reevesr1

Hawgstoppah, Taught me something I should have already known.... I used to catch sharks (pretty big ones, up to 7 ft or so) in the surf, wade fishing. If they ran straight out, you had a pretty good chance of landing him. If he ran down the beach, you better haul it that in that direction to get him back in line with you or you stood a much greater chance of loosing him. Wish I had put that together with nymphs/river fishing. The funny thing is that on the really big one I lost I was letting him run, and I was hoofing it towards shore to chase, but slipped and fell costing me 15 seconds or so. 2 big head shakes and bye bye trout. I have been just letting them run, have only broke off one, (I tend not to put a whole lot of pressure on the fish unless something forces me to), have been trying to drop the rod on the jumps, hooks are sharp. All fish on nymphs. I suck at everything else so far. So let me ask you guys this. The run I was working was 20 yds or so from shore. Takes at least 30 seconds to get to the bank. If the fish is running like a Banshee, it will be more than 45 deg. downstream. I assume in this case you do what Max suggested, just let him run while doing Hawstoppah race to catch up before applying any real pressure? Thanks for all the great advice again. Love this board! Can't imagine how hard all this would be to learn without forums like this. MTB, can't wait to take you up on the return trip and in person assessment. Hopefully we get lots of chances to analyze. Max and Brad, Ben is chomping at the bit to get together on a float!

esleech, The guy who caught the trout was a trophy fishermen. Knows his stuff and the process. You do not have to get it weighed on a certified scale. Here is the story: http://www.fishgame.com/outdoornews/aug02/1.htm The fish was certified and is now the State Record trout in Texas, certified by IGFA. Has been for several years. Many people don't like it, for the reasons you state above, but there it is. The link below is from this year and is a rehash of the argument. The original was 4 yrs ago and I couldn't search it up: http://www.2coolfishing.net/ttmbforum/show...ght=bud+rowland Texas has a fishing tournament every year called STAR. Huge prizes. Anyone who wins a top prize has to undergo a lie detector test. If you pass, you win. I don't know if IGFA does the lie detector thing or not, but I wouldn't be surprised. Just for fun, here is a link to the STAR tournamen. Read it and be amazed! My neice won a College Scholarship (4 years, up to 25K) in this tournament 4 yrs or so ago. http://www.ccatexas.org/CCATexas/STAR_Tour...SnID=1796662289

Kyle, I don't know if that is true. I think that if you have a certified, 1 shot scale that if you have pictures and send scale in to IFGA to certify they will accept. I know absolutely that the state record Spotted Weakfish caught in Texas was certified that way, and was certainly released alive. It caused a pretty big controversy as these are the primary gamefish in Texas and the certified record fish was released without indepenent verification. It was also caught on a fly rod which really opened some eyes as my guess would be that less than one tenth of one percent of the Spotted Weakfish are caught on a fly rod. I don't really know all the details on the rules for weighing, type of 1 shot scale, etc. but I do know that they will certify with that method.

SJW, I need to have your job!!!!!! Though mine is pretty sweet as well as I type this from my desk......

Hey, I forgot about a story too. The day of the Grand Opening, I was in the store and needed a pair of fins for my Pontoon Boat. Can't think of the name off the top of my head, but they cost $149.00. Unfortunately, they were out. So George (I think it was him--friendly guy, lots of information) calls Russell Sports and gets me the same price as the Grand Opening price at Wholesale. I was pretty impressed.

Love it! Just a great post. I've never fished small water and its one of the many things I am truly looking forward to.

Also keep in mind that forums are terrible places to write a negative opinion of any sort. Even if you think you are being as tactful as possible, someone will always read a tone into the thread that you may not have intended. Has to do with the written word having no tone of voice, if that makes sense. If I am having a disagreement with someone, the last place I will try to discuss/settle is via written communication of any sort. They need to hear your voice.

Actually, that's pretty coincidental since our 20th anniversary is next year and we are going to Ireland and Paris. So a plan is brewing: Hook my wife up with your wife, I get to fish for a week and she gets her Europe fix and I won't need to go to Ireland and Paris next year. With all the money I save I could afford a couple of extra trips to Fish Tales, Hanson's, Wholesale, whatever. Oh if life were that simple. In reality if my wife went to Ireland and Paris unsupervised, and worse yet with another woman, I would not have enough money left for gas to 22X, which is 3 minutes from my house.

I have been very impressed with Wholesale. The guys behind the counter are friendly, knowledgeable, and very willing to help out. Will typically take you right to whatever it is you are looking for. Actually, given the overall labor shortage in Calgary, I found the staffing level to be excellent. Lynn, I want that pontoon boat by the front door as well. A little "Midnight Reconnaisance" trip could be in order!. Split it with ya! I'll drive the getaway car.

Got it. How does 30# spiderwire cast on a fly rod?

I'm typing this on my bberry looking through my presciption Maui Jim's. I may only be able to see 1\2" deeper into the water than a cheapo pair, but I can't beat the ladies off with a stick. A win in my book. In all seriousness, I love them. Are they worth the money(the glasses, not the ladies)? Who knows, but I haven't noticed budget being a big motivator in the fly fishing world!

Can your wife invite my wife? I can let my kids fend for themselves! What is FTR?

So I'm sure I could search up some old posts on this, but i'm pretty lazy. The last few days I have noticed a dramatic increase in the size of fish I have been hooking. And with the warming water, the strength of the fish has certainly increased as well. Unfortunately, my catch rate has plummeted. I seem to be getting good hooksets, I really haved not lost many on the jump, mostly on runs and headshakes. I have been pretty surprised by this because i really thought that since I was comfortable landing big saltwater fish through the years that once I started to figure out presentation when fly fishing, the landing part would have been easier to figure out. Wrong, apparently as I have only landed 1 of the last 8 I have hooked. This was capped this morning when I lost a huge brown on a screaming downstream run. I got a great look at him when he jumped about 10 ft in front of me. 25± and thick. Broke my heart to loose him. So please give suggestions. Keeping tension has not been a problem, but there is something about fighting fish in moving water I need to learn!

Ended up getting out late (with my wife, what a surprise) and had to leave early for my son's baseball game. We did stop at Lower K, fished for a bit and did get to see lots of fish. Nothing was turned on, but it was cool. Drove by Wedge, but did not stop. We fished Sibald Meadows Pond and played with the little (the big ones were 6") cutts. Jackie caught a couple. We were getting strikes on every cast, just not a lot of hookups. But probably caught 10 or so in a little over an hour. Wife loved the trip, if not the fishing. But she will go again any time, particularly to K Lakes. Has no trouble watching me fish. WhooHoo!

Thanks everyone! I certainly would not have thought of the line.

I was looking at the map book and there are two Sibald Lakes, one called Sibald Lake just off Hwy 1 and one Sibald Meadow Pond off Hwy 68. I am assuming we are talking about the one off 68? At least that's the one I am planning on going to check out today.

LK, K lakes wouldn't be my first choice for her, except that it is pretty! I plan tro try Sibald, Wedge or a couple of other lakes on the map. I can't find Beaver on the Backroad Mapbook.

Been to many a Bass Pro Shop. Good store, pretty good prices. Very dangerous place with a credit card!

My wife and I are heading up to K Lakes tomorrow. She will fish some with me, but her attention span will be short (to say the least). Any hints on what and where will be greatly appreciated, as well as some standbys if K Lakes are too tough for me to get on anything, which is certainly possible. I have not fished still water much. so stupid fish would be a nice fallback!

I get to be the first to "Ask the Pros" on the new forum! So when I was putting on the bug spray last night, I started wondering. In Texas, I had friends that would always thoroughly wash their hands after putting on bug spray before touching any lures. The theory was they could either smell it, or taste it and reject the lure even faster than usual. I never noticed any difference, so ignored the theory. Anyone do the same with their flies? Does anyone think it matters?

Where did you serve, besides in the Gulf (I assume)? I had a pretty sweet tour of duty. I had to put up with Pearl Harbor (I slummed it in Waikiki). San Diego, Orlando, Pocatello, Idaho (skiing, fishing) and Chicago. OK, I really didn't like Chicago, but you can't have it all! All kidding aside, I was extremely lucky in the time I served. Pretty much nothing going on. I had a couple of moments of terror on the sub, but they were always over quickly. No sustained fear. I can't imagine what you guys went through. Thank you.

Military Vet: 8 years US Navy Sub Service running nuclear power plants. Served from 1980 to 88. No combat action, obviously and thankfully. To all of you war vets, and vets in general, you have all of my heartfelt respect and thanks!