3 feet of snow and dreams of spring...

I've been back from Texas for a couple of weeks now and while the snowbanks are still high my mind has been drifting to thoughts of spring, flowing water and fish. I've been ice fishing a few times, twice for tullibee and three times for perch. Caught some nice tullibee, up to 19 inches but bombed out on the perch. But since this is a fly fishing blog lets leave the ice to the cocktail glasses and start on the plans for the upcoming season.

Rod, soft case and hard case

First up, I finally bit the bullet and purchased a tenkara rod along with some of the associated accessories, which I'm delighted to say are few in number. The rod itself is a Shimano LLS36 NB purchased from TankaraBum, the fly-line comes from a hi-viz 15lb test flourocarbon spool and tippets will be 5X, 6X and 7X.

Spool of "fly lines"

various tippet sizes

The theory is that tippets of 5X and under will break before the rod does on a larger than expected fish. I also bought some micro hooks to start dabbling in micro-fishing; hopefully with a fly.

Micro-fishing hooks and bobbers

#26 nymphs

But if that doesn't pan out, false pride will not prevent me from sacrificing the odd worm in the interests of ichthyological research.

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?