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Fly Fishing

The apple snail

December 9, 2014
Exploring, Fishing, Fly Fishing, Freshwater, Warmwater
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That same week I visited Lafitte NHP I found a pond where I could wet a line and hopefully fool a few fish with a fly.  The pond was in Gretna City Park and fishing was slow to say the least. In fact here was my prize for the day – a man shouldn’t be ashamed at the size of his fish:

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This guy went for a wild ride as I was loading the rod for another cast – I had no idea he was on.  Mr. Microbass wasn’t really the story of the day though, the real story at Gretna City Park was the incredible amount of apple snails that were living in the pond.  This was my first experience with them, they were everywhere, along with their pink egg sacs.

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Apple snails are an invasive species that have been known to be carriers of rat lungworm and they’ve also been the culprit for decimated rice fields in many Asian nations.  Oh what a joy to have them here in the US!  It has been theorized that they made their way into our local waterways thanks in part to aquarium owners who wanted to share the wonders of the apple snail with all of us.

There is no natural predator in Louisiana so I implore you to become a natural predator of the apple snail.  If you see them, kill them, if you see their pink egg sacs, knock them in the water, they won’t survive when submersed.  If you handle them with your hands common sense dictates to wash your hands after.

An old haunt

October 16, 2014
Beer, Exploring, Fishing, Fly Fishing, Freshwater, Wade Fishing, Warmwater
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The Jackson Kayak Dealer Summit was earlier this week and I finally found the time to make my way up to Tennessee to attend.  So after attending the Brew at the Zoo on Friday night, trying a boatload of great home brew, and one terrible beer (never try Ghost Face Killah, no matter how much you like Wu-Tang), I got up bright and early on Saturday and began the journey North and East.  The drive was a fairly easy one with Birmingham being the biggest city I would pass; barely a car on the interstate on a Saturday morning.  I left early enough to make a quick pit stop at an old haunt outside of Huntsville before continuing on to Rock Island.  The river was in great shape and needed to be waded.  I quickly grabbed the six weight and started throwing a popper-dropper looking for anything that would bite.

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No bass caught, then again I didn’t fish very long as I didn’t want to have to set up camp in the dark.  After a gorgeous drive through southern Tennessee, I made it to my campsite with light fading fast and set up camp trying to beat the dark and the rain.  A celebratory beer was in order as I don’t know when the last time I set up a tent was and I was pretty sure I did it right.  That was followed by a few more beers around a campfire as I met Jackson teammates I’ve only seen online and caught up with others that I’ve had the pleasure to fish with in the past.  A plan was hatched for Sunday that included a river float to fish for some toothy critters, unicorns they call them, fish of a thousand casts.

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Catfish and bream

October 8, 2014
Family, Fishing, Fly Fishing, Freshwater, Warmwater
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When pushing a stroller around the neighborhood, taking my daughter for a walk, I’ve noticed that the fish in one section of our neighborhood pond will follow you as you walk around that section, to the point where they make tiny wakes trying to keep up with you.  I guess someone’s been feeding them and has destroyed their flight instinct when it comes to humans.  After I noticed that a few of the fish were big catfish I decided that it was time to educate them by way of the fly rod.  Catfish are a lot of fun on the fly as is catching bream one right after another – at this spot you can do both.

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IMG_3489Surprisingly once one catfish was hooked the rest scattered, the bream not so much.  I can’t wait until Marin is a little bit older and I can introduce her to the sport as our neighborhood pond is the perfect spot to introduce a kid to fishing – non-stop action and right down the street.