Fly Fishing

[themcnertney]

Anyone out there fly fish ?

Lets talk.

 

[themcnertney]

Im very new to the fly fishing world. Only have be in this hobby for about 3 weeks and what a fun 3 weeks its been.

 

[fish farmer]

What do you flyfish for, trout, bass, carp?

I see you are in Ohio.

I'm in Vermont. 5 hours to Lake Ontario tributaries, 5 hours to the salt, 5 minutes to brown trout as long as my arm.

I have various weigh rods from 3 to 9, I think 5 or 6 rods....a buddy gifted me three rods this year. Been fishing with a fly rod for about 25 years, but still learning.

 

[themcnertney]

Hey we got hit.

I grew up fishing with my dad in PA, Allegheny National Park. We’d fish the streams for trout and that’s my goal here in Ohio, finding that’s a difficult task however.

I live near a series of lakes south of Akron (Portage Lakes) so bass is what I have always sought. It’s been nice having lakes by me to learn the cast.

I work near the Cuyahoga River and spoke to a ranger in the park. They stock it with trout. So I’ve been exploring that a bit.

Interestingly, I have a done a bit of research and found a stream that I’m gearing up to go fish here shortly. It’s outside of Wooster and they having been stocking frequently for quite a few years now. I’ll report back on how I do.

 

[themcnertney]

Ohio trout fishing is tough. I did find a contact that pointed me to a spot that gets stocked 2 times in fall and once in the spring. Although not the trout I was after, it was an amazing place. I signed up to volunteer help stock coming up in October.

 

[fish farmer]

How far are you from Lake Erie? I know there are some steelhead runs along the PA shore, maybe some around your area?

 

[themcnertney]

I’m about 45 minutes from steelhead alley. I plan to give it a go during that run

 

[themcnertney]

Just for the heck of it, I bought some flies on TEMU. 3 weeks later, they arrived. They seem pretty good quality. We'll see when they hit the water if that will be happening again. Id guess not.



My amazing wife also got me a trout net that I look forward to trying out.

 

[themcnertney]

A few weeks ago I got into tying flies.

Short story time...

I had done a lot of research into which vise I wanted to tie with. Renzetti Traveler was my pick. I was in talks with Mad River Outfitters (MRO) and had discussed with them this particular vise. Next talk was materials and tools rather then purchase a starter kit for material, I wanted to tie dries and wooly buggers. They said they would get a list together and call me back the following day. For tools, I opted to get the loon tool starter kit.

This period of waiting for MRO to get back to me, created a series of very fortunate events. It started from a thread on TacomaWorld.com about fly fishing, I was asking a series of questions. A received a DM from a gentleman, who was getting older with age and was struggling to tie. He wanted to gift his Renzetti Traveler (of all things) to a friend or family member, no interest. He asked in the DM to call him as it was easier means of communication for him, so I did. We talked for 30 minutes. He wanted to gift me his vise, tools and material. I gladly accepted and said we'll talk again tomorrow.

Got a call the next day from MRO. They did a fantastic job of providing me a list and prices of everything I will need to get started. Unfortunately I had to declined purchasing from them as the series of events the previous day evolved.

That afternoon, I spoke to the gentleman again, he was working on getting everything ready to ship out to me. In the meantime, I was to send him a check for the shipping rates, so I did. I added $200 as a gift to him for giving me all of this and did not tell him. Below is a few photos what he sent me...



The story gets even better. While this was shipping, I had received another DM from a different gentleman on TacomaWorld.com as well. He was wanting to send me a starter care package that includes feather and fur he hunted himself. Mule deer, elk, turkey, duck, squirrel, and rabbit, with some other goodies as well.

Man, what a week its turned out to be. He asked that I not give him any money but to pay it forward to someone else down the road. Such good people. Here are some of those photos...





Here a few photos of some of the flies I have done so far...

 

[fish farmer]

You are well on your way.

Now you need a big desk to put all the stuff in like this...

 

[themcnertney]

YOU. CAN. POP. THEM!!!
Popping them will not cause them to spread!

You are well on your way.

Now you need a big desk to put all the stuff in like this...

I have a desk that I built when I was a senior in high school (2000). Its my office desk when working from home, but works well for a fly tying station at the moment. Ill have to get a photo of it, beautiful solid oak.

Storage had been challenging. My computer desk doesn't have the room for all these materials. I've gone from nothing to tons of material over night. I really want a Fishpond, but opted to try a cheaper soft tackle box with binders. Found it wasn't big enough to store everything.

Yesterday, I ordered a Plano 728 tackle box with storage compartments, I think this will suffice, or I hope so.

 

[fish farmer]

I have a desk that I built when I was a senior in high school (2000). Its my office desk when working from home, but works well for a fly tying station at the moment. Ill have to get a photo of it, beautiful solid oak.

Storage had been challenging. My computer desk doesn't have the room for all these materials. I've gone from nothing to tons of material over night. I really want a Fishpond, but opted to try a cheaper soft tackle box with binders. Found it wasn't big enough to store everything.

Yesterday, I ordered a Plano 728 tackle box with storage compartments, I think this will suffice, or I hope so.

I have a similar style hardware box that was gifted to me, 4 flat sectional boxes, two for hooks, one for beads and weights, one for thread and tinsel. I put a lot of stuff in square Tupperware type containers, like the small card tinsel/yarn/chenille has it's own box. Bulky things like bucktail, gallon Ziplocs. I also toss a few mothballs in my stuff.

I also made a bunch of little drawers for my desk.

 

[themcnertney]

 

[themcnertney]

 

[themcnertney]

I think it’s just me and @fish farmer running the show over here.

Any other fly enthusiasts ?

 

[fish farmer]

I’m about 45 minutes from steelhead alley. I plan to give it a go during that run

It's steelhead season.

Here's a Lake Champlain fish, time to tie Estaz yarn on a hook.

 

[themcnertney]

Wooster OH few weeks after stocking Rainbows.

 

[themcnertney]

Took a try at the steelhead run in northern Ohio. Although, I got shucked, I had an awesome time an learned alot.

 

[Blue Spot Octopus]

For those who want to get in cheap at first, Costco at least last year was selling a setup.
I purchased a graphite Fenwick Fly Rod back in the 80's, I had a float tube and used to try to catch bass, I finally did, I have been to the Owens River near Mammoth Ca. MammothLakes etc. good fun. Sadly I have not been for a long time. 11-1

 

[fish farmer]

Took a try at the steelhead run in northern Ohio. Although, I got shucked, I had an awesome time an learned alot.

Cool.

That's more than I did since November. We got a lot of rain again, I got busy doing Holiday stuff, then winter kinda got here, but not enough to ice fish safely. They are still boating salmon on Lake Champlain.