Fallser

That's what's called a LDR, long distance release. I don't count them. It may make your day sound better. I hooked a half-dozen bass, but only landed one. Or not.

I haven't gone out on Opening Day in a couple of years. Normally, I would hit Valley Creek which is Fly Fishing or lures only. Plus catch and release. Normally fairly empty on Opening Day. But I drove over the Wissahickon Creek today. It was high and muddy. Don't bode well for the local streams tomorrow. I think I'll hit Harrah's instead.

I haven't ice fished since I had both knees replaced and the surgeon told me no more ice fishing. Generally, we targeted panfish. We did use minnows for bait and occasionally caught a largemouth, but we just released them. On the jigging rod I used 8 or 10 lb test with jigs tipped with meal worms or maggots. For tip-ups we used minnows for bait, with a 10 or 12 lb test leader. We often targeted chain pickerel and that's what we caught the bass on.

I don't have that many rigs, since I'm mainly fly fishing. I have one rod for jigs/live bait. Hooks or jigs are tied directly to the line. I have one rod for casting. It depends on what I'm planning on throwing. For just lures, I use the smallest ball-bearing snap swivel I can get away with. If at some point during the day I plan to use in-line spinners or spinnerbaits, then everything is tied to directly to the line. One rod for trolling, that gets a ball-bearing snap swivel, again the smallest I can get away with, but usually larger than the one I'm using for casting.

I wear a wide brim hat, either Panama or Boonie. Also, have a couple of what I call Lefty Kreh hats with a long bill, flaps that cover my ears and neck. Long pants, sneakers, t-shirt with a light long sleeve shirt over it. Anything not covered gets a liberal application of sunscreen. I wear Cocoon polarized sunglasses over my prescription lenses. Like TnRiver46, I wear a hat and sunglasses when I go out of the house. I'm paying for the sins of my youth when it was cool to have a great suntan. I had, fortunately, a pre-cancerous growth removed from the top of my head about 15 years ago. I visit my dermatologist every six months for full body check-up.

I just finished tying up some 1/16 oz jigs to use with my fly rods. Plan to fish them mainly as streamers. They should also work with an ultralight set-up and a fly and float rig. I'm working on a F and F rig I can use with my fly rod so I can keep the "fly" suspended at various depths.

The only time I do any intensive walleye fishing is when I head up to a lodge in NE Ontario for a week. The fish finder is basic in the lodge provided boat, but it does the job. My favorite spot is a mid-lake shoal/hump that comes up from 40 feet to 7 feet. It normally takes me 15-20 minutes to find the d**n thing each year. I really should buy a hand held GPS. When doing my search pattern, I'll see schools of walleye suspended in the deeper water around the hump. Last year they were suspended in 20 to 25 feet of water. Once I found the high point I crisscrossed finding the 25 foot line and dropped markers along it. During the day we fish for smallmouth and pike, in the evening about and hour and half before sunset we set up near the markers and waited. Once in a while you'll mark a walleye, maybe, could be smallie or a pike, but the main clue is when you see the schools of baitfish on the fish finder. Once they show up we start catching walleye. This what we call "Walleye Time"

I gave up fishing light line for panfish when I switched over to fly fishing. I still use the spinning gear occasionally, but the lightest line I have on my reels is 10 lb clear fluorocarbon. The bluegill, pumpkinseed, rock bass and crappie, don't seem to mind. They're not line or leader shy. I use a heavy leader when I fly fish lakes because there are large bass and chain pickerel in them, and they do hit my panfish flies. Basically, you're over complicating it. Pick the color and line test that makes you comfortable and go with it. As far as buying IGFA line, unless you're planning to fish for world records, it's not worth the extra cost.

It's not a black nose dace. They're a stream fish, not a pond or lake fish, and they're not found west of the Mississippi . It's some sort of shiner. Your local fish and game commission could probably tell you what sort of shiner/minnow they are.

They'll eat fallfish. A black and silver minnow lure 3-4 inches long would work. Might even give a black and gold a try.

Last year it was the 17 year Locust, now it's giant spiders. How the hell am I going to tie a fly to imitate a giant spider. Nice fish attracting colors, though. Come to think of it, I did tie a fly to match a large water spider, I saw smallmouth chasing on the lake I go to in Northeast Ontario. Here's a picture of it. Change the body with the longer part in the back, then match the colors. How could I turn it into a lure that I'm sure will be in great demand.....

When I was younger, it wasn't a problem to get up at Zero Dark Thirty, drive 4 hours, fish and drive the four hours back. Now, overnight, probably two hours, which would be up to the Poconos. That use to be the most common day trip we did, but one of the guys I fish with brought a house near Lake Wallenpaupack last year, so now we can fish all day and crash at his place and head back the next day. I make a 7 hour drive to my sister's eventual retirement place in Vermont. That's usually a three or four day stay before I head back. 7 hours is about my limit on how far I can drive in a day now. The longest drive this year will be a trip to a lodge in NE Ontario. Realistically it's a 13 to 14 hour drive. The first time my buddy I went up there, we drove straight through. That was in 1986. This year he is going up with me again. Right now we're debating whether we want to drive almost straight through, 12 hours or stop after about 9 hours. Either way it's a two day drive.

I can cast a1/32 or 1/20 oz jig with my 6 wgt. And the lightest Ned jigs are 1/20 oz. No heavier than some of the Clousers I use. The material is called "Predator-9 Worm" soft chenille for bass. The only place I've seen it is in the Feather-Craft catalog. The single strand would work well with the flies you posted. What I do is take the single strand, put it around a thin piece of wire, then twist the strands together till I get a piece 3-4" long, slide it off the wire. Tie the twisted piece on the hook shank in front of the bend. Lay one tag end on the the shank and wrap it down with thread, then wrap the other tag end over it. That's it. I brought the white material, then used permanent markers to create the color patterns. It comes in other colors. I'm going to order a couple of different ones. It will cut down on the amount of coloring I need to do. I haven't fished them yet, probably won't get a chance till sometime in May. I'll be targeting largemouth then. I'm headed up to a lodge in NE Ontario at the end of August and that's the main reason I tied them up, for the smallies. TnRiver46 since I went to UT Martin, I'll make a note to post a report when I catch something with them.

We don't have gobies here in SE PA. A muddler minnow or a sculpin pattern would probably be the the imitation. I'm going have to check the coloration and size for both sculpin and gobies. I've been tying bucktail, hair and marabou jigs on 1/32, 1/20 and 1/16 oz jigs over the winter. Haven't really considered doing them in sculpin colors. I tied some ned flies over the winter on 1/20 oz jigs. These might work for a sculpin or gobie. I dropped them into a jar of water with a relatively flat bottom.

It's much easier to take a picture these days. I always have my digital camera with me, or my phone if I forget the camera. I prefer the camera. It's waterproof, at least that's what it says. I generally take pictures of decent size fish depending on the species. Or pictures of a fish I've never caught before. They do come in handy for backing up your story. I don't how many times my fishing buddies come back and say. "You should have seen the bass, chain pickerel......, John caught" I ask them "where's the picture?" No camera. How about your cell phone? And I get a stare. We're a bunch of old farts and think the only thing the phone is for is to make phone calls. I've been fishing with these guys for a long time, so I tend to believe them. It would be nice to have a picture to back up your bragging.

You should try fishing for American Shad. I think they have runs on rivers like the Sacramento, out west. A lot of the major East Coast rivers have them. The buck shad average two or three pounds and the roe shad get up to 7 pounds.

Some ugly bass/panfish/chain pickerel flies. and a couple of fly rod buck tails.

That's a new one for me. I've never seen one in SE PA. To be honest, didn't even know they existed. Though I just checked a PA Fish Commission "Fish of PA" poster I picked up at the Philadelphia Fishing show last Friday, and it's on it. From what I could find it's not something that you would be able to catch with standard fishing equipment. They're small. A trophy size one would be 4 inches. Apparently they feed on small, almost microscopic critters like water fleas. If I could find them, I could probably catch them one with my fly rod using flies tied on size 20 or smaller hooks. Look for weedy areas in slow moving water. If you catch one post a picture. They are in the Susquehanna water shed. And good luck.

Since I mainly fly fish, windy days are not my friend. That's why I always have a spinning rod or two with me when I'm in a boat. There are four of us who fish together. The other three guys own boats, but nothing fancy, ranging from a 10 foot john boat to a 16 foot aluminum one. The highest horsepower is a 25 horse on the 16 footer. The lakes we fish on are mainly small and shallow. Still on a windy day it's hard to stay in position with a trolling motor and sometimes even get the anchor to catch. And the wind just screws up my casting with the fly rod. Definitely good info in the video.

I reach for my fly rod before I reach for my spinning rod. The only time I carry a lot of lures with me is when I go to a lodge in NE Ontario. The first ones to go in the tackle box are the ones that have teeth marks on them. Most people who go there fish for walleye and pike. I prefer fishing for the smallmouth. If the walleye and pike like the lures so do the smallmouth. I'll put on a top water lure or fly first if I'm casting. Then adapt as needed. The hooks on my lures, in-line spinners and flies have the barb crushed down, or have barbless hooks. I'm sure I have a few more.

All the spinning reels I use have spare spools. I have braid on one spool, Fluorocarbon or mono on the other. When do I use them? If I'm casting lures I use braid tied straight to the lure, no leader. It I'm jigging or bottom bouncing, I'll use fluorocarbon or mono. Not sure how sound the logic is, but it's easier to break off fluoro or mono if I get snagged.

I'm use to stacking it when tying it in for tails on my flies. I have palmered it on some flies I planning on tying up some marabou jigs for bass fishing. I've already tied a couple and I stacked the marabou on them. Like everyone else it's tough for me to find quality marabou. I'll probably use both methods and I'm thinking about stacking one color and palmering a contrasting color over it.

These are a take off on the booby buggers I posted earlier. I tie my standard poppers with the pre-made soft foam poppers. I have plenty tied, but still had some of the popper bodies lying around. Figured why not. A couple of side views Front views I figure they'll push more water than the round bodies, should be able to get them to pop a bit.

I'd hate to get hit in the back of the head with one those. I couldn't cast one of them with my surf rod. And I'd hate to see what a bluefish would do to one of them. I can think of better things to buy with that amount of money. It's definitely a wall hanger.

Nice. I just don't have the patience these days to mess with trimming deer hair. Plus I get OCD when I start trimming. That color combination and shape would make it a great pike fly.