I find it frustrating at times that my mind cannot focus on one hobby at a time. If my current interest is going out and shooting flintlocks in the woods, you could probably convince me to sell all of my slingshots, modern firearms, convention fishing tackle, reloading supplies, you name it! I have a one track mind and when I am into something, I'm in it 100%, that is, until I see a random short on YouTube of a guy tying a partridge and orange. Then my mind switches tracks faster than a derailing freight train. That very thing happened a week or so ago, in conjunction with a short fishing trip with conventional tackle where the telltale "smack" of a bluegill sucking a bug off of the surface made me wish I had a fly rod with a foam bug rather than an ultralight spinning rod with a jig.
At the beginning of this year, I decided to keep a fishing log, nothing special, just a spreadsheet to keep track of how many and what kind of fish I was catching, weather, number of outings, etc. I had been watching ultralight fishing videos all winter (thanks Fish Anything) and told myself that I was gonna get an early start with the ultralight spinning setup fishing dropshots, floats, spoons and whatever else works in the cold. Now all this being said, I have been fishing for the past 20 years solely with a fly rod. Looking back, that was kind of dumb because there is a ton of fun to be had with conventional tackle and there is no doubt that fishing warm-water bodies of water during the winter is just plain more effective with a spinning rod over fly tackle. I'm not saying its impossible but its easier to fish 20' of water with a jig than a wooly bugger. Anyhow, that is exactly how I spent the first half of this year, bringing about 120 fish to hand in 19 outings so far. Maybe not great numbers for some but that counts the 15 minute sessions as well as the 6 hour ones.
Alright, focus... After all that fish catching fun on the ultralight, that dang partridge and orange sparked that drive to pull out the fly rod. I grabbed my most recent acquisition of fly tackle which is a 7.5' 3wt Blue Halo fiberglass rod. There is something about a light and limber rod that just feels right. Anywho, I tied on a bit of egg yarn and took it out to the yard to tease the ducks and cats. I tell ya, casting a fly rod is just like riding a bike, you never do forget that rhythm and dang is it pleasant. The next weekday that I had off, I loaded up the "Skookum Choocher" (1984 15' Michicraft aluminum canoe) and headed off to the pond. As you can imagine, the first thing I was gonna fish was a partridge and orange albeit, suspended below a Llano bug. The soft hackle definitely got some interest but they were just as enthused about the topwater offering so off with the dropper and on with the popper! It was non stop action with that fine little rod for about 2 hours, bringing 29 decent (up to 8.5") bluegill to hand.
The next question is "what is better than bluegill and fiberglass?" Well bluegill and bamboo of course! And so a week later, I found myself out on the same water with a 7.5' 4wt bamboo rod and another Llano Bug/soft hackle combo. Same story, this time, the fish were only looking up though and could care less for the dropper. Started off with what could only be described as a "cute" largemouth bass, then it was almost non stop again with the bluegill. This time bringing 28 bluegill and 1 bass to hand.
On a side note, this was the first time I fished any of my 4wt rods with a not so new but definitely neat little reel. I found a J.C. Higgins (Sears I believe) fly reel in a junk store a couple years ago for $10 and picked it up simply for a shelf decoration. I think the old school solid spool and narrow design caught my eye and didn't think to use it until I was sitting there looking at my L.L. Bean Angler reel thinking "this just doesn't look quite right". Well the old gal was missing the drag spring but I was able to cut a hardware store spring down to fit and with a bit of cleaning and oiling, I had a perfectly functional piece of kit. I think it looks mighty fine with the bamboo too, even if its not a Hardy Perfect...
