skyphix

I wonder where in VT this is, since I live fairly close. Pickerel up here are generally regarded as trashy fish. I catch a lot of them unintentionally while fishing for largemouth. Unfortunately, they are a some-what fragile fish and are really pretty easy to catch. I'm unsure why shooting them is necessary. Unfortunately, I have had many parish due to swallowing the fly. Some folks eat them, but they are even more boney than their cousins the pike.

I've had good luck with bright deer hair streamers (Micky Finn) and shiny rabbit strip flies (olive rabbit strip fly with a lot of flash). I fish them slow, but with very sharp strips to make the fly jerk and twitch under the water. E

I use Clousers that are a mix of green and yellow deer hair for the belly (hook point side, which is top side up when the fly is fished) and white for the back, with a few splashes of orange or red thrown in with the white (maybe 3 or 4 hairs). Works great on the smallies in the water that I fish most often. I've found, though, that it only works in the couple of weeks that I catch perch in shallow on nymphs. Other times they just aren't that interested... matching the hatch. Last year I tied them in size 6... this year as big as 3/0 for bigger largemouth and BIG smallmouth in a local lake.

Albright Topwater 3/4 for dry fly fishing, No Name 5/6 for larger streams and rivers or streamer or nymph fishing.

Not small enough? Still not small enough? STILL? (Thats a Black Nose dace on a nymph) Smaller YET? Yeah, thats a largemouth on a size 14 stimulator.

Yes. Bluegill aren't usually picky. If its red, yellow, white, orange, or black, and it has legs, they'll like it. Legs are optional. I catch a lot of sunfish (not as many Bluegill as red breasted sunfish but thats because I fish more streams and rivers than lakes) and they all seem to enjoy anything that is buggy and floats. My best colors have been "Royal", that being peacock with a red stripe for the body.

The rainbow one looks a lot like a fly that worked great for a friend of mine on a local river known for large predatory browns. He caught an above average 18" using a fly nearly identical fished on sinking line in late April.

A couple of hours north east but... Trout River Rainbow Red http://www.troutriverbrewing.com/mozilla/rra.phtml

I'm also no expert, but thus far my best Esox fly has been Tied in various sizes. This one was tied for trout and bass but when I tie them for pike and pickerel they are tied with a longer tail and a flash of red.

Last year I didn't get into any warm water until May, but then it was yellow or white small streamers that caught all three. This year I started a little earlier - last week I landed a few bluegill on a large yellow stonefly crawled along the bottom very slowly. They were lethargic and wouldn't hit anything that moved more than a few twitches and slides across the bottom. Of course, there is still ice on the lake I was fishing, so it was far from warm.

I think I posted this once already but size 12 and 14 prince nymphs in the slow water sections of big rivers. No giants but crawling them along the bottom very slowly saves days when streamers aren't working.

In this order... Orange and Brown Clouser on a size 6 hook, tied about 4" long Silver and white Clouser, same Black rabbit strip leach with a red saddle hackle as a collar.

Very nice tie. I received a white fly/red collar similar to that design in a salmon and steelhead swap I did last year. Have had a lot of warm water (pike, pickerel) strikes on it. Great tie and I bet in brown it will work great for big predatory browns and steelhead that go in rivers where there is a resident brown population or even just a good golden shiner base.

There are wire bite guards and wire leaders. What comes to mind immediately is the Orvis bite guards, but they're expensive. http://www.saltwateredge.com/LE11.html My friends that fish for moderate sized pike (10-15lbs) typically use the butt section of old tapered leaders or a short length of 30-50lb mono as a bite guard. They pre-tie it to the fly and use micro swivels to attach it to the rest of their leaders, whatever size that might be. The pike fishing I've done was using 17lb mono and it held up to four pike... two landed and two threw the hook... without so much as a nick. The two landed were small, no bigger than 5lbs. Others will probably disagree, but that is what works here in Northern NY.

Well, if you need it... Cabela's saddle hackles are great for buggers and big flies.

They're thin and there is a bunch of space where its just thin skin and not hard bone. Hooks tend to pull easy in corner of the mouth hook ups with crappie. Gotta stick it in their upper jaw.

Cycling, woodworking, and photography. This year I was training for a triathlon (my first and I'm not a runner by any stretch of the imagination) but ran into some medical issues so that is sidelined until next year.

IF you're having trouble with loops getting caught in the guides, try creating a mono loop. This is one way http://www.marinews.com/Mono-Loop-to-Fly-Line-602.php This is a bunch of other ways http://www.flyfishinsalt.com/techniques/ba...ines-36224.html My Orvis Bass taper 8wt line had a mono loop whipped in it and I never had a problem. The fly lines I've used since (also Orvis lines) have it bonded and slide through the glides easily.

Depends on what I'm doing. Fishing streamers or nymphs for bass I use 6-7.5ft of straight 6lb mono, streamers or nymphs for trout its 5ft of 6lb mono and 2ft of 4x fluorocarbon. Dry flies it all depends on the fly and which rod. Typically 8.5ft total for big dries (down to size 14) and 9.5ft for small dries. I use a method described by Kreh on how to determine leader length, but only when I'm having trouble on the water (getting a good drift, casts not falling correctly, whatever).

I organize them by the areas or species that I fish. I have a lake/pond trout box. I have a Battenkill box. I have a small streams box (which is also my panfish box and covers cold water and warm water small stream). I have a Pike/Large Bass box.

I caught one of my biggest bass on a Salmon/Steelhead fly. A Chart. Comet on a size 6 salmon hook.

Nice! I'll have to give it a try as well. The Big bluegill come straight up out of the water to catch these guys in July and August. They typically splash us when we're out in our Kayaks.

You will be extraordinarily happy with the 20D. When i bought my current camera (30D) I was actually looking for a used 20D and stumbled on a really good deal for the 30D. Quite honestly, the photo quality isn't going to be that much different when comparing cameras in these range these close in release dates. Good lenses will get you a lot farther than going from a 20D to a 30D. There are several good lenses that don't cost an arm and a leg. If you need help feel free to ask and I'd be glad to give any advice I can offer.

Cedar chests and cedar planks have been used for years to keep wool from becoming magically "holey", and we've never had a problem with moths wherever we used cedar, so I think it'd be worth a shot. Better than making you and your animals sick, thats for sure.

Good luck Vern-O, wish I could make it but can't drive for a couplle more weeks (surgery). This isn't terribly far and would've made a nice day trip.