Search the Community

Here is a popper in red that I tied up for use up at Navajo Lake. We did pick up some smallmouths and some scrappy bluegills.

Bass are one of the most popular game fish in the world, and its no wonder why. They are aggressive eaters willing to take a variety of baits, and wonderful fighters. Now throw in a fly rod, and hook over 50 fish, and you have the makings of one epic day on the water. For those of you who fallow me, yes I did a video on this trip already. But that was a longer version, here is strictly some action shots of me and Kyle catching. Hope you all enjoy!

Kyle took me out fishing again on his boat and wow! We had a blast! Caught fish non stop! Most of them smallmouth bass, however we caught 5 different species. Smallmouth bass, largemouth bass, carp, crappie and bluegill. It was really one of the most fun days fishing I have ever had. I was also able to catch fish on a fly I tied with my own beard hair. That was a joke of a fly, but it actually worked! I couldn't believe it! Watch the video of me tying this "beard hair fly" here.... https://youtu.be/vPaIG25ng7E Kyle was fishing bass on a topwater fly, and I was able to get a shot of a bass coming up and crushing it, It was such a cool shot!

Smallmouth Bass are scrappy fighters that are willing to eat a large variety of baits. They are fun to catch with conventional gear, and an absolute blast on a fly rod. Especially when fishing is this good. While we didn't catch a whole lot, I believe we boated 20+ fish this day. Generally they like bright colored baits, but we caught a few on some more generic baitfish colors like brown/white, olive/yellow, etc... We were fishing at Navajo Lake, a large lake in northern New Mexico, that is the start of the San Juan River. It is a cold water lake with many species including trout, salmon, pike, bluegill, perch, and of course smallmouth bass. Unfortunately there are no shad in this lake, so you must fish perch or bluegill patterns. However they seem to still go after chartreuse/white lures pretty well. The water seemed clear as can be, however Kyle told me that this was a bit off color since the lake was so high. It was a really fun day, getting to fish with a great friend on a great fishery. This really was one of the more enjoyable fishing days I have had in a long time.

This fly has been my solid go-to for the past few years on the Great Lakes

When the chance to fish somewhere other then my home river arises, i grab it. Over the long weekend just passed, i had the opportunity to wet a line in the Ottawa Valley (Madoc/Tweed, Ont) on the Skootamatta River. My brother and I arrived late (9:30 pm), geared up, and were on the river within 15 min. I started fishing a pool at the foot of a rapids/waterfall. On my third cast of a Morrish Mouse this decent sized fish was landed: a few minutes later and a change up to a simple deer hair frog, i landed this slab: with very little time to fish, for my final session i headed just downstream from the pool to fish this section of water: a change up of tactics to stream fishing yielded me more fish per hour then i have ever had. It has been a while since i've caught River Chub, and man is it fun! A quick cast, short drift, one or two twitches, bang fish on. Cast, after cast, after cast. White beadhead Woolly Buggers and basic nymph patterns fished as a dropper ruled the day. As far as Chub go these were monsters. I had fish averaging 8-10 inches. With the quick takes, amazing colours and acrobatics; i call them poor man's trout. I could fish all day for them. Because i was pressed for time i have no pics To finish this report, i will give a shout out to the great place that we stayed at. The 'Unconventional Moose' has a great cabin w. kitchenette, for a very reasonable rate. Everything in this cabin is new; as it was renovated and furnished last year. We're talking about foam beds and soften water here and the above fishing holes literally at your doorstep. If you have watercraft of some sort, then the fishing options become endless. We are talking about turning this into an annual trip for the above reasons. So there you have it, my first trip report