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Fly Tying
Mark Knapp

Fly fishing for big red ears.

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And other species like small mouth, large mouth and stripers in Lake Havasu.

This spring from April 21 to June 8, I fly fished Lake Havasu, mostly for trophy sized redear sunfish. I also used conventional gear for prospecting and when the weather conditions made fly fishing impossible.

There are no line class records for sunfish with the IGFA, and to apply for one, you need to catch a fish by fly or on a line class leader 50 percent as big, or bigger, than the "All Tackle" record. For redear sunfish, that would be 3 pounds 2 ounces.

I fished 45 out of 47 days. The trip was my third to Havasu and I always have a great time down there.

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The water is clear, and the lake is full of great big carp and gold fish. They would be great for sight-fly fishing or bow fishing. That was not my mission on this trip.

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This two and a half pounder was hanging out in the marina where I keep my boat. I leave the fish in the marinas alone so other people can see them.

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These three and a half pound large mouths were spawning in the marina too.

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This is my very first sunfish on day one, caught while prospecting. 14 inches and 2.2 pounds.

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Then I caught this 15 inch three pounder. Those were on conventional gear, drop-shotting with worms. I switched to fly gear.

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I had 11 fly rod-reel combos aboard the boat and started with these three. A 2/0, a 5/6 and an 8 weight. The 8wt wasn't needed for the size of fish I wanted to catch or the size of the fly I wanted to cast. It's my suspicion that bigger rods are needed to reach the depths I sometimes needed to reach. I sometimes fished to depths of 40 feet. The flies of choice were a San Juan worm, a grub and a crayfish imitation.

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The first fish on a fly of the trip, a striper on a wholly-booger.

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The fully loaded fishing platform.

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A three pound smally on a Quagga Mussel fly.

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A nice small mouth on a crayfish fly.

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For fun I smashed a wholly worm with a Bully Spider and call it a wholly-Bully....

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And on the very first cast, it caught a 12 inch blue-gill.

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A smally on a San-Juan worm. Lake Havasu is in the top seven bass lakes in the U.S. There are small mouth, large mouth and striper tournaments almost all year long.

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A really nice redear on a quagga. I caught as many sunfish as small mouth with a few large mouths and stripers thrown in.

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One fish can fill a five gallon bucket.

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It's a nice fish but too small for a tippet class record.

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On some years there is a huge invasion of these grass hoppers in the area. I tied up a bunch of these but there was never an invasion this year.

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Some friends stopped buy to fish and visit. We let all the real big fish go except the ones injured by the hook and these smaller ones.

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Large sunfish on spawning beds.

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A bud and I with a double.

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Another great double.

More to come.

 

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Mark,

Great report, I have been wondering about your trip. Looking forward to seeing the rest and all of the great pictures. 
Tom

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A very pretty fish....

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and big too...

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I would have entered it for a tippet-line-class record if I had caught it on a fly. It was on a worm.

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I had seven fly rods out at the most. That way I could try any fly or presentation at any location at any time.

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Out of all the flies I brought, the Quagga Mussel fly was the most productive. I caught more fish on it than any other style of fly. I have the size and color dialed in and I'm going to tie a bunch more for when I go back.

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Even Quagga Mussels bit on Quagga mussel flies. I guess that's the real test. In all, I caught four species of fish on these flies, sunfish, large mouth, small mouth and stripers.

I wasn't able to catch a sunfish large enough, on flies, on this trip to enter for a new line class record but I came very close. Next year may be the year.

Thanks for looking.

 

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Jeez can you even call them "panfish" when they are too big to fit in a pan? 😁

Those are some amazing looking redear, they had to be a blast to fight them.

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10 minutes ago, Steeldrifter said:

Jeez can you even call them "panfish" when they are too big to fit in a pan? 😁

Those are some amazing looking redear, they had to be a blast to fight them.

They really are, thanks.

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