White River

I go from Florida to the White River in two weeks, man I'm having a fabulous winter. This has been one of the best fishing winters in a long time, I've caught a very large number of wipers, lots of trout at Taneycomo, red fish and sea trout in Florida and now trout on one of the best trout rivers anywhere. The forecast was rain, rain and more rain so packing for this trip was lots of rain gear and changes of cloths, lots of rods and lots of flies. Truth be told I was wanting rain and high water so I could streamer fish the entire trip. Our trip started on Thursday with rain so I streamer fished like it was going out of style! I love big rods, fast water and large trout. I never got the really big brown hooked on this trip but saw several on Thursday over 26".  We got the streamer fish to eat, and man it felt good.

                                             

 Friday and Saturday had no rain at all and bright sun both days. Corp. had a little water running the am and off by later in the day. I had to put away the 7 and 8 wt's and got out the 4 and 5's and 6x with scuds & midges. We stayed at Nelands Resort and used their boats, we would boat to the islands and shoals and wade the area before moving to the next. I got a 20" brown each day if the trip and lots of rainbows. Scuds, midges and a mix of other small stuff worked but the scuds produced the most fish.

 

 

 What a great trip, got to fish with a a good group of guys and great friends. Can't wait until next year this is a trip I always look forward to.
Here's a couple of the guys

 

  

Florida

Back in Florida and it feels great. I love fishing Florida. This trip took my family and I to Orlando for Disney and a little get away. I booked a trip with Capt. Nick Sassic on Mosquito Lagoon with hopes of Red Fish. Check out Nick's web page www.mosquitolagoonflyfishing.com he is a hell of a guide. One of the best saltwater guides I have fished with. I'm going to try and fish with him next winter in Louisiana for the monster reds. Weather was not on our side with clouds and ran in the area. Nick fishes out a Hellsbay Waterman...hellsbay makes the very best flats boats in teh business. Can't wait to get mine on order and get it back to Kansas. That's for a later post but in the near future.

  I can not wait to chase wiper and carp in on of these bad boys. Back to the day. Pulled out of the lanch ramp and Nick headed out into the Lagoon and ask me what I would like to do. I knew he would not be able to see the reds early with the clouds so I said lets chase so trout until the sun comes out or conditions get a little better. So that's what we did and boy was that a good choice. They fish are fun on a fly they eat good. I got them on top, with shrimp patterns and on bait fish patterns. Here is one of the better trout.

Fished my new Scott S4S 8wt today with my T8 Galvin reel. I also had my Scott S4S 7wt but never fished it. I would have loved to have my Scott S4S 5wt on the trout..that would have been a blast. We decided to work our way out and start looking for Redfish, I was throwing a top water picking off fish as we worked our way out when all of a sudden a big redfish came up on my top water two different times but would not eat. It was by far one of the best sights I've seen fishing. He wanted it but could not bring hisself to jump up and get it. We got out and started getting on the flats looking for reds. We were finding good size groups crusing around. Nick would put me in front of them and I would cast to them sometimes hooking up and sometimes not. These redfish pull hard all the way back. They make small runs not like a bone fish but pull harder.

All my fsh were just like this guy nothing really smaller or larger. This was just an outstanding trip that I'm ready to do again. I may do it later this year just for the hell of it with the ease to get to Orando. My last flat of teh day was loaded with single, double and tripples tailing and very happy. We started at one end and just worked down thru them picking them off one by one. I caught some, broke one off and had others just come unbuttoned. I can not say enough about Capt Nick, he is a great guide that will HUNT for you. After all my bone fish and tarpon trips up to this point I have never got a redfish and did not know what they would be like. I can tell you I had more fun on these guys than I did my last couple of bone fish trips in the keys. This was an absolute kick ass trip that I would recomend to any fly fisher.

Wiper Fix

I had to get out before Florida so I got away for a little wiper action. I've been fishing a lot lately but nothing big and exciting to really report about. This winter has been strange with the warm weather, fishing has been good but all my better fish have come out of the middle of the lake chasing bait. Since winter does not seam like its going to come I'm ready for a warm up and really get these fish going on a spring pattern.  I've got a couple of little top waters in the works that I will post once I start catching fish on them. They should work great out at Clinton in the spring as well on these fish in a couple of weeks. Water today was a little on the dirty side so I stuck on a chat/white clouser and really got into them. Traded between an all chart and chart/white and got fish most of the day.

Moved around a lot today looking for better fish. Every pod of fish seemed to have the same size mixed in. I found fish from the middle to wind blown banks. Very few at the hot water. Wind was out of the South South/East so it was blowing away from the hot. When its like that the warm water really gets pushed up the lake and usually puts a lot of fish in the boat. I wanted to try for some large mouth  so went looking and it did not take long to find them.

Not a bad day on the water. I'm ready for Florida hope to have a red fish picture to share.

Wiper flies

My new creations

Before the cold snap

Wiper fishing today, fish still scattered around the lake chasing bait. Lots of good size largemouth mixed in with the whites/wipers. Fished it alone today so not many pictures. Waiting for the cold snap to come and this lake will take off.

Wipers

Back on the power plant today. Lots of small wipers and whites with a few to 16". Nothing big on this trip. Tried my new rio redfish line on my 8 wt and it worked great. Getting ready for Florida in mid Feb.

Taneycomo

Finally saw the water off since the big flood last year. It was great to see the changes along with the new boulders put in by the corp. I love the changes..it's like a new trout stream and the boulders should help the fish and spread out the fisherman. Water was scheduled off all day but came on around noon so I did not get any pictures. Just a little busy catching and exploring the new water. Fish to 20" today with very large numbers coming to the net. 18's and 20's dark gray and black scuds on 6x did the job. Great day overall