Thankful For A Good Wife

Sometimes you have to be thankful for a good wife.  This year has been a busy one and not as much

time on some streams with a new baby.  But lately the wife has been giving me the green card to chase some fish.  Today started with a trip to town well of course I had to throw the fly rod in for that just in case there is a chance to fish.  Treated her to a nice Chinese lunch.  That wine and dine thing sometimes gives you that green light to fish and in this case sure enough I got some time on the mighty Ohio again.  Started off with the Chart Clouser as its been good to me the last few days.  And in no time big fish is hooked unfortunately it got in the swift water quickly and in no time the hook was out and a good hybrid was lost.  Figured I would change things up and try the upper section for a while and much to my delight three quick fish in succession they were tearing up the clouser.  Well those just were not what I was looking for I was keyed into a bigger fish with some size so dropped down to the lower spot and kept hitting the seam and wham there he was right where he should have been.  Nice good fight out into the swift water and in no time I had a 19 inch hybrid at my feet a good fish on the fly for sure.  Tried to the upper section and finished the day out with another small fish. 

My brother in law has been getting into fly fishing big time and we were going to hit the the local farm ponds up.  So I look at the wife and she gives me the green light again.  Two times in one day I must be doing something right maybe its the beard I dunno.  After a nice soaking rain figured a few

blue gill would be possible on top water and such.  Started off with a little bigger cork one and missed a few fish right off the bat.  Figured I better scale down and try to get into some blue gill so went with a smaller sneaky pete.  After that was able to land two small bass on the top water.  The lower pond just wasn't full of excitement TJ had a few fish in and I had a couple so we elected to go try out the upper pond as dusk was approaching even though it was a pond I never had much luck in except for a few small sun fish from time to time.  So kept the sneaky pete on since it seemed to have been working.  Noticed a good boil right next to some tall grass not far from shore and snuck in a cast.  Next thing I know the Sage One is fully bend and I am not gaining much ground at all hes hugging the bottom and not moving much.  Finally I got some leverage and was highly surprised with a good 20 inch Largemouth!  Nice way to end the evening on the water.  A lucky day getting on the water twice thanks to that special wife I have!

 

 

Hybrids From the Milky Way

To many times as fisherman we look at water that's off colored or chocolate milk looking and see some choppiness and flow to it and we get all nervous and think I can't catch fish in that type of conditions.  We lose all the confidence we have as fisherman of just fishing holding waters or what they call fishy looking areas instead of just fishing to fish.  Sometimes doing this we pass on great fishing days when big fish no matter if its trout or bass come out to play in those murky waters.  Past couple days coming from and going to work I decided to try my luck in these waters.  I pulled in both times to a deserted fishing area with no one around.  Sunday evening I pulled out the Echo 10wt and tied on a newly tied up Chartreuse Clouser minnow.  Things started off a little slow and was hoping for a little bit of anything when to my surprise I pulled out a small clouser out of some slow water. Well this got me in fish mode and thinking well lets see if any bigger fish are around.  So moved down a little and found a good seam and figured there would be some fish holding in the slower section picking off some bait fish with the water ripping by.  Few casts later good fish misses the fly twice well as they say third time was a charm and we got some bent rod action going on and a drag cranking.  Several more casts and the clouser did its work again and an even better Hybrid soon was at my feet.  Not a bad stop by after work for water that we would sometimes pass on. 

So today I went in a little late to work after I was relieved of diaper duty since the wife was off I figured I had some time to see if I could try some magic again.  Broke out the Redington Predator 11wt to see if we could put some bend in it and tied into the clouser again.  Started checking the

water and wham right in the seam again big fish feeding so a few casts later and the drag is ripping once more another good hybrid on the fly.  Managed another small fish to end a fast pre work trip.  The water isn't always the way it seems sometimes giving it a shot when your not expecting much pays off more than you think.  For me I was just thankful I had a chance to throw a few flies and lucky enough to land a few solid hybrids.