Awesome July Fishing!!!!

I will try to write more about how great the fishing has been on the lake lately, but for now I will let pictures speak for me! I have been really busy lately and things are looking good for the next few weeks. If you want to get into carp, gar, bowfin, or drum on the fly the time is now!  Email me for more details! 

 

Carp In The Surf

It is on! Carp are on fire on Lake Champlain right now! I found a nice pod in a place I have never even seen a carp before. I went 5 for 9 hook ups!  Awesome day on the water. The coolest part is that I had my boots on the ground the whole time!  

Now is the time to get out after Yankee bonefish! I am booking up pretty quickly for the next few weeks. Carp, bowfin, gar, drum- this is the best time of the year for these guys! Bass and other fish are doing well too!  Email me at muskyflies@gmail.com to set things up!

As for today- I will let the pictures speak for themselves!

On the line

The Yankee Bonefish Whisperer pose

Pleased with Sweet Sixteen

18 lbs of hoover!

FUMBLE! Perhaps my favorite pic from today- Thank you to the good guys who came to see the fish and helped with the pics!

Zack on the Water

I have been working with a student all year. He loves to fish. I mean he LOVES to fish! We clicked right off the bat thanks to our mutual love. Over the year we have shared stories about fishing, I have taught him a few things here and there, but we have never been out on the water. Zack also watches my blog religiously. He claims he is my biggest fan and is probably right. I have enjoyed working with him.

Earlier this week we took all the students that we work with to a state park on the lake. Fishing was one of the activities that were suggested and some kids brought their gear with them. I knew Zack would be among those that did. I brought along some gear too, figuring I might get a spot of fishing in while helping the kids out with their fishing exploits.

The place that we initially hit the water wasn't ideal. I made a decision to move and Zack and a few other kids came along. My hunch was right about the spot to move to. We weren't there more than 5 minutes when the cry came out "MR. PRICE!!! I have a huge fish on!!!" I looked over and didn't expect it to be as big as it was but from the bend in his spinning rod I could tell it was a nice fish, whatever it was. The fish ran through some weeds and I had to wade out and help him get it free of the weeds so it didn't break off. I got a look at what he had on and it was a really nice carp! The fish put up a great fight and Zack did a great job of landing it.

Shortly after that I got into a nice bowfin which really got the kids excited. It was very cool to see all these kids psyched about fish in the lake. I helped a couple of kids catch their first fish too. Panfish are perfect for this! It was cool. I got into a few other fish too. A decent largemouth followed by a nice little drum and I finished up with a very nice carp that absolutely drilled my bugger on the second strip after landing. They were very aggressive!

As we started walking back through some cattails Zack yelled out "A HUGE bowfin!!!" Sure enough there it was sitting right there in less than a foot of water. Zack dropped his jig in front of it. It took some coaxing but the fish hammered that thing and the race was on. He landed the fish pretty quickly and as we walked a bit to a spot where we could get a better picture there were more bowfin and bigger ones too! I could not resist... I dropped my fly in front of one and it was rapidly inhaled. We had a bowfin double, Zack and I did!

 It was an awesome day on the water. Zack showed me his prowess as an angler and he really shows a lot of potential in becoming a great fisherman! Hopefully one day we will get a fly rod in his hands and incorporate him into the "Brotherhood of the Long Rod"!

Pesky Little Suckers

When I was out guiding the other day with my client John, I spotted some circular depressions in the streambed in faster water. I knew immediately what they were so I started looking around for the culprits. It did not take long for me to find them- sea lamprey (Pteromyzon marinus). I pointed them out to John then proceeded to catch one for him to see. He then insisted on getting video of me doing it again. I also thought it would be cool to get some underwater video of them spawning. 

As damaging as these fish can be to game fish populations, they do have a very cool life cycle and I am fascinated by them. One of these days I will write about them more in depth. But for now enjoy the videos I have of these pesky little suckers!

 

DP

 

Memorable Memorial Day Weekend

That was an awesome weekend! Started off with a trip to the Orvis Flagship Store in Manchester, Vermont. What a great place to spend a day! If you haven't been there yet you really should go- it is VERY cool. I tied flies, presented a Warmwater 101 talk, and helped out with a Fly Fishing 101 class. I worked with an 8 year old boy helping him learn how to cast and then "hook" velcro trout... he had a lot of fun! 

I got to meet some great folks down there too. I connected with one of their casting instructors, Peter Kutzer, and spent some time tossing a couple of rods out on the casting pond. I was very impressed with the 10 foot 7 weight Access... definitely a great carp rod in the making... I am also checking out a prototype fly line... so far the thing is really impressive. It will be something that you big fly chuckers (like me) will appreciate a great deal!


Sunday I guided Kenny for the second time this year. We were out after trout and definitely found them. The bluebird skies didn't help our cause much though. Wild browns are pretty spooky to begin with and low, clear water with a lot of sun doesn't help. We did get a couple to play. The big story of the day was the fallfish. Kenny was pretty psyched to get into some bruiser fallies! The first big one was 16"! That was a corker of a fallfish. He got a few smaller ones but also got into two more Master Class fish- both 15" fallfish. 

The absolute best part of the day was when he got one of those 15" fish on- I watched the take. I had him fishing a bugger/Eggi Juan Kenobi combo (we were working a pod of big suckers). I watched big fallfish come up and slam the EJK  and another similar sized fish started chasing the bugger then grabbed it. He had on two Master Class fallfish at the same time. I got down there ready to land the pair but the two struggling against one another caused the bugger to pop out of the second fish's mouth. Pretty funny!

Yesterday I met up with an old friend and got out after some warm water critters. There were all sorts of everything around. I don't know if I have ever seen as many big panfish as I saw yesterday. There were 8-10" pumpkinseeds everywhere. It was pretty incredible. We both started out with a Master Class pumpkinseed each. Awesome fish! A 9" sunnie is nothing to laugh at. I will be heading back out there this week with my 2 weight to really get into them!

I saw this big bass and I had to have it. It was a big pig of a bucketmouth. I am not normally all that excited about LMB (largemouth bass) but this one was huge! I really worked it and worked it. Finally I got it angry enough that it grabbed the fly. It took off and was actually dragging the canoe around. When I got it to hand it measured 24". My fist fit in its mouth with room to spare. Definitely my personal best LMB. My only regret is that I didn't weigh it but using charts online it is likely that the fish was around 8 pounds. It definitely felt about 8.


 
I got into a decent gar there too- 42". Got to show Frank what a gar was all about. It was definitely a male in spawning condition. Had the evidence in the boat to prove it. Yuck is the word that sums that up best. Frank was pretty psyched to get into his first pike on the fly! It really hammered the fly!


We hunted for a bowfin all day for Frank. We had a lot of shots at fish. They were acting a bit funky. There was a front coming through and that may have had something to do with it. The water temps are still a bit low in this area so that could have been part of the problem too. We hunted and hunted. He was hooking fish (after I taught him that a dry fly hookset would not cut the mustard) and losing them (holding the line or the reel handle is not recommended if you want to land big fish). There was a lot of just plain bad luck too. A really nice fish turned into a long distance release. I was getting worried. I haven't had anyone blank on bowfin before. 

It was getting to the 11th hour... starting to get dark. The fish were in shallow and seemed to be on the feed. Frank spotted one and dropped the fly in front of it and WHAM! The race was on. It fought really well and burned through the weeds and dragged the canoe around. I hopped out of the canoe and netted the fish. I am very persistent when it comes to getting folks onto bowfin. I will work really hard for it! It was a beauty too! 29" and 9 pounds! A Master Class bowfin for Frank!


All in all a great few days! More coming soon!


Things are on fire now! Come out and get into it! Email me at muskyflies@gmail.com or visit my website for other contact information www.masterclassangling.com

Another Great After School Special!

John came back for another After School Special this week. I will let the pictures (and the smiles) speak for themselves. The hot weather has the smallies almost done their spawning run. Tons of rock bass around. John graciously allowed me to fish for a while with him. I got my personal best rocky on the fly- 11"!

Gar-reat Fishing!

Personal Best Longnose Gar.... 'nuff said.

51" (Thank you Marty Siekiewycz for the photo)

Awesome Afternoon Special Trip!!!

You can't help but smile when you have bowfun!

One of my long term clients wanted to get out and after some toothy critters yesterday and took advantage of my killer "After-School Special".  We got out and within the first 10 minutes of being on the water we started to see some pike. Not just any pike, but some SERIOUS pike... Big mamas in shallow water... the game was on!

We couldn't get any of those bruisers to play so we headed into the shallows for some "bowfun". The amiable Amia calva was more than willing to come out and play. They were all over and smashing flies like it was going out of style. We found some nicely colored up males. Those things just love my Mr. Bow-regard flies! The highlight of the bowfin was a fish I noticed in some weeds by a tree. I told John where to put his fly, to move it a few inches that way, then a few inches back toward him.... then BAM!  The fish hammered the fly. He never saw the fish... He said he didn't even need his eyes open to do it! John suggested I carry a blindfold and have people "blind fish" for bowfin... might have to give it a shot!

After a couple of hours of hunting in the shallows for bowfin (there were a ton of big bass and big panfish too!) we started back looking for some pike. It didn't take too long before John had one on- a really nice one too. We landed that fish got some pics and headed up toward the spot where we saw the larger fish. He picked up another smaller fish that fought and ran really hard. It wasn't long after that that he had a very aggressive take that had some serious weight behind it... then it was gone... The end of the 80lb flouro bite tippet was cut cleanly at a very acute angle. It was one of those big pike and it just severed the flouro like a hot knife through butter.

Who has the bigger smile?

It was getting pretty dark as we got off the water but we saw one more fish, a fish that John (who fishes the lake regularly) called the "biggest fish he has seen in the lake". It was a feeding carp in about 2 feet of water. It was a good sized fish, my guess would be around 20-25 lbs. There are bigger ones out there, much bigger... Want to find out how big? Come out with me sometime this summer and find out for yourself!

Its On!

It has been a pretty busy week... really BIG stuff happening... will tell the news when I can (it could be a while). In the mean time, back at the Hall of Justice....

Looping The End of a Fly Line

I really prefer having the end of my fly line to have a loop in it. It makes it much easier to replace a leader, put on a sinking leader or add on a sink tip. The loop really adds versatility to your fishing. I do prefer lines that have welded loops already attached but sometimes those have to be replaced. What I really do not like in the least are braided loops (the Chinese finger trap style ones). I have had those fail too many times. I had one fail with a client last week on the water. I did a quick field repair and got him back fishing, but I would much rather avoid the problem altogether.

So when I get a line that doesn't have a welded loop on it (on either end- more on that in a minute!) I make a loop myself. I thought I would put the instructions for doing that up so other folks can do it. I cannot take credit for this- Dave Whitlock and others have been doing it for years. So here goes- you will need the following:

Fly Line

X-acto Knife or razor blade

Bobbin with thread

Superglue- the brush on is the best!

 

The first thing to do is to cleanly cut the fly line at a very acute (sharp) angle. The longer and straighter the cut the better. Make sure it is a clean cut without anything hanging off the edges. This cut is very important- it will lead to a clean whip finish in the long run. The more acute the cut the less of a bump you will have in your line which will let it pass guides easier.

Cutting the acute angle

When you have that acute angle cut apply a little bit of super glue to the exposed surface and glue that to the fly line about an inch or so back forming a loop. You will want to hold onto this until it hardens, especially if your line has a slick coating. Once that has hardened then add some more super glue between the lines to get them parallel to one another leaving a loop on the end. Hold that until it dries- be sure not to glue yourself. Using the brush on type will help tremendously with that!

Gluing the end to the main line

To finish off use your bobbin to wrap the whole thing with thread. Use a thicker thread like you would use for bigger flies or even rod wrapping thread. I like to use a different color a lot of the time because it can work as a strike indicator for you or give you an indication where your line ends. Make the wraps pretty tight and cover everything from where you want the loop to start all the way to past where the cut line meets the main line. Put on a couple of whip finishes and coat the whole thing with super glue (or your favorite knot glue). I use super glue because it holds fast and does not make a bump after it dries.

Glued loop

One trick I use a lot with this is to put a loop on the back end of my line. I can change out lines much easier this way. I tie in either a Double Surgeon's Loop or a Perfection Loop with the loop being about a foot long. That way I can pass a line spool through it. It also passes the guide really well. This really makes changing lines a lot easier. Of course it is a lot easier to have an extra spool.... but they aren't always cheap!

Hope this helps folks out! I haven't had one of these fail...

Wrapped, whip finished and waiting for glue!