Local Confidence Builder

-- Good Day on the Water --

Oh forgive me bloggers, for I have sinned! It's been 4 months since my last post and I have no excuses. Summer has flown by, again with no vacation, but a couple of fun outings chasing local bass & gills.

Yesterday was definitely one of the highlights of the summer.

With the trout streams at record low flows and recent salt skunkings, I needed a confidence builder outing and decided to hit a local pond yesterday. I've had both good and bad days on this pond, but that didn't matter -- its 10 minutes from the house and has some decent variety of fish (pickerel, bass, perch, cats, and gills).

Every Picture Tells a Story

 -- Every Picture Tells a Story-- 

Of all the social networks, I waste most of my time with Instagram. I keep two accounts -- @ginclear for fly fishing & tying and @deanwo for family, work & other random stuff. My affection for the Red Sox, Patriots and Bruins bleeds into both feeds from time to time.

If you are on Instagram, you've noticed everyone posting "Year in Review" videos that flash by the most memorable or liked posts. Both Statigram and Flipagram are two of the more popular sites/apps that provide this service for free.

I thought it would be fun to tell a little story for some of the most memorable pics this year from the @ginclear Instagram account. The year was full of fly fishing firsts in many ways. First fish, first hatches and first time fishing with new friends.

Winter Solstice and Holiday Cheer

-- Merry Christmas --

We have reached the tipping point between night and day. A winter solstice for 2012 is finally here. There were plans for wetting a line today, but high winds and downpours gives solitude and reflection a seat at the table.

2012 has been an interesting year. High school to college transition for our son, Matt, a spirited election and a world facing many economic, social and environmental challenges. Where to go from here?

As long as the rivers flow, I know where my direction will be.

As we look forward to more day than night, we wish all hope for a prosperous new year and tug with every cast.

Thanks so much for your continued support and following. I will close with some holiday cheer from Matt's Troutdoors Productions.



Best of Troutdoors 2012 from Troutdoors on Vimeo.

Change

The last couple weeks have been a bit hectic, but in a good way. I started a new job in a new industry and much of my focus is there. We completed the first phase of a home improvement project laying a new floor in downstairs bathroom and laundry area. The Red Sox went from the basement of the American League East to 2 games in front of the Yanks. They just won their last 9 games sweeping the A's, Yankees and Blue Jays by outscoring them to 83 to 35. And the Bruins are in the Stanley Cup for the first time in 21 years.

-- White Perch on Fresh Pimp --

Needless to say, the time on the water has been few and far between.  We have been hitting the local rivers and ponds with some success. My son and I have been chasing pike and carp on the Concord River, but have not had much luck. Roughfisher's Fresh Pimps didn't get the carp, but did land my first white perch.

Bluegill, Bass and some weekly ramblings...

Native Fallfish on Parachute Adams

I know, this is not a bass or a bluegill. The week started out with high hopes of landing some trout on a local river. The mid-week conditions where good -- normal flows, warming stream temps and a decent mayfly hatch. Nymphs, streamers and dries where all used and the only fish to hand were these native fallfish. These are aggressive little guys that go after your dry with reckless abandon.  Only saw a couple of trout rising and one 14" bow on a spin caster's stringer. Sometimes the trout gods "just say no".

Fat Bluegill on Woven Nymph

 On the other hand, the local ponds are heating up. No shortage of action with just about any fly tied on. This becomes a great way to fish all those flies you have tied and to work on different presentation techniques.  Granted, bluegills are not trout, are not very selective and really don't get spooked, but they do spit a fly so a good cast and tight retrieve can be practiced when fishing for these guys.

Colorful Bluegill on Parachute Adams

Small Bass on Micky Finn

Also had good luck with landing bass on both nymphs and streamers.  Even had a double hook-up with a bluegill on a Klinkhammer and a small bass on a Copper John dropper.


I started tying flies about 3 years ago and one of the first was a Micky Finn.  I rarely fish this, probably because it has never produced for me, but it did come through with this small bass on the first cast.

Ian's Streamer and a Simple Pheasant Tail

Ian's beadhead black and gold streamer (exchanged in a fly swap earlier this year) continues to produce. Ian sent me two of these in the swap and, since one was lost, I tied up a couple more. While at the vise, I also tied a very simple Pheasant Tail by Ben Turpin shown on the Fly & Fin blog. I used orange thread to add in a hotspot.

I posted some more pics on the Gin Clear Facebook page as well. Do me a favor and "Like" this page, if you haven't already. Once I reach 20 "Likes" it becomes official in eyes of Facebook.

Ian's Black & Gold Streamer lands this Bass

I've yet to land a trout in 2011, but am glad there are plenty of options for warm water alternatives in my backyard. Also discovered a native brook trout stream about 5 minutes from my house.  Hooked into a small brookie about a week ago but he was camera shy and got off before a picture could be taken.

And the Red Sox.... Vowed not to post again about them until they reached .500, but here is something to get excited about.  They just took two from the Yankees in the Bronx with Josh Beckett throwing a 6 inning, 4 hit shutout last night and bullpen only giving up three more hits with no runs to close out the game.

19-20, one game shy of .500 -- will this series with the Yanks be the Red Sox turning point this season?

The Spin Caster vs. The Fly Fisher

My son and I packed up the canoe yesterday and visited one of the local ponds where they stock trout. He wanted to spin cast for bass and I wanted to fly fish for anything, although a nice trout would be fun.

I tied a bunch of new flies over the winter and he bought a bunch of new lures. He likes to fly fish also, but when Rapala's new Rappin' Clackin' Smackin' whatever lure is calling and the bass are getting active, it's hard to get him to bring the fly rod.

Bluegill on woven nymph

As we put the canoe in the water, we saw bait fish, a lot of midges and some mayflies. I tied on a woven nymph and he put on his Clackin' Rap. We put the canoe up wind and along a shallow bank and let it drift with the wind along the shoreline.

My first cast towards the bank yielded this nice bluegill.  His third cast yielded a 2 lb. bass that we were not prepared to net and it got off next to the canoe. As we continued to drift along the bank, I landed three more bluegills and he landed two more bass.

Largemouth on a Clackin' Something

Nice action for our first 15 minutes on the water.

We paddled up wind and start the same drift two more times with no luck. We moved to another section of the pond and the bite had slowed.

I tied on a Telephone Box Steamer which looked like the bait fish we saw earlier. He tried a couple of different lures and after about an hour, he got into a another nice bass and I landed a large bluegill.

Nice Largemouth

We continued to paddle up wind and drift through likely holding areas. We saw some nice fish rising, but the wind would have made floating a dry very tricky.

Large Bluegill on Telephone Box Streamer

As we headed back to the boat launch, the wind was dying down and many fish were rising in the shallows.  We headed to calm water and I tied on a size 14 Parachute Adams.

My son started to scare more fish with his noisy lure, but did hook into a nice pickerel.



I had a bunch of fishing rising to my fly, but no takers.  I was still hoping to find one of those stocked trout, but found a decent bass on the end of my line after a short and spirited fight.

So who won the fishing day, the Spin Caster or the Fly Fisher?

He got larger fish, but I landed more. We both landed two different species.

Pickerel on a noisy lure

He used two treble hooks on his lure and I used a single hook on a fly.  His lures where shiny, made funny clicking noises and wiggle like a fish in the water, mine slowly fall and rise as I vary the retrieve.

Is spin casting easier than fly fishing?

Probably, but it really is not a contest when we are both out enjoying the day and fishing together.

Largemouth on a Parachute Adams

I put down my spin caster last year and don't plan to go back, so now I'm challenged by my up-and-coming Kevin VanDam to fish side by side with those "other" fishing guys.

I can deal with it and enjoy it as well.

After all, Fishing is Fishing and a day on the water is always time well spent.