Home Forums Fishing Flyfishing Did I hear someone say that it's time for another Swap?

Hey!!! Speak for yourself! I at least have low class!

I'm sorry. You're correct. You are low class.

Thank you.

Nice avatar.
You've even got your pants drooping off your butt, as seems to be the fashion.

how do you know those aren't waders with khaki colored pants underneath????

OK-- not only are you low class but you have no sense of fashion!

This time, you are right. Any fly fisher with any sense of fashion would be wearing waders, not hip waders. Some people's kids......

At least the outfit should include polarized specs and a hat ... Wait! Are those felt soles?

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Felt soles!!! They've been banned here in RI. A lovely algae we lovingly refer to as "Rock Snot" is spreading everywhere and fish and wildlife feels felt sole waders are part of the problem. So no felt soles.

Well, I went out to a pond that was stocked "special" for a tournament last weekend, which was our free weekend where no license was needed. They put a bunch of fish in a 30 acre pond including 100 Golden Trout. I caught a nice 2 pound rainbow on my third cast. I got nothing more for about an hour of casting and then I hooked a big one. I had the fish on for 10 minutes before I saw it and it looked like a salmon. I got it up top and it was a golden trout. 20" long and 5 or 6 pounds. I got it out of the net and it was so wide I couldn't pick it up. I had to lip it. I gave the fish a little c.p.r. and let if swim. I got 2 more rainbows and another golden trout. The 2 pound rainbow was the smallest fish. It was great.

I watched a guy in a belly boat with a fly rod dragging a floating line through the water kicking across the pond. He caught 3 fish I saw and all were small, under 12". Interesting. They obviously put smaller fish too, but I was hooking the good ones. I tried every wet fly I could find and got all 5 fish on a red and black leach. Nothing else interested them at all. I'm going to try again ASAP. I've got to get fish on the swap flys. Got to. My buddy said the fish get hammered and a unique fly would get their attention. They're unique. The modified bugger should have done it. It was a neat couple hours of fishing.

Nice report. We need more of those, guys.

They stocked 20" fish? Wow!

Will they ban bathing suits, waders, ducks, geese, flylines, and anything else that touches the waters?

Ssssshhhhh! Don't suggest it!

I didn't sleep all night last night. I got out at 5 AM this morning and fish were rolling all over the pond. I fished for 4 hours and caught........... a catfish! I thought I had another monster golden trout. 10 minutes of watching a bent rod and up comes this big grinner. The only fish of the day, and on a wooly bugger at that! I had to take a ride to the river. No bugs. No trout rising. I fished another 3 hours and got 7 or 8 trout. I lost 3 or 4 fish I think to the hydrilla / milfoil. Oh, what a pain that stuff is. The fish are nice though. After 2 years of floods and little or no stocking program, they did a good job this year. The water is still cold too. I'm buying a new battery for my point and shoot so I can get pics of these fish. They don't fit on the screen of my phone camera! The 2 golden trout are the biggest trout I've ever caught. When I got to the pond this morning a guy had a big rainbow on his stringer too. They're there.

My buddy suggested a fly for the cruising fish called a footballer. I looked it up, tied up a dozen size 16s and a few 18s and am going to wait until the next feasible day to try. I have yet to find a good way to catch cruising pond fish.

What were the pond rollers doing, if not taking your fly?

What did you use for the river fish? (Since you didn't say, I'll guess "nightcrawlers".

Keep us posted...

I could see swirls all over the pond and from time to time, you could see the fish cruising under the surface. You could see the dorsal fins and they looked like nice fish. Swimming on top and swirling. I never saw a bug on the water so I didn't really know what to do. I tried the leach again. Nada. I tried the hare's ear on a floating line. 4' deep pond! Bead head hare's ears and caddis pupa. The Chironamids, little 16's and 18's in yellow, white, brown. Nada. I tried dries, stripping dries wet... I got zero interest. The footballer which is basically a hook wrapped in olive thread ribbed with yellow kevlar thread is supposed to be an old favorite there. I can't see what it imitates. I think the fish are cruising around in the surface film picking out something. Emergers? I don't know!

The river fish, by the way, took the drys stripped back under water. That's working pretty well. No bugs, cast a dry at the fish, pop it under and strip it back. They take it. I don't know what a dry looks like under water swimming, but they take it.

It's like a mystery novel!

And good reading!

I paid attention this morning. There was a breeze and ripples on the pond. There were still fish swirling. They wanted nothing to do with the footballer. I called my friend and he said there can't be any wind. You cast it, let it sink, and you watch your leader. The fish will take it, spit it out, and you'll never know they were on. He said he bet people more than once that he could catch trout on a bare hook and did it the same way. It has to be quiet though. No waves. I then went to plan B which was to strip flys on a floating line pausing to let them sink. I used my new 4 weight and caught a couple fish on the black and red leach. Either on quite literally the first strip or on the drop. I saw a very light colored caddis come up from the bottom and I tied on a light Hare's Ear and tossed it out the same way. Strip, drop, strip, drop... I got one, two, three. I was on to something. The swap flys came out.

I got Sharps modified bugger out and caught a fish. It didn't drop like my weighted. James "fly" too. Strip. Stop. Strip. Stop. Line goes tight. Lift rod. Pretty simple. It got so good I got 3 fish in 4 casts. Then, an hour of nothing. I got about a dozen nice fish 2 or 3 pounds. I let them all go. One bellied up and an osprey grabbed him right in front of me. The canoes around me thought that was pretty neat. They were stringing up fish. Doing a little culling. It's the law here that you have to kill your fish immediately if you are going to keep them. Nobody was doing it. Fish were flopping on stringers everywhere. Man, I hate it when they do that.

The wind got up today, and as luck would have it, I had a reel spooled with 6wt line in my bag. I put that on and after fighting the wind all day with a 4 wt, that puppy boomed out. I had to let out more running line. A 6wt would have been better to throw it but it went flying on the 4! It's supposed to rain and blow tomorrow (whaah) but I get to stay home and rest my shoulders. Lugging around the canoe and paddling the last few days has found old muscles rusty. I've also got line stripping cuts on my first 2 finger. Typical for early season. Well, I tied some caddis for next time, anyway. People keep stringing up fish, the fun might not last for much longer.

I got schooled by Rick today. I got the goose egg and Rick got about 20 fish. Jerk! The rising fish I couldn't catch today were jumping on his hook. He was using elk hair caddis. Casting to rising fish and giving a couple twitches. If the fish didn't grab it right off, re-cast at another one. I cast, strip it back and cast again. He just cast, cast, cast... He picked up fish. Light and dark hair elk caddis. My flys... nada! It rained an inch last night and it was a bit colder today. I blamed that. He's just so darn good! He did catch an eel today on a caddis. I had that criticize him for. Far worse than the catfish I caught yesterday.