One of my warmwater fly boxes...

Here's a quick shout out to some of my pals who wanted to see one of my fly boxes, so here you go guys!

(Notice the chewed up Dubbin' Craws? What happened? Catfish happened.)

The things we do for what we love to do.....

Today was an exciting day to say the least. It was filled with some intense moments, but it still felt good to go out and cast a fly line. I just wish things could have gone a little better....

Before leaving, I had checked the radar and there was once small cell over the county I live in. I was going to take a trip up to a new wildlife area (New to me.) one county north of where I'm at. The weather radar indicated that the storm cell was not very intense and it was not where I would be fishing. I just had to drive through it. No problem. Wow, I was wrong. When I drove about 8 miles outside of town, it started raining pretty hard and I decided to keep on truckin'. Well, I was over halfway to my destination when it started pouring. Then, it started hailing. Here's the icing on the cake though. There was a tornado/funnel cloud about 200-250 yards away from me and I had nowhere to go. I've seen a couple of them in my life and I knew they weren't just any old clouds when I seen dirt start swirling around in a field! After narrowly escaping the storm, the weather turned nice and I arrived in one piece at my destination.

I was fishing the St. Joseph River in Williams County, Ohio. It's a nice river to fly fish. Lots of creek chubs, rock bass, smallies, cats, carp, and other assorted fish that will put a bend in a fly rod. It would be perfect for canoeing or kayaking because casting from the bank can be difficult. It's mostly roll casting territory and there's only so much I can do with a weight forward fly line. After eating up most of my tippet and leader changing flies, I decided to try one of the state lakes in the area. The St. Joe wasn't giving up any fish. It may have been the water temp, it may have been the weather in the area, or it could have been any of the other 500 million reasons fish just will not bite.

To top the day off, I climbed all the way up a steep hill, then slipped and rolled head-over-heels down a 20 foot hill covered in poison ivy and sawgrass. I managed to get up pretty quickly but I was still a little dazed from my tumble. I was pretty sore and quite flustered. I decided that enough was enough and I was going to catch a fish. I hobbled over to the state lake and caught a teeny bass and a small bluegill.

For future reference, I do not plan on going there anytime soon. I'll stick with my close to home spots that are easy to access and produce fish.

My reward.

The Fly Tying Tree

About a week ago, I received a product from a gentleman on one of the outdoor forums I frequent. The product is called the Fly Tying Tree and it's designed to help keep tools and materials close at hand when you're tying. The Fly Tying Tree is simply awesome. If you're like me, your desk is a disaster area when you go into tying mode. The 'Tree fits easily onto your vice and really does a fantastic job. Some folks might argue that there's already things out there to hold your tools and such. True, there are. But, none compare to the Fly Tying Tree. The 'Tree is much more aesthetically pleasing than a block of foam with holes drilled in it. It's made out of Pennsylvania Cherry wood. Believe me, this thing is good looking! Plus, it's extremely functional. Meaning, it does what it's made for. Very well. It has a place for almost anything you can think of, it takes up very little space, and it looks good! I am NOT a paid spokesperson or anything like that. I just really enjoy a well-made product and it gets two thumbs up from Auglaize Fly Shop!

If you're interested, contact Kip at:

warmtraxs@yahoo.com

8-9-2011 - Auglaize River

Since we had some rain roll through the area yesterday evening and early this morning, I thought I would try my luck down at the old hydroelectric dam on the Auglaize River. Compared to the last time I was there, the water was quite a bit higher. Surprisingly, the rising waters had no impact on visibility. The river still maintained pretty decent clarity.

I tied on a rust brown Mud Bug and threw a couple of short warm-up casts. On the third cast I caught a nice freshwater drum. I managed to catch a few more drum until I noticed something. Off to my right, there were freshwater drum everywhere! They were hanging around the moving water and chasing the minnows around. I started casting there and I ended up catching over 50 freshwater drum in about 3 hours. I would have only caught 20 but I was trying to entice a couple 6-7 pound carp into biting. Unfortunately, the drum kept eating the fly before the carp could even notice it. With that being said, I still had a fun morning and those freshwater drum sure put a nice bend in my 6wt. Until next time, tight lines!

First catch!

Picture proof that the Mud Bug works great!

This is where most of the drum were congregated. 

8-5-2011 Private Ponds - Fly by Night!

I went out and did a short dusk/night fishing trip at the ponds this evening. It's been a while since I night fished with a fly. The bass were out and about tonight. I landed 6 bass and 1 bluegill in about 30 minutes. I was using a size 10 black rabbit strip fly and crawling it near the shoreline. I had almost forgotten how hungry the bass are in the evening. The only downside is casting blind around structure. Nothing bad happened, but a little tricky. I would have gotten some pictures, but I didn't have my camera and my cell phone doesn't have a flash.

8-3-2011 Private Ponds

Today I was determined to break my losing streak against fish. I headed out to the ponds for about an hour to blow off some steam and catch some fish. About two minutes into fishing, the neighbor let his dogs out and they decided to go for a swim and I thought that was going to ruin everything right then. After that, the dog decided to come visit me and tangled himself in my fly line and took off. Thankfully, the neighbor was very apologetic and he's a decent guy, so no hard feelings. I did break my losing streak however; by landing 5 big bluegill and 1 good sized largemouth bass who put up a great fight on the 6 weight. The fly of the day was a chartreuse size 10 rabbit strip fly. 

Yet another Fish Ohio bluegill!