8 replies to this topic

[PUMP KNOWS]

Genius!

 

Did you guys smash any fish?

[michaelPhillips]

The other day I was desperate to spey fish. So I spent 3 hours in 32 degree water breaking tons of ice by jumping on it and kicking it. by the time it was good enough to swing flies in. It was dark and I had scared every fish in the pool twice over. Also I didn't wear ice studs so I had sit down and but scoot to travel on certain unbreakable patches. All this in very busy (for winter) G.T.A park . The next day it rained hard blew out then got freezing cold again. So more ice to break at the pool

 

[Berg]

This past fall a buddy and I planned a last minute trip up to a Huron trib, calling ahead to the local store to get the weather and water conditions. They're all holed up in this one pocket, he said. A few hours later we hauled our gear and the tent out of the Jeep and left it on the ground in an MNR parking lot where we were staying - not an actual campsite. We only had an hour of daylight left so we'd set up the tent later. The wind was gusting hard that night and in the dark we were too lazy to set up the rain fly. We popped a tarp over the tent and hit the sack. All night the wind was devastating our tent, making noises that even I could not sleep through. In our haste to get up to the river, we forgot to bring along air mattresses - the cold hard ground sucked even more heat out of us, and we got absolutely no sleep. We misjudged the sunrise time that morning and were up fishing a good 2 hours before the sun rose. We tried and tried, floating roe sacks, tossing spoons into Huron, sitting worms off the bottom. By mid-morning, with not a single steelhead caught on the now crowded little river, we weighed our options. We were freezing, exhausted, hungry, and demoralized by the fish. We should have called it a day and drove home, but what did we do? Drove two more hours North to the next Huron Trib. It was even worse here. Fish were being caught by everyone but us. The steelies were just mocking us at this point.

 

Not a single fish was caught by either of us that day. Funny how it works though - that will be a fishing trip I always remember. Gotta love steelheading. Great thread by the way tossing iron.

[DILLIGAF?!]

Desperate enough to drift in 7ft of opening....saw a couple of fish move up...not a single bite....but kept at it because of their presence...threw everything i got...flies, roe, beads, hots...fish were just too busy moving up and ignored my offering...next day the opening was even shorter. dropped worms at the bottom and managed 2 x 1lbers...I'd do it over and over if that's what's given...

[GuitarBuildingAngler]

Madoc and I once went fishing on a private lake that has rainbow trout. It is pretty much our holy grail trout lake. We went with the hopes of beating the first set in of ice. We were going to troll sinking fly lines from the boat, like we always do. We pulled up through the thick woods and could see a pristine, calm, open lake. We were amazed at our luck and proceeded to go down to the water. Once we got there, we literally had to stand on the water to see that it was all frozen. It was the clearest ice we have ever seen. You couldn't even see it. It was almost like you were walking on water.

We then spent the next 2 hours smashing a small rectangle in the ice right in front of shore. The lake drops off very fast, so we were in the perfect area for cold weather trout fishing. We had no more then 2ft x 6ft to fly fish 2 rods. We ended up taking an ice fishing approach with the fly rods and bouncing our wolly buggers up and down. We stayed out in the cold for 2-3 hours with not one bite.
We told ridiculous stories, sang stupid songs and had a great time. Within the last 15 minutes of fishing, I feel my fly rod yank down towards the water. My body and brain were so frozen at this point, I didn't set the hook and ended up losing the fish within 5 seconds of it being on. We stood there and laughed for a good 5 minutes and proceeded to head home.

It was a great time. 

[Freezer]

It was opened 2011 and I decided to go fishing with some friends from school (doofuses). That year, the water was insanely low and the weather was too hot. I was fly fishing and my friends were just being their stupid selves. I was expecting hitting at least twenty fish, but with the low water conditions and for some reason, there were triple the amount of people on the creek, there was nothing all day. My friends barely fished, ate all the food and one of my buddies stepped on my brand new fly set (thank god, nothing happened to it). I was stressed, I had no sleep, I was starving, I just wanted to go home. However, all my friends left and I decided to stay. At that point, it was afternoon and I've been on the river for ten to twelve hours. I was snagged, I lost fish to people getting stuck with my line and I wouldn't even take a break. I found a pool that did not look too promising, but there was no one there. To my surprise, I lost a few while I was there. Eventually, I hooked one on the fly and it happened to be a gorgeous 3 pound brown! I was ecstatic, I did not care about only catching one fish because that brown was worth that entire day over. It was my first year of fly fishing and I was the happiest person in the world. I remember leaving that river the most calm person and just knowing that it was all worth it.