Hobby Sports

Materials:
Hook: TMC 3761 (or similar nymph hook)
Tail: 3 Filo Plume tips
Body: Chopped filo plume dubbed and tapered to form a body

This is an old fly created by Chris Mathews at Blue Ribbon Flies in Montana.  Its simple to tie and uses normally discarded material.  To my knowledge this fly is unpublished as I have never seen or read about this fly anywhere.  It was not until my friend Mike made me aware of it that I knew it existed.  Thirty or more years ago when he first opened his shop, Chris told Mike about this fly.  From then on, this happens to be Mikes favorite fly to fish on just about any trout water.  He has slayed them at Yellowstone and is his go-to-fly when float tubing at Crawley Lake.

Beadhead version

Kern River Emerger Version (pheasant rump feathers used as legs, thin foam as wingcase)

Jan. 20
RR51
Met up with Lou late around 1pm. After a quick scout of the area, we ate lunch. Thinking it would be best to hunt apart due to one of Lous aggressive dog, we split up. The area looked good. All I managed was one flush near the creek. I hit it with the R13 and it landed in the dense stuff surrounding the creek. I didnt manage to mark it well and since it was a wild flush neither did Kaiser. He searched very hard for it but without any luck. It may have landed in the creek and was flushed away.


Jan. 21
Mikes Honey Hole. South Side
Finally found Mikes honey hole. Its been a few years since Mikes been talking about this area. I finally got some good directions from him on how to get to this area. This place is absolutely gorgeous. I found many shells and signs of birds but could not locate them. Since it is late season I decided rather than scout I needed to get the dog on birds and headed to CBF where I knew for a fact I could find birds.

Fridays venture to MVL with Calhouns 850 grain head and Sage Xi3 10 weight was a bust.  With this strange weather pattern, it actually felt like summer on Friday.  Rain is expected on Tuesday with cold weather to follow.  Perhaps it was this that caused the fish to be tight lipped.  At any rate it sucked.  Casting that heavy rig was not easy but I didnt expect it to be, I need some more practice with it.  Timing is critical.  Bill mentioned that you needed to really be fast on the backcast to generate enough power to throw that line.

Pale Mallard?  Ive never seen one before.

Yesterday Chul asked me if I wanted to go carping after he gets off work.  I gave him a rather unenthusiastic response of maybe and asked him to call me when he gets off work and Id let him know.  Waking up this morning I had a hankering to get a tug so I headed out to the local brown water to see if I could get a carp on a fly.  It was a waste of time and instead of getting hepatitis or some other waterborne disease I should have stayed home.  The moment I stepped out of the car it stunk.  Water is too deep and murky to successfully sight cast.  I made a few pointless blind casts until I noticed a dark blob in the water so I made a few casts to it not knowing exactly which side was the head.  I got a tug and I set foolishly set the hook like a trout and ripped the fly out of its mouth.  Game over and I quit after that and let Chul dont even bother coming.  I did see two large carp launch themselves out of the water but both were too far to cast to, besides I have never found casting to jumping carp to be successful.  The only positive today was I saw a pale mallard, a bird Ive never seen before.

This afternoon I spent my time at Bob Marriotts listening to Conway Bowmans seminar regarding Carp on the fly. It was quite good timing as my interest for carp has peaked. The presentation was filled with good info that I can use on my quest for the elusive golden ghost. Some info I gathered:

Ideal water temperature is 63 degrees but water from 66 to 80 degrees is good. When above 80 degrees, fish the mornings as the fish will usually shut down as temps rise. Use floating lines with 12ft tapered 3x leaders with subtle slow one inch strips. Limit false cast to 2 at most. If you miscast or the fish turns away from the fly, slowly lift the fly out of the water do not rip the fly out as it will cause the fish to spook. Although Conway admitted to not having much sucess in the rivers Ill try to use what he suggested on my local waters.

There are not a lot of pockets but on one side there is a storage compartment known as the probe pocket that is ideal for tent stakes or maybe even a fly rod tube.  The top of the pack has a compartment for frequently used items.  In it there is a sealed pocket and a key clip.  This area is ideal for water filter, fly reel, fly box and other type tools.

When one thinks of cuisine in the Eastern Sierras, most would think meat and potatoes, pizza, burgers or simple American country fare but to my surprise there is a lot more.
Escargot from Still Life Café a French Bistro in Independence CA that my pop and I had years ago after a duck hunt.  This restaurant is owned by a Frenchman from Provence.
Bishop has decent Thai food.  Who would have ever thought?  This green curry is from a in-the-middle-of-nowhere-restaurant, Thai Thai located in the airport.  I had take-out so I could dine with Kaiser in the motel.

I know there are a few fine dining restaurants in Mammoth but since I dont ski and spend my time fly fishing or hunting the valley, Mammoth is just too far for me to go dining. 

With my morning appointment cancelled, I decide to hit the waters to try and get a carp on my four weight. I managed this fish just after an hour on the water. Weighing in at 4.5 pounds, this fish when initially hooked simply sat in place while I pulled. Eventually fed up with the constant pressure, it decided to run and rip line out of reel. Using a click and prawl reel, the drag was esssentially useless. After several runs this carp finally gave in and let me land him. He took a new fly I tied last night. Now I need to come up with a name for it.

I fished for another hour until 11 when I decide to call it a day. The winds had picked up making it difficult to spot fish. Also my 4 weight is loaded with a DT line and shooting line was not a option.

With this fish I have now caught carp with a 1, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7 weights. Since I dont own a 2 weight, I need to find someone who does so I can borrow it and complete the line up.

The original plan was to attend the Fly Fishing Film Festival on Saturday but after some consideration the gang thought it better to fish rather than watch others fish.  With some rain in the forecast, we debated all week whether to cancel the trip or to go forward.  Checking weather patterns throughout the week the unanimous consensus was to get our lines wet. 

Saturday morning I met up with Erica and Chul at his house at 6:30 and we managed to get out around 7am.  Tuck had spend the night at Josephs as he lived north of all of us, they would head out later and we would eventually met up on the road or in Kernville. 

We caught up with the boys in the canyon and we headed to the fly shop as Tuck and Joseph wanted to pick up flies and since Erica forgot her wading boots so she needed to rent a pair.  After getting the "inside scoop" we headed to an area suggested to us at the shop.  After arriving we looked the water over and decided to pass on it as it was too windy and deep to get a good drift.  We headed back into town to fish an area hoping to intercept large fish making their way out of the lake and into the river system.  This proved a waste of time.

First fish of 2013.  A real wall hanger.

We drove up into the 20 mile section and pulled over on a promising stretch of water.  On my first cast I hooked up with my first Kern River Rainbow.  My first fish of 2013, a dink, a baitfish sized dink, no bigger than the fish that are commonly caught in our local mountains.    If I wanted dinks I would have stayed and fished our local mountains.  Hopefully this first fish of the year is not an indication of the rest of my fishing season.  I wanted to win the bet, anyone who catches and verifies with photos a fish over 20 inches doesnt have to pay for dinner.  At least I was the first to catch a fish.  After more casts and I hooked up on another slightly larger dink.  Not impressive.  Even if the bet was on an aggregate total of all fish caught Id still be buying dinner.  I continued on this seam as I couldnt really move since we had five anglers on the water.  At the end of my drift while on the swing I finally hooked up a legit fish.  I played him close enough to see his size and he flashed me his vibrant red stripe and then came lose.  Come on.  On this stretch Chul managed a nice 13 incher while the others didnt get any.


My second fish.  Another trophy.  Nothing like traveling several hours away only to catch dinks.

For the rest of the day we drove around looking for better water.  The BWO hatch was coming off and although I wasnt seeing any fish coming up I regretted not carrying a second rod rigged with a dry fly.  So on the next stop I rigged up my four weight with a Harrops Hairwing.  As it was getting late we found a nice stretch of water that Chul was getting hit on just about every cast.  He pulled some serious fish and even managed one on a dry fly.  As I approached him he told me to fish that section but the fish had already shut down.  Up above him Tuck managed one and Joseph landed  several.  None of any significant size.  Erica was skunked.  Fishing was slow for whatever reason perhaps it was the recent rains, the cold nights, or just us fishing the wrong rigs.

We left the river and into town for a dinner.  Everyone would have to pay for this meal. The original plan was to camp but since Chul brought Erica along, they had got a room in town.  Tuck, Joseph and I planned on camping but during dinner we debated whether to get a room also.  After having giving Chul grief earlier for not camping we decided to get a room ourselves.  Lucky for us the motel had a place to play pool.  We spent the night bull shitting, playing pool while drinking.  As typical with trips like these, most of the memories are these parts as these times are spent laughing and ribbing each other.  We eventually were kicked out during closing time, which was a good thing because we would have spent all night there if we could.  Erica and Chul headed to bed as the rest of us headed to our room and before heading to bed debated which state was the best (of course California was not in the running).  Day 2 to follow...

I keep losing good fish!  What the hell is going on?  This afternoon, bored out of my mind I decided to see how my local brown water was fishing.  The water has lowered somewhat but is still off colored more so than Id like it.  Today I stacked the odds against me.  First I dont like fishing the afternoon since the winds create too much ripples and so its hard to sight fish.  Second I fished my Sage TCR 6 weight that is lined with a warmwater bass line.  Way over powered for delicate presentations.  Not to mention its orange.  Bright orange.  Third since I was way too lazy to change the existing tippet, that leader on the line was probably a year old if not more since I dont fish the 6 weight that often.
I spent most of my time trying to find fish.  When I was about give up I decided to hit up an area Ive neglected for a while.  How things have changed.  The islands and tulies have been moved and so it channelizes the water.  Its gin clear, it almost seems as if youre on an English chalk stream.  That is if chalk streams smelt like ass, were loud with traffic noises, devoid of any clean water fish and had water that would make you sterile.  Other than that, yeah, very similar to a English chalk stream.  There were at least 15 large carp in here.  Casting was tough so I moved away from it and approached them from downstream. I had to wade and that didnt help my cause.  They spooked after several casts.  So I moved up and started blind casting into the weeds.  My rod went heavy and at first I thought it to be garbage until I lifted the beast out of the water and exposed its side.  It was at least a 2 pound bass, a pig for this water.  He never fought, he was limp as a Dirk Diggler and just as big.  He got off somehow after I exposed his side.  This month Ive been losing way too many good fish...

That doesnt smell like mud...

Should be me holding that damn fish!

Chul returned to the fishing hole where I lost two massive fish (for that water) on his birthday trip. This is the first fish I lost which was smaller of the two. I know for a fact that this is the first fish as it still had the San Juan Worm that was my fourth trailing fly attached to its tail.  I have a bunch of emotions about this.  Im filled with so much envy right now I might just puke myself.  That is one nice fish.  Good job Chul, you son of a bitch! Ha, ha, ha.  I dont know what is worse knowing that could have been me in that pic or never knowing what those fish looked like.  Well have to return to find that second fish that ran upstream.  That one was bigger, much bigger.

The proof- San Juan Worm that I mocked before stealing from Chul and tying it on.

Saturday I stopped by Marriotts to pick up some leaders for our outing on Sunday. I was cruising down the aisles and noticed these Fish Skull articulated shanks. Since last summer Ive been on abit of an articulated fly craze so I decided to pick up a couple. One in 20mm and one in 35mm. They had one size larger but I decided to try these ones first before I go bigger.

I was playing around with them and tied three flies. One using the 20mm and two using the 35mm. For the smaller of the two I tied a small trout baitfish pattern. I didnt quite like how the 20mm came out and will have to rework it but I did like how the 35mm came out. One is a squid pattern and the other is a leech pattern. Ive always liked my buddy, Kyung Kims squid pattern but its just too big, too heavy when wet, and too complicated to tie. I wanted something easier. Well see if mine is anywhere close to as successful as Kyungs.

Hook: TMC 777SP #6
Head: Pearl estaz
Legs: Handful of white saddle hackle with white polar fibers in the middle
Eyes: 3D Stick on eyes
2nd section
Fish Skull Shank 35mm
Body: Palmer chenile med pearl
Collar: Wrapped White marabou

Hook: TMC 777SP #6
Tail: Artic Fox
Body: Mohair yarn
Hackle: Saddle hackle
2nd section
Fish Skull Shank 35mm
Collar: Bunny strip
Eyes: Dumbell

Im not quite sure how I feel about these shanks. It might be easier to just use two hooks attached by heavy mono. Tying with the shank is somewhat problematic as it does not have a bend that the vice can grab hold of easily. Im still working out all the kinks, so well see if I decide to continue using them after the pack runs out.