Janns Netcraft

I may be a little late to the party, but I wanted to let everyone know about a great site that I just found. It is called Janns Netcraft and they have an abundant supply of everything you could ever need for fishing. If you have not visited this site before, you may want to check it out because they have so much stuff for fishing hobbyists, fly tiers, lure makers, and net builders. Check it out and let me know what you think. You can find the link below or on the links page.

Thanks!

http://www.jannsnetcraft.com/

More Good Stuff

More searching around the net (kind of an awesome pun) has led me to a couple more great resources for you all to check out. First off is the Trout Unlimited Magazine archive. For anyone who didn't know, who hasn't had the time or funds to get a subscription, you can actually check out the past magazines online. I was so excited to find them, that I have read through most of them already. I would definitely recommend checking it out. They offer a lot of great information on different fish species, special interest pieces, and keep the readers up to date on several stream restoration projects.

Secondly, I recently came across a website that hosts a public television show called: Fly Tying: The Anglers Art. It is a neat little show put on by two gentlemen who love to tie flies and talk about fishing. I have already learned several great tips from these two and I think no matter what level of tier you are, it can be a helpful show to watch. Let me know what you think!

Please use the links below. I will also post this on the links portion of the website!

Fly Tying The Anglers Art

Trout Unlimited Magazine Archive

Enjoy!

A Warm November and Afternoon Rainbows

This past Saturday, I took advantage of the warm weather that is sweeping across the Twin Cities area. I headed to one of my favorite local lakes to do some fly fishing. Most of the time it has just been for practice aiming for panfish like bluegill and pumpkinseed. But with the cooler temps that we have seen the last couple weeks many of the panfish have receded to greater depths and I can't reach them anymore. But, feeling quite optimistic, I visited the lake anyway hoping that I could catch one of the trout that rumor has it, inhabit the lake I was visiting. As I proceeded to make my way around the lake I found a large amount of wildlife also out, enjoying the warm weather. There were numerous geese and muskrats paddling around on the water surface. I had ventured to a part of the lake that was sheltered from the breeze and therefore quite calm. The surface was very undisturbed and I threw out my popper hoping for some action from a bluegill. I was greeted with a little sunny almost immediately and as I worked to get it from the hook a large splash caught my attention. Something had made a decent ripple farther out from shore. As I continued to watch several more ripples began to appear. I hastily searched for a different fly in my box not sure what to pick because I didn't really see any bugs to speak of. In the process of switching flies I saw several fish jump out of the water, including a trout that jumped three times from the water within a span of just seconds. It was truly magnificent. Finally I settled on a fly that I had made my self which you can see below. To my absolute amazement, it worked, and I caught two very nice Rainbow Trout. They were roughly 16" and quite fat. They fought hard and it was truly exhilarating to catch a fish on something that I had made. I'll leave you with my best picture.

Enjoy.

Happy Halloween!!!

Hello everyone and Happy Halloween. Hopefully your out and about picking up candy or at a fun party somewhere. I just wanted to let people know that I made a few updates to the site. There are some new links on the Fly Tying page. There is also a new search box for the site, which should give visitors the ability to search for something in particular if they don't feel like looking.

That's all for now folks. Please be safe and have fun this evening. Also, take a moment to think about those who are unable to enjoy the festivities this evening due to the recent hurricane that hit the East coast. They have been through a lot and could definitely use some prayers there way. 

Like the pic? Here is the article if you wish to read further. Have a great night!

Bring on the Fall Colors!

Although I have been a little sick lately, I have been trying to enjoy some of the fall colors that are starting to appear around Eagan. I have sought a sort of refuge in Lebanon Hills Park, because frankly, it reminds me of home. It is a big park and there is not many people around. I have been enjoying some fly fishing, walking the shores casting out for bluegill and bass. It has been a real treat and hopefully it will get me on my way to becoming a better fly fisherman and hopefully catch some of those sneaky trout.

The fall colors and smells are quite something this time of year. The air is getting cooler and crisper. The smells of wild apple waft through the woods. Critters skitter upon the fallen leaves. I think this is my favorite season. Whats yours?


Enjoy!

Recent Events,

Well as you may know, summer is coming to a close. The leaves are starting to fall and kids are heading back to school. I was recently back in the U.P. and I got out to do a bit of fishing, but with no luck. Everything was pretty dry, rivers were quite low and there hadn't been much rain. Since then however, there has been some rain, so hopefully the fishing has picked up a bit. Hopefully the big brookies will start to appear as well, since they should be starting to spawn soon.

I went out last night for a bit of bluegill fishing down the street from my apartment in MN. Fly fishing for bluegill is quite fun and I certainly lost track of time last night. It seemed that most of the time I just got small ones but there was one that I got that was quite magnificent. The coloring was incredible and it fought really well. Next, time I will get a picture for you because I didn't have a camera at the time.

Keep up the fishing everyone.

Enjoy

Fly Fishing the Big Horn River

Tonight, Ask About Fly Fishing will have a new podcast available to listen to which starts at 9 p.m. (8 p.m. Central). Here is a quick blurb from an official email.

Michael Mastrangelo is a professional guide on the Bighorn
River in Montana, which is considered one of the finest
rivers in the world for fly fishing. Listen it to hear
Michael share his secrets about fly fishing this incredible
fishery.

If your at all interested please click the link below and tune it. These shows are great to listen to and very informative. I hope some of you are excited as I am.

Zonker Flies!

I finally acquired some of the zonker rabbit skins and was able to make some rabbit leeches. I also got a pack of the Fish Skull sculpin helmets. It has been an absolute blast tying these flies and they look really great when they are done. I still have a to put these eyes on a couple of these.

If you haven't had the chance to make one of these flies, check out the Fly Tying Materials section and click on the Flymen Fishing Company link. That website has information regarding the skulpin helments and zonker flies.

If you wish to order some sculpin helmets you can use the Orvis link below.




Enjoy

Cabelas Adventure, Rogers, MN

So on our way to Bemidji a couple weeks ago, we made a couple stops at the Cabela's of Rogers, MN. It is an absolutely amazing store. It is jam packed with anything you could want to do outdoors. I also must say it was a real treat to visit somewhere like this, when I'm typically visiting/relying on a small Gander Mountain in my home area. I would definitely recommend visiting this store! The fly fishing selection was amazing, too!

Here are some pictures of our adventure.

New Links!

I have found a bunch of great new links that I will be posting on the fly fishing page. You can click here or navigate to the top of the page. I have also posted links to the Ask About Fly Fishing page. Please click through those links on my page. It is a great radio podcast that I recently found and I absolutely enjoy listening to it. They also have great giveaways! Recently a couple people won a Fly Rod and an amazing pair of waders!

Please check out the links because I think they have a lot of useful information!

Enjoy!

Ask About Fly Fishing!

I have found another great resource for fly fisherman. While recently stumbling the web, I found a web page called Ask About Fly Fishing, which is an internet radio station that features different fly fisherman every couple of weeks. These fisherman talk about all sorts of things including building your own pole, tying flies, and fishing through out different parts of the world. They also have a podcast available for download and an archive of all their shows. I have never used a podcast before, so I'm trying to figure it out still. If anything else it is something fun to listen to during long car trips.

Check it Out!

Finale on Fishing in '11

A Northern Pike Fiesta

The fall of 2011 brought great prospects for fishing. I had recently taken up fly fishing and my girlfriend was anxious to get out with me to explore and fish. However, the first few weeks were not as good as I hoped. The lingering summer heat seemed to be turning the fish away from our lures or we were in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Finally though, some cooler weather began to make it's way through the Keweenaw and our luck began to improve. We took our new canoe out on some of the lakes in the Twin Lakes area and found decent stashes of bluegill and bass. We had a big bass that lingered under a dock at Emily Lake. We called her "big mama." But other than that, nothing big yet.

Finally we decided to explore farther North into the Copper Country. One afternoon, I journeyed out to a little lake that is off U.S. 41 maybe a mile. It is a neat little spot next to some logging roads, hard to get to and not much access for anything bigger than a canoe. Some old roommates and I had visited this lake once before but only found one small perch. However on my way out to deeper water, I actually saw a small pike swimming away through some lily pads. Things had just got a bit more interesting.