speaking of fishing

“anyone who flyfishes-
anyone who's thinking about flyfishing-
anyone who has a loved one that flyfishes-

http://www.jprossflyrods.com/

this place is awesome.
i went there last year to buy my brother an X-mas present. i got a handmade, custom engraved, guarenteed for life, flyrod -- for $100 !

i've been flyfishing for about 5 years. i like his rod better than my $250 St. croix.

i don't even know how they make any money.

plus -

they're quick - i picked up the rod the next day.

and they seem to be really nice guys.


My brother says it's the best gift he ever got in his life.”

“Holy sheeite! I'm getting a rod from Cabelas that's about $130 but it comes ready to go with real already loaded up and with all the goodies. If I really get into it I'll have to give them a closer look. Thanks for the link!”

“Nigal,
You should hit Cabela's super store on your way up to these parts next weekend. Heck if you let me know what time, I'd try to meet you guys there and have a bison burger with you! Fun place.”

“My birfday ain't for awhile yet so I won't have the cash then. 8( I already finagled my wife out of the bike tires I was going to get for my birfday. [evil grin] I can't push it!

I found a really cool site for fly tieing. You just put in the fish you want, type of fly, name of the fly and boom, you have the pictures and instructions for tieing them. Fly tieing is way over my head now but thought it was cool.

http://www.hotspotfishing.com/community/flies.asp”

“BTW Dhutch, how does a person get a bison to blow it's nose?”

“I don't know Nigal, how DOES a person get a bison to blow its nose? This is a riddle right?”

“I was just wondering how they get their bison burgers? Kill them and then take them or do they have a trick to get them to blow their noses?”

“Sorry. 3rd grade flashback there. heehee!

OK, back to fly fishing! I once hooked into a huge carp on a medium action fly rod. Talk about a ride. I thought I was going water skiing!”

“Feather flippers
{lumberzac shakes his head}”

“nigal

is that setup from cabalas guarenteed ?

i think as a general rule, you can't go wrong with cabalas - they're pretty solid - but i wouldn't ever buy a rod without a fault-free lifetime guarentee.

it's only a matter of time before you break that 9' whip.

i've broken 2 in the last 5 years.. course i'm a clutz...”

“i like to go for bass from my little kayak - it's a blast - they pull me around all the time like the man and the sea.”

“Pike are fun that way too.”

“still haven't gotten a pike on a fly. i caught a minnow once that was less than 2 inches tho. i should've gotten it mounted”

“Why would any one fish for flies? Are we talking about around the pond at Shady Pines?







Sorry, weirdness from earlier in the week hasn't worn off, yet.”

“I'm not sure what their guarentee is like but I'm not too worried about trashing the rod as it's a pretty cheap rod. Normally I do things entry level and deside if it's for me. Then I go gear crazy! LOL!

Here's the one I'm thinkin' about.”

“ChicagoMark. Hey, it's a real challange. You should try baiting those itty-bitty teeny-tiny hooks!”

“$130 doesn't sound very cheep to me. That's more than what I spent on my last backpack.”

“Like anything else in life, you can get something for just about any price. You can go down to WallyWorld and pick up a $20 fly combo. It's going to preform like a $20 rod too. Then you can go over to Orvis and pick out a $500 rod. I'm Mr. Middle of the Road. I want something cheap enough I'm not out a bunch of money but I want something that will preform well enough that I can enjoy it.”

“I still haven't taken the step over to the dark side of fly fishing yet. My $30 Ugly stick works well for me.”

“$130 is pretty cheap for a rod that's decent.

the cheapest you could go would be a $30-50 walmart combo but they really suck it's not very easy to cast well with them.

i'm not a gear snob by any means - my spin outfit is a $35 ugly stick combo - but i think with flyfishing, especially if you're just learning, you're setting yourself up for failure by getting an el-cheapo walmart rod.”

“zac - have you ever tried casting with a decent (more expensive) rod ?

the difference is huge”

“I've never casted a fly rod.”

“Oh, I forgot to add to my not being worried about trashing the rod post. I've had the same spinning ultralight rod for the past 18 years so I'm not really too hard on (huh huh, he said hard on) my rods (huh huh, he said ROD). Of course the greatest danger to rods in the past 20 years is the electric car window. LOL!”

“It's like wearing a CampTrails pack and then going to a Mountain Smith pack. [all apologies to CampTrails fans]”

“well come'on then, jump on the train, everybody's doin it.

seriously, don't you ever get pi$$ed off when you're fishing and you see these gorgeous fish jumping all over the place, but they won't hit your lure ?

i used to get soooo pi$$ed off.

that's why i took up the flyrod.”

“nigal - i've never broken a spin rod either - but a 9' whippy flyrod is way easier to break than a 5' spin rod.”

“i agree with the camptrails analogy.

cause i've been happily using one for like 8 years and i just switched to a granite gear. now i don't know if i'll ever use it again.”

“I didn’t know that. The only rod I’ve ever whipped is a 8’ 5 piece that is a piece of crap and so stiff it’d never break. Then again it’ll only cast about 10’ too.

I like fly fishing because I love surface fishing. The old hula popper is a favorite of mine. The last trip to the Boundary Waters I took this big old floating plug and I thrashed that thing for a week straight catching small mouth left and right. The thing looked like it had been through the wood chipper by the end. LOL!

BTW- I just read a great book called Home Waters by John Monninger. He takes his 12 year old golden retriever that he fears has cancer out for one last fly fishing road trip and he spends a couple months bumming around his favorite streams out west to give the dog one last hoorah. A great book if you love fishing or love dogs.”

“I never had that problem too much, but then again I spend most of my time fishing small streams and rivers.”

“i love surface fishing too - floating down a river casting floating rappalas to smallmouths is what i actually enjoy the most.

i've seen that book, thought about buying it, maybe i will check it out.”

“i'd go with a 9' over an 8' any day.

that extra foot makes a big difference on how far you can cast.”

“What length rod and line weight are you getting?”

“I've told my friends and then proved it that they can catch their first trout within a ½ hour from the first time they touch a fly rod - not counting travelling time.

It takes about ten minutes to learn to lay out some line and then we drive to a trout stream. It takes less than 20 minutes to catch the first trout. Not a trophy, of course, but a small one coming out of a bad love affair perhaps.

I'll stick to cane, BTW, and if the trout want something else, or a fly smaller than a #16, they can damn' well find themselves another fisherman.

Fly tying's dead easy, BTW. A one hour course and a good book is all it takes. They even have videos now-a-days.”

“no need to buy a book or video

save your money and just check out this webpage:

http://flyanglersonline.com/flytying/beginners

i have a handful of books and this site blows them all away.”

“I found learning to fly tie by watching a video much easier than learning by using a book. I used a Gary Borger fly tying video.”

“I will be hiking the upper 1/3 of the JMT this year, is there any spots on it to flyfish?”

“check out this article on thru-hiker. on the right side it has a summary of all the fishy spots along the way, and suggested flies.

http://thru-hiker.com/articles.asp?subcat=1&cid=81”

“i don't get out too much cuz i have a ruptured testicle.....”

“3 days until trout season!

Did a little preseason fishing yesterday in a local stream that is open for trout year round. Didn't catch anything. The water is still too cold, but it was a nice day to be out with a line in the water.”

“You didn't say which state. We have portions of the JMT thru TN. In fact it runs by the trophy trout section of the Hiwassee River near Chatanooga.”

“New York State.”

“"What length rod and line weight are you getting?"

It’ll be about a 5 or 6 weight and I’d prefer the 9’ rod. I really like going light when it comes to fishing. I use ultralight gear except for the big cats. I’ll be pan fishing and bas fishing mostly.”

“Karo,
I will be hiking the John Muir trail in Calif.”

“Boy oh boy! It’s been raining all week here and last night I went out and picked about 4 dozen crawlers in about 10 minutes! With all the rain the cats just have to be bitin’ tomorrow! Woohoo! First fishing trip of the year!”

“Trout season opens tomorrow!

Whoo hoo!”

“It doesn't start until April 17 here in PA. The good thing is that 3 catch and release streams are open year round within 10 miles of here.”

“Meow!!”

“Not trying to sound cheap, but...

I was raised on cheapo outfits from K-Mart, GEX, etc. They seemed to work fine.

I haven't fly fished in years... to speak of. I pack ultralight spinner outfits on BPing trips. That's for fishing primarily for the pan, plus a little for the sport, I reckon...”

“Most of my fishing gear is the same way gojo. I have one really good Shimono spinner ultralight and then a bunch of cheap stuff for the carp and cattin'. For fly fishing I need something that will help in the learning curve as it does take more skill.”