Bluegills and Belgian Cast

I finished cutting the grass and figured I would head down to a local boat ramp with the fly rod and try out my new sinking tip and the green/white Deep Clouser that I tied yesterday.

Wow, what a swirling mass of mayhem that combination was!  It took a few minutes and a Belgian cast to get things working somewhat.  Introducing a double haul helped even more.

I didn't catch any fish on the fly, but I did have a couple of nibbles on the Clouser.  That is a huge milestone because I never catch anything at this ramp.  I guess my luck was pretty good this evening because I put the fly rod up and pulled out the spinning gear and managed to land this bluegill on a Beetle Spin.

This is the largest fish I have ever caught at this ramp.  It's not fishy, but it is close.

Perch mulligans and a reverse-tie first

After striking out on White Perch on the fly rod yesterday, I tied up a couple of Clousers that might entice them to bite next time. Hopefully, the high tie method will help them to fend off some of the floating grass.

The second fly is my first attempt at a Bucktail Deceiver (BTD) using the reverse-tie method. I wasn't very happy with the shape of the fly, but a quick rinse under the faucet made me feel a little better. Still, I think I may have crowded the tie-ins, creating a fly that's excessively bulky. Fishing it will reveal the truth.

A layer of Zap-A-Gap goo will keep the eyes in place, and also stiffened up the red bucktail enough that it should serve as an effective weedguard. I love happy accidents!

Saturday report

 The hard NE wind had the creek down 1-1 1/2 feet below normal. This worked to my advantage when I slid under the old railroad bridge a little over 3' off the water. I was able to hug the shoreline and stay out of the wind most of the day.

The White Perch were biting pretty good today. I probably caught 20, but they got smaller as the day went on. I also hooked 4, landed 2 Largemouth Bass.

The surprise of the day was a couple of Striped Bass. The Striped Bass were only 10', and the season on them is Oct. 1 -- Apr. 30, so back they went.

I caught NOTHING on the fly rod today. Thank goodness I took a light action 5'6" spinning rod and a single Beetle Spin with some extra bodies.


All in all, a pretty good day fishing in spite of the wind.

Panfish flies

I've tied some panfish flies this week.  The Panfish Polecat, Carter's Weighted Rubber Legs, and some additional flies (L-R). 

The chartreuse/pink flies were tied with crappie and shad in mind.  Hopefully a future post will speak of their outstanding success!

Foam flies are fun!

This is the first fish I have caught on a fly I tied myself.  This is one of the flies in the previous blog entry.

I lost this fly, but had a nice largemouth bass hit the other yellow foam fly in the post.  Unfortunately, he wrapped me up on a piling and broke me off.  Two flies lost, but it was worth it.

Fly fishing update

I've been fishing the 5 wt. fly rod quite a bit lately.  I've been catching a few fish, too.  It's been fun fly fishing and I'm hoping that my casting 'practice' will improve once I get a chance to fish the 8 wt. in the salt.  I'm thinking about rigging the 8 wt. up with some of the poppers in my fly box.  My 5 wt. doesn't like to cast them easily, and my casting ability is barely adequate to launch them far enough.

Crappie on the Wooly Bugger

I did have some luck with the black Wooly Bugger on Friday.  This little Crappie was kind enough to ride the hook up and say 'Hello'.

Small largemouth bass in Bostic, NC.

This largemouth bass was caught in Bostic, North Carolina on a Betts black Stone Fly.  I caught four other fish in that pond that day.

Foam Flies

I've had pretty good luck with the Betts black Stone Fly.  I also had a bluegill make off with the white foam ant the first time I fished it.  I decided to tie a few foam flies to supplement the ones I purchased.  I tied up one with a precut ant body, then made a couple more from yellow sheet foam.  I'm quite happy with them, considering they were my first foam flies.

My first popper fly

 I also tied my first popper fly today.  I used a small cork and colored it with markers.  My building steps were all out of order, but I pulled it off anyway.  It better catch fish, because it's not that pretty.


Hopefully I'll have a fishing (catching) report once I get a chance to fish any of these.

First half is over.

Sandy and I ran our first half marathon yesterday in Virginia Beach, VA. We ran the Anthem Half Marathon, which is the half marathon associated with the Shamrock Marathon. This was the 40th Shamrock, so there was an extra air of celebration to the event.

We rode up on Saturday and picked up our race packets and checked out the expo. Lots of vendors and lots or people made for a crowded event. We each picked up some souvenirs, Sandy getting a '13.1' sticker and a nice T-shirt. I got a Brooks running hat with a shamrock on it and a tall shot glass with the Shamrock logo on it.

We stayed with one of our fishing friends, Scott, and had a nice dinner with him and his girlfriend, Chelsea. The Mexican food at El Gran Rodeo was very tasty.

On to the run. The weather was great, starting out a chilly 53 degrees. It was mostly overcast, with the sun peeking out a few times during the run.

We worked hard to maintain our planned pace, even though we were passed continuously for the first 6 miles. At about mile 10 we started to pass other runners, some of who were walking. The closer we got to the finish the more runners we passed. Our final time was 1 second per mile faster than the time projected by the McMillan calculator.

Our chip time was 2:19:26, with a pace of 10:39 minutes per mile. My GPS recorded a distance of 13.15 miles. Unfortunately, I hit the button on my GPS some time after we had finished and added another .35 miles at a walking pace as we moved around the finish area.


All I could think about the last few miles was reaching the finish line. Within the last 1/4 mile I decided that I would be back next year to run this one again.