MIKE*A

Hopefully I did this correctly........Its been a few years since I posted with an attached photo.....I finally broke down and purchased my new vessel this past Summer....Its a North Star Phoenix solo canoe designed for Wilderness river tripping made of kevlar with Fiberglass reinforcement in the high impact areas (better abrasion resistance than kevlar) with a red gelcoat finish.......I spent the Summer paddling the local rivers/lakes with my flyrod getting used to it..... Mike

Welcome! The Stillwater is my “home” river......This is a great site...lots of great/helpful Tier’s....I’ve been away myself for awhile, but jumped back in for the Winter tying season.... Mike

I typically whip finish....used to do it by hand, now use a tool....on smaller stuff when I am trying to minimize weight and or size, I use the super glue trick with a couple wraps.... Mike

Awesome! Congrats! Mike

I am far from an expert on it, but I have found the best times to flyfish in the surf to be May-early June and late September-mid October....I have been down there in january and the water is too cold inshore for most of the normal target species......If you go back in the bays, you will probably find some warmer pockets of water and catch some smaller holdovers......Check out haflhitch tackles website, they just redesigned this past year.....they don't really cater to flyfishers, but have weekly/monthly fishing reports and forcasts and during peak seasons have daily updates.....that will atleast give you an idea of what may be around to target.....I haven't been on this site in awhile, but ther used to be a couple guys from that area on here that were quite willing to share information....maybe one of them will chime in... Mike

Steve Coomer is going to be giving a presentation on the Little Miami River on Wednesday, June 11th @ 6:30 pm at Great Miami Outfitters in Miamisburg, Ohio.....I missed his presentation a couple of weeks ago in Cincy....Everyone that I spoke to that was in attendance, raved about it....Here is a link: http://www.greatmiamioutfitters.com/info/little-miami-river-fishing-facts-folklore-galore Mike

My experience is limited to Summer/Fall trips to the Boundary Waters for Pike....with that said, my best colors were black, chartreuse, olive, & white with the chartreuse being the #i producer........I was tying them on a 1/0-2/0 "bait" hook....I was generally fishing shallow so no weights, though i did make a few w/gold cone heads....on days I had trouble enticing them, I would clip a small inline gold spinner blade on the front of the hook and the flash/vibration seemed to help quite a bit.... Mike

Police Detective for the past 25 years. Mike

Thanks again!

Those look great! They would be killers on the rock bass with my 3 wt in the local streams.... Mike

Thanks again SC! Another successful download! Now I just have to find the time to read them all..... Mike

Great job Cream! Mike

I prefer wood myself......with that said, that is pretty sweet looking! Does it break down for portability? I would hate to see the price tag! Mike

welcome aboard! Mike

I tried Vegemite once..........that was enough....... Mike

Nice fly! the Murdich is a good baitfish pattern in that it is tied w/a larger profile that will move some water, but due to the fact that it is largely synthetic materials, doesn't get water logged and become difficult to cast! Thanks for another "How to"....Pretty durable as well... Mike

I use a Scotty flyrod holder as well....I put in two flush mounts, one on the left gunwale in front of me just out of the way of my paddle stroke, and one behind my left shoulder on the deck ......I gave myself about a half a season with the yak before I mounted anything to figure out the best placement.... Mike

Nice buck! Sounds like a great weekend! Ditto what Mikechell said......This time of year with the cold weather we have had so far, should be some nice thick/long deer hair! Mike

My youngest started college this year....this is the 1st year in 20 years that I wasn't coaching youth sports, scouts, or some other youth group.....I had high hopes for this past year fishing wise, then my wife lost her job after 29 years, so I found myself sucking up every minute of overtime I could.....I think we finally have things figured out (financially)....my goal this year is to just get out on the water and hopefully over the next couple of years start knocking off some of my "bucket list" trips....Back to the boundary Waters, backpacking in the Smokies chasing some of those small stream brookies..... Mike

Got it! Thanks Mike

Thanks! Just downloaded it...... Mike

This will be my last reply to this post....I don't know what part of the country you live in, but where I live (Southern Ohio) every school public/private in this region offers foreign languages.....my kids are bi-lingual English/Spanish....They are both getting ready to study a third language by "Choice"...not because they are "Forced" to.......Part of what makes this country of ours so great! Freedom of Choice!

Don't let the door hit you in the @$$ on the way out of the country.......

Rich, I will make a wild guess.......maybe that it has to do w/the length of the hair? I remember an old member on here "Sean Juan" lived on the cape and used to use yak hair quite a bit.....I remember him posting some of his flies that were over a foot long using longer hair....I think he mentioned a couple of times that it was getting harder to find the long stuff that he needed for his Striper flies.... Mike

I actually tied up some of your "nothing specials" this past Spring, used them quite a bit on my new 3wt chasing the rock bass in m local river.....Your newer fly would make a great damsel fly nymph...I tie something very similiar using either marabou or scraps off bunny strips for the tail...i also use bead chain eyes....I like the peacock herl tail on yours.... Mike