A break in the search....

The hunt for new species on the fly has likely ended for this year, barring serendipity, an always welcome occurrence. A friend and I, accompanied one day by my fishing-crazed grandson, have headed out for some trophy fishing. Most days, maybe even all days, gave us something to smile about. Here are a few pictures to act as placeholder for the next season.

Emerald Shiner and a perch

 Had a good day on the La Salle today! Managed a few eater walleyes, the first I've kept since spring, a new species and a number of other species, including a first for the La Salle for me.

First up is the new specie, an emerald shiner by my calculations and observations. If anyone knows better please let me know in the comments section.

 Also caught my first perch in the La Salle. Although this specie is listed for the river, I had never caught one here on a fly or otherwise.

Shorthead redhorse

I've been fishing for suckers the last while in an attempt to get a few of the species I'm missing. I've been hoping for a quillback but today a shorthead redhorse answered my call. The small fish sucked in a #12 beaded green caddis .

The La Salle River is full of white suckers right now and I've literally caught 100s while hooking only one golden redhorse and this shorthead. Yesterday, while fishing Sturgeon Creek, I found a pod of these fish that seemed to be grazing on the algae on the river rocks in fairly shallow water. After about a hour, I did hook one on a #16 pheasant tail but it got off. Other than that one fish, all ignored a nymph, including some dangled right in front of their face.

Panfish hunting...How not to

No new species to report but enough good stuff happened to put up a blog post. Was going to stay off the water today but around 10:30 I got an ich that just needed scratching. I decided to go after panfish and loaded up with small flies and my 4 wt rod.

First cast hooked a fairly nice fish, a 17 1/2" white sucker. Not a giant but quite a fight with the 4 wt.

Second fish was a 24" channel cat which kept me on my toes and nervously hoping the cat had forgotten about the brush just downstream of the pool.

A couple of small crappies later I got a solid take that was to test the limits of my flyrod. A 29" channel cat and new record for my 4 wt. Maybe a MA on this rod is in the works? (Just checked an old post and found my biggest channel cat on this 4 wt is actually 32")



A big fish day with a smattering of small walleye, crappie, rock bass, pike and sauger and another great afternoon on the river with a fly rod.

Another two...

Took my grandkids fishing to the La Salle River today and normally don't even bring a rod along because they keep me pretty busy untangling lines, removing and baiting hooks and trying to free snags. Since they are no longer rookies, I threw the flyrod and a few flies into the back of the car and as it turns out, I'm pretty glad I did. The kids fished till about 4:00, catching a number of bullheads, suckers and even a nice channel cat before heading home for supper. Out came the fly rod...I hadn't a clue what species those suckers were and I needed a specimen to pose for some pictures. It wasn't long before I caught one, as a matter of fact before the day ended I managed about a dozen, the first few on a flashy, #10 bead-headed nymph and the rest on a brown #8 leech pattern. A check with my fish keys at home revealed all the suckers caught were the common white sucker.

White sucker

I even managed a brown bullhead, another species I hadn't caught yet.There were loads of both species of bullhead in the pool but they seldom go after a fly, in my experience anyway. The way I usually catch them is to hang a small nymph under an indicator and plop it right into their midst. Eventually one of them seems to grab the nymph. This time I caught it using a leech pattern while trying for the suckers.

This river has an unusual high number of species on any given part and today I also caught some crappies, rock bass, walleye, sauger and pike. I even watched the resident mink drag in a sucker that was 1 1/2 time as long as itself.

Two new species...

Any idea what this is?

When good fishing fortune strikes it often takes the form of an avalanche. Nothing since spring and then BAMM, two new species on the fly on the same day. One I've been after for over a year and the other was a recent obsession.

Got to my spot about 9:00 and nothing was happening. After a 1/2 hour I went to plan B...worm dipping. I usually won't admit this to friends so please keep that under your hat. Anyway, after moving around and trying different spots I finally caught a mooneye. Next one was a goldeye and the third a mooneye again. That was enough...the worms went back in the cooler and the 4 wt came out. I tied on a #12 pheasant tail and proceeded to miss about a dozen hits. I tied on a #20 dropper and the first mooneye was in the bag. I caught a couple more in the next 5 minutes and then the action stopped dead. Excellent timing mixed with a little luck on my part. And for those of you who guessed it was a mooneye, give yourself a pat on the back.

Note the dorsal fin is before the anal fin

Headed back to my original spot and it wasn't long before I had my first ever bluegill. Colour me a happy camper! I was starting to think I had pissed off Poseidon or Neptune or whoever the deity in charge of bluegills is. I had fished for them hard for over a year with nothing to show for except a bushel of crappies and rock bass. Well, that's all in the past and I'm now a member of the fraternity that has caught a native bluegill near Winnipeg.

A couple of rock bass and crappies rounded out a nice day on the river. Scott, who also fly fishes caught a number of bullheads and a nice crappie. I'll have to get that secret bullhead fly off Scott and see if it'll work with stonecats.

On a side note, I noticed many of the fish caught had damaged fins. I wonder if this is related to the mink family that has recently moved into the neighbourhood?

Another day on the Red and a new species...

Today was an auspicious day; a prophesy came true and I added another species to my list of fly caught Manitoba fish. First the prophesy. I suggested to a fly fishing forum member he get the largest rod he would be comfortable with for fishing the Red. Advanced years coupled with a wonky shoulder has me using an 8wt as my largest rod now and I suggested in my post that this 8 wt rod would likely prove to be inadequte to the task one day on the Red. Turned out to be true on the same day. I hooked into a large fish, you know the kind that don't really move when you first set the hook. This one just sat around for what seemed like a full minute before heading into the current and downstream. And during that minute I had a full bend in my rod. Anyway, I scampered after him and finally found myself out of sight of my base where all my gear lay, including cell phone, camera and flies. At this point the fish rose and rolled at the surface and I got a pretty good look at his tail. It was a large channel cat...and it wasn't ready to come in. My dilema...play the fish out and quit worrying about my camera or break him off. I really like my new camera and the 10lb. leader parted quickly after I started horsing the fish towards me. I think if someone else had been with me I might have netted that kitty but who knows, it still seemed almost as fresh as when it started.

The new specie is a Bigmouth Buffalo, a member of the sucker family. The one I caught was 22 1/2 inches long and put up a respectable fight  before agreeing to pose for a few pictures. The walleye was 21" and rounded out another slow but nice fishing day. Today the only fly that caught anything was the dark thing pictured below although I put in quite a bit of time trying whites and chartreuse but got nothing on either.

Spring...Manitoba style

Our late spring has totally screwed up my fishing plans....sigh....I was going to do so well. The spots that have done exceptionally well in "late spring" conditions for me in the past are still in flood stage and my "fall back spots" are, well, under water...way too much water. So after a hiatus of about 30 years I hit Lockport again after reports that some of the fly fishers were catching fish there. In the odd way things sometimes happen, on my first cast I nailed something huge that immediately took out my whole flyline and had me in the backing; and it was now in the main current of the river. Crap!!! I followed as well as I could on the rip rap and eventually caught up with the beast about 100 yards downstream. And the line was snagged. After about 15 minutes of slack line/ tight line/pull I just grabbed my line and pulled...hard. A pile of brush floated up, along with a carp I estimated to be near 30". It was foul hooked near the back end...no wonder it was in control more often than I was.

Next up was the walleye in the picture; a nice 26.5" female which obviously hadn't spawned yet. Not much fight but a beautiful fish. That was it for me, not a great day of fishing but a great day nevertheless.

Fairford River winter fishing

Added a new species to my list, closed out the 2012/2013 fishing season and didn’t fall into the water. Life for this fisherman doesn’t get much better than that...at this time of year. Hit the Fairford River about 10:00 with fishing partner Robert Burton but couldn’t spot anything in the shallows. Several spin/bait fisher people beside us hadn’t caught a thing after a few hours and left. Eventually a small group of lake ciscos moved into the shallows and a size 12, green bead headed nymph finally brought one in. Robert caught a few and a couple of other fly fishermen caught a number more.  All in all a good day spent on the water considering the thick blanket of snow still covering the bulk of Manitoba.