Saturday, October 23, 2010

21 trout at Meadows Creek Pond

It was raining pretty heavy in Roy this afternoon when I got off work. I know that when it was raining in Arkansas the fish were biting. For the first hour I only got two strikes and didn't land any. I walked around the lake and found a couple of ladys that caught three. At the time I had changed from a chironomid to a wooly leech but I didn't get a single strike off the leech. I changed to a royal wulff with a chironomid dropper. The dropper was only about a foot and a half from the wulff. At first I couldn't set the hook but I got into it and started landing them. I think I probably set the hook on about 30% of the strikes I get. When I don't use a strike indicator it goes down to about 5%.
At any rate chironomids work great around the northern Utah in the fall.

Saturday, October 16, 2010

Chironimids!

I went out to Meadows Creek Pond this morning, I got a late start but managed two hours of fishing. I set a new record, 15 trout! The very first trout I caught was on a olive green wooly leech, the rest on #20 chironimids. Last night I found a web site: http://www.flyfishersrepublic.com/tactics/fishing/chironomid-tactics/ that wrote about the chironimid life cycle and how to fish with them, and they worked great!
I will be fishing this evening with my Webelos, gonna be fun.

Thursday, October 07, 2010

More lessons learned today

You might be wondering why I fish so much at Meadows Creek Pond. Two reasons: nothing enhances desire like success and its good practice. Today I caught 11 fish one was at least 20 inches. A new record for fishing there.
Here's what I learned:
1) If you use a dry fly as an indicator and miss a strike you must cast your line again to get your dry fly above water. You don't have to recast if you use a thingamabobber. Sometimes I use the smallest thingamabobber I can.
2) I need to learn stripping techniques. Several times today I was reeling in my line to move to another area and ended up catching a trout. When I tried to hand strip I caught nothing. When I tried to replicate the movements of reeling in my fly with hand stripping I got some strikes. I really need to practice on setting the hook on hand stripping.
3) When you set the hook on a trout you need to keep the pressure on the fish. 8 times today my fly fell out of the fishes mouth while he was in my net, made getting the hook out easier but it sure shows that if I didn't keep the pressure on the fish he would have gotten off.
4) Trout are where I expect them to be and where I don't expect them to be. I found an area where I didn't think any trout would be. I gently lowered a wooly leech into the water. At least five trout rose up to strike at the leech, it looked like a school of piranhas.
5) Show a sense of urgency when I fish, i.e., get ready to set the hook no matter what. When I had those five trout attacking my fly if I had been prepared I would have hooked one.
All in all a fun couple of hours today.

Tuesday, October 05, 2010

Lessons learned

I went fishing at Meadows Creek Pond again, 10 fish, one was a 3 foot rainbow, he was huge. I caught fish on dry flies and wet flies. Chironmids, scuds, elk hair caddis, and royal coachman. I had a very fun time. here is what I learned today.
1. Nothing can beat using a dry fly as an indicator, nothing. I have been using thingamabobbers and I have suspected that I have been missing some very light strikes. I have seen trout strike my wet fly and the bobber not even move, I saw it today several times. The wet fly as an indicator is extremely sensitive and even caught a very little chub. I don't think I will be using a thingamabobber again.
2. Its fun to experiment. I ran out of wooly leeches and just started using whatever I had in my fly box and started caught some trout on them too.
3. I loose allot of flies by experimenting.
4. Fish everywhere. Just because I don't think trout are there doesn't mean the trout aren't there.

7ofclubs

Saturday, October 02, 2010

Fishing Success

No posts for a while. I made a trip back home to visit my Grandmom and a host of other members of my family. It was great to be back home for a bit.
This evening my wife and I went to Meadows Creek Pond in Roy. WOW, did I have a good time. I like to fish because it gets me out of the house and into some fresh air. I usually don't care if I catch a fish or not but this evening was incredible! The most fish I have ever caught at Meadows is two. I have had tons of strikes but haven't been able to land very many. I think I know why.
In the past several weeks I read an article about the importance of fishing with a straight leader and I didn't give it much thought. Several days ago I kept running into an advertisement on KSL.com classifieds about hand furled leaders and why they are superior. One of the things the ad brought up was that the furled leader doesn't need to be straightened. I did some further research and found a web page on how to make your own furled leaders (http://www.flatslander.com/leaderarticle.html).
To make a long story short I made one of these leaders and even went as far as to make sure my tippet was straightened before I started fishing. As I wrote earlier my previous record at Meadows was two rainbow trout, this evening I caught eight trout, more than four times my record. It should have been 11 but I lost three as I was pulling them in. I also missed about a dozen or so more strikes because of not paying attention or just couldn't set the hook.
I think the straight leader and straight tippet are why I caught so many fish. When a tippet or leader is rolled up on the spool of the reel they stayed curled when you cast the line on the water. The curled line acts like a spring and absorbs the shock when you try to set the hook. With a straightened line I was able to set the hook more effectively.
I suggest you check out that web site on the handmade furled leader, it worked great.
I am off most of next week and my wife mentioned that I should do some fishing. :)

On a side note when you get successful boy do people start crowding you out where you are fishing. I probably had about 6 kids fishing right on top of me, at one point I even locked hooks with a kid who was fishing less than five feet away from me.