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Welcome to Pond Fly Fishing.

Our goal is to share information about fly-fishing our ponds to make a perceived difficult sport a simple, effective, and fun way to catch our prized pond fish.
Several of us have put our heads together to make this as easy as possible, to make it all-inclusive and organize it in a simple way.
Fly fishing IMO, is not in place of conventional spin and casting gear, but in addition to.

My favorite all time favorite thread concerning this topic is authored by Dusty Abney, known as Txredraider on the forum - a classic from one of our own PB members, a wit and wisdom guy with a PhD type guy with a lot of common sense approaches.

What You Always Wanted to Know About Fly Fishing, But Were Afraid to Ask - A Fly Fishing FAQ

So you’ve seen A River Runs Through It or a fishing show on TV that showed an angler making long, graceful casts with a fly rod and become intrigued. The whippy rod draws a very visible line through beautiful loops in the air as someone straight out of an Orvis catalogue carefully stalks a trout in a crystal clear mountain stream.

Truthfully, there isn’t much of that kind of fishing to be found in Texas anywhere outside of a few select clear water rivers in the hill country. The ugly truth is that most of us who fly fish in Texas rarely target trout in our home waters. The information I’ll present here will still be applicable to trout fishing, but will be aimed mostly at helping to answer some of the most frequent questions we hear about our weird sport and the way we target the warm water species here in Texas.

I will not cover casting in any detail here because that is something better learned in person and I am the wrong person to try to teach it. A certified casting instructor is your best bet to learn to cast a fly rod correctly and with a minimal amount of time and frustration invested. There are also opportunities to learn to cast at places like Cabelas or Bass Pro as well as your local fly fishing club.

How much does it cost to fly fish?

To a lot of us with families and significant others who closely watch what we spend in our pursuit of outdoor enjoyment, the subject of cost can be the most important. Sure you’d like to try fly fishing, but if it’s going to cost a thousand dollars just to get your feet wet, you’ll probably stop reading right here. The truth of the matter is similar to most hunting or fishing exploits: the cost is variable. I think it is certainly reasonable to get started for under $100 and purchase good gear that will last and do the job. A rod and reel combo with flyline can be bought for $50-75 from most of the online tackle stores and the rest of the money can go towards flies, leaders, and tippet material. If you want higher end gear, it certainly exists, but not everyone can jump in the deep end of the pool, financially speaking, when they start. Basically the cost of two nice meals at a restaurant with your spouse/significant other will get you going.

How does fly fishing differ from “conventional” fishing?

Fly fishing and fishing with a baitcasting or spinning reel actually aren’t that different. With both methods we’re trying to fool a fish into thinking the artificial bait that we’ve presented to it is a real meal.

One big difference you’ll notice immediately is the difference in how these baits are constructed. Modern manufacturing techniques mean that conventional lures are constructed of space-age materials specifically developed to mimic the look and or feel of the real McCoy. The artificial baits made for fly fishing are predominantly hand made from fur, feathers, and hair. When most people hear the term fly as it relates to a lure used to catch a fish, they think of tiny bits of feather and fur tied on a hook to precisely mimic some sort of flying insect that will be presented on the surface of the water. Although that is often the case for anglers who use fly fishing methods to pursue trout, it isn’t always true for warm water fly fishermen (and women).

A “fly” can mimic anything that a conventional lure can. Sometimes the conventional lure will work better in a certain situation and sometimes the fly will. There is a dizzying array of artificials that are suitable for using with fly fishing gear that can be presented anywhere in the water column to fool the fish in a variety of ways.

The other very obvious difference is the way the lure is delivered to the fish. In both cases we will use weight to transfer energy from our bodies to the lure delivery system to achieve a cast and put the bait in a position to present it to a fish.

With a conventional rod, the weight of the lure is used to load the rod with energy, which is then directed and released by the angler. The angler pulls the rod behind the vertical, stops, and then accelerates the rod forward, releasing the lure at the right time. As the rod launches the lure through the air, the weight of the lure itself exerts a direct pulling force on the fishing line still wound around the spool of the reel. The lure flies through the air pulling the line along behind it and unspooling line off of the reel.

The actual physics of the cast are similar in fly fishing, but the way the force is built up and delivered are different that the conventional scenario detailed above. When we cast using a fly rod, we don’t cast the weight of the lure; instead we cast the weight of the line. Understanding this tenant of fly casting is terribly important to your success as a fly caster. Instead of the lure loading the rod with energy, we use the fly line itself. A fly angler will typically pull line off of the reel and allow it to fall at his or her feet. They will then arrange the line in front of them on the water in a straight line and make what is known as a backcast. The backcast is what loads the rod with the energy generated by the weight of the flyline as it flies through the air behind the angler. The fly caster will then accelerate the rod forward and stop its motion at a predetermined point. This stop is what forms that pretty loop in the line and the loop is what pulls the lure towards the target, along with the flyline that was piled at the angler’s feet.

The description given above makes fly casting seem difficult, but in reality it is just a different set of motions than you’re probably used to making. The toughest part of fly casting for those of us who grew up with conventional gear is remembering that you cannot muscle a fly rod into doing your bidding. Trying to force a fly cast will only end in disaster and that is one of the most intriguing parts of our sport: learning the finesse and skill required to make the cast. I have heard this learning curve compared to golf, but I’d rather not sully fly angling with such a seedy comparison.

You can spend some time on YouTube watching casting videos, but I will caution you that teaching yourself to fly cast using videos and books is a daunting task. I learned to fly cast that way and my recommendation to find a professional instructor is based on the huge amount of frustration I encountered along the way. I did teach myself to make a decent fly cast, but I also integrated several casting flaws into my muscle memory that will take a long time to fix. Attempting to learn to cast without instruction is probably the reason so many fly rods sit unused in garages and attics across the country.

One last area of comparison would be the way the lures are retrieved. Conventional anglers use the reel to wind the line back around the spool after every cast. Fly anglers tend to pull the line in by hand, commonly referred to as “stripping” in the line. If a fly angler reeled the line in after every cast, they would have to pull it back off of the reel to prepare for their next cast.

What gear do I need to get started?

The basic equipment used in fly fishing is as follows: a rod, a reel, backing, flyline, leader, tippet material, and flies.

Fly rods, fly lines, and fly reels are usually classified by a term called “weight”. Weight doesn’t refer to how much the rod weighs, but instead to how much the first 30 feet of fly line weighs. Remember how the weight of the fly line pulls the fly through the air to the target? Larger flies or heavier flies require heavier fly lines to cast them properly. The larger the weight, or “wt”, the heavier or more wind resistant fly a certain fly rod or fly line will cast. It is important to note that you can always cast lighter flies on a heaver rod/line combination. Usually the wt of the fly rod and that of the fly line are closely matched.

The differences in brands, materials, sizes, and lengths of fly rods are staggering and best left to another discussion. My recommendation for an all around rod for use in fishing for panfish and bass in Texas is a 5 weight. A 5wt rod is heavy enough to cast bigger flies and fight a good sized bass without having to worry about wearing them down too much, yet light enough to feel the fight a good sized bream will give you.

Fly reels are probably one of the least important components in a warm water fly angler’s gear system. Most of us who fly fish in Texas rarely use the reel for anything but holding line. The great majority of the fish you catch will never use the reel to land them. The exceptions to not needing an expensive reel are striped or hybrid bass and saltwater fishing. I like to rig my fly reels so that the handle is on the left side, which allows me to operate the rod with my “dominant” right hand and the reel with my “weak” left hand.

Backing is a smaller diameter braided line, usually made of Dacron, which allows us to fight a fish that might pull out more line than the 90-100 foot length of most fly lines. Without backing, a big fish could pull the line off of the reel down to the spool and then break itself off, causing you to lose the fish. Backing also increases the diameter of the axel the fly line itself is wrapped around, giving you a greater mechanical advantage when fighting a fish from the reel. This larger diameter also reduces the effect of fly line coiling up once it is stripped off of the reel which is caused by line memory. As stated in the reel description above, the use of backing to fight a fish is rare in warm water fishing, but not using backing could put you in a bad situation if you ever caught a large fish.

Fly lines can be even more confusing than fly rods. I recommend a weight forward floating (WFF) fly line that matches your rod’s wt rating. Weight forward refers to the fact that the majority of the mass of the first 30 feet of line is toward the tip of the line, resulting in a line that is easier to cast. There are many other types of lines for every application under the sun, but a WFF line will be the right choice for the great majority of warm water fly fishing.

A leader is the connection between the fly line and the tippet and is usually constructed of monofilament or fluorocarbon and varies in length between 5 to 9 feet. Most leaders are tapered to be large where they tie into the fly line and gradually become smaller in diameter on the tippet end to efficiently transfer the energy of the cast down their length to allow the fly to turn over and lay out straight in front of the fly line.

Tippet usually refers to the end of the leader that is tied to the fly. As you change flies or lose them, you cut the tippet section of the leader shorter and shorter. This changes the taper of the leader and it also changes the visibility of your connection to the fly. Once the leader is cut shorter than an angler may prefer, they will use tippet material to tie on the end of the leader and allow them to use it almost as efficiently as before. With all that being said there are a good number of warm water fly anglers who fish with standard monofilament fishing line as their leader and tippet. Using monofilament as a “level” leader doesn’t allow the most efficient transfer of energy to the fly during the presentation portion of the cast, but it is economical and pretty effective on bass and panfish.

Flies are what we use to fool fish into biting the hook so that we can feel that all important tug on the line. Dry flies are what most people think of when they hear the term fly fishing. Dries are fished on the surface of the water and most commonly imitate an insect landing on the water. Poppers constructed of wood, foam, or deerhair are also technically dry flies and are used to simulate a struggling baitfish or amphibian. Wet flies, or streamers as they’re often called, are fished under the surface of the water to mimic insects, invertebrates, and baitfish that a game fish would normally consume. Think of flies just like you would think of conventional lures. If the fish are feeding on top, a dry fly or a popper might be just the thing, however if they’re feeding below the surface, a streamer is probably a better bet.

Fly selection, like the rest of fly angling, can be as complex or as simple as you want to make it. A few good patterns to get you started would be: woolly buggers (with or with out bead heads) in olive, brown, and black; Clouser minnows in white and gray; and a few poppers in colors that mimic frogs and baitfish in the environment you’ll be fishing. I would suggest a range of sizes of these basic “flies” in the area of hook size 6-12 (smaller numbers mean larger hooks).

My last suggestion would be to try to buy your equipment in person which would allow you to rely on the expertise of the folks in the fly shop to help you with any difficult decisions with respect to gear selection. They can probably also make some good suggestions about what flies are currently working on what fish and some new water to try as well.

If you’ve made it this far, congratulations, you probably have the patience to learn to fly fish. I hope I’ve illustrated that it isn’t that difficult, expensive, or time consuming to learn. You probably won’t catch more fish with a fly rod than you did with conventional gear, but once the bug bites you, you’ll find it difficult to go back to being “normal”. Good luck and welcome to the fly fishing section of the Texas Fishing Forum. If you have any points you need to have clarified or other questions, feel free to post your question in the forum as a new topic and we will do our best to help you.

Thanks to Dr. Abney and Texas Fishing Forum for permission to post this article.
George Glazener

My Fishin' buddy:

Hef, I haven't got to read the whole intro yet, but will later tonight.

I want to say it was Todd3138 that lost one of your lures, though.

Thanks George for the informative introduction to "warm water fly fishing".


George maybe in the next couple of months if you have time and
I picked you up some Sunday we could travel to Cabela's in
Allen, Tx. and you could offer suggestions on my first fly
fishing equipment purchase in over 30 years?
Maybe Brian and/or Al could join too.

I'll bet George knows a few fly shops besides Cabelas!

Good idea Zep!
I believe over the years the Cabelas and BassPro starter combo fly fishing kits have been the most recommended, but not necessarily the best. There are others some may recommend.
Yeah, let’s do it - I have a couple to look at and maybe a Q/D (quick and dirty) lesson out in my back yard and we can run up to Allen and look at Cabelas stuff.

I always recommend a combo starter kit with flyrod, reel, line, and leader to avoid confusion.

My backyard is a perfect place for testing stuff and fly casting practice for PB folks in the area - betcha there are some all over the country willing to help their PB buddies.
Give me a holler Mark
George

Hey, hey, hey! Easy there, big fella! I did no such thing (at least as far as I recall!) when I had the Traveling Lures! Such an ugly accusation hurts!

I haven't read the entire intro by George, either, but did skim it quickly and look forward to having time to read it in detail. After catching a 2.5 lb BG at Richmond Mill last year on a fly rig, I am anxious to give it a try on a more regular basis!

Don't take it personally, Todd!

It was probably just your sub-standard knot tying skills.

Remember that sweet spinner bait you had, that you lost after hooking a huge LMB at my pond a few years back??

Great intro! Thanks to George1 for requesting permission and to Dr. Abney for granting it. CMM

Mark, when I first emailed virtual friend George about my desire to return to fly fishing after a 25 year absence, he recommended a TFO Signature Series II. I got a pair, and I practice with them all the time. I bought a couple of cheap Echo Ion reels, IIFC around $35 and I was ready to go.

Although I tend to be a bit unkempt at times, I'm anal about my fishing rods, and that includes my fly rods. I had a lot of trouble initially with the slower taper on these rods, but as I got better, I realized that these rods were perfect to practice, as well as fish with. The rod's slower action forces me to wait on my back cast and let the rod load. After that, all my fly rods seem easier to cast. It took me a while, but it was worth the effort.

George will set you up good, but if you want to get the expensive stuff, you'll need to hide it under the car seats like I do.

I think that bass had more to do with it than my knot tying. I still swear I saw his fins working the knot as we hauled him towards the boat! And if that wasn't enough to convince me, the wild look of desperation in his eyes was the clincher!

Fly Fish Texas March 8, Texas Freshwater Fisheries Ctr.


Courtesy of Texas Fishing Forum

http://www.tpwd.state.tx.us/newsmedia/re...4&nrsearch=

No matter what your interest level in fly flinging, Fly Fish Texas is well worth your time. If you're a beginner, I can't think of anywhere else you could go to get exposure to so many diverse topics than there. If you've never been to the Texas Freshwater Fisheries Center here in Athens, then that alone is worth the trip. I'll see y'all there!

I had a break and decided to hit the puddle with my 3 wt. I really haven't gotten comfortable with it yet, but I'll keep trying.

The wind's been brutal, and I got these before it kicked up for the day. After cutting a Woolly Bugger out of my hoodie twice, I decided it was time to quit. I would have used a Briminator, which we have on the shelf, but I've been told by the boss that they were hand tied for her, not me.

Top one went 1.8, and I caught several in this range. Second one was at 1.2. I a few more of these size, but this was the heaviest in that 9 1/2" to 10 1/2" length range.

Oh, no fish were touched with dry hands at any point. I had issues with sores last summer with my larger CNBG, and I'm sure that was from mishandling on my part. All fish this year stay wet, and I use a slime replacer. We'll see if this summer goes any better.

Nice, very nice

I love it! Supposed to get up near 80 degrees the next few days and that should get the water temp up enough to get 'em pretty active.

We're supposed to possibly hit the mid 70's tomorrow, but we could see snow flurries Monday morning. I saw BG in the shallows for the first time this year yesterday.

It looks like it hit 92 at my place yesterday and I think the wind is going to lay down to 10-15 MPH today so I'm going to get the fly rod out this afternoon when I get there and see what happens. I did catch a 4 in GSF a few weeks back on it. I was hoping my 1st fish on the fly rod would have been more significant but it is what it is! Hope JHAP doesn't see that!!

All the talk recently on catching hook shy LMB on live 3 inch BG, so I decided to tie up a 3 inch Jig Hook Clouser to see if that would work.



Didn't catch a LMB but did catch a nice OTS CNBG


Fun stuff!
George

That fish is amazing!

Was wondering where you'd been, Hef!

Here's a neighborhood HSB lining out at 15" long. It was stocked about one year ago at around 8-10". Caught on a 'mouse' like fly:

Nice HSB on the fly!

Just hangin' out Sunil - just hangin' out....
Thank you my friend!
by George aka Hef!

This is what it's all about:










This is Ryland, son Jeff's neighbor that feeds his animals when out of town.
I was fishing and noticed Ryland watching - asked if he wanted to fly fish - said "don't know how" - asked if he wanted to learn - nodded head yes!

Had him catching CNBG on almost every cast within ~10 minutes - took about 30 minutes for him to learn to keep a stiff wrist and shoot a little line - fish were hungry and not seen a fish hook in a few weeks.

Love kid fishing - that's what it's all about!
George

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.

Hard to believe, I was fishing on 8" ice Monday evening, by Wednesday it was 3" of sketchy, honeycombed ice, imagine by Saturday it will be 100% open and I could probably pop some BCP or YP. Low of 5 last Friday, was 60-70 Wednesday thru today.

Good times in early March with a Stubby Steves Pellet on a hook...

Well done!

That's a chunky LMB!!!

This bass is from our neighborhood 1/4 acre pond.

The LMB have came out of the winter looking to be pretty plump.

My WAG is between 2# and 3#.

Yup, that's about right, Scott.

Getting closer to the 3 lb mark, but not quite there yet.

I got an inexpensive 8' 3 wt fly rod about a week ago and have fished with it 2 or more times a day every day since, despite wind every day but today. Just occasional gusts today. I put 3 wt line on it, and is cast well, good distance and fair accuracy, considering the wind. But it seemed as though the rod was too stiff for the line, so yesterday, I tried it with 4 wt line. Much better. Great distance, for me,and much better accuracy. I haven't tried the 3 wt line on the 7' 3 wt, but I'm afraid it's going to be too light that rod too.

I agree my TFO 3wt rod does much better when I put the 4wt fly line on it. Really slows the action down.

Turtle, what have you been catching???

Mostly nothing but FA. It's been windy for weeks until today. What I've been catching since I started fishing almost exclusively with flies are almost exclusively BG. They range from 3 oz up to 8 or 9 oz. One of the last ones I caught was the biggest yet - maybe 12 oz. I caught a crappie a week of so ago that might have been pushing a lb. It was the biggest crappie I've caught so far. When the pond was a couple ft higher and before the FA got so bad, I caught a few 3/4 LMB and an occasional shiner.

Still experimenting. I tried an inexpensive 490-4 with cheap, 5 wt WF floating line yesterday. Too windy for amature fly fishing, but when I caught the wind just right,I got "great" distance. I caught an averagee BG, then a small LMB that jumped like crazy, then got a nice BG on but lost it when my knot came untied. I've had a lot of trouble with my poorly tied improved cinch knots coming untied, so I've tried the Davy knot. It's a simple knot, but I still managed to mess it up. Just the same, it was fun, even if it was frustrating.

Turtlemtn, if your clinch knot is coming loose, you might try a San Diego jam knot. Almost exactly the same knot, but it finishes a little differently. A double San Diego is a great knot for traditional fishing as well. Whichever you use, be sure and wet it before you cinch it up.

Keep at it, it sounds like you're doing great.

Took the 5 wt down to the pond this afternoon. I stocked a few HBG last summer, and wanted to see how they were doing. They are still pretty small. I caught 7 or 8, all released. They were all near the surface. I could see them from the dam. Tied on a little black (I don't know what it is) I found in an old box of flies. They would hit it right when it hit the water, or not at all. Fun to catch, but I think I could use a lighter rod.

I use a Palamar knot (may be misspelled) it can be a pain to tie when using 2 lb line. Fly fishing, not tying, glasses help a lot. The knot will get tighter as the fish fight and pull the line and is an easy knot to tie.

Tracy

Try the "Orvis knot" for flies.....Google it or look on YouTube for instructions. I also use the same knot when tying lures to the line on my baitcaster. Been using it for over 20 years and it is simple and VERY reliable. For LMB or BG fly fishing you only need 2 knots....the Orvis knot and a "surgeon's knot". The surgeon's allows you to tie together 2 pieces of mono either the same size or different diameters. But a nice, level short 4 foot piece of mono looped or tied onto the loop at the end of your fly line is all that is needed....LMB and BG don't care and are way less picky than a trout.

The Davy knot looks simple and is supposed to be simple, so maybe I can eventually master it. I'm always interested in simple knots that are good enough. I'm not looking for the one that retains 99% of the line strength rather than 98%. I tried to tie a loop knot today and ended up with a sort of slip knot. I tied an overhand knot in the tag end of that and called it good. It was in a tapered leader that broke with a fish earlier today. I caught 3 LMB in the 12 to 16 oz range this evening with it, so it's holding. I tied on a little (4F, whatever that means) flatfish, and the LMB liked it. The BG did too, at first, but it's too big for them.

Best knot site that I've found.

http://www.animatedknots.com/

I like that Orvis knot. I've never seen it before. Looks just as easy as what I've been doing, maybe a bit easier with my worsening eyesight. (Just age related, but I hate hassling with cheaters)
Thx

Tracy, between arthritis in my hands and my eyesight issues, I gave up on 2 lb line about 20 years ago.

One cast, one HSB. George would be very happy his babies are doing well. Don't think I'll ever match James Holt's HSB success, but I'm ok with that. Caught on a skull head chartreuse streamer. My scale's set to 10ths, so I think it works out to 8.24 in ozs.

EDIT: I just checked. 2#'s over the TX private water state flyrod record. Another good day here.

Pretty fish , good job! 8# is nice

Never eaten one of them, how are they?

Al, I was not aware you had HSB in the pond. Nice fish for sure. New state record, Outstanding! Not sure I will ever get mine to 8#'s but I do enjoy the 4 lber's I have in the pond now. Mine like your's look very healthy!

No state record here. I know there are much bigger HSB caught and are never claimed, but I was extremely happy with that fish. I was thinking they would be closer to 5-6 pounds. To be honest, once the HSB started that first straight line pull, all I could think about was getting it in.

I put 20 in right before George started slowing down, so they should still have some growth in them. The majority of them time they're ghosts, and I rarely see them.

Awesome fish Fire.

Way to go, Dreamboat Annie!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Well done on the record Fire. There is no better feeling than a fish at the other end of a fly rod.

WOW that's a small waters fish and a half on any tackle!

And for the person who asked, they taste great to me! You have to trim off the bitter "blood line" from the fillets (demonstrations on Youtube).

The best way to do it take a filet knife and make a V-cut at the end of the red flesh then unzip it. It greatly makes the filets better.

Dreamboat, Dreamboat!

She looks very healthy - well done amigo!

Thanks guys and gals.

Just for clarity, the HSB was 2# over the record, but I did not submit it to the state. I'm not sure how other states handle fish records, but TX has 4 basic categories. TX recognizes state records for both public and private waters, and each has an option for conventional tackle or fly fishing.

To submit a record, you have to fill out the paperwork, and have the fish weighed at a state certified weigh in location. I always take a net and baby scale when I'm fishing for something other than CNBG, but I probably would have killed that fish if I had tried to haul it to the shop to get a transport tank.

Still a few years left, so I'm happy she's still growing in our pond. Taking a chance on killing her wasn't worth a piece of paper.


HSB is very good to eat when the red is cut out.

Wow - nice HSB. Why not go for the record? James has an unusually productive water filled with forage and feeders.

Eric, Jame's HSB are pretty much the TX gold standard for me. I wouldn't feel right submitting that fish knowing it was a JV award. If I had known what the current record was, I would probably submitted it if a guest or my better half had caught it.

I'll get there, I love a challenge.