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Nice George!!

RC

All of the fish were caught on a flyrodth

Outstanding fish James.

What equipment worked best? Fly rod weights, flies, etc?

Nice fish on a fly. I like fly fishing and have learned how to remove flies from different parts of my body.

James my friend, you just made my day - Really some nice HSB on the fly!
We have come a long way since PB I & II learning how to tie pellet flies.
Note the TP&W private waters Fly Tackle records:
Bass, Hybrid Striped - 5.99 lbs - Apr 12, 2011 - egg pattern

The fly pattern is an “egg pattern” - pellet fly, right?
Several of us have surpassed that record several times!

PB fly fishermen have been slow to respond to the new Fly Fishing topic – this should get the juices flowing!
Thanks for sharing!
G/

The largest hybrid on the boga was 11lbs and the largest bass was seven pounds. Here are the flies we were using. The mouse fly worked better after I cut off the tail. Floating fly line with 25# test fluorocarbon tied to fly line.

Good information James - bet those HSB took you into the backing and the hair stood up on the back of your neck!
Staight 25 lb fluor leader to handle those monsters - great idea!
What size and make fly rods?
Lots of questions - love pictures!
Thanks again for sharing,
George

If the HSB will fight to the end, and I think he will !! Do you use a light rod like a 4 or are you fishing something like an 9 wt? Looks like a blast

James, thanks for the line info. Alternating between fluoro and mono leaders will sure change the depth a fly swims at. To me, it's much easier and quicker than changing the fly line itself.

I use an eight weight temple fork, four piece fly rod without a leader. I tie on a four foot piece of 25# fluorocarbon directly to fly line. I think you would get more hits with lighter leader but I never fish with less than 20# test line in my pond due to all the broken off lines. We have had two rods break on fish.

James, you gotta start tyin’ your own flies!
The very best tiers that know are surgeons and if I understand your specialty, you are one!
By coincidence my Georgia fishin’ buddy shares your profession.
My Georgia nephew is a periodontist but he freeloads off Tom and me for flies.

You may know Tom, he lectures all over the country and chooses good places like the famous Madison River as well as some good coastal fly fishing areas.
Yeah, he calls it work.

We have several physicians and dentists on the forum – listen up guys! You guys are the best of the best with hand (fingers) eye coordination -
Tom ties itsy bitsy flies so small that his surgical magnifying glasses are required.

James, you gotta tie flies – the fly in your photo looks like a Lefty Deceiver in a shad pattern – good fly regardless of ID.
George

Im kinda spoiled by my friends that tie flies they give me flies. Here are some they gave me last month for montana.

I don't know when I started fly fishing, but I stopped about 40 yr ago. And then I started again a few months ago. I bought this place and the small pond that came with it early this year. In late summer I decided to see if there were any fish in the pond. I tried a #3 Mepps with a spinning rod and quickly caught a couple small LMB. I had barbed hooks on the Mepps and since I didn't want to keep any fish, I stopped fishing with the spinning rod and tried casting a very large flatfish with no hooks. Nothing doing with that. So then I tried a wobbler with a single barbless hook in place of the treble hook and caught more LMB and a crappie. I wanted to reduce the number of, or eliminate, the crappie in the pond, so they were what I fished for in the following days, and I caught a couple dozen. I had an old fiberglass fly rod, and after a while, I gave flies a try. I caught many BG and some small LMB, but few, if any crappie on flies. I figured if the crappie were hitting, they'd hit flies, so I kept fishing with flies and catching many BG and a few LMB of less than a pound and one that weighed 2 ¼ lb. It had swallowed a small BG that had taken a fly and was still on my line. At times I caught a BG on every cast, and when that was happening I quit after a short period of time, not wanting to squander such great fishing. And I wasn't able to fully appreciate the great fight those little buggers put up on my clunky old rod. So I ordered an 8.5' 6 wt rod, before I knew much about what wt meant. When my new rod arrived with some descent line, my BG experience improved considerably. But I thought it would be better with a 3 wt, so I ordered a 7' 3 wt combo with a loaded 2/3 reel. And it may be a little better, since casting a long line isn't a factor, and if the wind is blowing too hard, I just walk back up to the house. But now I think I would like to try an 8' or and 8.5' 3 wt, or maybe an 8.5' 4 wt. Everything I've bought so far has been at the low end of the price scale, so I'm not blowing a lot of money. The rods I've bought are in the area where most of the experts say you should never venture. But I'm having a good time with my inexpensive tackle, and I'm learning what works for me on my little pond. One thing I think I've learned is that I'd be better off with a moderate (medium) action rod rather than a fast rod. And a nice reel is nice, but it doesn't do much to improve your fishing (I knew that all along), but a good line does. But my casts are so short that I don't know if the taper makes any difference.

Turtlemtn, an inexpensive moderate action 3wt is my go to BG rod. My faster tapered fly rods do seem to load and cast better in windy conditions, but it ultimately boils down to a feel thing, just like baitcasting or spinning rods. There's no reason to spend $800 on a Sage or Winston to enjoy fly fishing. Run what you brung, and have fun. That's ultimately all that matters.

Turtlemtn, welcome back to fly fishing, and to pond ownership and pond fly fishing, too. I've been throwing loops with "the long rod" for 50+ years now, so I can understand your interest and wonder at the magic.
Fireishot has spoken wisely. Run what you brung.
We usually find a moderate, even a slower action rod to be forgiving in the close cast situations found on ponds and on high mountain lakes. At times we'll fill our reel with line weight 1 or sometimes even 2 weights heavier than specified on the rod. This "overloading" helps to flex the rod without false casts, important when the fish are in close and possibly spooked by all that waving around over their heads.
Personally, I find I fish more with my less expensive stuff, as I don't mind leaving the cheaper rod out at the pond. I'll walk by and pick it up and make a few casts, spur of the moment. I don't have to walk back up to the house for the better stuff; I can simply pounce on that fish cruising by.
It sounds like you have lots of fun and memory making in your future.

Welcome Turtle, I am in west central MO. Enjoy your new pond and refound fly fishing. I picked up the fly rod about 10 years ago and hardly use anything else now. Just too much fun.

Cmm

I moved to MO 9 yr ago with plans to do lots of fishing. But that didn't work out. I lost the paperwork for my boat, so I couldn't license it without a court order, and that required an attorney. (I found the paperwork during my move up here, but it was a little late, and I sold the boat.) And the places I went to fish all prohibited dogs off leash, and that turned me off. And I didn't feel right about catching the fish I'd stocked in my pond. They are like my pets. (Yeah, I know.) But the fish in this pond are more like wild fish, so it's a bit different.

MO is a great State for streams and farm ponds, but you may have to wade through ticks, chiggers, and snakes to get to them.

A light fly rod sure seems like the right rod for catching the game little fish in my pond. Judging from the swirls I've seen, I may have a few bass of 3 lb or more, and if so, one of them on my 3 wt rod could be rather exciting.

4CornersPuddle, fly fishing for 50+ years? I'm guessing you're the senior fly guy on the forum, so chime in early and often.

Going +1 or +2 on line weight sure does make a difference. I use RIO fly line because most of their lines are 1 weight more than labeled. Like any fishing rod, fly rods need to be loaded to be efficient. A moderate action fly rod, and shooting head fly line works well for us.

I think ticks, chiggers, and snakes just come with the territory.

I got out my 5 wt the other day. 8.5', nothing happening.
But, I've never fished for anything but wild trout, and I've never fly fished anywhere but in the Rocky Mountains. I've got a floating line.. I'll have to do some more reading, if I'm going to be successful with the YP in my little pond.
It was a bit windy, and my little aluminum row boat was spinning around like a top.
Made things interesting.

Me too - Rio Grand trout series or Scientific GPX. I had no clue what I was missing until I loaded that line...I spent frustrating years clueless and worked a lot harder than I needed to. Good tip, Al.

Jeff for YP you're going to need to get your presentation on the bottom. A bead head wooly bugger should work. I have found my YP very shallow late in the season on the windward side of the pond. Made for tough casting and miserable conditions, but the YP were there on almost every cast with a jig/crawler. Casting to shore from a boat as shallow as you can go might work - just keep it low!

Thanks TJ. I need to get some bead headed wooly buggers. If I use a long enough tippet I should be able to use floating fly line, right?
Tomorrow's high is 39, but no rain or snow. I may give it a shot. I've got bead headed nymphs, but no wooly buggers. I'll see if I can't get something to sink. I've got some crappie jigs I can toss with an ultra lite, maybe that will catch something. I've seen zero YP since the 30 I caught early this fall.

Yes, 9' leader would work fine to get it down.

I tried a few casts this evening and got a strike on every one - BG. I fished for only a few minutes;I forgot to take my tweasers with me. It's the first time this winter that anything has been doing. It was a nice, warm, sunny day today.