Explosive August

An Explosive August:

Fishing the mid-south in August is a tough time.  Trout would be dead in most waters around here.  The few trout waters are packed with fishermen bank to bank.   The rest of the waters have become too hot for even bass, leaving carp and Drum fishing.  But if you are willing to search you can find you’re favorites.

I started the month off with brown trout.

After a solid hunt on the Current River in Missouri, I headed to some closer, more local Kansas Waters.  Here, it’s time to sight fish.  Drum are very under rated.

But the normal summer time heat broke.  Left with temperatures in the high eighties instead of low hundreds, I decided I need to try something a bit more multi species.  I went to the largest out-let river I knew of.  There I hopped for gar.  If you hunt Gar, you do it with big gear, flies either need to be treble hooks or rope. 

But of course they did not want to play.  Instead I encountered dozens of tiny bass, and a few white bass before I found a nice nest of wipers.

Say what now?  Maybe I need to find a new spot!

A day later I found my carp and drum spots slow on the local lake.  But a surprise was in there, the small mouth made my day.

Adapt, change, and add a bit of the Bizarre.  You never know what you’ll find.

Pop fly of the week!

There are a great many flies out there that I don’t tie. This is a new segment meant to look at some of the best.

1: Sculpzilla!!
When you are out on your favorite trout river and things are looking bad, no hatches, no drys, and it's fall. The nymphing is poor, and let's face it, it's not the most fun. But damn, you left you seven weight with the fast sinking line at home. You know the trout are eating something a bit bigger. You still have a chance with that floating line. Gear up that six weight floating line and arm it with sculpzilla Jr. This fly has a great cone head for getting it deep even in current. It in larger sizes sinks like a stone. The cone head with eyes is a great touch, but the soft hackle collar, and the rabbit strip tail make this fly deadly. But the best part is the hook design. Tied with a gamagatsu octopus hook, that is almost all the way in the back, articulated, you keep most of the movement, but have perfect hook placement that is even better for getting a clean hook up. They come to match almost every color needed. These flies will get you the monsters, but also you will not miss out on the tiny guys too. Pack a box of olive and tan today. You will not regret it.