Summer With Katelyn!

Kate and I have been out enjoying the summer.  We fish out in the boat multiple times a week and she loves every minute of it.  She recently caught her first fish all by herself: cast, set hook, reeled in........she was so proud, as was I.

She likes to be in charge and always wants to drive the boat

We went with the Walkers up to camp near Ely over Memorial weekend and that was pretty fun.  We caught a few small fish, but it was all about the kids anyway.

Bentlee is a year older than Kate and they get along well, almost like a little boyfriend/girlfriend, great, already!

Also, Kate and I have been getting some real nice Sunnies and Crappies





Tying For Customers

I've been tying as a second job for awhile now and I must say that it is a very enjoyable job.  One of my greatest concerns is for the quality and craftsmanship of my ties.  All my ties are glued as many times as allowable, cinched up and wrapped tight, and trimmed to perfection.  When these babies hit Russia, they'll be ready for whatever she has to throw at them!

Been Tying!

I hooked on with a buddy doing some commercial fly tying.  We've got orders comming out our ass and any extra time is spent at the vise.  My fly photography is definitively lacking, but you should be able to get the gist.  These two are for Alaska.

ND String Leech

Blairs King Smolt



Blue Pancake!

We headed down south to the big city for the weekend.  Weather was cold, blustery, and rain and snow mixed for the duration of the trip.  We didn't care, we needed to do it, we needed to float the boat and have some hot action!  The hits started quickly and were seemingly syncronized in 15 minute intervals.

The action was hot with these smallish Carp.  We were having a blast hooking these little monsters and wrestling them away from the brushpile we were tied to.  It felt nice to have some consistant action in open water...........its been awhile.  But then something really cool happened, somthing I was really hopeing for; I got a Smallmouth Buffalo (Blue Pancake)!  I've caught them before, but not in like 15 years or so, so it felt real good to get another one.  I just love the bluish/grey color to them; grey ghosts.

It was cold as hell out there today, but it was well worth it.  All in all we caught 21 fish in about 6 hours.  The smallest fish was about a pound and the largest maybe 3-4 pounds.  It was a blast!

North Shore Prospector

The N.S.P. as I call it has proven itself over the last couple years.  I developed the pattern after fishing a real early season on the North Shore of Lake Superior.  The meltwater was dumping down the streams, it was raging and muddy as chocolate milk. The only thing working was large and bright egg patterns.  The N.S.P. uses the 4 "good" colors for egg patterns on the North Shore all tied into a very "babine-esque" pattern.  Hot pink, white, baby pink, and green trimmed in a row trailed by a white maribou (milt) tail.  It works wonders in the fast water and has landed fish each season for me.  Give it a try, the Steelhead should be hitting up there this week!

Musky CHAMPagne!

The left over champagne cork from last new years really tied together nicely with the moose hair and flash.

What? It's 2013 already?

Wow, it has been a real long time since I've posted......almost a year!  Anyone out there still lurking?  Hehe, just kidding, probably not.  I hope to tune in and share more often as I had been before.  Over the last year I've actually caught a few new species and had a small handful of decient fishing trips.  Rather than bore anyone with a bunch of mumbo jumbo, I'll just post a bunch of pics.

Sunburn, Poison Ivy, and Mooneye!

Well it was "that time of year again".  Time for another Roundup!  I met up with a few fellow roughfishers on a multi-species fishing adventure down in the driftless region.  Many species were caught, I ended up with 5 species: Mooneye, Rainbow Trout, Brown Trout, Largemouth Bass, and a sweet Shovelnose Sturgeon.

I saw several snakes and most were large Fox Snakes; heres one of the bigger ones.

A nice Bow for dinner.

The Mooneye are very cool fish and were everywhere.  I swear you could signal a plane with their reflections; very shiny fish.

This is my largest Mooneye to date, a real scrapper.

I love visiting the driftless area.  Theres very diverse fishing and beautiful scenery, all surrounded by beautiful hardwoods.