Fly Fishing

[RWrightPhotog]

Going to sling small barbless hooks covered in hair at fish Monday in Helen, Ga.

Anyone else here fly fish... actually I'm pretty sure I've read and participated in similar discussions here before, but it's a new year!

It's a just a bit warm for trout, but I'll be headed to the Chattahoochee head waters - wish me luck!

[prohunter4]

Yep. Went fly fishing on the Big Hole River last week. We caught 4 nice brownies and they were delicious.

[RWrightPhotog]

Nice! I have the corn meal awaitin' my catch. ha ha

[prohunter4]

We did the same thing to ours. My wife mealed em up, pan fried em, make your tongue beat your brains out.

[jdaniel83]

Yes sir I love fly fishing. My dad and 2 older brothers are better at it than me, but there's nothing like the solitude of fly fishing in a mountain stream. Or fly fishing anywhere for that matter. Wish I was up in Colorado doing it right now, but hopefully I'll make it up there sometime soon. One day I hope to make it up to Montana for a fly fishing trip. Always wanted to do that. Good luck with the trip to Chattahoochee. One day I'd like to head that way and try my hand at some fly fishing over there also.

[RWrightPhotog]

Catch and release... into a pan of hot oil!

And there are plenty of places to fly fish in N. Georgia, but I absolutely love the head waters of the 'Hooch. Beautiful and solitude ... oh yes!

[RWrightPhotog]

So my trip turned out to be quite the adventure. Got stung by five angry hornets while deep in the woods (didn't see the next was attached to tree I was climbing over.) Dropped my iPhone in the 'hooch. Caught some trout, caught way too many small ones. Oh and I got the wife's ZJ stuck on a Forest Service road on Tray Mtn, but that's another story.


Caught three about this size, which is pretty average for the small mountain river, especially this time of year. I avoid the areas where they release stocked fish - I want the wild trout that actually know what bugs are.


Couldn't keep these little guys off my flies though. Always happens this time of year up there though, rivers filled with fish this size and they just love bugs. I of course released them unharmed. I actually released all the trout I caught unharmed, I didn't feel right keeping any that I caught due to size.

[JPSwapMohn]

I also love fly fishing. Got into it when I lived out in Boise. Don't get/take the opportunity as often anymore, but go when I can. I have a pack rod and small Orvis setup that I typically keep in the back of whatever i am driving "just in case". An old habit I developed out west when I would go out for an hour and fish on my way to work and such. Not willing to admit that I only get out a couple of times a year now. I have managed a couple of days this year.
Nothing better than standing in clear water watching the eagles swoop into the canyon and catch more fish than I do.
Oh, and I prefer the clean 'em, put them in tin foil with a little butter, a lemon wedge, maybe a little pepper, and set them on the fire.
it's a tough call between which I love more, fly fishing or jeepin'. But the Jeep gets me to the fish..

[goldhammer]

Mom had a guy in the small wide spot in the road(who was a fellow postmaster) make me a bamboo fly rod when I was about 11 (50 years ago). Still have it in the original cloth bag and tube. She also gave me an automatic fly reel to go with it, don't know what ever happened to it, packed away for one of several moves and never found.

Now you have me wanting to get it out and go again.

The streams up here, mostly only run 6-10 inchers most of the year, and usually 7-8 inch is a good one.. Just dandy pan size and 4-5 are a nice meal. Not much into catch and release, we fished for the table when growing up.

We had one little creek we fished as a family, dad would go down the the road crossing(about a mile or so) and clean what he caught and wrap in a wet rag and stash under a rock there, then work his way back up. Usually 50 or so at the road and the same back on top when he got there. Mom and I would work the meadow till he got back (another mile or so). We would have about another 50 or so. Natives, but there were so many they never grew to any size, most were 4-5 inches once in awhile you would gt an 8 incher out of the meadow. Would make a couple of meals for the three of us. Only could get to the reek up there about 4 months out of the year.

[Don S]

i..

I got to drown some flies in the Frying Pan river (Lake Chapman camp site) in Colorado... It was misting and raining all day.
The next day was beautiful and I was below the dam where it's catch and release with no barbs. It was totally crowded with sport fisherman so I jumped back into the Waggie and drove south down to Ouray for the high mountain passes.

Can you Spell Black Bear.. Don S..

[bigun]

My favorite memories is of my dad and I getting up before everybody else and walking down to the lake. The water would be flat except where the trout were breaking the surface, we used open face rods and reels with a torpedo float for weight, the dry fly on a three foot leader behind it.

We would separate about fifty feet or so apart, after that there was only the sound of the line going out, the ploop of the float landing, and then the steady sound of the line being reeled back in. Soon there would be the sound of a stick math being lit and my dad would light his morning cigar. Other than a low voiced call of congratulations if someone caught a fish there was almost no conversation
After the sun was fully up we would walk back to camp, where the rest of the family was getting around and eat breakfast.

Early mornings walking to the lake are some of my fondest memories. There was the time in Co. where there was a low fog about hip deep on me I was almost to the lake when i heard the brush ahead crackling, I reached under my vest and popped the snap on the retainer of my 1911 thinking bear suddenly I heard something go into the water and then the ducks started quaking!

Another time I was with my mom and my brothers kids, I sat off towards the lake carrying my 12 foot boat and fishing gear as I came into site of the lake I saw a heard of does and fawns maybe 20 of them, by stopping evertime their tails started twitching I was eventually able to get about a hundred feet away from them before they bolted!

I keep a travel rod and fly's and lures under the seat of my pickup just in case I get the urge