Jim Elam

LOL! Nice Rick. You make a very persuasive argument... JE

Welcome. I'm doing the same thing. Bass fished for years as a kid and teen, then stopped and learned fly fishing, now getting back into the bass game. It has changed and is lots of fun. Good luck. Jim

Hi Brent. I am not an expert, but I have caught a few carp on the fly, and it is a good time. I have tied for 15 + years, have built several graphite fly rods, and own far more fly fishing equipment than I care to admit to. The James river has some pretty good carp fishing in the spring and summer. Stockton can be good as well. So can lake springfield. The best advice I can give you for carp on the fly is to cast past the strike zone well ahead of the fish, then carefully move the fly into the fish's view. Can get a little tricky, so be persistent. The actual fly matters less than the presentation...most of the time. Good luck. Let me know if I can help you out. Jim

"I honestly thing the GYCB 4 inch grub is the best at getting bitten, but the dang things are so impossibily flimsy, but I will never buy another one" Has anyone tried the elaztech grubs? seems like the stuff is indestructible and would hold up much better than the GY grubs. JE

Thats right. You can move it slowly and minimize movement in the water column, but it will come up some. That is not all bad...think about what you do when you vertical jig. That upward movement can attract fishes' attention. I like a fixed bobber in current, slip in still water. JE

I use slip bobbers and they work well. They allow you to fish deeper than std rig, and make casting less of a pain. I personally like the longer soft action rods that FnF folks use, but with a good slip bobber the long rod is not necessary. The slip bobbers can sometimes take a little tweaking but work really well overall. JE

Float n fly has been working in the cold water areas of the James on sunny afternoons. Ned rig also working. Fish the deeper holes below riffles, fish the ned on a light head and very slow. I have caught fish on 1/8 oz shad fly or a 3" stick-o below a slip bobber. Caught 5 in 1.5 hrs on Saturday afternoon. JE

Outlet area at SL. Use 1/4 oz or 1/8 oz jig head 1/0 or larger hook with a 6 inch or 8 inch floating or finesse style worm (larger would probably work). Work it in the flow and the seams off the flow. Get it to the bottom and let it sit, working it back very slowly. If the line gets heavy set the hook. If you feel a bump set the hook. Best colors are green pumpkin, pumpkin and orange, watermelon. JE

Good idea. Agree that the smaller hooks yield more bait action and more bites. Light floro line is important too. Lots more fish on 6# vs 8# for me. I have learned that stretching the zinker before use really improves the bait's action in the water and will get it to float sooner. I like the 1/16 oz jig heads at fin n feather with the weed guards for the rig. Very cheap and easy to find, easy to remove weed guard if desired, hook is the right size. Some days the fish don't seem to mind the weed guard, some days they do. Not sure the guard helps that much anyway. If you like the bait to really move, try the fattyz cut down to 3" on a 1/16 head with a sz 6 hook. The brown and orange version should be deadly for smallies in the rivers. Jim

Spavinaw... Upper end on low water years can be very productive. Lilly pads hold lots of fish during warm months. Black hollow and tag hollow hold big fish, but you will have to work for them. Has been a few years since I fished Spavinaw, but it holds some really large bass. Big bait, big fish type of lake IMO. Crayfish immitations always produced well. One year my father caught 49 bass over 5 lbs, including 3 over 9 lbs back in the 80's. That was fishing it March 1 to Nov most Saturdays and Sundays. That was the best year I have seen there. Never did much good on Hudson. Eucha is also an excellent lake in that area. Good luck. Jim

On the lake at 2pm launched at CF, fished 45 degree chunk rock banks and caught 7 in 2.5 hrs all in less than 15 fow on finesse rig. WT 46-47. No luck on Jig n pig, didn't really try much else. Longest fish only about 16-17 inches, most were K's. Nice to get a warm afternoon. Jim

Maybe he got cold feet???

Second the golf course comment...

LOL! A few years ago I'm fly fishing on a local river (wading) and a guy literally motors 30 feet from where I'm standing and drops anchor, right where I'm catching white bass. He then apologizes, turns around, and starts fishing in the spot I'm in. Not another soul on the river is visible. Plenty of water to fish.... Wanted to walk over and push down one side of the Jon boat he was in and watch it fill and disappear. Instead, I asked him if I was in his way, thinking he would understand my sarcasm. Instead, he tells me there is plenty of river and I don't need to fish so close to him... I have fished Fellows on days where I have had a pretty good chuckle watching people load and unload at the ramp. I see some stupidity, but rarely experience anything overtly rude or selfish. Quite the opposite actually. Most folks are respectful and polite, often helpful. But one bad experience really stands out!

Love the Nujig. Comes through cover great. Excellent quality hook. Best jig I have used in 35 years of jig fishing. Seems to me that Bo has a great combination of local fishery knowledge and innovative ideas for baits, at has done a great job of putting it all together in these high quality jigs. Can't wait to try the chatter baits and spinner baits as well. Jim

Lighting is easy to DIY, check out youtube on the subject. Nice kayak... I kayak Stockton lots, usually in the cedar ridge area or near Aldrich. Main channel can get ugly quick, would avoid. I agree with the flag idea. A bike trailer flag and a paddle with orange blades helps the boys in bass rigs see you, and if you do wander near the channel I would get highly visible. Yaks are easy to overlook when you are not expecting them, and there are well documented cases of collisions (even with visibility enhancers like bike flags, etc). Fishing from yaks is a ball. Smallmouth stream fishing is a great time, and the white run is fun from a yak. Springfield lake bassin' and carpin' are fun too. I am sure you will find your favorite variation soon enough. I think you are gonna like your purchase! Jim

Try targeting the man made structures in 20 - 35 row using electronics. Can usually find them there this time of year. Try the two structures on the far NW corner of the lake near the dam. Can be very productive before they move to shallow water.

Have tried most of the popular ones out there, and they all can be made to work. Lots of good marketing from WS, Jackson, Old Town, etc, but the Ascend D10T is dollar for dollar the best SOT yak for rivers and creeks. Deck is clean and uncluttered so you can customize as you see fit, or leave clean to fly fish from. The seating is not well thought out, but a functional solution is simple. Any 18-20 Qt cooler fits nicely in the seat area. Lash it down and rig it out however you like (seat cushion, stadium seat, etc). It positions the paddler at the perfect fishing height, allows one to easily get in and out of the boat, and is still pretty darn stable. Makes getting to stand and back to sit easy too. Fits in a pickup bed easily, is fairly light and durable. It is a great little float boat in the configuration I have described as long as there is some current and not a lot of wave action from powered boats... It is not a strong big lake or ocean platform IMO...I would look at the aforementioned Pescador or FS12T models on up for lakes. Would consider 12 ft a minimum length if you plan to paddle in a lake more than a mile from put in, or if doing floats on really slow rivers with long flat pools where paddling speed and tracking are bigger priorities. Regardless of what you decide to get, I would strongly suggest a sit on top type kayak as you have indicated. Sit in kayaks are not really designed for fishing IMO, and a solo canoe would fit a fishing mission better. Cost - $250-$300 on Craigslist, $400 new for boat, $20 for 18 Qt Igloo cooler, $8 for an old stadium seat JE

Find warm water, find baitfish, bass will be there. Water temp in LS arm near Aldrich got to 50 today, and the warm temps turned them on. 1/8 oz jig with 4 inch smoke and purple flake grub SSSLLLOOOOOOOOWWWWW! Caught a few on a 6 inch swim jig ( cream ) as well. All in 5-8 ft of water. Everything was 16-18 inches. I never found the walleye...

Fished Fellows for crappie with my son this weekend. Fished only the afternoons. Water temp 37 to 42 F avg about 39-40F. Water clarity was about 5 feet Saturday due to moderate winds, more like 8 feet on Sunday afternoon. I didn't see a lot of people catching fish, but we managed to catch 10 between us each of the 2 evenings. Fished in 30 - 40 ft vertical jigging 1/8 and 1/16 oz white and olive marabou jigs, 1/16 oz split tail soft plastic minnow grubs, and black and chartreuse tubes. The takes were light and close to structure. Relied heavily on electronics to find the fish, and the bite seemed to start around 5pm and end around 6pm both days. Each day we were also able to catch a few other species, such as white bass and walleye, and managed to have a pretty good time. Nice to pick up a few fish on the first really nice weekend we have had in a while.