Spring is Nearly Here

[John Davis]

Bream are starting to bed

[Dean Romig]

We still have several inches of ice here. The ice on our lake usually goes out about April 12-16 most years.

But I can't wait to get back to our place on the lake in Maine. The grandkids catch those and white perch and bass right off the dock.

When the blueberries are ripe on our big blueberry bush we have fried panfish and blueberry pancakes for breakfast pretty often.





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[Richard Flanders]

Our spring ice fishing for pike is about on us here. We just have to fly 85miles, dig a spot through 2+ft" of snow then auger through 40+" of ice to get to them!

[Mills Morrison]

We have a small group of us who fly fish for bream around Savannah.

[Tom Flanigan]

Nice. That looks like an Orvis Battenkill rod. I do a lot of fly fishing and tying and I always fish with cane. I have a couple of Battenkills, but my favorite rods are the vintage Leonards. My favorite small stream rod is a 6 ft. "baby" Leonard which I bought from the widow of the original owner. I also take it with me when I hike to above 12,000 feet for the rare greenback cutthroats in the Colorado Rockies. It is a hard hike into the trail less area using a topo and compass but its well worth the effort and pain to get there. The trout average about 17 or 18 inches in the Alpine lakes I fish.

A few pictures............a greenback, an alpine lake at 12,500 ft. that I frequent and fish and two bighorn sheep fighting. I see a lot of sheep every day at altitude. I was in the right place at the right time for the big horn fighting photo.

[Garry L Gordon]

Water still "turning over" here on the local farm ponds, but with three days of 40 mph winds, it won't take long. But if one did try to cast a fly here now, the fly would end up in Michigan!:shock::banghead:

[Mills Morrison]

My son Harry loves fishing more than anything else

[Bruce Hering]

Bream are starting to bed

John:

Today, just 8 miles north of Vienna Illinois, the wind is blowing up to 40 mph gusts but the fish are moving. Caught a few yesterday morning before the wind really got up. No pics as there was too much going on.....

[Chris Pope]

Now I'm inspired...as a recent transplant from northern NE to the SC/GA border I'm going to have to try a little flyrod action...but first, darn it, I'm going to have lunch cause Mr Romig made me hungry!

[John Davis]

Tom, it's an Orvis, Rocky Mt., 6 1/2 ft., 3 piece, 4 wt. bamboo fly rod, sporting an Orvis CFO II reel. And she's my favorite.

[Tom Flanigan]

Tom, it's an Orvis, Rocky Mt., 6 1/2 ft., 3 piece, 4 wt. bamboo fly rod, sporting an Orvis CFO II reel. And she's my favorite.

I think I remember when they made that rod. I believe it was in the 80's. Great rod. I have a few Orvis CFO reels in different sizes and some Hardy's. I like the CFO reels better than the Hardy, although Hardy made the CFO reels for years. They were Orvis designed reels and, in my opinion, better than the Hardy lightweights.

My "baby" Leonard is a three weight. I use it from time to time on the North Platte river for the rainbow spawn in the spring and the brown spawn in November. You don't kill fish with a lightweight rod as long as the tippet is 3X or larger. You can get them in pretty fast.

My usual big water rod is a Orvis Battenkill 6 wt. and a Leonard 6 wt.

This is a picture of double rainbows I took with the little Leonard. All trout are released unharmed. This is the one area of the river where I use the little Leonard.

[Reggie Bishop]

Beautiful trout!

[John Davis]

Caught this one on a 7 1/2 ft, 6 wt., Battenkill.

[Tom Flanigan]

That’s a big fish on that relatively small rod John. I’ll bet you had some fun with him. I have the same rod, a Battenkill 7 ½ ft., 6 weight. It’s one of my two go to rods for big fast rivers in Wyoming, Montana and Colorado.

The first picture is my Orvis Battenkill 6 wt. with a Snake River fine spot cutthroat. The second picture is double fine spot cuts taken with my Battenkill 6 wt. I am on a quest to catch all the remaining cutthroat sub species in their native environments and only true aboriginal fish, no stocked fish. I've got five sub species and need only two more to complete my slam. I never use guides and enjoy figuring things out for myself. it's great fun.

[Richard Flanders]

Spring you say?? Here's what my spring was yesterday. This snow fell in less than 30hrs. I was busy from 0400 to 4pm dealing with it. Today is going to be a lazy day off for sure! I still can't take my car out of the driveway as I'd not make it back up the hill to home. It's going to take at least a week to plow everyone out around town.

[Dean Romig]

That’s a bummer for springtime!





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[Harold Lee Pickens]

Part of last Tuesdays catch, 'gills are in the upper shallow ends of the ponds.
Catch and release to hot grease! Crappies and bass fishing a little slow, but may improve this week, will get out at least a couple times this week, and combine it with turkey scouting.

[Harold Lee Pickens]

I profess no great skills with the fly rod, but will bring it out when the gills start to spawn.
Right now "garden hackle" is the bait of choice.

[Richard Flanders]

Spring isn't here! It was -13 this morning and is supposed to go to -30 tonight.

[charlie cleveland]

Richard looks like the old ground hog told his storey wrong at least for you...I have mowed my grass twice already....make us some snow ice cream...charlie

[Stan Hillis]

Caught this one on a 7 1/2 ft, 6 wt., Battenkill.

Was that a bowfin, a grinnel, or a mudfish, John? :rotf:

Them th'angs are the bane of my fishing in the river (oxbow) lakes, off the Savannah River. They are ferocious, and will tear a nice bass plug all to pieces. Right after I married "Queen", 49 years ago, I paddled her Dad to "reel" for bass in a river lake near here. He was using bait casting gear, and a topwater bait with three sets of treble hooks (a Jim Pfeffer Orlando Shiner). He hung a big (about 6 lb.) mudfish and "wrassled" him to the boat, then quickly swung him over the side and knelt beside him to unhook that plug from those jaws. That big sucker flipped himself up in the air about two feet and on the way down hung a set of those trebles in my F-I-L's leg, while thrashing about like a mudfish out of water will do. Pa-in-law just gritted his teeth and pulled the hooks out of his leg and pants.

He was the toughest man I ever knew closely. A well driller, he once had a water trailer to fall on his boot, cut through the leather, and lay open the instep of his foot in a bad gash. He went home, got in the bathtub, washed it off and called his wife to bring him needle and thread. He sewed his foot up by himself with no anesthetic.

Another time, he received a phone call on Christmas Eve from someone who supposedly needed a pressure switch for a home well. He agreed to meet the guy at the back door of his business late that evening. Two guys jumped him in the alley and hit him in the back of the head with a 2 X 4, knocking him to the ground. He got up on one knee, looked at them, and one of them pulled a knife to kill him. He grabbed the knife by the blade with one hand and grabbed the long hair, of the other creep, with the other hand. He took the knife and half the other guy's hair. They fled the scene. :shock:

Lord, I miss that man.

[JAMES HALL]

Something to be said for them well drillers.

[charlie cleveland]

tough man....good storey....charlie

[Gary Laudermilch]

Spring, what is that. Some mythical season. At our weekly 5-stand shoot last evening it was snowing so hard we had to quit for a while because we could not see the targets.

[Richard Flanders]

Sounds like Alaska the past few years. 3 seasons: getting ready for winter, winter, recovering from winter.

[Bruce Hering]

We had snow Tuesday night and a low of 29-32. Ground was white in the grassy areas and some plants and trees were covered. All this was gone by 10:00 AM Wednesday morning and we should have temps in the 70's by Friday and possible 80's on Sunday.

Yep.... its Spring in Southernmost Illinois.

[Richard Flanders]

Most of the country has been north of the jet stream for a week, so it's been snowing in places that are generally hard into spring at this point. I'm not sure you're quite done with the cool weather yet either.

[John Dallas]

Yep. Global warming is a B**ch

[Bob Brown]

Today was nice at 68F so I took a 1.5 hour motorcycle ride to a town half way to my brother's place. He rode his bike up and we met for covid 19 compliant lunch. Which means with this third wave the restaurant capacity is capped at 50% occupancy and we had to sit at separate tables because we don't live in the same household. Still if was good to see him. Tomorrow the forecast is 32F for a high and snow flurries. The weather is having a hard time making up its mind this year. One day you're boating or riding, the next shovelling snow.

[Gary Laudermilch]

May 9 and it is 33 degrees and snowing hard. Spring, yea right!

[John Davis]

86 degrees and windy

[Richard Flanders]

May 9 and it's sunny and 64deg here in Fairbanks. I set up my outdoor rainwater shower for my first shower yesterday; today it's almost too hot to work outside! I think I like this program of sending our cold air to you folks down south! Most of the US is still north of the jet stream so get used to it!

[John Dallas]

Water temps on the Au Sable (Mich) 49 degrees. Gonna let it warm a bit before the boat gets wet

[Richard Flanders]

I got to wade and fly fish the Au Sable once when I lived in Michigan. Great wading stream.

[John Dallas]

C'mon back. I'll put you in the front of the boat

[Andrew Sacco]

Fished the Willowemoc last weekend. Water was 43 degrees. Cold for wading, and no fish rising and no bugs hatching. But managed to take half a dozen on the top with large Hendrickson emergers after failing with nymphs and streamers. Go figure. I just wanted to cast a dry fly and that fell into my lap : )

[Dean Romig]

The Hendrickson or Red Quill (ephemerella subvaria) is one of the very first mayflies to hatch in the Northeast. That was a good choice of drys to tie on, though none were hatching, they may have been a few days earlier.





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[CraigThompson]

Nice. That looks like an Orvis Battenkill rod. I do a lot of fly fishing and tying and I always fish with cane. I have a couple of Battenkills, but my favorite rods are the vintage Leonards. My favorite small stream rod is a 6 ft. "baby" Leonard which I bought from the widow of the original owner. I also take it with me when I hike to above 12,000 feet for the rare greenback cutthroats in the Colorado Rockies. It is a hard hike into the trail less area using a topo and compass but its well worth the effort and pain to get there. The trout average about 17 or 18 inches in the Alpine lakes I fish.

A few pictures............a greenback, an alpine lake at 12,500 ft. that I frequent and fish and two bighorn sheep fighting. I see a lot of sheep every day at altitude. I was in the right place at the right time for the big horn fighting photo.

Harry Murray the fellow that started "Murray's Flyshop" in Edinburgh VA had me talked into going west for small freestone stream cutts . He claimed it was just like fishing for Brookies in the small VA streams . And I have the perfect rod for it , a Walt Carpenter Highlander split cane 6 1/2' 4wt that loads very nicely with a DT 3wt .

[Bruce Hering]

Wife and I are waiting for the weather to settle down a bit. Then its off to MO and AR. The White, Norfork and a couple of smaller trout and smallmouth streams and the 11 Point in MO for some of the same.

Cane rods should be the ticket for this trip. Orvis, Sweetgrass and Little River all with CFO's, Bill Baylan and an old English Sage 506 (for the 6 wt. streamer rod) reels. I am ready for it to happen.