It's on (updated with photos 4/22/08)

[DEADhead]

Temps finally broke 50 degrees up north today. After months of waiting, I finally made the trek down to my "home waters". I was hoping to test out some new fly patterns I tied over the winter. The carnage was as follows:

I ended up with about a half dozen quillbacks, four carp, and a mighty bigmouth buffalo. I could see plenty of redhorse in the river, but couldn't convince any of them to take a fly. The season's still young yet. Oddly enough, I didn't see many white suckers, then again, the water temps were still in the mid 40s.

[Tyler Holm]

Awesome DH. Very nice fish. Great first outing.

I'm gonna try to drown a crawler next week sometime. I can't seem to find time with all the cutbait soaking I've been doing.

[Tyler Holm]

PS. Love the quills and big mouth

[crazyice]

That bigmouth is sweeeet! Way to get after 'em.

[sparcebag]

Nice catch! I went to my favorite river today (Crow River)Spicer area,Its not even flowing over my best dam! theres a lower dam that holds back Calhoun lake its only flowing 2-3" over that was hoping for seein nothern run,& checkin what fish are there.

BAD low water around here,snows gone.

[northernsportman]

way to get out and catch a bunch! now it should keep getting warmer from here on out...

[DEADhead]

 Originally Posted By: sparcebag

Nice catch! I went to my favorite river today (Crow River)Spicer area,Its not even flowing over my best dam! theres a lower dam that holds back Calhoun lake its only flowing 2-3" over that was hoping for seein nothern run,& checkin what fish are there.

BAD low water around here,snows gone.

Still a little early for the northerns, as water temps are little too cold yet. Maybe after the weekend, they will warm up and we'll start seeing fish entering the streams to spawn. With the low snowpack and relatively spread out melt, river levels definitely are low in the west central part of the state.

[Ralph Wiggum]

Very nice job! Thanks for sharing.

[Flaco651]

Nice fish Deadhead!

[gtfourmn]

Nice pictures and fish. The river also looks very nice.

[Neighbor_guy]

That buffalo was nice. Open water is calling.

[DEADhead]

more action from today:

[goblueM]

man, you are good!! I've done limited amount of flyfishing for rough fish but really want to get into it more. Only caught carp (broke a nice St. Croix rod on a 15 pounder a few years ago...)

How do you fish those flies? Any particular places you look to fish with em?

[DEADhead]

In a river you fish those nymphs just like you would for trout, dead drifting along a current seam along the bottom. Sometimes you might need a little more weight to keep your fly down, as these fish might be in some broken/choppy water. Another good spot is to fish your flies behind rocks in the rive, any place where the is a break from the current.

If you are fishing lakes/sloughs look for fish in the shallows feeding on vegetation. Stealth is the key there as these fish tend to spook easily. A precise and delicate presentation is often needed with carp. Place the fly a few feet in front of a fish and watch for any subtle movements by your fly line or the fish. Set the hook when in doubt. They can spit the hook faster than you can set it!

[Tyler Holm]

Wish you'd share those greaters, quills, and buffalo with us southern folks. Very, very nice!

[dispatch1313]

DEADhead,

Do you use a sinking tip line for these fish? Thanks.

[dufek]

 Originally Posted By: Tyler Holm

Wish you'd share those greaters, quills, and buffalo with us southern folks. Very, very nice!

Agreed. I think thats the first time I have heard of rough fishin with a fly but then again i grew up in WI. Heres a nice carp i pulled out of the river yesterday. 32" didnt put a scale on it.

[crazyice]

I'm sure Tyler would love to see that fish on the business end of his line on the second weekend of september!

[Tyler Holm]

 Originally Posted By: crazyice

I'm sure Tyler would love to see that fish on the business end of his line on the second weekend of september!

Ummm Yeah! Carp Tourney time!

[DEADhead]

 Originally Posted By: Tyler Holm

Wish you'd share those greaters, quills, and buffalo with us southern folks. Very, very nice!

the same can be said about the smallmouth buffalo, black buffalo, river redhorse, shortnose gar, shovelnose sturgeon, etc. that you guys have down south...

 Originally Posted By: dispatch1313

DEADhead,

Do you use a sinking tip line for these fish? Thanks.

I have on occasion used a sinking line during high flows, but typically use a floating line and 9-12' leader.

[DEADhead]

Some more fish from today:

bigmouth buffalo

silver redhorse

common carp

bigmouth buffalo

Also caught a bunch of small channel cats, and two small pike. It was a slow day likely due to all the runoff from the spring melt. The water was real cloudy.

[goblueM]

you need to let me in on your secrets, if thats a slow day i'll take it!

[badfish]

Nice buffalo you got there, I hope to get out to my secret buffalo spot hopefully tomorrow. Only thing is there isn't much room to cast a fly right now, i still need to work on my spey casting, i know if i could do that I could probably catch one. But this is only my 2nd year flyfishing, last year was just to get the feel of it and this year im going all out, probably never picking up a spinning or baitcasting rod again

Anyway what kind of flys were you using on those buffalo? What size? I need all the tips I can get, lol. And any helpful tips on spey casting.

[DEADhead]

 Originally Posted By: badfish

there isn't much room to cast a fly right now, i still need to work on my spey casting...

...Anyway what kind of flys were you using on those buffalo? What size? I need all the tips I can get, lol. And any helpful tips on spey casting.

if you don't have your spey casts down, try rollcasting. It is a pretty integral part of spey casting anyway.

The flies I were using were patterns that I invented, so if you want to fish them, you'll have to tie them yourself. Otherwise you can fish prince nymphs, pheasant tail nymphs, and gold ribbed hare's ear nymphs, sizes 8-12 will work.

buffalo soljah

brown antron special

peacock flash nymph

san juan carp killer (I did not invent this pattern)

[Flaco651]

Cool. I'm gonna have to break out my fly rod and see if I can't get into a few carp this year. Nice work, I really like "Buffalo Soljah".