Fishing Report 6/7/2014

Saturday morning flyfishing at Goose Creek. I brought the Yomogi 7'0" 3 piece 3wt and the SA Supra DT3F line. The water was still a tad high to fish this place easily (lower water tends to concentrate the fish better - especially the bass), but definitely WAY lower than the last time I was here (epic flood conditions). The Yomogi is a rod that forces you to cast well. When you dial it in, it is a wonderful partner. If you are sloppy with your casting, it makes you look like the village idiot. "Catching some rays" - yeah that's corny but I am on sabbatical and very happy - expect the corniness to increase exponentially. I started catching these small pumpkinseeds early on, but eventually I found the hole where these huge redbreast sunfish slabs (thanks for the ID Chris B) were hiding out. I pulled these guys almost every cast for a solid 30 minute period - they pulled like tractors and put serious bend in the yomogi! Check out the turquoise coloring on the flank... really cool fish! Look at those round bellies!!! These are well fed fatties!!! Super fun fishing session!!!

Saturday Fishing at Lake Newport

Catch up posts. Marlon and I swung the flyrods on Saturday afternoon. I was using the Ijuin Yomogi 3wt with a DT3 SA Supra, and he was armed with an Eagle Claw 6'6" 4/5wt lined with a 5wt SA GPX. He caught a Bluegill and a decent sized Large Mouth on his own accord - no help from me whatsoever!!! I was probably more excited than he was!!! As you can see, I caught some bushes and Noe made sure to photo document that. I really like the Yomogi. As soft as it is, it is 100% character. Plus it makes a small fish seem like a leviathan (as I have said many times before). I can get the line out, but there was enough wind on Saturday that it took a lot of finesse. Marlon and I ended up catching the same bluegill three times over. We knew it was the same one because it was pretty beat up - the bluegill apparently start kicking the crap out of each other this time of year to see which of them gets to make a nest in the 'cool dude' area. It is springtime and love is in the air (and in the lake).

Early morning flyfishing with a Ijuin Yomogi 3 weight rod. It was colder than I thought it would be and that slowed the fishing down a bunch. I got two bluegill to take a black woolly bugger and one mini bucket mouth on a squirmy wormy. There was a steady breeze that made casting a RIO Perception 3wt line a bit challenging. This rod is super soft and pretty demanding technically (it doesn't forgive timing mistakes), but it is so rewarding when you have everything dialed in.

Second Rod Tube Sock Done

Now this rod tube is all safe and sound!!! The tube for this Ijuin Yomogi fly rod is actually fiberglass - who knows if the sock will help it not get damaged or not - either way, it's piece of mind. The yarn is a cotton/acrylic blend so the texture is a lot smoother than the first sock which was 100% wool. I'll have to experiment with different types of yarn to see what works best. I ended up knitting this sock twice - the first time the diameter was just a few stitches shy of producing the correct tension - so I 'tink'ed it (knitting spelled backwards = undoing your stitches). The first go around was all pau in the freetime of 4 days. The second time I got it done in 3 days. Now spring just has to get here so I can fish theses rods and test out the tube sock (protection against the truck back seat) theory.

Lawn Casting the Japanese 7'0" Fiberglass Fly Rods

I took the Japanese rods out to get more time in cast them before the Kabuto has to get mailed out to the next recipient (it is a Fiberglass Manifesto Loaner program rod) I lined the Kabuto 7033 with a RIO Perception WF3 - and wouldn't you know it, it cast it beautifully!!! I have cast four different lines on it now and it has handled them all perfectly!!! It is a rare rod that can cast several lines, but do to that well like it was made to cast each line specifically, that is one in a million - if I had to have only one flyrod, this Kabuto would be it (and I'm glad I don't have to own just one and can enjoy them all). That said, the Ijuin Yomogi is a completely different beast all together. As I said before - this is the slowest rod I have ever cast. I lined it up with a SA Supra DT3 and it forces you to slow down every part of the cast. In that process you feel the backcast load, the line unfurl after you stop the backcast, the rod reloading as the forward cast begins, and the stop rod flexing at the end of the forward cast and you see the line unfurl completely and land with no force whatsoever. With this rod, you will not punch 50' of line through a 10 knot headwind. You will not break the sound barrier either. But you aren't supposed to. You will enjoy developing an intuitive understanding of the cast, and if you are lucky enough to get a fish to play tug of war, you will smile like a little kid on Christmas - this is the definition of ultralight weight fiberglass fishing. These rods are just wonderful - despite their being the same length, having the same three pieces and the same line designator, they could not be any more different. They do share the fact that they are both works of art that are meant to be enjoyed out on the water catching fish!

First Outing with the Ijuin Yomogi 7'0" 3wt

This handsome rod came in the mail on Friday. It was the only flyrod I brought with us (Noe and I) on Saturday as I wanted to focus my attention on it. I have heard so much chatter over the web about it - I was excited to finally have one in my own two hands. After a couple of casts, I had a green sunfish inhale my fly - first fish on!!! Check out the bend on the rod - deep into the butt section!!! I LOVE ultralight weight Japanese fiberglass fly rods - nothing else feels like them! An interesting point, this is absolutely the softest/slowest action rod I have ever felt. In the past, if I had picked up a rod like this, I would have immediately put it back down and scoffed at it - wet noodle, no way this could cast a line or catch a fish. But those were my graphite days... subjected to the marketing hype of ultrafast carbon fiber stiffness, I took the advice of others and only looked to go faster. But I was battling wind and much stronger fish - graphite has it's place. Well for what conditions I fish in now, my eyes and mind are open to other alternatives. With this rod, just like with every progressively slower rod I have picked up in the last year or so, casting a line made my jaw drop!!! Exquisite feeling and equally well behaved slow, perfectly unfurling loops!!! It is very ironic that my casting is getting better as the choice of rod speed is getting slower and slower. And as the shad return to the Potomac here in the coming weeks, and as I break out the longer, stronger graphite rods to cast sinking line and weighted flies, my expectation is that my improved casting flows straight into the use of that equipment. I'll post more in the coming days, but catching 4 inch fish on this rod put the same smile in my face that 40 pound wahoo used to on 80 pound class standup trolling gear (which oh by the way is also fiberglass - Sea Striker Billfisher, dig through my old posts for more on that). I am looking forward to developing a more in depth understanding of this rod and the joys it promises!