Hit the right pond today. Came home with 50 gills,from 7 to 9 inches long and 25 crappie, 9 to 11 inches.
Most of them on a furl tailed mohair leech.
Rick
That is an awesome day of fly fishing. I hope thats a big pond cuz it sounds like you caught every fish in it. I haven’t had a day like that in a looooong time.
Sounds like a good day. I know that for the Kansas fish-in I am planning on taking at least 3 dz furled tail leaches. They are durable but after 20 or so fish they start to come apart.
VERY nice, Rick! I was using the furled tail leech tonight and caught 11 keeper bluegills. It is quickly becoming a staple in my fly box!
I just got some mohair from one the guys on this board. Can’t wait to start fishin them leeches!
Rick
You were bound to hit them sooner or later.
Congrats
Fatman
GT171 NOtanywhere nearall the fish in the pond. About 200 yards long and 8 yards wide.
Lost 1 of 5 gills I hook and half the crappie I hooked. But it wasafun.
Rick
Now crappie are delicious, but I have never tried to eat a gill - are they a good table fish?
'Gills are good eating! I haven’t kept any in years, but I still remember a fishing trip with my cousin when we were teenagers…we brought home some nice bluegills and filleted them out, and my Aunt battered them and dropped them in the deep-fat fryer. WOW was that good!! I think walleyes and crappies are better, but not by much!
I bought some black mohair yarn last night so I can try this furled mohair leech fly pattern out. Rick, I know you sent me some, but its been awhile since I tied one on (um…that fly, I mean). ;o)
If you like crappie, you will like bluegill, or any of the other sunfish.
If you fry your fish, let me describe a clean-as-a-whistle way to get them skillet ready, as well as to dine on.
“Field Dressing”
- Scale them,
- Make a diagonal cut all the way through the body, starting at the back of the head to the vent. You have just eliminated both the pectoral and the pelvic fins, as well as the viscera. DO NOT remove the other fins!!
Cooking
Fry in hot grease (oil) using your favorite coating; fins and all.
Eating
- While still hot, grasp dorsal fin at back-end and pull forward,
- Repeat above process with anal fin,
- Grasp body at head-end and at the base of the tail; push head and tail towards each other while gently twisting the body,
- Bone-free fillets will fall from the skeleton,
- Discard the cartoon-style skeleton, which consists of spine, ribs and tail fin.
- ENJOY!!
The only meat lost is that tiny amount between the pectoral and pelvic fins. IMHO, the meat-loss when filleted first is totally unacceptable! You just don’t waste such great meat.
Potato salad, Hush Puppies, pickles, and a Texas-size glass of iced tea, with lemon, make for truly fine dining!
When our boys were small, my late wife and I would give such fillets to them with no concerns about them finding a bone in them.
Aged-sage
PS: Where can I find recipe for the furled tail leech? Would like to try it. TIA
Here you go aged sage. http://flyanglersonline.com/features/panfish/part535.php
steveks:
Thanks a million for the link. Will tie some and give them a try.
Frank
Hi All,
Is the pattern on line where a person can see it?
Thanks and regards,
Gandolf
Aged:
Thanks for the “post fry fillet” idea, I will try it:
Here is someting I lifted from Angus Phillips’ column in the Washington Post that I can swear to:
"Frying anything isn’t particularly good for you, of course, but a golden crust on fresh fish seals the moisture in and brings out the flavor. It’s a three-step process: First, dust the skinned filets in a light mixture of flour and Old Bay, then dip in a mixture of egg and milk, then dredge in a final coat of panko. Get the oil hot and fry the fish just long enough for the meat inside to go from opaque to white. How can you tell? Use a knife, dummy! " http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/11/06/AR2009110602745_2.html
Panko is avail in our grocery stores, its a small bread crumb that is *****
pillcaster:
The two “pro” fish fryers I have been personally associated with followed the same battering procedure, but first used flour seasoned only with salt and pepper only, and then cornmeal for the final coating. Each, one being my late father-in-law, typically used the same technique to determine when the grease was hot enough for adding the fish. Both would take a kitchen match and just barely touched the tip to the surface of the grease. If the match DID NOT ignite, the oil was not yet hot enough. A third would drop water on the surface of the oil much as one does for a griddle or skillet, and if it formed a sphere and ran around before evaporating, the grease was ready; if the grease spattered, it was not yet hot enough. The fish was done when it popped to the surface, and was instantly removed to prevent over cooking. Their fryers were as much as 8 inches deep and filled to within an inch or so of the top with grease, by one of the two, or cooking oil by the other. By grease, I me pure hog lard! (Talk about bad for the body! But man were those fillets good!) The oil was then allowed to heat up again before adding the next batch of fish.
agedsage
Could I give some help with the directions. I don’t understand.
I furl my tail off the body ala JohnScott’s FEB Hopper. Cut about a 3 or 4 inch piece of mohair, grab one end with hackle pliers and pinch one end between your thumb and index finger. KEEP TENSION and twist it a half dozen times or so. Take a bodkin at the halfway point, press in on the mohair, and let the tension loose. That should cause it to furl back on itself, with where your bodkin pushed as the middle.
Tie that tail in about a hook shank length long. Then take another 4" piece of mohair, tie in at the base of the tail, loosely palmer up to the bead, tie off… Done!
VERY simple! Don’t over-think it. I think JohnScott has a good pictorial on furling tails if you’ve never tried it before. Check out the FEB Hopper in the Fly of the Week archives.
I furl my tail off the body ala JohnScott’s FEB Hopper. Cut about a 3 or 4 inch piece of mohair, grab one end with hackle pliers and pinch one end between your thumb and index finger. KEEP TENSION and twist it a half dozen times or so. Take a bodkin at the halfway point, press in on the mohair, and let the tension loose. That should cause it to furl back on itself, with where your bodkin pushed as the middle.
Tie that tail in about a hook shank length long. Then take another 4" piece of mohair, tie in at the base of the tail, loosely palmer up to the bead, tie off… Done!
VERY simple! Don’t over-think it. I think JohnScott has a good pictorial on furling tails if you’ve never tried it before. Check out the FEB Hopper in the Fly of the Week archives.
“Could I give some help with the directions. I don’t understand.”
[COLOR=black]crappiecrazy,
I am not sure if this is the way Rick does it or not, but, this is the way I furl the tail on my Leech/Mohair flies:
After doing a thread wrap on the hook shank, I then cover the hook shank with Punch Yarn that is the same color as the Leech Yarn just to build up a little more body to the fly. Then I tie in, at the tail tie in point, the end of about 4-5 inches of Leech Yarn and grab the other end of it and twist until it wants to twist/furl upon its self. I then raise the Leech Yarn up under tension with my right hand (I am right handed) and grab it between my left hand thumb and finger (I tie right handed) where I want the tail to end and pinch the Leech Yarn onto the hook shank with my right hand and turn lose of the yarn with my left hand. This will allow the yarn to furl to make the tail. Put a few thread wraps at the tail tie in point so the furled tail does not unfurl and allow the tag end of the yarn to untwist, run your thread bobbin up behind the hook eye and then palmer the tag end of the yarn up the hook shank to make the body of the fly.
I hope this helps…
[/COLOR]
I was given some red mohair yarn Mouse ot into it and chewed on it.LOts to tie flies with. Could not keep bass off ot it.
Not sure how other colors might work.
Rick