Arofishing

I am still being real cautious about crossing the creek, and since you informed me where you previously *thought* they were, I've avoided walking near the tops of riffles entirely. I did spook a fish pretty much in that same exact spot we met for the first time a couple weeks ago (just down stream of the bridge). I couldn't figure out what would possess a fish to hang out in that shallow of water, since its fins were showing also. I looked around for a nest but didn't see one for certain. I assumed that's what was going on though. I spooked a decent fish upstream of the bridge too, but it wasn't the one bigun' I saw there last time . My time at the lower wire wasn't fruitful at all. I didn't even spook any trout down there. It was still nice to get out and walk the creek in any case. I'll probably see what the upper wire is all about next time, assuming there is water there. Edit: So I just watched some more videos and looked at pictures of redds. They don't appear to be much different than a spawning panfish bed, which I'm familiar with. I may be fixating on the redness of the bed too much. It looks like I should be weary of any rock formation that seems contrived, is circular, and looks polished.

I now know where that shot was taken, spent a great deal of time there on Sunday, no luck though.

I was there Sunday and didn't see any redds either, but I spent nearly all my time at lower wire. I had a lot of fun fishing dry flies but didn't catch any trout. I plan on going when the weather gets nicer again next weekend, but not during any the Patriots vs Ravens, of course.

I found out the Humphry hair caddis doesn't float a couple weeks ago at Crane creek. I'm still holding out hope that future iterations might, however. For one, I need to get hair from the top of his coat and not his undercoat, which feels more absorbent. Secondly, I need to tie the fly with lighter materials. At the time I tied them I only had some really thick thread not even intended for tying flies.

You might also consider a sinking "tip" for your regular fly line. But it sounds like you'd benefit from having a dedicated sinking line on a different reel if you're going to use it mostly on lakes.

Two dogs. One has to be on my lap or on the table where I am tying. I don't need to open up bags for them though. My other dog, a pug mix, I've been collecting his hair for "Humphry hair caddis flies." Unfortunately, this past Thursday at Crane I found out that they don't float that well .

I have ziplock bags full of beard hair, head hair, and my dog's hair. I am NOT going to any further south than the face to collect hair, though . I've been tying caddis flies with my pug's hair for the past month. Come to think of it, I think he needs to be combed again, he is starting to shed . Thanks, that was very helpful. I didn't know whether I was supposed to strip a streamer, let it drift, where I should put it, or anything. If I manage to fish any streamers during this nice weather I'll likely read this post over another half dozen times.

I make a habit of asking everyone who fishes the NFoW how many fish they catch -- just so I can compare them to how my friends and I have fared in our handful of times to the river. I understand that fishing for big browns and rainbows involve different methods and one can't expect droves of fish. So thanks for the clarification as to them fishing for big trout exclusively, as that was going to be my next question. Looking at the weather forecast, I am now feverishly trying to get a trip together for Friday. Unfortunately I don't have any big streamers yet, and we are just now starting to figure out where the 'bows are, so we'll probably still fish for those if we make it down.

Loved it! Thanks.

Awesome stuff. If you had to venture a guess, how many fish in total that day?

Eh, forget all the haters. Your videos are a reflection of your personality and I always enjoy watching them. I haven't tried to tie one of your flies yet but I never seem to have the materials either... For the record I'll watch just about any video I can get my hands on, including the dude's in the necktie .

Thanks for the report. I'm glad to hear that seasoned vets aren't out there catching fish every 20 minutes. That would be a serious blow to my ego. Hopefully the weather cooperates and we'll get on the river here in a week and a half.

They are only in the fastest riffles too. Under the rock shelf...

In my limited experience I'd hate that combination. Moreover I'd hate to use anything smaller than 6x. I have enough problems with it on my 5wt!

The last couple times I've been out to the James its been real slow as well. I heard that the bass will head downstream to Springfield Lake - any validity to this? Not sure where they go on the Finley.

So the moss goes away?!? Awesome! We are trying to get our last trip of the year together now. I know my friend's semester is about to get hectic so we'll have to plan around that. Is there a time in particular you'd recommend? I remember reading in Chuck Tryon's book or somewhere else that browns spawn/are active in November? As long as it isn't too cold to camp that could work. How late into the year do most sane people camp? I used a dropper for the first time this trip also and that worked out pretty well. 3/4 of my hookups were on the dropper.

I saw the BWOs on the river too. Hadn't seen any sort of hatch on the NFoW before so it was nice. I wouldn't say we ever got into a big swath of them, but if you looked you could see them.

I was among "the guys" that fished yesterday. Yesterday we brought a total of 5 to hand and lost another five, usually in the air, which is usually fine with me. We just fished the riffles and runs where there is fast water (or slow water in between) since we have no idea where they may be otherwise. We put in at Kelly, paddled up to Lamb, then most islands on the way to Sunburst. Our most productive spots were Jack's and Cave Riffle. We hooked fish on stoneflies, san juan worms, prince nymphs, pheasant tails, and ?...I don't remember. Wednesday late afternoon we tried the islands above Patrick, 3 hook ups there but no fish. We tried our luck outside of Sunburst this morning, leaving that for last. I had two fish on but lost them before I could get the hook out (one on a prince, the other on a black bugger). No one else caught any trout, the big time noob among us (we're all noobs) caught a smallie. All in all it was a great trip. Much improvement over our previous trip. We are getting better at dead drifting, starting to figure it when we're getting strikes, and figuring out whether or not we're deep enough. Our last trip we only caught a total of 3 fish (I caught all of those) and had no other hook-ups. So this time around we got into more than twice as many fish, my fishing buddy finally got his first trout, and we had a great time camping/floating/being guys away from the girls. This was my third trip to the NFoW and I can't wait to go back, my normal fishing partner's second trip, and the third guys first time. We almost always fished all of us from the same island, spread out, but eventually hitting the same water, knowing that this probably costs us some fish but it's as much about the company and learning things from one another as much as it is about catching a lot of fish at this stage. Things we're still struggling with: 1) Knots/tangles/handling of tippet. I'd say the ultra noob among us and my buddy spent nearly half their time fixing crap and the other half fishing. I had a furled leader this time and that made a world of difference. I spent way more time fishing than I have in the past and from what I could tell it didn't hinder my ability to catch fish (always had 2+ ft of tippet on it). 2) Moss. Now that we're down deep enough this is finally becoming a problem. 3) Finding/and/or enticing the fish. I'm sure our drifts aren't perfect, and practice will go a long way to help. 4) Losing fish once they're hooked. Actually a new problem, it was nice to get into more fish but would have liked to handle more of course. 5) A bigger cooler. The beer runs out faster when you go hours without catching fish . Can't wait to get back, hope to go again soon before it gets too cold.

Also don't want to sleep in a wet tent, but hopefully that's not a concern after Wednesday.

Hopefully it doesn't adversely affect the fishing over the next 3 days. Have been counting down the days to this trip for weeks .

I'm with the first poster, no way that won't catch a bluegill. Looks good!

Thanks, I didn't know that! I was wondering if there was a functional reason the original had the tail end threaded in bulges too, or whether was just aesthetic?

Tried them out yesterday and they held up pretty well too. My friend lost one of the wings, not a big surprise, as he has a penchant for getting caught in trees and then yanking as hard as he can until it comes out .

Here are the hoppers I made using your pictures as a guide. The dark one was my first attempt, kind of bastardly looking. I'll be sure to give it to my novice friend to tear up .

Definitely a Walleye. Can't believe you caught one on the James! They are a bit bigger than that in Canada where we go fishing every June (think 27" ).