dafack01

I tie all of my weighted flies with dumbbell eyes but that alone still makes for a very snagg-y situation.

Now that I'm starting to get a handle on fishing the salt I've been starting to bust out the longrod more and more. One thing I've been curious about though is weedguards. I love fishing small swimbaits and shrimp patterns on swimbait hooks (the weedless kind) because they're much less apt to get snagged on oyster bars than standard jigs.

So I've been wondering if there's any sort of weedguard that you all use that you find reduces snags but doesn't have much, if any, practical detriment on how many fish you hook. What are your all's favorite weedguard?

My opinion is that if it catches fish who cares?

defack01;The mallies lovem. Never tried them on largemouth,but they should work.

 

No smallies around here for quite a ways unfortunately. Hopefully the Redfish will find them tasty.

 

 

Don't wanna use em' in saltwater if they ain't tied on stainless hooks.....but the Largemouth will inhale em' :bugeyes: A two hour drive north for ya and we're catchin some smallies in the Congaree....the stripers in the Saluda and Congaree will also hit em'....but if ya make a weekend trip to the smokies...or especially the South Holsten...Big browns will smack the out of em' ...occasional rainbow too!

 

Gonna try to make it down your way here soon...hear tell the shad should be movin up the Ogeechee soon?

Smallmouth 2 hours away? Hmm... I forsee a trip up there sometime soon! The Shoal Bass in south Georgia might hit them as well.

defack01;The mallies lovem. Never tried them on largemouth,but they should work.

No smallies around here for quite a ways unfortunately. Hopefully the Redfish will find them tasty.

I'll play! No trout around here (Savannah, GA) but Sculpin patterns look buggy enough that they could probably pass for a shrimp.

If the Reds and Specks down here don't like 'em I bet they'll rip the lips of a few bass. There's a ton of ponds down here. If all else fails I guess I'll just have to take a trip to the Chattahoochie or to N. Carolina to use 'em up!

I'll tie up some Zoo Cougars. Color TBD.

I actually live in Savannah, Georgia and used to live in Lousiville, KY.

I still think if fishing is your #1 concern, Alaska and South Florida are the undisputed angling kings of the United States. Is there lots of cool fishing elsewhere? You bet. I'd bet most anywhere you live in the United States you can find some killer fishing within reasonable driving distance. Heck, I lived in Des Moines, Iowa for a month and a half and I guarantee that I would've found some great fishing around Iowa that I would be happy as a clam with, and Iowa isn't exactly known as an angling paradise.

I love the fishing in Kentucky and I'm starting to really dig the fishing in Savannah. Now if I could just do more catching here than fishing!

Without a doubt the absolute #1 fishing paradise in the U.S. is South Florida (notable exception being Alaska).

Tarpon

Snook

Redfish

Bonefish

Permit

Barracuda

Jack Crevalle

Dorado

Sailfish

Marlin

Tuna

Peacock Bass

Largemouth Bass

Bream

Oscars

Tilapia

Plus God knows how many other cool species.

If fishing was your only priority I think it would be foolish to not consider South Florida. No you don't have Trout or Steelhead, but when you're 45 minutes into a battle with a 150 pound Tarpon, a big Bonefish rips off 150 yards of backing, or you're hanging on for dear life when suddenly a pissed-off 30 pound Snook starts barreling straight towards the Mangrove Trees, do you really think that you'd care?

Plus seeing that you have Miami and Ft. Lauderdale both within a hop, skip, and a jump from each other, finding an IT job shouldn't be too tough. It might be a bit crowded down there in some areas but the smaller communities shouldn't be too bad, especially away from Miami. From about Ft. Lauderdale north to the South-Central coast should be better for you. It kinda sounds like you might be looking something a little slower paced than South Florida (slower paced than Miami at least), but I figured I'd throw this in as a food-for-thought thing.

If not South Florida, I'd say North Carolina. You have Trout galore, Smallmouth and all of the other warmwater species, and it's a short hop to the coast for some Striper, Tuna, False Albacore, and Redfish. East Tennessee would be up there too.

Congratulations! :yahoo: :yahoo: :yahoo: :yahoo: Glad baby and the Mrs. are doing great!

When I lived in Kentucky I fished streams for Smallies every chance I got and I found 9' 6wt (I have a TFO Jim Teeny rod that I really like) to be the cat's meow. Anything bigger on a stream is like using a 44 magnum to hunt squirrels. The fish tend to be smaller (18" is a true hawg and doesn't come very often, 12"-16" fish common).

If I was fishing a bigger river with bigger flies, an 8wt would be nice to fight the wind when it starts kicking up. Or when they're relating to downed timber the extra oomph of an 8wt would be nice so you can muscle them out better on those bigger rivers.

Actually, this is the lady I prefer:

I'll take both her and the Hardy Girl.

And that fish come to think of it. I'm not sure if that's an Atlantic Salmon or a Steelhead but I won't split hairs.

On the "I saw _____ with a fly rod" note, in the version of Lord of The Rings that I got, I was flipping through the extras on The Fellowship of the Ring, and it showed some footage of Vigo Mortensen fly fishing at that lake where they filmed before Sam and Frodo set out on their own. It was kinda weird seeing Aragorn fly fishing.

Dafack01 & Savannah Flies,

 

OK here's the scoop,

 

I was at the NJ fly-fishing show last week. They had Heritage Red fisher 14' kayaks (last years model) for $500, but only had bright red ones at the show. I called the shop and purchased one (in Khaki) today. I will be doing some training in NY the end of March and will pick it up then.

 

I could not find a better price on the web and have realized this kayak is made for the bigger guy (I'm 5'11" & 245lb).

 

2 questions.

 

1. Did I get a good deal? i.e., is this a good yak?

 

2. Did you guys ever get together fish down there? Why? Because I'm bringing this yak to Hilton Head the end of May and expect a fish frenzy.

 

Now, I just need to tell my wife before I bring it home. I think she'll notice it on the roof of the car (at least it's not red, should have got camo)

 

She OKed the purchase when she thought I wanted the $140 yak at Dicks sporting goods. And then had a bird when I told her I wanted the $900 yak. I'm always in trouble.

 

George

If you paid $500 then you got a hell of a deal! I paid $750 for mine and I have a Redfish 12!

You're very brave too with the Khaki, BTW! With all of the moron powerboaters out there you couldn't pay me enough to have something that camouflages into the backgroundlike Khaki does. Mine's a bright frickin yellow.

We've fished down here together but neither of us could hardly be considered experts. He just started fishing again this past year and I just moved down here in November. PM me when you get down here and I'd be glad to go fishing with you! You'd have to get a Georgia fishing license though because I won't have any clue about how or where to fish in South Carolina. Savannah's only about an hour away from Hilton Head though.

I just got a new job as a psychic, and these are my first official predictions:

I see these piercing many a Redfish mouth.

I see some of these in my fly box in the future.

This job's pretty easy.

Hey Chalk,

Got two questions from a newb...

 

The pic shows a size 4 right? I tied one on a 2 and it doesn't look nearly as "buggy" as your pic.

 

and "stroking it as you wrap it" - you mean stroking it towards the back to pile it up closer/tighter?

 

Thanks!

 

Mark

That's probably what he means. On that sparkleminnow I showed you how to tie, that's what I do, stroke it back after every wrap. It does make it buggier with the Angel Hair dubbing rope thingy on that fly.

On Cumberland River in Kentucky I had good luck on woolly buggers and its infinite variations (especially Coffey's Sparkleminnow) as well as Dave Whitlock's Sheep Shad. I'd assume EP fiber streamers, etc... would work great too. Color didn't seem to matter as long as it was shiny, didn't jig up and down very much, and looked like a shad or minnow.

Sweet,

 

Wait till you see a pod of Dolphin chase a school of Seatrout up onto shore and corral them like cowboys, it's quite a spectacular show. Fins Flippers and Teeth in a frenzy.

That sounds awesome! I hope I get to see that sometime soon! :headbang:

After casting a reagular leadhead jig around the saltwater flats for a while I've quickly realized that weedguards are sorely needed.

Seeing that I'm really jonesin' to catch some Redfish on a fly rod, what is/are the best weedguard(s)? I'm gonna need 'em in the flats.

I took the S.S. dafack01 (aka my new Heritage Redfish 12 kayak which I'm really digging BTW) out for a while yesterday. The weather has been chilly (relative term here; chilly meaning highs around 50 give or take), wet, and overcast for a straight week. Looks like it'll be the same next week too.

But I went out yesterday anyways. At least there was some sun out yesterday. I casted a GULP shrimp around Little Tybee Island and the Back River at Tybee Island. Only fish on my line was a snagged 1" finger mullet. I've heard the mud flats heat up more than the sand so I mostly paddled around casting to mud flats and sawgrass banks. Found a couple neat flats that look very fishy at high tide.

Coolest part of the day though was when I was just paddling around aimlessly (which was most of the day admittedly). I was at the confluence of Back River and another tidal creek and just sat there on the water watching a pod of Dolphins for about 10 minutes! I'm not sure what they were doing but they kept on surfacing and diving for a good 10 minutes! All this took place not 20 yards from me! Of course i didn't have a camera.

I didn't stay out as long as I wanted to because a) the fishing sucked and the weather didn't give me any confidence to say out, and it was almost high tide and I didn't feel like fighting high tide any more.

So I pulled out, loaded up, and went for a nice long walk on the beach. There's nothing like a walk on the beach to recharge your batteries.

kodiak commando, you're making me drool over here!

Costa Rica has all kinds of world records for fish. I think it was Lefty that did a bunch of exploring there. Also Labrador is an amazing place for Atlantic Salmon and Brookies. (Where Lee Wulf did his exploration.)

I'd love to go to Labrador (it's on my wish list actually) but I think my sales pitch might fall on deaf ears if I pitch it to my friends. Besides, I've been fascinated by Alaska since I was a little boy. Now that I have the chance to actually go on a dream vacation, Alaska is first on the list since the Amazon is out of reach. Heck, I can drive 6 hours to Ft. Lauderdale and catch Peacocks (though not as big as their cousins I'd catch on the $6000 Amazon trips).

Try Naknek river camp owned by Jim Johnson. 1 week guided trip in the Katmia National Park with trips over to Brooks Falls (the place with all the bears). You stay in fishing cabins, hot breakfasts, shore lunches, and hot dinners. 30" rainbows are a great possability along with any salmon that might be running at the time. Up to 20" inch grayling on dry flies, 10+ pound artic char and pike are also a possability. The stay costs $1795 for the week plus airfair which cost me about $1000 round trip from Springfield, Mo.

Definately a place for the budget minded person, but it is a fishing camp. No real luxuries, but better than staying in tents.

 

duckydoty

This sounds promising! It just seems like anything worth going down to the Amazon for is just too damn expensive. I just can't justify spending stupid money to go to the Amazon to catch fish as big as I could catch in Florida. That means if I go to the Amazon it would mean a $5000 trip or better.

The opportunity to catch Salmon, 20" grayling, arctic char, and 30" Rainbows? Under $3000 for the trip? That's a dream vacation that's very doable! I don't care about luxury on a fishing trip. You want luxury? stay at the Plaza. You want to fish? Quit being a pansy and stay in something rustic.

That's cool as a polar bear's toenails, Day5! Family fun at it's finest! I look very very forward to the day that I have a family of my own to do that with.

That's one thing I'm gonna miss down here in Savannah. Snow. My co-workers said that it might snow once every 15 years down here.

Who am I to complain though; I spent yesterday evening at the beach! :headbang: The water was too cold for swimming but there's nothing like the salty sea air, the sound of gentle waves, sand between your toes, and a sunset straight out of a Corona ad to help you unwind and recharge your batteries.

My friends and I are trying to put together a trip-of-a-lifetime trip. First thought was the Amazon River somewhere for Peacock Bass. The cheapest I saw was for the mid-high $3000 range plus airfare and tips and stuff. We're not wanting luxury suites and all that crap they seem to have. Just a tent or a crappy cabin will do fine. Any Amazon River trip must be trips where you catch truly monster Peacocks. I don't want to spend $3000 just to catch fish as big as I'd catch in S. Florida, which is 6 hours away for me.

If not, what are some affordable Alaska trips? My initial half-assed google search seemed to suggest Alaska trips are a heck of a lot more affordable.

Now all you need is a large fish tank in the corner and you can fish without leaving home... :j_k: :hyst:

 

I love my kayak! I bought a kayak two summers ago and spent the first summer pimping it. :pimp: :punk: I didn't think about bringing my into my living room, though. Somehow I don't think the Mrs. would approve... Wives can be like that...

I don't really approve of the new living room decor either. I'd much rather have a nice dinette table in its place so when I get a new sofa/loveseat/end table ensemble in addition to a nice entertainment center my apartment doesn't look as much like a college "bachelor pad" (right now it screams "bachelor pad" since I have hand-me-down furniture to tide me over until I can afford to buy nicer stuff). However, I really don't feel like paying an extra $85 per month for a garage since I'm already paying almost $800/month in rent for a one bedroom apartment.

So for the meantime, the living room it is!

If I had a digital camera I'd post a pic, but I don't so this'll be pic-less. I went down to Strike Zone Fishing in Jacksonville today and ended up driving away with a brand new Heritage Redfish 12! Bright Yellow. It looks great in my living room. Good thing I don't have a wife or girlfriend because a garage costs $85 per month at my apartment complex.

I got 2 flush-mount rod holders for behind the seat and one scotty rod holder for the front between-your-legs console thingy, one PFD, one anchor, and a fiberglass paddle that weighs next to nothing (got it on sale for $40 off!). My PFD and my paddle are yellow to match my kayak, so even though it's in my living room I'm still color coordinated!

Trout and Redfish, here I come! :headbang: