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fishfreak

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Posts posted by fishfreak

  1. It's been a busy past 3 months, as our little girl Amelia was born January 3 at 1:02 am. She'd be a hefty broonie at that size, hehe. She's grown a ton already in the last 3 months, and we've been enjoying every minute of it. I haven't been on here much lately because of it, but hopefully I'll be able to escape here and there to pound the bow! (actually, I did yesterday... pic & report to come!)

     

    She still likes to sleep.

     

    AmeliaJan6056.jpg

     

    AmeliaJan12033.jpg

     

    IMGP0362.jpg

     

     

  2. My second pair of waders were Streamsides. The first few days they were great, and I thought they were excellent bang for the buck. However, after maybe 5 days of fishing, they started leaking. This started a 2 year debacle of literally pouring Aquaseal into the seams of the neoprene boot. This would work for a day or 2, but then the leaks would come back. It's definitely not a lot of fun when you're fishing in the fall with a leg full of water. I then tried a giant tube of Goop, both inside and outside of the seams, and still there was a leak. I thought what the heck?!? Frustrated, I bought a pair of Simms Guides for a decent price and have used and abused them for the last 2.5 years with no issues.

     

    Leaky waders suck. Good ones are worth their weight in gold. I hope you don't go through the frustration I went through.

  3. I don't catch enough big fish to stop measuring, but I've only actually taped 1 fish in my life. All the others I measure against my rod or net if I need to. However, I only do this on 20+ inchers now.

     

    I like the arm measurement approach... I might try that next time. Maybe I'll tattoo the measurements on my arm. As I get old and wrinkly, an 18 incher will be a 24! :whoot:

  4. I'm not a pro, but here are my thoughts:

     

    Before the heavy July rain, I thought the cutty fishing was normal. The water temps were great (wet wading with no excruciating pain to the feet), bugs were hatching, and lots of fish to be had on the dry.

     

    After the July rain, I found that fish were harder to come by. I'm blaming the higher water flows and lower temps for this, as it seemed that the fishing were rising a little later (when the water wasn't as cold, ie. my feet didn't feel like they were going to fall off). I waited until there was a good week of warm weather before I returned to the cutty streams and was rewarded with some decent fishing days, but not as much surface action. I would say I've only been catching about 50% of my fish on the dry (and the rest on the dropper), when usually it would be 60-80% on the dry.

     

    I've found that rivers like the Liv have been getting a little tougher to fish on the dry since I've started fishing there in 2001. I remember in 2001/2002 sitting on a certain hole that held over 150 fish, and catching 50 fish between the 3 of us in a couple of hours. Over the last 8 years, the productivity of that hole has diminished as the fish have gotten bigger (and probably smarter). This year, I didn't get any in that pool, but landed a few nice ones in the faster water above it. My fish count has decreased, but the average fish size has increased. 16+ inchers were tough to find back then, but now I usually get some 18+ inchers (and sometimes 20+") in a typical day.

     

    I used to get away with fishing a green drake most of the day in mid-July, catching 20-30 fish with the one fly. Now, I need to switch up my flies a lot more and go smaller. Also

     

    Overall, I would say this has been a good year for cutty fishing for me, but not as many on the dry. Every year I'm working a little harder to catch them, but have been rewarded with bigger fish on the average over the 8 years I've been hitting the cutty streams.

     

    Just my observations...

     

     

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