Tuesday, November 30, 2010

When You're Told You Have Too Much Gear...

Check out the vintage pic Moldy Chum gathered of the Great Zane Grey...

New Camera?

Details coming soon...

Is There Hope?

Great write up on sustainability within an islands life...

"What happens to fisheries’ productivity when large fish are removed from a coral reef?"

Not all about fish, but still a good read...

Farewell to Reefs, Salt Ponds and Milkfish - New York Times - STUART SANDIN

Monday, November 29, 2010

Personal Touch

Maine's Fly Shops Get Some Press -

"Gerry wanted to quit the rat race. He was standing in a river and asked George Fletcher if he was willing to sell his fly shop and George shook his hand and said, 'You just bought yourself a fly shop.' That's all it took is a handshake in the middle of the river," O'Brian said.



LINK Portland Press Herald (Deirdre Fleming)

The Good Stuff!

Weekly Update

The weekend away had it’s ups and it’s downs…

Firstly, I got to spend some GREAT time with family…

That translates to no fish to hand for me. Hoever, there was some great times had…

Thursday I woke up to a fishless morning…

Friday was a wash…

Saturday was a last ditch effort for some LATE season bass. After a 3 hour paddle in a canoe, my father-in-law and I were able to bring up over 50 geese, 200 ducks, 2 beavers, and a portage over a beaver dam. While no fish, it was probably one of the greatest wildlife mornings I've had in a while!

While not much happened in CT…there is some good news…the rivers got rain, and will continue to get more rain for the next 36 hours! Game on boys…the wave of fish shall arrive soon!

THIS NO CAMERA GIG BLOWS...

Monday, November 22, 2010

Wonder Dry Fly...Kiwi Style...

How Stupid A Fish Can Make You...

"Texas does it again.

In weird, wacky, and stupid news, last week a homeless man in Gavelston, Texas apparently stole a young couple's car while they were out fishing, only to return the car shortly after and scold the mother for leaving their toddler inside unattended."


Full Link - http://www.gather.com/ (Matthew Ross)

Maine River Guides Update

Even with open water still in Maine, Boz has been very busy (both on and) off the water...

Despite some fishing for NY Steel, and some home grown brookies, he's also been getting his winter projects in order...

Check out the new site, and his new ride...

No doubt he'll have it ready for next year's guiding circuit!

http://www.maineriverguides.com/


The Beast

Sunday, November 21, 2010

Weekly Update

Well, we’re getting back to those slow weeks again…between the short days, and the holiday/travel preparations, there wasn’t much time in the cards this week. I did manage a few hours on a quickly dropping river on Saturday, but didn’t see a single fish. The stream was lower and clearer then I would’ve preferred, but it was nice to get out and pound a few holes before dark.

With the rains this week, I figured a fresh push of fish would’ve been kicking around…I’m sure they’re there…just we’re interested in my offerings…

Warm temps should disappear this week, and then it’s really time for the games to begin.

Traveling back home this weekend for turkey, which means we’ll be flinging dry flies for some trout back home!

This camera outage is really starting to blow…hopefully we get some good news this week…

Friday, November 19, 2010

Loosing Battle?

"Prized by fishermen, Atlantic bluefin can grow to the size of a horse and fetch as much as $100,000 in markets like Japan, but their stocks have plunged by more than 80 percent since 1970s, according to western scientists."

Maybe a late game rally?

FULL LINK - (ABC News, Leigh Thomas)



Angler's Choice Flies - UPDATE

As Mike begins the annual show circuit this weekend, we welcome the upcoming season for fly fishing and tying shows…

Here’s his schedule…

UPCOMING ANGLERS CHOICE FLIES EVENTS:
-International Fly Tying Symposium. Somerset NJ 11.20 and 11.21.2010
-Great Lakes Council FFF Fly Tying Expo. Holt MI 12.04.2010
-Indiana on the Fly Show. Indianapolis, IN 01.08.2011
-The Fly Fishing Show. Somerset, NJ 01.21 - 01.23.2011
-Buckeye United Fly Fishers Show. Cincinnati, OH 02.05.2011
-Mad River Outfitters Intermediate/Advanced four week class. Columbus OH starting 02.16.2011
-Grand River Fly Tiers Third Annual Celebration of Fly Tying. Grand Rapids MI 02.26.2011
-Midwest Fly Fishing Expo. Warren MI 03.12 and 03.13.2011

If you have schedules or events you’d like listed, please feel free to e-mail us at THEMADTROUTER@GMAIL.COM

Tuesday, November 16, 2010

Weekly Update - Fishy Trip Style...

Sorry it’s taken me a few days to catch up…still dealing with the misfortunes of last week…

So this last weekend was spent in Western NY doing a bit of fishing with Boz and some of his Maine Crew. I ended up arriving Thursday evening… the last to arrive…

I ended up having a few beers, and sleeping rather restlessly after seeing some of the great footage they had gotten on Thursday of the fishing. Many large fish were brought to hand…many more then reports had stated in the previous days…

Of course we were on the river bright and early Friday, and hopped into a spot down river from a bend that had been producing for the last several days. Greg was into the first fish we saw anyone land all day, but quickly had it spit the fly. Within 5 more minutes, he had tied into another beast, and managed to get it beached…

After some shots, and a video of the release, we were back to the water…Shortly after I had gotten my line back into the run, I managed to get schooled by what seemed like a rather large fish…

This was basically the story of my weekend…One small fish landed on Friday was the highlight of my fishing activities, though I will say that it was awesome seeing the guys work their magic…

Friday evening, started off rather quiet. There was some tying planned, until we realized that we were low on hooks. Figuring we could get into town before closing time to get some, we all jumped into the car, and in a rush of excitement, my camera made a crash landing on the tile floor…

FML…

Thank god for insurance…

So after getting into to town, our attempt to be closing time for the fly shops was unsuccessful. To kill some of the tying time, we decided to hop into one of the local watering holes for a brew before heading back home…or so we had thought…

Friday night turned into a bit of a tequila show…Thus Saturday was a bit of a later morning. After a broken camera, a few broken plates, a deep gash to a thumb (that should’ve taken stiches), and some puke, we were able to piece together most of the evening, which was a success on many levels…

Saturday we hit a few smaller tributaries for some sight fishing. With the weather being as warm and sunny as it was, our aim was to try and dodge the people at all costs (especially since we were all hungover). Fish were hard to come by, but once you found some holding in deeper pools, you were able to feed them flies.

We hit a few different pieces of water, and each hooked fish. Greg was able to get some GREAT footage on Saturday. After a bit of an early departure from the river, we prepped the house for heading out on Sunday, and were all beerless and asleep by 9PM, which speaks volumes for how we felt Saturday morning.

Sunday was another gorgeous day, so rather then spend 2 hours fighting fishermen, and struggling until the sun came up, we decided to just head out after getting the last of the laundry done. The river (along with all of the Great Lakes Tribs I crossed back to Cleveland) was low, so the fish were more concentrated in a few holes and bucket, making it hard to find fish on the main river without dealing with the crowds. I decided to just B-line it home to catch the Browns game.

Overall it was a great weekend...and I was able to accomplish my yearly goal of fly fishing new water in a new state…score!

Greg, Jeremy, Bruce, and Craig all managed to get into many different fish throughout the weekend despite my lack of fishiness, which was awesome to see. These for guys really humbled me with their ability to read drifts, lay line, and nymph up some rather large fish…Truly great fishermen! Looking forward to getting out with them in the future…

Video should be edited and up within the next few weeks...targeting between holidays...

Pictures from Friday - No camera from Saturday...

Egg Suckers

Eggs

Stones

Eggs

Eggs

Guitars & Flies


Got Me Some Tail
 




http://www.fliesandfins.com/ - Representing






Bruce's War
 




Jeremy Tied In

Craig Does Battle

Boz's Day 1 Beast

Bruce In Battle

Bristol Bay - Nat Geo Style

Originally found on Buster's Web Playground -

ARTICLE ON BRISTOL BAY (Check Out Photo's Along With Article)


Tuesday, November 9, 2010

Fishing In A Shit Storm....

Well, the first half of the week has been a complete shit storm...

After some consideration, and support from my lovely wife, i've decided to push off to NY on Thursday. I've got ALOT of loose ends to tie up before taking off, so this will be the last post of the week...

God willing, I'll be sharing photos and stories...

Look out New York...Christmas Ale is on it's way!

Sunday, November 7, 2010

Friends In The News

Check out Shawn Kimbro's spot in the Baltimore Sun (article by Candus Thomson)...

FULL LINK

"When I'm fishing on the bottom, the objective is to crack the whip -- to crack the tail of that lure like a whip on the bottom so it pops the bottom and stirs up a little mud or dirt - and it gets the fish's attention," he said. "It works -- most of the time."

Weekly Update

The week was a bit slow for me. I could have swung some larger water here mid week, but some family obligations have kept me off of the water.

Fish are anxiously taking eggs and streamers, but finding the fish has been difficult. Low water this season still has most fish staging in the lake.

On the ponds, the bass are finishing up their foraging. A great opportunity to tie into some real giants looking to bulk up for a long winter...

Looking forward to a mid week departure for some chrome…tying till then…

Friday, November 5, 2010

Think Like A Midge...

Interesting Fact-oid...

"According to the Biosystematic Database of World Diptera, midges comprise 12 percent of the planetary biota. With such abundance it is no surprise that they comprise a very important trout food, particularly when the weather cools down."

"Fly Fishing With Midges"

Full article on sierrasun.com (Bruce Ajari)

Wednesday, November 3, 2010

Sad Sad Sad...

This last week, we as a community lost a dear friend...

"At this time I am not sure when the issue of Kype with Rich’s article will be available, but Rich will not get a chance to see the article in print as his life was cut short by a brief battle with cancer. Life is too precious to sit around and wait for ink to dry, and so I’m posting the unedited article here for everyone to read so that we may all gain a better appreciation for the man you may have been lucky enough to call 'friend'."


Full link to the post from the Unaccomplished Angler: Rich Schaaff: fly fisherman, photographer, friend.


Link to Rich's photography site - Eastfork Fly Photography
 

Oprah Style...

Deeter digs into the Oprah fly fishing event on Field and Stream's Blog...

"On "The Oprah Winfrey Show" today, viewers will get to watch Oprah and Gayle King foray into the world of fly fishing. And I say that's absolutely fantastic. In fact, I'd suggest that this might be the best "media" thing to happen to fly fishing in years."


LINK





Plans...

Steelhead Trip - NY style - Next weekend!

stoked to meet up with Boz and crew...














Tying updates coming.

Monday, November 1, 2010

ACF...

A little love from Schmidt on the photography front...and ACF's Homepage...

Make sure to check out his show dates for the upcoming season...bottom of the homepage...