Warm it up

Feeling motivated by the sunshine this afternoon, I stopped in on the way home to check out the creek. Managed to get a few bass and crappies to chase down the streamer. Nothing huge hooked but still time well spent.

Cheers,

Stroke

Booth Love

Some weekend tunes to kick back with. Have seen these guys live a few times and they are solid.

Stroke

Winter Stone

Went to the pond and noticed several winter stones struggling to take off from the surface as they skittered to the bankside rocks. While I have targeted early season trout in the east with dark winter stones, this is my first experience with this hatch locally. After some minimal research I believe these flies to be of the family Taeniopterygidae but you never can be sure.


I love bugs,

Stroke

Tailwater

Well, it was tough going at the local tailwater, here a few days back. Stiff winds blowing up the river and a high of 20 made casting and getting a good drift dicey. De-icing took up a good 1/3 of my time on the water and I lost one nice fish when my reel seized up as it had frozen. I opted to head out after that to get warmed up. Locating fish and what they wanted to eat was tough and I by no means had it dialed. Found a few in slimmer water looking for current seams that may hold fish. No takes on streamers or bigger nymphs in obvious places. Once the clouds broke for a few I found some very small black midges mixed with an odd winter stonefly. Small and dark did the trick with a micro mayfly emerger and glass bead midge doing the work. Camera and equipment did not like the cold so I don't have many photos to share this trip out. Caught a nice rainbow that jumped a few times after the hook set with plenty of spunk on the release.

Stroke

Conedome bunny muddler

This one should turn a few, minimal flash to replicate small bottom feeding chubs and suckers. Tied in a few sizes with a large head to push some water when stripped.

Over and out,

Stroke

Pond fishing ice off

With weather in the high 50's I made it out to a local pond to see if there was any activity.

A few confused trees may get a shock.

Caught a few fish and even saw a few winter stones fluttering about which was cool to see. Bright day with fish eating smaller orange and white buggers fished S-L-O-W. Released a few to grease, with ice off a few days ago the best time to keep a few panfish for the plate if your into that.

You know how we do it.





Stroke