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Tag Archives: Hybrid bluegill

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.

Summertime

June 13, 2012
Fishing, Fly Fishing, Freshwater, Music, Video, Warmwater
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It is summertime and in between rain storms, watching LSU baseball get beat by a VERY good Stony Brook team, and catching up on UEFA Euro highlights, I have been squeezing in some fishing (both fly and spin) after work. The usual suspects are around, like bream….

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bass….

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and catfish….

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But this gar made my week. I caught it in a ditch not far from the house. It is not the first gar I’ve ever caught on the fly, I’ve had some luck with poppers, but believe it or not, it is the first fish I’ve ever caught on a fly I tied. With inspiration from Kent Edmonds, it is a very simple nylon rope fly that doesn’t even contain a hook. I tried to get a self portrait of this monumental occasion, laugh with me through the picture progression:

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I probably caught something else in that ditch too, E. coli perhaps, it is nasty, with an outfall right under the bridge, brownlining at it’s very core. The ditch produces at times though, last year it produced quite the variety of fish, upstream of where I was at. This spot has a ton of gar though, hopefully I can perfect the technique, the hook set is a bit different than I’m used to. I had 3 eats before I landed this one, I pulled the fly right out of their mouth each time. Need better water clarity too, it had just rained that day and it was tough to see the fish. Hoping for even better results next time out………..and no illnesses in the interim! Fingers crossed.