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.

Till Spring 2013...

With the looming eventuality that my 2012 Manitoba fishing season will shortly end I thought it best not to end my reports with a float tube picture. My most recent outings offered little success worth reporting but did offer up a picture of a small brown trout and involved a new fly design.

The various pits at Reynold’s Ponds still produced a few chironomids and small schools of minnows but the most insect activity was provided by a few species of water boatmen and backswimmers. The water boatmen were smaller, likely in the order of #14 or even #16 while the backswimmers were closer to #10 or #12. I had tied a few in size 12 using rubber legs, white micro crystal cactus for the body and Lustre Plus Nylon for the backing. These materials are all available from the good folks at Canadian Llama. Anyway, only one small brown was caught but it did seem to like my new creation.

This may be the last post of 2012 and if so, see you next spring. In about 6 weeks I should be beating the waters of the Texas Gulf Coast and Laguna Madre to a froth and I’ll report on anything interesting in my South Padre Island blog.

Wishing you sharp augers, hungry fish and a mild winter!

Float Tube Accessories

Float tubes are really an extension of the minimalist’s philosophy...KISS. And in that vein nothing can beat a warm evening on calm waters, casting a dry fly to hungry sunfish.  But those conditions are rare and will only commonly be found in our dreams. The real world of fishing includes wind, waves and a disconcerting lack of fish activity. These challenges require us to think about adding equipment to our float tubes; perhaps an anchor, a rod holder for a second rod or even a fish finder. 

A search through the online catalogue of a major sporting goods franchise provided some options: a “float tube anchoring system” at $36.99 and an “Outcast Float Tube Rod Rack” at $89.99. Give me a break, that’s close to 2/3 of what I paid for the float tube for a couple of chunks of plastic, lead, foam and rope. Let’s get back to that KISS philosophy to see where it takes us.

I’ve got a Fish Cat 4 and for the anchor I was able to buy the perfect thing at a local Hardware chain for $9.95. Add to that a retractable dog leash for $9.95 at a local surplus store and I had a serviceable “anchor system”. The leash can be tied to a strap or D-ring; I used a carabineer I had laying around. Although I haven’t tried it out in high winds it has provided yeoman’s service in moderate conditions.

For the spare rod, and I want to keep my rod numbers at 2 just on principle, I used 2 6” pieces of double sided Velcro that I had laying around. No cost for me but others might have to purchase some. These pieces attached to the D rings opposite to my casting arm and held the rod securely in place. A slight negative to this setup is the rod tip will sit in the water if I lean back while propelling my flippers. This could easily be corrected by adding a stick-on piece of Velcro along the side of the zippered compartment and attaching the forward portion of the rod to it.

I have a nice fish finder on my kayak and I’m going to work out a way of attaching that next spring. Since this is an expensive piece of equipment I may go with a commercial solution like: http://www.floattubefanatics.com/ Or I’ll try work out a way that works as well but that would be the subject of another blog post.

A Fishing Tale...

We fisher folk plan, scheme and build tantalizing visions of hard takes, slashing runs, monster fish. But the fishing muses often have different plans for us. This was one of those days. We arrived at Anton Lake near Minnedosa around 10:30 and meandered down to the water for a tactical inspection. Swirls on the calm waters betrayed vigorous takes just beneath the surface and waterboatmen were in evidence everywhere. No insect shucks were visible on the water; just a profusion of goose feathers littered the surface. My wife set up her spinning rod with a slip bobber while I tied a small waterboatman to my 5 wt floating line. And just in case, I set up my 6 wt with a brown leech, you know...the kind that brown trout can’t resist once the fall colours appear. I slipped into my float tube while Bobbie slipped into her lawn chair and the serious job of tracking down some nice trout began.

Fast forward to 5:00. Despite trying every fly and retrieve my weary mind came up with I could only account for ½ dozen strikes with no hook-ups. Bobbie’s slip bobber had remained motionless, a perfect subject for a still life painting. She had also tried several things; several baits and different depths and locations. The perfect day had somehow become less perfect but after a brief discussion we decided to stay for one hour longer. Bobbie took a break to refresh herself at the rest stop and I clambered out of my float tube and waders to stretch my legs. Thirty seconds after she disappeared down the trail, her bobber vanished and by the time she returned I had netted a nice hen rainbow. After releasing the fish, I returned to the water in my float tube, amid a fall of flying ants but none were being taken by the trout. They were still interested in something just beneath the surface which I still assumed to be waterboatmen. In the next hour Bobbie saw her bobber go down once but missed the fish and I had a solid take that I missed.
  

Despite all our planning, scheming and positive affirmations the fish had just not co-operated as we had hoped. Then again, a day on the water, with perfect conditions in the company of your best friend is a combination pretty hard to beat. And in the end, Bobbie had posed with the rainbow before it was released, despite her assertions the fish was mine. But it couldn’t have been mine...I don’t fish with bait anymore.