Swamp Fly

I'm in, was panning on hitting the Gades this weekend, but The Big O is just fine with me. Let me know (No pressure BTW I'm easy). I might even be persuades to put someone on my boat, they just need to be able to handle being on a small tippy glades style skiff.

Rest in peace Lefty. You had such a profound affect on me that I can't even pretend to know the totality of it. It was all over when I read Fly Fishing in Saltwater. I was hooked. That book probably had as much to do with my moving to Florida right after high school as anything else. My next cast will be in your honor, and yes I'll "watch my back cast"....

I expect that is more camera angle rather than a really long tail. Those types of fans in the background are usually chest high on me and I'll bet the end of the tail is about level with it if not above it. Think 50# minnow trophy shot. None the less that's a whole lot of prince nymphs on the hoof as it were.

Thanks Mike. I used to live in Melbourne, that was a three and a half hour drive and it was rough. Looking forward to hitting it. Thanks Bimini, that was my next plan. I'll have to see if my login still works. FS forum can be kinda weird, one minute they really share info, and the next nothing. Some of the tournament guys can get down right Basshatish, after all the whole area belongs to them.

It's that time of year again where I get twitchy because can just taste fishing The Alley. That would be Alligator Alley aka I-75 in South Florida for folks not from the area. How is the water level out there? Does it look like the fish are being forced into the canals off of the flats yet? I've been looking at USGS data and it should be close. Too much fun to be had when the water is low enough! It's a 2.5 hour drive for me so I don't just go and take a look on a whim. The west side looks about right but South Florida Water (mis)Management doesn't mess with the water levels as much over here so I don't like using it as a guide for what is happening over there.

You are making me twitch Capt! Thank you for taking the time to share.

Lmao!That's legit CB I wanna laugh but I just can't...the memories. Been there, witnessed that, "Hey Y'all look at these!". Not enough beer in the world. Actually I favorite memory of Okeechobee is driving through while Mud Fest was happening. They had set up showers of sorts close to the road to just wash the mud off. Basically a couple of shower heads and a few pieces of fencing (why the bothered with the fencing is beyond me). A line of people that were a uniform color of just about black where lined up in a neat row going in. I mean they could were completely covered with mud to the point they all could have been naked and you would not have been able to tell. A smattering of people were walking away from the other side but you could see the very brightly colored riding suits they had on. I still wish I had stopped to take pictures.

Believe me I want to and I will get back there. I'll have to stop by when I do!

Very Cool. I spent about a week most years at the Wagon Wheel Cabins in Cross Fork (Kettle Creek) for about 10 yrs. Lately I've really been wanting to go back. Spent an interesting evening on Pine Creek at Slate Run one year. It was HOT, water was low, and the trout where cranky about it. We were fishing at Hotel Manor & Bar hoping the influx of cooler water might attract fish. It's a modern building and while not unattractive I kept my back to it on purpose and waded out about ten yards. Well fish started rising half halfheartedly a little before dark and I got stubborn. My fishing buddy had given up about half an hour ago but I can get, well tenacious. It was full on dark before I gave up. So I turn around to the sight of fish rising everywhere. Thoughts of how I was going to get back to the bank without killing myself flew to the four corners. Big noses coming out of the water. I figured they had to be taking spinners so tied on a big coffin fly solely in hopes that I might possibly see that big white body in the pitch black. No luck, couldn't see a thing. I finally figured out I could see individual fish in the reflection of the deck lights of the hotel and would cast about 8" in front of a fish. Fish came up and I lifted the rod hoping that it was my fly that was taken. Caught 3-4 browns like that in 30 min. (2x tippet, hey it was dark!). All of them between 18" and 24". I decided to not push it and get back to the car before my buddy started sharpening a knife. I'm still not sure if leaving was worth not getting a but kicking! I'll never forget that, one of the more surreal cold water fishing events I've experienced.

Wow! I feel really bad for you Mike, it hit 87+ here last week...it must suck to have an actual winter there in Central FL. HaHa! Seriously, it was actually too warm for me last week. I have a bad feeling about this coming year. Last few days we have been getting dark clouds in the afternoon reminiscent of our monsoonal summer pattern. It would suck getting into wet season 2-3 months early. That usually spells way too much water here and bad drought out west. Steve, you need to get your butt down here middle of next month. Bring a couple 3-4wt rods (plus a 6 and 8 for bass) and I'll put you on enough Mayans and Oscars that you won't want to see another one! I'll even throw in the occasional Jaguar Guapote and peacock. I figure by day three you'll be cooked, right arm day one, left arm day two. I'll hook you up. Water is dropping fast, and the lower it gets the better the fishing.

Mike, those mini bait fish should work like panfish crack. I've always thought that one of the staple food sources on the St Johns (at least the upper/head water area) are gambusia. Bet they would just murder baby tarpon too. Very nicely done. You stripping the barbules off of the bottom of the feather?

Thanks Cream! An all black version ripped through the spatterdock (pads) would bet like fishing with dynamite down here. I'm thinking I may need to play with a tube version also. Buck tail, flash, and a short collar of schlappen on the worm hook? Thank you for sharing.

Cream, you certainly have my attention! Have you fished it? Does it keel right side up? I'm assuming (and you know what they say about that) it is an articulated pattern? Inquiring minds.... Water is starting to drop her in South Florida and I'm getting real twitchy!

Capt Bob, those types of spools are my favorite way of storing pre-tied tippets. The only difference is that I tie a sacrificial loop in the end of my tippet so I have loop to loop connections. That way all of the tippets feed off of the spool bimini/surgeons end first. I just cut the aforementioned loop when it comes off of the spool. I take a zip tie and loop it through all of the different spools to make a loose loop and then a mini carabiner clips the whole thing to a tackle bag or someplace within easy reach. That way I don't "forget" them and they don't eat space in my bag. The zip tie is just what I had laying around since I always have a small bundle in my boat/bag/truck and the carabiner costs about $1 to replace every few years. My only complaint is that the spools are not made of the most forgiving material and invariably I break one or two every year through some form of my own negligence. Have you found a tougher version of these spools, or perhaps even an after market spool that doesn't come filled? I've considered having some 3d printed out of a more forgiving material but that has not happened yet (project #6743). Incidentally I keep most of my flys in lure/soft plastic binders that I bundle together and clip to my bag the same way as the spools. Improved Homer Rhodes animation: https://howtoflyfish.orvis.com/fly-fishing-knots/improved-homer-rhode-loop-animation Edit to add: Most of my tippets are just plain old Ande line in various strengths without a bite tippet so I don't have a replenishing supply of spools. Probably less of an issue for you.

I really wonder (and Hope) if yesterday was one of those understated mile stones. The results of this may touch us all down the road.

Oh, don't pitch the old jaws, keep them for the hooks that don't slip and change to the new ones for the tiny stuff.

Kevin, adjust your jaws so they just touch when you tighten the cam. Even better tighten the cam and then turn the collet if you can to do the same thing. Rotate the jaws so you can see any gaps or uneven areas between them, a light source behind the jaws can help here. You can also apply some marker inside the jaws and then tighten the jaws while pulling some paper through them to see where the marker disappears first. The jaws should be close to parallel or any gap should be a taper from the front to the the back of the jaws. It the jaws are sprung you will see a gap at the tip of the jaws (right where you clamp small hooks). Tighten the collet a bit more and see if that opens the tips up don't use more pressure than you would use clamping a hook or you could cause damage. If you see light in areas other that where the built in grooves for larger hooks are then you probably have worn those areas. You could try to hone the jaws, but honestly I'd send the whole thing in to be serviced at that point. If you have worn out the jaws, it's probably about time anyway. At the very least I would send in the jaws or buy a new set if you don't want to send the whole vice. Or just call Dyna-King to start with! BTW, I use a Barracuda as well and I love mine. It's a tank!

Yes, peacocks are cannibals. Green/yellow/orange is a very popular combo.

All of this is good news! Thank you to all.

Congrats! My wife's uncle once told me that he was glad he was retired because going to all of the different doctors was a full time job...

Interesting. What length(s) have you used?

34 this morning in Ft Myers dropping to 25 later.....sitting at the gate waiting to hop a flight to VA!

Kimo that emerger is quite extraordinary. I'm not sure I've seen one like it. All sorts of goodness in there. I'm thinking with the resin head the hook shank should sit more perpendicular to the surface, brilliant. Humm, that just got the juices flowing as I was typing. A tiny bit of weight up front like that might to interesting things to a deer hair bug.

I see what you did there!

Having lived here since '74, if I don't tell people that I'm German then people don't know. I frequently tell people "I'm German, cain't y'all tell?", that usually gets a chuckle. I've had more than one friend that I've know for a long time give me that weird stare when they hear me talk to another German for the first time (often years after they have known me). They tell me that is when it became "real" to them. I think and dream in the language I'm speaking or none. The thing is that I don't always think in words, I often think in concepts and certain feelings though that is not really correct. It's tough to explain, I've never really been able to explain it even to my own satisfaction. There are many things I can only say in one or the other language, Not only are there things that just don't translate well, but I really suck at translating. I can translate, but it takes genuine effort for more than just a word or two. I've often wondered if it is because of the way I think. After all of these years my vocabulary in English is probably greater but give me 6 months to a year in Germany and I expect that would go away. The fact that I come from a long line of teachers and folk that take pride in their communication skills probably does not help my view of my own capabilities. What I have however noticed is that I often will use expressions and some grammar in the wrong language. For instance I might try and put a verb at the end of a sentence at times or capitalize nouns (when writing obviously ;P ). I think that the keys to being able to really think in a non-native tongue is having learned a second language while young and a certain level of immersion (the more the better of course). I'd be interested to know if people can learn a 3rd language later and become truly fluent if they already became fluent in a 2nd language (as in being able to think in said language) when they were younger. Of course some people just seem to be able to learn that sort of thing better than most to start with, I'm wondering about the "average" bilingual person if there is such a thing.