Fallser

I've never tried using Google maps for streams or creeks. Most times trees block the view of the water. It might work for a large river. I do use it to scope out lakes and ponds, looking for structure, color changes in the water can show you or at least give you a hint of water depth and possible underwater structure, where the docks are and the boat ramp. An example, my salt water fly fishing club is going out for American shad on Friday. They're going to fish Deer Creek which is a tributary of the Susquehanna River. I switched to the satellite view. I couldn't even see Deer Creek, but I see the white water and current around islands and large rocks on the Susquehanna below Conowingo Dam.

It's hard to tell with the angle. I caught this one and didn't have a scale, and my tape measure was somewhere in my fishing vest. Fortunately, there was someone who had watched me land the fish who took a couple of pictures. If he hadn't been there I probably would have laid it against my fly rod and would have had a better estimate of the length and girth. The fish is held close to my body. There's a hemostat hanging down below the fish that's 6 inches long, the fly in it's mouth is about 2 inches. The guesstimate was 21 inches, girth 11 inches, approximate weight 5 lbs. I now have tape measure and a digital scale in my vest that are in an easy reach. In case I get lucky again this year.

Warm water fish are definitely more cooperative than trout. I regularly fish with three other guys and I'm the only fly fisher. Three of us have about 150 years of fishing between us, the fourth guy took up fishing when he retired a couple of years ago. I get stuck in his boat and always out fish him. The other two I break even with, some days they out fish me other days I out fish them. No different than any other type of fishing. If you're in the right place, with the right fly you'll catch a lot of fish. I've many good days over the years, and some not so good. Depends on what kind of shad you're fishing for. We have a yearly run of American shad in the Delaware River. A whole lot of people fish for them. They'll hit shad darts(a jig) and flutter spoons. They can run from 2 pounds to 8 pounds. They're a blast on light tackle or a fly rod. Some folks even eat them.

I like fishing for bass, both species. I just enjoy fishing. I started out fishing heavier tackle for all species, then over the years I made my way to fishing ultra light rods for all species. The final step was fly fishing. After a couple of years of fly fishing for trout and using spinning gear for bass, pike, pickerel and panfish in fresh water and stripers and bluefish in salt water, I fell in with a bunch of heretics who insisted that you could fly fish for more than trout with a fly rod. It's been downhill ever since. Most of my fly fishing is done in warm water. I dust off the spinning gear a few times a year. I'm not sure fly fishing would be considered ultra-light fishing. I seldom use less than 10# fluorocarbon for my tippet. The flies I fish can range from 1 to 6 inches. I've caught more bass on the smaller flies(2-3 inches) than I have on the larger flies.

I still get the sunfish mixed up after many years of fishing. As a kid, they were just sunfish.. Now I have to figure if it's a bluegill, pumpkinseed, redbreast, redear, green and there's probably a few I've missed, plus in the creek I fish, they all spawn at around the same time and in the same area. There are some interesting mixes in that creek. I can tell the difference between Northern Pike and Chain Pickerel. Even small ones, they have very different markings. Plus there are no pike around here. Small pike Large Chain Pickerel I wasn't sure what this one was when I caught it. Maybe a small Muskie. I caught it in a lake in central Vermont that kind of ruled out Muskie. I had to google it, turned out it was a Grass Pickerel. And a almost a trophy size one. I've caught enough of both creek chubs and fallfish over the years to tell the difference between them. Neither of them resemble what we would call "shiners" down here. The local names for fish vary. The first time we went to Ontario, we kept driving by road-side restaurants that were advertising fresh fried "pickerel". Now, chain pickerel are decent eating if you get the Y bones out, but I'd never seen them on a restaurant menu before. Turned out they were walleye. Specks are crappie in the south, and brook trout in parts of New England.

We're in the middle of the American shad run on the Delaware River. For reference, the buck shad weigh between 2 and 3 lbs, the roe shad up to 8 lbs. I'm not sure how many American shad you keep. Herring run hasn't been that great the last few years and you can't keep any. The stripers do follow the runs upriver, but the best fishing for bass, walleye, muskie and the other large predators in the river is in the fall when the YOY shad and herring make there way down river to salt water.

Until things open up, just the NY license. I'm not sure I'd want to take a kayak across to the Canadian side. I don't remember if it was this board or another board there was post saying that the Canadian fish wardens were checking licenses and telling the people they had to leave and go back to the American side if they were Americans. My friends and I have a trip booked to a lodge in NE Ontario in late August we're hoping by then that our passports and the card we got when we got our Covid shots will get us across the border.

To be more specific a small White crappie.

I have an old one sitting on my tying desk. Paid $0.50 for it at a fishing flea market. This one has the brass body, and a size 3 gold blade and a size 4 treble hook with red tubing on the shank. I'm using it as a model to make some in-line Mepps style spinners for the guys I fish with. They put up with me fly fishing when we go out. Have to stay on their good side. I just checked on line. Mepps still makes the aglia spinner. Bass Pro Shops carry them along with others and Mepps sells them on-line. https://www.mepps.com/information/aglia-dressed-aglia/121#B3 G

Just finished up some more warm water bugs. We're expecting a brood X cicada hatch, in May. I worked up a pattern. The first two will fish, but I've got enough the materials to do two more. Plan on a wider body on the next two. Why only four? The last two hatches of the "17 year locust" were no shows on the creek I fish. Next up some Calcasieu Pig Boats. I've been making smaller fly boxes from clear plastic photo storage boxes from the craft store and 6 mm foam. The box will hold a dozen of the Pig Boats. A couple of crayfish patterns tied in the Calcasieu Style. Those two were a bit heavy for me. I tend to tie my flies unweighted or lightly weighted. So this one is the basic underbody for a Pig Boat weighted with a small to medium dumbbell eye. I like it better.

Pretty much all my fishing for panfish is done with a fly rod. They're fun and relatively easy to catch. but... I always have a spinning rod in the boat rigged with a slip bobber. I would go with that rig for panfish. Easy to set up, I've got lousy vision and I can rig one. Much easier to cast than a fixed bobber, already mentioned you can easily change depths. I leave the bobber stop on the line and the ones I use allow me to cast jigs or lures without any problem. Besides folks who fish with round red and white fixed bobbers have strange things happen to them. Definitely keep some and put them in a frying pan, serve them with home fries and baked beans.

Pretty much agree with gimruis. I would add leeches to the list of live baits. We're planning to go to Northern Ontario this year the first week in September. I'll have to see if tackle shops carry them, maybe Walmart carry them around here and pick up a couple. We normally use chartreuse 1/4 oz jigs tipped with nightcrawlers, leeches or minnows when anchored or drifting and troll various diving lures.

They may be deep during certain times of the year. Over the years, I've caught most of my lake/pond smallmouth in less than 10 feet of water. To be honest, I don't think current will be a factor unless the lake has a strong inflow/outflow or if there's a brisk steady wind blowing that might pile water up on the shore depending on the direction. Rocks are important, rocky points, rocky bottoms, even large boulders can hold smallmouth. Fallen timber along the shore or in shallow water. If the lake has beavers, work around any beaver lodges/huts. Depending on how developed the lake is boat docks and boat houses are targets. A couple of hours before sunset, is a good time to toss top waters toward the shore. If you don't have a depth finder, one thing you can try is using Google maps. Switch to the satellite image and zoom in. You can often see where there are shoals or humps in a lake or even a pond by the difference in the water color. I guess it comes down to, yep you can fish them like you would for largemouth. I'm a fly fisherman, but the guys I fish with all use spinning gear or bait casters. They toss soft plastics, jigs, spinner baits, top waters, floating and diving minnow type lures. This one came from the brush in the upper right hand corner, which is the edge of an old beaver hut.

Still working on warm water bugs. Of the batch this is the one that is tied specifically for bass. It's basically a floating Woolly Bugger. It's distantly related to the Booby Fly. Overall length is 3 to 3 1/2 inches. It's tied on a Mustad 3777BR. The hook's gap is probably equivalent to size1 or 1/0 hook. The rest of the patterns are transitional. Tied for panfish. They're all tied on size 6 2xl hooks. Panfish will take them, but they're large enough that a bass may take interest. First, is "Bluegill Bug" or "Triangle Fly. It's apparently a hot panfish bug, and seems to tied mostly on size 10 hooks. This is the panfish version of one I posted a week or so ago called "Tony's Froggie" I have caught bass up to 15 inches on them. The last are some large soft hackles. I'll be fishing them in lakes and creeks that have bass and panfish in them.

I was just going to ask the question are you fishing the tidal portion of the river. If so then you'll need to take the tides into consideration. The tides will also impact any of the feeder creeks or rivers. If you are in the tidal zone, the general consensus would be to fish, two hours on either side of the top or bottom of the tides. Fish the feeder streams on the incoming tide. Fish the mouths of the feeder streams on the outgoing tide.

It showed. Nice work. I started out using cork but just could not get them right. I started using the butt end of large goose quills to make what we call "pencil poppers" in fresh water. I'd stuff them with foam so they would float. They caught fish but I was limited to the size I could make and I was using long shank cricket hooks for them. Then they came out with the hard foam bodies. I used them for a while, then the soft foam pre-made bodies came out, and I use them for most of my poppers these days. Or sometimes foam cylinders. I also do a few with the craft foam sheets. It's a toss up as to whether I put the legs through the body or tie them in at the back of the popper. For panfish flies, I tie them in at the back. That way the smaller panfish can't grab the legs. When I get up to bass bugs, I'll use longer legs through the body. It gets frustrating, at times, getting the legs to come out level and in the same spot on both sides of the body.

Here in SE PA, I usually see the guys fishing for trout in the local stocked creek with minnows catching smallmouth instead of trout. I know you use live bait, I would say early to mid-April they should begin getting more active and start feeding up before the spawn. Since I fly fish I don't usually start fishing for them till May, they start hitting top water about then and the weather is warmer and the water not so cold if I do slip and fall.

I enjoy it. It's a nice break from tying flies. I've got all the materials and some that most wouldn't think of using on spinner baits. What got me started was a large in-line spinner bait I picked up at local fishing flea market. It's about 6 or 7 inches long and weighs about 2 ounces or so. Uses a Muskie size blade, a 5 inch soft plastic grub on a 4/0 hook plus a couple of spinner bait skirts. The guy was making them for salt water striped bass fishing. The first batch I tied up, looked good but I used to too small a blade. I ordered some size 6 blades and I'm redoing the whole batch. I'll post some here when I get a few more done. The one thing I've noticed about salt water bucktail jigs that I've seen is they use too much buck tail

I've been working on my bass bugs the last month. Finally, got enough done to take some pictures though some in the last group need legs. First, Meades Weedless Frog. A new pattern for me. They're tied on a Ahrex Trout Predator Long hook, size 2/0. Tied up a dozen, need to wait a couple of months before I give them a shot. They're suppose to be weedless. Tony's Froggie. Normally, I tie these on a size 2xl, size 6 for panfish. These are tied on a Ahrex Trout Predator Long hook, size 2/0. This pattern doesn't have a name. The template for the original panfish fly, I normally tie it on a size 6 2 xl hook, is the soft spider bodies you can buy on line or in a fly shop. These are also tied on a Ahrex Trout Predator Long hook, size 2/0. The last batch, for lack of a better name I call the Heart popper. The head is a heart shaped piece of 2 mm craft foam. Some still need legs. It's tied on a size 4 Gamakatsu B10S stinger hook. I modified a pattern shown to me by Harrison Steeves by opening the head instead of gluing it to the sides of the fly.. Yes it does have a Jitterbug action when using a steady retrieve.

Nice. There are four of us who fish together most of the time. I'm the only one who fly fishes. I tie up jigs for them. I also make Mepps style in-line spinner baits for them and I'm going to give spinner baits a shot once I finish tying my flies.

I've been building my own rods for a while now. Started out building saltwater trolling rods when I realize I could build my own for about 1/2 the cost of buying one locally. Moved on to spinning rods and surf rods and eventually to fly rods. Right now I've got one fly rod I just finished rebuilding, just need the epoxy coating on the wraps. Building a spinning rod for one of my fishing buddies. Another one of them gave me two different rod pieces and asked me to make a frankenrod for him. That should be interesting. I'm converting an old fiberglass fly rod into a spinning rod, and I need to put a new cork grip on my favorite fly rod. It can become addicting. Nothing beats the feeling of catching a fish on a rod you built with a fly you tied or a lure you made.

The majority of my bass fishing is done with a fly rod. When I'm using spinning tackle my top water selection is "old" school. Jitterbugs, Zara Spooks, Tiny Torpedoes and a couple of other lures with props. There are a couple of fishing flea markets around here, and I can usually find Jitterbugs that need a bit of rehab for a dollar or two. I've got a couple of them that I work on when I'm not tying flies. It wouldn't be that hard to replace the hooks with the new set-up. It looks like they raided the aisle for kids craft projects for the hackle they used in the back hook. I have much better hackle than what they're using.

I caught this one on a 5 wgt so you can use a 5 wgt for bass. Generally I use a 6 wgt for my bass fishing but I have an 8 wgt for my larger and bulkier flies, 4 and 5 inch poppers, 6 and 7 inch streamers. I wouldn't call most of the streams and lakes I fish gin clear, visibility might be 3 or 4 feet and some have a tannic stain to them. There's a lake I go to in Northern Ontario that I would call gin clear, you can see bottom in 8 to 10 feet of water. I use the same patterns there that I use around here. If you fly fished for trout, I'm a dry fly snob. Translated to bass fishing, I fish a lot of top water patterns. I tie my own flies. I use a lot of pre-formed soft foam popper bodies and the rest are made out of craft foam sheets. So, poppers, Sneaky Pete style sliders, Gurglers, Crease Flies, Sliders, and a few with no name. Sub-surface, streamers, I don't use many woolly buggers. Baitfish patterns, Calcasieu Pig Boats, Mop flies, crayfish and large nymph patterns, a couple that try and mimic various soft plastics.

Nice bluegill, even has the red eyes. Finally got around to taking some pictures. First up is called the "Gutless Frog" by an Australian tyer named Meade. There was a discussion on a fly fishing board today about it and the guy had order one from a catalog to break it down so he could tie his own. I broke it down from the pictures and came up with this. The other fly in the last picture is called "Tony's Froggie" created by a friend of mine. Normally, I use it as a panfish fly, but bumped it up to bass size. Now some heretical flies. These I refurbished. They're made with craft foam cylinders and and sheets. Trying to drag the memories of younger days when lures were the ticket.

I do enjoy fishing. Granted I live in a big city and it's tough to find a bit of quiet and solitude. Sometimes it's there. On my home stream, which I avoid on the opening day of trout season, I can find places where I'm the only one fishing. There's one place I really enjoy fishing when you get dug in, you might not see another boat the whole day.