My Second Catfish on a Fly

 

I paddeld up a creek a few days ago looking for white bass.  I caught a few and also caught this guy.   

Found Lure

I hadn't found any lures in a while so I was excited to find this one the other day. I guess with warm weather I should start finding more.

Pat Caught a Fish

Nice bass caught on a plastic worm.  Pat could have dragged a shoe lace and caught fish this day!

Pat caught a fish!  Actually he caught a bunch of fish.  We had a great day on a little farm pond not too far outside Tulsa.   The pond that we fished is one of my favorite ponds for a variety of reasons.  The first reason is the place is loaded with dumb fish.  Yesterday, I can’t tell you how many times I made poor casts that came crashing down on the water and still a fish would come up and take the fly.  A place like this can make the most novice of fishers seem like a pro.  The second reason I love this pond is the fact that it is hard to fish without a small boat.  It has steep banks with thick trees and shrubs surrounding it.  There are two little cuts or coves in the pond, that when you are in them, it seems like you are back in some far off swamp.  Pat and I fish this pond out of my canoe, which adds to the sense of adventure. 

Nonstop action on twitchy flies.

As far as fishing partners go, Pat and I have a pretty good relationship.  He doesn’t fling feathers, which is a good thing because I am not sure both of us whipping fly rods around in a canoe at the same time would work too well.  The other thing that makes Pat a good fishing partner is that he doesn’t whine too much about me standing up in the canoe while I fish and zing flies past his ear.  I think I've only hit him once. 

On this trip Pat caught the most and the biggest fish of the day.  I mostly fished little surface twitchy flies and had plenty of action catching small bream and bass.  I figured I would give Pat a chance to catch one as big as the bass I caught out of the pond some time back.

I caught this bass in the pond a little over a year ago on a popper.  The fish was next to a sheer rock wall over 8ft of water.
Glory Days. I think this is my best bass to date.

Another Hobby Lobby Fly

I love this fly.  I tied it up the other day and took it out to one of the city ponds this morning.  I only had about 45 minutes to cast, but I was chomping at the bit to try it out.  The thing I like about the fly is it's made with stuff from Hobby Lobby.  Sharpies and craft fur.  Real simple to tie and it works too.  I caught three bass this morning.  All of them were small, but still, catching fish before work on flies you have tied up is great.  

Hobby Lobby

I  love going to Hobby Lobby!

Gift

When I was sixteen I would skip out of school early and  go fish the Chattahoochee River.  I really didn't know what I was doing but I was out there figuring it out anyhow.   One day I was out and I got to  talking to this a retired guy.  He stopped fishing and took the time to show me what he was doing.  Then to my surprise he pulled out a few flies that he tied and gave them to me.  One of the flies was a wooly bugger concoction he called an "Anytime, Anywhere".   To this day the Wooly Bugger is one of my favorite flies and his lesson that he gave me on the water has stuck with me for the past 26 years. 

A few days ago I was fishing one of the local streams and I got to talking with another fisherman who is a piano tuner.  This guy did the same thing and stopped fishing and shared with me what he was doing.  He also pulled out some flies that he had tied up and gave me one.   I have to say that I really appreciate it.  I hope that I can do the same for someone else.  For the piano tuner from Oklahoma City,  Thanks.

Fly Tying

A few nights ago my daughter "H" and I went to The Fabulous Tulsa Fly Fishers February Fly Tying Extravaganza and Swap Meet.  It was a huge turnout with lots of fly tying demonstrations and a pretty large selection of used gear for sale.  I can't stress enough that this group of fly fishers is a good group to hook up with.  I check out their Face book page at least once a day.  If you are a newbie to fly fishing and have any questions about a location or equipment, just post the question and I can guarantee you that someone from the group will give you sound advice that is sprinkled with friendly cheer!