Projects

Initially, I was going fishing Saturday with a buddy of mine. Unfortunately, he wasn't able to go so I didn't make it out. Instead, I ended up working on some different projects around the house. The first little task was to pick up a fish tank for our family room. Just so happened that the local warm water pond was close by so I checked up on how the water level was looking.

Looks a bit low....

After that, the wife got to painting the stand and cleaning the tank while I took the opportunity to make a new form for building landing nets. I've built a net before, but that was at my brother's and I wanted to start building these on my own. More to come on this new adventure.

Next step is to get some hardwood!
I'm ready, even if I'm not ready.

Getting back to the fish tank involved a quick trip to the pet store (1hr, 15 min) to grab a few fish. It was on this drive that I told my family about when I was a kid. My mom had a fish tank with some goldfish and I wanted to try out one of the flies that I had just learned how to tie. Yeah, I hooked, landed and successfully released one of my mother's goldfish. I'm not proud of it, but that's the sort of thing I would do. At least I tied the fly it was caught on....

The wife does have a good eye for stuff like this

Just thought I'd show off her paint job

Speaking of tying flies, I've been trying to fill up my boxes in preparation for the upcoming Spring. Nothing quite like watching The New Flyfisher and going completely into production mode for flies.

A dozen and a half flies, just a drop in the bucket

As much as I really wanted to go fishing, it does feel nice to make some progress on some of these projects. Hope you can get out and enjoy the water.

- Kidder

Awry

Sometimes plans go awry. With my family it seems like plans always go awry. That's how a two day trip with my Dad and two brothers turned into a day trip with just my Dad. With options being weighed and decisions being put off, I ended up leaving for the two hour drive to my Dad's house at 9:30 pm on Friday. Once I got up there we needed to pack some things and make final arrangements. We finally got to bed at about 12:30 am, but were still up at 3:00 am and out the door by 3:30.

After a long drive we were ready to hit it hard right at first light, but were met with uncooperative fish. The few takes we had all managed to end in favor of the fish till my Dad found the "honey-hole" and started picking up some fat bows.

These fatties fight pretty hard for their size

He invited me to try out his spot and on the first cast with my streamer I had a very aggressive fish on the end of my line. The first glimpse we had of it my Dad starts in on how I caught a catfish! With how dark this fish was I could almost believe it....

22" and really thick

We continued fishing right up until dark with nothing but more small bows to show for it when I hooked up again. Nothing spectacular by way of size, but the first time I've ever caught a Largemouth Bass! 

Always feels good to catch a 'first'

Little sleep and a long drive don't really mix at the end of the day, so we ended up staying at a Hotel 6 in the middle of nowhere. Didn't even eat dinner because we crashed once in the room. Amazing how tiring this fishing thing can make us.

Felt great to get out and throw some flies especially when I can get out with my Dad. I'm looking forward to getting some more trips in with him this year. Hope you can get out and enjoy the water.

- Kidder

Winner Winner!

Back before Christmas I was lucky enough to be the winner of a custom net by DragonFly Anglers! John been great about keeping me in the loop and sending out great pics of the building process, and he's been putting up regular posts on his blog.

Copyright DragonFly Anglers

I received this sweet net in the mail this week but didn't get to see it till I got home today, and can't wait to try it out. The most impressive feature (besides being drop dead gorgeous) is how amazingly light this net is. Hope you can get out and enjoy the water.

- Kidder

Feelin' the Itch

So this is the weekend that all the Music Educators (or most of us...) in Utah head south for the annual professional development conference. While I'm not complaining about going to the warmer climate of St. George, not bringing the long rod is killing me. Freakin' summertime videos on YouTube. Or, even worse, recent videos that are streaming in from New Zealand or Patagonia. People actually fly fishing right now!! Catching large fish on large dry flies....the bastards. 

So how is this yearly annoyance aggravated further by getting away into warmer temps?  The fact that I'm supposed to be in a conference and not fishing. I've tried bringing a rod along in years past, but I just can't seem to sit still in the conference when there's fishing options available. So this year I'm without the temptation, but the thought is still keeping me from full focus. Such is life. Can't wait till next weekend (even though it'll still be in the cold). Hope you can get out and enjoy the water (and if it is warm where you live, keep it to yourself!)

- Kidder

I can almost taste it

Good Times with Trout

Sometimes you get to that point where you just have to get away. With life being what it is, things were piling up on me and I needed to get out fly fishing for the first time since December 1. A couple of texts back and forth between me and my brother set the plan in motion and we were going on a two day excursion. By mid-week it looked like our plans might be spoiled by the first snow storm we've had in quite a while. Despite our better judgment we headed out in the early morning.

Our destination was a place I hadn't been since I was 5 or 6, but have heard about quite a bit lately. Friends of friends, blog posts, and other sources of rumors made it seem unlikely that we'd be able to decipher the secrets in only two days but we figured to make a good try of it. 

Once we arrived we found the water exactly how it was described...unremarkable. But we worked it anyways and found some success on some scud patterns. 

Success is good, no matter the size

After a bit we moved to another good looking spot and I hooked into a nice fish. The big boy fought me for a bout ten minutes, he came to the surface many times and was starting to tire. My brother was down and ready with the net when he took a last turn and came unbuttoned. I couldn't (and still can't) think of anything I had done wrong. Small hook and light tippet kept me from applying more pressure. I let him run when I needed to and made up the line whenever I could. Even his jumps didn't effect the connection. Sometimes the big ones really DO get away!

Fishing in the snow

Luckily it wasn't long after my failure that my brother hooked up on a nice bow. Knowing it was a good fish I got my line out quick and grabbed the net. Everything that could seemed to go wrong on this fish. Not once, but twice she hooked him up on something down deep. Then she managed to get his line caught up on a rock but I was quick with the net and got her in.

That's my large net I use for my
kick boat, the hoop is 20" wide just
for reference

The trip was an absolute success at this point, and anything else we could manage would just be extra. Well, we got a lot extra! Wasn't long after this that I caught a 18-incher, and we had several other mid-teens come in. 

The next morning the scuds were bringing up the skunk, so I switched over to a black woolly bugger and caught another nice 20-incher. My bro threw on a sweet little black and orange streamer of mine and started hooking into a few, including a nice 22-incher. Could life get any sweeter? 

Out of pure curiosity we hit a couple more spots before making the trek home, and boy did it pay off. Once we found some good holding water I hooked into the biggest fish I've caught to this point. A 26" brute of a bow that was one of the prettiest fish I've caught too! 

It looks warmer, but the 2nd day
was actually a lot colder.

Life is good, and I was glad to get away for a couple of days. Hope you can get out and enjoy the water.

- Kidder