nothing with me. (I should probably carry a small first aid kit in my pack, and so should you!) In order to stop the bleeding, I had to rip one of the sleeves off of my favorite Vedavoo shirt. The Fat Gordo helped me tie it tight around my wound, and then we carried on.

Be careful out there!!!

Not the best of days.

Update: The wound is healing nicely. It sort of looks like I was attacked by a mini Wolverine from the X-men.

Skunked Fox

Went out with my buddy Danny to the Fox River. He and our other friend The Fat Gordo did really well at this spot a few weeks ago catching some nice smallies.

My weapon of choice was my fly rod and various flies. This produced absolutely nothing  =)

Danny started off with a jig n craw, but missed a few strikes. On the wade back he switched to a gold inline spinner and caught a few small smallies, and then a quillback as we were about to step out of the river and call it a day.

Here are the few pictures I took from the day.

We couldn't find anyone hiding...Either they're really good at hiding or they're no longer oppressed. :)

Never seen one of these. Had some help ID'ing it.

The Current River 2013

Let me start off by saying...I forgot something. haha I forgot my trout net, but we managed to land every fish hooked, so, there were no worries.

We couldn't have asked for better weather. It was in the 90's all 4 days, with a little rain on the 3rd day. That didn't bother us, too much, because, the sun was still fighting to shine through the clouds. We ended up floating Baptist Camp to Round Spring (We rented the canoe from Carr's Canoe Rental. IMO They are the best down there in service, and price.)

My friend HH was using a light baitcasting set up, and managed to break off the first 3 guides of his rod. He was still able to fish, but couldn't feel the lure in the water, and any hits. That didn't matter....He was catching fish. He caught all kinds. Smallmouth, rainbow, gar, a sucker fish, and a surprise brown. That brown was a 17" beefy beauty! He doesn't think too much of trout, but was very impressed with that fish.

I had a difficult time fishing. Just when I thought I figured out what the fish were looking for...I was wrong. They had me guessing the entire time. I still caught some fish, but the fishing was just not the same for me as it has been in previous years. None the less, I had an awesome time.

Every year this river shows us something different. This year we saw a water moccasin swimming to the shore. I had some mink's start emptying out a hollowed out log I was standing next to, thinking I was going to steal their stockpile of crayfish and food. Seen a Red Headed Wood Pecker. The icing on the cake had to be the Bald Eagle who flew towards us, and perched itself in a tree about 30 yards away from us, and took off back up river after I snapped a few pictures of it. What a beautiful thing!

All in all it was a great trip. Next year, I think we are going to venture out and explore some new waters. Possibly some other rivers in Missouri or maybe the Northwoods of Wisconsin.

Here's a short video I made of clips and still pictures from the trip.
(It might not work if trying to view it from a mobile device or tablet.)

Note: Maximize the video for best viewing results. You'll see the bald eagle better, and the rest of the video better :)

D'oh!!!

So, as I plan and prepare what I will be bringing with me on my trip to the Current River in Southern Missouri. I cannot help but laugh at myself for the bone head mistake I made 2 years ago....I forgot my reel. Yep, I had every but my reel. Fly rod, flies, tools, camping gear, food, etc...all packed. We had just gotten dropped off by our canoe outfitter and started loading the canoe. I was putting my rod together when all I needed was the last peice...I couldn't believe I made such a mistake.

This is how I felt, except, I didn't say "D'oh!"

The trip was great, but my fishing was less than spectacular. I ended up tying on a long piece of tippet to the tip top and fishing tenkara style (Way before I even knew that was an actual way of fishing.)

Don't make the same mistake I made. Create a checklist or double check your gear before you leave.

Do you have any similar stories?