Hobby Sports

While not the giant, a more than respectable local fish.

After visiting the Orvis shop to use our $25 off coupon, Chul and I hit one of our favorite local water.  The last time Chul stopped by he saw a pair of gigantic trout at least 18 inches in a pool.  While he was unable to connect with any of them, we returned today to see if we could tag team them using a spotter above to direct the attack. 

Our plan was to fish known pools that held the big fish and skip all the pocket water and pools that weve only caught dinks or average fish in.  While driving up the mountain I saw a helicopter fly out of the canyon eye level with us.  I couldnt believe it and told Chul who was driving.  Once we arrived at the parking lot it was filled with paramedics, fire engines and US Forestry Search and Rescue.  I spoke with a group of hikers that saw what happened.  Apparently some gal fell 40 feet while try to dive into one of the deep pools.  She gashed her forehead pretty good among other injuries.  They told me the scariest part was no one there had a clue what to do.  Luckily there was student nurse that was able to get a hold of the situation before help could arrive.

We left the drama and headed to the trail.  After the first bend, Chul realized that he left his wallet in the truck and may have kept the truck unlocked.  So I took his fly rod and he went back while I went toward the the water to fish the first pool to wait for him.  I caught several dinks while I waited.  Chul finally arrived and I handed him his new Sage Z-Axis. 

We reached the pool that held the pair of giants and looked for them from above.  We found them circling in a section of the pool.  Even elevated twenty feet these monster looked huge.  Once Chul met a fellow fly fisherman that told him that he managed an 18 inch brown here, I initially thought that guy is full of shit.  Now I know better.  Before I went down, we broke down the pool into sections A-D so that I knew where the cast. Chul would stay put and spot me telling me which section to cast.  I made it through the ivy before hearing some rustling and seeing a tail.  Was this another rattlesnake encounter?  I wasnt going to find out and took a roundabout method to the pool.  Once I reached the water I could barely hear him with the moving water.  I casted where he told me and I over lined the fish and it spooked.  The pool proved dead after that.

Tiger Lily

We headed back to the pool with the pair of monsters.  I fished the right side and Chul fished the left where we last saw the pair.  I spotted a serious fish follow my fly and start to sip it and I over zealously yanked the fly out of its grasp.  I saw his sides as he splashed out of the water.  Most likely a 12 incher or better.  Afterwards we headed out after trying pointlessly to connect with those pigs.  I even tied a small mouse pattern to see if that would interest them but they had no interest.

Hook: Gamakatsu SL11-3H Size 6
Eye: Cross-eyed Conehead
Thread: Danville Flat Nylon White, Red
Tail: Chartruese Marabou
Body: Estaz
Underbody: 3MM Foam (Optional)
Connector: Heavy Mono
Color: Waterproof Marker Dark Olive

I came up with this fly from my articulated fly phase. At that time I was trying to fool bedding bass at our local city park lakes. I wanted to create a fly with alot of action and one that mimics the action of a crankbait. That is a fly that has its head pointing downward and the butt upward while wiggling as it moves. When I first tried this fly at Barrett Lake on Saturday I saw how irresistible this fly really is, I remarked to my friend Ed, "look how sexy that fly moves." And hence the name.

I dremel of the barbs of the hooks as Barrett has very strict barbless policy. Also doing so makes it possible to use the conehead. Although I created this fly for bass, Ill be using them in the bay this year when the water begins to warm up.

Tailer hook. Tie marabou tail with the white danville flat nylon.

Next cut a piece of foam making sure it is shorter than the shank of the hook. Tie the one end first and tie estaz. (*EDIT* actually leave the foam out, I find the action much better without it)

Wrap thread forward under the foam, do not wrapped the middle section of the foam. If you do so the foam will lose its buoyancy properties. Tie down the front section of the foam.

Wrap the estaz forward. Wrap finish the head and cement. Remove from vice.

Place the conehead to the lead hook and lay down a base thread with the red Danville Floss.

Tie down the heavy mono.

Place the trailing hook in the mono making sure that the hook stands true. Tie the mono down.

Tie on estaz and wrap forward.

Tie down the estaz with a lot of wraps. You want to build enough so that the conehead will not move so the eyes stay in place. Wrap finish and cement.

Last step is to use a waterproof color marker on the the top half of the each section of the fly.

I managed to post from my last trip to Japan a few years ago the fly fishing items I bought on that trip but I did not write about some of the camping gear I bought then as well.  All items were bought in the Mont Bell store in Ebisu.

One of my favorites is from Uniflame and is a cup.  Yes a cup.  A tea cup to be exact.  This is a cool item that Ive yet to see anything like it here in the States.  First off its made in Japan.  Its not some cheap ass made in China get you poisoned nonsense.  A real first world made item.  That in of itself is reason its cool but there is more.
The lid can be used to hold the strainer and prevent leaking liquids from dripping all over the place.  Because Taiwanese tea is so strong you can reuse the steeped tea leaves at least 2 more times if you are so inclined.  Although it may keep you up all night. 

Its a neat little package that I nearly forgot I had until the other day when I was looking for some gear.

Video from yesterday.  Unfortunately the most interesting part of the whole thing is the 70s porno-style Star Wars music I added to it.

Hosted by Bruce Scott and Marty Fischer, Shotgun Journal is my favorite wingshooting show and to my knowledge the show is now off the air. I have never been able to watch any episode on my TV. This show aired on a network that was never available by my cable provider. I found out about this show when I purchased Wingshooter-Putting More Birds In Your Bag and Mastering the Double Gun dvds many years ago. All the scenes used in the Wingshooter were taken from the various episodes of Shotgun Journal.

Although Marty Fischer uses an auto most of time, this is a fine shotgun show. Bruce generally uses an over and under but uses a side by sides on occasion as well, as does Marty. Some episodes they travel to London to visit fine gunmakers Purdey and Bass. In another they allow us into the workshop of a small Italian fine gun maker Perugini and Visini. There they show use a miniature shotgun which is basically a scaled down full functioning over and under. A true masterpiece.

On a few episodes, Bruce and Marty travel to Hungary and Spain for some traditional estate shoots. These types of hunts always interest me as I do have a fascination with these driven European shoots. I love all the pomp and circumstance, from the guns, the clothes, the birds, the dogs, the vehicles, the tradition, the scenery, the sit down lunch breaks, the celebration, all of it. This has been done for hundreds of years by European royalty. In reality its a bit silly but I dont care, some traditions are worth keeping. I hope one day to participate in one in some European country preferably with a custom matching pair from Hartmann Weiss or another fine gun maker. Some day perhaps.

Stuffy European shoots are not the only type of shotgunning show cased on this show. They also travel to South Africa, Argentina, Mexico. Not all shows are at exotic locations many are filmed here in the states as well for more hunting most Americans are accustomed to. I believe there is a little bit of everything for all types of shotgunners. If youre into, like myself, fine shotguns or if you have a Walmart beater, I think this show can appeal to all.

Episodes can be seen here. I wish they made more episodes and I had the channel that broadcasted it.

On my trip to Japan last spring, I made some purchases at Sansui fly shop. Whenever Im in the Tokyo area I look for items that I cant get here in the US. One of such items was the TMC wingburners (the other items are posted here). When I came home I thought of a way to organize them on my fly tying desk. Since Lou is a fabricator, I asked if he could make me a holder. I gave him a general ideal on what I was looking for and he took it from there. As he is a rookie fly fisherman, I traded him some flies for the work. I finally received it yesterday when we went dog training.

TMC wingburners are unavailable here in the US. I have a total of eight of them. Each package comes with a pair of burners. I bought some caddis, mayfly and cranefly wingburners.

This holder is made from leftover material that Lou used for building his kennel.

More items not sold here in the US. This wing material that are used with the wingburners.

This is what the mayfly wings look like when burned.

I tied several of them last year but Ive yet to really try any of them. I always seem to forget to do so.

A close up look at one of those flies. The extended tail is made from tools also unavailable here in the US, I used the C&F Design Extend Body Twister.

Another day, another try.  As always once the tailgate opens, Kaiser raises his nose and air scents.

Lou is a hunting buddy of mine.  We first met at a NAVHDA meet and became fast friends as he had a drahthaar and a Land Rover and I the same.  Discovering we have similar taste in dogs, guns, trucks, and just about all thing Teutonic, it was easy to develop a friendship.  Over the years I got him into Merkels, Meindl boots and Darnes.  Ive learned a lot about upland hunting from Lou as he hunts probably at least 80 days of the upland season (that will change now that he has a kid on the way).  We have shared a lot of our "secret" locations to on another, vowing never to reveal them to anyone else.  I have kept my part of the bargain, I believe Lou has as well.

It was 9am when Lou called us at the motel, letting us know that hed be at the spot at 10.  So we waited and done some sight seeing.  The fall colors have finally come and even though sparse with trees the area was quite a sight.
We arrive just as Lou was making his way to the location.   Lous pack was minus one dog.  Summer is in heat and was left home but the four others made the trip.  I rarely get to hunt with Lou anymore, the reason is his drahthaar Arnold is not dog-friendly.  We have had some issues with Arnie attacking Kaiser.  This never happens in the field but when we are making camp.  Its easier to just not hunt together.  Lous other dogs, on the other hand, are some of the sweetest dogs ever and a true pleasure to be around.  Arnie was purchased semi-finished years ago from a trainer.  That trainer did a poor job of socializing him which is a shame and really does the purchaser a disservice by selling such a dog.  Thankfully Lous other dogs were properly socialized since their birth and are friendly and playful.

The Pack minus one dog.

I started ahead of Lou so that we wouldnt have any issues with Arnie.  Eventually Lou was to my right a few hundred yards away.  Not long in our hunt a cottontail flushed and I fired with the IC then the mod barrel, missed. It eventually flushed again but I missed with the only shot I had.  As we moved on,  my dad was having a hard time keeping up so I told him to hunt this field as we were headed toward the mountain and planned to climb it to get to the other side.  We finally reached the mountain, as I looked at it from the base I told Lou I dont think I have it in me to climb.  So he climbed and I skirted around the base to reach the other side.  I was hugging alongside private property fence when a covey of 30 birds flush.  I took two shots missing because I flock shot it like an idiot.  They landed in the private property so I did not give chase.

The Pack backing one another.

The back side is named by me as Shangri-La.  Its been about two years since Ive been back here.  Its not hunted much by anyone as its difficult to get to and private property surrounds much of it.  There are mountain quail, valley quail and chuckar here.  Lou and I flushed huge coveys back here.  Today though we couldnt find a single one.  What a shame.  This just proves how difficult this year is going to be.  Lou managed to flush a cottontail but could not connect with his Darne R10.  After sometime in Shangri-La we headed back.  One of the pack pointed and the rest of the dogs backed.  It was quite a scene unfortunately it was just a tweety bird.  A few rabbits and jacks flushed but of course I missed all the cottontails and managed another jack.
It was almost three and Lou was don for the day ready to head back to civilization.  I didnt want to deal with Friday LA traffic and decided to wait it out and stay to hunt another area.  We said our goodbyes and I headed to another area.   The new area was colder and there was slight snow.  It was not cold enough for the frost to last.  Once the flakes hit something it basically melted.  Tried I hunted for about an hour or so before giving up and calling it a trip.