Chub Tales

Asher and I each caught a chub while we were flyfishing in the Chattahoochee River a couple of days ago, and each was noteworthy in its own way.

Asher's was just kind of funny. He was trying to make a cast and his fly line was coming out of the water as it should have. Although Asher is brand new to flycasting and his mechanics are far from perfect, our guide Jake couldn't figure out what Asher was doing wrong that was preventing his cast from working, so he took the rod from Asher for a moment, only to figure out that there was a 4-inch fish at the end of the line. He gave the rod back to Asher and let him land his prize.

My chub, which came from the same run a little later, had no good story, and it was about the same size. It was noteworthy only in the fact that I hadn't caught a chub yet in 2015, and it was species No. 20 on this year's list.

Disappointing Encounter

Today I was in the area of a special-regulations creek that I sometimes like to visit, so I made a quick stop, fishing for maybe an hour or so. I didn't catch them today, but that was OK. I was happy to just walk beside the creek a little, and I had wanted to check out the action of a new lure.

As I was walking toward the truck, a fully decked out fly-fisherman passed going toward the creek. I greeted him and he nodded and asked whether I'd caught fish.

"I didn't get 'em today," I replied.

"That's good," he answered, with no hint of joke in his voice.

Maybe it was straight-toned humor that I didn't quite pick up. Maybe I misunderstood.

I don't think so, though. I think he was glad that I didn't catch fish because I was carrying a spinning rod. If so, I find that disappointing. Stream regs call for catch-and-release and single-hook artificial lures only. Although the stream is most popular with fly-fisherman, it's not a fly-fishing only stream. I not only had a single-hook artificial lure, but my hook was barbless, which is not required by the law.

It believe it can only be bad when we start deeming our own way of fishing as superior to someone else's. Hopefully my perception was wrong, but it did cause me to think a little and to be careful abut how I come across to other anglers and non-anglers alike. So maybe that's a good thing.

Flies or Jigs?

The next few days' plans, though not fishing related, will have me close enough to good trout waters that I'm fairly confident I'll get drawn to the creek at some point. Less certain than whether I'll end up fishing is whether tote the fly rod or the ultralight to the creek.

I've already proven little Watsit Grubs and Road Runners effective in the same waters this fall. That could be an argument for sticking with what works, or it could be a reason to try to catch them another way. I guess I lean slightly toward the flies because of a specific photo need I could get knocked out if I drifted bugs and was successful.

Of course, I might end up doing some fly-fishing and some spin fishing! However it turns out, I'll try to remember to post a report.

Thursday Tips: Consider Trout Mouths

Trout eat some tiny stuff. I'll acknowledge that. In fact, trout eat a lot of minuscule bugs, and when they get keyed in on pinhead-sized midges, it can be tough to trick them with any offering that doesn't appear unreasonably small. That's why fly-fishermen drift No. 24 midges.

Those hooks are small because the flies that match the insects are small, though, and I think that trout fishermen tend to carry the "small" notion too far and become apprehensive about using jig, spoons, plugs or even flies that have fairly large hooks and that flash large profiles. The truth is that trout have pretty-good sized traps, and unless they are locked in on little stuff or are just being fussy, sometimes they'll go after a bigger offering than you might expect.

With bigger hooks, when the trout do get hooked, they tend to stay hooked. I've found that I enjoy a far higher landing percentage when I can get trout to eat a lure that has maybe a No. 2 hook on it than when my hook is a No. 10 or smaller. Don't get me wrong. I'll gladly go micro if that's what the trout want, but if I can get away with a large offering that I can cast farther and that will land me more fish, that's the direction I'm likely to go. Of course, bigger offerings also tend to increase your chances of tempting bigger trout, but maybe that's another story!

Unintended Fly-By

My biggest regret from last week's ICAST show in Las Vegas is that I never got the opportunity to give the International Fly Tackle Dealers show a decent look. For the first time ever, the two shows shared dates and a single convention center floor, and buying or media credentials for one got you in to the other. I never attended the fly show when it was a separate event in Denver because I don't do enough fly-fishing writing to justify the travel cost (and maybe to be granted media credentials). However, I do write enough about fly-fishing and fly tackle that I was excited about the opportunity to roam the show and meet more folks on the fly side while I was already right there.

Good idea. Poor planning.

When I booked my travel, I chose a flight that left Las Vegas mid-afternoon on Friday, which was the final day of the show. That gave me two full days, plus a few hours on Friday, to walk the floor. That has been enough time in the past. Between appointments with tackle manufacturers I always want to visit and a couple of major editorial projects, which were my top priority, I simply ran out of time this year. Beyond visiting as single booth by invitation, my entire time at the IFTD show totaled about 10 minutes, right before I packed up to start toward the airport. Basically, I walked the aisles and looked left and right to see what I was missing. It wasn't that I didn't keep busy. I spent every open show hour walking the floor, looking and visiting. I simply ran out of hours.

I do hope that the merged show format worked well for ICAST and IFTD and that they'll be back together next year. The next few ICAST shows are in Orlando, which means I can drive there, so I'll have more liberty with time. Were it back in Vegas, though, I'd either book a Friday redeye or stay Friday night so I could attend the whole show. I feel like I missed the boat -- the drift boat, so to speak -- by running out of time and missing the chance to learn more about the fly fishing industry and to meet more folks on that side of the business. Even 10 minutes on the IFTD floor was enough to make it clear that I was missing a lot of good stuff.

Plans Stuck in the Mud.

It seemed like a good plan. Nathaniel wanted to bring his boat back to the pond-side spot where he most commonly keeps it, and we had a few hours of daylight left in the evening.

Warm and calm, it seemed like a fly rod night, so I rigged a Sneaky Pete on one rod and a Tellico Nymph on the other. Nathaniel, meanwhile, rigged his baitcasters with a buzzbait and a floating worm. Prospects were looking good.

What neither of us considered was that recent rains had one spot in a pond-side field we've driven across dozens of times seriously soft. The tires started spinning and the truck sinking, and soon we were stuck. Long story, short: Just before dark, a friend gave us a ride ride home, with the truck still stuck and not a cast having been made.

Tomorrow we'll resume trying to get the truck out, and maybe I'll find a chance to try casting those flies! I do believe I had chosen a good line-up.

Fishing for Everything that Swims

When asked what I like to fish for or the fish species I write about, my normal answer is that I fish for everything that swims. I suppose that's not technically accurate. Dogs and grasshoppers sometimes swim. Still, I truly am an all-species angler, and I enjoy variety not only in the sizes and shapes of the fish that I catch but in the settings, the gear and the techniques used.

Ice-fisherman? Yep. Fly-fisherman? Yep. Worm drowner? Occasionally. Bass fisherman? Yep. River rat? As often as possible. Catman? Absolutely. This list could go on and on, and the answers would remain similar. I don't do a lot of big-water salt, but that has as much to do with opportunities and writing markets as anything else. I certainly enjoy a day on a big boat, the chance catch something huge and the ever-present uncertainty about what might take the bait next.

I do prefer to have a rod in my hand, when possible, and I favor fishing situations where I'm figuring out what I want to fish with and where I want to cast. That said, I've enjoyed some wonderfully fun days on the water with guides where my part in the process honestly has been that of battling fish to the boat after they bit.

A fondness for variety adds to my excitement about next week's travels to Crawford and Mercer counties in Western Pennsylvania. I'll fish three lakes in three days, and each is quite different in its offerings, the ways anglers approach it and the species it is likely to yield. Likely catches include black and white crappie, walleyes, bluegills and smallmouth bass. However, largemouths, channel cats and various sunfish are just some of the other species that could end up at the end of my line.

Keep and eye on the blog and my Jeff Samsel Fishing facebook page. I have high hopes of posting good photos and having fun stories to tell, with plenty of nice variety in the mix.

Welcome, "Southern Trout"

It's always fun to learn about a cool new resource. I just discovered Southern Trout, an electronic magazine and website devoted to trout fishing in the Southeast. The main site has a place for news, a blog and a cool photo gallery, so the content should be quite dynamic. The magazine has a clear focus on trout in the South, blending tradition and innovations, and covers everything from outfitters to fly patterns to destinations. The emphasis is on fly-fishing, but the content is not fly-exclusive.

Southern Trout is published by Don Kirk, a long-time Southern writer and trout fisherman and author of a classic book about trout fishing in the Smokies. The staff is made up of family member, each using unique skills to gather and deliver quality content. Contributors, based on the first issue, include many of many of the most knowledgeable trout writers in the region.

Living in Georgia, I often get blank stares returned when I mention trout fishing, waterfalls or mountains near home. Most folks picture peanuts, pine plantations, swamps or downtown Atlanta when they think of Georgia. Few think of rhododendron tunnels around tiny, tumbling branches loaded with spectacular-colored brook trout. I think much of the South shares similar stereotypes, so I'm thrilled to see a magazine that celebrates our Southern trout fishing tradition and provides good practical information to fishermen.

Welcome, Southern Trout!

The Bug Bite

Having had not caught many fish last time we fished the pond and having seen a lot of fish sipping insects on the surface, Nathaniel, Asher and I toted a couple of fly rods along with the other gear when we  headed to the pond last night. In fact, I didn't carry another rod.

It seems like the bug hatch might have been the problem last week because fly-fishing produced several bream and bass last night even without the fish feeding on an obvious hatch.

The most productive specific rig was a Sneaky Pete rigged with a small Tellico Nymph as a dropper about a foot and a half beneath the floating offering. Most of the fish took the nymph, but the Sneaky Pete produced one and drew a couple of other strikes. It also served nicely as a "strike indicator"and probably got the attention of a few of the nymph fish by darting and spitting on the surface.

Asher actually started with a big fly rod popper cast with an ultralight trigger-spin outfit, but the fish wouldn't come up for the popper. Eventually he switched to a YUM Dinger, nose-hooked on a Daiichi Circle Hook and fished weightless, and caught a couple of bass before dark.

First Fly Rod Trout

We've been either without Internet access or on the run, so I've been slow in reporting, but Nathaniel spent his first day ever fly-fishing earlier this week and caught several trout from the Clinch River with guide Mike Bone. He and I both caught several fish, all on Pheasant Tail nymphs. Nathaniel's catch included one beautiful colored brook trout. All the rest were rainbows. Some looked like typical stockers. Others were bigger, fatter and more colorful, suggesting they'd been in the river a while. We also spent a couple of nights in the Clinch River House, a fabulous riverside retreat and enjoyed a morning of exploration at the Museum of Appalachia before driving to Louisville for a dulcimer festival. That's where we are now. Next stop is the Beaver Lake tailwater in Arkansas.