the Driftless Yeti

Smallies in the Boundary Waters

-Some footage from a June trip to the Boundary Waters with Dan.
BWCA from Currents on Vimeo.

Grass Carp on Hoppers

The green hopper strikes again. Refusal, rejection, disgust, and finally fooled. Presentation of the fly is important. But in the end it's up to the fish. You can do everything right and it still comes down to the fish deciding to eat. I guess that's how I feel after repeated strikeouts and finally fooling another grassie. I hooked this fish from the top of the pond bridge. He was sitting motionless just under the surface with head angled up -- a common position to find grass carp. I placed a green hopper a foot in front of him. He startled back initially but then slowly rose to eat. Grassies have a tendency to nibble the fly and from my high bridge vantage point I could see when the hopper was ready to set (nibble, nibble, gulp, set!). The hardest fish to fool are often the most rewarding. If I could catch a grassie every trip to the pond the reward wouldn't be as sweet. Big carp on hoppers, does it get any better?

The youngsters enjoyed the show. After helping me snap the pictures they were no longer thinking of bluegill and bullheads :-)

Bucketmouth Streamers

A couple of the streamers I've been tossing and a marker board illustration. June has been a month of fishing backyard bass.

Pond Bucket Mouth

I was recently reminded how fun it is to stand on the front of a flat bottom and toss for bass. Particularly when you're the one doing the fishing and your pal is doing the boating -- thanks Andy! 

hooked a nice 20"er

Poppers for Bass

Some good tips for chucking poppers for bass from they guys at G&G.
Gink & Gasoline's Fly Fishing Bass: 5 Tips for Fishing Frog Patterns Around Grass

I'm throwing out a bonus 5 tips from Currents.
1. Fish poppers in the rain. This is my #1 because I love fishing poppers in the rain. The rain brings the bucket mouths to the water's edge. The big boys often leave the shallows in the bright daylight hours. The rain gives them a sense of security to move shallow and feed.
2. Mix up the popping. Sometimes a hard smack and a long pause can be irresistible, and sometimes you want to chuga-chug that popper.
3. Throw a smaller popper. Size does matter. Try to match the meat.
4. Fish em early and late in the day. Chow time.
5. Fish the cover. They G&G guys with specifics on poppers around grass. 

tackle and misc pics

trout bait restock

weight those carp flies hook up!

Andy's hopper and message for grass carp

Andy's meat box.

Baetisca Larva print by Nate. 

Back yard big mouth

playin' in the mud

Calexico

Reflecting on a great weekend. Calexico played at The Englert in Iowa City on Friday night. I've been looking forward to May 31st for a few months. Playing Calexico's new album, Algiers, each day at work. If you're a Calexico fan you gotta see these guys live someday. Tour Schedule. Here's a setlist you can play on Youtube. I was blown away by the seven bandmates shuffling instruments, from trumpets to accordion to slide guitar. Lead singer and guitarist Joey Burns set the vibe with his stage enthusiasm. At a live show they feel more alt rock'n'roll than on record. But then again, it's hard to describe Calexico's genre -- Mexican-influenced, country-folk, indie rock..? If you crank their tunes through some large speakers you'll come closer to replicating the live sound. Thanks for a great show Calexico!

grassies on grass hoppers

I found a pod of grassies on the windward side of the city pond. A few of them were clooping surface scum. It was time to hook a grassie on a hopper. After a few half hearted cloops on the hopper I had a cruiser take a nice gulp, zing! I haven't caught enough grassies to say the code is cracked but I may be on the curve. Ever since I read Jeff Currier's "Grass Carp Code Cracked Forever" post I've been anxious to take a grassie on a hopper. While you're over at Jeff's blog be sure to read about his recent India trip fishing for mahseer.

Grass Carp

I hooked up with one of the backyard grass carp! These guys are tough to catch. I employed a handful of tactics and flies. I smacked them in the head with green hoppers, led them with green hoppers, tandem nymphs, worm flies, the hybrid, slow stripped bugs, and finally the answer was a classic clouser swimming nymph (CSN). I asked myself after catching this fish, shouldn't this be one of the first flies I throw at this fish? For a fish that is sitting or cruising about a foot under the water surface the CSN is a logical choice. The CSN has a slow sink rate allowing it to hover in the zone for a long time. This sets up nicely for leading a slow cruiser. With that, I'm gonna tie a few more CSN's and with any luck I'll harass a few more of these big fish.

The fight was great. This big fish jumped out of the water twice. Seeing grassies go airborn is quite spectacular. I hooked a couple last year that also went airborn but popped. This time I won. Man vs Grass Carp.

Whiskers

Mr. Whiskers lives in my backyard pond. I caught him last May and we had our 2nd date this week. I was tossing size 12 pheasant tail nymphs for the resident grass carp and hooked up with this old friend. It's nice to feel a strong fish again. Prior to hooking the cat I had a grass carp hooked and peeling line on my 5wt. The grassie bolted to the opposite side of the pond before the hook popped. While both fish are strong, the grass carp has speed and strength. The catfish lacks speed but makes up for it with brute strength. 

Driftless

Nate and I started the weekend fishing in the rain. Any further west and we would have been fishing in the snow. I think rain turns fish on. Perhaps it triggers them to eat before the water turns dark and turbid and eating becomes difficult. The front end of the rain produced some steller fishing. Sure enough, the next day many streams looked like Wonka's chocolate river. So we fished streams that run clear regardless of how many inches of rain fall. It's good to know your Driftless options. 

Sucker Migration

Quillback are difficult to catch. I drifted half my carp box to see if anything would stick. I drifted a few nymphs. In the end I caught a couple Quillies. 

Forgot my waders. Luckily I didn't need to move much and the water was 62 degrees. 

pics from the Driftless

Talon Streamer

Featuring Andy's streamer pattern, the Talon. I picked up a couple Talons from Andy last summer and have caught trout, smallmouth, white bass, and the illustrious sucker. Love the action on this streamer. 

Andy swinging a Talon

Riverside lunch

The wood canoe was built by Andy's dad in Winterset IA. A sweet canoe indeed.

Quillback

Quillback show up in large numbers on my local warm water creeks each Spring. They blend in nicely with the creek bottom -- until one turns sideways to swallow some food drifting by. Thats when the sun catches their armor, producing a flash of silver and gold. Quillback comprise a large portion of the biomass in many warmwater rivers. The Cedar River is no exception. They'll be in the creek for the next 6 weeks. Then they will return to the big muddy river. I nymph for them or bounce something buggy on the bottom. 

Another sign of Spring. Minnows sunning in the shallows. Soon the smallmouth will be up the creek chasing them down. 

Signs of Spring