Properly Hooked

Timing is everything - watching the fish go for the fly, setting the hook (barbless of course) and making sure the fight isn't 'too' long. When it is right, the fish doesn't have enough time to swallow the hook and you can remove the fly from it's lip with your fingers. The fish and I had good timing this time around.

Biggest Catch of the Day Part 3 - Yellow Perch

In the midst of catching a bunch of Bluegill, I hooked into this guy - my first Yellow Perch! It took the orange scud fly I was casting and it fought well. Fight per pound, I'd still give the nod to a big bluegill, but all these fish I've been catching on the Daiwa Soyokaze have bent the rod like a screaming 10# bonefish on an 8 wt - I can't complain.

Biggest Fish of the Day Part 2 (27 Jul 2012)

On the very next cast, I hooked this even bigger bluegill! FAT PIG!!! Good stuff!

Biggest Fish of the Day, Part 1 (27 Jul 2012)

I spent some time casting to and catching Bluegill at the dock at the lake by our house. I finally had my first disappointment with the Soyokaze - I saw three big bluegill sunning themselves and eating bugs from the surface, but way out of casting range. If I had a conventional flyrod, I could have cast to those fish. All that regret quickly faded as I saw another bluegill surfacing within casting distance (and I cast and caught it). I got the opportunity to sight cast to one other fish (and got it too). I caught a bunch of other bluegill at the dock before moving on the cutout in the bushes (the spot I go to when the kids use hotdogs at the dock - my flies don't quite make the fish strike when there are hotdogs around). I nailed this big guy on a rise - a fish this big makes the rod 'sing'! And then....

Fly Rotation

I switched out the "All Powerful" G Gnat for an orange scud with a longer tail. I just let it sit on the surface and played the waiting game - waiting for the bluegill that were staring at the fly to take, and waiting for the right time to lift the rod - oh the anticipation!!! The minutes seemed like nano-seconds... Needless to say, I had the stronger will (or the less hungry stomach). Fish ON!!!