Glad I brought a Net!

Today was a day full of firsts.

1st fish on new fly rod
1st fish I have ever fought “off the reel” while fly-fishing
New personal best brown trout.

Overall a pretty successful day! I fished a small stream In Winona Co. and found this 19-1/2″ brown in a deep pool below some rapids. I caught it fishing a home made leech pattern bead head fished excruciatingly slow. After the 5 minute fight and release, I proceeded to hike 2 miles or so up stream and caught 10 or so more browns, with a few in the 12-13 inch range and several in the 10″ range. Overall it was a fun day. It could have been a heck of an outing if I wouldn’t have lost the 17+” brown right at the end. This stuff sure is an exciting way to forget about the river being too high to fish!

Well tell us about this new fly rod! What did you get?

Well, keep in mind I am just getting my feet wet into this… So I picked up the cheapest 8 footer of decent weight I could get…which was an 8 foot 5/6 weight Pflueger Medalist…one of those rod kits that comes with everything you need. Before I was using an 8 foot 3 weight St. Croix (borrowed) and that was great, but I don’t like the thought of having to replace a friend’s $200+ rod. The good news, is even though its a low quality rod, I can still roll cast very well with it and I can get much better distance on my overhand cast (when possible) with this new rod. I still have LOTS to learn.

very nice fish

Nice trout! Wish I could get back this weekend to hit up the streams of Pierce County. I think I will be doing a LOT more trophy trout catch and release fishing than anything else. For some reason, those big trout can’t resist a 2 1/2″……..that bait works awesome!

Nice fish. I can’t believe how hard those big browns fight. I caught a 20 last spring and he really tested my equipment.

nice brown. we just electro-shocked a local pierce county stream for ichthyology and brought up 3 14″ and 2 15″ browns within only 50′ feet. Our teacher said the same area has 2 20″ browns last year. Should be alot of trophy CPR this season

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Well, keep in mind I am just getting my feet wet into this… So I picked up the cheapest 8 footer of decent weight I could get…which was an 8 foot 5/6 weight Pflueger Medalist…one of those rod kits that comes with everything you need. Before I was using an 8 foot 3 weight St. Croix (borrowed) and that was great, but I don’t like the thought of having to replace a friend’s $200+ rod. The good news, is even though its a low quality rod, I can still roll cast very well with it and I can get much better distance on my overhand cast (when possible) with this new rod. I still have LOTS to learn.

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Sounds good Cade. Keep your eyes open and you can find some good deals on fly rods and reels. I found one of my favorite 8 weight rods on clearance for $25.00! On the other hand, there are companies that want $800 for a fly rod. I can’t understand what an $800 flyrod could possibly do that my $100 fly rod doesn’t…..So watch for deals. And despite all of the hype about rods, the big factor in casting (besides you) is the LINE. Good lines make casting much easier. Cheap lines are awful even for good casters.

Keep asking questions. This is always a great place to get answers. If you’re into watching instructional videos, buy a copy of the “Lefty Kreh on Fly Casting” DVD. Lefty is the best and this DVD is full of great information. You can also see pieces of this DVD on Youtube.

Have fun! You’re off to a tremendous start

Rootski

very nice brown…huge tail…bet fought like crazy. Keep us up on your trout escapades ..