Fly Fishing in Islamorada, FL

Had a good trip to Islamorada, FL and caught a few sea trout, grouper & red drum.

Boat going out at 6:30am.

Sunset at Cheeca Lodge.
Lunch with friends at the dock.
Showing off a red drum.

Fishing Report - Cape Lookout in June

Not many people were there:

It was Hot:
And windy:
Andrew fed the fish:

Did I mention it was hot?

Things I Never Thought I’d See …

… or, why fly fisherman sometimes get a bad name with warm water fishermen.

Here’s the situation: my brother and I went to Weldon, NC last Friday on a striper scouting expedition. Weldon is the self-proclaimed “Rockfish Capital of the World,” and a quick call to Bobby Colston’s Tackle Box on Thursday afternoon provided us with the information that while the shad run was winding down, the stripers were beginning to arrive in the river in numbers.
We got to the Weldon put-in about 12:30 and had a sandwich in the parking lot watching the action below. The thing about the striper run (so we’ve been told) is that the best fishing is right there at the put it, and that the preferred method is to drive your boat up real close to the rocks, kill the motor and float downstream anywhere from a quarter to a half mile, and then fire up the motor and do it again. And again. And again. There are a couple of boats taking turns at this, including two guys with fly rods in jon boat.

So we watch for a while and then we get in the boat and cross the main channel and head to the other side of the river, where there’s a braid in the channel. My brother keeps an old New River (i.e., concrete) anchor in the bilge so we dropped that off the bow, taking care to keep the nose of the boat pointed upstream and letting the current push us from side to side. This is an old smallmouth river trick one of us learned years ago. We’re there long enough that this old muskrat swims by and climbs up on the rock so I take this picture:

At some point we look back over to the left and notice that the two guys with fly rods are back. They blast up into the channel, float down, and do it again. And again. They’re staying a lot closer to the rocks this time, floating only a couple of hundred yards at a time instead of the standard half mile.

A few minutes later either my brother or I one look over and we notice that they’ve dropped an anchor. “Pretty sporty,” he says. We go back to fishing the bank. “You ought to take a picture of that,” he says, and I look over to see the guy in the front of the boat has set his rod down and is pulling on the rope. Hard. “I think I’d cut that rope,” he says, and we make another cast.

I did not see what happened next, but I heard it. A bunch of hollering. When I do look over, and I see something I will probably never see again: the front half of a 16’ aluminum jon boat sticking straight up out of the river. Gear everywhere. And two heads bobbing in the current. The boat rolls, and is upside down – the anchor rope is still attached. Suddenly, the boat sinks, dragged down by the current. A few seconds later, it reappears, presumably because the anchor rope either parted or the current has ripped the cleat off the boat, and starts floating downstream.

For the record, we did hold a quick debate as to if we should go help. However, given that there were a half-dozen boats already headed towards the guys and the fact that we were in a tiny boat with a single-digit horse engine, we thought for our own safety we out to stay put. But I did (discretely) take this picture. So here, for the record, is what a 16’ jon boat looks like after it has turned turtle in the Roanoke River:

Blown up:

Postscript. On Sunday, my brother took the aforementioned single-digit horse engine in for service to a shop in Raleigh. While he’s waiting in line he hears another guy loudly telling the service tech a story of how the hydraulic in the rapid below Weldon caught hold of his boat and flipped it. My brother, not exactly known for his patience with idiots, called BS and quietly and directly reminded the guy that he had in fact dropped his anchor directly into the main channel of the river.

Fishing Report: Potomac River, Washington DC

Where

Potomac River - Chain Bridge

For
Shad, Stripers, anything hungry

What We Caught

A few very nice Shad – they were really running and you could almost reach out and grab ‘em (at your peril).

What We Learned

The basics to fishing the Potomac & that great fishing is just a few miles from the house. I’ll be strapping my rod to the bike and riding to the river soon.

I met up with Rob Snowhite, the local DC fishing consultant, and he showed me the ropes to fishing the Potomac. I highly recommend meeting up with him (regardless of experience) to learn about fly-fishing in the DC area. http://robsnowhite.com/

http://flyfishingconsultant.blogspot.com/2011/03/fly-fishing-for-shad.html

I’ll be spending a lot more time on the river and trying to stave off the urge to buy a two-handed rod or larger spey. Big roll casts on the eight weight are going to have to do for now!

Fishing Report: Mitchell River, NC

January in the North Carolina Piedmont. Gray, cold, wet. But every now and then, it happens. Clear, fifty-eight degrees, on a weekend. And when it does, this happens:

Thank God for the Mitchell. We drive right past it in the spring and summer, noses held high, headed for the High Country, for the wild fish of the Blue Ridge and the gone-wild holdover Browns in the Watauga. But the truth is its the absolute closest thing to backyard trout water we have here, about an hour and a half from the house, so close to the interstate you have to take five minutes after you get there just to remind yourself that rush you hear is not the rumble of long haul truckers headed south from West Virgina, but of water.

It was tough fishing, but who cares? They were there. Mostly they were ghosts, hanging in the shadows of overhung banks, in muskrat holes and tangles of roots, spooked by the onslaught of cabin fever. The rules say a day like this calls for midges and no. 18 copper johns, but somehow I couldn't do that. And he agreed with me, one huge, fat rainbow who couldn't resist the no. 8 black bead-head flash-a-bugger that landed splat right one top of him.

Batteries, recharged.

Fishing Report

Where:

Silver Creek & Big Wood River - Ketchum / Sun Valley, ID

Where

Silver Creek & Big Wood River (Ketchum / Sun Valley, ID)

For
Rainbow and Brown Trout

What We Caught

Stopped counting the 12"-17" inchers. Three hogs around 18" - 22"

What We Learned
That fishing a spring creak full of veteran hogs is extremely hard and fishing a freestone river packed with HUNGRY trout fattening up for winter is so easy it feels wrong.

Sick fishing - period. If you make it out to Sun Valley, don't spend all your time getting frustrated by the fish that know your Crippled Callibaetis is on 6X and not 7X and isn't really crippled. Mosey on over to the Big Wood where the fish think you are bringing thanksgiving dinner. When your arms get tired of the arduous chore of catching sizable fish, go back over to Silver Creek and test your skills again. Fish, repeat & thank God for making such amazing places.

Fishing Report Update

Where:

New River, Giles Co., VA

I finally dug the camera out of the travel bag. New River was windy so the camera didn't make it out much. I did manage to snap a few of the boat with the expert fish sniffer.

Fishing Report

Where

New River, Giles Co., VA

For

Smallmouth

What We Caught

Some Redeyes and and a whole bunch of 10"-14" inch smallmouth.

What We Learned

That Muskie eat Smallmouth, and that the locals are not happy about this fact. Seriously, this section of the New is flat full of fish. Simply trolling a fly behind the canoe while paddling triggered more than a couple of hookups. The fish themselves are really cool -- a longer, leaner, darker green version of smallie that the New has here in NC. But the word on the street is that the muskies the Virgina DNR is busy dumping into the river are destroying the fishery. There are still plenty of big fish in the river -- my brother landed a 3+ lb. monster on a solo trip two weeks prior -- but we never so much as saw a fish over 14". Why? Well, all those muskie gotta eat something.

Oh, and Hurricane Earl was coming through, a paddling three miles downstream with a 40 mph headwind flat sucks.

Heading Home

Fishing Report

Where:
A Buddy's Farm Pond, Davidson County, NC

For:
Stripers. Really.

What We Caught:
Warmouth, largemouth bass and stripers. Lots of stripers.

What We Learned:
Two things. First, in a fight between a 2+ pound striper and a microlight with 4 lb test, you generally better to take the striper. Second, that nothing will scare the crap out of a four-year-old quite like an angry striper jerking a cane pole out of his hands and into the water.

Fishing Report

Where

A Buddy's Farm Pond, Davidson Co., NC

For

Bream

What We Learned

It wasn't so much what I learned as what I saw - my son really and truly catching his first fish, all by himself. And for once I had the camera pointed in the right direction. Pretty cool, even if I do say so myself?

Fishing Report

Where:
The Trout Cabin, Graham Co., NC

For:
Big, Hulking Fat Rainbows

What We Learned:

This is what a feeding frenzy looks like ...

Cheating? I dunno, kind of hard to argue with the results though ...

Fishing Report

Where:
Ocean Crest Pier, Oak Island, NC

For:
Sea trout, supposedly, but in reality, anything that would bite!

What We Caught:
A couple of whiting, some undersized blues, a couple of flukes and a whole bunch of sand sharks. And a single trout.

What We Learned:
First and foremost, that the Fourth of July sea trout run isn't quite so "clockwork" as the locals would have you believe. But, thanks to some retired old salts on a tidal creek, we did learn how to throw a six foot casting net, something that will stay with us into the future.

Favorite Fishing Spots: Lower Sac (Redding, CA)

Where: Lower Sacramento River (Redding, CA)



Fishing report: March 25, 2009: Lower Sac by Andrew Harris

Guide service for the first day is pricey, but local knowledge can be worth it for the trip. The Sacramento River flows right through downtown Redding - amazing. I know where I'd be during my lunch break.

Day 2 photos:

Fishing Report: Rapidan River, Shenandoah National Park, VA

Where:
Rapidan River, Shenandoah National Park, VA

For:
Brook Trout

What We Caught:
Lots o Wild Brookies


What We Learned:
These are cool little fish and taking them on the lightest rod or nearest tree branch is fun. Don't forget the 7x tippet and a few extra "Mr. Rapidan" flies.



Enjoy the fishing - it is world class for Brookies. President Herbert Hoover enjoyed it so much he built camp Rapidan at the confluence of the two creeks that creates the river.