First Fly and First fish Caught with Them

I started fly fishing around 1977 or so in the Haw River  mainly for Redbreast since the Haw is loaded with them and it was in my backyard.   My dad had given me an Eagle Claw fly reel which I still have today.  My main technique  was to  float down the river and cast black ants and/or poppers under the overhanging trees and bushes from my mowhawk canoe, my float tube purchased from Netcraft, or  by wading down the bank.  Some days you could really catch over a hundred doing this. On those days it was better than catching those big ole largemouths!

I graduated to Trout fishing not long after that and though I still love to catch trount on a fly rod I prefer to catch trout on a spinning reel. (sorry flyguys) .  There is just something about a bream busting a popper on top that i love. My go to rig is a popper and then an ant(either a black or red ant) as a dropper about 1 ft back. Now , fast forward to 2011 and though I have always wanted to try my hand at fly tying I never have. Until now.  Last year my good freind Todd gave me a nice vise that he wasn't using and just recently I have added the bare basics to tie a few poppers and some black ants.

Here are some pics of my handy work. I think the ant looks decent but the popper does look kinda retarded.(ok it looks really bad).... If the popper won't catch a fish it will at least serve as a strike indicator for the ant.

 

There is a pond near my house that i used to fish alot but other more exotic places have been calling so I have neglected this spot for a few years. This pond is where I used to always go in early may to get some nice Bream and shellcracker on the longrod. So,  I was determined to fish this pond yesterday evening .

5/5/2011

Pond "x"

8' rod and reel loaded with WF-4

Lures would be my first black and and my first popper.

Here is the first lunker that hit that ugly popper on the 3rd cast!

Well not really  a lunker but my son said I had a really big smile when I landed this big girl!

Then I was rewarded with this bream which hit the black ant.

Then this shellcracker hit the black ant. What a good fight! Then some more Bream and Black Crappie.

This shellcracker was the biggest of the day. 

What a great evening fly fishing with my first hand tied flies. Caught 1 bass, 3 shellcracker, 2 black crappie and aprox 15 bream. 4 were caught on the popper, and the rest on the ant , so the ant lasted for at least 15 or so fish though it is in pretty bad shape now.   More to come on fly fishing.

A big thanks to Todd for the vise and to Jim at the GOPC in Raleigh for his advise on fly tying. If you ever need any supplies he is the man to go see. Thanks Mack