Fallser

I don't get sea sick. My tour in the Navy proved that when we got caught in a couple of bad Nor-easters. One of my buddies can't go out in salt water he gets sick as soon as we pass the inlet jetties. Yet I've been with him a couple of times on a lake in NE Ontario where a good north wind or south wind will kick up two or three foot waves which isn't a lot of fun in the 16 foot boats the lodge uses. It doesn't bother him at all. I think it has something to do with fact he's not staring at a horizon which is only water.

I may have to see if I can tie a fly like that out of foam. That's an all-purpose "bait" It imitates at least three of the smallmouth's favorite meals, crayfish, dragonfly nymph and hellgrammite, particularly on the Susquehanna.

If you ever go to Ontario, and you order a hamburger and chips, don't order a side of French fries.

Walleye are also called Pickerel in Ontario. I'm not sure how far north chain pickerel range but they wouldn't be native to that area. It's confusing. The first couple of years I went north I kept wondering why I was seeing signs advertising "fresh pickerel" or a "pickerel fry". Being from the same general area as you, when you say pickerel, chain pickerel is what comes to mind. Couldn't figure out why anyone would want to buy fresh chain pickerel. If I catch them from a clean lake I'll eat them, but they're a bugger to clean.

Lady Evelyn Lake

Not far from Simcoe. That's the only lake I know in that area, never fished it but have driven by it many times heading north on the 400 to 11. The lake I go to is about and hour and half north of North Bay.

Most of my foam bugs are made 2, 3 or 6 mm craft foam. This year I'm adding a box of "traditional" poppers and sliders. Being lazy I use the pre-formed soft foam popper bodies. What we call pencil poppers in fresh water. Some "standard" poppers Sneaky Pete style sliders These are some small crease flies made from 2 mm craft foam.

Some Zonkers for Ontario. These are a bit larger than I normally tie, roughly about 3 inches long. Tied on a size 4 XL hook. Trying to match some of the primary bait fish in the lake. Perch Juvenile smallmouth and rock bass Minnows and juvenile whitefish.

I do gamble. A bi-weekly nickel, dime, quarter poker game and a monthly trip to the Temple of the One-Armed Bandit. With fishing it's just friendly competition, who caught the biggest, the most. My buddy and I are headed up to a lodge in NE Ontario for a week of fishing. We do keep score of the number of fish we catch, in this case, smallmouth, walleye and pike. Who catches the biggest of each species and the most. Just for bragging rights. Last year the guy I went with really doesn't know what he's doing and we ended landing a 121 smallmouth. This year the guy I'm going with knows what he's doing. I hoping we might land between 150 and 200 smallmouth between us for the week. I'll give him a slight handicap since I'll be fly fishing, maybe 50% of the time.

Just curious. What lake? Since it has muskies, it's got to be a lot further south than where I go.

The body is a piece of chenille twisted with two feathers, either saddle hackle or schlappen. I use sparkle chenille, crystal chenille and on some Polar chenille.

Smallmouth bass can see colors, according to what I've read, medium red through green is what they see best. That covers lighter reds, orange, chartreuse and green. As you move through darker reds, blues, purple, greens, they would look the same as black. If you look at older Rapala minnow lures, they're fairly simple a dark back, silver or white on the bottom. Color can make a difference with lures or jigs. If I look at my lure box, most of my minnow lures have those colors in them. One of my most effective lure colors is fire tiger, which you don't see mentioned a lot on the board. Bright or fluorescent orange, yellow and green combination. Shape has role. Long, thin lures are good minnow imitations. Wide body lures are good if there are shad or sunfish in the lake. Depending on what type of soft plastic I'm using, I will normally use a chartreuse jig, unless I'm bottom bouncing I use darker colors. Another thing to consider is the depth and clarity of the water. That will impact how the color of the lure or jig is seen. So to answer your question, smallies can see colors.

They're probably about the seventh different crayfish fly pattern I've tried to tie over the years, and the first one that I've caught smallmouth on with any consistency. I'm looking forward to seeing if the work as well as they did last year. This is what the fly patterns look like. Not a whole lot different than the jigs just a different balance point for the weight.

For what it's worth. I mainly fly fish, but I do enjoy fishing top waters when I use spinning gear. Styles. I don't have #1 in my dark side tackle box, but I do have #2, #3 and #4 Wind Lots of chop- I don't even bother, but a frog over lily pads or surface weed beds make be worth a try. A little chop- I'll fish them Glass- my favorite condition. Light Dawn- I'm too bloody lazy to get up that early these days to go fishing Dusk- That's my favorite time for top water, with spinning gear or fly rod. About an hour before sunset till 15 minutes to a 30 minutes after Cloudy/bright days- I'll catch fish on top waters Water clarity Most of lakes I fish are clear. I've had smallmouth take top waters in 10-12 feet of water. Can't help you with dirty water Water Depth- Anywhere between a foot and 12 feet.

I mainly chase them with a fly rod. Before that I chased them with ultra light tackle. Pretty much what casts-by-fly mentioned. Small hair jigs, marabou jigs, jigs with small twister tails. Jig size, 1/16 or 1/20 oz jigs should work. You can always tip them with maggot, meal worm or piece of worm to enhance your chances of catching some. One suggestion which I've done is fish them below a small slip bobber. You can adjust the depth as needed and should be able to cast a bit further. Cast, retrieve a foot or so, rinse and repeat. Don't abandon small spinners, Mepps or Rooster tails. I've caught them using them. I've never brought into the idea of using really small jigs or flies if you want to catch big bluegills or panfish can get in their mouths. My panfish flies are tied on size 6 hooks.

I finished up tying some jigs for my trip to Ontario at the end of the month a couple of weeks ago. They're all tied on 1/4 oz jigs which are appropriate weights for the lake. The bottom is very rock and since it's an old logging area a lot of sunken timber. These are tied with "Faux Bucktail" It's a fly tying material that imitates buck tail. It does a decent job of it, but the colors are limited and I found it very slippery with a tendency to slide around the hook. These will be fished for smallies, walleye and pike. Should be more durable than real bucktail, especially with the toothy critters. These have my crayfish fly pattern tied on them. Tied on slider jigs, ned jigs and ball jigs. This is what the slider jig looks like in a clear container of water.

I would say not true. The creek I fish is in a valley. You can wade it in most spots. In a couple of spots it's shallower in the middle, and deeper along the banks. I've caught most my bass and panfish casting to the banks. Unless, there's some decent structure in middle which might hold fish. Since it is in a valley, the sun doesn't start hitting the water, till late morning. Once the sun hits the water the bite dies for both bass and panfish, even along the banks.

Most of my jig fishing for walleyes is done when I go to a lodge in NE Ontario. Most of the walleye we catch are on jigs, either with live bait, night crawlers or leeches, or soft plastics, like twister tails. We either drift or back troll for them. Most times a 1/4 oz jig is more than enough to keep the bait/soft plastic on or near the bottom. I do have 1/2 oz and even 1 oz jigs in my box but the only thing I've really caught with them is the bottom. We also, particularly in the evening, is to find a spot where we know there are or will be walleyes and anchor. Usually in 15 to 25 feet of water. Drop the jig over the side, let it hit bottom, then a couple turns of the reel, so the jig is sitting 6 to 12 inches off the bottom. Kick back and relax and watch the rod tip. It's even better if there's a slight chop and the boat's rocking a bit saves the trouble of jigging. As far as color goes. Back in 1986 when we first started going there, I asked what color jigs should we bring. He told us, "You can bring any color you want as long as it's chartreuse" I think he's running an ice cream shop in Colorado these days. His advice was on the spot. Jigs work as long as they some chartreuse in them. It works on this lake. I don't know about others. This year I'm going to change it up a bit. I've tied two dozen buck tails on 1/4 oz jigs, not all of them on chartreuse ones, plus my favorite crayfish fly pattern on a dozen and a half jigs. I also plan on using Ned rigs and do some drop shotting for them.

I would say that it increases the odds that bass will be present. My local creek has both smallmouth and largemouth in it. The creek does run into a river, but there are a series of historical dams that date back to the mid-1800's when papermills lined the creek. Not sure how they got there, but you find them in the slower areas of the creek behind the dams. Sometimes at the beginning of the slow water you'll mixed pods of small bass, largemouth and smallmouth chasing bait.

Just finished tying some crayfish and top waters for my Ontario trip in late August. Pretty sure I've posted them before at some point. Here's what one looks like in a container of water. Some foam sliders. This is newer version of the frog I took with me last year. I downsized them. They're tied on size 2 Ahrex Swimbait hook and modified the head.

Thanks. I think the bead is more habit from making in-line spinners with bead in front and in back of the clevis. I've got time to redo a couple of them without the bead and see if there's any difference in the way they run during the retrieve with and without a bead.

I finally got around to ordering some buzz bait blades. This is what I came up with. Not sure if they're going to work. I gave one to one of my fishing buddies, and he'll probably get a chance to fish it before I do. Otherwise, I'll give them a shot when I go up to Ontario at the end of August. Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Nice. Smart move in starting with panfish. When I started out fly fishing I fished only for trout, because that's all anybody I knew fly fished for. It was very frustrating and I almost gave it. One day I was fishing my local creek for stocked trout and I started catching sunfish and a light went on in my head. "I can fly fish for something other than trout" It's been downhill ever since. Next thing you know you'll start tying your own flies. As flyfisher said, you don't need a sinking line or a sinking leader to fish a couple of feet down. The only time I really use sinking or intermediate lines is in salt water or if the fish are exceptionally deep. Next step buy yourself some small poppers or foam bugs, I'm what they call a dry fly snob, I prefer fishing top water flies and bugs. Great start, keep going.

The only time I really fish for walleye is when I go to a lodge in NE Ontario. For walleyes, we use 1/4 oz ball jigs. As the owner, at the time, told us the first time we went there. "You can bring any color jig you want as long as it's chartreuse." Mostly we use live bait, nightcrawlers, minnows or leeches. We either drift or anchor up and jig. For soft plastics, we use mainly twister tail grubs 2 o 4 inches long. We'll catch smallies and pike this way to. Also, we'll cast the jigs and retrieve them slowly or fast. This year I'm adding Ned rigs and drop shot rigs to the mix.

The salt water fly fishing club I belong to is located in Ocean City. A few of us fish the ponds and lakes in the area. Union Lake, Hammonton Lake, the Menantico Ponds are some others. A couple of guys fish out of kayaks, but we're not dealing with lakes 90' deep. The only time I deal with water that deep is when I go to Ontario. There are no largemouth. This time of year, the smallies are usually in 5 to 15 feet of water on the shoals, around boulders, fallen timber, beaver huts, points that drop off into deeper water. There's usually a good top water bite in the evening in the shallow bays.