Arofishing

Wow, wow, wow! If I caught a smallie like that on my fly rod I don't know what I'd do! Any guess on weight/inches?

I'm still impressed by it. Let us know how it works!

Well so long as you have the desire to learn, I wouldn't say it is all that difficult. I am self-taught, really just beginning in July, using OAF and Youtube as my main references. Just don't expect to cast much over 30 feet in the beginning and you should do fine. My friend (who got into fly fishing the same time as me) had the same attitude regarding the ease of catching fish on his spinning gear. It was getting to the point where he was just expecting to get a fish and it wasn't as rewarding. In certain conditions, I'd say fly fishing is actually easier (if top water is working, much better and varied options with a fly rod), but on the whole I'd say its more challenging: space restrictions (have to be cognizant of surroundings), harder to throw big bugs and keep smaller fish off, can't get down deep very easy, can't cast as far, you have to play a fish and can't just muscle it in (this I find the most rewarding part about it). All that said, once you get the hang of it, I think you have more control over the placement of your bug and with enticing the fish (you can be much more delicate, giving it the slightest twitch with your control hand instead of moving the entire rod). I've found that bass fishing is bass fishing regardless of fly rod or spinning. They'll eat almost anything, including the ugliest stuff I've concocted in the most amateur of ways. Trout, now there's a whole 'nother story. Going to the North Fork of the White next weekend and I am hoping I don't get skunked!

Headed up stream from Division at the James last night. The fishing here was unlike almost everything I've done this summer. This section of the river is quite narrow, has quite a few obstacles and structure in the way of down trees, even some 5 foot drop offs from the shore, and is just gorgeous. From what I hear that is what fishing Crane is a lot like. By far one of my favorite stretches of river. Started off the night with a 10 inch Largemouth that my friend scared up to me from down stream . Caught a fat Goggle eye and 3 or 4 small smallies. Rounded out the night with a nice 12 inch small mouth. I've attached a picture of the fly I used. I made it a few nights ago, and currently its the closest I can get to a wolly bugger without marabou and hackle, but it definitely works! Just made for my friend and another one in black for myself. (Note that the bug in the photo is the one I used last night, so it's a little beat up.

I've been using a 6 wt and now a 5 wt. It is difficult to get some of my bigger bugs out there, but for what I fish (streams that can be waded) it works quite well.

Congrats on your purchase, just used my new TFO Pro 8'6" 5 wt for the first time Tuesday. I coupled it with Cortland 444 and really like it, I'm getting at least 15 feet on my casts over my Dogwood Canyon. I can't comment on the other lines you're looking at though.

Glad you had fun! I'm glad fishing is getting better with this drop in temp and increase in precipitation.

There's a scary thought! (Given how much of a neophyte I am). Thanks for the compliment, I have a heck of a lot to learn, but I'm like a sponge when I get on OAF. Just tied my first wolly bugger-esque fly tonight using Tim's video (sans maribou and hackle, so I'm not sure it can be called a wolly bugger, its more like a sub surface panfish bug).

Funny thing is I actually have a kayak, just no way to transport it. If I did, I'd definitely leave my bike locked where I am going to end my float, arrive there from river, lock the kayak, ride my bike to where I began, drive back and load everything up. It'd be a lot of trips but I'd be self-sufficient doing it. Now that I am getting older I've been looking for excuses not to exercise - "oh, I mowed the lawn today and went fishing, I don't need to run" - and believe me, my belly is a testament to the fact that I don't need excuses . I hadn't been on a 20+ mile ride in more than a month, and since I'm usually riding out that way anyway, am obsessed with fishing, and now have a travel rod, I thought what the heck, might as well kill 2 birds with one stone . Re: Shcopenhauer, my commitments are probably closer to his than Kierks. They actually lie with Nietzsche the most. That is who I hope to write my thesis on.

So there's two of us fishing barbless on the James? Make that 3 . Pretty sure some other guys on here go barbless too

Just rode out east on Division and never deviated from Division, it eventually crosses the James. Parking opportunities with a car there aren't plentiful, but I saw at least one spot you could pull over on the side and probably be O.K.. I've fished the 125 access probably every week for the past month, so I was ready for a change. I know of plenty bike and running routes on those back roads, we used to run them in college. It's very pretty down there, especially down Catalpa where all the richos live with their gated compounds and private ponds. Looks to me like they only stock colored carp though, what a curious decision...

It is a good distance, but when your peers are riding on average 40 miles a day - or running 10 - 25 round trip with a fishing break in between seems almost lazy . I'm a bit surprised the Flips are being discontinued, but one can see the reasons why. Except for those niche markets like video blogging or whisky reviewing, they don't do anything especially well. And what they do fairly well (closer shots) many phones can do just as well, they just lack the memory capacity, and nicer video cameras can do much better. I think for the past year they should have been priced about where they are now so they weren't competing with higher end phones and cameras. I think there is a space for a cheap video camera you aren't afraid of dropping in the river, I'm living proof of it! But I can honestly say its the first piece of technology on its "way out" that I've been happy to own (we got ours in June).

I'll look into a miter box and saw. I'm not much of a "hand man" so I am just now looking up what these things are, thanks for the advice! I'll look into balsa as well, I just like the idea of using stuff I have around the house for the time being. Shaving the cork is time consuming, I've been using an exacto knife, but I've enjoyed it.

It's a flip camera, they're quite cheap online now that they've been discontinued. It wasn't attached to anything, though I am going to make a lanyard for it in the future so I don't have to shuffle through my bag to find it.

Thanks, my camera work is going to improve. Both times I caught a fish I had to throw my bag off, unravel my wet bag, and fish out my camera. After that I still wasn't really focusing on the fish through the camera, I kept wanting to see it for myself! So next time will be better. The second fish I actually left my camera and all my other stuff about 20 yards up stream. I kept thinking to go grab them, but I got sucked into fishing that spot first. That is why I'm kind of out of breath during that second fish, I had sprint up the creek with bass in hand to go grab flip, then ran back down so I could release it in its rightful pool where I left my rod. I made a bigger deal about the distance in the video than I meant to . My legs are pretty sore today, but it's not nearly as taxing as running 12.5 miles, which is what we used to do every Sunday during Cross Country season in college.

Rode my bike out to James and Division to do some fly fishing. Now that I have a 4 piece rod "travel rod" this was actually a possibility. Most the pertinent information is in the video below, so I won't pontificate too much here. I only used the fly I made (if you're curious how bad it looked before it started looking as atrocious as it does in the video, go here.) I was using my TFO Pro 8'6" 5 wt and Osprey reel for the first time, equipped with Cortland 444. Wow, was it light and thin compared to my Dogwood Canyon! I easily got another 10-15 feet on my casts today, will be interesting to see in a more controlled environment and with a little practice exactly how much distance I've gained. Caught three or so panfish and two bass from about 3:30 to 6:30, with lots of strikes and no hooks in between. Once I got home I measured some of the "landmarks," as I called them in the video, on my rod. I couldn't think of a better name at the time . Anyway, to the end of my cork handle is 10.5", so that first large mouth wasn't much over 7". That gold band beyond the handle is at 13.5", so the second was just over that. I would also like to take this opportunity to thank the guy who stopped at the bridge while I was 50 yards down stream and dumped over the remains of his cleaned fish. Lovely smell, really contributed to the ambiance and my quickened pace down stream. And those hills I referred to in the video were no joke, I got up to 42.2 mph on the way home going down one! That's the first time I've gone over 40. Well, I can't seem to get the video to embed, so here is a link instead:

Well, then, I have a friend who might be interested... In any case, I was just sticking with the previously established themes. It's really slick looking frog, if that were at BPS I'd definitely buy it over most of their other stuff.

I think I'm in love! Is she old enough to date? Where did you get said "fuzzy foam?"

So I've now got a vise, adhesives, some synthetic materials and I've been collecting feathers when I go wading, I'm ready to tie some flies! I'd like to stick to poppers and buggers right now, since I am mostly fishing for bass anyway and those two seem to be some of the easier things to tie. As I look in my kitchen I see all these half empty wine bottles laying about, what better reason to start drinking them than getting all that cork for my poppers! I've found it fairly easy to work with, but wondered if anyone had any tips I wasn't aware of. I've heard about getting cork/hobby filler to make a smooth surface, where does one find that exactly (if at Hobby Lobby, know what section, brand names etc...)? I've also heard about getting some 400 grit sand paper to get more symmetrical shapes, as you may be able to see in the photo below, that's an issue right now. I also need to get some gloss, any recommendations here as well? Also, I bought some foam bodies at Bass Pro, but I was wondering about other people's favorite places to get foam? I noticed they had some foam sheets at Hobby Lobby and may make a trip back there soon. Below is my very first fly, a slider of sorts. Not that great or elaborate but I think it will catch something . The texture didn't come out like I would have liked because my whip finish sucked so I just glued the thread on, which of course dampened down the chenille flash quite a bit.

They do sell for $140. Though Bass Pro has one, I'm assuming its their older model, for $100. It looked like all the Bass Pro reels are made in Korea. I ended up getting the Osprey for $60 after my friend's discount. It's a sexy little reel for that money and I really like the drag. I haven't actually gone fishing with it yet, however. Was going to go today before the storms came in.

I wear an old pair of hiking shoes, La Sportivas. For as much as they cost you'd be better of getting something made for the job in wading boots. My next recommendation would be a pair of trail running shoes - essentially tennis shoes with more traction and big soles to help with boulders etc... Protection for the front of the foot is important IMO, I've broken more toe nails than I want to this summer.

That's what I was going for, but now that I see it exposed, naked in front of me, oh my . I made it back to that spot last night with my friend and didn't have nearly as much luck. I caught 3 smallies on the night, none of them over 9 inches, and some panfish. I finally lost my popper inside a panfish, I felt bad for the fish, practically killed it trying to get the popper out and ended up losing my grip on the fish anyway after I had cut my line. My friend was using my betts black/red slider (looks a lot like a sneaky pete) and didn't have any luck with the bass. I don't think it has caught a bass yet. I did take my old cell phone to use the camera on it, even if I had managed to catch a decent fish, the picture wouldn't have been decent, so no big loss there. I really like fishing without any (unnecessary ) appendages. So if I can go without my dry bag or backpack, then I will. And if we are just fishing for a half day, I can manage without sustenance just fine, which is the other main reason I haven't been worrying about cameras. If I were fishing from a kayak I'd have no problem packing the camera and plenty of borderline superfluous things. I've gone up stream from the bridge once two weeks ago when it was 100+ and had absolutely no luck. I know 99% had to do with the weather, so I'll make it upstream again someday. It's getting a bit chilly wading waist deep in 80 degree weather at night!

"Felt kinda good" - lol. Glad to hear the business is going well. And if you told some of your customers their rod would be a day or two late so you could go fishing, I bet most of them would understand .

So jealous.

Heading back there tomorrow night with my fishing buddy, I think. He needs to get his butt in gear and go get some more flies, keeps coming up with excuses not to make a BPS run. Well, guess what? The Pats are on tomorrow night so he better get it figured out soon or I'd be more than happy to sit at home! The 125 bridge is east of town, north east of the sunshine road/james river access. Parking: unfortunately you can't park anywhere completely safely (legally) except under the bridge. I don't know if anyone actually drives down there, but I suppose if I had a big pickup I MIGHT give it a try - it's really steep, but there is a clearly delineated path. Lots of No Parking and No Trespassing signs, one drive doesn't have any, so I chance it there sometimes. Otherwise I chance it at the intersection north of there. Funny thing is I road my bike to that intersection for years, never knowing the James was right there. I wasn't fishing then so I had no idea what I was missing out on. Made it easy to get down there since I already knew most of the roads once we did start fishing though! And I've got a dry bag for the camera and anything else I take. I'm more worried about transport to and from the bag, that and not carrying a bunch of stuff I don't need.