Nice Bass on the Fly Rod
I decided to go bass fishing at James A. Reed WMA in Lees Summit, MO. I had never taken my flod fishing so I thought I'd give it a try. I walked around Coot Lake casting to what structure I could find. It was around 60 degrees with a chill in the air and windy as all hell that did not help matters. As I got 3/4s of the way around the lake I landed a nice Largemouth on a #4 CH Black Strip Leech. I got a slight snag and as soon as I popped it free he pounced. It was an awesome fight as he ran several times into a tree that I had pulled him out of. This bass danced in the air three times before what seemed like an hour long fight came to an end. I have since put together a bass arsenal and will be back soon to try my luck again!
Chief and Lake Woodcock Do Battle! This is one adventure for the books!
For those of you who haven’t heard about my near death experiences last week I have decided to write a story. There are even rumors of ABC picking it up this fall as a mini-series.
Date: 5/9/09
Time: 10:30 am
Place: Woodcock
This is my story
The seas were angry my friend.
As I arrived at the cock I noticed that it was a little more windy than normal.
No problem I thought, I would just go back into the feeder stream to do some fine Muskie fishing. A few hours in I noticed the tree tops being thrashed by the increasing wind, but I was doing just fine down in the belly of the stream.
Not long after I landed my first Muskie of the day. A nice 25” landed on the famous firetiger. But what I didn’t realize is that it would also be my last.
Sometime over the next hours or so I nearly shit my pants when I heard an ear splitting noise coming from the trees right next to shore. I loud cracking sound echoed thru the whole valley. My head was on a swivel because I didn’t know which way it was coming from. Luckily a giant falling tree managed to stay on the land and I was safe for now.
After my first view of death, I thought that it might be time to call it a day and head back.
That was easier said than done.
When I drove the SS Minnow out of the calm, protected waters of the stream, I found my self confronted with 60 mpf winds and 4 foot white caps. It looked like I made a wrong turn and wound up on
The Minnow was taking on a lot of water. I strapped on my life jacked and buckled down for the long ride back. The engine was barely keeping up with the pounding waves. The hull of the boat would rise up out of the water and come crashing back down like a blue whale in mating season.
The waves were relentless and I saw another boat taking shelter in a small cove. I decided to do the same. After talking with that guy, he said that it was to get even worse as the day went on and he was going to try to make it back now. I tried to follow him back but the Minnows motor just couldn’t keep up.
He told me to keep going and take the waves head on. Well that worked for about 100 yards when all of a sudden I was hit port side by a rogue wave. It turned the boat side ways and before I knew it another wave have come crashing down and swamped half of the boat. The other guy must have seen the mayhem that was unfolding and was shouting for me to get over to the shore. Suddenly another wave floods the motor. The engine is barely running, I’ve got a boat half full of water and I’m still 40 yards off shore. By this time sheer panic has set in. I have both the main motor and the trolling motor at full bore. As I inch closer and closer to shore I can hear the main motor sputtering out. I have only one chance, and that was to reach a nearby beach area. If I don’t make it the boat will be crushed up against a rocky cliff and no doubt sink to the bottom of the cock.
Closer and closer I inched to the shore then with 15 yards to go the engine dies and I am left helpless in the waves. With out thinking I grab the anchor rope and jump overboard. Luckily I made it in close enough that the water was only up to my waist. Both the boat and waves were being pushed up on top of me but I was able to fight my way to the beach, finally. Safe at last.
You would think the story ends here but its only just began.
Now that I am resting on a deserted beach I look around and find that the beach doesn’t open for another month and has an 8’ fence surrounding the entire thing.
Now what do I do? I climb the fence and start walking the mile or two back to the dock. Luckily I was able to hitch a ride with a passing car. When I arrived back at the docks the other boat was just pulling in. They ran over and glad to see that I made it. They were just on their way over to see if I was OK.
After getting the truck I decided to drive around and find out who had keys to unlock the gates at the beach. Nothing turned up after 30 minutes of searching so I headed back to see what else I could do. I thought if I could just unload everything I may be able to just hide the boat in the woods until the next day. So I make 10 or so trips back and forth to and from the boat with all of my fishing shit, including the motors. Then it hit me like a ton of bricks. I bet my dad has some tools in his truck that might come in use. I looked under the seat and to my amazement I found a hack saw.
Needless to say, that fence didn’t have a chance. After opening the gates I drove down onto the beach and dragged the crippled vessel back onto the trailer. After a very long day on the lake I loaded up the gear and was finally on my way home.
Moral of the story: don’t fuck with a Cisler and his hacksaw.
Hope you all enjoyed and I will back at it in another week or two for another episode.
Floating the Hooch Takes A Bad Turn Thanks to the Arrow Backpacker!
I had been anticipating my trip to Atlanta for weeks. I was taking my brand new Arrow Backpacker with me for the sole purpose to float the Hooch over the weekend and use the boat for the first time. I went out and got a bag that would hold the boat and all of my fishing gear and still be under the weight limit for Delta. This bag had been packed two weeks before the actual trip. The journey to Atlanta went smooth and all of my gear made it with no problems.
The day came for the maiden voyage of the USS PD. The weather was perfect but the water was a little muddy. As I put together my Arrow Backpacker Pontoon Boat and started to inflate the tubes I was surprised to hear a hiss coming from one of the pontoons. After waiting an hour for the useless patch kit that came with the boat to work I decided to head down the river anyway. This proved to be a miserable decision. I kept the attachment connected to the valve of the pontoon and used my air pump to keep filling the pontoon as I floated. The K-Pump turned out to be the best investment that I made for the trip. I worked this way for several miles down the river and it was not that bad to deal with.
As we got closer to the out take out point we approached some shoals about 200 yards up river. As we approached looking for the best line things started to get a little hairy being on top of the pontoon. I got through the first few areas and then the frame on the pontoon broke in two places! Luckily I was not in deep water and I was able to keep everything together. We were now dead in the water 150 yards away from the truck. My buddy and I negotiated our way to what we thought was the shore. There is a running trail that is in the park and we would use that to make our way back to the parking lot. As we climbed the hill of the shore that we got up on we soon realized that we were on a small island. We had to then go down the back side, cross the river again, and climb another hill. All this while towing the broken pontoon boat. Each pontoon is 8' long so it is not something easy to trek around in. Not to mention fly rods, another tube, and oars. We hauled the boat back to the parking lot with several breaks in between. What a day!
I returned the Arrow Backpacker not even thinking about another pontoon boat and decided to go with a Fish Cat Float Tube and fins. Stay tuned for the next episode.
So after a miserable day on the water with no fish and plenty of problems this was truly an Adventure on the Fly!
I did return to the Cochran Shoals area of the Hooch on Saturday for some redemption and I did get it in the form of three nice rainbows in a short hour of fishing.
See You Next Episode!
Lake Taneycomo 1-24-09
With a week off of football before my Steelers played in the Super Bowl I decided to head to Taneycomo for the weekend. This is the off season for Branson so the crowds and traffic are basically gone which makes it that much better. The temperature was frigid and did not get above freezing all weekend. Saturday was sunny and clear making the day of fishing a little easier and Sunday was cloudy making the cold even colder if that is possible. Temperature aside, this was one of my most productive fishing trips I have ever had. On Saturday I started using a #16 BH Pheasant Tail that proved to be the hot fly of the day. As my buddy and I were fishing the fast run that is known as the rebar hole we saw a lot of fish being caught by everybody there. I was able to land 20 rainbows on my Pheasant Tail. The trout were an average of 12 inches with a few in the 15 to 16 inch mark. My highlight of the day came when I put on an Olive Woolly Bugger that I had tied myself and landed two trout on that fly. I had about a 4lber come up and take a swipe at it but I missed him and could not get him to look again. I finished the day up by the dam with another woolly bugger catching a few more trout. The day ended with 28 caught making this my best day of fly fishing yet. Sunday seamed to be colder with no sun but it was just as productive as Saturday. I was using a tan scud and landed around 20 trout in a short period of time. Out of all the fish caught that weekend I was only able to land one brown and the rest were bows. My camera went down so I did not get a lot of pictures on the day nor was there time to take any with trout after trout on both days.
Lake Taneycomo 1-8-09
Last week the temperatures reached a high of 58 and as I write this a week later it is a cool 9 degrees outside. Taneycomo is more like a tailwater than lake. The daily outflow from Table Rock Dam provides cool and oxygenated water to the trout that inhabit Taneycomo. The best place to wade and cast a fly is right below the dam when there is no power generation and it can still be fished with 1 to 2 generators on. I caught fish on tan scuds dropped below a white egg. The egg did not produce but the scud is a staple at Taneycomo. I also caught a few throwing an olive woolly bugger. These waters are full of trout and at the bottom of the dam the state has a trout hatchery. The area below the dam is designated as Trophy Management Area which means you can only take 4 trout out and only one can be a brown. The fish need to be below 12" or above 20" to be legal size. Like most trout hunters out there catch and release is always the best trophy management there is!
Welcome
Welcome to Adventures On The Fly! I will be using my blog to keep an on-line journal of my adventures fishing the country on the fly.
