My First Trout

I started fly fishing about 4 years ago. Living here in the Chicago suburbs, I primarily fish for bass. It wasn't until this past summer that I hooked into my first trout. 

For the past 4 years I've been doing a 4 day - 40 mile canoe float trip on the Current River in Southern Missouri. The river is full of small mouth bass, rainbow trout, brown trout, pickerel, needle nose gar, carp, etc. The first 3 years of the trip I was focused on enjoying the beautiful float, camping, and fishing for smallies. (The smallie fishing is amazing here!)

This past July (2012) I decided that it was time, that I finally catch a trout. I mean I am fly fisherman, and trout is usually the fish of choice for most.

I started off using flies I've never used before...such as prince nymphs, hares ears, and elk hair caddis. I probably wasn't using the proper technique with these flies, but I'm sure with practice, and time I will get better. I wasn't attracting anything, and probably scaring all of the fish away with the horror that was me trying to fish these flies. 

So, after playing around with those flies, I decided to go to my old faithful...a wooly bugger. I tied on a white wooly bugger, and the fish started hitting. Large mouth, small mouth, and I finally caught my first rainbow trout! It was very exciting. At first I didn't know what I had hooked in to, as it got closer, I saw that it was a trout. I immediately jumped out of the canoe and landed it. As I held it in my had, I admired the beauty of it's color and markings. They really are beautiful fish.

I ended up catching 3 rainbow's the entire trip, and I also, think I caught a little case of trout fever. (Another blog to follow - The Driftless Area of Wisconsin)

Orvis kindly reposted this picture on their page. Pretty cool of them!

All fish were caught, and happily released. 

Fly Fishing Film Tour aka F3T

So, very excited! I got my tickets to the Fly Fishing Film Tour (F3T) yesterday in the mail. I wasn't able to go last year, but I did go the first year. I just want to say thank you to Robert Thompson of Third Year Fly Fisher for making this happen here in Chicago.

If you aren't familiar with Robert Thomas and his blog Third Year Fly Fisher, I suggest you familiarize yourself with him, and his work. He has done some great fly fishing films, and one of my favorites - Musky Country: Zero 2 Hero.

Clear Cure Goo

I recently jumped aboard the Clear Cure Goo drift boat. I ordered the starter kit, 2 packs of eyes, and 2 stickers.  I was excited when I saw my package had arrived, and even more excited to find out they added a few more stickers (I like stickers..I mean who doesn’t!), and CCG has some really awesome stickers! The Steve Zissou sticker is funny,  Pat Cohen’s Wolf Fish is my favorite sticker from the bunch.

Warning: Looking deep into CCG eyes may cause you to fall in love with them, and cause you to completely forget about the eyes you used to use.

That is the disclaimer that should be on every label of the CCG eyes, because, it holds true. I completely forgot about the eyes I used to use. In fact, I completely forgot what brand they were, too.

As for the “Goo” itself, it is a very cool and interesting product. It’s definitely not like any glue/epoxy I have ever used, because, it’s “goo.” Seriously, who has fun applying glue/epoxy to flies? CCG has made finishing my flies fun. Apply the goo, and then hit it with the special UV flashlight, and bam....the fly is finished. There is no waiting around for it to dry. Pretty damn awesome if you ask me.

The Goo Is The Poo!

Here is an illusion of a baitfish I tied, modeled by the Kris Angel Magic box set.