ORVIS' NEW HELIOS 2 AKA H2

The new H2's are sweet rods and I absolutely love the way they cast. But instead of me rambling on about them here s a video from Sharptail Media.

Helios 2 (The Second Coming) from Sharptail Media on Vimeo.

MOLDY CHUM SOTM!!!!

I'm in the running for slab of the month this month with my Musky from MN. Here's the link to Moldy Chum.

The 2012 Musky Hunt

Last week I headed up to Wildwood Float Trips headquarters up in Minnesota. I went up there a few days early to get some prefishing in and get to hang out with some old and new friends. The first day I fished with Kip Vieth of Wildwood and Jon Luke of Eastern Fly Fishing Magazine. Jon started the day off quickly with a little 30 incher. Later on I had a bruiser of 19.5 inch smallie inhaled my musky fly. Then about 3 minutes later this guy came straight up from the bottom and and scared the crap out of me.

Here's another shot of of us releasing the bruiser.

Thanks again Jon for those photos! The next day Jon and I fished with a cool bloke named Gabe from MN that is crazy about musky on the fly. Unfortunately we didn't hookup or land any musky that day but I did have a big guy follow my fly and follow the figure 8 around twice. Oh and I missed probably a dozen northerns and bass that all took swipes at my fly. Finally the next day I had clients in boat. I had some cool old timers in my boat. One of them, Jim, I've had in my boat before fishing for musky a few weeks earlier. Bill, my other client, moved a 40 plus incher pretty early in the morning but the hook never found it's home and we never got him to come back. Jim had a follow a little later and got into a couple of bruise bass to round off the day. The next day I had two guys from Chicago, Bubba (yes Bubba!) and Jeff. Bubba got lucky and got the front of the boat and we found Bill's fish and he wanted that fly again and just attacked it again.

Bubba had a follow a little later and Bubba got a couple of nice smallies to hand. en Jeff had an awesome eat from a musky which unfortunately cut through the 80 pound floro like it wasn't there. The third day unortunately was bust as far as musky go but some bass and northerns to hand.

THE NEW CHAPTER BEGINS

Wow do things change fast. At the time of my last post I was a fishing guide based out of wisconsin. Now I'm no longer officially guiding and in the process of moving to Chicago to be the new Fishing Manager at the downtown Orvis Store. I'll still be updating the blog and it will remain essentially the same.

It's that time of year.

Been getting reports and seeing these guys around for a while now.

Trico Spinner from Tightline Productions on Vimeo.

Cool steelhead video

I don't know if it's the heat or what but I keep thinking about cooler temps and fishing for steelhead.  I really wish I was headed to Idaho this fall to do some swinging but sadly I am not.  Here's too cooler temps and some tugs at the end of our lines.

DOOR COUNTY HERE I COME!

The little lady and I set aside a few days least week to head up to the cabin up in Door County for some much needed R&R.  I don't know about you but when I think about Door County I think carp and smallies!  There is one particular area which I consider my honey hole since I never see any other anglers there that I fish a lot but there is tons of water.  If you've never been up there all you need to do is find an access point and start walking the limestone flats.  Boat launches and parks serve well as an access point and I've found that most of the flats are on the lake side but there are some on the bay side.  I've found that I don't need to carry much gear.  I tend to carry a box of carp flies and two boxes of smallie flies when wading the flats.  Carp can be picky buggers but a good natural looking fly on some floro and presented well.  Smallies tend to like crawdad and baitfish patterns and of course top-water is always my preferred way to chase them.