Wednesday, January 29, 2014

Fly Tying: Carp

I'm getting tired of this cold weather and am already looking forward to spring and summer. Here is a simple, but effective fly that has been a top producer for carp the past two summers, but I have also caught smallmouth bass, trout, rock bass, green sunfish, warmouths, and other panfish with it. It is essentially a variation of a brown whoolly bugger, which is another great carp pattern. It seems to work best when carp are actively feeding on crayfish and other stuff in shallow riffles, and sometimes they'll even chase it!

Materials-

Hook(both front and back): Tiemco 3769 nymph hook in size 8, or a Tiemco 5262 in size 10. Back hook can be a different, and maybe cheaper hook as you'll be cutting off the bend
Connection: any light fishing line
Thread: brown
Tail: Brown marabou
Body: Hareline's medium krystal hackle- brown
Eyes: black bead chain

Step 1: Attach thread and tie in a clump of brown marabou for the tail

Step 2: Tie in krystal hackle 

 Step 3: Wrap hackle around the shank of the fly and tie off. Cut/break off the bend of the hook

Step 4: Attach thread to a new hook, and connect the two using whatever line or wire you wish. The connection doesn't have to be super strong as you won't be hooking any fish on the back hook. Add some Zap-a-Gap if you wish for extra strength

Step 5: Tie in a black bead chain eye on the top of the hook. This is important as you want the fly to ride with the point up to avoid snags, since most of the time you want the fly to be right on the river bottom.

 Step 6: repeat step 3 and finish fly.
  

Step 7: Go fishing!


Monday, January 20, 2014

A Look Back at 2013

2013 was a fantastic year for us. We caught some new species, fished some new places, and had fun fishing old favorites. Hopefully 2014 will be just as good, and going into the new year I hope to add more content to the blog such as instructional posts, fly tying, more in depth reports, and maybe some more videos.

Here's a quick look back at 2013...  to view more photos visit our facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.395476573920266.1073741893.184208285047097&type=1


The stocked trout fishing was great during the spring, early summer, and heated back up again in the fall.


Stocked Brown
 

Golden Rainbow

Brook and Rainbow


Had a lot of fun fishing for wild trout in NW and Central PA

Wild Brook Trout

Wild Brown 

Wild Rainbow


Caught our first handful of sauger this year!




Had a blast fishing for steelhead in Ohio and Pennsylvania in the spring and fall.



Caught some bowfin this summer, and we even caught a bunch fly fishing!


Bass fishing was fun throughout the spring and summer


Caught our first couple gar out of the Ohio River



Freshwater Drum

 Had a BLAST catching some hybrid striped bass throughout the spring and summer. It's amazing how strong they are.


The walleye and pike fishing was great in the spring, and we even caught a handful of walleye throughout the summer as well.



Hope everyone had a great 2013, and I wish everyone a safe and fish-filled 2014!


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