Fallser

Don't underestimate what a bluegill can get into its mouth. I mainly fly fish for them, and the flies I use for them are all tied on size 6 hooks. It eliminates catching dinks, most of the time. These are some I tied on 1/32 oz jigs with size 6 hooks. Didn't get a chance to fish them this year, but plan to use them next spring with my fly rod for panfish and bass. These are all tied with buck tail. The problem when you get down to size 10 or size 12 jigs is finding hair to tie them with. Squirrel or calf tail would probably work but the colors are limited. If you could find jigs in that size(1/64th and smaller) made on an Aberdeen jig hook, which has a longer shank, it might be doable, but even tying marabou on that size is iffy. This one took a size 6 foam bug.

90% of the time I fly fish, but I do have four Ugly Sticks that I use when I pick up my spinning gear. Three are rods I built on Ugly Stick blanks pushing 30 years ago. I've got a 9 1/2 foot two piece rod that I used as a surf/jetty rod. A 6 1/2 foot one piece heavy rod, I use as trolling rod, jetty rod and for tossing big/heavy lures or jigs. A 5' 9" one piece light rod, I use for walleye, bass and panfish. The last is 5' 10" medium/light rod two piece that I picked up for $15 at a fishing flea market two years ago. Last winter I stripped it down and replaced the guides, grips and reel seat. I use it for walleye, bass and sometimes panfish. I like them. Never had any issues with them and they do not break.

Looks like it has a deer hair collar, there should be some deer body hair in the body. The way the material is laying in the hand, I'd say marabou for the rest of the body. The two feathers are, what we call in fly tying, saddle hackle.

What time of the year are you planning on going up? That will make a difference as to what you can target. My sister's has had a place in Vermont for about 40 years. I could help you with the southeast Vermont area. She brought a house in Waitsfield, which is west of where you'll be going, about 3 years ago. I'm still learning the area. There are largemouth and smallmouth in a couple of the lakes and reservoir near her place. I'm thumbing through the 2022 Vermont Fishing Guide & Regulations she picked up for me. These ponds/lakes are in the general area where you'll be, Lake Groton, Harvey's Lake, Joe's Pond, Kettle Pond, Molly's Falls Reservoir, and Peacham Pond. They have bass, largemouth or smallmouth or both, chain pickerel or pike, panfish and some have trout. The Stevens River has brown and rainbow trout, but you might find bass where it flows into the Connecticut River. As far as what to use, as you know I mainly fly fish, and I catch bass, chain pickerel and panfish on the same flies I use down here. I figure whatever lures, jigs, spinner/buzz baits you use around should work in Vermont. I would think, if there are any in that area, would be focused on trout fishing. No clue about Lake Champlain, but's its at least a two or three hour drive west.

Can't help much with this. How familiar are you with the Delaware? There are walleyes in the Delaware but I've never heard of any being caught below Scudder's Falls which is above Trenton. Scudder's Falls separates the lower tidal Delaware from the middle and upper river. Generally, you would find them in the deeper channels or pools. Deep diving minnow or shad lures or jigs tipped with minnows, night crawlers or soft plastics bounced along the bottom. Snakeheads, again are in the river, but you are more likely to find them in the feeder creeks and streams that flow into the Delaware. Snakehead would prefer slower moving, marshy areas. Also, any creeks in the lower Delaware would be tidal. Access may be another issue.

I mainly fly fish for them. Though I do have a couple of patterns that I could throw with my spinning gear without a float attached. What works depends on where you're fishing. I go to a lodge on a lake in NE Ontario about 7 hours north of Toronto. The last two years I've gone up the last week of August/first week of September and a crayfish pattern was the ticket though I caught a couple on top waters(my favorite way to fish for them} and on some hair jigs. This is the crayfish pattern. It weighted with dumbbell eyes(1/20 oz) so that it rides hook point up. I also tie it on 1/4 oz jigs for my spin fishing. one of my streamers These are the subsurface flies I use for bass, they work for smallmouth or largemouth These are some of the hair and marabou jigs I use. They're tied on 1/32 or 1/20 oz jigs A lot of stuff to throw at you. The jigs are fairly easy to tie Some of the other flies aren't that difficult. Generally an all white streamer with some flash works well. Just depends on what's in the river. Try and match the bait fish. Find out what color and size the crayfish are and work on something that matches them.

The fly looks a bit chewed up. A good sign. You've got the basic shape down. One suggestion check out the colors of the dragonflies in your area. Up here they seem to be blue or green. Tie up a couple and see if you get more hits with ones that match the colors.

Mainly, I fish a 9' 6 wgt for bass. It's a rod I built on a Loomis blank, several years ago. I use a weight forward floating line, most of the time. I do have two spare spools for my reel. One holds an intermediate line, the other a sink tip line. I also have an 9' 8 wgt, also built on a Loomis blank that I use for heavy cover, weed beds and lily pads. I can throw all of the flies I tie for bass with my 6 wgt, but sometimes it's easier to toss the larger ones with the 8 wgt. It also gives me a little more back bone when tossing frog patterns in the lily pads. I'm not very sporting, I use a 6 to 8 foot 25# fluorocarbon leader with both rods. They're both slow to moderate action rods.

I prefer top water bugs for them. I've got a weedless frog pattern they like. Poppers, sliders. A fly rod version of a swim jig, various types of streamers and a 25# fluorocarbon leader. If I start getting bite offs, I'll add a 40# bite tippet..

I normally chase them with a fly rod, but the guys I fish with like spoons, the Johnson Silver Minnow is one of them, in-line spinners, Rapalas and top waters, poppers, Jitterbugs, Zara Spooks. I've made up leaders for them with 30# Tiger Wire. When I fly fish for them I use a 25# fluorocarbon leader. For live bait, medium size shiners work well on the lakes we fish, which are mainly in the Poconos. I do get over to South Jersey to fish some of the lakes there for chain pickerel and bass. I was curious as to where New Brooklyn Lake was. Unless there's another New Brooklyn Lake in NJ, you drove a fair distance to get there. That whole area, particularly the Pine Barrens, is chain pickerel central. There are a lot of unnamed small lakes, ponds, abandoned cranberry bogs, on state land that don't get a lot of fishing pressure.

There might have been caterpillars or cicada dropping out of the tree. You didn't see any fish swirling where the acorns hit, but as soon as you dropped a floating lure that looked like food in the area you had a strike. My guess is the dropping acorns attracted smaller fish to the area and when something landed on the water that didn't sink and moved it registered as food and the bass went after it. I have seen something similar when I was fly fishing for trout on a stream in the Catskills. I was fishing by a bridge and there were caterpillars dropping into the stream from the bridge as soon as one hit the water a trout would grab it. I tied on a caterpillar imitation and did what I had been taught to do. Toss the fly upstream and let it drift into the feeding zone. The trout ignored my fly, even though they were still grabbing the ones that dropped off the bridge. Instead of doing the "correct" cast. I tossed my fly up into the air and let it plop down on the surface. I ended up catching a half-dozen trout doing that. I doubt a bass would react to a blueberry dropping into the water. A carp might.

For one day, 1 1/2 to 2 hours. There's a creek about 15 minutes from where I live where I can target either smallmouth or largemouth. Nothing big but it can be fun. Longest drive, just got back from a lodge in NE Ontario a couple of weeks ago. I've been making the trip for 38 years, sometimes with friends, sometimes meeting the guy I was going to fish with at the lodge. It's 777 miles from my house to where they pick us up, then another 20 mile boat ride to the lodge. The first year we went up we drove straight through. After that we drove 10 hours or so, grabbed a motel room and did the last two hours the next morning. The longest I ever traveled to fish, was when I was working and had to make a trip to Guam. I stuffed a 4 piece fly rod, some flies and wading shoes in my luggage and got a chance to do some fishing. No bass there, though.

Crayfish around here and they live in the local crick. On our way up to Ontario, we stopped at the 1000 Island Bait shop to look around. They were selling "crabs" that looked a lot like crayfish.

Not really. I learned to fish with spinning gear and have stuck with it. At this point in my life I have no real interest in learning to use a bait caster. When I was more flexible most bait casters were right hand retrieve and wasn't worth the effort to learn to reel with my right hand. I went through a progression that ended with me using ultralight tackle when that got less challenging. I switched over to fly fishing. No regrets there. I might not catch as many bass as I would with conventional gear, but it's more fun. Still looking for my first 5 lb bass with the fly rod, maybe this week.

I heading up there on Friday, but about 8 hours, maybe a bit more north of the border. It's a very large lake. Maybe you can translate the info to the lakes you'll be fishing. Last year we caught smallies as shallow as 5 feet but most were in 18 to 30 feet of water. Hot spots were shoals, deep points. We did a lot of fishing with bait, mainly night crawlers, but if you can get minnows or leeches give them a shot. We also did well with soft plastics, mainly twister tail jigs. I did some fly fishing and the hot fly was a crayfish pattern. This year I'm adding Ned rigs and drop shotting to the mix. See if you can find out what type of baitfish are in the lake. Lures, minnow, shad and perch and crayfish imitations. Jigs, should be able to get by with 1/4 oz jigs. Colors, we use a lot of jigs with chartreuse in them, but they may not work as well further south. Soft plastics, shad, crayfish, twister tails, Senkos Colors, green pumpkin, white, yellow, olive, black. It you're drop shotting, keep the hook 12 to 18 off the bottom. You still may be able to get some top water action in the evening. Look for beaver huts, fallen timber in small bays. You may have weeds or lily pads down there. The bass are fattening up for winter. What I noticed was the smaller bass were higher up on the shoals. The larger ones were deeper. Good Luck.

Yep, I caught it on a Estaz bug tied on size 6 hook. I don't normally use a 5 wgt. I was on my way to a lodge in NE Ontario, and stopped off to visit some friends in Huntsville. All my other rods were in my PVC rod tube. I'd left the 5 wgt out because I knew they would take me fishing after dinner. A 9' 6 wgt is my go to bass rod, though I use an 8 wgt for heavy cover when tossing frog flies. I'd been fly fishing about 12 years when I caught that one.

A 9' 5 weight rod would be a good starter rod. It would depend on how bushy the small streams you plan to fish. Most of the creeks I fish I can use an 8 1/2 foot 5 weight. You should be able to pick up a beginner's combo(rod, reel and fly line) for between $100 and $150. Cabela's, Bass Pro, Orvis, TCO or others. Make sure the line is a Weight Forward Floating fly line. An 8 1/2 foot or 9 foot rod would be the best. A couple of suggestions, if you have a fly shop near you see if they give casting lesson or maybe a local chapter of Trout Unlimited. If you go to a fly shop, don't let them talk you into a lighter weight rod. Start off fly fishing for panfish. With a kayak I would go with a 9 foot rod. To be honest I don't fish for trout that much anymore. Fly fishing for panfish and bass are lot more fun. You be surprised what you can catch with a 5 weight and a small fly.

I don't think the top one is made out of wood. I can see what looks like a seam line on the belly where they glued the two halves of the lure together. The second one is definitely not a Spook. I have something similar that's made of balsa but it was made locally. As far as repairing it, I would normally just seal it with a light coat of epoxy or UV resin. If you're planning on fishing it I would check the rear hook eye and make sure it's not loose where the lure is broken. In the top picture, though it maybe the angle, the eye screw looks bent. If one of my friends picked up a lure with similar damage at a local flea market and handed it to me to see what I could do with it. I would replace the eye screw and reassemble it to make sure the prop will spin properly.

I don't think I've ever tied an articulated popper, that I remember. Something to think about over the winter. I prefer a more subtle mouth on my poppers, but I just stripped down some balsa poppers I picked up a local fishing flea markets over the years. Great looking poppers but not in colors I would normally fish, so I sanded them down, repainted them and added eyes. The mouth is round but very deep. With the eye screw in, I would have had a tough time threading the line and tying them on. I ended up putting new eye screws in and add a swivel to tie the line to. Curious to see what action the swivel give to the popper on the retrieve One suggestion on the bait fish pattern, if you're trying to push water that's a great tie. It you're trying to imitate a shad. Sparser, though shad are wide-body fish, they're thin head on. More high-tying less V-tying.

Thought I was finished with my flies for Ontario. I went through one of my boxes and removed some colors that haven't worked in a while Tied these up to fill up the spaces. Three supersized floating mop flies. Tied on 1/0 Gamakatsu stinger hooks. I can use them as poppers or sub-surface. Messing with a couple of articulate flies. Basically Wooly Bugger bodies on articulated shanks with a Daiichi 2461 size 1. Head is a reversed soft foam popper body. I can fish them either on the surface or subsurface of a sinking or intermediate line. Flies are done and packed.

That's why I always have a fly rod with me in the boat. The trick is to fish a small minnow or bait fish lure just below the surface or even a small popper on top. Even though the bass may be focused on the mayflies they will hit lures or flies that imitate their normal prey.

I guess it depends on where you fish. In my local creek, the smallies average between 6 and 10 inches. If you catch a 12 inch fish you're having a good day. I'm using a fly rod so even the small ones are fun. I'm looking forward to my trip to Ontario on the 26th where based on last years trip the average smallie will be between 13 and 16 inches with a good chance of catching a 20 inch one.

I haven't had that happen to me, yet. Recently, I had a fishing buddy call me and he wanted replace a guide on one his rods. When I picked it up he asked me if I could do anything to fix a lure his son had broken. His son didn't break it. The lake he was fishing has stripers in it and a large striper had grabbed it. Not only did he lose the back hook and split ring up but the piece that holds them. It was a SPRO lure. There was no damage to the tail of the lure. The assembly had just pulled right out. I mess around cleaning up lures we buy at flea markets. I have screw eyes I use on lures that I clean up. I used the longest and heaviest one I had that fit the hole. Coated the threads with Gorilla glue and screwed it into place. Let it set up. Used the heaviest split ring I had and a stronger hook, replaced the front hook with same type hook. Haven't heard any complaints yet.

I agree with jig man, if it looks like food/prey and they're hungry they'll hit it. I've caught bass on some weird lures. I have one in my box that's a mackerel pattern. I've caught several bass and a couple of pike on it. Gobies may not be in your lake, but you might have sculpins in the lake, similar in shape, a bit darker in color. It's interesting that you mention hellgrammites. I'm heading up to NE Ontario on the 26th. I brought some locally produced soft plastic hellgrammites at fishing show. I plan on fishing them. I'll let you know how I do. There are no hellgrammites in the lake. Mainly because mostly live in streams or rivers. If you ever do find one, be careful picking it up. They bite. It get even weirder when I'm fly fishing. When I tie flies I try to create the illusion of life, but I've had bass take some strange flies. Prime example, this is a head shot of PB largemouth on a fly. You can see the fly above my thumb. It's about 2 inches long. I don't know what it thought it was. It was post-spawn and the fish was skinny. Maybe it was just hungry and grabbing anything that looked like a meal.

I just picked up a full size spare for 2019 Nissan Rogue Sport. The guy at the dealership mentioned I'd probably lower my gas mileage because of the extra weight. I've been getting a combined 23 mpg since I brought it back in February. Best so far on the highway with just me in the car has been 30 mpg. I heading to Canada in less than 2 weeks. I'm curious as to what type of mileage I'll get with my buddy and I in the car, along with all our gear. It's all highway driving.