Tom (doublewide on FAOL) called today and wanted to go fishing and I wanted to try out my new 7wt, so, I agreed and we went looking for either bass or walleye and ended up with 10 very nice crappie! Largest one was 16". We had a great day and I was very impressed with my new LL Bean Streamlight 7wt rod and reel combo. Tom and I have decided to try out river smallmouth fishing and from all that I read on here, the 7wt was highly recommended. I dislike any rod over 8’ 6" and I also like 2 piece rods and discovered that there are very few out there in the 7wt. LL Bean had this 7wt in 2 piece and 8’ 6" with their wide arbor reel prespooled with 7wt line and backing plus the cordura case that holds the rod with reel attached for $175 plus S/H. I decided to purchase it and really like it. I swear it does not weigh any more than my 5wt. One could use it all day and not be wore out. Here is a picture of the crappie Tom and I caught plus another picture of the rod/reel and crappie. Had a great day and look forward for more trips with this rod/reel.
When the “Dough God” was here on a visit he left me one of his “Chicago Leech” patterns and I modified it some and have caught just about all species of fish on it. Rather than use just one color of leech yarn, I used black and white. I tie mine on a #8 “hopper/caddis” style hook or any streamer style hook you have. I use a 1/8" or 3mm tungsten bead behind the hook eye, tie in one strand of white leech yarn and one strand of black leech yarn behind the bead, pull them over the top of the hook shank and palmer my black tying thread over them to the back tail tie in point, take hackle pliers and grip both yarns and twist them together just enough so they will furl together when you relax it, hold them at the tail tie in point with a length of about 3/4" for the tail length and let them furl. This makes a nice tight tail. Then I run my tying thread to the front behind the bead, unwrap the 2 leech yarns, brush them out to make them real spikey and them palmer them to the front where they will be tied off behind the beadhead. With each wrap coming forward I pull the spikey strands to the back so they are not trapped under the wraps. I bind them down real good behind the bead and do a double whip finish. That is all that is really needed, but, like all tyers, I have my quirks and after I finish the whip finish, I pick up a bobbin with red thread on it and start it over the black whip finish and build another head over the black with the red thread and do another whip finish. Give the whole fly another good brushing to make it real spikey and then use a small tube of black fabric paint and put a black dot on top of the red whip finish on each side for eyes. Cover all this with a nice coat of Sally Hansons and it is ready to fish. Remember that the red thread and eye dot are probably not needed, but, they are for this tyer only. The fish probably do not care.
Warren, I think I see two articles here. One is a Warm Water or Panfish article. The other is a Fly of the Week article. I know that Normandy Lake has some large crappie, but I’ve never caught one over 10" from below the dam. I suppose that a number may have washed out when they were spillingso much water. Either that, or you’ve been keeping secrets.
I’m glad to see that you had a good day. If you keep catching 16" crappie, you might have Rick Zieger stomping around Tullahoma.
I can 100% attest to just how AWESOME this pattern works! In Warren’s thread CO Flyfisher, Jack & the Duck River, starting at the fourth post, this was the fly I used ALL day. It got pretty well beat up between the fish and the trees ;), but it still kept catching fish.
The head came untied and the body yarn wraps slid off making the tail huge and the body a thin black stick, and it still caught fish. On the water, I twisted the yarn together and re-wrapped it back up to the head and tied it back on using a few turns of 6x tippet pulled as tight as I could get them, and it still caught fish! The fly is now a bushy mess and the black and white have blended enough to look dark grey, but it still caught fish!!!
With any luck, it will continue to catch fish in the morning as it collects some more of these 16" Crappie… :mrgreen:
Tom called again today and wanted me to meet him at the river around 5:00pm so we could see if we could catch some more crappie. We never caught any but I did manage to catch 6 walleye on the same fly. In order to keep walleye they must be at least 16" and 5 of the 6 did not make the 16". One did make it to a little over 18". Two days ago, I caught 2 walleye that were pushing 19" to 20" and I ate them so I let Tom have the one I caught tonight. He got the fish and I got the picture and here it is:
Let it be said here and now that CO_flyfisher is a fine, upstanding member and would never, never state anything that was not true!:rolleyes: And I want to know why he is posting while he supposed to be working??
“heck is there any kind of fish you dont have there? im drooling over here!”
Yes, but you have some great bluegill/shellcracker fishing there where you are! I have several relatives that live around Brooksville, Louisville and Macon and I have fished there many times and had a ball!
What Warren hasn’t been telling you is that one of the larger state hatcheries sits right next to the river. I think that Warren must have made a few “mis-casts”.
Actually, the Duck is considered one of the most biologically diverse rivers in the country.
The fact that recent floods may have washed some fish from the lake just upstream of some of the pictures might be a contributing factor. On the other hand, it IS one of the two streams where I have caught crappie on a dry fly.
