Quote:
Originally Posted by frozenchief
Lefty Karen’s favorite freshwater fish was the smallmouth. Maybe because living in MD, those were quite plentiful near him. I understand that smallmouth are a tremendous freshwater fish. If I had them in my neighborhood I would certainly target them.
That is really cool. I’ve tried to get trout on a mouse pattern and it really depends on time of year. Early in the year I can do it. But after about July 1, won’t happen. And I fish a lot in September, which is late season for us, so I’m using eggs and flesh flies.
If you’re going to talk about fly fishing, you need to talk about the rod - brand, length, weight, etc.
|
I fish with the fly rod exclusively. Not because it’s some elite way to fish, because it’s not. I flyfish because it’s more productive.
For Trout in NE Iowa I use a 9’ St Croix Legend 4Wt with WF floating line. Here you use the same tactics as you would employ anywhere where you are targeting trout. If they are on dry flys that’s what I throw. Around here that means caddis and blue wing olives 18-22. Most of the time I’m rigging nymphs, bead headed in double rig fashion.
If it’s a super small stream with Brookies I will use my St Croix Legend 7.5 ft 3wt.
This rods a blast in tight spaces and with a big one on it’s a great.
St Croix makes good rods but what I really like is their warranties. When I break a tip it’s $20 with lighting fast turnaround.
For Bass, Large Mouth and Smallies, I employ a close-out Scott fly rod that is 9’ 5wt. This is my work rod and it’s durable enough for the kayak. Sometimes I will overload it with WF 6wt. I primarily use top water patterns like foam hoppers, frogs and large poppers. If I can see the bass I will target them with large streamers.
Finally I have a St.Croix Imperial 9’ft 8wt with WF floating line that I use for carp.
Every late May-August my home river has pools behind wing dams that hold hundreds of carp. When it gets hot, and the river is stable, these carp rise and slurp scum cottonwood seeds and large insects. I tie a simple cottonwood pattern in size 12 and it’s game on. Floating crabapple patterns work as well.
If you’ve never caught a huge carp on the fly you are missing out. They run and fight till the last. We call them the cheap bonefish.