Quote of the week: Blind Luck

Darrell Pendergrass describes fly fishing for trout at night in his article "Fishing blindly for trout with the eternal optimist" via the Superior Telegram:

"Simply put, almost blindly a cast is made, a fly drifts casually for a bit, and then the soft sound of a trout coming to the surface is heard. You need only to lift your rod and line from the water to know that you’ve succeeded in hooking a fish. It’s calm. It’s quiet. It’s perfect. And I believe the term ‘blind luck’ was actually coined by Scottish fly fisherman back in the nineteenth century."

ESPN's Don Barone: Bass Dreams

Don Barone of ESPN Outdoors has a new article out. This time he is chasing bass with a fly rod while hanging out with Fred Wilson. Fred is an angler who isn't afraid to pick up the long rod during a bass tournament or two. Don puts him to the test by bringing along a novice fly angler and an accomplished professional bass fisherman.

Both Rich and Ken are listening to what Fred is saying. Rich is new to fly fishing and is pretty much getting a five-hour lesson, Ken has fly fished before, and is buying some of what Fred is say, but not all of it: "If I was going to try this, and I'm not recommending anyone do it in a tournament, but for fun fishing, I would do it in the summertime when I could throw some topwater."

Fred just smiles.

You can tell he's heard it before, "I been laughed at, sumthin'-sumthin' this or that ... I know I'm compulsive, but I'm telling you if you want an advantage over the guy in the next boat, fly fishing for bass will give you that advantage."

Read Don's entire article via ESPN Outdoors. Don's commentary on fishing licenses is priceless.

Tying the Double Bugger

Early in 2007, North Carolina Fly Fishing team member Josh Almond, gave us a heads up about some monster bass near his home town. Now he has put together a tutorial showing how to tie a fly that just might do the trick to nail one of those big bucket mouths this spring, the Double Bugger.

Step 1: Start your thread

Step 2: wrap some lead for extra weight if needed.

Step 3: Tie in your marabou for a tail (tip: try to keep tips even. Do Not cut your marabou tips!)

Step 4: After you tie in your tail, find a saddle feather and tie it in by its tip. After that tie in, dub, wrap or create your body...be creative.

Step 5: Palmer the saddle forward, stroking each fiber back as you go...whip finish. You're now halfway finished!

Step 6: Remove finished rear half from vise and grab a new hook. Tie on some barbell eyes.

Step 7: Cut a section of 12# flourocarbon create a loop through the eye of the rear fly. Thread 2 plastic, metal or tungsten beads onto the line, this will prevent fouling of the hooks.

Step 8: Now tie in the mono loop to the Lead fly, i like to add a drop of superglue to make sure the mono won't pull out.

Step 9: Repeat the steps to create rear fly, whip finish.

Step 10: Check out your finished fly

Step 11: or get even more creative add rubber legs!

Most important: Have fun and catch some fish on it! Be sure to cut of the lead hook, the trailer is all you need on these buggers!

Josh's hard work has earned him an item from our bag of schwag. Josh will receive a lovely FlyFishMagazine.com fly box. Hopefully he will fill it up and return it to us.

This Weekend

Me doing my best Napoleon Dynamite impersonation at a secret fishing spot near the FlyFishMagazine.com Compound.

Mom found a spot in the shade.

Did I mention that this spot was secret?

New Texas Largemouth Bass Record

If only they had weighed it and not filleted it.....

Recently that's what happened to a largemouth bass from a private lake in Fannin County, which died despite the angler's efforts to keep it alive. The angler guesstimated the fish's weight at 21 pounds-which would have been a new state record-before filleting it.

The article in the Beaumont Enterprise also tells us about a unique Texas program:

Each year from Oct. 1 until April 30, TPWD accepts largemouth bass weighing 13 pounds or more into the ShareLunker program to be used in a selective breeding program aimed at producing bigger bass in Texas.

Think stud farm for largemouth bass. What a life for a lunker.

Schweeet!

If our local wally world sold bass baits that looked as cool as the ones available in Japan via the Surface Bait Libertaria Store, I would start fishing hardware. The site is worth a visit just to look at all the mega cool baits they sell. (link via Boing Boing)

Just Say No to Bass!

A Maine man grows some weed.

Man gets caught growing weed.

Man gets fined $250 for growing weed.

During the raid police find ponds stocked with bass.

Man gets fined $1,000 for illegal fish stocking.

"I can understand why they'd fine him stiffly for the fish, because bass are aggressive and would go after trout if the ponds flooded into other waters, but $250 for the pot?" Oxford County Sheriff's Cpl. Chancey Libby asked Thursday afternoon by phone in Paris.